Those Blue Remembered Hills

Mr. Small's new duds

2012-01-11T23:19:00.000-08:00

Mr. Small's new duds-- outfit from nubanded on etsy, Leslie's first fur wig.
Bottom pic, L to R: Margaret O'Brien prototype (1980s?)wearing Emily the Strange outfit: Cara, CED, in outfit by Leslie, shoes by Sherry of Paul Zhangby,with camera: Gala ("Whisper" Goodreau) in commercial outfit (I think Teen Trends or Friends2BMade); Chloe (CED) in outfit by Leslie, Sherry shoes, Mr. Small on lap.

My latest & probably best steam punk necklace

2011-12-01T03:43:00.001-08:00

Wow, I have not posted in a long while! Partly I've just been busy, partly not having a lot of new work to post.
But here's probably the best piece I've done in quite some time:

It started with an antique calf weaner, of all things, and I added various mostly vintage bits plus a cast resin bird skull by Ann Koi, which I "distressed" with colored waxes & a bit of ink & to which I added doll eyes.
It's listed in my etsy shop, but I wanted to show it here too.
Hope everyone's had a happy turkey day and is sailing into a not too crazy December.

MeiLong Ren in prototype skirt-continued

2011-06-08T07:34:00.000-07:00

I am having a hard time with this! Will try again for standing pic--she's really doing that unsupported--this one is a handful! Leslie

MeiLong Ren in prototype skirt

2011-06-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

Better pics of Chloe in leather

2011-03-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

Better pics taken during our NW sunbreak--today actually over an hour btwn rain & dark! Notice that this little egotist was willing to let me photograph her back only while admiring herself in the car windshield!

Pics of Chloe in new leather dress, etc.

2011-03-27T05:24:00.000-07:00

2011-03-02T22:23:00.001-08:00

Some surprise materials

2011-02-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

These pieces came from the Pashtun people in Afghanistan. My (Jewish) supplier says

"You will want to note that Pashtun, the majority ethnic group in Afghanistan were formerly pagan and converted to Islam "back in the day" by force. Pashtun have much Hebrew blood in them, I am not sure which tribe."
Some irony there, I think--however, here are some lovely beaded pieces from them, 4 of the 6 I have in the shape of Jewish stars!

2011-01-29T02:14:00.001-08:00

Etsy Sellers Who Blog V2

More WIP

2011-01-16T23:03:00.000-08:00

Got some wonderful watchparts from Israel. Got some perfume bottle pendants--from India?--I think Fire Mtn or Shipwreck used to carry these, but I no longer had any & got them as a destash. Also got some old cameos/cabachons.
Some of these may just need cords. Some others (I'm thinking the bug, esp.) may need something added.

Thughts for the new year from the Archbishop of Galilee

2011-01-01T00:44:00.000-08:00

Elias Chacour; Archbishop of Galilee from a commencement address at Emory University

"You who live in the United States, if you are pro-Israel, on behalf of the Palestinian children I call unto you: give further friendship to Israel. They need your friendship. But stop interpreting that friendship as an automatic antipathy against me, the Palestinian who is paying the bill for what others have done against my beloved Jewish brothers and sisters in the Holocaust and Auschwitz and elsewhere.

And if you have been enlightened enough to take the side of the Palestinians -- oh, bless your hearts -- take our sides, because for once you will be on the right side, right? But if taking our side would mean to become one-sided against my Jewish brothers and sisters, back up. We do not need such friendship. We need one more common friend. We do not need one more enemy, for God's sake."

Steam Punk Wizard and a bit about how I make jewelry

2010-12-24T03:26:00.000-08:00

This is another of those pieces that has been some time in the making.

I bought the wizard probably a couple of years ago knowing that I would find a use for him, and when I began trying things out with the watch parts he was an obvious fit for the big plate, but then he sat for a while longer.

I tend to work on several pieces at a time, so often a few will be sitting around together wating to be finished. Sometimes I'll try something on one and decide it would look better on another, sometimes I'll decide that more than one needs something--in this case, Funky Monkey got one of these chains and then I realized that it was right for the wizard as well.

The words were sort of an experiment: in my non-art-making mode I am definitely a word person, but I tend to believe that art should speak for itself and not need explaining. However, I had a bunch of these word charms, a lot of my artist friends use words in their pieces, and I thought I should give it a shot. "Imagine magic" seemed pretty appropriate, and the pieces fit right in with the wand-ish watchparts, so I ran them past my collaborators and critics and went with their thumbs ups.

etsy listing--more photosThe copper spiral was added to lighten up the left side, and then the "diamond button just fell into place. The bead chain at the bottom went on, the piece was hung off the big copper chain, and it was finished.

Holidays in China, copy of 2001 post

2010-12-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

January 10, 2001

Well, we've made it through the western holidays and are headed into China's

big holiday, Spring Festival, which comes around the Asian lunar new year,

which is different from the Jewish lunar new year--well, anyway, it starts

maybe 10 days from now and runs for around 10 days, ending with the Lantern

Festival, another festival of light.

But I'm ahead of myself. This was one of those years when Hannukah crosses

Christmas, so, as is the custom in our family (something Michelle started, I

believe)when there's a decent-sized gap in there, we hung up our "stockings"

(Anne-Sarah has her Mickey Mouse sorcerer hat from last year, Seth and I

each had a small shopping bag) the day after Thanksgiving and put random and

sometimes funny (like the two stuffed green pigs A-S gave me--they're

nose-to-nose and when you pull them apart one vibrates until they meet

again!)presents in each others' stockings when we feel like it. It's fun,

and also yet another way to take some of the pressure off Xmas. When

Hannukah began (Dec. 21 eve), we stopped the stockings until Xmas eve. We

lit our menorah, sang the boruchas, had a few friends over, made

latkes --potatoes, onions, eggs, and flour are available here, although we

had to chop the ingredients for lack of a grater (we've since acquired a

couple of graters consisting of a metal grating surface mounted on wood, but

also actually had another batch of latkes after Hannukah when I found one of

those plastic sliding slicer/dicer/grater doodads with the drop in blades in

our local department store!)

On Christmas eve we made our 2 boxes of stovetop cornbread stuffing using

our own Chinese chicken soup base plus onions, celery, eggs, milk, and some

of the lovely seasonings sent by various friends from Kunming ot Brazil

(thanks again, one and all--what a difference THAT made) and our turkey

gravy mix, also seasoned, and we had fresh snow peas that Anne-Sarah found

at the market--it was a lovely meal. We all had filled "stockings which we

emptied--we lit the menorah , but don't do Hannukah presents on Christmas

eve.

A couple of days later we went out for a "Western" Christmas dinner with the

principal and a few other people--it was right after that awful fire, so we

had to change our destination--A-S and I suggested a fast-food place we'd

found that does the best western fried chicken we've had in China, but we

ended up at a somewhat nicer restaurant, where we got what was billed as a

western steak dinner--overcooked, rather tough meat in a very spicy sauce,

spaghetti, a nice salad of grated cabbage and carrots with a sort of Waldorf

dressing, excellent rolls, really delicious broccoli (a side dish--barely

cooked, with just a hint of sesame oil) , and some wonderful fresh figs. It

was expensive, too--our consensus was that we would have done better at a

Chinese restaurant.

Oh, and of course we had the traditional Christmas dinner in the school

cafeteria--it was much better this year than last. There were some patties

that might have been chicken but were probably pork nuggets, spaghetti with

actual tomato sauce ("almost like real spaghetti-os" Seth), sort of French

bread with jam (no spam), white bread with spam and cucumbers (I took this

for the cukes, but it turned out to be just one thin slice per "sandwich"),

fried rice (with spam, corn, peas,), and some cooked snow peas. I may have

left something out--there were probably one or 2 other boiled meat dishes

and a veggie like greens and mushrooms or bean sprouts. And of course the

traditional kettles of hot instant NesCafe and hot Tang (they did actually

provide disposable cups instead of our usual metal bowls for this(.

Actually, it wasn't bad--it just wasn't western.

