Georges Rousse and some new Casemaking Goodies
9-8-2006
A Frenchman has my tripods. Georges Rousse, french trompe l’ oeil artist extraordinnairre is in Durham this month at the solicitation of my friend Frank Konhaus. Frank and his wife Ellen summoned M. Rousse to Durham to install four “Warehouse Interventions”. I foolishly volunteered both of my tripods to the cause which leaves me incapacitated from a daguerreotype-manufacturing perspective. I suppose if I find a sturdy stool or table, I could make it work.
I have a whole-plate Daguerreotype up on eBay at a very reasonable price. I decided that framing a dag of this size was the best course of action and it’s a beautiful presentation on the wall.
I have been having a great time out in the workshop even though I can’t make dags. 
I received a couple of new toys in the mail to make my cases better. I splurged and bought a leather-paring machine called a Scharf-fix. Whoa! If your day-to-day work requires the thinning of leather, this is the device for you. Now I can use really great calfskin and thin it in places for wrapping around the corners of cases. No more folds! Early collectors of my work will likely appreciate this development. The art of embellishment is coming along rather well also. 
The fine folks over at P&S Engraving in the land of Jolly Old made good on their shipment of my groovy sun-stamp tool. I’ve been experimenting with various amounts of heat and pressure to get this sun design embossed into my leather cases in 22kt gold. Combined with my pizza-cutter-on-a-baseball-bat line tool, the results are beautiful so far!
-Jonathan
