20mar06

Whew, who knew smoozing around and yakking to people could be so tiring? I had a good time yesterday, but I'm still recovering. So here's a little post about that purple button with an honest-to-goodness (if ugly) sig cane not to mention a little lesson in spotting cracks in sculpturally decorated glass objects:)

``Enjoy.''

17mar06

Quite by accident, the second bracelet in Margaret's series co-ordinates with the holiday. St. Patrick's Day is a special day in my scheme of things, and I always enjoy it---how can one object to a day, or indeed a country, that glorifies the many wonderful hues of green? (Not to mention the anticipation of spring---oh, I'm ready, and yes, I'm glad we didn't get three inches of snow yesterday:)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

16mar06

The GLBG Bead Bonanza (which I've called `the Boner' for years, to honor my friend Posy's nickname for this venerable one day show, since she after all got it going and whose hard work had a lot to do with its original success,) is coming up this Sunday. Originally, I was gonna promote it by showing some of the new sets I've made for GlassAct251's table but of course, I was so brain-dead I had to be coddled to an embarressing degree just to tag and type up my beads, let alone photograph them. I am excited about the sets, though. I've never sold my beads in sets before, and of course, most of the sets are rather asymmetrical in nature (what a surprise), and I'm curious to see how they do.

Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to participating after (at least) a year hiatus (the show is biannual) and if you've ever had some hankerings for good deals on (read: cheap, or at the very least, ``attractively priced'' cuz I'm wanting to unload the odds and ends here, so's I can get a 2006 line going) sylvus tarn beads, this is your opportunity.

But, of course, I forgot to photograph them.

(I could've photographed Margaret's beads, as she was doing much the same thing I was last pmc meeting, but I didn't think of that either. Not that she doesn't deserve the promotion---besides holding my hand through my efforts to fill out my spreadsheet, she's also the treasurer, that is, responsible for seeing that we who sell at guild events get paid. In addition to running all of the guild's other fiduciary duties.)

So what I have instead is one of her lovely bracelets, that I photographed at least a month ago, and am finally getting around to showing off. So, my loss is your gain.

Enjoy.

15mar06

Well, it's pretty obvious there will be no pretties today, though f2tE is diligently working on them, and I should have a nice collection of new posts soon. (Hmm. Soon is a four letter word. Oh well.)

On the other hand, I have a rave to counteract all those rants:) Bound by Law? Tales from the Public Domain, is written by James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins, and drawn by Keith Aoki, three law profs who got together for this project from Duke Law School and sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. Pretty is far too bland a term for this darn sweet explication of ``fair use'' and copyright law for artists, by artists.

Check it out! (Via both boingboing and groklaw, not to mention the wizard, who emailed me:)

13mar06

Arrgh. You know that old saying, beware of what you wish for? Well, I was wishing for an idea for a post, and lo and behold one came my way: the fella depicted to your left happens to be one Peter Panse, who, judging from this account is an absolutely fantastic high school art teacher of some 25 years' experience. Unfortunately for him, he made the mistake of suggesting to some of his advanced students that they might want to get additional pre-college training drawing nudes at local art schools; worse, that he might, given the permission of his principle and the presence of parents as chaperones, offer such a class as a Saturday intensive.

Oh, the horror! Oh, those poor widdle 13 y.o. 9th graders, exposed to the human form, possibly even of the opposite sex.

Never mind that the man is a national board certified teacher in his area of expertise, the highest qualification available for US teachers; or that his program `Go Figure' (in affiliation with his alma mater, the NY academy of Art) for high school students was so effective that MFAs enrolled in it; (or that I would've killed for a teacher like him during the three years I was in a public high school).

He's been suspended. His current students are twiddling their thumbs in study hall. This makes me so unspeakably angry, when so much about our public school system sucks, that such the gifts of such a wonderful teacher are being denied to his students. This is how it happens, I guess. You read about the big-time horrors, torture and do-nothing during natural disasters pasted over with privacy-breaching rfid chip embedded passports and spying in email to ``protect us'' from those horrible terrorists and scat-loving homos, and meanwhile your very own life gets chipped away, what with censorware blocking great art, and teachers being suspended for doing their job (um, drawing nudes is pretty much a requirement for getting a BFA, or it ought to be, and the kids involved were college track, so far as I could tell.)

