Cutest nightmare fuel ever.

Candy + Sushi = candy sushi.

I’ve wanted to do this since spotting this Make: How to.

I made the rice crispy treat base, but everything else was a group effort with the kids right down to the roe eggs and oddly placed jelly & marshmallow frogs on the board. Lexi even added her own chopsticks next to the ‘ginger.’

Clean up was a breeze (it mostly involved the phrase “Eat the extras and put the wrappers in the garbage”– there were no complaints.)

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.

I think if I were to reknit this I’d add at least 3 more inches in length. Maybe just a squidge more.

The finishing was super easy, I snipped a small hole in the top to let the lid button through, and sliced holes to let through the spout and handle.

I’m going to mount googly eyes on it and make it my friend.

No major problems but the files that control putting fresh batteries into the camera after he’s used it seem to be completely corrupted.

I’ve been working on making more canes. Geometric and simple flowers seem to be the most forgiving. I read yesterday that I’m not supposed to be able to use the clay brands that I have for cane work because they are too soft. I sort of figured that was the case and compensated by putting parts in the freezer between sessions.

I decided to take a bit of a risk and try for a more complex shape, and made a skull cane. I built from the teeth and bottom jaw upwards, the most difficult part seemed to be the nose holes. I think next time I’ll the jaw more substantial, but all in all I’m happy with the result. I cut off part of the cane and reduced it to make the smaller skull, and the flower was supposed to be a daisy from yesterday’s experiments but ended up looking sort of skeletal so it fits well with the skulls.

Without my regular soothing activities to keep me occupied and with the general disruption of my wood turning activities I’m going certifiably bonkers. Discovering that you’ve developed severe allergies to certain woods when you are a wood turner is, to put it mildly, rather depressing. I would be more depressed, however; the migraines that were daily kicking my ass have been reduced to the weekly kicking of my ass, it’s hard to feel deeply bad when I feel better physically. Bonkers, but not depressed.

Case in point: Polymer clay.

My relationship with this medium has been iffy. In high school the technique for making a gradient mix from one color to another was to make five g’zillion tiny balls of both colors and work from one end to the other in tenths. So if the gradient was blue to yellow, you’d start with 10 blue balls (mixed together), then 9 blue balls plus one yellow, then 8 blue plus 2 yellow, and working that way until you had 10 yellow balls. God help you if you made a mistake or didn’t mix the clays completely because they then had to be shaped into tiles, baked and then labeled and stacked.

As you can imagine, for someone like me (who tends to have the attention span of a hamster on caffeine) sitting around blending balls of clay and making squares was not my favorite thing.

After that experience, I was in awe (and I still am) of people who can really work polymer clays. Not to say that I completely avoided the stuff, I’ve used it for dolls and small distorted and freakishly crispy charms, and I’ve read books about working it but it just didn’t click for me.

However, as of late, without knitting to keep me sane and happy and armed with new books on this mysterious subject, I ventured gently into that colorful realm.

First, I learned the Skinner blend, which sounds like a dangerous dance move but is actually a way to make a smooth gradient without five g’zillion little balls of colored clay. The technique is named after Judith Skinner who is– apparently– a freakin’ genius and my new personal hero. Judith Skinner is saving the world from blending five g’zillion freakin’ balls of clay and for that contribution to humanity we cannot thank her enough.

It’s a little embarrassing to admit (so of course I need to tattle on myself and be done with it) but I think I own more polymer clay and clay tools than most people who use the stuff on a regular basis. A few things I had for other purposes, but most of it was given to me by friends and family for the express purpose of enticing me to work with it.

As it is with all things crafty I tend to sit on art supplies until I’m either inspired or in dire need of a particular something. Usually the latter. I may sound like I’m joking when I say that I could open a craft store using only what I have on hand; I assure you, it’s no joke. I am capable of giving away boxes and bags and purging the house of unwanted clutter in every conceivable way, however art supplies have a way of reproducing in my presence.
Next I read up on making canes from polymer clay. The technique is fascinating, you start by making a thick coin shaped picture, in the same way that you’d put together tessellating tiles to make a mosaic image, filling in the negative spaces with a background color. When that part is done it’s time for what’s officially called “reducing” but I like to think of as “controlled smooshing”. This makes a long shape with the image submerged only to be revealed with by cutting a cross section. So far I’ve done a few flowers, a somewhat failed honey comb pattern, and a random pink pattern made by extruding clay through a square disk.

I don’t know how to describe the process other than it’s completely magical. I am now eyeballing everything that can withstand the curing temperatures as a potential object to be embellished this way. I have designs on making stitch markers, needle protectors, and buttons. I could probably manage to work on canes well into old age without ever learning a new technique and still be endlessly entertained by the potentials.

There are so many other techniques, like knitting and woodworking, 15 minutes is all it takes to learn to make something presentable but because of all the applications it would take a few lifetimes to really master the medium. And like knitting and woodworking the devil is in the details. All the tickle points, all the techniques and details are really stimulating and curious.

In a house full of gameboys, comics, books, and movies that my child chooses knitting. Sweet.

