rejiquar works

· r e j i q u a r · w o r k s ·

the various and sundry creations of sylvus tarn

09sep06

Alas, no pretties today (nor uglies nor even mediocrities), sorry. However, I'm reminded Michigan Renaissance Festival is continuing on weekends through October 1st, and of course, Page's long running booth, Saxon Fifth Avenue (by the horses/jousting) features both lampwork and semi-precious stone jewelry for your delectation, plus of course a great many other attractions. And you can get the goodies up close and personal, always a plus in my book.

08sep06

Since the latest batch of stripeys are all about tidying up, I tidied up the 2006 mini-stripeys right into their very own subindex page--- actually an old post but substantially reworked with a new picture albeit of beads that I've already shown before.

Unfortunately, I'm kinda busy this weekend, so it may be a few days before I have anything added to the site, let alone something not previously shown, you know, actually new and different, as opposed to the 2nd, 3rd or 47th view of something I've already shown.

07sep06

Enough with the bullseye stripeys...so now we have (wait for it) satake stripeys. I actually made these over a year ago, and only now getting around to photographing them. My tolerance for showing off less than perfect beads is definitely increasing.

But surely only a grouch would fail to concede that the colors are pretty.

06sep06

I photographed these beads the first time in the same batch as the last bunch of stripeys, but as I explained the pic was dismal. Extensive color correction failed to help it, and so I reshot. While the beads are certainly less than perfect---there is some sort of chemical reaction going on in some of them (though I have confirmed that cranberry does indeed go onto french vanilla (next test: make sure the opaque pinks do too)---my efforts still fail to capture what I think of as the beads' subtle charms.

Ah well, it'll have to do.

01sep06

I really do think my next series will have to be Obligations I have Failed to Deliver in a Timely Manner ---though I was finally feeling well enough, today, to discharge a couple of them. Well, one and a half, anyway. In the meantime, I stumbled across the site of one Mr. Thomas Mahon, who characterizes himself as a bespoke savile row tailor from London. I was immediately intrigued, as I knew Savile Row from all those regencies as the place for any London gentleman worthy of the name went for his raiment (and then, later in the story, inevitably cursed his tailor's bills), and figured I had just enough exposure to couture sewing from Threads magazine that I might appreciate such a thing.

Bespoke tailoring, like couture, involves measuring the client and fitting a one of a kind---custom---clothing to him. Except, it's of a very particular subset of style, what I think of as a man's good wool suit as opposed to women's couture (though tailors also make overcoats, and sometimes do use fabrics other than wool. Say, vicuna. But your linen shirt will be made by someone else.) ---I'm not a fashionista but I suspect that, historically, couture is comes from designers in women's clothing based in Paris, whereas bespoke tailoring has its origins in English men's clothing.

Actually, the most critical part of the process (for either, I suspect) at least judging from the length of apprenticeship, not to mention whose name goes on the final product is cutting, which also involves making the custom pattern from which the cloth will be cut. I was highly amused to discover that just as metalworkers (according to LJ, anyway) find many uses for nose oil, similarly pragmatic tailors use their hair to oil their shears.

Another, likely to appeal to the etymological crowd, the origin of ``no strings attached'' ---a phrase I use myself (though as a stringer I'd just as soon all my strings stayed attached:)

English Cut is not, however, some sort of la-di-dah paean to clothes that most people could never afford, (and in any case would be impractical for those of us who work outside nice, clean offices) but rather is a working blog, and thus informative posts about bespoke tailoring and passionate defenses of his profession, its traditions, and its history are interspersed with his globetrotting schedule to meet clients.

I like that he makes a real effort to defend why something made by hand has worth; to mourn the loss of the people---tailors---who made savile row famous but are being driven out by the high rents their fame has brought to the name; and that the site, like the posts about construction of the suits it features, shows its structure in its frequent business schedules. It's very professional; yet the occasional spelling error (and I never make those) and uneveness of photography---with a cell phone, no less!---shows that the site, like its creator, is very much into the ethos he promulgates. Bespoke clothing, the author says, has not only beauty and functionality harnessed, and in service to each other, but all under the direction of it creator, which lends the piece individuality.

