Purple Cannabis Cigarette Case

Isn't that pretty...the Purple Cannabis Cigarette Case for sale at my eBay store, All-4-Corners.
This design actually began as an old 19th century colored engraving of the cannabis plant and all its parts. I gray-scaled the whole thing, made the background transparent, greened it back up, and then laid it over the deep purple background. The process worked very well, and I'll probably give some other botanical prints the same treatment.

My Best Selling T-Shirt With Chess Club Crowd

A t-shirt I've offered over at RetroRanger since last summer, the Chess Game T-Shirt. I've done some individual sales, but also a few bulk sales as sponsors grab a few for the chess club.
This shirt featured distressed graphic taken from an old woodcut print, plus I've added a famous quote about chess by Benjamin Franklin..."The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess."

The Edsel Teletouch Watch - Design Feedback

Last week I blogged about a new project, to transform the design of the 1958 Edsel Teletouch transmission into a watch face design. Working with a black and white photo and a vague memory from a long-ago car show visit, I came up with a preliminary design and listed the watch on eBay.

Response to the watch has been excellent and there's lots of interest from Edsel owners. Also, some excellent feedback from Edsel guys, which has always been necessary in this project. One thing I learned is that my basic design was pretty-much right on...so kudos for me. I also learned that the letters on the Teletouch buttons light up at night and are red, yellow and green. That was easy to add. Plus found out that the emblem in the center is green. Another easy fix.
I don't think I'll solicit feedback on every new design I do, some just don't deserve the time. But, it certainly has been valuable for this project and has allowed a good design to become a great design.

Trombones, More Than Just Spit Machines

Today's project is a new trombone player t-shirt for my Cafepress store, RetroRanger. I like to make trombone shirts, because the trombones, along with the tubas, are truly ground-zero for band room chic.
Your Girlfriend Loves My Bone. That is funny. I know band room funny, I know band bus funny, I know band camp funny, and that's funny. If you don't find this shirt funny than you are A) not marching band material, and B) probably losing your girlfriend to the trombone player.
Available at RetroRanger and nowhere else, the Your Girlfriend Loves My Bone t-shirt. Also look for the Your Girlfriend Loves My Tuba t-shirt. Rawk on righteous low brass dudes.

Sizing a Metal Watchband - Adding Links

The watches I sell, at least the ones with flexible metal bands, are designed to fit an 8 inch wrist. I guess someone somewhere has determined that that is a normal wrist. I know to fit my watches to my wrist I need to remove a link. And I'm sure many others need to make an adjustment or two. So what follows are some basic instructions on how to add or remove a link from a metal watchband. By the way loyal shoppers, if you find that you need an additional link to resize a band on a watch you bought from me just let me know and I'll ship you a couple.

How to remove/add links to the flexible watchbands on the watches that I sell in my eBay store, All-4-Corners.

Remove plastic protective coating from band

The first four links on either side of the watch case are permanent and can't be removed. The 5th and 6th links on either side are removable and this is where all the adjusting action takes place. This is clearly illustrated in my 3rd-grade-level diagram.

The clasp link and link on either side of it are removable, but that's not where you'd want to remove or add anything.

To remove a link: using a sharp object push one of the removable pins most the way through...until the band separates at that point. No need to push it all the way out. Sometimes there is an arrow on the backside of the band which indicates which way the pin should travel, but not always. If you find that the pin won't budge, try going the other direction. Do the same for the link you want to remove, this time totally removing the pin as well. With the excess link removed you can rejoin the band. Sometimes the pin can be a mother bear to get back in, but it will jiggle back into place eventually.

To add a link, the process is about the same...push the pin through, insert link, push pin back in.

On my watches, each link adds about 3/8 an inch to band length. If you need to add two or more links I suggest you evenly space them on each side of the clasp in order to keep clasp centered.

There is a tool for easily pushing the pins out. Its cheap and comes in handy if you're doing the operation a lot and can save you some bloodloss from pushing the sharp object through your thumb. Been there, done that. Here's one on Amazon that comes highly recommended watch link remover

Cal Bear Baseball of 1898 in Living Color

Today's project, colorize a team photo of the 1898 University of California baseball nine.


I've had this team photo of the Cal baseball team for sometime, salvaged from the 1900 Blue and Gold, the Cal yearbook. The team went 6 and 6 that year, with wins over such west coast powerhouses as Fireman's Fund and Alumni. In the true test of season success, the Cal nine won 1 of 3 against Stanford. The colors are conjecture on my part, but I think blue and gold seems like a reasonable combination.


This will find a home on a cigarette case in the near future, possible some other products.

