Beads.

My dolls and fabrics are packed away in storage at the moment, my handspun is at Keeper’s Corner, my knitting needles are somewhere and I needed something to do. Not like that’s an actual excuse for me to take up yet another hobby; especially one involving sparkly things, color, and a good potential for a vacuum cleaner killing mess.

The bead shop in Klamath Falls is stunning. I think I should get a pat on the back for managing to avoid going there for an entire year (even though on more than one occasion appointments downtown forced me to walk right by the store and look longingly into the window.) I really need some kind of adult supervision.

Sometimes I think I’m buying for one envisioned project and another (much cooler) one appears in my head by the time I get home with my new tools and supplies. I also thought it would be better to start with something a little more basic than my original project idea because I’ve never used a bead loom on this scale before (this wide or with beads this small.)

The Decepticon logo seemed to be a natural choice. In the movie (Revenge of the Fallen) Jetfire was hands down my favorite character.

Jetfire: What planet am I on?

Sam Witwicky: Earth.

Jetfire: “Earth?” Terrible name for a planet. Might as well call it “Dirt”. “Planet Dirt.” Tell me, is that robot civil war still going on? Who’s winning?

Sam Witwicky: The Decepticons.

Jetfire: Well, I changed sides to the Autobots.

Sam Witwicky: What do you mean changed sides?

Jetfire: It’s a choice. It’s an intensely personal decision. So much negativity… who wants to live a life full of hate.

It’s still on the loom since I’m not quite sure what I want to do with it. I was thinking of stitching it to a jacket sleeve, but then I had this idea of mounting it onto an embossed velvet purse. Once I decide I may start working on an Autobot version.

Or I may be able to take my stuff out of storage and finish my dolls.

#7, houseplants, and maneki neko

This is Hitty #7, my last doll of 2010.

I lucked out and found some real coral beads at the craft store, then went ahead and made her a dress from quilting cotton.

I tried putting her up on eBay last week but since there were no takers I’ve decided that it’s probably a sign that I should keep at least one Hitty for myself. Here she is checking on the houseplants that I picked up to kill add a little cheer to the sun room.

Okay, probably not a sign that I should keep one of my dolls, but more a sign that people just don’t have a lot of disposable income after the holidays. Still, I’m keeping her. So there.

It’s okay. The Gods of Craftopia demand sacrifices, right?

At least I’m left handed.

Somehow I went from an end result hobbyist to a process driven driven one, which I think has improved not only my temperament but has greatly increased my ability to handle frustration. I’m not sure exactly when this transformation happened, but I’m glad it did.

Also improving my outlook on life is that we now have signed off on the house and the move is scheduled for the end of October. This is a huge relief as the idea of renovating this house has literally caused me to have nightmares. I’m serious, I dreamed that the floor in the bathroom collapsed and I couldn’t fix it because I was afraid of being electrocuted by ungrounded wires coming out of the toilet waving at me, and there were all these wingless flies. Okay, I’ll admit that does sound more funny than scary, but it was my dream and a pithy description can’t communicate the horrors that my brain can produce to amuse itself.

Oh, and I have a profound phobia of dangerous things coming out of toilets. I’m not talking about the normal horrors of things coming out of the toilet when it backs up. I’m talking about horrible things coming out of the toilet; things like large scaly hands tipped with razor sharp claws,  small man eating sewer demons, and plague bearing crazed aquatic wharf rats. Now I can add live malicious intelligent groping electrical wires.

In my mind these things are far more likely to come out of toilets when it’s late at night. Usually just after dreaming that horrible toilet terrors will happen, this makes my coffee habit seem like a very bad idea sometimes.

I love it when things work out perfectly– while cleaning out my little corner of the shop to make more room for doll carving I found this old box that once contained turning tools.

It turned out to be just right for holding my new gouges, carving knife, exact-o handles, extra blades, gauge, strop block and compound.

I love it when stash solutions present themselves  before I even know I need them. It looks so well thought out.

my drying solution-- a wire basket and bamboo skewers

What I haven’t thought out well was a way to deal with hanging pieces as the lacquer dries. The solution I came up with is workable, but not exactly satisfactory.

I bought this wire basket at the dollar store a few years ago, since my former desk top basket (a wicker nest number) was appropriated by one of my offspring to hold plastic groceries. My plan was to offer an exchange which makes sense to the adult mind; a little grocery basket to hold little plastic groceries. As you can see, negotiations for the safe return of my original basket failed and I resorted to keeping the little grocery basket.

Up until this morning, this basket held an assortment of junkmail and the small balls of yarn left over from knitting projects. I added a few bamboo skewers and voila! Drying rack.

all painted up and ready for her chemise

I finished the Hitty doll, dressed her in her little chemise (the idea being that Lexi and I will make clothing for her together) and gave her to Lexi on her 7th birthday.

I’m now working on a second Hitty doll. At least I was until I broke the scrolling blade on the bandsaw, so progress has come to a dead stop since I have the head and body finish but no limbs to work on until I buy a replacement blade.

In the meantime boredom (and a distinct lack of yarn) has forced my hand. It has forced my hand into picking up a pencil and putting it to paper and  before I knew it I was sketching out a new automata. Nothing complicated, but I still worry about going back to hobbies that I’ve abandoned because I sometimes worry that I’m not going to be as awesome at them as I remember (or think I remember.)