Thus does technology give us a picture into fine craft. (And darn it all, if I could only be even one quarter---one tenth---as professional...)

30aug06

Sorry, no new posts today. That's not to say I didn't work on the site---I spent hours, actually---but it was to link the new bead posts to the glassbeads index page. I know, sad. Especially considering I still have all the new bead curtain posts, all of Kristin and Margaret's new posts, plus all the miscellany yet to link. Worse than mystery meat navigation. Indeed, at the rate I'm going, I'll soon start using Google to find my own lost posts...The wizard tried to cheer me up with the ``infinite customizability'' of my content management system, which is just another way of saying I'm in the dark ages, so far as organization goes.

I did find this link about ezer cenegdo pretty cool. I was lucky enough to take an Old Testament class with Frank Frick back in my Albion days, and it proved to be more of a serendipitous decision than I ever would've guessed before---or even after---the class (though the final I wrote for it got one of my best grades ever, with comments typed in 14pt type---where on earth did the prof find a typewriter that typed---and spaced---in 14pt type?)

Curtsy: Hugo. Interestingly enough, the author, Shawna B. Atteberry, claims the post came out of a comment she left at Happy Feminist which I totally failed to notice first time around. Guess I was too busy going, well, duh, if you've got your own income, there's not much point sticking around in a relationship that stinks---but hey, my mom taught me 30-odd years ago having your own money was a necessity in a good relationship, let alone a bad one, so I don't really understand why people are getting bent out of shape at this late date...

29aug06

This is a bit of a stopgap, for reasons explained yesterday. Now that I've actually started to clear some of the most critical paperwork off my desk, I might feel willing to rephotograph the cool stuff I already made, or finish some in-progress cool stuff or even, gasp go make some more cool stuff. It's nice to hope, anyway.

In meantime, however...

28aug06

So I was gonna continue the mini-stripey series, as I do have one more set of beads, with a completely different palette. Problem was, the pic was horrid (so bad, in fact, that I wondered why I'd bothered shooting the beads!) I spent a lot of time trying to fix with only indifferent luck. So then I dug out another pic, this of twisted dot bead I photographed (and made, for that matter) the same time as the first batch of mini-stripeys. I spent a fair amount of time fiddling with it (though it still has problems), and then didn't have time to write the post.

In both cases, the difficulty lay in my efforts to use a computer to make the image look more like what my eyes were seeing---the lament of amateur photographers everywhere. So instead of subjecting you to more of my mediocre-at-best post-processing, let's discuss Michael Ray's site about food photography, which with its many liquid (i.e. shiny, e.g. glassy) surfaces shares a lot of the same issues and goals as bead photography. Sure, the aesthetics are busier, which only makes sense, seeing as completely different standards obtain in that industry, but the techniques are much the same. Thus, yummy as the gallery is, the real gold is in the howto articles. Delish!

Particularly nice is this post documenting the evolution of a shot, from initial lighting (badly underexposed) and composition as it evolves over the course of 40 takes. The article article on sheen (highlights), and why we want some is also fab. Actually, I suspect they're all good, those are just the ones I've had a chance to read so far.

Curtsy: Majikthise. (Though I wish she hadn't characterized her post as `food porn.' Yes, I know she gets into photography, and therefore likely was not being disrespectful, and yes, I understand irony is all the thing nowadays, and no, I'm not saying food photography doesn't deserve the label, and if her pointer had gone to the guy's gallery, sure, I would've said, fine, but the post she's pointing to is a wonderful photographic howto, and to my mind deserves a tiny bit more respect, or at least attention paid to the educational aspect.)

But, hey, worthy, dull and prosy are what I do best. ---And with luck all will resume tomorrow...;p

27aug06

Hmm, I see I need not have worried that I was losing my touch for long, rambling and completely inconsequential posts. This one touches upon the joys of the BE opaque palette and a very great deal upon the joys, if you can call sitting for hours while getting a crick in your neck and cramps in hands a joy, of photographic post-processing, a sample of which is shown, full-size, to your right. If it looks perfectly natural, more power to me; if you can't tell, well, read the post to find out more.

