Accomplishments

My long list to be accomplished on my Studio Day actually did get knocked down a bit.  I managed to get everything except the sewing projects done.  Of primary importance was that I get my boxes stripped.  That's because I have to do this outside and I need to get this done while the weather still allows for outside work - i.e., before the snow starts falling.  I still have many boxes left to strip and refinish, but I now at least have seven boxes stripped and ready for refinishing and then decorating with enameling.  One of these boxes will become a gift for Sebas at some point.  I know how it will look at the end, and I have all of the materials for it, I just need to find some construction time for it.  That will happen.  Now I am researching high-gloss enamels.  I want a laquer-look for the finish on some of these, so I'm looking into various options to give me that look.  It does seem that every project I choose requires me to learn more things.  So far, for this project, I had to learn how to strip paint from wood, and now different refinishing techniques and materials.  I learned interior construction techniques earlier this year for my box "When Anor Rises", and I will carry those skills through to Sebas' box. 

A recent picture of Sebas on an
outing at the lake near his
new home in Michigan.  I miss my boyfriend!

This is the six-month anniversary of the blow-out on the BP oil rig; one of the worst environmental disasters of recent times.  It is one more example of how badly mankind acts as a steward for this land.  I fully admit that I'm an old hippie with the viewpoint that one should walk lightly on this earth.  I remember walking to support the very first Earth Day and I try my best to be kind to the earth within the parameters of my crazy life.  I know that I could do better, but I certainly could do far worse.  I am most certainly no paradigm of environmental virtue but at least I think about it as I live my life.  Do you?  Try to bring the environment into your creative life today. 

Movie Night and Le Tour

I'm joining Chickie and Meghan for Inception tonight.  It's a long movie - 2-1/2 hours long - and starts at 7pm.  So we won't get to eat until close to 10 pm and I won't be home until 11 pm - past the time when my brain turns into a pumpkin.  But it's worth it.  Meghan moves to Michigan while I'm out of town at my Conference, so this is the last time I'll have a chance to see her in forever!  I'm really going to miss her, but this is a great opportunity for her to excel and I shouldn't be too sad.  I know I'll see her again, but Sebas will be huge when I next see him. 

Stage 17 ends on the Col du Tourmalet!  Awesome!

And today is the last stage of the Pyrenees in Le Tour de France.  Things are starting to wind down.  We have our mountain stage today, a relatively flat stage tomorrow, the time trial on Saturday and the ride to Paris on Sunday.  Lance didn't perform up to his own expectations, but Lance and Andy have come through in spades.  I've been loving this tour. 

White Rabbit Time

Remember the White Rabbit in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?  The one who is constantly late?  That's probably going to be me today.  I have breakfast scheduled with my friend Meghan and her wonderful little boy Sebas (and Chickie, of course).  I have to get the shop powered up and ready to go, although after I get that done I won't be there for the rest of the day.  I need to pick up a check from my broker - my funds are getting dangerously low.  I need to look at boxes, and hit the office supply store and grocery.  Then I need to get home and do laundry and work on my BFAC project.  That HAS to be complete by the end of the week - I have too much else to do in July to push it into next month.  Deadlines are breathing down my neck. 

Dust Pillar of the Carina Nebula

We're absolutely flooded with work at the shop.  Those three large shipments last week have inundated us with work.  If I wasn't so far behind on my own deadlines, I would sacrifice my studio day and work at the shop instead.  But, I can't do that; I don't have that ability.  So I'll just continue to play a never-ending game of catch-up.  I decided that a picture of something beautiful yet chaotic might be perfect for today's pic, so here you go - an in-depth photo of a dust pillar in the Carina Nebula. 

Never Long Enough...

Studio days are never long enough. I ran all over town first - four different stops, but each one more than 20 miles away from the others. Breakfast with Meghan, Chickie and Meghan's little boy, Sebi was delightful. I've got to admit - I'm a sucker for cute kids. I don't want to have them around for long periods of time, but when they are cute, I'm totally smitten. And Sebi is an absolute doll. Very messy - but an absolute doll.

