Luna's Baublebilities

Vintage Fashion

Fail Pass

2011-10-17T09:24:00.001-04:00

Bead Fail!

It was supposed to look like a sea urchin. Instead it looks like a lumpy pile of badly stitched beads.

Bah.

But these are cool. I made them with a cubic right angle weave pattern called "Cactus Drops" by Heather Collin from DreamWeaversStudio. She sells lots of patterns in her ArtFire shop. I found this one to be well written and illustrated. I did a few different things with the embellishments on my little spikes (I never like to do things the way I am told!) - the design is ripe for variations!

I'm having significant trouble getting good photos in my studio lately. (see how gray and shadowy these are? yuck! and that's after tweaking the contrast, highlights and fill light) The angle of the sun just isn't as good at this time of year and it turns out that I spend the best hour of sunlight with Svenya in the barn every morning. Attempts to adjust milking time always seem to fail so I've ordered some special studio spotlights so that I can (hopefully) take photos whenever I want or need to. They should be in this week.

Halloween is coming on waaaay too fast. Maxx wants to be a Barbary Corsair this year. I need to make a pair of Sarouelle pants, a long tunic, a turban and a shiny cloak. Nothing too hard but lots of straight seams and hems to sew. I was worried about cost but then I went through my bins and found a bunch of fabric that was originally supposed to become a quilt for him when he joined our family. It is all in brick reds and golds and will be perfect paired with the scraps from Molly's golden Zombie Prom prom scene dress. And I don't have to spend a dime!

Yay.

Wish me luck. Maxx very firmly instructed me that I was to start working on it this afternoon just as soon as I return from shopping today. We had to discuss the chain of command a bit this morning!

Right Angle Weave

2011-10-03T13:42:00.000-04:00

Here's a collection of beautiful RAW sparklies.

I think I need to look into a few of these tutorials. Love the look of those cactus drops - they've got my brain thinking about all those seed beads stashed in my pantry!

Right Angle Weave

Fine Art Photography

I Should Be Kinder to Myself

2011-09-29T12:43:00.002-04:00

Life has been very busy. I'm not getting much accomplished. I need to learn a new way of managing my days and I've never been very good at it.

Our church's General Conference is coming up this weekend. I like to have an embroidery project to work on during conference because it is like taking notes for me. (I used to take notes - with lots of doodles in them - but Maxx just gets too involved with my writing for that to be useful anymore) Having a piece of handwork that I can go back to helps me remember the spirit of conference and often helps me recall some of the ideas and words that struck me the most. (it's a cognitive thing - some people feel offended that Molly and I do handwork during conference but it really does assist both of us with both cognition and recollection.)

Anyway, I've been trying to think of a good project for a few weeks and last night I remembered an image that really struck me a few years ago so I went browsing around my blog to find the entry where first I linked to it. The image isn't exactly as I remember it but the blog post reminded me of how difficult that period of my life was. Things were so rough and so uncertain.

But we seem to have made it across - or at least half way. We've learned a lot about traversing difficult terrain, anyway.

I need to remember that on days like this when I seem unreasonably slow and unproductive. I will learn and improve. Probably sooner that I expect to.

(And I promise - I will post updates on our kitchen and Ruby Thursday over at the Beorningstead next week. She is beautiful!)

Dagger necklace

2011-09-20T15:39:00.001-04:00

So - I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. It's just that Svenya takes up all of my morning posting time. I've got to get this milking schedule worked out!

In spite of being busy with the cow (and the milk and the cheese!) and living in a messy house - I have been working on some jewelry projects.

Here's the latest. It is insanely sparkley.

Molly insists that if it isn't sold by May, she's wearing it to prom.

I'm really loving right Angle Weave with czech fire polish beads. These are 3mm with dagger beads on the bottom edge. I've got three rows each one is embellished with something differen - 8o gold lined aqua TOHOs, Permanant finish galvanized 11o starlight TOHOs with Gold lined aqua 1.5mm cubes and for the bottom row, these incredible navy/clear Treasureology crystal rounds that I can only get every now and then. I've got to get more. They make me drool.

I love how it drapes and sparkles.

Hope I have time for more!

......

First Week of School Bracelet

2011-09-10T16:08:00.004-04:00

So. I have been sooooo busy. I won't even try to tell you about it. Except you should go look at photos of Ruby Thursday and her mama over at The Beorningstead. They are part of the reason I'm swamped.

School started this week. No tears from anyone.

Molly's music teacher was cut to 8/10ths time or something (thank you, Mr. Cuomo - grrrr!) and cannot do the musical this year. Which is a BIG sadness. One of the other students' moms is a talented Middle School music teacher at another local school and said she might be able to do it - so there is hope. Maybe.

I was straight out this week with orthopedic appointments, back to school stuff, milking the cow and dealing with the milk , etc... But yesterday, I popped over to Kelly Angeley's blog, where she had a photo of her "Better With Crystals" bracelet, for which she is teaching a class on the West Coast later this fall.

Man. I would really like to take that class.

Alas. I live in Upstate NY and have no money so I cannot.

But I was inspired. I didn't have any crystals the right size and only one color with enough 4mm czech polished rounds to make ONE gorgeous bracelet that I think is based on the same Rght Angle weave techniques that Kelly's bracelet is.

Gotta get some more 4mm firepolish beads!

It was a wonderfully satisfying bracelet to make. I got it done in one evening - probably about 4 hours total. It is so rich looking and feels substantial, it is one of my favorites so far.

I love that I found a use for these herringbone drilled pearls that have been sitting around in my studio for 4 years.

I hate that I use almost all of them on this project and have no more left to do similar things with. (Wait - maybe I have some yellow ones. I'll have to go look!)

It was also a very good place for a magnetic clasp. I think anything else would have been too much.