For my birthday, on the 29th, Anne-Sarah, David, and Seth set up a party of

what turned out to be about a dozen people at a nice Muslim restaurant where

we had individual hot pots at the table to cook our food, which came in all

sorts of varieties--meat, eggs, noodles, veggies, mushrooms, fish balls,

etc., etc., all beautifully presented on a revolving table. Three of my

second-graders were allowed to join us--Daisy, who's become sort of another

grandchild, Amber, who speaks the most English, and Sarah, who's my best

reader. They're all delightful and managed to amuse themselves decorating

the potted trees with origami boats while we finished eating (I insisted on

having the cake AFTER the meal, a very un-Chinese thing to do, but they were

very patient with me). The cake was enormous, delicious, and topped by a

monkey AND a dragon--A-S' idea. We ate about half and I shared the rest with

the girls' class, which had just managed to achieve a class average of 89+

on my oral English exams, the next day.

This week we've had 2 banquets--ons at school and one at the Peony Hotel

(see photos of the peacock sculpture (made of eggplant, sweet potato?, and

candied cherries with the cabbage and carrot phoenix barely visible on a

plate in the background, plus one of your intrepid correspondents trying

some pretty decent local red wine.

The school banquet was very good--a wide variety of meat, fish patties,

really good mushrooms, sponge cake, little cakes with bean paste, eggy

pancakes, and beer or shwae-bee (phonetic, not pinyin, spelling)--Sprite. We

unfortunately didn't know about it until after we'd eaten dinner with the

kids, so were unable to do it full justice.

The Peony Hotel banquet, as usual was superlative--- a

buffet--standouts--crispy duck, a pork roast and broccoli in a wonderful

sauce, real rolls and real butter, superb tangerines, little dessert sort of

doughnuts in what might have been a honey suce, and, best of all, TWO

SALADS! Real salads--lettuce, tomatoes, uncooked cukes, in one, beans,

corn, and cabbage in the other. A rather thick but pleasantly mustardy

dressing as well as what looked like thousand island. Can you guess what

occupied most of my plate?

We have decided to give ourselves a family gift of a digital camera for all

these assorted holidays, so I was also busy on the net doing research and

shopping auctions. The cameras (we ended up with a small cheap one, a Fuji

for David, and an Olympus for us, as well as a World Wrestling Federation

SlamCam sent to our grandson (maybe we'll see some photos now?), plus an

Iomega drive that will let us download 40 megs of photos away from the

computer) have not arrived yet, so we're all anxiously waiting and hoping

to have them to take on our vacations.

Somewhere in there we also spent 2 days at Longmen Grottoes as it was

dedicated/celebrated as a world cultural site (so declared by UNESCO),

looking foreign and being photographed. Today we discovered that Seth and I

had our pics in the local paper (maybe on Jan. 1?) as the first foreigners

to come to Longmen after the declaration had been made! David's scanned the

photo and is trying to email it to me--if it works (or if we can download to

a disk and do it that way) I'll try to attach it.

The second day of that celebration we were also visited by 2 foreign

teachers, Shannon and Alison, and Shannon's son, Cameron, who's one of the

most self-possessed and confident 7-year olds it's been my pleasure to meet.

They will be returning this weekend not only to teach at our school, but to

go on our Spring Festival Vacation with us--we are quite delighted, as is

the aforementioned second-grade class, which gets Cameron as a classmate.

And of course we had all the usual classes plus the individual oral English

tests we're each expected to do for 300 or so students. Actually, I managed

to pull off a sort of western-style school winter holiday party with my

first and second graders just before we left for the short break that ran

for about a week before Christmas. I told them that it was traditional for

the last class before the vacation to be a party, and that, in the west,

parties ALWAYS include treats to eat--so I handed out lollipops to all of

them. And parties usually have decorations or favors--so everyone got a

double balloon. And we had some singing--we'd been doing "O Christmas

Tree/O ShangDan Shu", and had talked about decking the halls, so we sang a

lot of "fa la las"--a great way to teach the use of commas to even

kindergarteners, by the way, since the number of notes doesn't change but

the grouping does--and drew pictures, and generally had a relaxed good time.

Now, about the candy and balloons--one of the places I went with Shannon and

Alison was the huge GuanLin market, on the way back from Longmen.

It's not our everyday market--it must cover several acres and we're not yet

sure what all is sold there, but some of the street vendors obviously buy

there (need a hundred plastic glow-in-the-dark-Buddha keychains for 59 yuan?

this is the place)--we got about 150 lollies for 4 yuan (about 50 cents),

200 double balloons for maybe 25, trading cards, origami paper, etc. at

similar discounts--I also picked up an artificial Christmas tree , which we

decorated with red flocked lanterns, paper chains, Santa lights, and various

origami and cutouts form students, and various other decorations and

goodies. We still haven't found the fabric section, but are assured that

one exists. We'll be back.

I took some pretty good videos of the Longmen celebration and have now been

informed that I can have my videos put on VCDs which you can then play in

your VCD/DVD players, so we're going to give it a try. The sounds come

through fairly well, but I wish you could get the smells, too.

We didn't leave town for the short holiday, but took advantage of the free

time to visit the Guangzhou market, where we do much of our shopping, and

also the "new" reopened Shanghai market--it now has a wide paved walking

plaza, with ornate lampposts and buildings that I'm sure most of the

previous vendors can't afford to rent along it--also a magnificent white

building with ornate gold lettering proclaiming "Water Closet" in English

and Chinese. However, we noticed that there are still some spaces between

the buildings and that some of them lead to alleys. Naturally, that's where

we go--we've found a wonderful and very friendly Muslim restaurant there, a

nd Anne-Sarah just had a gorgeous chi-pao (Chinese traditional dress) made

(for about $25, including the fabric) at a shop in the across-the-street

part, which hasn't (thank goodness) been yuppified yet. I asked David who

could afford to shop at the new market, and he said, "Think about

it--Luoyang has 6 million people-1% would be enough." and he's right, of

course, we live in a poor province, but not everyone's poor, and there are

enough people who aren't to support this sort of thing. It's too bad,

though--the flavor of shopping here has been diluted, and we can go to the

candy store beloved by A-S and Daisy and spend more on 6 cones (50

gm.---less than 2 oz.--each) of candy than we did on lunch for 4 people!

And BTW--follow-up pics on DiamondGlaze project

2010-11-05T01:31:00.000-07:00

In order to redo my 2-peseta steam punk souvenir spoon, I tried warming it up, but that didn't loosen it.
I ended up having to dig & chip it out, taking some of the spoon's plating with it--that part wa OK, made it just look older--but losing the things I had embedded in it didn't make me a happy camper.

As you may have noticed in the last post's pics, I've started to redo it, but it probably needs one more layer.

Anyway, here are some photos of the undoing process.

WIP--ear gages

2010-11-05T00:56:00.000-07:00

Several young friends and a couple of customers have suggested that some of my work would go well in ear gages, those larger-than-earring-sized objects that have been appearing in a lot of lobes (at least around here).
Our friend/sometimes roommate/partner of Chase Carolne has 00gages in opal or opalite that look really good, so I recruited her as a consultant and bought some gages for experimenting. I also bought some Easy Cast, which I can now recommend - it sets fairly quickly and perfectly clear, unlike the Diamond Glaze that was giving me problems. It's a bit harder to use--a 2 part resin that requires measuring and mixing-- but I think it's worth it.
We stuck the tubes to fac-up packing tape to hold the resin in. Relatively successful. though next time I think we'll use a see-through surface.
I set some of the gages up with things I thought might work & ranthem past Caroline and Chase. Then last night, while Caroline was at school, Chase and I mixed the stuff up, sort of layered it and added things, and the pics below are what we have now.
Measurung: Each batch of 6 oz. or less requires 3 plastic vessels and 2 plastic or wood stirrers, all of which have to be tossed after use. So. I bought 100 small thin white plastic cups , which we marked (on the outside) with a permanent marker line at the same level. We could see the mark fromthe inside (THIN plastic cup) so just poured each part to the mark. Then we poured them together & stirred (we were using washed popsicle sticks, but I'm hoping to get something next time we go to the restaurant supply place--till then we have some thickish skewers, but I don't think round is the ideal shape) for the required 2 min, then moved to another cup and stirred with a clean stick for another 2 min. It worked really well.

