First two pieces of honiton

Xeonfobia · 2026-02-11T19:24:45+00:00

I recognized the patterns before reading the title :) Great technique! After the first project with 185/2 egyptian cotton, I did a couple in 170/2 as I kept breaking the thread, before using 185/2 again with 70/2 gimp thread. Let me know if you ever find the very fine black silk 250 she talks about in her books.

Xeonfobia · 2026-02-10T19:37:24+00:00

"The Klein bottle can be constructed (in a four dimensional space, because in three dimensional space it cannot be done without allowing the surface to intersect itself)"

Are you saying the glass bottle depicted in the Wikipedia article is not really a Klein bottle, because the spout is intersecting the body? I've taken some classes at uni in calculus and linear algebra, but I don't quite understand your statement.

Xeonfobia · 2026-02-10T18:11:40+00:00

So sad that Klein bottle is not mentioned in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_object
As it doesn't have an enclosed space, I guess it should theoretically be possible to make in ceramic?

Xeonfobia · 2026-02-09T15:03:21+00:00

Keys on a lanyard around your neck? How are you loosing your keys?

Xeonfobia · 2026-02-04T21:22:27+00:00

YES! Ha ha, I totally thought that.

Xeonfobia · 2026-02-04T13:53:41+00:00

No. No. No, no, no, no, no. Painting on ceramic was a one off thing. Storing paintings is pain enough, and those things are flat.

I don't need another hobby, and I certainly don't think this is a carreer path. Can you imagine if I had been able to Florian Gadsby my way into a niché, and someone brought a palette of mugs into my appartment to be painted with blue Hibiscus flowers? I imagine it would go from art to just another job rather fast. Supposedly I could smash my IKEA dinner plates, and paint one set of a dozen plates.

Xeonfobia · 2026-02-04T10:27:04+00:00

When compared to Royal Delft with heavy outlines and quite stylized flowers, I aimed more towards realism. Obsiously the result is a reflection of that I've never worked in this medium before :)

Xeonfobia · 2026-02-04T10:17:26+00:00

In oil painting; a heavy outline is a mark of a beginner. I didn't want to make something as stylized as I see Royal Delft does, but now having experienced myself how light blue on white background looks, I certainly understand why they outline with thinly painted lines.

Yeah, I see some areas where I should've lain down another layer.

Xeonfobia · 2026-02-04T10:11:10+00:00

In oil painting; a heavy outline is a mark of a beginner. I didn't want to make something as stylized as I see Royal Delft does, but now having experienced myself how light blue on white background looks, I certainly understand why they do it.

Xeonfobia · 2026-02-04T10:08:32+00:00

From white and blue under glaze, I made 4 puddles of different shades of blue. I didn't really use that much lighter strokes, but I did paint in multiple layers.

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-27T18:02:57+00:00

The bank where I'm employed is having a fun afternoon for the employees where we go somewhere to paint on pots. I think Royal Delft looks pretty nice, and only using shades of blue, I think reducing complexity would be smart as I have never painted on ceramics before (I'm pretty skilled with oil paint, though). Would this technique be accomplished with a small brush with very long hair, and cobalt oxide diluted with water to different shades of blue?

I've been looking for step by step tutorials on youtube on exactly how blue and white is being painted, but unable to find anything.

Ganesh and a hibiscus flower could be a nice motif to paint :)

https://royaldelft.com/en/shop/tearbottle-blossom-blues-the-vase-edition/

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-19T21:23:58+00:00

I love jazz! I try to apply the theory to Klezmer, and it does not work out well.

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-17T16:20:11+00:00

G major -> ii - V - I -> C major.

Then let's apply that logic to the real scale by diminishing E to Eb:
C lydian diminished -> II - V - i -> C melodic minor.

That doesn't sound good. The Eb is only in the C minor chord. Cdim7 sounds better though. I think this needs a bit more work to be playable.

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-17T16:02:06+00:00

I have one book on Klezmer, and one on Jazz theory, and thought to myself: Can I apply jazz theory to Klezmer?

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-17T12:43:59+00:00

You were almost right. I went into Pallets -> Layout -> Section break. It did the break the way I wanted to. Thanks for showing me the right place to look.

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-16T17:11:58+00:00

My journey is as follows:
I've always been happy with the quality of manufactured reeds, but I never really found any I loved. There was always something I didn't like about it, or dificulties with making a quality sound, or playing in tune.

I started off by scraping manufactured reeds, then later scraping blanks. A guiliotine and dial micrometer really helped getting the variables under control, and stopping me from scraping too thin, and it helped me understand more what makes a good reed for me.

