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| 120 - A custom-made antler & ash thumbstick/monopod. The antler head can be removed, allowing the ash shank to be used as a camera
support. | 
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| I was asked to produce a thumbstick with a removable head, so that it could
double as a monopod camera support. A little research showed that a suitable
1/4" camera thread fitting was available from Lee Valley Tools in Canada (along with a whole bucketful of "cookies", which I routed to
oblivion). I figured out how I could fit everything together neatly using a
turned buffalo horn collar from Hillend Horn Company in Glasgow (see my Useful Links page), along with a piece of turned buffalo horn rod from the same source.
This was rapidly becoming an international project! |
  
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 | I made the thumbstick head from a piece of red deer antler. The surface texture
was filled with brass-filled epoxy resin and smoothed down to produce my
"trademark" finish. The ends were capped with black buffalo horn decorated and
reinforced with brass tube "parisien eyes". When screwed onto the shank, the joint is covered and reinforced by the black
buffalo horn collar integrated into the spacer on the base of the antler head. The male thread of the camera adaptor has a socket for a hex key in the end,
enabling the exposed length of thread to be adjusted to suit the camera. The
camera base is protected by a rubber washer. |  |
   
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 | Here's the monopod in use. On the left I've mounted a simple lightweight
digital camera (the one I had when I first started work on my Web site). Then I
played around with a mirror. That's me on the right, with the Olympus C2500-L
I now use. Technical stuff - note the flash gun mounted back-to-front enabling
me to provide bounce flash off the top of my polished dome. :-) |  |
SOLD |