Or, if you don't care, (probably the most sensible response) you can just look at the pix. Owing to the topic, there are three of them, not quite exactly alike. On the other hand, if you can't tell the diff, then the point of the post is moot, anyway.

26aug06

This pair of beads is not particularly exciting, but I get to muse on the joys and frustrations of learning your tools and/or medium---in this case, the chemistry of bullseye glass and difficulties attending photographs with a wide spectrum of values.

Oh, and I get a little unexpected bonus. But you'll have to read the post all the way to the end to find out what it is. (gasp! horrors! You expect us to be impressed with this? Well, no. I just thought it was cool. I did say that I was the one getting the bonus, after all;)

22aug06

Screwed up again! Sheesh. Okay, this is the third in a series of bracelets by Margaret.

Is it not yummy?

21aug06

Oooh, my bad. After going to all that effort to check my spelling of ndebele, too. Unfortunately, the file had the original (wrong) spelling for the image, which is why it didn't show up in the prior post. Sorry! All fixed now! I could've sworn I checked the post, too....

This is the ~~third~~ second in a series of bracelets by my friend Margaret. I find the color relationships kind of interesting, actually: you could argue that brown is a sort of mix of orange and purple (usually, I think red and green, which is to say one part yellow and blue to two parts red; but you could just as easily characterize brown as orange and purple, which works out to---surprise! one part red and yellow, plus one part red and blue, or, as I just said, one part each yellow and blue to two parts red...not that color mixing is ever that straightforward, of course.) Given that the first bracelet is brown and green, the second orange and green, and the last purple and green, I would say I could make an argument for a themetic relationship.

Or it might be that I just like shoving stuff into classification schemes far beyond what is sensible, a habit, I have no doubt, that illustrates underlying weakness of character and/or intellect.

But that doesn't mean the bracelets aren't cool.

12aug06

As this bracelet demonstrates, my friend Margaret's work tends to the classicism of clean lines and color schemes that alternate between restrained, as this piece is, and lively (there's a very yummy purple and green bangle coming up.)

It is the antithesis, therefore, of the Texas homecoming mum, which I just now found out about at pandagon. The photo being small and yours truly being usually clueless, I couldn't figure out what a little stuffed bear perched atop a pile of badly co-ordinated ribbons had to do with the flower I typically associate as a) my mother's favorite, and b) the royal flower of Japan. Eventually someone put a better picture in the comments and I realized that yes, people really did wear these, um, confections halfway down their shins.

After I recovered from my initial shock, I concluded while the custom as displayed here reminds me nothing so much as the wacky codpiece contests that I hear used to be popular in the SCA, elements of it could be easily adapted to giftwrapping, that queen of catch-all crafts. Homecoming mums may be peculiar to Texas, but I vaguely recall someone making a big (and very ugly) bouquet at my bridal shower with a paper plate as a support (called a shield in texas mum construction terminology) and flowers made out of the discarded wrapping paper and ribbons, so evidently the propensity for making large and loud bouquets out of paper and ribbons is hardly confined to the American Southwest. Moreover the cost is roughly equivalent to what I figured I'd have to charge for my fancy giftwrapping---upwards of $200---but amazingly enough people do evidently pay this for equally ephemeral decorations.

A very little google searching quickly pulled up a howto site which includes elements of bow-making, 4-strand braiding, and the like---all of which I think could be adapted to giftwrapping. ---I do try to be kind and generous towards my fellow human beings, but this surpasses my ability---these things are so big, and so appalling, and so overwhelm not only the girls' dresses, but that supposedly most fascinating part of the human anatomy, the face---that I can't help the unholy glee. And their dates wear miniature ones on their arms, too. It just goes to show that vulgar bad taste never goes out of style, no matter how much we think our society may have gained in sophistication.