I also opted not to put picots or any other embellishment along the edges of the bracelet. I looked through my stash and found several magatamas that might have done the trick, but everything else just seemed to be acting as competition for the pearls and those great blue cube beads.

This one is in my ArtFire shop. At least for now.

....

Featured!

2011-08-29T09:23:00.001-04:00

What a wonderful surprise!

I discovered this morning that my earrings were featured in yesterday ArtFire collection of the day.

I love ArtFire.

Even though there are thousands of jewelry makers there, every now and then one of my items shows up in a prominent collection because they take such a democratic and inclusive approach to who and what they feature. Thank you ArtFire!!!

Barely There

Curated By: PrettyJewelry...

Jewelry Supplies

Home Again

2011-08-26T13:26:00.000-04:00

So. We've been away for a little while and now that we are home, I am coming to grips with Back to School realities.

In some ways, I hate August. Summer teaches me how much I love my family and enjoy being with them and then September comes and rips them away from me all over again. It is a difficult transition for all of us.

The realities of teacher economies is always difficult, too. It doesn't matter how well one plans - the last two or three weeks of summer are very sparse while we wait for that first paycheck of the academic year to appear.

So this summer, I'm trying a big back to school sale in my supply shop. 30% off everything until September 15th! This collection has some samples - but this is not all that I have. Clicking on an item should take you straight to that item in my shop.

Autumn Supplies

Fine Art Paintings

This is a great chance to grab some wonderful supplies for super cheap or indulge in some of the pricier items I've got right now - like those huge, gorgeous crystal beads or a big assortment of dragonflies or those really luxe TOHO metallics.

I'll try to add a few new things every day. I know I keep promising that - it turns out that I need to re-photograph about half of my inventory before I can list things again. I'll pick away at it - with Bry and the kids going back to school soon, I will have more time to work on that.

Beautiful Sparkley

2011-07-27T10:50:00.002-04:00

Here's my latest project.

I'm really enjoying having all of these beautiful new seed beads to work with. I've reached a point now where I have so many fabulous beads in all sizes, shapes and colors that ideas and inspiration come pretty quickly when I'm in the studio.

I've been making a lot of Right Angle Weave & herringbone bracelets and wanted to work on a choker.

I made Two strips of herringbone weave from the Gold Lined Crystal Rainbow bugles and the Gold Lustered African Sunset cubes. Then I connected them at an angle by attaching a Right Angle Weave medallion I made from the same bugles and the Dark Brass 11o TOHOs. I embellished the medallion with some beads from my private stash - there are some 3mm Swarovski topaz beads, some big FW pearls in a bronze/yellow color, some 4mm metallic carmine red firepolish beads and a little metallic gold magatama. (Trust me - if I find a wholesaler for that bead, I'll put in the shop straight away!) I also embellished the "corners" of the RAW with tiny picots of the Silver Lined Rosaline Pink 15o beads.

I haven't figured out a clasp yet. Molly wants me to put snaps on so the clasp would be invisible but I don't like that idea - it wouldn't be adjustable and I think that even if I custom sized it for a customer, they would want to be able to wear it with a bare neck or over a turtleneck so I need to design a clasp that allows for some variation in snugness. I really should have used a wide link chain and a hook clasp (maybe?) but I misjudged the length of my herringbone strips and they are pretty long.

I think a toggle clasp with some tassels or other weight to pull the back down will be nice. I want the herringbone to lay flat against the neck and not curl or twist as it goes around the neck so it sort of needs to lie at an angle both in front and at back. A tassel or other weighted clasp in the back will accomplish this nicely and add some interest in the back in case someone wants to wear it with a backless dress.

I think there will be about 10 hours total in it when it is finished.

Here are some bracelets I've been working with. I really am loving these bugles for Right Angle Weave. They work up fairly quickly and have lots of sparkle.

The Purple one used Higher Metallic Grape and Rainbow Iris bugles along with some teeny traingles that I've had in my stash for a few years. The toggle for the clasp is made with bugles in ladder stitch. I like that much better than 11o peyote stitch tubes.

The bottom one was made with Matte Purple Iris bugles and the Crystal Rose Gold Lined cubes. You can see here how well those cubes sparkle! The clasp is another - much smaller - RAW medallion.

Hopefully, I will get a chance to work up some tutorials this summer. Our kitchen is almost finished (or at least, the first and most important half of the room is almost done!) so Hopefully I will be able to organize my household a little better in the next couple of weeks and have more time to draw diagrams and photograph processes!

I also want to try some double St. Petersburg stitch bracelets and necklaces. Mortitra has a terrific tutorial on Double St. Petersburg over at Inspirational Beading.

...

Too Many Labels?

2011-07-19T17:42:00.000-04:00

So a few days ago I was looking at my label index on my blog.

It is over 150 items long.

That's too much, right?

I need to go through and pare it down a bit - make categories broader and with less overlap and confusion. Maybe I'll get to that one of these days.

How many do you think is enough without being too much? 25? 40?

Gah! I'm no good at reduction.

Time to wash the dishes, I guess.

(That great photo up top? Molly took that last year at haying time. The same field is being mowed this week - it was re-seeded last fall and they expect a thousand bales from it!!)

Bronze & Brown

2011-07-16T16:52:00.003-04:00

Time for designers and crafters to think about autumn colors!

Beautiful Bronze

More New Beads!!!

2011-07-15T15:16:00.001-04:00

Bronze & Aqua Herringbone

New Seed beads arrived Wednesday!

I finally got them photographed - just need to figure out the per-gram price and get them listed in my shop.

They are so wonderful. I made this lovely herringbone bracelet with Bronze Bugles and Gold Lined Mate Aqua 11's. ( I also discovered that I either need a wrist model or a Photoshop genius - my wrists are just become too wrinkly and furry to look enticing in a product photo.)

Higher Metallic Frosted Copper Twilight

I've got lots of really yummy earthy neutrals/metallics this time and some new shapes.