Anyway, so there we were with a cup of goop and quite a few gages, in silcone, wood, ad horn. We also have one metal one, but we were only doing tubes and it's closed. Preliminary results suggest that
1. we need more research on glue to hold anything to silicone.
2. silicone gages work nicely filled with resin, but may work even better as molds.
3. wooden gages can have things glued on, and are dynamite with resin and inclusions.
Silicone and horn (red flowers) are also great.
4. Diamond Glaze, which we tried using to hold a few things that didn't require transparency, stays runny in silicone & is a poor choice for this project.
5. We used 2or 3 different Beacon glues--experiment, remember--and all worked well with wood but not silicone. I triend some Flexible, Stretchable with the silicone, but it was old and runny. I'll give it another shot with a new jar--the problem is that the silicone tubes flex off the glue, so that seems like one way to go. Another may be to use some sort of caulk, but we're not going there yet. If anyone's had any success with a adhesive for silicone, do please let us know.

So this is what we have--final cleanup, any sanding, etc. still to be done. A little more pouring to top things up, too, but you can at least get an idea of where this is going.

Here we are! 3 generations

2010-10-23T02:10:00.000-07:00

So now only Michelle & Samantha are missing (this is daughters & granddaughters - son & granddaughter, grandson, are separate pics to be taken when possble)

A very busy month!

2010-10-20T01:51:00.000-07:00

Please read this post bottom to top. Pics posted backwards!

4. And I finally gor ALMOST the 3 generations pic I wanted

with Anne-Sarah, Jenni, & Ellie--we'll try for one with Jazzie next time, 10/16/10

3.And a few days after that, on the 16th,baby Jenni grabbed her Zaide Seth's fnger & refused to let go!

2. A few days later, on the 11th, the day my mom would have been 101 hd she lived that long, we went to see Jenni and family, but Jenni, Anne, and Nick's mom had gone to the doctor, so we had some rare time with Jasmine (middle daughter) and her dughter Ellie, at 19 mos. getting some gymnastics tips from mom.

A bit later Jenni & crew came home & almost immediately got a call from doc's office to go directly to ER--she was apparently quite dehydrated - some breastfeeding difficulties I suspect had to do wth being induced.
So it was off to ER for all of us, where some formula was added and Jenni was allowed to return home.

1.
Pics, of course, uploaded backwrds. Here's the first family photo with newborn Jenni Fae Hickey, mom Anne-Sarah (our youngest daughter), dad Nick -- a few hours after almost 3 days of induced labor &; little sleep.

Jenni arrived at 10:39 am on Oct. 6,2010, weighing 8 lbs., 8 oz. & 20 " tall.

Olympia Artswalk & Craft Fair, 5-9 pm Oct. 1

2010-09-30T16:33:00.001-07:00

We (Ann Beal, Caroline, Chase & I) will have a booth at CraftX tomorrow night. It's on Washington between State & 4th--roughly from

Cafe Vita to Einmalein.

Won't know our booth location until we arrive, but please do come, look around, & say hi.

We're trying to make a night market an ongoing thing, & the more people who come, the better.

It's from 5 to 9, but street closes to cars at 4:30 & we'll be set up a little before that.

Hope to see you there! Leslie

more new work

2010-09-27T05:23:00.000-07:00

Some things I've made and am working on. Some may hit etsy before Fri., but some may debut at the CraftX Oly show linked with Artswalk on Fri.
On the other hand, our new granddaughter may decide to emerge before Fri., in which case I'll be extremely happy that I'm sharing a booth, since Chase & Caroline will carry on for me.
But anyway, some pics. Bear in mind that bone hates to be photographed, so some of the skull pics are not that great.

Add caption

As usual, having trouble with picture placement. This is called "Not so secret garden" and there's a closeup near the bottom.

This may be called "Octopus's Garden", though I'm not sure you can see the octopus, but I think it's really about Amelia Earhart, whose landing site may finally have been located. There are several pics of this, at least one of which has migrated to the bottom of this post.

These are very Mexican feeling Caterina earrings for Dia de los Muertos. Skulls, flowers, lacy silver parasols--too bad they're impossible to photograph well! I hope you can get the idea.

Little steam punk skull earrings. Got raves as I was making them at last show.

Inside of the garden piece

Lush garden in a tagua nut almost-box --one of my friend Ann Beal's rejects. I think it's just an ornament - really heavy & clumsy to wear, but everyone who's seen it, even Seth, oohed & aahed. I remembered that I CAN do other things than steampunk. I like the glowy stuff inside--sort of like a coral reef or maybe underground grotto. Several pics, spread out.

Another rejected tagua shell. Not sure yet which way it goes or what goes in it, but think it will come easily.

Little antler log(?) also from Ann--wonder what will come out of the faucet?

Chase & I did a couple of bracelets--steam punk watch case centers with knotted hemp bands. This one needed pins. As you can see, I've added some in my own style.

Crowned skulls with tiny spikes--more Dia de los Muertos. And below, aside from the pics that mysteriously moved down, just skulls with diff numbers of spikes on diff earring backs.

That's it for the moment. Hope to have more before (and after) Fri., along with pics of baby Jenni Fae.

PRIZE DRAWING REMINDER !!!

2010-09-24T00:05:00.000-07:00

Every month, on the Facebook fan page for Findings, my etsy supply shop, there's a prize drawing.
In order to enter, all you need to do is post a photo of something you've made using anything from the shop--not everything, just one component.
Last month we had a winner, this month no one's posted yet, making the odds of winning pretty high.
So if you've done anything with something you've bought there, do post a photo--you may win.

Yom Kippur 5771 The Day of Atonement 2010

2010-09-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

This is the most holy day of the Jewish year, the one on which G-d agian closes the Book of Life, in which the names of those chosen to survive the next year have been being entered since Rosh Hashano, the Jewish New Year, 10 days ago.

Some of us, of course, don't take this literally, but it's powerful as a metaphor.

Before Rosh Hashano, we are admonished to pay our debts, to ask forgiveness of and make amends to those we've wronged, and to forgive those who've wronged us.

Then we rejoice in the New Year, in being alive and with our friends and family in this lovely world G-d has provided for us to enjoy aqs well as improve.

Rosh Hashano is the start and Yom Kippur the end of the Days of Awe, a time for reflection as well as rejoicing, a time to consider our lives and how we are using them.

A couple of basic Jewish principles are involved here.
First is Tikkun Olam, the responsibility of leaving the world a better place than we found it.
Of course this is on a personal level, but it's also political - working to reverse, or at least stop, climate change/global warming; standing up against hatred, prejudice, and opression wherever they rear their ugly heads (yes, even in Israel, but not only there); advocating for everyone's right to be safe, sheltered, fed, and cared for, etc., etc.

Second is Tzedaka, generally interpreted as charity, but actually meaning justice.
I see this as intertwined with Tikkun Olam--it mandates sharing what we have with those who have less. It doesn't mean starving our own family to feed our neighbors (that would be the worst sort of personal aggrandizement), but it does mean feeding as many people as we can, providing shelter for those who need it (could we solve the problem of homelessness if every household with an empty bedroom invited someone to use it?), contributing to good causes, and sharing whatever resources and possessions we have more of than we need (not to be confused with want).

I'm probably missing something official, but I find that those two give me quite a bit to strive for.

So on this Yom Kippur, as is my custom, I am giving serious thought to what I can do to make next year better for myself, my family, my friends, and the rest of the world.

For quite a few years, one of my major goals has been to cultivate patience. I think I'm making some progress on this as I get older, and 2 years of living in China really helped. Patience encompasses accepting that some things won't happen when or as I want them to, or sometimes at all, but in their own good time if they're meant to be.
This applies to everything from artwork that is not ready to be finished, to dealing with ignorance and prejudice without personal acrimony, to encouraging my children to mature on their own timetalbe.

