Hello Readers!
I'm assuming there ARE some readers still. If there are not, well, this won't be the first time I've talked to myself!
Since I was last here....a week ago, maybe?...not sure just when I was last here but I do know I've been creating since then. I have a few 'old' things to show that were not made in the time since I was here last and I have some new things to show you as well.
I've folded hundreds of magazine papers into units in anticipation of more baskets to come.
I've not done any drawings or painting.
Well, let's get on with the proof!
Enjoy!
I was listening to a program called Ancient Aliens on hulu and looking through youtube videos late last night. I came across a tutorial for wire wrapping cabochons. I don't have any cabochons so I kept looking and came across this tutorial for doing a viking weave around a cabochon. I know that LOOKS like a cabochon, but it isn't. It's a giant bead with a buggered up hole. The stone appears white on my monitor but it's actually a pale pink quartz stone. I wrapped it with some dark colored copper wire I unwound from a small electric engine part. This is my first attempt at viking weaving. I've no clue if I did it right or not, but I liked the outcome so much.........
I promptly made another one! This time with bright copper wire (again from a small electric motor part). The stone is a dyed quartz bead with a buggered up hole. My sister gave me the buggered up hole beads cause she couldn't use them in her jewelry making. Apparently I'm a bit more resourceful than she is? They look like jewelry to me! I really like this green one the best of the pair. I think I may put this one on my gold chain and wear it!
I was looking at youtube videos to watch the tutorial on how to make a tree of life pendant again. I winged the frame and then decided I better go have another look at how to make these things as it has been over a year since I made one. I'm not crazy about the beads I used, but I do like the frame. The beads are all glass e-beads. It isn't a bad one, it just doesn't appeal so much to me. But what the heck do I know?
I need to go on safari and find all those semi precious stone chips before I go crazy and make any more of these anytime soon.
I need to go on safari and find all those semi precious stone chips before I go crazy and make any more of these anytime soon.
Ma brought me about half a dozen metal lids a week or two ago and I dragged out the junk box to concoct the magnets that follow.
Owl Junk Magnets.... The pearl thing is a cheap old brooch, the blue thing is part of a broken pair of earrings, the silver disk came out of a computer tower, the black thing is a flattened glass marble with a drop of red fingernail polish, the star is air dry clay painted in acrylics and the rusty screw thing I stole from my brother's junk pile.
There's a brand new screw, a rubber grommet with a lone stud earring, a rusty washer (from lord knows what), a flattened glass marble with a drop of fingernail polish, and a metal heart charm.
This one doesn't really look like an owl to me but Ma said it's the cutest one of the bunch! It's a tractor key that's been spray painted black, I've no clue what the silver thing at the bottom is, a glass stone for his beak and two different colored jump rings with dimensional magic and fingernail polish inside of them. Fingernail polish and dimensional magic do not play well together.
His beak is a link from a broken bracelet, his eyes are a pot metal ring with a rusty washer and fingernail polish and a red plastic checker piece with a metal chinese coin charm along with a brand new screw.
This one is my favorite of the owls. His beak is a hand made out of air dry clay that's been painted with acrylics. His eyes are a lone earring and another lone earring sitting atop a metal ring. (Not sure just what that metal ring came from.) And he's got a rusty old screw to sit on.
Those silver metal disks beside this owl originally were going to be part of the eyes on some of these but plans changed mid-creation and I didn't use any of them. They came out of magnetic clips that I destroy for the magnets inside of them. They're GREAT clips and I use them in the kitchen to keep bags closed. Think chip clip....only they aren't chip clips cause I do not eat chips. I destroy them cause I have about 500 of them. Magnets are expensive! Have you priced them lately? I got all these clips at an auction a few years back. I think we paid like a $1 for them or something. We brought six loads of stuff home from that auction. RJ filled his truck three times and I filled my van three times. We didn't even bring all the stuff home that we bought! We left over half of the presentation folders there.
RJ said I didn't need 126 cases of them. I begged to differ but gave up the ghost before it was all home because, quite frankly, I was pooped after filling that van three times!
