Introduction: Destination String Map Nontextual matter

Hi once more, and wanted to nevertheless another installment of "What is he thinking?" Today's endeavor is a destination twine mapping I put together based connected everywhere my professional career has sent me—"navigational artistic production" if I may wax poetic. I stumbled across this 'ible by OsmanGazi one day and likeable it a lot; the size was good, but the color was wrong. I wanted mine to mesh topology with the colors in my house, and also be a conversation appetizer.

To that end, I went dark and mystic (OOOOooooooohhhhh…) away leaving off the actual map. Immediately people will look at IT and (I hope) recollect it's an interesting piece of abstract art. If and when they ask round the question, I can point to unmatched of the pins and suppose, "That's Vegas (baby)! Any ideas?" And thus the conversation is begun.

When I byword the Maps Contest pop up, I knew I had to buzz off off my duff and on the ball.

O.k., ready? Along TO Gamble!

Step 1: Supplies

OsmanGazi made information technology levelheaded every bit though a Beech woden plate (sic) of roughly 55"x23"x1" was easy to find in his particular neck of the woods. Not and so Here in Vegas (sister). Anything that size here is plyboard, of varying and usually disappointing experimental condition. What we Doctor of Osteopathy suffer though is an almost-unweathered IKEA memory boar, and THEY sell beech tabletops of various dimensions. Retention in brain the Maps Repugn deadline and expected to unrelated biography issues, I definite I didn't have the time to sand and finish a beech tabletop (which, as I understand it can hin to inconsistent results). Thus, I decided on a Bekant tabletop in the "black discoloured ash veneer/black." IT ties in nicely with the rest of the furniture in the room, and blest me a Gross ton of time (contest deadline, you know) and labor. Plus, I wanted the strings to be the focal point, non the backboard or the nails. Speaking of, I used 2in cultivation nails and fancywork dental floss in five different colors as well. I went with five colors because there have been quint primary phases to my pro lifetime. That direction, each homebase has its own color for the places I went from there.

So, to summarise:

· 1x Bekant 55 1/8" x 23 5/8" x 5/8" screen background

· 56x 2" finish nails

· 5x embroidery floss loops (8.7yds per loop—PLENTY!)

And the requisite tools:

· Floor buffer, M41A pulse pillage, bottle brush, bikini wax (again—not really)

· Drill, hammer, tape recording measure, uncurled border, pencil, eraser, clad Sharpie

Step 2: Design/Planning

In her fantabulous class on how to write an 'ible, JessyRatFink talks about blueprint tools. However, she missed one (Pant!). I use MS PowerPoint (MSPP) for very much of my figure work. I can import a picture, do minor vividness/contrast editing, resizing, overlaying, and a whole lot of unusual stuff. I designed the shelves in my bar (which you can see present) in MSPP. I'm pretty steady the program wasn't designed to do that, but on the other hand MS Blusher wasn't planned to develop floorplans for houses either (yes, I've done IT, with good effectuate).

Victimisation OsmanGazi's contrive as my template, I had the rough dimensions I was aiming for. I marked those prohibited on my wall with down tape measure to give sure they were good. Then I took a picture of that to load into MSPP. My succeeding step was to regain a populace map that I could use every bit my baseline. Google provided ample options, and I selected one, imported it into MSPP, resizing it and changing the smartness to fit my need. When I was satisfied, I started plotting locations (more thereon in the following paragraph)—beginning with each of my homebases. Erstwhile the bases were settled, I old MSPP's right line tool to draw lines from each base to a location to which I'd deployed. From each one base was a phase of my life, and so the lines from each base are color-coded (e.g. "When I lived in Last Frontier, I went hither, here, and here—and then these lines will all be yellow").

My job was scale. I've only hardly been southland of the Equator, but also way up north. I definite to limit my map from just south-central of the equator to the Northerly Perch. That successful my world map slightly inclined equally evidenced in the picture, but—hey, this is art! So then, how to transferral that skewed onto my backboard accurately? Then I remembered the power system procedure in MSPP. I overlaid the grid onto the linemap, then just scan the grid coordinates off for each location. Why didn't I think of that sooner? I am a USAF-trained naviguesser after all…

Step 3: Aaaaaaaaaand...Execute!

This was the part I was dreading the worst, and was actually the fastest and easiest. Once I figured out that I didn't need to print out a world map and trouble about scaling it aright, it all fell into set up. Conveniently enough, the back of the Bekant desktop is theme-through with so draftsmanship connected it was easy. I made a liquid scaling tool out of a assemble of unlifelike, marking every incomplete-inch on one march with my trusty black-market Sharpie, and used it to mu out my gridlines. Much like a football field, where they don't mark out EVERY yard line, I made a grid of four edge squares. Then, working from the gridlines I utilized the joyride to game the locations. Draft on the back meant that I needed to opposite the eastside-west (longitude) separate of each set of coordinates (i.e. work from east-to-west vs west-to-east as in my design) which caused a few mis-locates—hence the eraser. Put compactly, I John Drew out my grid to the required scale, transferred the coordinates consequently, and Bob's your uncle!

I chose to bore clear direct my backboard (vs OsmanGazi's only partial drill) and use up a drillbit slightly smaller than the nails, calculation friction would handle them in place. Drilling from the stake side was a snatch unsatisfying (if you'll pardon the pun), just because I ended up pushing through the finished side rather than cutting through. This resulted in almost every hole having some academic degree of poker chip-out along the finished side. These were easily colored in with my trusty black Sharpie, and unless one looks REALLY close it's unnoticeable.

Flipping the board over indeed the finished side was up, driving the nails was a nobelium-brainer. So, IT was off to the tying. Tying the strings to the various locations went quickly, although in that location were a couple of "Wait, is that England operating theater Germany?" moments. It was easy enough to crawl under and refresh my store though. I wanted to belittle the identification number of knots to ease the strain on the nails, and not have to association so many knots! So I used one argumentation for multiple legs from a base when attainable, making a reduplicate wrap about the places I'd stayed, and not slip other ace for someplace I'd non been during that phase. If anyone looks that close they'll see that the wrapped spots are stopping points/deployed locations. Where my way crossed the International Engagement Line I plotted a location for a nail on extraordinary edge and another along the opposition abut at the same latitude, intending to keep the skyway Eastern Samoa straight A possible for a "wrap around" impression. If you spirit closely, you can see where I completed my circumnavigation of the existence—well, the Northern Hemisphere leastwise…

Step 4: Navigational Art

Once the tying was done IT was a simple thing to mount information technology to the wall (with a teeny-weeny help from a friend). I used 4" galvanized screws to labour into the wall studs with a 1/2" spacer keister the display board, and covered the screws with those pocketable black stickers that are always left over from IKEA builds. I believe the board would be too heavy to only hang from the drywall. The afloat effectuate of the 1/2" spacers is nice, I think. A potential improvement would be to lick a agency to envision the map onto the board, just to show people I'm not Altogether infatuated. And maybe a heavier gauge of string—the lines don't show up as so much every bit I was expecting. Unfortunately, the board is reflective enough that straight-on pictures flash back, and I don't possess a bunch of external ignition capability, so I had to take aim the pics from off angles.

Thanks for Reading, and happy mapping! Also, if I Crataegus oxycantha make another mostly shameless quid for the Maps Contest I've entered this in…

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