I'm sure I would've adored wearing one of these when I was younger if I could've done so ridicule free (though I'm thinking the height of my appreciation would've been closer to 8 than 18.) It absolutely amazes me that not only do adults (or nearly) do wear them, they post identifiable pix of themselves on the internet doing it. And they certainly make the point of the original pandagon post, which is that all cultures have practices that look more than a little silly to outsiders.

Needless to say, I love these things.

11aug06

I know, I promised Margaret goodies, and they're coming. But I'm so proud of myself for finally making some beads yesterday that I thought I'd share---not those beads, which still have to be cleaned and in some cases annealed, but some other beads, from the same batch of stripey beads below, but not those stripey beads, but some other stripey beads---

Thoroughly confused yet? Well, read on for yet another ~~highly informative~~ boring, verbose post. Or, put another way, stripeys from striped bullseye strip. Say that fast three times.

10aug06

This is a very long post, much of which surveys my various experiences participating (as a parent and would-be teacher) in the public school system. However, there are pix, and if you scroll to the bottom, some tips and links for teaching kumihimo to grade-school aged children.

And as a special bonus, I found some more of Margaret's pretty seed bead work, so perhaps I'll have some of that tomorrow.

09aug06

As promised, the stripey version of the miniature bead. I'm embarressed to admit how long it took me to make a little vector illo to go with the educational aspect of this post, and to make things worse it's such a long and boring post by the time most people get that far they'll be too drowsy to click on the link.

But the beads are kinda pretty.

08aug06

Not much going on, I'm afraid. Here's a post for which the images have been kicking around since February. I actually wanted to do the kumi post, but I haven't found those pix yet. Anyway. Recently I made a bunch of cute stripey mini-hollows---I'll feature those tomorrow---and thought I'd lead in with the first batch of beads in the minihollow series.

What else? Well, went to see Krrish, which is being marketed as the Indian version of Superman. I was originally intrigued because I loved another Indian version of one of my favorite stories, Bride & Prejudice and because a reviewer liked that Krishna first reveals his extraordinary capabilities not in feats of super speed or strength, but in drawing and academics, which as an artist and would-be intellectual, I certainly appreciated.

Of course, this being a film fairly typical of the genre, it all devolves to fighting in the end, and ~~astute~~ moderately observant viewers will note debts to The Matrix, Minority Report and the like. (This film is itself a sequel to one that is an Indian version of E.T., which I read was adapted from an Indian screenplay, the bounce-bounce-bounce of which I thought utterly cool.)

I loved the dance sequences, which are a staple in Bollywood films, and I thought them far more romantic and sensual than the sex scenes typical in American movies. (There is no sex: the characters don't even manage to lip-lock). I found the female protagonist kind of interesting, because she does not immediately fall head-over-heels in love with Krishna (who is kind of a jerk in his deceptions towards her when they first meet anyway), being more interested in enjoying her vacation, where she meets him, and then using him to keep her job after he travels to see her in Singapore.

I liked the underlying feminism that the character's own life---her career, her vacation---was more important to her than settling down with a man. Otoh, she made some fantastically selfish decisions that were truly cringe-inducing. And Krishna's grandmother, another strong female character, was plenty traditionally self-sacrificing for both of 'em.

Krishna, though, was (once past the initial stage of trying to get the love interest's attention), an absolute sweetie. ---And so was the movie: it is in effect both a romance and an action-adventure flick, genres I happen to consider yummy popcorn pleasures.

As I may have mentioned, I didn't go to Gathering this year. My friend Denise did, though, and was telling us about it today during our PMC sig. The most memorable bits appeared to be the travel to and fro: the journey there was very long from assorted construction and included missing a tornado by minutes (I'd never seen such a sky, there was debris and broken branches everywhere and we were by this time the only car on the road, she said) on the way out and sniper on the way back home on I-69.

Oy.

So did you see Paul Stankard's presentation, I enquired, seeing as that was to be the keynote? Nope. Too early, still sleeping off the drive there. Well, which of the presentations did you think the most striking? Her brain cells, she explained, were vacationing in Bali, but she allowed as the Japanese beadmaker (evidently the most famous in that country) who had 100 copies of a most gorgeous book of his work, not even released in Japan, let alone here, had some equally beautiful (but of course expensive) beads. She'd managed to snag a book, and he was doing a presentation, on some gigunga core vessel or other. And how was that, I asked. Oh, she says, we had to leave early and miss it, to get home.

sigh.