Lately, as I develop more physical limitiations, I need to consider ways to continue to be as independent as possible.
One of these, which I've been avoiding, is to have my knees (I'm hoping for both at once) replaced.
This should improve my ability to dirve as well as walk, and make it easier to participate more fully in a wider community and in various areas of life, while reducing the help I need from family and friends to do even basic tasks. I'll have to figure something else out for lifting, however--another item for consideration.

Following this thread, I want to be more available to my children and grandchildren, especially the youngest 3, of whom 2 are expected to arrive in the next few months. I want to be able to spend time with them, provide care if necessary, and generally be part of their lives more frequently than is now possible. I want to do everything I can to maintain and improve my health, and encourage Seth to do the same, so that we will continue to be participants in our familiy's lives.
I also need to be more attentive and available to the older members of my family, using and treasuring the time we can still have together.

I hope to travel more. Not only is it a pleasure, it helps me to better understand what's happening in other places and what, if anything, I can or need to do about it. Not to mention that warmer dryer climates, especially in winter, improve both our health and our world view, especially after we haven't seen the sun for weeks.

This year I'm also feeling a need for more balance. My online supply shop is doing well, but is also taking a lot of my time and energy, some of which I need for my own work, some for my family and the rest of my life. That partially comes under patience, but also under meeting my own needs and being able to resist distractions and say no when necessary. This is a difficlt issue for most of us, but we need to realize that, if our own needs aren't met, we don't have anything left over for other people or the wider world.

I'm sure there's more, but that seems like a tall enough order with which to begin another year.

May you all be inscribed for blessing in the Book of Life, and have a sweet and fruitful year.

Some works in progress

2010-09-11T03:27:00.000-07:00

This one shouldn't still be a WIP. I want it to look like sunken treasure, & filled the spoon (a shaped 2 peseta piece) with Diamond Glaze. I let the layers dry & it was clear, but now it's clouded up. Do I have to melt it & start over, or what?

I'm not quite sure where this one's going, or whether the wire at the bottom will stay or change, but this guy has been waiting for work for at least a year, and I wanted to do something with words--even though I'm a word person, I don't usually use them in my art, but thought these fit, so am giving it a try.

This one's kind of a steam punk man in the moon, and this piece may be done except for deciding whether it should be a pin or pendant and how and on what to hang it--which is still a lot!
The strange little guy is bone I've colored with metallic wax and/or lumiere paints, the moon is colored a pearly purple with a dye pad, the other parts are pretty much as they came except of course that I've combined them. I'm liking this one a lot, just not sure how to present it yet.

This is a style of face bead I've often used on my doll pins. In this case I haven't decided whether she'll get a body or whether the whole thing will go in some other direction.
The gears can still go around, which I like a lot.
And I absolutely love all the guilloche engraving on this old pocket watch (it has jewels, too, but I don't think they show here).

I found a necklace I made probably 20 years ago at the bottom of a box of things waiting to be listed or reworked, and it included watchworks and had some message about time--apparently I was doing steam punk before the term was invented. Interesting.

Gregory Fricker's new necklace

2010-08-26T03:59:00.000-07:00

Greg is a painter, and he illustrates children's books, so having him commission a piece from our friend Chase Arevalo and me was especially nice--working for other artists is fun. (And he has a painting I'm hoping to do a trade for, too.)
I wish you could see Chase's knotting a little better--we should have gotten a pic on the table, but once Greg got the piece there was no way he was taking it off--he said he loves it so much he's going to read it bedtime stories: "And then the little dragon said...."
Greg also bought a little piece of mine for his about-to-be-wife at last month's Artswalk, and, much to my delight, he said she wore it for their wedding and every day before and since.

So there it is.

Chase and maybe Caroline and I are working on a few more ideas for collaboration. No one else seems to be doing what we're doing yet, so we're hoping to get some press for it.

Jesse's necklace

2010-08-14T18:14:00.000-07:00

Our friends Zach and Jesse have been putting a new floor in our family room, so when Jesse asked if I could make him a necklace I was happy to do it. In addition, Caroline, Chase, and I had just received our hemp cord order, and I was anxious to play with it--it's nice quality stuff, not itchy & easy to knot.
So Jesse picked out some colors and beads, and this is what I made.
Note that this is a snapshot--this necklace will never be listed anywhere. I just wanted a record (and maybe to show off a little)

Perseids

2010-08-13T02:32:00.000-07:00

I went out to see the Perseids, our local paper having said this is the night and the time. For a wonder, the sky was clear--no overcast, no rain, and it was warm enough for just a light sweater.
The up side of no streetlights, usually not such a good thing, is that you can actually see a LOT of stars.
I sat in a chair, head tipped back, and looked at a star-sprinkled sky for maybe half an hour.
Our cat and dog thought that my sitting out there in the dark was a brilliant idea.
No showers, but I did see several flickers, 3 definite flares, and one meteor arcing across the sky.
When my eyes started playing tricks I stood up and had to grab the chair because my head was reeling.
And this poem's been running through it.

Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–1894). A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods. 1913.

Escape at Bedtime

THE LIGHTS from the parlour and kitchen shone out

Through the blinds and the windows and bars;

And high overhead and all moving about,

There were thousands of millions of stars.

There ne’er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,

Nor of people in church or the Park,

As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,

And that glittered and winked in the dark.

The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all,

And the star of the sailor, and Mars,

These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall

Would be half full of water and stars.

They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,

And they soon had me packed into bed;

But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,

And the stars going round in my head.

The Perseids should be visible for several nights--apparently best between midnight and dawn.
Take a look if you get the chance.

I've been working.....

2010-08-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

Bother--I still haven't figured out how to get my text & pics where I want them!

Oh, well, I know you can figure it out.

The top pic (and a couple of others) are Funky Monkey (from a song we heard in every taxicab in China as we were leaving) and Guy With Tie, which should be obvious.

The next 2 pics are Steam Punk centerpieces for a couple of commisions I'm doing with our friend Chase. He & Caroline & I did the Tacoma Arts Walk last month & will do it again on the 19th of this month & third Thurs in Sept, too, and we sold a couple of pieces and got these commissions to do a "guy sort of thing" .

Chase will be adding a hemp neckpiece --green & black for the piece on the left(on an antler base), purple & black for the one on the right(on a tagua nut/vegetable ivory slice).

I don't know if you can tell, but the one on the right, which is for Gregory Fricker, a painter whose opening our show shared, incorporates crystals in gold, blue (well, bluegreen in this case), and purple, colors he loves to use.

Funky Monkey started out as a piece of probably faux Aztec broken jewelry, with a missing face. Somehow this monkey just managed to attach himself & I added the piece near his belt that looks a little like a sword and the gold gear near his belt. But he needed more, and after I finished the two above I came back to him and added the crystal below the sword, the gears near his left hand, and the watch part wings or cloak pieces. Now I think he's ready to fly.

Guy With Tie just sort of happened. I had this piece of glass I'd fused & didn't know what to do with, & then I looked at it and realized it was a body with a striped tie. So I mounted it on a piece of filigree, added a Peruvian ceramic head, et voila! there he was. He's nicer than the pic, too.

These are not formal portraits, just quick shots to show what I've been up to besides keeping up with my etsy stores (where you can see some new BJD jewelry I've also made) , playing in our beautiful raised bed garden (built for us by GRUB), & getting ready for 2 more granddaughters due this fall --not to mention all the usual life-gets-in-the-way stuff.

Thanks for following my blog. And BTW, if you're a customer of Findings, please join our fan page on Facebook, post something you've made with something from the store, and be automatically entered in a monthly prize drawing.

As always, comments are welcome. In fact, PLEASE comment--sometimes I feel that I'm talking to myself out here!

