I have always loved this photo which I took in Paris in 2008. Free form and mysterious, I hoped to enlarge it and see how it would look framed on the wall like a real work of art, but have never gotten around to it.

But I’ve found a new sort of art cum rorschach test which I have amused myself with recently, and which I hope will entertain some of you for 2 or 3 minutes.

A favorite Italian restaurant in Santa Rosa, Ca’Bianca, serves olive oil and balsamic vinegar with its bread. Needing something to do while waiting for dinner, I have begun playing with the patterns made by mixing the oil and vinegar and seeing what my fellow diners make of it.

The tools:

Start with a base of oil and slowly add a few drops of balsamic vinegar.

Add a few more drops and see what happens – then it is whatever you can make of your design.

Fellow diners have chipped in, and here are their interpretations.

This looks like a view of the heavens through a telescope.

The continent of Australia, before it finished forming.

Everyone thought this looked like a carp.

A fried egg sandwich

A Yin Yang symbol

Lucy done by Picasso

Want to know what the photo at the top is? It’s a burned pan that I scrubbed and scrubbed and this was the best I could do. It’s fascinated me that such a beautiful image was created. I hope the pan hasn’t been thrown out!

—Jean Schulz