She says she'll bring the book to the guild picnic, at least. And her own website, Firedance Beads is newly redesigned, and has some lovely stuff, particularly the electroplated copper vessels. As for the Michigan monkey contingent, I think you had to be there...

04aug06

The crop does a fair job of representing the sort of beads that typically go into my current bead curtain strands---translucent or transparent semi-precious too big or too lacking in preciousness (or both); decent, but too-big for the hope bracelet project and too outlier for the standard product line lampwork; smaller misshapen or badly made lampwork; odds and ends of czech pressed. This is the last of my individual bead curtain strands...and I still haven't photographed the whole: need to figure out some way to hook up a sheet or something, to blur out a distracting background. This function was provided by blinds at the old house, as the window was positioned some 10' (3m) from looking into the neighbor's house.

Ah, poor pitiful me, to have not only greater distance to the house next door, but to be set at such an angle that the studio windows don't look directly into theirs (not to mention neighbors I like so much that I don't really mind if they watch me dripping and scattering glass all about;)

03aug06

Really, I've felt very lucky this summer---it's been fairly cool, and there's been lots of rain---I've hardly had to water anything. But we're just finishing up with a little heat wave, and I've been using it as an excuse to lay about. Yes, excuse. I realize the heat is dangerous for folks very young or old; who are diabetic or on certain medications; but let's face it, I was riding a bicycle for miles every day in this heat and humidity while in Viet Nam, and it's not really that big a deal to acclimatize, with sufficient good sense and plenty of water.

I can usually tell I've acclimated when the sweat starts dripping down my face and off my nose. Anyway. Here's the penultimate---and my fave---post on individual bead curtain strands. ---And if you're at all concerned about the heat, this making light post is superb. Btw, they've also got an excellent one on hypothermia. The same guy, Jim McDonald, also had---for me---an eye-opening post about what to have packed if bird flu reaches epidemic proportions. The thing that particularly struck me was to have enough water, sugar and salt on hand that you could keep yourself sufficiently hydrated and salt-balanced even while puking or pooping your guts out.

28jul06

A while back we decided to make the server my personal computer, because even our fast ethernet connection wasn't fast enough when loading 8meg images. Unfortunately, the server, converted to new quiet (but evidently not as effective) fans, not to mention the greater heat a floor up, is not happy. It balked entirely last night; and just about anything more complicated than crop is still not working in gimp. Hence the honking big chunk of bead release in the middle of the image I couldn't get rid of, not to mention posting this several hours later. Bother. I don't know that this experiment is ultimately going to be successful.

At any rate, I have another bead curtain strand up and running, this time in green.

27jul06

I actually wrote this post first, some two weeks ago, before the two pink ones were photographed (and possibly even strung). It's horrid. It's hideous. It's truly, awfully, hellishly fugly. ---What levels I won't sink to for the sake of completeness...

The moral? Ah, all is forgiven once blended in with a bunch of other bead curtain strands.

26jul06

Once again, the most prominent bead in this strand has a hole-pop. If purple and green is my favorite pairing, then I think I have to admit purple/lime/fuschia is my favorite triad. Alas, you only get the fuschia---next in my series of individual bead curtain strands---this time around.

But I hope you'll enjoy it anyway.

25jul06

To your right, a ``pop'' bead, newly incorporated---where else but that place where all failed beads go?---the bead curtain, which I finally got around to cleaning and adding in all the new strands (some 22 of them, or about a third of its total width) rehanging, and washing windows. It looks pretty good sans the dust and grime. Still have to photograph the darn thing, but I have individual photos of some of the new strands, which I thought might make for an interesting series.

So starting at one end of the spectrum, here's the first one in light pink.

