Photos

I've been slowly working on updating my shop and website designs, with the fantastic help of my friends at Super Runaway. Here are some product photo ideas.

And some others just for fun.

In Progress: Buckles

I was working on some buckles in the garage last night. I thought it might be interesting to take some photos during the process.

Breaking Records

Last Tuesday I set what I believe is the new (unofficial) record for hauling discarded tires by Big Dummy.

A rather tall load.

As far as I know, the new record is set at 102 tires. I got these, along with some groceries over a loop of about 19 miles through southeast Portland.

102 tires unloaded and sorted.

Lab Time - Buckles!

This week the brilliant minds at the Rebicyclist Labs made some belt buckles.

Encased in hot, gooey resin.

I'd tried this before, but wasn't as pleased with the first attempt. This idea has been kicking around in my head for a while and I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out. So far these are the only two, so I'll see how they do at the market this weekend. Hopefully I'll be ordering more buckle blanks and making more next week.

Pieces of cassette cogs.

Pieces of chain. This is how they go together!

Something for the pups.

This week I spent some time cranking out dog collars and keychains (I'm always cranking out belts). The dog collars had been a heavily requested item at the market. After doing some research (measuring collars at Petco) and acquiring some new hardware (different buckles and d-rings) I was ready to create!

These are all sized up and ready to go. I am trying something new with off centered patterns and colors, for the time being, I like it. I had already sold one of the first batch (just five in all) last weekend, and given another away for testing (with good results). I'll keep seeing how they do at the market for a bit before making more to put on Etsy.

The keychains are the same as they've been, just some new patterns and colors to liven things up.

Flowers are blooming.

Recently I became lucky enough to use Brain Mock's workshop to weld up some of my own fancy sculptures. I've had many ideas over the past couple months, but the first thing I've been making is flowers and vases (out of bike parts of course).

Little vase.

Bigger vase.

I really like how the six chain link flowers came out.

Even better with cutout chain plates.

These are a little wobbly and I left the flowers loose. The next ones will have a heavier and wider base and I will probably tack the flowers to the base to keep them from moving around and falling. Hooray for welding!

Cargo Biking

Loaded with delicious cargo.

I recently had Eli at Lemolo Baggage make some custom bags for my Big Dummy. The stock Xtracycle bags were not doing it for me anymore -- things were bouncing out and not protected from the elements (mostly rain).

These new bags are so enormous I could probably fit in the main compartment. There are two other pockets with flaps on the outside, and unflapped (unflappable?) pockets on the front and rear. So far I've mostly used the outside pockets for things like a lock, bungees, a rain jacket, and sammiches. That leaves the main compartment ready for cargo, and keeps all that other stuff easily accessible.

The mass of groceries.

On Monday Karen and I noticed we had no food left in our house. I had gotten my work done and it was a nice day, so we got on the Dummy and rode down to the grocery store. We needed everything and then some, but even with everything loaded, the Dummy could have probably handled a bit more. I am loving these bags!

Two big grocery bags and a baguette.

Two big grocery bags, two plastic bags, and a bottle of wine. (We didn't have enough reusable bags with us)

These have worked out great for tire runs too; I can probably fit about 15-20 tires in them before I have to start stacking them up top. This keeps me from spending time attaching them with bungees. Today I have some more Dummy-oriented errands planned and I am looking forward to it.