Back to the Grind

I completely finished the wooodworking portion of my BFAC2011 project yesterday, and I got the Tengwar placed properly so that I can make the final and etch the copper next week.  There are a couple of tweeks that I need to make to the text so that it will read properly, but it is unlikely that anyone other than me would even know if the letters were backwards or not :-)  But to me it is the same as any other language that I have etched in the past, I have to make sure that it will read properly. 

I purchased two books for myself as an early birthday gift for myself.  The Future of Fantasy Art by Aly Fell and Duddlebug is a wonderful compendium of cover art and fantasy art over the past four decades.  It is stunning art with small accompanying descriptive paragraphs for each piece.  I wasn't going to spend the money, but I fell into the "I just can't be without this" after I spent a half-hour looking through it carefully.  The thought of putting it back onto the shelf was too sad.  The other major item I purchased is actually a workshop/magazine called Fantasy Art produced by the publishers of Imagine FX.  Imagine is a magazine specializing in digital art techniques - a technique that I really want to learn.  This workshop has tutorials, interviews and features for using Photoshop and Painter.  My version of Photoshop is ancient, but I can't afford to update it.  I'll have to see what I can do with my limited tools.  It will be fun to try, anyway. 

Today's Beading For A Cure auction items are by Sue Harney (top) and Nikki Ryan (bottom).  I've never met Sue, but I have met Nikki and she's delightful.  She works for a friend of mine in the bead business in California and she's grown into a fine beader and designer over the years.  This is the final week, so please look over the items and place a high bid.