The Girl in the Glass: In search of a 19th century beauty.

There was a time, before the invention of photographic film, when glass plates were used as a medium in photography. A light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was coated on a glass plate, and when it was exposed to light when taking a picture, a chemical reaction created an impression on the coating. A ghostly impression, one could say. The purpose of this project was to restore to life a girl thus captured in glass.

People in some ancient cultures believed that photography would steal your soul. And even today, some still do. It is true that photography does have an element of magic to it, for it creates reproductions of realities, capturing them in film, or, more commonly today, digitally.

What looks like ordinary paint on a piece of glass is, in reality, an ancient emulsion hiding a treasure.

The glass plate in the above picture contains the image of a 19th century girl, which is revealed when the plate is exposed to light going through it. 

Injured  and aetheric, her apparition filled me with awe and wonder! I had to see her true image! 

Exposed to light, the glass reveals its secret...

 

I took a photograph of the plate, then inverted the negative, and there she was, for the first time in more than one hundred years, such a splendid and delicate girl, what a moment of pure joy!

The positive image of the girl.

Beautiful as she was, I could not bear the sight of the harm that time had inflicted upon her. Specially her face and head had sustained quite some damage, and seeing her like this made me sad. So I decided to give her back her dignity and beauty by doing some magic of my own.

I restored her image but not the total picture as a whole, leaving some of the damage and stains untouched which then became decorative. 

And here she is, in all her splendor and innocence: behold the beautiful Girl in the Glass! Welcome to the 21st century, sweetness!

Thanks for visiting and see you next time!

© José Pereira Torrejón. All rights reserved. No part of the content of this blog may be distributed, published or reproduced without prior authorization from the author.

Progress on the 'O' gauge tanker project

I'm currently working hard to get an old, derelict, 1950's Shell oil tanker rail car back on its feet, and transforming it into a LyondellBasell (LYB) tanker. The 'O' gauge car was manufactured by Bub in Germany, and looked in a sorry state.

The wheels and axles have been installed, completing the truck assembly which now sits on rusty, Märklin rails.

 

As you can see, I've left the chassis intact in its original condition, meaning that I haven't taken away any of the rust and the aging it showed. I feel that if I had restored it to 'mint' condition, its charm and charisma would have been lost, making it way less attractive. Likewise, the spare parts used are not new, but from the same vintage as the rail car or even older. After all, 'Rust' is in the name of this blog for a reason!

The missing coupling is now also in place. It's not the original coupling type that should go with a Bub rail car, but I thought this one would make it more interesting than the original, which was rather basic (i.e. boring).

 

Same thing goes for the buffers. Actually, this rail car never had them, but I wanted them in place because they make it look more detailed and interesting to look at. I'm now considering whether I should leave them like this, or 'weather' them a bit to match the chassis.

So, basically, the chassis is now complete, awaiting the installation of the tank, which is currently being worked on.

The tank itself has received two coatings of primer and is awaiting further processing. Note the dent on one of its flanks, which is a 'battle scar' sustained in the course of his long, working life. I decided to keep it for the same reason I left the chassis intact: it's all a matter of preserving as much as possible the 'magic' that comes with age.

As you can see from the above picture, the inside of the tank shows traces of rust too, which I will also leave 'as is'.

Finally, the cap of the tank was removed before the latter got the primer treatment. I want to keep the cap 'as is' too, because it looks perfect already, so why change it! 

Spare Parts

Yessss!! The spare parts for my current little O gauge project have arrived!

From Chassis to Coal Wagon

"Clean coal!", they said. Or is it?! For better or for worse, coal modernized the world, and revolutionized industry and society. 

My newest mini-project centers around coal: an old rail car chassis was turned into a coal wagon. Clean? Most probably not. But definitely cool!  Take a look here!