Customizing My Printer

I can't believe that I actually poked around in the mysterious insides of my printer in an attempt to follow some instructions for disengaging those pesky pizza wheels that have been ruining my transparencies with their dotted trails.  According to the information I read about doing this to an Epson printer, it was just a simple matter of undoing two screws to get to the wheels.  But as is typical of these things, this did not turn out to be the case with my older model Epson.

But first a disclaimer here -- I only attempted removing the wheels because 1:  my printer is old and I would love an excuse to get a new one, and 2:  because my husband can generally fix anything and I figured he would come to my rescue if needed.  And he was needed and did rescue me.  In my attempt to remove the wheels, I only succeeded in pushing away the plastic things around the wheels and when I tried printing a transparency, it looked like my cat had gotten into my printer and had a field day!

So, a couple of hours later, after my husband had taken my printer completely apart, all those tiny parts and screws spread out all over my computer table -- a scary sight -- I now have a printer that will not ruin a printout with pizza wheel tracks.  So far everything is working just fine, and it seems to be true that those wheels are not really needed.  And here is a picture of those parts that were removed that had done all the damage to my prints.

Here is a link to the site with information for removing the wheels.  Proceed with caution!                                                                          

          

Having Fun . . .

"If you're interested, you will do whatever is comfortable.  If you're committed, you will do whatever it takes."  And that's pretty much how I operate.  But what about just having fun?  Now that doesn't come so easily.  So I surprised myself when I signed up for an ATC exchange through my Digital Magic class.  And found myself doing just that --- having fun! 

I began with a digital collage that was based on a photo I had taken of some wonderful rusty gears.  The barn simply appeared.  These lovely old barns are everywhere in Tennessee,and I stop and photograph them often, just for the sake of preserving something that will never exist again.  So I was not surprised to discover that the image of an old barn is forever etched into my memory and will surface at any given time.

For the image I used a piece of iris/abaca paper with marigold inclusions that I made this summer.  For the text I used some paper that I made from dress pattern tissue.  And in the process, I made an incredible mess in my studio for six little cards!  But I loved the process and will most certainly sign up for another ATC swap.

Now back to those things that I will do whatever it takes to make happen!