And speaking of games. Darling husband decided that I should have a Nintendo DS lite, and Pokémon Pearl to go along with it. So my free time is currently being consumed traveling through the Sinnoh region filling my pokédex and battling team Galaxy. I just beat the 8th gym leader and I’m leveling up before challenging the elites.

If you have no idea what that means, you’re probably a mature adult. However, I am not a mature adult. Case in point, mature adults are not tempted to declare “Mortal Kombat!” when they see a really good sale on yarn. Or shout out “Merino! I choose you!” when shopping for sock yarn.

You have to admit some yarns do sound like Pokémon names. Koigu? It could be a yarn or it could be a water type Pokémon that oozes silk. You just never know, it’s not limited to yarn, knitting needles too. Addi Turbos could possibly be a hold item to boost speed in battle and help you escape from wild Pokémon.

The socks are really nothing special, I’m pretty boring as socks go. Pink merino handspun, size 1 dpns, and a few evenings. They are a little baggy, but soft and comfy.

Updating the blog and fixing the archives was a bit more nerve wracking, and totally required deep fried yummies. I used the Salvation Army recipe for the donuts, the fry bread and cruller recipes are more or less I throw in stuff until the dough looks “about right” and I used milk with a tsp of vinegar instead of buttermilk. Someday I might get around to actually weighing ingredients as I make them so I’d be able to share the recipes. I’m impressed with the donut recipe and it worked well even though I replaced the real milk with rice milk.

Most of the candles are the baby-food jar kind. I like them for two reasons; they ship well, and there is no need for them to be overly scented. I can’t stand over-scented candles. Actually I can’t stand over-scented anything any more.

I usually add some steric acid and glosser to the wax. The steric acid makes the candles burn slower and longer (because exploding baby-food jars and flaming wax is bad) and the glosser when cooled quickly (say– in my freezer) makes cool cracks and features in the wax.

I add the essential oils and color last, I never use scented oils at the craft store. It’s a small snobbery and I’m sure no one notices but me, but I know and that’s good enough. It’s not really the same as acrylic vs. wool, since the preference du jour of the public is for the artificial scents. I have a theory that is based on the function of scent, scent is (and this is not just my theory but pithy physiology) the sensing of small particles combusting or evaporating and releasing gasses, so when you’re sniffing an orange you’re actually sniffing up the gasses being released by the orange.

Anyway, my theory is that by using artificial smells all the time we’re burning up our sniffer nerve endings without thinking of the long term consequences. I’m a smoker and I know that deadens smell and taste, but one of my best buddies is a non-smoker and uses every imaginable smelly thing in her home from air fresheners, to highly scented floor soap, to fabric softener, to artificial candles on a daily basis and she can’t smell a darned thing unless she’s right up to it. Her palate isn’t nearly as sensitive as a non-smokers should be either. Whereas I can smell a single unpeeled banana or orange from across a room and locate it without actually seeing it.

So it’s just my theory, and I’m not saying cigarettes are okay because they don’t seem to do the same amount of damage as air fresheners and fabric softeners do, and I’m not being very empirical about studying the effects of artificial scents on a large population of sniffers, I’ve just noticed a trend. I’m sure there’s other factors involved as well so I won’t be applying for a research grant based on my sniffer theory any time soon either.

And the old favorite “justify your existence” games with potential customers. Ooh– another one– I don’t sell my display pieces which just gets people twisted up in knots. Like people are so desperately uncreative that they can’t assemble their own little vingette or display at home, they must use mine? Actually I just lied, I’ve been known to sell displays if the price is right and it’s the last day of a show, but in general I don’t.

Fun justify your existence questions are beyond the typical “Why does this cost so much?” My favorites are “Where did you find the instructions to this?” (This is my absolute favorite– primarily it not only implies that I’m incapable of doing something truly unique and creative, but also implies that I’m violating someone’s copyright.) “You made this?” (No. I leave milk and bread out for the pixies, they make them. I inflate the prices and sell them to you.) “How much did it cost you to make this?” (I had to perform a blood sacrifice– does that include the cost of a live pig or just the thread and hot glue?) “Where do you get these?” (See pixie answer above.) “Do you make this in ______ (fill in the blank)?” (If you pay me enough I’ll make them in human skin.)
I really wish I could give my snarky answers, I wish I could– if for no other reason to spare fellow artisans the pain of hearing those questions or their endless variations. Now despite what I wrote above, 99% of the people that go to craft shows are nice people with fairly well behaved children and husbands in tow– I’m only referring to a small but vocal irritating minority.

I’ve also learned to do things like put chunks of representative wax in front of the candles so people can mark them with thumbnails to their hearts delight, keep baby-wipes handy for light colored soft goods, and smile indulgently. The indulgent smiles (and a quick mapquest search of all the local bars within walking distance) are essential.

The indulgent smile is one part “Really?” one part “Ah, oui?” with a good splash of “Oh boy!” and a twist of lime. One must not include “STFU!” with the indulgent smile or the happy facade that the smile presents will be shattered.