Ma brought me two monster bodies to finish. This one is done! Notice he has different eyes from the other monsters. I don't know about those eyes on monsters though. They aren't very kid friendly.
The other monster is sewn and stuffed but he does not have any eyes yet. I was going to give him the same eyes that this guy has but I spaced out the eyes when I was sewing him up and forget to add them before I sewed his head shut. So the other monster will get felt eyes like all the monsters before him. You might see him in the next post.
I've been working on this basket for a couple weeks now. I think it is done. Ma says it need two more rounds of circles but I think it will do as it stands. I don't think my hands can take any more of this basket! It's a great basket!!! Sturdy as all get out! It is a very impressive basket. It's about 12 inches tall and about 10 inches across, made completely out of magazine paper and glue. I call it the chain mail basket.
Truth be told, I'll probably make another of these baskets once my hands recover from making this one! It's really only my right hand and it only hurts when I move it just so. I get a sharp pain right in the middle of my palm that radiates out towards my pointer finger and my thumb. It hurts like the dickens when that pain shoots through my hand. Wrapping all those little rings together had me using muscles in my hand I didn't even know I had! This really is a GREAT basket!
This one? Not quite as great! I WILL FIGURE OUT THIS WEAVING TECHNIQUE. I will. Eventually. This one went in the circular file. (My circular file is actually rectangular.)
Baskets have been on the radar since the beginning of the year! This one was started late last year. I work on it from time to time. I did another row on it today. It's kind of like the chain mail basket, it hurts my hands to sew on this thing for any length of time. It's going to be awhile before I can call this one done.
Sometime back (months ago) I was digging through some papers in the cutting room and came across some old letters I had written to someone I really liked. I let that fool break my heart.
I cut those pages up into strips and made a paper mobile out of them. I didn't even read the pages first because I knew if I had read them, it would have just brought me down. That letter was written about 15 years ago. Water under the bridge. Wonder whatever became of that man? He disappeared from life in 2001. I heard from him in Feb of 2002. He wanted to come get his things. I talked him out of driving 200 miles in a blizzard and I never heard from him again. I do not have his things any longer. If the house hadn't burnt in 2005, I'd probably still have them though. There's a box of letters he wrote me in my closet at the moment. I can't get myself to read all that drivel these days, but I can't get myself to throw them out either. Guess I'll make art out of them? Who knows!
This is another of those 'old' things I was talking about at the beginning of this post. I made this thing three or four years ago. It hangs above the doorway into my desk room. The 'Be Not Afraid' sign doesn't refer to being fearless with art. It refers to the chaos you encounter upon entering this room!
I am sitting under that lamp at the moment typing this post. That clock to the left...it has said it 10 minutes to 12 for almost 8 years.
I caught Murray sleeping on my rice pillow on my bed last night. She wouldn't go near that thing when it was warm the other night. I've been suffering a toothache for the last four days and the heated rice bag works just like a heating pad! Chuck it in the microwave for four minutes and you've got heat for about an hour and a half. It was godsend with that toothache.
I still have the toothache today. Come Monday, that tooth is history cause the dentist is going yank it right out of my head! I'm looking forward to the gas she'll provide for that to happen! Gonna need lots of gas. I have 2 teeth that have got to go!
This pretty little girl was a pain in the ass the day before yesterday! She insisted on sitting atop my monitor. You see that little ball hanging from the string? That's the pull chain to the lamp above my desk. That fool cat thought it was her's to play with. Brat!
She is a pretty brat though, isn't she? Miss Lola and her wonky eye!
And I leave you with the man collection! Most of it anyway. Pay no attention to that layer of dust on the shelf. Art Guy (the wooden manikin) is dancing for joy. One of the grandboys posed him that way. This is better than the pose they put him with Barbie on the shelf in the livingroom last year! I have more men than this but they're scattered throughout the house.
Thanks for hanging around to the end!
Remember....be good to one another!
It matters!
Peace
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