Antique hoop stand

Nearly two years ago now, our wonderful (and very missed) housekeeper that we were lucky enough to have during our stay in Uruguay (hola Paola!!) gave me this unusual piece she picked up at a market.  We think it is an antique embroidery hoop stand.  I really can't think of what else it could possibly be but if you can enlighten me please go ahead.

So, I have been meaning to do an embroidery panel for it for ages and I have finally completed it.

 

I got this pattern from the lovely book 'Scandinavian Needlecraft' by Clare Youngs.

Now it can sit happily on our piano (this is a very dark room in our house so I attempted to finagle my own home style Lightscoop (see below) for this photo).  After I iron it... ha ha, just popped it in there for the photo but need to iron it obviously.

By the way, have you ever heard of the Lightscoop?  I first saw it over at Chez Larsson.  I don't have a camera that it fits but will buy it as soon as I upgrade my camera sometime this year.  Anyway, in the spirit of necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to try taking a photo using a mirror held up at an angle in front of the flash.  This would have worked better with the camera on a tripod but I was just doing a quick photo and didn't get it out.  Here are three photos comparing how it worked.

 using the flash directly

using natural light

using the mirror in front of the flash to 'bounce' the light off the ceiling

I didn't do any photo processing on these photos so these are raw (and very hurried - forgive any blurriness).  You can see how the light is definitely more diffused and even.  I think the proper Lightscoop would work better (you don't have to balance it and risk blurry photos for a start) but, in a pinch, this will work for me in the meantime until I can buy it.  By the way, that display shelf for the mini figures?  Only 79c at the local thrift store!  I am going to paint it this week and make it look all pretty.

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