WIP

2010-06-12T23:42:00.000-07:00

This guy has been hanging around my work space for months, trying to decide what he wants to be. He started, of course, with the face, which I put on a filigree background. But then he started to tell me a story about how he came here to work on the railroad. The boss was convinced that all "Chinks" could cook, so he stuck him in the kitchen car. Thus the frypan, coffee pot, coffee cup. But he didn't know how to cook, and is bad at it, so everyone's eating lousy food. The only good part is that it lets him save money to go back to China, and of course the clock is about time standing still. So that's as far as we've gotten, and he's miserable.

This guy, on the other hand, worked on the railroad but also started doing laundry for a small fee. He made enough at the laundry business to quit and buy a place in a small town on the RR line where he lived frugally behind the laundry and was able to save a sizable sum and go home to China to be married, since Chinese women were not being admitted to the US. But fianlly, after they had been seaprated for years except on his rare visits home, he was able to get her and their two children admitted to the US. Though they all lived behind the laundry, and worked there except when the children were in school, they were happy to be together. Eventually they were able to buy a small house nearby, and to send their children to college. Their daughter is now a doctor and their son an engineer.

But I'm still not sure where this piece is going!

A Little New Work

2010-06-08T02:01:00.000-07:00

Just a quick view before I post on etsy.
I got some new 6pointed stars (stars of David or mogen Doved or magen David) in both a lovely filigree and some vintage purple glass and just had to make a few earrings.
I'm wearing the test version of this one myself and have been 24/7 for somewhere between 10 days & 2 weeks. I was a little worried about the curve of the filigree stars and whether the glass ones would hang well & be stable. All's well, I like them a lot & get compliments, & will get Seth to take a pic of them in use if I can get his attention.
This is the 2nd pair, not the ones I'm wearing.

I also made a pair with blue links, which will show up on etsy.

And another (which I call "A Wing and a Prayer") from the glass stars & another cool charm that just arrived.

And Seth did take a pic of an earring in use--not too flattering to me, but does show the earring on an ear.

Opportunity for graphic artists

2010-05-31T03:44:00.000-07:00

The US Mint is looking for artists to design coins and medals
http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/artisticInfusion/index.cfm?action=FAQs#faq5

Alan Grayson's new bill

2010-05-21T18:28:00.000-07:00

I love this man! I don't usually post political content here, but this is so utterly right on sensible that I think everyone needs to read it. Whether you sign is of course your own decision, but his way of presenting things is thought-provoking at the least. It's certainly a unique approach, but of the sort that makes you wonder why no one else thought of it!

A Little New Work

2010-05-10T02:34:00.000-07:00

I've actually made a couple of things not for sale lately--one was this strange bird for a "birds of a feather" swap.

And the other is this bracelet, a comission for a gift for a friend's friend.
It was pretty interesting--the style was set & the colors were more or less chosen.
I had fun figuring out the long cloth beads and making the somewhat disparate elements come together, which I think did happen in the end.

I'm still struggling with another piece that isn't quite working, but think I'll take a break and play dolls for awhile!

Hair soaks up oil spills

2010-05-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

New work on The Creative Block and time for summer selling orders

2010-05-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

I've finally made a few pieces from the gorgeous carved stone and glass flowers and the goofy little Pet Milk cans I've had sitting around waiting to be used. They should show up on the slideshow to the left or, of course, can be seen on The Creative Block, where you can go by clicking any link in the slideshow.

In addition, I'm getting Findings, my supply store, ready for summer. This means especially that I'll be ordering quantities of these black rubber neckcords, which are our best seller, and of the ribbon and cord neckbands, which run a close second. If you are someone who will need 100 or more of these (or anything else in my shop!) for summer craft fairs, tourist sales, theme conferences, etc., now is the time to order so I'll be sure to have enough. My order should go in pretty immediately after our citywide Artists' Garage Sale on May 22 and should arrive the first or 2nd week in June. If you need something before that I may have it, but check before the 22nd--lots of things usually sell out at the garage sale.

And now it's back to my workroom--I'm on a creative roll and will be posting more soon

I did it did it did it!

2010-04-25T00:12:00.000-07:00

My first etsy Treasury and the first for our new TeamBJD. I am SOOO hyped!!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4bd3e68e511a6d91867f32b2/new-teambjd-new-treasury

Please go and click all the links to the pics, make some your favorites, leave a comment--this helps our google ratings and is important in establishing an online presence for the team. Many thanks!!

Calais (my CED/BJD doll) gets new clothes

2010-04-06T23:14:00.000-07:00

As some or all of you may know, ai've started designing jewelry for BJDs (and other dolls) and listed some of it in my etsy shop. Calais (formerly Colin) my BJD, and my Ellowyne Wilde doll have been modeling.

Not so incidentally, I'm also in the process of organizing a group of etsy sellers who make, sew for, and/or make jewelry and accessories for BJDs into an official etsy street team. It's an interesting bunch, and one of the things I've learned is that my dolls, although they're ball jointed, are not, strictly speaking (which most people don't) BJDs, primarily becuase they have mechanical rather than strung joints, which doesn't bother me a bit.

Anyway, lots of people are making clothes for Ello, and she now has several outfits purchased at prices I figured were less than what the time it would take me to make them was worth.. But poor Cal hasw been wearing a skirt of Ello's with an elastic waist that barely clears her hips, a partially-finished top made from an old sweater sleeve, and one lovely long sheath made by Marissa, in Poland. I couldn't find pants I liked for her at a price I considered reasonable. I'd bought a Perfect Pattern for pedal pushers, a halter top, and a short jacket for her on the strength of a recommendation that it was/is the only pants pattern that fits her correctly, but I didn't really like the style and also was trying to concentrate on jewelry.

But Cal kept sitting there half-dressed and looking at me accusingly, so I finally opened the pattern, realized the pants were an easy to tweak 2-piece (well, one front, one back, cut two of each) pattern, and decoded to bite the bullet and make her some pants. Of course, being who I am, I chose a remnant of gold fabric that I'd forgotten was a remnant because it's awful to work with--sticks to your scissors, the sewing machine soleplate, needles--and crawls into the feed dogs and gets caught there. Of course I wasn't going to let a little problem like that stop me once I decided to make the pants, and, having made them in this stuff am confident that I can now do it in anything else, but it took most of 2 days and 2 nearly sleepless nights to get them and a matching top, which I simply draped, glued, and handsewed on Cal to avoid having to pull it out of the feed dogs (don't you hate that?) and also to make the best use of what was by then a VERY small piece of fabric.

It took almost as long to sew on the tiny snaps as to make the outfit--they're hard to see, needles barely fit through the holes, and the fabric grabs the needle--but it was done in time to go to my Tuesday crafts group, where I crocheted a harmonizing scarf or narrow shawl.

The interior finishing of this outfit is not up to my usual standards, it is not and never will be for sale, and I will not make another like it, but I like it a lot (and so does Cal) and , having ove3rcome my own reservations, will now be sewing more for her and possibly for sale.

So here are some pics--more than necessary, but it's such fun to pose her!

National Thrift Store Directory!!!

2010-04-01T23:03:00.000-07:00

Check this out!!

rainbow druzy crystal point steam punk necklace--subtle & elegant

2010-03-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

Made a new necklace

2010-03-25T21:20:00.000-07:00

It's not up on etsy yet and it's not steampunk (but the next one will be) and it's human sized, not for a doll.
I'm pretty pleased with it.
I'd decided I wanted to work with more sterling, esp. after I scored some amazing focals to play with. If you've been around, you know I have a thing for faces--well, I got several in bone and this one in pietersite and sterling with carnelians.

(I tried to post the pic below the text, but that must be a trick I haven't learned yet.)

I had a nice string of pietersite ovals I'd bought a few years ago and had been saving for the right project, but when I looked at them with this piece I thought just stringing it with them would be too heavy, not to mention too obvious and too dark.

So I dug around in my stone stash and came up with a couple of arrowheads (unakite?jasper? have to check my notes before I list!) , some lovely cherry volcano quartz rectangles, a few leaves (again I need to check!). I was playing with these but it wasn't quite working, so I rubbed a dab of "psychic power" oil on my temples and, voila! several of Karen Ovington's business cards (which I didn't know were there) fell into my lap. Hmmm.