I've been wanting some of these copper twilight beads for YEARS but never felt bold enough to shell out the cash for them. They are pricey but my wholesaler had a special going this month so here they are!

Gold Lustered African Sunset 1.5mm cubes

These little cubes are wonderful. I used to think I didn't like cubes but that was because I had only used the larger ones. They are pretty limited because of their size and shape but these tiny cubes are wonderful.

Grey & Gold - see how those cubes shimmer?!

My current favorite technique is to use them with bugles in Right Angle Weave bracelets. The gold lined ones I bought (aqua, rainbow crystal and inside color rose gold lined) are particularly amazing chamelions. They either recede into the background of the design, allowing the bugles to take center stage or - depending on how the light hits them - flare up and look as if they are shining hundreds of tiny beacons from your wrist! (Here's one in progress!)

I liked the gold lined aqua 15o beads I bought last time so much that I expanded that color a bit - 1.5mm cubes, 11o and 8o size beads help round it out. (These tiny blue cubes look amazing with matte iris purple bugles.)

Matte Iris Gray

One thing that always irks me about buying seed beads is that colors can be . . . less than perfectly rendered on a monitor or a photograph. (I suspect that lots of sellers shift the saturation balance - those colors are in there but are so subtle as to be almost invisible without a little photoshop "boost")

These beads are Matte Iris Brown which look much more iridescent if you see them on just about any other bead shop's website. I was really excited about them because they just looked so rainbow-y online. I was very disappointed when I opened them. But they are growing on me. If I forget that I was expecting a muted oil slick effect and accept them as wonderfully subtle, soft grey beads that have a slight hint of of an iridescent gleam, they are great. I used these bugles with gold cubes in that bracelet sample above.

Iris Purple Bugle

Silver Lined Mauve Pink 11o

Metallic Purple Bugle

And I suspect that they will pair amazingly well with these Iris bugles.

And - of course, I bought a few knock-your-socks-off bright colors.

The plan is to have all of these up in my Luna's Baublebilities shop by mid-week this week.

Don't forget that I've got great coupons going on for July. Just check the side bar.

15% off everything on orders over $20.00 for Luna's Baublebilities.

And 20% off Custom Order Scarves or Free Shipping over at Goblins' Market.

Stay Sparkley!

.....

Thinking About Color and Kitchens

2011-07-08T16:05:00.004-04:00

As previously mentioned, I have 54 yards of silk waiting to be dyed in my studio. I haven't been able to keep the ~~kitchen~~ studio sink clean long enough to mix up some chemical water to get started. Maybe this weekend? Next week?

We're undergoing some serious upheavals in the kitchen in preparation for cupboards coming on the 16th. They aren't the cupboards of my dreams but I sure am fantasizing about them. No more dusty spice bottles! A place to put glasses and plates and bowls and food!

Plus, I get a real kitchen sink & a dishwasher and my studio sink becomes mine - all mine!

It's going to be awesome.

I think I recall that the map to a real kitchen includes a detour through Hades, though.

I need to be patient.

I have beads coming next week, too. I'm very excited about them. Many of them will mesh well with Pantone's Fall 2011 color forecast. These are yummy colors. (But I think I want to hang onto this summer's aquas & teals, too.)

What is this Blog about, anyway?

2011-07-07T12:06:00.000-04:00

I ask myself that a lot. This month's blog carnival for BlogFire has an open-ended "introduce you blog" sort of theme that has had me thinking about what this blog is all about.

Presumably, this blog is about the running of my business - though relatively few posts actually deal with businessy stuff. It has really become more of a mish-mash of stuff from my life.

There's stuff about my family, including some interesting posts about adoption, toddler adoption and infertility.

I have a few tutorials, a little information about tools and helps for managing books, some blathering about storage and studio issues, a few tidbits about the new house which I mostly stopped posting about here because we (I) started up the Beorningstead blog (which NO ONE else has bothered to post about in spite of giving the two other literate persons in the household administrative rights to the blog.)

I also like to post about projects I'm working on and new supplies. (I'm getting a BIG shipment of more beads next week!!!)

If you spend some time fumbling through my tag index, (right down there -the the left), you might find something interesting. Or you might just notice that this is the blog of a highly disorganized, easily distracted artist/mom with at least a touch of ADHD who hops from project to project & topic to topic and hasn't learned how to impose order or consistency upon any aspect of her life. (boy - do I need to clean up my tags!)

Yup. That pretty much sums it up. Thanks for visiting!

Christmas in July

2011-06-30T11:25:00.000-04:00

O.K. Time to get moving with this whole new, productive studio dream!

Today is the last day of YM camp. Tomorrow I am going to put my husband in the car and we are going to go see what we can do about getting our kitchen finished so that I don't have to share my studio sink with the family anymore. I am determined to have at least a dishwasher next week!!! (cross your fingers for me!)

ArtFire is running a big Christmas in July thing this year and I've decided to participate with both of my shops:

Over at LunasBaublebilities (my supply shop) there is a coupon code available for 15% off everything in my shop. Use it as often as you like during the month of July. Molly and I will move dragonflies over there this week so that you can get the 15% off coupon on those easily. (Right now they are still at GoblinsMarket.)

Visit LunasBaublebilities's Studio

SAVE 15.00 % On
All Items

Use Coupon Code:

CHRISTMASINJULY

during checkout.

Woodwork

At GoblinsMarket there are two coupon codes available. There's free shipping on all ready to ship items all month long.

Receive free shipping on Select Studio Categories

Use Coupon Code:

FREESHIPPING

during checkout.

Handmade Dolls

And here's the really exciting one! All custom order scarves are 20% off all month. If you know that you want to give a scarf or two (or three or four) for Christmas or a fall birthday - pick them up now at a discount and I will dye them up this summer and have them shipped to you in August. This sale brings the price of Alchemy scarves and satin devore down to $32.00 and you can get a gorgeous, heirloon quality hand dyed and beaded silk velvet scarf for $120.00 That's practically criminal!!