Charles Darwin on Survival TShirt

One of my series of Charles Darwin Quote T-Shirts

Darwin on Survival Light T-Shirt

http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.249382452

Clocks Added at RetroRanger

Added a few of my clock designs to the RetroRanger inventory. I still firmly believe that most people, 90 percent, go to Cafepress looking for t-shirts. But also don't think it hurts to have some of my non-t-shirt designs on Cafepress product. There's always a chance for a sale.
Added the Red Nash Metropolitan, Blue Scout, and Yellow 1948 Jeepster clocks...here's the yellow 1948 Willys Overland
Jeepster...over dial fashioned after a period Jeepster speedometer.

MG T-Shirt on Cafepress

Sold: Morris Garages Dark T-Shirt

http://www.cafepress.com/retroranger.247830607

Edsel Push-Button Technology

Today's project, transmogorify the Edsel Teletouch transmission into a watchface design. The Teletouch transmission was Edsel's push-button transmission that was mounted right in the middle of the steering column, where the horn should oughta be.

Here's what I came up with. I'm thinking that it looks pretty sharp, though I'm not sure that I got all the colors correct.

Feedback from Edsel owners and fans and those in the know always welcome. The Edsel Teletouch Watch available only at my eBay store, All-4-Corners.

Where Do You Keep Your Condoms?

I knew a girl who kept a giant jar full of condoms. It was kinda like those giant jars people would fill up with matchbooks, except it was condoms. She was a fun girl, as you might imagine.
Giant jars of condoms send a message that a respectable girl might not want sent. No, a nice girl might want to go with something more...hmmm...more sedate? More dignified? Less Whorish?
Just uploaded to eBay is a new item we're offering...the Romeo & Juliet Condom Caddy. You see, Romeo and Juliet loved each other so much that they always used protection. Good kids, just misunderstood.
This metal case is actually designed as a cigarette case, but let's be real, there are a lot more people having sex than smoking. In fact, if it weren't for after-sex smoking the cigarette companies would go out of business. So I've re-purposed this case as a condom caddy. The artwork is from Sir Frank Dicksee's 1884 painting of Romeo and Juliet on their wedding night. I thought this painting was appropriate for a condom caddy for a number of reasons...the most important being that the dude's name was Dicksee.
So here it is...the Romeo & Juliet Condom Caddy...don't leave home without it. Available at my eBay store and nowhere else.

Pictures of Willy Pogany's Murals at Wyntoon

Speaking of Willy Pogany (see below), I have for years been intrigued by the wonderful murals Pogany did for the Hearst summer mansion, Wyntoon. Wyntoon is in northern California, at the end of a private road, near McCoud. Unlike Hearst Castle, you can't just go visit and take in the sights so most people don't even know it exists. And the Hearst have never gone out of their way to publicize the home. Once when my Dad and I were chasing trout around Lake McCloud we came across the estate from the back side...couldn't really get close enough to get a great look but sure wished we had binoculars with us.
Anyway, today I stumbled on some great photographs taken by a fellow named Richard Turk Jr. Richard apparently had full access to the Wyntoon property, as he's posted a bunch of views of the buildings. As a Pogany fan I'm very excited about Richard's photos as pics of these murals are very hard to find. Architecture fans will also love the views of these incredible buildings designed by San Francisco architect Julia Morgan

Ballet Russe ala Willy Pogany

I'm a big fan of the artwork of Willy Pogany, illustrator and Hollywood set designer in the first half of the 1900s. I've had some of his art for Ballet Russe for some time, and today I spent a few hours cleaning it up. and I found a place for it...on a cigarette case. I think this came out awesome. The Willy Pogany Ballet Russe Cigarette Case, available only at my eBay store, All-4-Corners.


Technorati Tags: ballet russe, dance, willy pogany

Old Mobsters Never Die...

...they just get immortalized on watches and clocks.

Worked up a watch/clock face design this morning at the request of a (hopefully) customer. Here's New York City mobster Frank Costello. Costello was known as "The Prime Minister of the Underworld"...which has to be the most Ivy League mafioso nickname ever given.

Shoshone Falls as We Will Never See It.

Uploaded some new cigarette cases to eBay tonight, including this'n featuring Thomas Moran's "Shoshone Falls on the Snake River." Moran painted this scene in 1900, just a few years before the waters of the Snake would be diverted to irrigating the deserts of southern Idaho. We can only imagine the thunderous fury of the falls as they were then...back when they were known as "The Niagara of the West." If you visit the Shoshone Falls now you might wonder what all the excitement was about.

Technorati Tags: shoshone falls, twin falls, snake river, idaho, thomas moran