Jeanne Selep's Selep Imaging Blog

Sunday, June 21, 2020

Blue and White Mosaic Ball

I hope this bowling ball bowls you over!

Mosaic Bowling Ball View 1

I have repurposed several bowling balls over the years, using mosaic techniques to decorate them with broken pieces of vintage china.

Mosaic Bowling Ball View 2

My blue and white bowling ball was my first attempt. Every summer for over five years it has decorated my lawn.

Garden Art Bowling Ball

Time is taking it's toll, and it is now falling apart, so I am sharing these photos as I motivate myself to repair it.

Mosaic Bowling Ball View 3

Mosaic-ing a 3d sphere takes a lot more time then you think it should. The surface area of a sphere is basically 4 times the area of a circle with the same diameter. So a flat stepping stone with the same diameter as a sphere uses only 1/4 the amount of material, and dramatically less time.

Mosaic Bowling Ball details

But the ball is worth repairing, to me. I had some badly damaged flow blue china pieces, and I don't get that kind of material often. (I didn't use good flow blue china - I collect and cherish those!) (Actually - I even cherish broken bits of china...)

Mosaic notes: I "roughed up" the bowling ball with sandpaper before I started gluing the china to it. On this bowling ball project I used mastic to glue the china pieces to the bowling ball, which is one of the reasons it is falling apart now. I now know that mastic doesn't hold up outside. I now use clear silicon caulk to glue the china pieces down, and then I grout with sanded grout over the china - Sanded grout is better for outside mosaics. And I seal the grout of any project that is going to be outside with grout sealer after the project is done. I bring the bowling balls inside once there will be frost or snow outside, but I have other projects (a bird bath, and a table) that stay outside year round.

The birds are named! Fortune and Cookie were made from China (in the US)

In a previous post on my mosaic birds, I asked for suggestions on naming my birds. From reader input, Fortune and Cookie are what I named the two birds. They are made from china...

Once again, stay sane and healthy,

and do what you can to help others!

I hope you and yours are all healthy and well.

Click on the images to see them enlarged.

I blog for fun and my blog is ad free. Comments encourage me, and I sometimes need encouragement. Please leave a comment if you have time! Anonymous comments are allowed.

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Click here for an Incredible Mosaic Collection!

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I am linking up to these parties:

*Franca: Keep Calm and Carry On (h Entry 18 of 37.)
Life+Linda: Dishing Digging it 50 Sun 3p (l Entry 60 of 121.)
3 little buttons: Dream Team Sun 6am (h Entry 15 of 20.)
April Harris: Hearth and Soul Sun 10p (Entry 26 of 161.)
Create with Joy: Inspire me Mon 440 (m Entry 46 of 183.)
My Random: Anything Goes 242 (Entry 6 of 52.)
Good Random Fun: Random Fun Mon 4a (m Entry 28 of 32.)
BNOTP: Metamorphis Monday 6a (s Entry x of 48x)
Uncommon Slice: Inspire Me Mon 2-4p (m Entry 53 of 89.)
* Stroll Life: Inspire Me Mon 3p (l Entry 27 of 113.)
Loulougirls: Fab Party 325 Mon 7p (l Entry 22 of 121.)
Anitaojeda: Inspire Me Mon 4p (s Entry 43 of 52.)
Poinsettiadr: Classy Flamingos 108 Tue (l Entry 10x of 32x.)
Mersad photography: Through my Lens (Entry 14 of 34.)
Our World Tues: Our World (Entry 42 of 68.)
Image-in-ing: Weekly link up (Entry 39)
Nicholasjv: Travel Tuesday (Entry )
Across the Blvd: Beautifully Made Tue 8a (Entry 20 of 38)
My world Thru My Lens: My Corner Wed (Entry 23)
Peabea: Pictorial Tuesday (Entry 3)
Jesh studio: All Seasons Sun (Entry 19)
Thistlekeylane: Tue Turn About 54 5p (s Entry 1 of 153.)
Also My Wee Abode: Tue Turn About (s Entry 1 of 153.)
Lindas lunacy: Make-home 170 Tue (m Entry 7 of 38)
LeCultivateur: Wonderful Wed (m Entry 17r of 185)
Stonecottage: Tuesday w a Twist 374 (l Entry 25 of 37)
Lets Add Sprinkles: Keep in Touch Tue 4p (m Entry )
Gingersnap crafts:Wow me 460 Tue 7p (Entry x)
Girlish Whims: Whims 465 Tues 8:50p (Entry 15)
Applestreetcottage: Party-in-your-pjs 314 (Entry 19)
Faeries+Fauna: Waste not Wed 211 (l Entry 16x)
Flusterbuster: Creative Muster 390 Wed (l Entry x)
Chas creations: Gmas house 189 Wed 4p (m Entry 64)
French Ethereal: Share Style 261 Wed 6p (Entry 16 of 42)
Artsy mama: Artsy party 298 Th 7a (Entry 19)
My Slices of Life: Hearts+Home Handmade Th 6a (Entry 56)
Follow the yellow brick: Th 7a (Entry 17)
Also Eclectic Barn: Th Favorite Things Th 7a (Entry 17)
Also KatherinesCorner: Th 7a (Entry 17)
Life beyond Kitchen: Creatively Crafty 229 Th 4p (Entry 84)
Kathleen: Bloggers Pit Stop 227 Th 8p (L Entry 13)
Coastal Bohemian: Funtastic Thur 8p (i Entry 6 of 45)
Shelbeeontheedge: On the edge 200 (Entry 83)
The Painted Hinge: Farmhouse Friday 160 (L Entry 9)
Firemanswife: Fri at the fire station 172 (m Entry 23)
Ohmyheartsiegirl: Friday Feature Party (s Entry skip)
Cottagemarket: A morning cup of joe (L Entry 42)
Shabby art boutique: Create-bake-grow-gather 425 (L Entry 24x)
Busy Being Jennifer: Fri Favorites 86 (m Entry 52)
Pieced Pastimes.gr: Saturday Sparks Th 8a (L Entry skip)
Our mini family: Our mini party 284 (s Entry x)
Funkyjunkinteriors: DIY Salvaged 533 Fri (Entry 17 of 27.) I was featured here!
** Eye Love Knots: Snicker Doodle 341 Sat 5pm (m Entry 81)
Pams Party: Dare to share 423 Sat (m Entry 27)
Creative Mom: Craft Schooling Sunday (s Entry x?)
Finding Silver pennies: Silver Pennies 365 Sun 6a (m Entry 45)

