Worms are go!

I just checked on them this morning, and the worms are doing just fine. They have eaten all the starter food that I gave them (about a cup of blended up broccoli stalks and water). I can't even find the food I gave them, it's gone completely. I can finally begin to feed the worms for real now. It's been one day less than a week (six days).

worms take two

Okay, so here's the new worm bin. I purchased the bin and two pounds of redworms from Happy D Ranch. I like Happy D because they include extensive instructions with the shipment. I am (well Sqrl is the "regulator") following the directions carefully this time (no more worm apocalypse). You can see a few on top of the newspaper.

And here they are en masse. I have to admit that even though I handle them and everything, looking at this picture now makes me a little idgy. There's something about worms that is just plain visceral.
A lone worm on the prowl.

first "take one" holder is down

The Pedestrian Propaganda "take one" holder didn't fair so well through the two days of rain. It was under an awning (overhang) at the train station so it didn't receive direct rain. But the general wetness (maybe wind-blown water?) made the stamp in the back stick to the holder. Most of the stamps themselves were just fine (a little curly, but not stuck together). However, the holder itself more or less fell apart -- it ripped along the folded edge that makes the box which makes sense since I score that line with a stylus to get a clean fold).

The upside is that nine were missing! That means that in just four days nine were taken (and therefore distributed). I'd say that's a pretty good rate for a fairly small train station (Lansdale station) in a relatively low traffic area (the holder was mounted on a pay phone around the back of the station -- though maybe the pay phone mounting had something to do with the success).

First "take one" holder is up

I mounted my first Pedestrian Propaganda distribution holder the other day. I loaded it up with 15 Big Stamps (which are pieces pre-coated with paste so all you have to do is wet them to stick them up). Today, I went back to check on it and two were missing. I'll do another check in a few more days.

And on another exciting note... Look what you can do with a laser printer! I used my HP LaserJet to print directly on silkscreen mesh (I used synthetic mono-filament). The advantage of this is that I can transfer designs to the mesh with great accuracy. Typically, silkscreen printers just use photo-emulsion (such as Diazo by Speedball) to set the design in the screen. Though there are several different formulas for photo-emulsion, the problem with all of them is that they are fairly toxic (contianing either Diphenylamine, or a Dichromate), and often carcinogenic. So, I am hand-painting the resist until I can find (or someone invents) a non-toxic photo emulsion. In the meantime, this being able to print on mesh with a laser printer is kinda cool and may prove useful beyond this application anyway.

First PPP test shirt done

Alright! The first Pedestrian Propaganda test shirt is done. Black on dark blue wouldn't be my choice for contrast, but it's an old shirt so it was good for testing. Also, I think I finally found a source for the blank shirts that makes me really happy. It's called Nueva Vida -- a women's sewing cooperative in Nicaragua. I can buy the shirts from World Centric (at a premium since I'm not buying wholesale). All very exciting. Not just organic cotton, but truly fair trade.

PPP survey

In preparation for making shirts of the Pedestrian Propaganda Project, I asked a bunch of people to choose their favorite pieces. Here's a graph of the results -- you can see that "food ?" and "circle of life ?" were the breakaway favorites.

worm crisis

I had a serious worm compost crisis today. You'll have to excuse the absence of pictures as the trauma made me go straight to work (I guess I'm not a war photographer).

I pulled up the larger bucket containing the worms (or at least the bucket which should have contained worms...) to find ALL the worms in the bottom bucket (which is only for drainage). The night crawlers (which I was worried about putting in there) were all drowned and dead. Their little bodies bloated and full of bubbles. Most of the red worms were on the sides of the bucket trapped between the upper bucket (which all the worms were running from) and the lake of worm urine which the night crawlers dead bodies were floating in. AAAHHHHGG! Sqrl!!! The worms!

Sqrl came running down the stairs and helped (with moral support) as I removed the surviving red worms from the sides of the bucket. I put the survivors back into the top bucket, and took the worms which were in the "tea" at the bottom outside for burial (also allowing missed survivors to escape).