Oh, and one other thing: I do not agree with the comments at Drawn that young children are automatically unable to ``handle'' nudes: I distinctly recall asking my mother (albeit timidly) whether I could draw nudes when I was six or seven. I wanted to, because even at that age, I recognized that nothing could match that experience, a position I continue to hold (and so does most of society, even if they don't like the consequences---if you can draw recognizable people, you're a `real' artist; if not, then you're not, despite any other accomplishments, no matter how impressive.)

That's not to say all kids are ready at that point---f2tE, at roughly twice that age, is still very uncomfortable with the idea. But unilaterally declaring children to be unable to do so insults those who want to---and may I also inject a little sanity here? Drawing people is hard work, especially when you're just learning, as these kids are. There's not a whole lot of processing power left over---I won't even get into the whole nudity automatically equals sex thing.

Sigh. They've asked people, especially those with credentials, to spread the word. Well, my only credentials are those of a former high school and college art student, a working artist, and parent of two pre-teens, both of whom like to draw (surprise!) the human figure (albeit decorated with elf ears and fox tails). The image and the link above has urls and addresses to which you can write to express your outrage.

We will return to our regularly scheduled happy things tomorrow.

12mar06

In which I spend far too much time self-congratulating explaining how I use waste glass to make floral and leaf cane.

Excepting a roundup post, that's it for buttons till I do some more photography, showing off my so-wonderful sig-cane (not) and my oh-so-well-functioning metal shanks (definitely not...)

11mar06

At last, a break from that everlasting orange---though to be sure, with all the rain, fog and clouds we've been having, a little orange is not altogether a bad thing! This button nicely illustrates how color theory and the transparency of glass intersect.

Enjoy.

10mar06

Well gee, if nothing else, I guess if I ever get tired of my floral custom buttons, I could use these instead since it's really quite easy to fit the image into a perfect, regular polygon.

Hmm. That's remarkably ambiguous...I meant, instead of regular icons, I have homemade shortcuts, made with photographs of flowers, butterflies and leaves. Just for kicks I could make the buttons I click on to fire up firefox (oooh, more very bad puns---really, I shouldn't allowed anywhere near them, cuz I'm not bad enough to be truly awful, just enough to be irritating) pix of buttons. How very meta-something or other. And, of course, if you fancy button buttons, these are free for the taking, since these images are available under a creative commons license. And yes, as of tomorrow, they'll actually start coming in different colors, so's you could tell 'em apart at a glance.

09mar06

Yesterday was Day of Women (or for women, or something like that) and feminist bloggers were urging everyone to write a post about feminism. Well, as I've mentioned before, this is an art blog, so it's gotta tie in (and if you can't stand the thought of reading something feminist, you can go right to the post which I promise has nothing more feminist than a mildly Echidnesque style of writing in the tedious and extremely optional endnote) and it's my blog (which means it's late:)

So here's my beef with the Patriarchy, as they like to call it, and it's one I've had for a very long time: gender-defined adornment rules. It's for all those people who are horrified because they see their nephews lovin' those beads and drawing all over themselves with magic markers (and I think all kids would, but for vigilant parents) because they might gasp(!) be gay.

Firstly, of course, I don't get what the big deal about being gay is (excepting, of course, the way some segments of society treat them) but secondly, a love of dressing up with gorgeous fabrics, paint, and (at last, she gets to the point) beads is not inherently a female behavior. Little boys (and girls too, of course) play with beads cuz they're shiny and fun to play with, because they haven't yet learned about all the gender-based rules about these objects. I read about some woman who feels guilty about wearing makeup, 'cuz she thinks it's bowing to those evil patriarchal norms. And, like another poster, I thought, hey, you shouldn't feel guilty. It's just decoration. And then I remembered I don't own any skirts or dresses, for exactly the same reason, even though as garments they're comfy.