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Monday, June 1, 2020

Coronavirus - curated.

UPDATE: Aug 05, 2021.

Many of the sites below are broken links. This site has stats:

https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/USA-TRENDS/dgkvlgkrkpb/index.html

https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/regions/europe/

https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/regions/latin-america-and-the-caribbean/

I have been following the Coronavirus more seriously than many people have the time and / or stomach for.

This is a curated collection of sites, selected for the numerical information and graphics the sites provide on Coronavirus, Covid19 / Covid 19 data.

I'm not going into much explanation here, this is mostly a reference tool for me.

JOHN HOPKINS SITE
JOHN HOPKINS SITE - "Live" Coronavirus statistics - used the world over because government sources weren't able to acknowledge the data and share it in this way - This is the original site.

John Hopkins updated the site and added a more friendly url address, and a slightly different look, here.
John Hopkins has a USA dashboard, with details to state and county level here.

Center for Health Security - you can access Situation Reports (Daily Point statistics and information) from the John Hopkins site here.
John Hopkins site "history" article

CNN table data

COVID TRACKING CHARTS-
Data here at https://covidtracking.com/

POLITICO
Politico site with state comparison line graphs Great testing statistics graphics, has individual state comparison line graphs massed together, 50 can be on page.

COVID19 HEALTHDATA
Covid19.healthdata.org This site has hospital bed and ICU numbers, down to the state level, and attempts to model and predict the coronavirus path, again to the state level. Important work, but the models fluctuate often.

REUTERS World Coronavirus Tracker and Maps
Reuters World-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps This site has information in multiple formats, from a worldwide news organization

Covidactnow - Green Yellow Red State map. Each state's infection rate (R0) is shown. The details of each states data available from this page. Stanford is Partner.

NYtimes.com/interactive - Currently updated daily, Info by Large US cities trending chart is useful. Has doubling data for cities. Wait for it to load. So far the NYtimes has removed the paywall for this page.

WorldoMeters World Meters, site statistics are a bit ahead of John Hopkins statistics, really in depth detail. Statistics on much more than Covid19 Coronavirus, but I'm not going into that here.

NPR map-tracking-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus - US map and a heat map by state level.

collegecrisis.shinyapps.io/dashboard/
I'm watching college openings, wondering about my daughter's year. This site monitors most US colleges plans and statistics

covidexitstrategy.org/

Bing Covid site goes to state level and more World stats and goes down to state level, county level map, from the county level map you can access the local news stories from the map.