22jul06

Ok, so I finally got around to making a post to go with the necklace I showed last time, plus I wrote another post about the other big necklace I finished for the a2 art fair which I'm calling the faux ametrine for lack of a better name. I hate coming up with titles, especially for stuff that's for sale, (cuz you can't be too quirky and stupid, it'll put most buyers off) but the scripts demands one, so there 'tis. Better than `purple and gold necklace with pmc' I suppose, which was more or less what I've been calling it.

Enjoy---the art fair if not the post, cuz unlike most the a2 fairs end today, and it's absolutely gorgeous out there.

19jul06

So what is my lame-o excuse this time around? Oh yeah, the Ann Arbor Art fairs. We're in booth 317B of the State Street area show (which was always my favorite even before we juried into it---it has nice stuff at prices real humans can actually afford, though I usually check out the original one too), on Liberty near Borders---drop by and say hello.

Turns out they want an artist statement, and my partner foolishly delegated this task to me, so it can serve as today's post, oh joy:)

Page Brunner and Sylvus Tarn met over a quarter of a century ago, and have been inspiring each other ever since. A love of beads led them to unite their talents in jewelry and a love of color to feature hollow lampwork beads.

Page's engineering background is reflected in her precision of design and a delight the sparkle of motion brings to her pieces; Sylvus' textile experiences reveal themselves in the texture of both beads and stringing.

Both artists find glass beadmaking (lampwork) enticing for its emphasis on color. Their metalworking backgrounds have recently led them to add PMC beads to the mix in jewelry they strive to make beautiful, wearable and durable.

Huh. It's quarter to ten, and the show opens in 15 minutes. Yeep. Guess I'll write the post that goes with the necklace above later.

08jul06

Well, here's a slightly more cheerful take on the season: bright red garden flowers. Some things are just too beautiful not to share, and this is my poor attempt to capture the early morning mood---golden, dew-laden, serene---in my garden (or weed-beds, if we're honest.)

As for beads, I really will have some pix soon---I was at the Bead Gallery (in Ann Arbor, MI) yesterday, to hammer out details for the classes I'm gonna be teaching at their sister store, Unearthed. So they've got a bunch of my beads, including tessellated beads, abstracts, including the new extravagant abstracts, and of course the always popular dotties. Turns out I still have to do some development, but right now we're looking at classes for hollows and floral vases. I'll try to have samples, dates, and all that good stuff posted in the next few days.

04jul06

Eventually I will get off my behind and post something, but in the meantime, I thought I'd wish everyone a Happy Fourth. (Or not, if your conscience is too heavily scoured by our current administration's efforts to ensure that, for all too many people, especially non-Americans, it will not be a day to celebrate independence, nor even simple happiness.)

Politics aside, I found a wonderful new food blog. I know there are jillions of 'em out there, and some day I'll find the community's core and trace them; but in the meantime, I was rootling around for a chinese string bean recipe, in the hopes of recreating this favorite of our dishes from the local takeout. Turns out these blackened green beans are a variant of `sichuan dry fried string beans' and a comment on this recipe for them led to me to another food blog, Tigers and Strawberries.

I've only managed to go through about two pages and I'm already entranced---the blog is a wonderful mix of commentary on larger issues (e.g. raw milk and factory farming), paean to local produce (there is nothing closer to the nectar of the gods than pick-yourself early blueberries and sour cherries---well, maybe farm-fresh peaches), beautifully illustrated and thorough recipes bursting with that same fresh produce and a love of asian spices.

That are within the average mortal's ability to fix, mind you, and without the larding of fat that seems to dominate so many `gormet' type recipes.

Yum.

29jun06

Evidently I was not the only person who couldn't figure out the instructions for entering the whiplash contests over at the very fun group craft blog whipup, cuz they've now published a step-by-step set of instructions, with screen-captures, of how to post your link---and, I'm sorry to say, I needed every one of them. ---I mentioned my dad a few posts down, and he's the sort who would've read every single fine-print word on their page, and tried 'em all---mine just slide right over that minutiae. Normally, of course, I wouldn't qualify, cuz they're textile oriented, but currently they're running an ``introduce yourself and your craft'' version, so I figured, what the heck---and dropped off a link to the Extravagant Abstracts series. I figure there must be some other beady blogs out there, and am hoping my little link will bring them out of the woodwork (or away from the torch)---everyone can't only be just posting to wetcanvas, after all, but so far, I haven't really found the lampwork equivalent to the knitting world's many blogs---I mean, where's our you knit what?

