rejiquar works

31aug05

Oh no, another Gathering post---wait, it's not that bad: (and only peripherally related). Joy Cichewicz, who among other things is prez of GlassAct251, one of our local glass bead guilds, was one of the (infamous?) `Michigan contingent' who made the trek to Gathering this year. And she wowed 'em with this prizewinning entry to Gathering's first ever Beadpen contest.

I'm sorry to say I'd nothing to do with achieving that win, but I did at least convince her to have the pen photographed by Jerry Anthony, and it looks pretty darned good.

30aug05

I have of course heard about Flight, a collaboration by a bunch of young sequential artists on that theme, and was absolutely thrilled to find a copy of the first volume in the Ann Arbor public library's little (about 3 shelves, each perhaps a yard wide, but still---progress!) comic collection. I had encountered the blog of at least one contributor, Clio Chang before, whose superb story Bowl was one of the most moving in the volume, and who's been featured on drawn, but it turns out this group of folks have started a blog specifically for the series, with links to all the contributing artists.

I was particularly impressed with the work of Khang Le: here's a man with a very good understanding of human anatomy, a wonderful sense of color, not to mention lovely control of the (I assume) waterbase paints he uses to show it off, and ---that major major bugaboo for me---control of perspective. Plus, of course, the imagination to put all those skills together. Landscapes, figures, light, color---you name it, this guy does it.

Some of my most favorite pieces were dark---interiors, or crowded exteriors, lit sparingly, some with cold fluorescent light that reminded me more than a little of my first night in Saigon (or HCMC for the more modern or politically correct) when we ate in a---literally---hole in the wall whose entrance was buried in a nearly inaccessible alley. ---Thus, it didn't surprise me that the artist was born in Viet Nam

Add to all the wonder a nicely designed website that's easy to navigate (it's got those little next arrows I want to put on mine, next upgrade) and fast loading, not to mention a delightful lack of pretentiousness---there are a good 150 delish images, but the front page, refreshingly free of warnings not to copy/steal my stuff/etc has, besides aforesaid links, has, and I list in its entirety, the following text `news---blah blah blah' and `buy stuff ---coming soon'. Talk about letting the work speak for itself! Marvelous.

And there are still all those other Flight artists to check out...

26aug05

Here's a very quick little post about a project I've been dreaming of finishing. In more ways than one.

24aug05

Whew. I need a way to automate the indexing for this site. As I noted yesterday, I spent a lot of time indexing some of the recent posts, and I spent some more today. There are still many others to be done (most notably in travel; also Other Artists, which currently is scattered over three or four directories.)

The result, among other things, is a new index page for Page of (a very few of) the things we've worked on together. At least one post has never been shown before, mostly, I'm sorry to say, because I wasn't happy with the way it photographed. This is particularly ironic in view of the fact that it was a sample photo taken during photo howto page session but we all have these embarressing lapses, otherwise known as failing to bracket adequately (that is, those big -1.0 and beyond ev nos.). But again like yesterday's post, the necklace is gone, and opportunity is forever passed, so this will just have to do. And besides, I've since made some good pictures using those same techniques:)

I've also collected together the posts in GlassTechnical such as they are, and made the surprising discovery that three posts on abstracts I was saving for a rainy day have already been added to the abstracts index page ---the efforts of my last major house clean, around the 8thJune. So you basically get 4 new posts for the price of one.

Now if only I could devote the same intensity to the actual mess in my office, as opposed to the virtual one in my website.

23aug05

As it happens I made the little image shown on this post as an icon for links to my studio pages, since a relative made the mistake of asking to see pictures; when I couldn't find any upper level links, I added them to various pages. I also updated the 2005 garden index which rather severely needed it, again courtesy of the same relative. Other people are so much better at finding these inconsistancies than I am.(Thank you Pam:)

However, there is actually a new page, the above referenced pink Satake Floral Vessel necklace: I made this earlier this year, and happened to document the construction process somewhat. I was never really happy with the finished shot of the piece, but as it's recently sold, it'll just have to do. It will also become obvious that something approaching 25--35% of the stringing time is simply getting out and putting away beads...

Enjoy. Or cackle at my various quirks, at any rate.