Visit GoblinsMarket's Studio

SAVE 20.00 % On Select Studio Categories

Use Coupon Code:

CUSTOMFORCHRISTMAS

during checkout.

Floral Gifts

I'll post more about these offers through July but really - do take advantage of the custom order sale. I can't offer this sort of deal during the fall because I'm too busy keeping local galleries stocked to do lot of custom order work.

Have a shiny day!

Waaay too busy

2011-06-27T10:29:00.000-04:00

It has only been a little crazy here.

You know - broken ankles, new cows and all that.

But it's beautiful.

These apple trees are done blossoming and have hard little green fruits on them. This photo of them in the mist really got my gears turning - I'd love to do an embroidery with multiple layers of hand dyed organza for the misty background and thousands of tiny french knots for the blossoms, maybe when I'm 80 and have time to sit around long enough to get it done!

This Spring Holiday visitor would be fun to embroider, too.

All that texture!

And those gorgeous golden eyes.

.....

Successful Surgery

2011-06-22T18:33:00.000-04:00

My kiddo has a bionic ankle.

Well. She's got some metal in there anyway.

Home. Safe and sound sleeping on the couch.

I still need a house elf.

Two Gorgeous Collections

2011-06-20T07:41:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning to two beautiful collections featuring my earrings. I love it when that happens!

Flowery

Curated By: rlwshkspr

Pantone Color Trends for this Summer - P...

Curated By: Craftemall

Unique Gifts

Finished Choker!

2011-06-16T09:48:00.000-04:00

Remind me to never get a cow and have a teenager break her ankle all in the same week. My house is a pit thanks to exhaustion & all the extra scurrying about on behalf of the ankle and new livestock.

I'll catch up one of these days.

Yesterday, instead of washing dishes, I finished the choker that I posted about earlier.

I think it was a good trade off.

Brown velvet ribbon forms the base for a short bead edged choker.

I used gold lined matte aqua seed beads for the edging on the ribbon and for parts of the fringe. Gold lined rainbow aqua 1.5 mm TOHO cubes, permanent finish galvanized gold TOHOs and some brass beads are also found in the fringe.

Matte Rau Purple TOHO bugle beads in a ladder stitch form the large tubes which are embellished with brass beads, more of those yummy TOHO cubes and some gorgeous Orchid pearls.

I enjoyed this project so much that I'm planning on ordering a bunch of bugles, small cubes and more interesting 11o beads soon. I get very frustrated with the cost and selection of TOHOs on the web (and there's nothing locally) so I'm just going to order them wholesale. They'll land in my shop as soon as I get them here. Let me know if you are interested and I'll give you a shout when they arrive!

....

Oh What Insanity!

2011-06-15T10:20:00.000-04:00

You can read about THE ANKLE INCIDENT and the COW over at the Beorningstead blog.

Things have been a little hectic.

But I'm working on this yummy project today.

The purple raku tubes are bugle beads stitched with ladder stitch and secured in a circle - topped with some yummy cubes. (I'm working on a wholesale order of drool worthy Tohos for later this summer - maybe kits? classes?)

Brown velvet ribbon will be edged with seed beads - tubes, pearls and brass beads will dangle. I'm so excited - I think I'll skip the dishes and just play with beads!

Tassels

2011-06-01T14:07:00.000-04:00

I wish I had more days like this! It is bright and windy out - a welcome change from the oppressive muggy heat earlier this morning. While checking my e-mail this morning, I came across this article from BurdaStyle about tassels and was reminded of this wonderful little tassel that was languishing on my studio shelves, waiting to become part of a finished project.

So - after taking Molly's sparkley dress down to school for her so she can wear it for her performance of Yellow Brick Road tonight (I understand her back up singers & band will be sporting feathered sunglasses) and helping Mom & Dad Burnett with babies and wagons and trucks a bit, I came home and finished a necklace incorporating the lonely tassel.

I managed to finish the project, list it on ArtFire and make a collection featuring some other fun tasseled things from my ArtFire peers. And it is only 2:00. (And I didn't forget to feed the pigs!)

I seem to like this funky purple and green combination. I don't know if it will sell, but my eyes like it.

Tassels

Handmade Soap

And Another Collection Today

2011-06-01T07:24:00.001-04:00

And here's another one - it's not Front Page - yet! But the theme chosen by LuaTuomi is really interesting and features one of my alchemy scarves. :) Speaking of which, I don;t have quite enough color floating around here just now. Must order more silk!

Arabian Nights

Curated By: LuaTuomi

Yaaaaay!!! Front Page!!

2011-06-01T07:17:00.000-04:00

On Monday, i was included in a very nice collection of romantic/Victorian era inspired jewelry curated by Vamp. That collection hit the FP yesterday evening. It is really hard to get good exposure for jewelry so I'm really grateful that she included my earrings in her collection and thrilled that it hit the front page. I love ArtFire and the community there!

Romantic Elegance

Curated By: vamp

Jewelry Supplies

Coupon Expires Friday

2011-05-18T11:15:00.000-04:00

Just a quick reminder that my free shipping for orders over $20.00 expires in my supply shop on Friday.

Getting items uploaded into that shop is taking longer that I expected so if there's something specific you've been waiting for, just let me know and I'll get it in there for you.

Visit LunasBaublebilities's Studio

Receive free shipping on Order Total (orders above $20.00)

Use Coupon Code:

SHOWERS MAKE FLOWERS

during checkout.

Unique Gifts

Friday the 13th

2011-05-12T13:35:00.000-04:00

17 years ago today I was in labor. All day. I had been feeling crampy all day on the 11th (my grandfather's birthday!) but wasn't really thinking anything of it. It was my due date but I hadn't actually done anything, like start to dilate significantly yet and it was my first baby - they're always late. In fact, I was pretty much ignoring the fact that my life was about to change forever and had been working on some watercolor quilt patterns, exploring an idea for a pinwheel quilt.