28jun06

I have a new batch of Margaret's goodies to crop and write posts for, but before I did that, I thought I'd finish up with the old ones, so here is my favorite piece by her, a wonderful freeform peyote bracelet. I've also created an other artists (non lampwork) index page, (though admittedly it's still pretty rough) as well updating the other artists (glass beadmakers) page to reflect the new additions and the fact that it isn't just trades anymore.

27jun06

Here's the last in my series of Kristin Perkins' lampwork---at least, till I take some more pictures of her stuff, which she's hinting might happen soon. Anyway, I made an index page that collects all the posts about her work.

Not much else to report, except that iris borers are disgusting; iris gone all slimy from their attacks are disgusting and smell disgusting besides; and that if you soak the rhizomes in dilute bleach (1:9) it will not only sterilize them, but expell the caterpillers too. Next year I will be diligent about squeezing those nasty little buggers while they're still burrowing in the leaves.

Ugh. At least I don't have to touch them, then. PZ Meyers may like his biology wet, but I detest the damage insects and disease do to my garden and positively loathe squishing slugs and bugs---in fact, I've discovered that lampworking tweezers work beautifully for picking those things up...and of course using them to nip off scummy glass burns away all the bug cooties.

26jun06

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous day---cool, sunny, perfect. So of course I spent most of it inside, tidying up bits of this website. I've added the posts about the 96 coe glass on the technical glass index page, now with pretty pix; and found that missing post of Kristin's work, which I reworked, moving from it the group shot of disk earrings to the disk earring post a couple of days ago; and finished up the bangle post I promised back then too.

Enjoy.

25jun06

Let's take a look at paint horse coat patterns. What, you're not thrilled by the idea of reading up on all the variations horses and cats come in? Gee, I can (and have) spent hours doing this. Really, it's fascinating, especially if you wish to depict said patterns---most especially if you want to extrapolate your very own fantasy variations...

This was originally supposed to be a quick-throwtogether post of the various pix I've taken of fancy-coat horses, useful as a reference for myself (and hopefully others). Alas, I started doing a little reminiscing, a little researching: not only is the Breyer model horse company going strong, it's aggragated a substantial subculture of people who make repaints, tack, fancy costumes, even original resin sculptures. Today it occurred to me that there must be people collecting the louis marx model horses I played with as a child, and sure enough there---not surprisingly they're repainting them, as well.

I spent a few minutes looking up the history of this company. At one time dominating the US toy market, they had a number of successes---even I recall Rock'em Sock'em robots: my goodness, the tv ad flashed back through my consciousness as soon as I read the phrase. But for years the many equines in their Johnny West line dominated my xmas and birthday lists, and figured at the top of my fantasies as I flipped through the Sears catalog. Besides the Thunderbolt and Flame molds (easily my favorites) and the jointed-leg model I remembered, (Comanche) there was the jointed-neck Buckskin, the rather ugly pony Pancho, the stupidly named foal Thundercolt...

It's kind of interesting to know that there are other people who also have saved the same toys I've managed to perserve for three or four decades---with, it must be admitted, a great deal of help from my sister, who has stored them for me lo these last 20 years. Mine, of course, are worth very little since I played with and painted them, rather than preserving the accouterments, let alone the packaging.

When I more-or-less moved to the decluttering lifestyle, I didn't really regret that the once passionately loved crap I was discarding would be worth a lot of money because it takes time and effort to sell collectibles, and it pleased me that this stuff I onced loved would be appreciated by someone else, instead of filling a garbage dump. But I was always kind of wistful that I never managed, myself, to hang to anything long enough for it to become a vintage something other people might also treasure for its history. Now, in spite of myself, I seemed to have achieved this somewhat silly goal.

Ah, nostalgia.

archive