19aug05

I've been virtuous, the last two days, painting my shed. This project has been on my to-do list for two years, since we moved, acquiring the shed with the rest of the house; it still boggles my mind that the former owner, who paid for, and went to the trouble to put in, this structure, left the wood trim unpainted. (The walls are some sort of pressed fiberboard, and were at least primed, and printed with instructions right on them with what kind of paint to use. In 3'' high letters. Ah well.)

So while I was noodling around the archives of drawn trying to find an old link I couldn't look at the time 'cuz it'd been slashdotted (i.e. bandwidth exceeded), I found these utterly compelling children's drawings. They very much reminded me of Picasso's Guernica, and illustrate two facts very starkly: one is that anyone can learn to draw. These children simply weren't told they couldn't; (notice, too, particularly in the last drawing how much more ``realistically'' the horse head is rendered than the soldiers, who are symbols). Two is that even ``unrealistic'' ---that is, symbol laden, or ``crude'' drawing very much gets the point across. Sometimes better than a photograph.

So, no whining please. Anyone can make art, if they have something worthwhile to say.

16aug05

What a terrible lot of time I wasted yesterday.

Boingboing had a link to make, which is mostly diy for geeks, but this post was called the `costumer's guide to Home Depot'. I love Home Depot. (I know, I should love my local hardware store more, but the point is there is all this cool stuff, and tools, and I like things I can make into other things.) Anyway. It turns out heavy duty cable ties make excellent bones for corsets.

Somewhere or other I found this link for making a jester hat something I actually bought patterns for (which didn't really do it the way this free .pdf does). Goodie. Now I can finally sew up that polarfleece---not only into new mittens, & headband, but at last the long coveted hat too.

Perhaps I found the link on this clearinghouse site for costumers; and the site maintainer had some excellent posts of her own---of which perhaps the most useful was this essay on how to manipulate one of the costumer's most powerful tools: the library. I was extremely impressed, though I doubt I'd be disciplined enough to follow her instructions, because my interests aren't merely focused on costume. But certainly the ideas for keeping track of the good picture books apply...

15aug05

My dear friend and business partner Page recently gave me the opportunity to photograph some pieces made earlier in our partnership. For these, we came up with the design for the necklaces together, for which I made beads and she then strung. ---Which is to say, she picked the colors, suggested bead ideas, stomped on my whining, and then worked the beads into attractive pieces of jewelry. I had to sit and melt glass that had to be heated at a rate roughly equivalent to watching paint dry, though.

And, before I lose track of it, here's a link to Albert G. Richards, who started a whole new subgenre of floral photography, using x-ray machines---what is more correctly called `floral radiography', I gather. Hurray for black and white. (Those dentists! they have the best tools, and are definitely the people to befriend to get all sorts of handy things---be you metalsmith or lampworker...)

14aug05

Kristin Perkins recently had two of her pieces printed in Art Showcase Magazine and I'm honored to have the opportunity to reproduce them here for your viewing delectation.

Enjoy!

13aug05

Tired of all those boring Gathering posts? No? Really? Well, here you go, yet another post about the crap I bought (with the freebies saved for yet 2 other posts, eeek!) but the thumbnail already shows what is probably the one useful tip in this post, using a sharpie to mark your rods, in this case some Deutsch Kugler colors. Oddly enough a lot of folks don't seem to know about this---neither the people I bought these rods from, or the friendly folks from the Bullseye table, who cringed when I told them I wanted all my new reduction sample rods marked, ---till I gave them this tip, at any rate...:)The pi people, who evidently are new manufacturers of coe96 glass based in Ohio, take this concept one further, using metallic markers that show on dark rods.

OK. Break time. On to something (anything) else.

I got interested in reading up on Buddhism and the eightfold path this morning (it's been a very long time since that world religion class at Immaculata High, a Catholic girls' school that not only required this course `for greater understanding', but also its students either to take a sex education class [or pass out of it, which I'm embarressed to admit I failed to do] before being allowed to take biology---can you imagine such an enlightened point of view today? Alas, that wonderful place is now defunct). The basic precepts are surprisingly close to the philosophy I've engendered myself over the years, but it was the mandalas that really got my attention---I once had the privilege of watching some Tibetan monks make a traditional sand mandala at the DIA.