This one, in fact. Notice that it still isn't quite finished?

When we went to bed that night I discovered that those little cramps were pretty... regular. But they couldn't be labor because, Really? these don't hurt. They're not even uncomfortable. (We endo types often don't now how to labor - early stage labor is nothin' compared to the the days we spend completely drained and incapacitated every month we're not pregnant.)

So when it became clear that these ... cramps?... were taking place every three minutes and that was why I wasn't falling asleep and the hospital was over an hour away, we thought we should call our midwife who scolded us and told us to get to her house NOW and she would drive us to the hospital in her giant station wagon which had been the delivery room for more than one baby in its time.

We got stuck at a railroad crossing for 45 minutes on our way to Angi's. That was when we knew that I was really in labor because the laws of the universe are pretty clear on this point - if a pregnant woman who gets stuck behind a train she must either be in or about to go into labor.

To make a long story short, my labor never progressed beyond 3cm. By dinner time on the 12th, my mom took the clock off the wall of my room and carried it out to the nurses station so it could do its little 15 minute/half hour/hourly chimes SOMEWHERE ELSE. I got tired, I got sore, I got impatient but I never got to transition. That baby (who was facing backwards and who had her little foot crammed up in my ribcage the whole stinking 36 hours that I labored - probably hooked neatly around a rib so as to avoid making her entrance in any but the most dramatic way) was not coming out. Around 10:00 am on Friday, May 13th 1994, they prepped me and took me down for a c-section. I came to - shaking and miserable - to the ER nurse bending over me saying "You have a BEAUTIFUL little girl!"

And she was beautiful. And feisty. When I finished my post-op shaking, they brought her to me screaming. She wouldn't nurse. I sang to her. She looked up - right into in my eyes - and instantly became calm. We've been getting along fairly well ever since.

Music continues to affect her in ways that nothing else can. She has an incredible voice - one that can sail powerfully through the Messiah, croon a soft lullaby for Maxx, blend and support the soprano section through Joy in the Morning or rock out some Journey. (Speaking of Journey- she channels Steve Perry so much better than that new guy. There's something really beautiful and empowering about about hearing your teen daughter belting out "Be Good to Yourself" as she rattles about the house. I hope it is a lesson she is internalizing as she sings.)

My Friday the 13th baby is spirited, soulful, compassionate, firey, mercurial, stubborn, talented, intuitive, beautiful, strong willed, bold hearted, brave, determined, messy, lazy, driven, hyper intelligent, bouncy and 100% herself. She will be 17 tomorrow. I'm trying to come to grips that we've only got a little more time to enjoy her here at home.

Some of you may have read about my struggles with infertility. Molly's presence in our lives has made me wish many, many times that I could have borne more beautiful babies like her. Knowing that I never will makes me realize that I am very blessed. Since I could only have one, I am so glad that it was her.

......

Fun Class, New Baubles

2011-05-09T13:22:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, I taught two jewelry classes in Potsdam for the SLC Arts Council.

We had lots of fun - the best part is that one of my good friends from High School came up for the class. We have talked over the phone a few times and have re-connected over Facebook but this is the first time in over 20 years that we've been in the same room. It was great to see her and play sparklies with her! There's something wonderful about spending time with someone who knew you waaaaaay back when you were young and starry eyed and more than a little stupid. It is nice to see evidence of how age and experience causes us to evolve into our true selves - and to discover that real friends still recognize and enjoy each others' true selves in spite of the intervening years and different lives.

I built a nice little bracelet in class and then came home and made a loooooong necklace to match it. I love these watery blues and coppery browns.

I also managed to get some photos of new bracelets and beads for my ArtFire Shops.

I've been enjoying working with right Angle weave to make these beautiful cuff bracelets.

The top one is in a beautiful silver grey peacock bead and the bottom one is in a Jet Iris finish bugle bead.

And I think I've finally got the finishing touch for a special order project I've been working on for months. I've got extra if you feel a need to splurge on an amazing bead!

Molly took lots of fun photos this weekend. You can see them at the Beorningstead here and here.

On a Sparklier Note:

2011-05-06T10:21:00.002-04:00

I was included in this beautiful collection yesterday.

Twisted or Not Twisted

Curated By: Micah5five

Blossom Pink and Lipstick Red

Craft Tutorials

Warning - Rant Included

2011-05-06T09:54:00.000-04:00

I'm flabbergasted. Have you seen THIS?    If you're not sure what this means - go read what Mike the Mad Biologist has to say about it. Follow his links - scary, scary world out there.

O.K. O.K. I understand that pro-life advocates would like to stop abortions from happening in the US and to some extent, I can understand that some people would think that it is a good idea to place an extra tax on an insurance policy that covers this "elective" procedure. The problem that I have with this is that victims of rape and incest would have to submit legal proof of their abuse to the IRS (the IRS!!! WTbeeeeeeeep???) in order to avoid that tax.

When I posted the petition on Facebook, my friend Diane responded;

"Ok we have government that is having trouble doing their jobs already, and now we are going to add yet another "job"...and to all people the IRS...If those governing are against abortion, then go to through the court system and challenge Roe vs. Wade....isn't that the proper channel?"

She's right.   Having an actual hearing on Roe vs. Wade would be one proper channel to address the abortion problem here in the U.S. I suspect that they aren't really interested in just having a reasonable, fair and democratic discussion of RoeWade. Instead they would rather try all sorts of back alley alternatives that have the potential to subject countless women to all sorts of abusive, government induced humiliation.

ALL of these GOP sponsored anti-abortion bills either explicitly or implicitly target women who have either been raped or victimized and/or who have trouble carrying a pregnancy to term. Georgia had a bill on the books that would have required women who suffer a miscarriage to present their medical records to local law enforcement to assure that they did not seek illegal abortions. Women who miscarried "illegally" would have been at risk for the death sentence. (Seriously! These people are freaking brainless women hating Zealots.)