I need more projects like a hair cut needs a handle. Why do I do this to myself?

no, I have not started anthropomorphizing yet (maybe just a little)

Or at least the beginning of one. I’m getting ahead on my poplar Hitty’s head and body and I’ve left her arms and legs behind.

I guess it’s time to work on those.

Hitty’s face has been really difficult. I think I’ve redone the basic features far too much trying for symmetry. I’ve given up on trying for symmetrical, now I’m firmly aiming for acceptable.

I figure there are enough doll loving girls in my family that I will have plenty of opportunities to figure out where I’m going wrong. I am also appreciating the skill that it takes to work in such a small scale.

Hitty is a sweet little doll and main character in the book Hitty, Her First Hundred Years. I haven’t gotten hold of the book yet, but from what I picked up Hitty starts out as a bit of mountain ash and is carved by a family friend in Maine and given to a little girl and over the next hundred years she changes hands, meets famous people, and goes traveling the world until she winds up in an antique store window, which is where she narrates her story.

Of course our library wouldn’t have a copy, so it’s on reserve and I’m eagerly awaiting the call to tell me that it’s here.

hitty doll progress so far, just a hint of her nose has started to emerge

I don’t have any rowan handy, so I decided to make my Hitty from poplar. Google provided me with a few blank patterns to use as reference, so I drafted my own Hitty body but for the sake of simplicity I’m using Sara DeGroat Cole’s arms and legs straight out of the box.

Right now (as you can probably tell), I’m at the whittling stage. No fancy carving knives, no gouges, no rasps — just a nice simple pocket knife, some quiet music and a bit of time.

This is one of my purchases (and my absolute favorite!)

Visit RemiRings and check out the beauty!

It was a pleasure to meet Dana, her rings are not only beautiful, but absolute originals and very affordable, she also has pendants and other jewelry.

• Day jobs aren’t for sissies when your day job is art. ~Winnie (water color artist, woodworker, song writer)
• Work on your art every day for an hour, at the end of the year you have 365 hours of just art.~ Christopher Jespard (oil paint, tattoos, mixed media)
• Prep more than you need. When an idea strikes you’re already there.~ George (water color, pen and ink)
• Squint at it. ~Jessica M (interior designer; explaining how she studies composition)
• Walk the walk. Walk the walk. Walk the walk.~ Jonas (mixed media, explaining how to be an artist instead of a starving artist)
• You can bum a cigarette, borrow butter from your neighbor, get an extra 5 refills on coffee. But no one ever offers paint. Buy paint.~George (again)
• Don’t get more involved in playing an artist than working on art.~Mrs. G (Art teacher and motivational speaker)
• Everyone’s a f*cking critic. Live with it or enroll in accounting.~David M. (mixed media, songwriter, guitar; talking about criticism.)
• Do what you hate the most, do it first, get it out of the way. When you stop hating it is when you’re really good at doing it. Then you have to find something else you hate. ~Mike (guitar, pen and ink; talking about commercial art)
• A professional back up plan is to starve and die homeless. Plenty motivation there.~Jonas (again)
• Insecurity is normal, that’s why anyone does anything because they are compensating for existing.~JT (water color, 1972-1995)
• With enough practice anything is second nature~Josh (speech pathologist, comedian)

And with that, I have to go to work. Thanks for indulging my trip down memory lane.

Worked like a charm. The one on the left is where I left the translucent slices a little thicker (and didn’t dunk it in ice water to clarify) and the one on the right is where I sliced much thinner and did dunk it in ice water.

I managed to get a good photograph of the translucent effect by propping some acrylic sheet (plexi-glass) at an angle and shooting one of my work lamps onto the paper and the other lamp over the baubles.

I don’t know the technical term for the plain baubles. I’ve heard them called garden glass, or flattened marbles. I use them for weights on my cutting mat to hold down pattern paper for smaller pieces. Putting clay on them doesn’t really serve a purpose other than to make them prettier.

I do very much like the set up. It’s larger than your average jewelry bench and there’s no wedge to slam my face into when I reach towards the back of the desktop. Since I’m not focusing on precious metal work there’s no real reason to have a collection tray at the bottom (although, I do save my scraps to send in should I have a few ounces build up.)

Yes, yes I know. I’ll never make it through all the stages of grief if I’m stuck in denial. Someday medical science might make a major breakthrough and all my problems will go away. It said so in that film they showed us in the 6th grade. They don’t just make things up for those educational films, I trust Mr. Narrator, and you should too.

Here’s some of my finished pieces of jewelry. For some reason when I had the camera out it didn’t occur to me to grab the matching earrings.

Obviously, I need to add a flocked jet board to my shopping list because this was the best of the photos, and it’s a pretty poor representation.

Do you remember what I said about knitting miles and miles of stockinette? (That I might have some kind of genetic mutation because I don’t mind, I find it soothing.) The same thing applies to making my own jump rings and links. Repetitive work like stockinette is soothing, and so is making jump rings. The nice thing about jewelry is that I can warm up by making little components and then when I’m feeling energetic and awake, I can start designing and assembling.

Even though there’s something sweet about making fairly worthless metal and glass into lovely jewelry, there’s a certain joy that comes from using a precious metal. The links are sterling silver, the jump rings (which I didn’t make) are sterling and the chain is sterling plate (which I’m not exactly happy about, when I buy more chain I think I’ll get the full sterling and replace it to make it proper) you can’t see it, but there’s a nice lobster claw clasp that is also sterling.

See? I can adapt.