Some noodling around the web demonstrated the remarkable appeal and flexibility of this traditional art form, so if the post above doesn't thrill you (at last, she gets to the point) here are a couple of sites that lay out the traditional elements for making one; and here are some lovely old examples of Tibetan mandalas. Enjoy.

12aug05

Tired of all those boring Gathering posts? Me too. Here's a braid several years old that I finally got around to photographing.

Next time, we're back to ``stuff I bought at Gathering'', but at least the post includes a tip for marking rods.

07aug05

Since I didn't post yesterday, I put up a pair today that cover my adventures hiking while at Gathering. Click on the thumbnail of the butterfly to go straight for the eye candy, bees, butterflies (and the flowers that feed them) in Charlestown State park, where I camped the night before my pre-conference slide class and hiked during my ``free day''. If you'd like a little more sense of what the wonderful hiking trails are like, start with the charlestown state park hiking post first, see some spider webs and hear more than you want to know about ticks before being rewarded with a link at the end straight to the pretties.

05aug05

Ah, the joys of being ahead of the curve. I do actually have several posts waiting in the wings for when I didn't have time to make one. These pixie round floral practice beads were designed to use up lots of striped cane, because sometimes I have cane I'd dearly love to get rid of. Such beads are a good example of playing with failures (or in the case of the alabastro and opalino glass they're made on, stuff that's unfamiliar) till it starts germinating some new ideas.

Seeing as I have two new types of 96coe glass to check out, one being a line made by a new manufacturer, pi, and the other uroboros, which makes very nice effetre compatible dichro (the uroboros I got at Gathering last year, sigh), a new batch of bullseye compatible (I hope!) 7000/8000 Thompson enamels to test, plus some German glass in rod and frit, odd-lot Bullseye and the usual boro sample packs, I expect I should be generating all sorts of cool new stuff, right? ---Well, lots of sample beads, at any rate...

04aug05

This little post samples a few of the wonderful commercial architectural gems near or on the waterfront in Louisville. The light was absolutely perfect for shooting them, but as usual I was too lazy to bring the monopod (it never left my suitcase, shame, since much of what I photographed was in relatively low-light conditions) and I didn't really have enough memory to take the multitudinous shots I typically need to get some good ones. Nevertheless, these should give you the flavor of the wonderful surface designs on these old buildings.

And for those of you sick already of this Gathering crap (with only about half the posts planned done so far, sigh) here's an essay about how to make good programs---by making happy programmers which I think makes a rather interesting contrast to, say, Paul Graham's somewhat more typical take on the topic (and no, I can't remember which of his fine essays made this point for me---read 'em all). Whatever differences in their business implementations, both these men are vitally interested in making good software. Why, you're wondering, does a visual artist care about those nerdy programmers? Well, because I can't think of a more vocal and passionate group of folks who care about making things well. Who are at the forefront of both fitting themselves into a corporate culture to support their work (i.e. a patron) and yet who wish to make the very best work.

This has application for all of us who care about what we do.

Oh, and I've updated the archive.

03aug05

You know those people who just seem to be happy with what they have, who never complain about the minor irritations of life?

Yeah, well, I'm not one of them. The most perfect experience in the world, and I would still find something to complain about. I can honestly list all the positive things about Gathering this year. Just for a change.

Another happy list is Jesse Kohl's sequence of boro color. I love ordering my glass rods in chromatic sequence, and this sequence has chemistry behind its logic---very cool. This is part of my ongoing effort to master the Amber Purple (aka silver strike) family. After promptly striking two beads made of Glass Alchemy's new persimmon with a pair of Carlisle's new torches---their wildcat and Babuccio torches---I really am starting to believe, however much other people can get silver strike colors to behave with GTT torches, I can't. I need (or think I need) those dirtier flames.

Today's posts are kinda boring, unless you're desparately trying to figure out what Gathering is and want to read every scrap you can about the experience, or are interested in glass chemistry. So while cruising around the net, I found (via a copyfight site) a blog by a guy who's interviewed custom bike framebuilders and while noodling in the interviews found these gorgeous pieces of metalwork (they're lugs, the metal sleeves for reinforcing the tube-joints on a bike frame) in this Australian framebuilder's site.