And in a perfect world, it would be just a choice about decoration and/or comfort. In my perfect world, people who are into self-adornment, with silks and velvets and lace and sequins and beads and ribbons and whatever else over-the-top (I personally only fantasize it for, like, special occasions, cuz this stuff can get impractical) could enjoy it without censure. (Equally, that those people not into it wouldn't be censured either. It's not right that women feel compelled to spend money, and worse, time on hair, nails, and makeup if they don't want to. Indeed, in my perfect world, you'd switch back and forth, as the mood strikes you. I feel the desire to get really all-out dressed up maybe ...once a year. The rest of the time, I'm barely up to basic standards of neatness and cleanliness, specially during digging season.)

And don't try to tell me men aren't into this---they were, even in European cultures (look at those old aristocrats)---but with the rise of the sober merchant class, who manifested their difference by dressing opposite of the aristos, and their wealth by clothing stay-at-home wives with all the gewgaws (sort of a situation in tension here---no, we're despised by you, better [richer] than you, and striving to be you) that instituted the modern American men's suit.

Which as a class of dress is pretty damn ugly.

If women weren't lower class in our society, men wouldn't care about other men wearing clothing and jewelry that we consider `feminine'. I'm simplifying of course. Quite apart from the fact that most men won't wear beads, then there's the whole problem of anybody, male or female, not being able to wear more elaborate beadwork while at work, even if the job doesn't practically limit it (as it would, say, working around machinery---I'm talking office here) because they then wouldn't be taken seriously as workers. Hello, how does wearing a fancy beadstrung necklace keep you from doing your job? Right, it doesn't. (Yes, this was a real comment, that I'd hear from real customers, all too often.)

In fact, for the school of people who feel more comfortable in stylish clothes, it would actively help. But that's still a subset of the masculine idea that men run business, and to be a serious businessman, you have to wear boring clothes. (And because business sets the tone of our society, I had a whole other class of customers who loved the fancy stuff, but couldn't bring themselves to wear it even for non-business occasions---fancy adornment was for a ``special'' kind of woman, not them. The variations of this problem are endless.)

And guys who like beads---and I know you're out there fellas, cuz I vividly recall all the times you wanted to buy some of my beadstrung jewelry, (yep, 20 years ago---I did mention I've had this beef a long time?) but couldn't for yourself, and your wife/girlfriend didn't care for my stuff---could. I used to say, jokingly, back when I was on the art-fair circuit that it would double my customer base, instantly;) but in fact, I truly was frustrated by the gender norms that kept me from transferring my art to people who appreciated it.

Nowadays, men can and do collect beads (now, if only I made more collectible beads) but beadstrung jewelry is still off limits, pretty much. That's wrong. I want freedom for people to wear what they like, especially my beloved beads.

08mar06

One of the shows to which we've applied has requested some imagery for promotional purposes, so I thought I might as well promote the piece here on the site as well. This springy floral necklace seems altogether apropo as warm weather is finally heading our way. Hm. Better get those heeled-in trees planted...

07mar06

No, I haven't forgotten about the hearts. They're coming, honest. In the meantime I shot another series, this time of fairly large glass buttons I've been making at the behest of my friend Posy.

I cannot express how happy I am to have to (very nearly---truly!) completed entering and handing off the stuff for someone else to do my corporate taxes. ---Now maybe I can start making art again, instead of entering numbers, which seems to have been my life for the last two weeks.

28feb06

I haven't been posting much lately (more on that later, I'm in a hurry) but here's a protest I can get behind without any reservations whatsoever: my original training was in life drawing (that's drawing nekkid people) and I took the class so many times they ran out of course numbers. Any censor that denies people the beauty of Mr. Buonarroti's fabulous sculptures and drawings (sketch of the libyan sibyl is my all-time fave drawing ever) is a bad thing. No ifs, ands or butts.

14feb06

These are not terribly exciting beads, and I'd originally planned to show the whole series together. Alas and alack, I wasn't that organized, so I will now be spreading heart goodness over several days. But the world could certainly use a little more love, right?

Happy Valentine's Day!

13feb06

Today's themes are about the joys of housekeeping and procrastination. On the one hand, the problem with the st2html script allowed for strikethrus but simultaneously broke the links (something to do with substituting pluses for equal signs, ---so it's all my fault I chose an equals sign...why are these problems always my fault? I'm just the user, here) has now been fixed and, I hope, all the relevant pages been rerun and uploaded. While I was at it, I uploaded a sub-index page for the pins.