The IF (infertility) community is following this trend very carefully and doctors & lawyers working closely with IF advocates are warning that these laws the GOP are pushing to try to prevent abortion will make basic women's health care and especially health care for women who suffer from IF much more difficult to access and in some cases, completely inaccessible. Kieko Zoll has a few more pertinent articles and links on her blog - she is a young infertility advocate who is in the thick of the IF Family Planning Nightmare and having to advocate pretty hard for herself to get the care she needs so she stays very current with these issues.

Those supporting these laws and legislators are probably unaware of the potential consequences because they aren't reading the whole legislation. They just hear that it is supposed to limit access to abortion and that makes them happy, because they believe that abortion is the worst possible choice. And, in general, I agree with them on that. The problem is that they aren't thinking about all the possible scenarios.

How about the heatbroken woman who has had 8 miscarriages over the course of years of IF therapy and still hasn't been able to grow her family and NOW she has to hire a lawyer because she's being investigated for murder and at risk of being placed on death row for "illegal abortions" in Georgia?

How about the little girl in Texas who is abused, becomes pregnant and when her family decides that the best course of action is an abortion, she is subjected to an invasive vaginal exam in order to show her pictures of the fetus to inspire guilt designed to make her change her mind. How is that humane? How does that protect the rights of children?

Or how about me? A D&C is a procedure commonly associated with abortions. It is also something that those of us who suffer from endometriosis and other forms of IF have to undergo every few years. It pretty much isn't fun but it does alleviate a LOT of my other symptoms when things are getting really, really bad. It is also used to diagnose cancers and other diseases of the female reproductive system. If H.R. 3 passes, will I have to document my non-abortion need for a D&C? Should the IRS need to worry about my IF care? Do I WANT to have to rehash my extensive gynecological medical history with the TAX MAN every few years??? No Thank You.

If the GOP get their way and start making more headway in womens' reproductive rights, will a D&C suddenly become unavailable to me eliminate one useful, relatively safe medical procedure that actually decreases my suffering and helps prevent the progression of my disease (including potentially reducing my risk of endometrial cancer)?   Could very well be.

You know what? If you are really, really concerned about abortions in the U.S. and you want them to stop, how about you start looking at some other ways to diminish the NEED for abortions instead of intruding on my rights and privacy and that of millions of other American women. I contend that abortions are in high demand in the U.S. because women still (and increasingly) lack the respect and protection of society and because we do not train our Young Men to treat women in a respectful way. Have a listen to this On Point program about women on college campuses. (There. Now are you scared to send your baby to school? You should be.)   Go out and read Gail Dines' book. (Are you sick yet?)    Stop supporting businesses like Marriott who pretend to be clean but who have been raking in the Big Porn cash for decades. (How convenient.)

And when you're ready, ask me about step two. That's all about poor women and their families who have no shot at good educations and good jobs and who don't know where their next meal is coming from. It is about a dramatic restructuring of society so that ALL have access to basic needs and opportunities and so that NONE are victimized or powerless. Abortion would decrease dramatically if there really were no poor among us. Sadly, our society isn't really ready to talk about that yet.

We need to stop pretending that the way to end abortion in America is as simple as making women feel guilty/embarrassed/ashamed or afraid for seeking them. If you look at abortion as the symptom of societal disease, addressing that disease at the end stages is the worst possible approach. It is like trying to cure cancer in the hospice ward. Just about all of your patients are going to die anyway and your treatments will only increase their suffering. A good doctor addresses disease prevention before their patient ever becomes sick.

Start preventing abortion in your own family by raising kids with knowledge of and respect for their reproductive capacity.

Start preventing abortion in your neighborhood by doing what you can to make sure that every kid has access to education, health care, shelter, food and something that inspires them to their greatness. If your neighborhood has got that down, then see what you can do for your further neighbors.

Start preventing abortion by recognizing, calling out and rejecting those who distribute and profit from the sexualization of girls and victimization of women. (reader beware - the feminist fatale link shows actual advertisements that will turn your stomach - or turn you on if your a mysogynst.)

Let's get out of this fantasy land where punishing already victimized women will help prevent the loss of unborn lives and start fighting this war where it begins. In the minds and hearts of our children and in the basic consumer driven values of our society.

There. Rant done. But I don't really feel better.

Significant Progress - for a Slob

2011-04-29T16:03:00.000-04:00

So - in spite of being sick - again. Sheesh. (And - no it's not allergies - I just seem to be susceptible to every stinking virus that comes down the pipe.) I cleaned in the South Studio today.

I actually started in the pantry. It proved to be too cold for canned goods back there this winter - though a side of beef would have done just fine between November and early March - so I moved most of the remaining food stuffs down cellar, threw away what was unusable and claimed several shelves for studio storage.

Then I moved on to the mess on and around the table and counter in the South Studio. Now both the table and counter are clean, many studio related stuffs are stored away in the pantry instead of crammed in precariously stacked little bins under the counter and the floor is clean so I can move around it without tripping over or stepping on things.

BUT in the process of cleaning, I unearthed many, many boxes and piles and tins and bins of stuff that needs sorting and better storage. That all got heaped in the North Studio where I will tackle it tonight - or maybe Monday. I really need to develop a good system for storing works in progress. I'm getting better at storing the finished work carefully in boxes and/or bins and I think I'm getting there with textiles but beadwork - Whew! More than half of what I need to sort through is unfinished beadwork and random beads and findings that didn't get put away when their projects were completed. Oh! The tangles and the dust.

I also need to call AGAIN and find out where my dragonflies are. I've been waiting over two months. If there were another wholesale source I would switch but - alas - I'm getting them from the people who actually make them.

April to August??