I have been scouring the web for the last several hours to determine the cause of the downward seeking worms. As near as I can figure, they were leaving because I overfed them. By adding too much food too soon, I created a hot environment which I think drove the worms out of the compost to save themselves from being baked. I also believe that my "brilliant" bucket design is too deep and helped to create the hostile environment. Commercial worm bins are always designed with more surface area (often 16 inches square) so the worms are always working on a thin layer of garbage (one site said NEVER more than one inch deep). So, I ordered a proper worm bin from Happy D Ranch. But until that arrives I need to keep a closer eye on the worms. Now I have a thermometer in the compost to measure the the temperature. I also added a little whiting (calcium carbonate) to help keep the pH up. By the end of the week the new bin should arrive... I'll post more when things change.

paste and paper curl

In experimenting with different kinds of paste, I found an interesting thing. Not only does sugar make paste stick to a wider variety of surfaces, it also changes the drying time.

So, here is a picture of a piece that was coated (on its back) with paste that had no sugar. Notice that the curl is in the direction of the pasted side -- meaning that the paste dried before the paper, and thus the shrinkage occurred on that side.Next, is a picture of a piece that was coated (again on the back) with paste which did contain sugar. Note that the curl is going away from the pasted side -- so here the paper dried before the paste.

Now you ask "then there must be a balance then right?" And the answer is, yes there is. I found that paste which contained equal parts flour and sugar did not make the paper curl in either direction (barring the usual warping from getting wet during application). Here's the good recipe so far:

1 part white flour (aka "all purpose")
1 part sugar
4 parts water

Cook until it thickens... and you're good to go.

first big sign comes down

Well, the rain and snow had its way. I guess cardboard is really a dry weather medium.

first big PPP sign up

I posted my first big Pedestrian Propaganda sign -- I have to say it felt bigger before I put it under a real street sign (geeze they're big). A big storm is expected in a day or two, so for now I'm just putting this one up so I can see what happens to it in the rain (remember they are made of cardboard).

Pretty easy to attach -- all these kinds of posts are standardized with holes one inch apart. I just made holes in my cardboard sign so it would match up with the holes in the post, and then attached with aluminum wire.

Worms are here!

Ha ha! The worms have arrived! They arrived in a bag in a box -- they were all huddled together. I am excited to get started with worm composting. My only concern is that I ordered a mix of red worms (Eisenia foetida) and night crawlers (Eisenia hortensis). I'm not sure that the hortensis will be happy in the confinement of a worm bin. But I guess we'll see -- if a year from now I only have foetida in the bin, then I guess the hortensis weren't okay.

Anyway, here's a handful of soon to be compost worms.

And here's a little beetle that stowed away in the worm sack (I put it outside).

You can see the worms searching around the edges of the tray before they went into the composter.


And here is the composter itself. I just used a 5 gallon bucket. I drilled 1/4 inch holes in the bottom for drainage (and to allow migration for stacking in the future), and 1/16 inch holes around the rim and in the lid for ventilation.
I got a lot of info on Washington University's site. And I really recommend going to Composters.com to shop the huge selection of compost products (including general yard maintenance products).

time for big signs

In keeping with my mocking signage... I am making some big signs (actual street-sign size). I just print up four sheets, trim the edges, and paste onto a cardboard backing -- eazy.

Pedestrian Propaganda -- big time!

long time, no blog

My word it's been a while. Well, we're well situated in our new place in Lansdale, PA. Sqrl and I are painting now (our new day-job). And I'm still plodding ahead with the Pedestrian Propaganda Project.

In some very (VERY) exciting news... I was contacted almost two weeks ago (March 30th) by someone who found the PPP gallery in the colloquial "middle of nowhere" (that interesting building in Texas) -- which, incidentally, was about the last place I actually expected someone to find propaganda (especially considering all the very obvious places I tagged up). This person expressed great interest in acquiring more stuff from the PPP (thank you Ashley). So I put together a PDF file which contains the complete set. With this file, you can simply print up your own signs for your own (non-commercial) purposes (special thanks to CreativeCommons).

I am also going to order all the junk so that we can finally have a real printing studio in the house (silkscreen printing). Now I'll be able to make shirts at last! All very good. All very exciting. I'll post more when I get some pictures.