Yesterday I said I would explain why the last week has been so much fun: well, I really enjoyed being ahead of the curve, knowing I had a week's worth of posts ready to go. In other words, not procrastinating.

However, I'm not the only person who has gotten incredible amounts of work done procrastinating: that is, faced with a normally-fun-but-currently-distasteful task (writing, for example) avoidance combined with guilt can get an awful lot of normally-distasteful-but-currently-slightly-more-appealing tasks (housework and paperwork spring to mind) done. Sometimes, I have layers of displacement activities, as my dad used to call this strategy, going on. There are, however, two downsides: one is that even while you celebrate your clean house or up-to-date paperwork, there's still the underlying guilt of the other task.

The always entertaining Paul Graham aptly illustrates the second, which is that you can fritter away your whole life without ever tackling the `good stuff' ---though as the author's own example demonstrates, it takes a good deal of selfishness to follow that path, and, frankly, that kind of self-absorbtion is a lot more acceptable in men.

But balancing these issues are what life's all about, I guess. And about those cartoon links I promised some days ago? ---Well, I procrastinated too long, and the links have scrolled off my browser history; I'm unwilling to take the time to find them again. Which is too bad, because taken together, I felt they made a far more compelling statement than anything I could say about (just as an example) the current danish muslim cartoon controvery on the role of comics/cartoons in the political sphere.

12feb06

We finish the last in the series of pins featuring lampwork beads, sterling and austrian crystal with this elegant red and black number with gold accents.

Gee, that was fun; and tomorrow, I'll explain why:)

11feb06

It snowed yesterday, and is snowing as I type, so a white and silver pin is entirely appropriate.

I find I appreciate snow much more now that I drive in it so much less---yesterday I thoroughly enjoyed walking to my various errands, pleasure barely alloyed by the fact that no less than 4 people nearly rode me down as I tried to cross the street, despite (I checked in disbelief as car after car made a right turn practically over my toes) having a walk signal. I rapped my knuckles on the last of these offenders, who flipped the bird on top of her illegal act, but---and here's where my faith in humanity was so delightfully affirmed---another driver, parked at the signal while I crossed rolled down her window and exclaimed in disbelief: "She didn't even see you!"

Personally I think she did, but was too impatient and too ensconced in her automotive privilege to care, but my thanks to the driver of ms me, who stood with me on the side of righteousness. Go grrl!

10feb06

Today's post includes two very similar pins, each featuring the green and pink frit and powder abstracts we call monet abstracts, thereby providing the irresistable opportunity to pontificate on on how we generate variations.

UPDATE: Though we'll have over 40 pieces at Arianna for your delectation starting tomorrow (or maybe even today---stop by and take a look next time you're in Royal Oak:) the opening has been postponed. I'll get back to that when the new date is scheduled. Thanks!

09feb06

Well, gee, the photography's a tad on the wonky side, but here's a charming pink and blue pin.

Oh, and Arianna's address is 119 S Main St., Royal Oak, MI 48067 and their phone is (248) 546-8810. I should note also that in the case of these pins, as with all our collaborative efforts, all rights are reserved.

08feb06

Man, I'm tired. So the post is totally lame, but here's a pretty picture of another of page's fab pins...

Tomorrow I'll be sure to have details on the opening this Sat., Arianna's address etc.

07feb06

So, to build up interest in our show at Arianna Gallery later this week I thought I'd spend the next few days showcasing our work, and lo and behold, page brought a buncha pins to be photographed.

Only problem is, these were primarily record shots, which means they were pretty awful---usually I dig out gimp's handy-dandy curves tool. But f2E, watching my lame efforts, suggested some other techniques, and settled upon using the gradient tool to lighten the dark side and darken the overly bright side. Pix's still not perfect but it's much better, and best of all f2E has volunteered to take over transforming raw images to web-ready. Fine by me...

Enjoy. (I certainly am.)