2011-04-28T08:43:00.000-04:00

It has been hot and stormy here for the past few days. It feels like we have gone straight from early April to mid August. The leaves are about 3 weeks ahead of schedule and if it ever dries out, Bry will have to mow the lawn. I'll post outdoor photos here or at the Beorningstead when I get a chance to take some. Right now I have a little niece and nephew keeping me busy today.

In the meantime - here's a photo of my daughter's new color. The purple goes well with that orange Zombie Prom shirt, no?

And here are some photos of my needle case in progress. My photography table is still buried in junk (see messy studio photos below) so I took these under halogen lights. NOT a good idea for getting accurate colors. I adjusted the color temperature as best I could but it's still not quite true.

I've got a lot of trapunto and embedded objects going on in the midst of all those french knots and seed stitch. I'm really enjoying the process and am eager to experiment with it some more.

Tomorrow my goal is to get my studio cleaned up a bit so I can get photos of some beadwork I've been working on - some really gorgeous and sparkley Right Angle Weave bracelets, a sample bracelet for my upcoming Herrignbone weave bracelet class and a few bead strung necklaces. I also want to do some silk screening and I need to work on some cotton voile scarves for summer - a new line I'm trying.

So wish me luck- this is what I'm contending with right now. But we've built some new storage and re-thought our se of the pantry space behind my studio so mavbe I'll be able to organize better so I can work smarter in the future. Or maybe I'm just always going to be a slob!

.......

Filling Up my Supply Shop

2011-04-20T21:36:00.000-04:00

I've decided that I really, really miss shipping out hundreds of beads each week.

Actually what I really, really miss is being able to buy thousands of beads every month. It makes me giddy every time a new package arrives.

I'm loving ArtFire and I've decided to just go ahead and fill my new shop to the brim. To celebrate, I'm having a coupon sale - free shipping on orders over $20.00 from now until May 20th. Get the coupon code from the widget in the sidebar here or in my ArtFire shop. Since I'm adding new items every day, you can use the coupon as many times as you want to. If you're looking for something you bought in the past in my Etsy shop that I don't have loaded up in ArtFire yet, let me know and I'll get it in there for you.

Happy Spring. Happy Baublebilities!

Upcoming Class!

2011-04-18T09:15:00.000-04:00

Vacation is over. Time to get back to work.

I taught a fun class to a great group of women this weekend. Everyone responded so well to my hand drawn illustrations that I decided to put the PDF file of my tutorial up for sale in my ArtFire shop. You can now get your own copy of Fringe Benefits here!

I'll be teaching a couple of classes the first weekend of May, too. Earrings and Bracelets. Sign up for one or both through the Arts Council. Suzy made a beautiful poster for my class that's got all the info you need on it.

Another Blue and Green Collection

2011-03-31T08:18:00.000-04:00

Aqua - Pale and Deep

Grainne Helps Out

2011-03-30T15:33:00.000-04:00

Not.

She's very cuddly and friendly and . . . . . difficult to photograph silk with. Luckily the cotton scarves just lie there when she goes by but silk with it's static charge sometimes slithers around or leaps up if she jumps up on the table while I'm photographing something.

And if it moves, she hunts it.

Pesky creature.

Spring Scarves

2011-03-29T15:23:00.000-04:00

Here are some scarves that recently went out to a new home. I'm trying to get the rest of the photographed and loaded into my shop - I'll do it - when I get a day when I don't have doctor's appointments with sick kids or visits to the accountant.

Now I have to go get the house in order. It's a shambles.

. . . . .

Yellow and Orange

2011-03-16T17:03:00.001-04:00

Last one! Or first - depending on how you're approaching them. These are new alchemy scarves - Tracy Bloom gets first pick but if you see something you like, I'll make some up for you, too. You can order a single scarf here:

Alchemy Scarf - Custom Colors!

OR if you need more than 5, we can talk about a wholesale order for you. I keep wishing I could make a matched set of these for a wedding party - as dress sashes or evening wraps. Maybe someday!

O.K. Here are the yellows and oranges!

Blogger is giving me greif about posting all the photos I want to today. I have an eye popping Daffodil yellow that was supposed to turn out as a soft gold but yellow is such an aggressive dye. I will have to order few more subtle base colors for mixing and experimenting with. I have 2 of them in regular length.

Bronze/Gold is just what it says it is. Regular length. You can see it in the edge of the Citrus Orange photo.

Citrus Orange - very looong, very vibrant.

Peach - regular length, lots of variegation.

Ember - a nice, hot orange with heavy resist lines.

Lengths - Short is 1-1.5 yards
regular length is 2-2.5 yards
long is over 3 yards. all Alchemy scarves are 36" wide and edged in shimmery Gold textile paint on the non-selvedge edges to prevent fraying

Blues

2011-03-16T16:48:00.000-04:00

Blue Mist - a soft, silvery blue, some pink splashes from the grey under layer

Regatta - a nice, watery blue - not too green with a strong headwind

Sky Blue - Perfect for cloud gazing

Aquamarine - for all you mermaids. One of these is regular length (2 - 2.5 yards) and one is shorter - about 1.5 yards...

Hmmm - Blogger doesn't like my photo of Aquamarine by itself so here they all are in order.

.....

Purples & Grey

2011-03-16T16:40:00.000-04:00

Hyacinth, long and regular Strangely, the long Hyacinth is has softer variegations in spite of the same treatment as the shorter - just like the Silver Peony in the last post.

Crocus, regular and short

Cloud Cover - the closest I could come to a true silver. It has pink splashes - all of the greys have some form of red or fuchsia in them and it's really hard to avoid speckling - especially since I don't blend my dyes mechanically. I really prefer the magic of hand mixing.

....