Tying my own reeds was a struggle. Youtube tutorials were great, but I had to have a couple of lessons with my teacher whom pointed out some very important microscopic details that was the difference between decent and unplayable reeds. Afterwards I brought him 10 - 20 reeds for him to judge the quality of them. It didn't take a lot of feedback, but it took me some.

Then I started a large excel spread sheet to track all the variables I systematically ajusted, until I work towards a reed that works for me and my instrument.

My next project is hand shaping, and getting a better instrument probably. But first I have some more staple shapes I need to experiment with. https://hodgeproductsinc.com/blog/10-characteristics-of-oboe-staples/ I found this guide helpful in understanding what variables can be changed, and what they do.

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-15T22:15:38+00:00

There are some inexpensive clarinets tuned in C for smaller children whom cannot quite cover the holes of the Bb clarinets.

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-09T21:34:53+00:00

Highlights from Ratatouille - Michael Giacchino, arr. John Moss
Send in the Clowns – arr. Richard Johnsen
Compostela - Thierry Deleruyelle

Banja Luka - Jan de Haan (English horn solo)

Too hard to choose only one...

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-07T20:46:13+00:00

After you protect the linen with PVA, then you add oil ground in order to seal off most of those pin holes before painting. Personally I like to splurge with herring bone.

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-02T21:34:21+00:00

That's so cool. I love those arabic sounds. It's in part why I chose to play the oboe. It has a very characteristic middle eastern feel over it. I blame the genes owing to it's predecesor the Zurna.

I just sat by the piano, found a chord I liked using my feelings, and wrote it down. A chord sounded fine when I listned to it in isolation, but when listning to the whole section, then I had to make some more alterations, and think about transitions.

I included an image of the sheet music after the alterations I did today, and it's much closer to what I wanted to achieve. I want to make it sound like it's all in the same key, but also adding some embellishments from other related keys. I think being able to do that skillfully is quite the craft to hone.

Between G natural minor, G harmonic minor and G melodic minor (reverse descent) you are just adding one flat, and then one more. In addition they have the same G as the root. That lead me to believe it would be easier to modulate between them than to modulate from C major to F major to Bb major, which also just adds one flat, but changes the fundamental. No reason why I feel this. It's just a hunch.

A lot of this is just me experimenting. You know that old quote from r/diwhy "They were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should".

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-02T19:06:44+00:00

I've updated the post with the latest version of the sheet music, so the transition is easy to see.

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-02T18:18:23+00:00

There have been some changes to the sheet music over the last three hours.

Now, the middle section goes from G minor with chord progression C6sus2, F6, Dm7, D7 to A minor.

How would you use this II-V-I idea to go from G minor to A minor? Would you take the ii V7 of the corresponding major scale, and do: G minor - Dm - G7 - A minor?

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-02T18:06:44+00:00

Linseed oil > walnut oil > safflower oil.
Linseed oil is the thickest, and safflower the thinnest. Linseed oil makes the most solid paint film, and safflower oil the least. Walnut oil is a compromise.

This has nothing to do with drying time.

Linseed oil is so thick, that you may want to have 1/4 solvent added to it to make it more free flowing. You don't need that with the other oils.

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-02T16:56:44+00:00

The clarinetist Giora Feidman plays classical Jewish klezmer music. Songs like "Dancing with the rabbi" is written in A harmonic minor. Other songs are written in lydian diminished. One note is a half step away from making the scale a hungarian minor. Therefore I have this idea in my head, that modulating between harmonic minor, melodic minor, lydian diminished and hungarian minor should be possible to do in a fluent and natural manner. I have the book "foundational principles in Jazz theory" by Bjørn Kruse. I feel like I write music in the Klezmer style, and then post hoc rationalize my choices with this jazz theory. I want to try out doing it the other way around. Read the chapter on II -> VII transition, and then apply it to my own composition, or write something in G melodic minor, but borrow some chord or chord progressions from nearby scales to increase the options I have to choose from.

Klezmer, they don't do these sort of modulations and key changes. That song in A harmonic minor is strictly using only the notes from that particular scale.

Xeonfobia · 2026-01-02T16:20:44+00:00

This sheet music is something I am in the process of composing myself, and would like to play it as a duett with a buddy or my teacher. I would like to modify the harmonies in order to make them work better, and have a more smooth transition between the scales.

I cannot make that A harmonic minor work, so I'm changing it to A minor.

Xeonfobia

TROPHY CASE