06feb06

Huh, that handy all-around excuse for not posting, that the server is down, has struck again. I gather the latest bunch of phorum software is just too much for its aging ram, and that it needs to be completely rebuilt. At any rate, here's the last of the dragons, which includes a description for the layperson of how they're made. (I'm not really competent enough to do a serious howto, frankly, but I'm sure there's a good one on the web somewhere...)

The wizard is in the process of implementing all sorts of fun changes. Yay, I can do strikethrus now on my pages, and as a special bonus, look at the page source to see how to do it with html on this page, which is still hand-coded, oh, how utterly ancient of me:) I mentioned awhile back that firefox can resize big images, and so I've been making full-resolution images since the beginning of this year; well, now the st2html script incorporates those bigger pix for those of you with bandwidth to burn. Click on the 512 image (note that it has a blue outline now) to see my latest, and astoundingly ugly, dragon in all its hideous glory.

Of course, since the server was down over the weekend after this got implemented, none of the updated versions of 2006 posts with full-resolution image links got uploaded, I'll try and upload the rest of the them in the next few days. Oh, and adrialis (that is, yours truly and the fabulous page brunner) are having a trunk show at Arianna gallery in Royal Oak...so I'll be posting some luscious new pins starting tomorrow, plus other information about the meet'n'greet on Saturday 11feb and other whatnot over the next few days.

Should be fun:)

03feb06

Huh. I was supposed to write up some notes about how I basically made these things, which I failed to do, and I was gonna put in some links to a pair of comics I thought interesting, which I failed to do, and I was going to...

Well, I did at least finish this post, which even includes a tiny aside as to how it's made, and I just realized I can't count---I have one more dragon to show, and so I can put all that stuff I failed to include today tomorrow.

Isn't procrastination great?

02feb06

This post actually has a tiny bit of detail about how I make these things (not that it's rocket science---pull out a rod, add knobs for legs and wings, add legs and wings put on a head, tail and paws/claws...hmm, maybe I'll put more that sort of thing in tomorrow's post. Today's just talks about where the stripes, shown in the thumbnail here, come from.)

01feb06

Though this dragon has some problems with proportions, I like the deep rich colors. It's the first made in December of 2005.

31jan06

The plan, of course, is to someday eventually make sculptures of people (which to be sure are no harder than any other mammal that springs to mind, except that we're so exquisitely tuned to any flaws in depiction) ---possibly in various yoga poses as a way of memorizing the sanskirt---but in the meantime, I dip a toe in something besides dragons.

Enjoy it while it lasts:)

30jan06

I promised a week of sculptural goodies, or maybe baddies, considering how inexpert I still am at this (moreover, it's going to be a business week, because I have only five of them) and so here is the first in the series: I thought I'd present them in order, and as this little lizard is the oldest, and smallest, it's first.

29jan06

This is a roundup post, collecting together on one page links to all the previous 2006 spring bullseye series posts, though I have a couple of group shots of the beads to jazz the page up. I've also collected the various ornament pages together.

28jan06

Well, since these ornament posts are getting kinda repetitive, I thought I'd take a shot at my first internet meme, Ten views I hold without Evidence.

Having just come back from a lecture by Jonathon Weiner about his pulitzer prize winning Beak of the Finch for which I have the excellent dual-city Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads program to thank for sponsoring, this meme strikes me as utterly [a/o]pposite. (This is actually not as ironical as it sounds: Faith and reason, or sense and sensibility as the great Jane Austen put it, are indeed a symbiotic pairing in the best of human experience. It's just that faith doesn't run science experiments very well.)

He says he didn't know evolution was controversial when he started writing about it, and I'd have to say I certainly never would've guessed, thirty or more years ago, when I was first taught it, along with all the other science I was trying to master in order to make the pre-veterinary science track for college, that it was any more or less believable than, say, Einstein's theory of General Relativity or the theory of Plate Tectonics. Yet people manage to hold the, to me, completely inconsistant view that the scientific method is perfectly valid for determining the laws of gravity, or developing more-efficient automobiles or better glasses or safer buildings or even esoteric stuff like traffic flow management...yet this one branch of the same biological sciences that we rely on every time we go to the doctor or hospital, though it works like all the others, comes from exactly the same traditions, operates under the same professional protocols, can't be true. Huh? Can we say major discontinuity in thinking, here?