After stops at my silversmith friend's to pick up a repair, my box supplier to buy one more box, and the office supply store for paper and pens, I finally got home about 11:30 am. I began the first of three loads of laundry and loaded up my computer to work on the graphics for my backplates. I worked on those for the remainder of the afternoon, finally deciding on the basic size and how I wanted the "banner" to appear at the bottom of each one. Banners would usually be easy, but I want the banner to go through the backplate and turn into the pin catches, so I needed to determine style and fastening method. I am going to be counting on some rivets, so I hope that my riveting is up to snuff.

Then I needed some Tengwar translation, so I found my favorite website for translations and posted for some assistance. I have Tengwar fonts already installed on my computer, just need the lettering and then I can fill the banners in properly. I'll draw the vines and leaves today and I should be able to scan the pictures in by the end of the week, transfer them to my laptop, and get them printed out by Monday night. Then I can transfer the images and get them etched on Wednesday.

Studio Day - Chicken Anyone?

Today will be spent with me running around like a crazy chicken. Circles, loop-de-loops, etc - I'll be all over town from North to East, back North, then Southwest, then back North again. I'd better remember to get some gas first thing this morning or else I won't make it very far!

My day will start with breakfast with the Chickie and our friend Meghan. Hopefully Meghan's little boy, Sebi, can also join us. Meghan and Sebi are returning to Peru for a few months in two weeks, and then, after they get back home, they'll be packing up for a move to northern Michigan. So Chickie and I wanted to be sure to catch them before they left on this stage of their travels. We're going to miss them!

My afternoon will be spent working on the text and embellishments for my copper backplates. I'm still thinking about how I want to do the actual setting of the enamel - whether I want it set from the front or the back and whether I want prongs, tabs, or a full ledge. But even without determing the exact setting, I can work on the text and pictures. I want to get this to the point where I can print this out and etch it next Wednesday, so I have my design work cut out for me. I'm feeling much better about this though. I just wasn't happy with the silver - it didn't really compliment the enamelwork. I think the etched, and maybe pierced, copper will be a vast improvement. Have a creative day!

Miscellaneous Musings

I was fortunate yesterday to join VerLaine and my friend Meghan with her adorable 3-month-old son Sebi. What a cutie. He was so well behaved and is so cute. I'm not really a "baby" or "kid" person, but the kids of my friends are usually placed into a different category for me. They are all cute and they all grow up too soon. Although it is amazing to watch them become their own, individual identities.

Within conversations came the new President's dog - Bo. Bo (for those of you in other countries or who have been hiding under a rock somewhere) is a 6-month-old Portuguese Water Spaniel with white socks on a black body. He's really a cutie and I'm sure that the President's daughters are a great age to be able to play off the energy of Bo. Many people are disappointed that they didn't get a pound puppy. But Bo was returned from his first home and then retrained so that he would fit in well with White House life. In essence, he was a pound puppy - just a bit more upscale than most local pounds would be.

Yesterday was the 62nd anniversary of the first day that Jackie Robinson donned a baseball uniform and, with the crack of a bat, broke the color barrier. We have come so far as a nation since the days that I protested for fair treatment for all people of color back in the 60's and 70's. America is growing up and starting to realize that people have value, and that surface is quite unimportant compared to content. It gives me hope for the future - at least until the next mass murder or domestic violence attack.

And finally, in the musings for the day, I actually did get a couple of hours of enamel work done yesterday. Nothing fantastic, just continuing work on my color strips, but it was so wonderful to get back to the kiln and I was humming and singing while putting things in and out. Next week I'll continue. In the meantime, I can start on my BFAC project since not all portions of it rely on the enamel to be complete. And the enamel may not even work out - so I will have to get to work on beading later this week. Have a colorful and artistic day!

Enameling Possibilities

I'm in love with a 3-week old. Sebastian Ray has captured my heart!

I fired up the kiln yesterday and tried some experiments to decide if an idea I had in my head would work for my Beading For A Cure project. After several coats of enamel, I decided that it will, indeed, work, although I need colors that are more appropriate to the project colors. So, I broke down and went onto Thompson Enamel's website. More than $100 later, I will have some enamels in my hands by mid-week next week with several new colors, another firing stand and a few application tools that I have been wanting. I also ordered five pounds of citric acid from another source. I prefer to use citric acid instead of Sparex or swimming pool acid for my work. I think that the citric acid is more environmentally friendly. And I even successfully got two loads of laundry done, went to the book store, and had breakfast with friends (including the cutie at the top of this post). It was an excellent day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. LINCOLN. 200 Years Young Today!