Enjoy.

02aug05

I spent most of last Saturday selling beads in Kentucky, as part of my Gathering activities. Had I stayed home, I no doubt would've gone on the AABTS sunrise ride. ---I like this ride because the light is prettier, it's cooler, and ---oh yes---there's less traffic.

Most of the members go for the later version. One of them happened to be Charlotte Marcotte. She was riding just west of Chelsea on Cavanaugh Lake road when an oncoming driver, a 16 year old looking for a pair of sunglasses, crossed the road, missing another cyclist, killing her instantly.

It's funny, in a way: a hundred years ago, cyclists were the original agitators for paved roads, making them practical for the later motorized vehicles. Nowadays, marvels the average woman back then could only dream of---automobiles, electricity, even running water---we take for granted, almost as a right (though indeed plenty of folks still do without, as I discovered riding in Vietnam).

It's worth keeping in mind that these luxuries are a privilege.

As it happens, motorists in the a2 area are relatively familiar with the concept of bicyles---on the road, (not sidewalks) as transportation as well as recreation. Even though most are polite, there are still way too many roads around here that are too narrow, or have dangerous freeway ramps, or are just plain unfriendly to non-motorized forms of transportation.

Cars are a great convenience and a powerful tool, allowing us to easily make weekly or even daily journeys of 50 or even 20 miles that would've once been impractical for the average jane. (Most accidents take place within 25--30 miles of home. My longest typical trip is to destinations 50 miles away.) A typical American car weighs something between two and six thousand pounds, multiplying the average driver's weight 10--20 times, and his or her speed easily 20--30 times. That adds up to a lot of force.

American culture very much supports the idea that one must drive these behemoths; but they're dangerous, and it behooves us to recall that with great power comes great responsibility. A woman has lost her life, and a child his innocence, owing to a moment's carelessness using this tool.

What appalling waste.

01aug05

This post is for the three kind ladies at the Galt Hotel Starbucks who admired my beads, enjoyed my postcards and gave me delicious coffee that not only kept me awake on the ride home, but doubled as liquid dessert.

For those of you who aren't seriously into the glass beady world, Gathering is the ISGB's annual conference, in which a bunch of us glass beadmakers get together, obstensibly to watch demonstrations and listen to lectures about beadmaking, but really to catch up with our friends and have a good time. (You can tell people who've been going to these things for awhile, 'cuz they skip all the scheduled stuff and just hang out at the bar. Newbies got a green sticker on their badges this year, which I thought was a great idea---I made a special effort to be friendly, and it was indeed special though hopefully some other, more naturally welcoming folks did an actual good job of introducing new attendees to the joys of this conference:).

More...

13jul05

Since today is Wednesday, I was going to combine architecture and travel blogging into one post about the `storybook' style houses I saw in Charlevoix.

Unfortunately, though I had a computer to download images into, and even a converter to keep in running from a wall or even in my car, (these were packed by the wizard, obviously) yours truly was in charge of making sure the jumpshot, critical for transferring images from the card to laptop, made it into the computer backpack.

Needless to say the jumpshot didn't magically jump in with the rest of the computer gear, so after I filled my camera's card, I started in on the old camera, which was supposed to be for the wizard's use. The pretty houses are in that other file, so you'll just have to make do with my pretensions to shooting still lifes instead...

But hey, I got a post up.

10jul05

Well, gee. My plans to post every day for at least a year lasted almost 2 months before succumbing to angst and the need to get on with my life. Summer always seems like it ought to be slow, lazy and carefree, but it never is, because I do much of my traveling then. I've just returned from one trip and will leaving in a little more than 2 weeks on another.

These trips do at least provide fodder for blogging. In the meantime, I have a lot of catching up/preparation resulting from the trips, and no good bead ideas right now. So the posts are gonna be flowers and travel related, at least for a bit. I do hope, by August, to be to a 3x/week posting schedule. (Since every day is evidently beyond my organizational capabilities.)

My profound thanks to the neighbor who watered while I was away---daylilies are coming into their own, and monarda is going strong. Rescued wild daisies are doing well. Purple coneflowers finally starting flowering and black eyed susans are budding---should open in a few days; and the false sunflower is weeding itself everywhere, though no flowers yet. Zinnias finally starting to produce buds. (I realize y'all couldn't care less, but this is as close to a garden journal as I'm likely to get.)

