Cover of "Inks & Paints of the Middle East: A handbook of Abbasid Art Technology", with a geometric composition displaying some of the main pigments involved, with brushes and paint pans made of walnut shells.
Is there anyone on Bsky who remembers this book? It's been out of print for a while, because it needs revising in the light of 5 more years of research & experience (including a proper translation of Umdat ul-Kuttab). Being unpaid work, I've simply not been able to prioritise this, so I've decidedโฆ
28.10.2025 15:23 โ ๐ 81 ๐ 40 ๐ฌ 3 ๐ 15
helpful (i hope) hint about PictureThis: if you try it with two photos of the same plant (or sometimes even two different crops of a single photo) and it gives you different answers, there's a pretty good chance that both are incorrect.
28.04.2025 19:25 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
Dietes bicolor - Wikipedia
wikipedia appears to concur, at least at first glance.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietes_...
28.04.2025 19:18 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
PictureThis, which is moderately trustworthy (but far from infallible) suggests _Dietes_bicolor_. that's a genus i'm not familiar with; gotta go look it up.
28.04.2025 19:17 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 2 ๐ 0
off the top of my head, i want to say iris; but something seems a bit strange.
28.04.2025 19:14 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
thanks! i'm happy to share.
[i seem to be a classic tweak; if i want something and i don't find it, i usually try to make it. i often end up exploring the territory, partly out of "'satiable curtiosity", and partly from ADHD. inks; shaping pen nibs; translucent porcelain; fluorescent glazes....]
30.03.2025 17:10 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
good question. not yet. (until i came up with this mix i had only used mica flakes of typical size. i sought these out to change the character of the shimmer. the result is nice enough that i haven't been tempted to tweak it.)
30.03.2025 07:31 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
quick addition: i wrote that with a 2.4mm Pilot Parallel Pen. Parallel Pens are easy to unclog, which is helpful with the larger mica flakes.
30.03.2025 07:11 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 2 ๐ 0
it's roughly half and half Vinta 'Blue Blood' and Diamine 'Holly', to which i added a fair amount of Firedots '1848 Gold' mica flakes. a word of caution: 1848 Gold flakes are a lot larger than what is usually used for shimmer. i'd use smaller flakes if you want to put the ink in a regular pen.
30.03.2025 03:37 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
sociopaths (psychopaths?) of a feather stick together? (i think you're right, a bunch of them do want us dead.)
29.03.2025 00:00 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
A portion of John Quincy Adams' Amistad argument before SCOTUS: "I will not recur to the Declaration of Independence--your Honors have it implanted in your hearts--but one of the grievous charges brought against George III. was, that he had made laws for sending men beyond seas for trial. That was one of the most odious of those acts of tyranny which occasioned the American revolution. The whole of the reasoning is not applicable to this case, but I submit to your Honors that, if the President has the power to do it in the case of Africans, and send them beyond seas for trial, he could do it by the same authority in the case of American citizens. By a simple order to the marshal of the district, he could just as well seize forty citizens of the United States, on the demand of a foreign minister, and send them beyond seas for trial before a foreign court."
Was just reading John Quincy Adams' oral arguments before SCOTUS in the Amistad case and this part seems, uh, pretty relevant
26.03.2025 03:29 โ ๐ 10297 ๐ 3475 ๐ฌ 163 ๐ 162
i met Sabri a bunch of years ago, i think at Hinckley Pottery in DC. not sure he'd remember me. great to see him doing cool work now (!).
26.03.2025 06:08 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
for some reason, i doubt that what you'd put in a newsletter would be uninteresting _or_ twaddle.
25.03.2025 04:43 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
additional Alt for anyone who wants or needs it:
Aubrey Beardsley
The Fin-de-Siecle Magician of Light and Darkness
Hiroshi Unno
24.03.2025 20:30 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
_not_ to vote for someone else?
24.03.2025 05:54 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
i am no use to you; i like all of those, and a couple dozen others as well. perhaps worse, i'm not averse to mixing. whatever you end up with, i hope and trust it will be pleasant.
24.03.2025 03:46 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
something strange here. i get an unending roller instead of a photo, and the Alt text is "a woman with gray hair is sitting in and blinking"
any ideas?
23.03.2025 06:52 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
there are at least two silly jokes here. i think i shall leave them to the reader as a voluntary exercise, and just say that it looks very pleasant.
22.03.2025 22:02 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
following; would like to know. (possible workaround: can you put the audio file on a webserver and publish a link to it?)
22.03.2025 21:57 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
bleah (!). hope this resolves soon and well.
22.03.2025 03:30 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
wait -- isn't life itself anti-entropic?
21.03.2025 15:10 โ ๐ 0 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
aaghghhh! what you said.
21.03.2025 15:03 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
argh! at least you have progress.
21.03.2025 05:26 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
ouch! not the goodness.
20.03.2025 22:26 โ ๐ 1 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
as you say. (it worked for me, btw; may have saved my life.)
20.03.2025 21:44 โ ๐ 2 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
inside, i'm screaming a lot of the time. (i am medicated; it's more effective against some issues than others.)
a while back i decided that i want a support organization called Victims of Executive Dysfunction, VoED, pronounced 'void'. just don't ask me to start it.
sorry i can't be more helpful.
20.03.2025 21:24 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 0 ๐ 0
perhaps important to note that if methylphenidate doesn't calm or focus you, that's not diagnostic; there are some people it doesn't work for.
20.03.2025 20:59 โ ๐ 6 ๐ 1 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
hugs if and as acceptable.
20.03.2025 19:07 โ ๐ 3 ๐ 0 ๐ฌ 1 ๐ 0
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