Creating Another Hand (flex tool)

I was inspired recently by Carol Marine's description of how to use an adjustable arm with clamps on both ends as an extra "hand" to hold a viewfinder when painting still lifes from her book DAILY PAINTING (pp 82 - 84). Thank you Carol for sharing your ideas!

Now, I said to myself,  I can also use this to hold a reflector card when I photograph my artwork.

After researching the cost of this tool and reading some reviews of the quality of ready-made versions, I found this interesting video by knoptop on YouTube showing how to make a flexible clamp from an old lamp. Thank you knoptop for this video!

Below is my clamp that I made from an old lamp after watching knoptop's video. The lamp I found in a thrift for $3 already had a clamp on one end, so I removed the light fixture and replaced it with a smaller clamp to hold my viewfinder or reflector card; a small piece of flexible foam fills some of the space within the clamp for a secure hold.

Building a Pochade Box

bottom of box with t-nut inset for tripod attachment

hinge detail

This is a pochade painting box I started building two years ago, and just recently finished after reading and viewing Jim Serrett's blog. His blog http://www.pochadeboxpaintings.com/2009/02/how-to-build-your-own-pochade-box.html gives detailed directions with great photos of how to build the pochade box and panel carrier. I also constructed a carrier which looks pretty much like his so I did not photograph mine. I have a small $100.00 table saw that I use but one can go to a real lumber yard if possible and pay to have the major pieces cut if you do not have a table saw. Since I made my box over a period of time, I do not know how much time it took and I did not keep track of the cost. I enjoyed making it and Jim's cost seems fairly accurate. (Scavenged materials probably helped keep the cost of mine down.) Thank you Jim for your great directions.

I put my hinge together about two years ago from brass pieces I found after looking at a lot of photos of ready-made pochade boxes. . It actually seems to hold if I make sure to tighten it well. I will probably use a small bungee sometimes to hold a painting instead of the two wood pieces in the photo. If I paint a small 4 x 6" painting I cannot use the bungee, as it is too big to hold the panel tight. I then have to use the two pieces of 1/4" thich wood pieces that slide up tight to the 4 x 6 painting. I am gradually fine tuning the box.