Who situation reports - My original source of daily info, which I would put into a spreadsheet daily. They have a huge and important job, and deserve our support.
Keeping the world safe keeps us safer too.

I'm not going into much explanation here, this is mostly a reference tool for me.

You are shaped and fashioned by what you love,
and I DON'T love this Coronavirus mess.

But I need to understand the obstacles I face to overcome them better. These sites help me understand what is going on.

This site was one of my favorite until it stopped being updated...
A very useful site for seeing US daily numbers. Covid tracking charts

This site has positive and negative testing #'s and hospitalization data for USA in clear graphics, as well as cumulative counts, daily totals of new cases and death. Once this window opens, you can get to each state's bar charts from a state grid.

2020-us-bankruptcies-coronavirus

Reuters: World Coronavirus Tracker

College Dashboards : US colleges

University of Chicago

University of Illinois Champagne Urbana

UW Wisconsin Madison

University of Illinois Chicago **

University of Alabama System

Notre Dame

Harvard University

Purdue Dashboard

Marquette University dashboard

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Eiffel Tower Reflections

I vividly remember the day I took my Eiffel Tower Reflection photo as one of the best days of the summer in 2019.

Eiffel Tower Reflected in Puddle by Jeanne Selep

Eiffel Tower Reflection

First, just being in Paris made it a great day, but on top of that I achieved a goal I had set - getting a photo of the Eiffel Tower reflected in a puddle. Puddle photos caught my attention multiple times over the years, but I knew Paris was having a hot and dry summer. If the weather presented an opportunity, I knew I would have to move fast.

Eiffel Tower Reflection

My son and I left the Musée Marmottan (Marmottan Museum) and discovered a downpour going on. We changed plans on the spot, bought an umbrella at the museum, and decided to go to the Eiffel Tower for perhaps the 3rd time that trip. There were no metro shortcuts, so we literally started to run to the Eiffel Tower so I could "get my shot".

Me and my umbrella

When a fit 20-something male decides to move fast, it can be quite a fast pace. We basically ran what google maps claims is only 2.4 km (Personally, I think google might be wrong - it seemed like much farther).

Then we looked for puddles and waited for the rain to stop.

Eiffel Tower in different puddle with raindrops

The wait was made much nicer by eating crepes from the now very uncrowded concession stand near a carousel.
(At least I ate crepes. Nathan ate the kind of lunch a 20-something eats after a delayed lunch and running for a half an hour. So, maybe two sandwiches, a couple of snacks, then crepes...)

Food Stand near Eiffel Tower

Gray and rainy doesn't necessarily bring me down, in fact it can be sometimes quite nice. Even if your shoes are soaking wet. (The vendors and crowds near the Eiffel Tower must melt in the rain - they seemed to disappear, especially the vendors.)

Decorative flavoring containers at the food stand

We people watched as we waited - the wedding couple below and their photographer were fun to watch as they tried to ignore the rain as well.

Wedding Couple at the Eiffel Tower

I might not have achieved my ideal "puddle" shot, but I love the memories it brings back. The size of the "puddle" was mammoth, which somehow seems appropriate for the Eiffel Tower - dwarfing the cars and motorcycles and people with umbrellas.
(Ideal shot: Eiffel tower lit up at night reflected in the puddle - a goal for next time?)

Eiffel Tower Reflection 2

We had to wait for traffic to stop and the puddle to "settle" between photos, and I never caught a good shot of the cars splashing through the puddle still reflecting the tower, but there still is an energy in the in the photo above, and I love the way the cobblestones show through.

Eiffel Tower Reflection

That evening we met my daughter after her classes, went grocery shopping, and cooked a family meal in her dorm's kitchen, achieving one of her summer goals as well. Overall, a great day in a beautiful city.

Fun note: Puddle shots are trickier than I thought - you have to find the puddle, the best angle for reflection (that is safe and not in the middle of a road), figure out where to focus, (which basically means what you want to have in focus), and how you want to compose it given the limitations of your lens and the geometry of the distances involved. If you get too low to the ground, the reflected object becomes squashed. So perhaps I should have considered practicing before I went, but there aren't a lot of Eiffel Towers back home where I live.

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I think about the French people during this Coronavirus pandemic. I think about the few I met, and the ones that assist and rely on the tourists, which I so enjoyed being. I think about the beautiful museums, restaurants, and stores, and their staff, and I hope they are healthy, and will come out of this summer doing fine.

I hope the same for you as well. May you find great moments in what surely will be the weirdest summer of many people's lives.

Click on the images to see them enlarged.

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