Today I think I'll bring the laptop to work with me and see if I can get any work done on a new newsletter for my customers. It seems that the only time I have to work on things is during the day at the shop, so I can spend that time doing computer work if I remember to bring the appropriate computer - LOL. I'd better spend a quick moment and update my credit card with them also so that I have a real and active account. To work....to work. Never ending :-) I'd rather be beading and enameling, so I'm already looking forward to next week's studio day.

Questions for Today

The Daily Art Muse had two questions for today that might be worth thinking about, so I'm passing them on here while answering them for myself. You may also find answering these worthwhile. She wrote:

"I have two questions for you today: Which small detail of your daily life inspires your art? And something that I have been researching and exploring on my own – Does your art help the greater good in subtle ways? (part B to this question is – Do you want it to?)."

So...Which small detail of my daily life inspires my art? Well, I guarantee it is not the mess that I live in and sigh about daily. Just not enough hours to be the housekeeper that I wish I could be. But, although I would love to avoid the trite "nature" fall-back, it is actually true in my case. I am a morning person. Waking and greeting the dawn and the sunrise makes my day worthwhile and when I miss the sunrise or when the clouds are in the way, my day seems incomplete. I'm not a plant person (except for trees - I adore trees), but I love the colors that come in every sunrise and sunset, the stars at night, the moon and the varied personalities of the sky. These are inspiring for me and start and end each day as I thank the Spirit for allowing me to share in the great Song.

The second question is a bit harder. Does my art help the greater good in subtle ways and do I want it to? On this, I really have no idea. I know that sometimes people are happy when they see or receive my art, so I have helped the cosmic karma that day by adding to the positive and taking away from the negative. I know that every piece that I work on is a personal, direct, and physical prayer of thanks to my Muse and the Spirit. I am grateful for the skill that has been placed into my hands and give that skill back through my actions. I am a deeply spiritual person, but since I try to not impose my spirituality onto others, I tend to be a bit less than clear. But I hope, through my actions, that the Song will be heard just a bit more clearly than it might have otherwise.

Today I will start the day out with breakfast with a few dear friends, then run some errands, and I'm really going to try to fire up the kiln today and do a test fire of my latest experiment. Yesterday's "measure twice, cut once" worked out well. I now have the copper cut for my sigils project. But I also have to start on my Beading For A Cure project, and I'm still torn between two project possibilities. I do know that the beading will take center stage away from my drawing and enameling for a while, and although my beading is still creativity I will miss picking my pencils and colors for a while . OK, tirade over - LOL. So I'll show "Horse" as today's picture since that was last year's major beading project :-)

New Friends - New Hope

In 2003 the economic troubles of the world were far, far away. In fact, it was an economic boom time for most of the US and the world. In the fall of that year, a happy and friendly red-haired face came through my door asking for employment. Even though I turned her down initially, she was back the next day, and she showed some tenacity and an inner spark that really intrigued me. I hired her, and Meghan became a part of our little family. Since that time, she has had an active life, and fell in love with a very attractive young man in southern Peru. She moved back to the US in the fall, last year, along with the wonderful news that she was pregnant. Last week she gave birth, and here is one of the pictures of her new cutie. Welcome to the world, Sebastian Ray. You're a total cutie and my heart is completely won over.

And, while thinking about the future, I'm also concentrating on my more immediate future - the two conferences that I am planning to attend this year. Bead & Button Show takes place in early June, and Metal Clay World takes place in July. I have my friend "Poo" (Pam) as my roomie again for Bead & Button Show. We've been rooming at these bead shows for more than 10 years now and have become firm friends. Our personal schedules work well with each other - for example, she's an evening shower person, I'm a morning shower person. And we're both married to guys named Jim; one more coincidence :-) I have a new roomie for Metal Clay World - Shruti lives near New Dehli in India. I met her last year at the PMC Conference in Indiana. I'm really looking forward to spending more time with her - she was very fun and is involved in many of the same types of artwork that I am - beading, enamelwork and metal clay. After these two conferences, I'll be totally broke for a while . But it will be worth it to travel and learn new things.