For those of you who don't know, Karen Ovington http://www.ovingtonglassstudio.com/ makes absolutely fabulous beads which have inspired several of my other pieces. In fact, if I go to a bead show with $ & know she'll be there, I have a Karen Ovington budget and an everything else budget, which sometimes has nothing left in it after I see Karen's beads. Anyway, I have a small wood and glass showcase on a shelf in my bead room where I keep her beads, and I thought this was enough of a message so that I should go and have a look.

Sure enough, there it was, that lovely black, rust, and white bead that looks like a lantern--just the thing!
So I tried some reddish lave beads--way too pink, but the yellow ones were just right, picking up the tiger-eye-like gold banding in the pietersite and the yellow in the agate.

But something was still missing. I tried beadcaps--no go--separateing the beads with chain or wirework--nope.
Then I started digging through my stash drawers and realized I had these Indian beads, which I think are furnace glass, the kind where you pull a tube and then cut it into individual beads. They are, as I think you can see, white with swirls of black, copper, and gold, and the colors looked perfect. Originally I tried a sort of fluted lantern shape, but that was wrong, as was the round one. But these tubes, with the colors swirling just a bit, were just what I needed.

So now I had center, left, and right side focal groupings. Putting them together wasn't quite that simple, of course--the leaves were extremely difficult to attach, and getting a chain through the Ovington grouping required quite a lot of hole grinding in the Indian beads especially, but finally they were ready and I measured and attached pieces of chain between and after them to equal just about 24".

Then there was the question of a clasp. I had some small spring rings, but those wouldn't do. I searched etsy--and it's amazing how many people have commercially-made clasps listed under handmade, something etsy's currently trying to clrear up--but couldn't find on that looked right. Then I remembered that I had some stuff from the last time I was playing with sterling and stones (years ago, that was) stashed in a drawer and, sure enough, there was a lovely little, but not too little, silver and carnelian clasp with a safety latch--just the thing.

I put it all together, showed Seth, wore it to my craft group--I wondered about the length, but consensus is that it's right.

So, finally, I put a dress on my dummy, added the necklace, and took some photos. I may need to redo them--the reflections make things difficult and I don't think I got the clasp--but I want to share some here and would appreciate comments. So here they are (hope I get the placement right this time!)

Seth's and my Zazzle store

2010-03-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

snopes.com: F1 Key Virus

2010-03-21T15:08:00.003-07:00

snopes.com: F1 Key Virus

Posted using ShareThis

snopes.com: F1 Key Virus

2010-03-21T15:08:00.001-07:00

snopes.com: F1 Key Virus

Posted using ShareThis

Four steam punk leather bracelets or cuffs for BJDs made and posted!

2010-03-21T02:40:00.000-07:00

I am so pleased! I was trading stuff at my Tues night crafts group and got a necklace with leather & wood & maybe cork beads. One set of the leather ones just HAD to be made into steam punk doll bracelets for my BJDs (they fit other dolls around the same size too). You can see them scrolling past in my store slideshow or go over to The Creative Block and look at more pics while they're not moving.
They're a little clunky, but that's partly the style. Next batch, I think, will be more delicate. Leslie

from my friend Gail, about spontaniety & flexibility etc.

2010-03-19T07:03:00.000-07:00

READ THIS VERY SLOWLY.... IT'S PRETTY PROFOUND.

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, 'How about going to lunch in a half hour?' She would gasp and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty.. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.' And my personal favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches.. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet... We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.'

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.

Now..go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to.....not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?

Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butter fly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ' How are you?' Do you hear the reply? ??? ???

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow..' And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi?

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away...... Life is not a race Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.

...
To those I have sent this to... I cherish our friendship and appreciate all you do.

'Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we might as well dance!

Enormously cultured, educated, and happy!

2010-02-21T16:35:00.000-08:00

From my (slender!) cousin--we should all put this on our refrigerators or in some other place where we'll see it frequently! Leslie

************************************************************************************
Recently, in a large city in France ,

a poster featuring a young, thin and tan

woman appeared in the window of a gym.

It said, "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

A middle-aged woman,

whose physical characteristics did not match

those of the woman on the poster,

responded publicly to the question

posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern,

Whales are always surrounded

by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans.)

They have an active sex life,

get pregnant and have adorable baby whales.

They have a wonderful time with dolphins

stuffing themselves with shrimp.

They play and swim in the seas,

seeing wonderful places like Patagonia ,

the Bering Sea

and the coral reefs of Polynesia .

Whales are wonderful singers

and have even recorded CDs.

They are incredible creatures

and virtually have no predators

other than humans.

They are loved, protected and admired

by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don't exist.

If they did exist,

they would be lining up outside the offices

of Argentinean psychoanalysts

due to identity crisis. Fish or human?

They don't have a sex life

because they kill men who

get close to them, not to mention

how could they have sex?

Just look at them ... where is IT?

Therefore, they don't have kids either.

Not to mention,

who wants to get close to a girl who smells

like a fish store?

The choice is perfectly clear to me:

I want to be a whale.

P. S. We are in an age

when media puts into our heads

the idea that only skinny people are beautiful,

but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids,

a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver,

and a piece of chocolate with my friends.

With time, we gain weight because we

accumulate so much information

and wisdom in our heads that when there is

no more room,

it distributes out to the rest of our bodies.

So we aren't heavy,

we are enormously cultured,

educated and happy.

Beginning today,

When I look at my butt in the mirror I will think,

¨Good grief, look how smart I am!¨

Team ESST Semi-Annual Promotion

2010-02-18T01:14:00.001-08:00

Team ESST Semi-Annual Promotion

Beginning on 12:00 AM EST February 26 and ending 12 pm Sunday - Etsy EST February 28, the Etsy Supply Street Team (ESST) will be holding its Semi-Annual Supply Street Team Promotion.

This sale exclusively features the members of the Etsy Supply Street Team! Crafting supplies for most any project you may have.

Team members will be offering specials like free shipping, discounts, extra goodies, and everyday fabulous prices.

For more information please check out our team blog:
http://teamesst.blogspot.com/

And for a look at the Team members promos checkout out Team ESST Promo blog:
http://esstpromo.blogspot.com/

Search TEAM ESST for all your supply needs!
http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?s....m+esst&ref=auto

I DID IT!!

2010-02-16T03:30:00.000-08:00

Getting these cute little slide shows on here has taken 3 days & endless tries--I've had one but not the other, 7 identical versions of The Creative Block scrolling just barely not in unison (YUCK!)and various other permutations of non-success.
I am SO hyped to have these up and running!!! PLEASE leave a comment--some days I'm sure I'm talking to myself, but if it's not true I'd really like to know!

Suddenly another blog

2010-02-07T22:45:00.001-08:00

Some days I wonder if I'll ever really be at home with all this networking technology, but now I find myself on ByHand Me in addition to Facebook, Blogspot, etsy, and Couchsurfing, and discover that I have a blog here as well. How am I to deal with this? I don't have enough time or enough interesting things to say for one blog, let alone two.

But here I am and hereperhaps others are actually reading my words. If so, welcome, please comment (it's lonesome out here), send artwork, stories, theories about why we're here (on this blog, on social networks, whatever) questions, answers, or anything else that will encourage participation.

And if I figure out what I'm doing, here or elsewhere, I promise to share. Leslie

My pregnant flower fairy is on the LinorStore blog!

2010-02-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

Have a look

Two new swap dolls

2010-02-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

I did these pieces for 2 different groups--Tweedledee & Tweedledum were for Fantastic Flat Paper Dolls; the theme was anything from Alice in Wonderland. I wanted them to move, and, as you can see, my first try was not so good. When it occurred to me to attach the arms on top, things improved quickly.

The second swap was for Decidedly Different Dolls, with a Queen of Hearts theme, and I decided to use Alice after she becomes a queen for this one. I added some fringey ribbon yarn, a bit of metal mesh, and a scepter topped with a satin heart covered in irridescent nail polish. Again, I wanted movement, & got it, but the yarn limits it somewhat.