But as I can't wrap my mind around an omniscient benevolent god, I guess we're even.

Enough with the differences---or maybe this illustrates just how truly weird I am---here is my stab at 10 memes I hold without evidence, on faith alone...

That for its problems, science and technology do make the the world a better place to live. (Actually, there is evidence for this view, though given some of our current behavior patterns, I have to wonder sometimes...Along the lines of the downsides, that everyone else will realize we are living in a hellishly noisy and ugly environment, and take steps to move us back to a way of life that involves fewer gasoline engines.)

That even if I never manage the complete primary series without major modifications that I will be able to touch my toes, nay, put the flat of my hands on the floor with straight knees before I die.

Kumihimo, beadmaking, and other highly repetitive tasks related to making art are a form of meditation, and that (some) people naturally seek such. (I've had this opinion for years, supported by my personal experience alone---except, recently, some evidence popped up for this one too.)

That I will some day catch up with all my paperwork, live in a clean and tidy house, and stop procrastinating.

That the idea of heaven, hell, karma and other systems for balancing the fundamental unfairness of life, appealing as they may be, are ultimately hope-full thinking.

That art in some form is necessary for a rounded existance. Um, science too. Borosilicate color chemistry, anyone?

That everyone has a passion---some topic (however inpenetrable its appeal to the rest of us) that holds them by the throat and sings glorious fascination into their consciousness. (And that some of us who have way too many will in fact manage them all.)

That people have these weird, sex-tinged fantasies about beautiful people because the joy of representing in (insert your favorite medium here---mine would be drawing) the human form (not to mention all the other beautiful forms out there) is denied them.

That I will someday develop a reasonable sense of compassion and empathy for those different than me.

That people strive for good.

27jan06

Huh. Well, the wizard kindly hooked up the metalworking torch and I actually turned it on the first time since we moved. Or tried to, about six times, before I managed to add oxygen to the acetylene flame without blowing it out. (I have a meco n-midget, which is what my second metalworking teacher recommended, though the guys at the welding shop now tell me to avoid their regulators like the plague.) As easy as the surface-mix lampworking torches are to ignite, I'd forgotten about that little annoyance. Anyway, perhaps I'll finally start brazing again...in the meantime, here are the curliQ versions of the bullseye spring pastel series.

26jan06

Whew. I've been busy, trying to get my part of Adrialis' display for the ISGB Rosen show booth ready, plus make beads for a local gallery show at which we'll be featured in February (I spent a goodly portion of my beadmaking time today making hearts:). So here's the red and blue ornament post I promised three days ago.

23jan06

I almost wrote a long no-doubt-boring political rant---today is bloggers for choice day, and the good folks at EFF are begging people to complain about this admittedly newer, more evil broadcast flag they're trying to sneak past us---but I've mostly resisted. So, here is a picture of some pretty soft-colored dotties to help combat the depression the more politically minded keep trying to raise in me.

22jan06

I have 2--3 more posts on the bullseye pastel beads lying around, but since that isn't enough for a full week, I thought I'd round things out with some more ornaments, since a) I'm still making them (gonna have all my 2006 ornaments made and wrapped by Valentine's Day, heh, heh, heh...) and b) lots of my friends hang them up as suncatchers anyway, thereby freeing them from the exclusively holiday image.

In celebration of the fleeting winter sun and occasional warm temperatures we've been having lately, here's a couple of ornaments done in an amber color scheme. And next week I can start with the borosilicate animals I've been making to finish off the odds and ends of points and what not after making ornaments.

Oh, and I updated the archive to include the pages from summer 2005.

21jan06

Here I backtrack a little, and show some efforts from my first, not especially successful (at least in getting me to consistantly play with) pmc workshop. The texture part was fun, though.

Also, someone took me to task, evidently for mislabeling an image. Since the page on which it appears corrects the error, I didn't really understand all the fury, but as it happens, there was a very definite silver lining: while checking the page in question I discovered I never indexed the 18apr2004 vietnam posts, so I went ahead and did that. It reminded me to create an index page for the pmc and link it to the adornment gallery too.

