This is a strange little glass object with three flat faces. The edges are incised in such a way that depending on which flat face you look at, the edge in the background makes a picture. The images seem to my eye be a chalice, monstrance (for displaying a consecrated host), and a sword (or tall candlestick?). I got it at a rummage sale held at my mom's parish, so the Catholic Christian images are not out of left field. Just now I was trying to find some info online but have struck out on finding anything like it. So that bare bones description will have to suffice.
While Frank was doing his usual Saturday "Radio Night" session on the computer upstairs while listening to the "Retro Cocktail Hour" program on Kansas Public Radio, I decided to go into the bathroom, set up the tripod and black background and try to photograph the thing. At first I thought I wanted to have the only light source to be the little pedestal I had placed it on that has lights that shine up into whatever you put on it and rotate through blue, red, and yellow. I set up the tripod (which I dislike doing) and experimented with long exposure, but didn't get good results. I discovered that if I had enough exposure to show the image inside the glass, the top of it was blown out and didn't look good at all. Lo and behold, with the lights on I got much better results. I did have to darken the shadows some in Ribbet.com afterwards to get rid of the wrinkles in the cloth background. I was reminded of the fact that if I forgot to put it on 2 second delay the result was not nearly as clear. So reinforced that element. Altogether a surprisingly decent experience, despite having to deal with tripod.
The faucet leaked a wee bit, dampening the part of the black cloth that extended down onto the breadboard, which was sitting across the sink and passing under the faucet -- thus providing the solid surface on which to place the interesting glass object. Oops, But wiping up the resultant little puddle on the floor and hanging the black cloth to dry was a small price to pay for art, do you not agree? :-)
Tagging, as with everything I take this week, for my get pushed challenge from Wendy to get off my butt and start taking and posting more pictures.
Fascinating- beautifully photographed and the THING'S story is great too. Liked the touches of color on the tips also. Let us know if you ever find out what it is... Very mysteries.