I especially wanted to use the Tenniel illustrations from my childhood copy of Through the Looking Glass rather than the Disney versions, which are too sweet and one-dimensional for my taste.

I don't think these are my best work (but not all of it can be) but am satisfied enough now to mail them off to my swap partners.

It's a new year, and a new moon

2010-01-16T00:53:00.000-08:00

so I'm just checking in.
I've been working on some jewelry, which will appear on The Creative Block, http://www.siragwatkins.com ; collecting and sorting dolls and doll clothes (mailed the kid clothes before Xmas) for when we finally actually see the grands of doll-playing age (though our youngest daughter, about to be 26, did run off with one doll and some clothes)and also crocheting a few hats, sweaters, scarves, etc. for these dolls; gearing myself up to make some clothes and jewelry for my newest dolls, which are ball-jointed with something like 13 or 14 points of articulation--meaning that girl dolls are finally jointed in as many places as action figures, and much more fun to mess with!; cooking delicious but sometimes odd meals to help Seth get his appetite back so he can finish recovering from pneumonia; and trying to figure out what I'm going to do for 2 January swaps--one is the Queen of Hearts--thought I had it covered, but the pieces refused to work together, so it's back to the drawing board on that--and the other is anything Alice in Wonderland in paperdoll form, so I'm thinking a flamingo--I've always liked them, and a jabberwock seems a little to major to finish in a few weeks. What I wonder, and have for awhile, is why, with all the creativity in my doll groups, do all of them seem to come up with the same themes, or variations on them? I can manage these 2 swaps, but that's it for Lewis Carroll! Last month everyone was on about momijis, & of course Halloween before that, and stars & icicles (I did the peace doll, which was the only alternative) in between.
It's like the Firda thing--you'd think there'd never been another female artist!
But maybe that's dying down a bit now.
Anyway, I'm off to photograph some stuff for my stores and then have another run at these dolls. I hope everyone's year has started out well and will improve as it goes on.

My 65th Birthday and a new doll

2009-12-29T16:15:00.000-08:00

I've owed this doll in a swap for a few weeks. The theme was announced as "art doll" with instructions to "embellish, embellish, embellish" on any chosen base--not exactly my definition, but I can run with it.

My partner asked for "winter" colors, and I had an idea & even assembled materials, but the doll refused to cooperate--don't you hate it when that happens?

Then Seth was in the hospital with pneumonia, which of course made everything else secondary--he's home now, and recovering, but we're staying pretty quiet.

Which brings me to my birthday. 65 years ago, at about 3am, I entered this lifetime. It's been an interesting and often enjoyable one, which I hope will continue for quite some time. As is often my practice, I set a few goals: by summer I want to have the garage, a big part of the reason we bought the house, turned back from storage to usable workspace--I've had an industrial serger out there for over 5 years and never been able to use it because it's inaccessible! Likewise a folding sewing table, which is now coming in for the winter. And my big kiln is just buried! So you can see why this makes sense.

After that, we need to decide whether to keep living here or rent or sell and move somewhere with public transit and/or warmer and possibly even cheaper--if we decide to do that, I'd like to be out by my next birthday.

But what I'm giving myself as a birthday present is permission to take time off from my stores and everything else & do something creative. It may not be dramatic--I have a couple of very minor projects waiting--but I started with this swap doll and know that the more I create the more ideas I'll have--not to mention the happier & less restless I'll be.

The doll is made of a piece of a recycled sweater with great beading--I'd also thought about a star doll, so it's kind of that too, but more a snowflake. The legs are a bit of some fabulous beaded trim I bought from somewhere in Eastern Europe or possibly Turkiye. The head is one of my own polyclay mixes made in a mold, then rubbed across a pearly ink pad, and the hands are from a lot of Tierra Cast pieces I recently bought for my store. My original plan was to wire or sew up the bottom of the sweater piece, but then I decided I liked its puppet-like quality, as well as its ability to de-institutionalize a cough-syrup bottle , or top off a glue bottle (or slide onto a branch, or......) so I left it open. Mary, the recipient, is free to change that, of course. Anyway, here are a few pics--I think it's both wintry and cheerful.

Post-Christmas bliss

2009-12-27T15:43:00.000-08:00

Seth was in the hospital with pneumonia for a week right after my last post: he's been home but still pretty wiped out since the 23rd.
We were invited to visit daughters in Tacoma on Christmas day, but he was still too exhausted to be up for that long, I was still stiff from all the driving back & forth to hospital in Xmas shopper traffic. Things seemed a little bleak.

But yesterday the whole Tacoma crew came to visit us, bringing parts of Xmas dinner, gifts---but mostly their company! I was too busy playing with my darling grandbaby & talking to everyone else to even take a photo! Sure made my holiday brighter!

Happy Chanukah

2009-12-16T21:05:00.000-08:00

This should have been posted on the 14th, but I was fighting a very bad cold and am just starting to recover, so it's a bit late--but I think just as wonderful.

Tonight we celebrated night 4 of Chanukah at the home 2 of our daughters share, along with baby granddaughter and her father, youngest daughter's fiance, and our younger son, who still lives at home.Our youngest daughter has been coming over to help make latkes for the last few years, and even has her own Kitchen Magician (a non-electric gadget with various cutting and grating wheels without which I would probably never make anything requiring grating--I don't like the texdture produced by a food processor, and between arthritis, carpal tunnel, & fibromyalgia I can't do it by hand.So tonight her sister made sort of soupy chicken and she made perfect crispy latkes, and we used the menorah (very similar to my grandfather's) that she'd asked for a few Chanukahs ago. When I light my menorah I feel connected to my mother and her mother and so on back beyond counting, and tonight I had the naches of seeing that connection moving onward to a new generation. I am truly blessed. Leslie

Marlaine's doll class (continued)

2009-12-14T05:41:00.001-08:00

Just because I haven't mastered getting the photos where I want them, here are the pics of my finished doll.

If you're familiar with James Thurber's The Thirteen Clocks you may (or may not) recognize him as as Prince Zorn of Zorna in disguise--"a wandering minstrel I, a thing of rags and tatters..." So here he is: note that those rather unfortunate teeth are gone.

More on that doll class

2009-12-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

Marlaine Verhelst's doll class was a major factor in when we chose to go to Paris. I wanted to take it because Marlaine, in addition to being a fabulous doll maker, is a talented and skilled sculptor, and I wanted to improve my ability to sculpt realistic figures.

Anyone who knows me or has seen my work knows that this is not what I usually do, and, in fact, it's not something I want to do often, but I was feeling that I needed to have a better grounding, a more solid jumping-off place, if you will, to do what interests me. Look at Picasso--one of the things seeing a lot of his work in Paris made me remember that he was a consummate draftsman. So I thought doing something a bit more structured would ultimately give me more freedom. I don't know if that's true, but I enjoyed the class (and the week at the chateau, and the other participants and thier families) immensely, and I'm happy with my doll, too.

I told Marlaine before I signed up for the class that, much as I love her dolls, I'm not interested in making them, but wanted to learn some technique and refresh my basic knowledge of anatomy, which was fine with her.

Knowing that, can you guess which of the heads in this basket is mine?

Nikki de Saint Phalle (continued)

2009-12-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

Last October we were in and around Paris.One week I was taking a doll sculpting class with Marlaine Verhelst at a chateau outside the city, and we had only Wednesday afternoon free for exploring. Seth and I went into Paris, spent a little time at the Pompidou Museum (which looks as though it was constructed by a giant with a Lego set), including a tour of Brancusi's studio in the basement, and went looking for a place to sit and have coffee before meeting a friend for a night of Parisian Arabic jazz (for lack of a better term--very exciting music). We came around a corner and there was the fountain pictured in my last post.
Designed by Jean Tinguely, master of the rusted mechanized kinetic sculpture, and Nikki de Saint Phalle, creator of the colorful happy figures, some of which are also kinetic (the mermaid revolves and water gushes from her breast) it absolutely stopped us in our tracks.
We sat down at a table near it and ordered coffee, which, in the Parisian fashion, came with delicious little chocolate wafers, and just looked--and took pictures, although, as you can probably see, it was getting dark.