This iris I took towards the end of June---it was probably late because of being shaded so much. (So if I move these plants to a properly sunny location, what other surprises might await from the plants that threw up only leaves and no flowers...?)

21jun05

I'm still in kind of a rantish mode, I guess. ---While checking out boingboing, I came across this post about copyright and birthday cakes which I thought was particularly interesting for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it shows a variety of viewpoints, and is a good introduction to the problem, but isn't appallingly long to read.

But what really struck me is its immediacy---after all, just about everyone has enjoyed birthday cakes---it's one of those childhood pleasures that define the American experience, like mom and apple pie. (I make terrible pie---my crusts are tough---and wonder how many other American mothers are nowadays similarly handicapped). ---Were this the bakery my inlaws had taken their order for one of the most charming birthday gifts they ever presented to me---a sheet cake with my logo on it---they would've been turned down. It's bad enough you can't put Mickey Mouse (which should be now be in the public domain) or Dora the Explorer on a cake (they're arguably fair uses, at least on moral, if not legal, grounds); but they won't even accept my own, freely made original art for fear of getting it wrong and getting sued by the big corps.

Bastards.

(No, not the hapless bakery trying to protect itself; the corps and the lawmakers they've paid off.) And yes, tomorrow I promise a return of pretty happy things. In the meantime, check out this cool site DeadPr0grammer, which again I found via a link on Boingboing about the history of the Starbucks coffee logo (it started out as an old engraving of a melusine, or 2 tailed mermaid)...they didn't have the green version where the breasts show, which I saw at the original Starbucks, and which I really like. Ah, well. Prudery reigns. What a bore. The photography and comments on this guy's site, however, are a lovely and entertaining mix.

20jun05

Whew. Flakiness in the dsl is as nothing to that in the operator, but I finally got that out of my system, with a pretty picture and a long, accompanying...well, not a rant, and certainly not a rave---perhaps a reflection. But as the picture is at the top, you can skip the lecture:)

And now that our dsl is fixed, and I'm over the micro-angst, maybe things will finally be back on track.

15jun05

I decided to take a break from Vietnam and return to the trip that started the vacation blogging, the road trip to Texas. I'd been leaning in this direction anyway, and a consolation for digging lots in the garden---a coreopsis with variegated leaves, (plus a nikko blue hydrangea and a purple eupatorium, but those aren't texas wildflowers:)---clinched it.

This post features some of the wildflowers I saw along the way and while none of the pictures are especially thrilling, they'll give you some idea of what you'll see should you be lucky enough to be driving through the eastern part of the state during Spring, which evidently is the time to see the flowers.

14jun05

Today's architecture blogging takes a slight detour from the local residential details I've been documenting, towards the commercial.

As a rule I find a great many businesses barely above the level of eyesore; though noise pollution probably ranks as the type I hate the worst, visual advertising and ugly buildings follow closely. Nonetheless, even a curmudgeon such as myself occasionally finds nostalgic americana, such as is embodied in these vintage signs appealing---perhaps because they're the real deal.

13jun05

A small, casual floral vase I used for practicing the same iris as in the the doorknobs posted a couple of days ago is a fair enough bead.

12jun05

A lot of people disparage blogging---it's so vanity driven, and thus so utterly pointless. I have---and have had---a memory like a sieve all my life: events pass me, and most are forgotten. (Take, for example, the fact that I went on the MGST. A month later, I claimed last week's Sunrise Ride was the first `official' ride of the year. Whoopsie!) So I've written in journals and especially taken pictures since my teen years: my surrogate memory of my own past. Sometimes, they even help to `set' the memories that accompany them.

And now I'm sharing them with you. Ain't'cha lucky?

Yesterday I went on the sunrise ride again, but didn't really feel I could stop and take pictures of the rising sun, a burning orange disk over the still Huron river; or the large snapping turtle, digging itself into the gravelly road shoulder; or the many daisies: I was riding with others. Afterwards, however, I decided to detour to the Nichols Arboretum, to see their wonderful peony garden---which is now at its peak and well worth checking out.