20jan06

More fun with 22k gold on pmc (fine) silver. This post includes a slight discussion on my adaptations to Celie Fago's technique.

19jan06

Fourth in my series of blessedly short posts about my efforts to make worthwhile pmc beads. This one introduces a modern American artist's version of the Korean gilding technique called keumboo to the mix.

18jan06

Third in my series of posts on the slow evolution of my designs for pmc. (Wow, three posts on the same topic in a row. Must be a record.) This one shows some of the wonderful colors silver patinas can assume.

17jan06

Another short post, showing a (very) slight evolution in my efforts to make pmc beads. Art, for those of you who like the `where do you get your ideas?' question, is all about making small changes and seeing if they work. Here, you can judge for yourself whether my baby steps were successful.

16jan06

After working intermittantly with pmc for the last year, I finally feel like my pieces are ever-so-slowly starting to diverge from the designs I made in a workshop. So, now that there's enough to make doing a series worthwhile, I thought I'd start with those early pieces.

15jan06

We spent a good portion of yesterday putting away various winter holiday (i.e. christmas) decorations, which meant I went around and photographed a buncha stuff---it can be ready and waiting for next holiday season.

Along the way I made some minor adjustments to my ornament storage method (given the parameters of saving the original commercial boxes, especially the ones from 50 years ago---nostalgia and all that---being able to tell what's in which box, protecting the ornaments with organic componets from mold, and the fragile ones from breakage, and last but not least being able to pack and unpack them in a reasonable period of time) and discovered that no, I don't really want to try and make replacement tubes for my beloved miniature clear colorless bubble lights even if I do have boro tubing and a torch to work it at my disposal---turns out those little glass tubes are filled with methylene chloride. Ick.

However difficult it is to find colorless bubble lights (the traditional garish color schemes, which I admit are very fun but utterly inappropriate to my white/cream/touches-of-silver color scheme) they do still exist---with silver glitter even... naturally they're sold out. But there's always next year, and frankly, given that it's now mid-January, I think it's time to call it quits on the holiday stuff till then. With luck I'll not only show the rest of the gift-wrap posts, possibly another stocking or two, as well as the satin-ball ornaments hand decorated with sequins and beads I made before rotation of axis consumed my ornament making energies. And if you can't bear the thought of waiting till winter solstice/xmas 06 to see what I'm talking about, the inimitable Cracker Box is now on the web:)

One year I made a bunch of red, green and white tassels, and f2 the Younger decorated a number of this house's reasonably attractive door and cabinet knobs with them (though I must say we have a great many very grubby white doors). I rather like this picture of the one adorning our front door, which seems an appropriate way to close out, or at least pause, the winter holiday series of posts.

11jan06

I promised a nice short little post, so this will be a nice short little post. Since we're well past the 12th day of Christmas (that was five days ago) I've decided a break from the giftwrapping is in order, so here's a little post on some beads I made a few weeks ago. Enjoy;)

04jan06

Everyone has at least one miracle-habit they swear by, and mine is yoga, specifically ashtanga yoga (that's the one where you work out, not just stretch). At least in my case all that guff about gently massaging internal organs (this delicate phrase particularly refers to those organs towards the end of alimentary canal, though it took me months to decode the meaning---never let it be said I'm not dense), strengthening your immune system (I get fewer colds), not too mention strengthening the body (did I mention that a year ago 108 sun salutations would've had me gasping on the floor, not just pleasantly exhausted?), really does seem to be true. Oh, and I get fewer headaches. I'd nearly forgotten what those days-long I-can't-function my-head-hurts periods were like.

Well, I've been reminded, the last couple.

However, I'm feeling human again, so here's an appallingly long post to make up. Much as I enjoy the giftwrapping, I obviously have issues with it, cuz I keep finding the need to dig up these supplements. It became fairly obvious to me, when I visited my sister for the birth of her first child some years ago, and helped out by calligraphing her handmade birth-announcements, that the stamping/scrapbooking movement (of which card-making is generally considered a subset) is basically a crafty (i.e. dumbed down) cross between print-making and mixed media, (with a bit of callig and bookbinding thrown in by way of journaling) its fine art origins cleverly disguised to people who (think they) can't do art by providing them with any number of pre-made components---tags, letters, ribbons, stamps and the like, often pre-distressed, even---as well as step by step instructions for assembling it all, of course.