We returned a few days later, when we were actually staying in Paris, and I bought a couple of books about Nikki and her work--one about her Tarot garden for an older friend who is a painter and also a Tarot reader, and one about her life and work in general for me.

I learned that she had been diagnosed with depression and given several courses of shock therapy, after which she did a series of paintings that apparently gained her quite a bit of notoriety--mostly white, very large, with bags of red paint hung behind them, and designed to be shot with real bullets so that the red would spurt out and add "blood" to the painting.

After that her work (and I assume her life) seems to have taken a much more positive turn, evident in this fountain among other things, and maybe especially in the Dancing Nanas series, of which there are small reproductions (no, I didn't buy one) in virtually every souvenir shop in Paris.

As you may have gathered, Nikki is my current favorite, and I just had to share.

Nikki de Saint Phalle

2009-12-12T16:18:00.000-08:00

My necklace is featured!

2009-12-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

Have a look here! One of my favorite recycled pieces is featured on Maura's blog.
http://nuorganics.blogspot.com

Peace Doll

2009-12-07T18:07:00.000-08:00

As I think I said, this doll was done for a swap on the Decidedly Different Dolls list at yahoo. It's supposedly commemorating the 50th anniversary of the peace sign, though I have my doubts, being old enough to remember when we wore "Aldermaston buttons", so named for a British peace demonstration, and were told they were an ancient symbol which with legs down meant "man lives" and with legs up, "man dies".

Be that as it may, we're having this swap, and the rules are simple: make a doll no larger than 4" (5") using a peace sign as an integral part of the design.

My original concept was to sew over a wired peace sign, but the doll fought me, so, preferring unbroken sewing machine needles I just zigzagged a peace sign, went over it 3 or 4 times, added stiffener,k & dried it in the microwave.

Then I added the other pieces, and here it is. Since the head is mounted on a pinback, it can also be worn.

On a more positive note

2009-12-07T00:21:00.000-08:00

I'd put ribbons and chains on some assorted pendants & lockets while sitting around at the craft fair we did last weekend, and stuff suddenly started to sell & continued to do well until closing! (Mind you, this was mostly stuff in the $5-15 range, but people were buying multiples.

So I've just started posting some of these at The Creative Block, www.siragwatkins.etsy.com and will continue. If you're looking for inexpensive Hanuka gifts, stocking stuffers, gift exchange items, etc. support from friends is always welcome.

I've also finally figured out (or maybe I shoulod say come to an accomodation with--she's been fighting me!) the Peace Doll I owe for a swap--I've got the pieces made, will post pics once she's assembled. Then I've promised to do an Art Doll--that certainly leaves some latitude!

Computer frustration

2009-12-05T07:42:00.000-08:00

Not only can't I open the backup drive, I can't even find it! Not the physical box--that's here--but there's nothing on the computer that I can even try to access!
The add new hardware wizard doesn't "see" it. There's no icon on my computer page.
It doesn't show up when I go to the systems listing either. I am stumped--time to get technical support again, I guess. I wonder if Vince is up?

Computer dependence

2009-12-05T02:02:00.000-08:00

My PC has crashed--apparently from a combination of a nasty virus and too much dust.
Our friend Vince came by to see if he could start it again after it went into a loop that couldn't quite open Windows, and showed me the dust problem. Apparently the magnetism involved in computer operation attracts dust particles in even the most spotless houses (which mine isn't), and when it builds up to a certain point the fans overheat and fry something--in this case I think the hard drive, and the motherboard succumbed to the virus, but maybe that's backwards. However, the point is that we should all have a nice big can of air next to our computers and open them up and use it to blow the dust out of the fans fairly often.

At any rate, I'm using my beloved Thinkpad, bought for our Europe trip last year, and realizing how much of my life and work is on these machines.
Among other things, all the photos for my stores and of my family are stored on the PC, meaning that I can't post new items without re-taking pics UNLESS I can pull them off my external hard drive, on which I back everything up frequently. I'm about ready to have a run at that--I think most of the photos (except maybe the most recent ones of our newest granddaughter) should be there, but I've never tried to access them. I used to back up on CDs, which took a long time, so when Seth got a newer bigger drive & gave me this one, I was delighted: it can back up not only quickly, but while I'm doing something else. The only question is, can I read it?

I am reasonably computer savvy--at least I know when I've reached the limit of what I can do and need to call for help--but I'm still intimidated about trying new stuff without guidance. I'm pretty sure that attaching the drive to this machine's USB port is safe, and that probably I can access it--but then what? Is it formatted like my computer? Can I just go to the pics? Or will I have to wade through oceans of code trying to find something I recognize?

Well, the PC is over at Vince's undergoing whatever lifesaving procedures are available, so I'll just have to take a deep breath and give it a try.

For anyone else whose relationship to this stuff is similar, I'll report back.

An experiment: etsy team ESST slideshow

2009-12-01T05:27:00.000-08:00

Word is, if I paste this code in the right spot, we can all see a slideshow created by Karen, of Runs With Scissors, featuring members of the etsy Supplies Street Team. I'm on the team, but haven't seen the slideshow & don't know if my shop's featured, but I'm going to give it a whirl.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Art and sales

2009-12-01T00:48:00.000-08:00

I have 2 etsy shops.
The first one, The Creative Block, at www.siragwatkins.etsy.com sells my own stuff, a few vintage items, and the occasional exceptional carving or casting from my international (usually Asian) suppliers.
The second one, Findings, www.leslietsy.etsy.com sells findings, beads, components of various sorts for people who make their own jewelry or whatever.
Of course Findings has many more sales--but just when I'm feeling really discouraged and wondering whether it's even worth keeping The Creative Block online, I'll get a sale.
Tonight was one of those times--the sale was a small one, which is OK--I try to keep a range of prices in the store so just about anyone can afford something--but this was interesting. I have some handmade fused glass pendants and a few other things for about the same price.as well as some pieces I'm really pleased with for more, but what sold was a pair of earrings with tiny Pet Milk cans dangling from a piece of filigree attached to an earwire. I tried to put a link here, but it doesn't work--you can see them by clicking The Creative Block link and going to the sold items list in the lower part of the right-hand column.
Of course I'm happy--it's a sale, and it is something I made--but I also have mixed emotions about these, of all the cool things in my store, being what sold. They're humorous, of course, and nostalgic, and kind of cute, but........
I'm not sure exactly what the word for this is--I think irony may be as close as I can get.
I'm not complaining, mind, just a bit bemused--comments are welcome!

My blog title

2009-11-29T00:29:00.000-08:00

is from a poem by A.E. Housman:
Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows.

What are those blue remembered hills?
What shires, what farms are those?

This is the land of lost content
I see it shining plain
Those happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

I chose the title because sometimes creating art, or trying to create art, seems like that.
It's there--you know it's there--just barely poking out of your subconscious, maybe, trying to break into your consciousness, but you can't quite get hold of it.
Or it's there, full blown, the whole idea, maybe even pictures, just running around in your brain, but you can't see how to get there, or maybe even where to start.
And every so often, of course, you do tap into it, you make something that satisfies you both artistically and technically--and there you are, for a moment, in those blue remembered hils, travelling those happy highways, but briefly, always briefly, until you think "what if I....?"
or go off in some new direction, or around in circles, or maybe back to go and then you can't start again because you know you can't possibly improve on, or maybe even equal, what you've just done.....and so it goes.

I am a word person, but also a tactile artist. I work almost exclusively in three dimensions, in media traditionally associated more with craft than with art---and sometimes what I do is more craft than art, but there are occasions when I think it crosses, or maybe even transcends, that boundary

I have trouble writng about my art, though anyone who knows me will tell you that I can be verbal to the point of overkill on most subjects.
I think that art should speak for itself.
Nonetheless, I am starting this blog to talk about it (and probably other topics) or maybe about how it happens.
I hope it will be interesting.