Well, these knock-offs are of course not as good as the old broken bits you find yourself, but even so I rather like them...though I bet any art student with the temerity to incorporate this stuff into class assignments would not likely find a very sympathic teacher. Too crafty, too commercial...too beady. Nevertheless, I've slowly been collecting papers, fancy scissors, even a few stamps (not to mention the determination to make my own) ever since.

Anyway, despite how I suspect this stuff would be received in the average college fine art department, I find my self intrigued by this form of mixed media, given as it incorporates photography, calligraphy, wirework, beads, threads and ribbons, even (gasp!) those real disciplines of drawing and painting.

Moreover, it's pretty obvious that there's at least a potential for this to cross-over into the realm of gift-presentation, (it might be a tad too much work for mere gift wrapping) cards and the like, though I've been considerably slower to incorporate it into my work than the gift decorating, which frankly doesn't take nearly as much foresight. ---Of the three or four really nice cards I've made, only one has even the potential for being shared publicly, alas.

I don't recall, precisely, how I became interested in altered altoids tins, though as soon as I saw them I was intrigued, since I find containers of all sorts irresistible, and have a rather large collection of metal tins---heh, and now, I have a way to personalize and play with them. (Used to be, I never tried to post any links that were gonna die. Well, like the ephemera this art represents and incorporates, this set of links are nearly guaranteed to die---so enjoy them while you can:)

Here's a nice sample to get you started, which includes some basic instructions ---the same artist, Marah Johnson, when I typed her into google, popped up this link to an appealing Susan Lenart Kazmer style bracelet (just to tie the whole bead and jewelry theme that predominates this website back in).

`Miz Carla', has an interesting blog, `collagecat' which includes some very nice pieces, the first of which, this altered altoids tin, was my fave.

This tin (with alas no closeups) with some antique stamps of a would-be metaphysical dispenser and tarot reading ancestor also includes some howtos. Here are multiple shots of three nice projects ---especially liked suitcase and the stitched, multi-page postcard.

This was the page I found with so much cool stuff on it that originally introduced me, several months ago, to the whole altered altoids tins concept (considered a scrapbooking spinoff. Fair enough, if scrapbooking is now the poor woman's term for mixed media.) Scroll down quite a ways (through some other fun stuff, like encaustic) to see the sample and instructions for my fave, Judi Delgado's tin, as well as several other less, um, distressed versions. (I just love that old and worn out look...) As a bonus this page as a fairly open use policy (basically non-commercial attributed)---always a good sign, and perfectly keeping with the marvelous creativity shown and shared. And finally a little treat for those of you into that lovely cluttered Victorian look...

Oh, and here's my fourth day of Giftwrapping. Tomorrow's post, I promise, will be short. Even if I do feature those cool henna links...:)

01jan06

We've spent the last three days of 2005 putting up (and moving) trim in the studio. You wouldn't think putting up a bit of trim would take three days, and be exhausting to boot, but we managed it. (Which is why there have been there been no posts since the evening of the 28th:) Or rather it took me three days 'cuz if the wizard hadn't had to wait on all the fancy painting, no doubt it would've gone up a lot faster. And we're still not done, because yours truly can't do math and has to order two more pieces of acanthus leaf trim...

I've been doing ashtanga for roughly a year at a local studio and today, the owner and another yogini celebrated New Year's Day by leading 108 sun salutations, more or less. (Everyone took turns counting off, and we did okay counting the first 27. After that, things got a tad disorganized. Too many people like me, who can't count reliably above 3.) I didn't work as hard as our fearless leaders but even so I'm kinda whacked:)

With luck, the giftwrapping or other fun will resume tomorrow. If I can still move, that is.

Happy New Year!

archive

In late 2001 I started posting little comments to the main index page to let people know when i added new links. In May2005, I started adding thumbnails to go with the posts, and by the end of the month, the page was loading significantly slower. So now I'm going to archive old pages, starting with 2001-- April2005.

May 2005

Summer 2005

Fall/Winter 2005