Brown & Pink

2011-03-16T16:34:00.000-04:00

Garden - a soft, rich brown leaning toward orange with subtle variegation

Silver Peony - Loooong scarf flat and on a mannequin. and a regular sized scarf flat and on a mannequin. For some reason this one turned out very softly variegated while the regular size of this scarf dyed the same color, bunched the same way in the same baggie of dye as this one turned out with vibrant pink splashes. It's Alchemy - go figure.

Coral Splash - pretty pink with speckled splashed of brighter coral. Yummy.

...

Greens

2011-03-16T16:26:00.000-04:00

For Tracy - a series of posts with new colors to choose from.

Tracy Bloom gets first pick, but if you all see something you can live without just let me know and I'll make it for you, too.

Sage green - flat and on a mannequin. It is a very soft color and a very looooong scarf.

Underbrush - lots of gold. bronze and brown undertones

Poison Apple - shocking. With subtle variegation along the resist lines.

......

Part 1 Done. Mostly.

2011-02-25T17:18:00.001-05:00

So I mentioned in my last post that I am busy sewing dresses for Zombie Prom. I was worried about Molly's because her dress has a curved, dropped waist and she is very curvy and short waisted herself so I thought it would be wise to sew a muslin before cutting up teh expensive fabric.

Well, muslin wasn't on sale at Joanne Fabrics but quilting cotton was and ended up being about the same price as cheapo muslin so we bought a fun chocolate brown with big white polka dots for her "muslin." The result is a fun dress she can wear just about anywhere.

I did have to alter the pattern a bit - the neckline is supposed to have another 'ribbon' of fabric around the top of the neck and then a self-fabric facing but I couldn't get them to lie correctly. My solution? I left off the neck facing and used the second 'ribbon' thingy as the facing for the neck. Not perfect, but it works.

Here's the almost finished product. I need to take it in a bit at the waist. She is soooo skinny around the middle - just like I was once upon a long time ago.

It will look so awesome with her red pumps!

Also - check out the Beorningstead blog for photos of recent bathroom improvements.

P.S. I forgot to mention that she has gone temporarily blonde. Her character's name is Ginger and she thought it would be fun to go ginger for the show. She is liking the blonde but I'm not so much. It's too orange to look really natural but I think the red will be fun. (The last photo is bad - she so exhausted from all the dancing they are dong for rehearsal. This is going to be a very dancy musical - something very different for SLC!)

Now for cutting and sewing the gold and pink fabric for the two "real" prom dresses - one for her and one for the lead, Toffee.

Unearthing

2011-02-23T17:35:00.000-05:00

I can feel it. Spring is coming. I am crawling out my trench.

Slowly.

I was sick again last week - but just for one day and it was such a blissfully complete sickness that I didn't even try to function which is preferable to being marginally sick and incompetent for days on end and trying not to be completely useless. Maxx missed school because I couldn't even get him ready for the bus. He watched movies all day and drank juice boxes & ate crackers. I lay on the couch and slept once I dragged myself out of bed to fix the fire. It was horrible. And then it was done.

Saturday several men from Church came to help Bry with wallboard in the bathroom because there was some drama with the Housing Council - which is a post for another day at the Beorningstead. I'll link there when I get it written. It has been so wonderful to get so much help with the place. It is so sweet to flick on a light and remember that Karl, Josh, Heather & Joan helped us with wiring last winter or to turn on the water and remember that Ken, Tom & Irene helped us get the well working again in the dead of winter. Turn on the fireplace and feel the warmth that Meemo wants us to have and enjoy the skeleton of the hearth nestled between the beams that Brothers Barker & Nason helped Bry & Ken build. Not to mention hours of help from Jonathan, Cam, Dale, Greg and just about every priesthood holder in our branch and several from the larger district. Everywhere I look in our house, I can see and touch manifestations of the love & service of others.

That helps immensely with the long, hard crawl out of the trench.

Another thing that helps is to have projects with deadlines. I've got a couple of wholesale orders that need to go out soon. Good stuff. And I'm helping sew two costumes for Molly's school production of Zombie Prom. It is set in the 1950's and they need a couple of prom dresses. These are Vintage Vogue - this top one is Molly's and the bottom one is for the lead girl. I was intimidated at first, but the muslin for Molly's bodice came together pretty easily and Vogue's instructuions are pretty thorough and the patterns are well made - I think it's gonna be O.K. If not - it just has to look good from the back row, right?

And my Sister in Law tagged me for a Stylish Blogger award. I'll cover the details on that later this week - right now I need to go get my little (now blonde) actress and get ready to deliver her to a YW sleepover.

. . . .

Soon?

2011-02-14T10:05:00.000-05:00

I may get my studio back soon. It is so much warmer. 20 below tonight with the windchill but up to the 40's by the end of the week. That's according to Todd Moe - he's got good info.

Yes. I know it is still February. But we're half way through and just about done with the bitter cold.

Soon we'll start seeing little red nubs of birch trees and tiny green shoots in the lawn.

I'm slowly coming out of my rut. Turning off the computer helps. A lot.

So did getting out of the house Saturday. We spent 3 hours with Maxx at the Doctors to find out that he's allergic. To everything.

Except dogs.

Then we saw the ice castle (I forgot the camera - darnit) and ate junk food and listened to The Promise on the longer than usual car ride through the blizzard. (Vintage Bruce helped more than I expected, too.)

It was a good day.

Here's a green collection.

Soon Spring

Vintage Fashion

Indigo

2011-02-11T08:49:00.000-05:00

I am color starved.

Must clean off that dye table.

Doodles - I know, I know. Soon.

Indigo

Aqua for the Winter Blues

Aqua for the Winter Blues

2011-02-08T20:27:00.000-05:00

Getting better. Enjoying the new fallen snow. Every day.

But not so much the cold tonight.

I owe you all a doodle for last week. I'll post one tomorrow.

In the meantime, enjoy this new collection.

A Cure for the Winter Blues - Warm Citrus

Craft Supplies

Orange

2011-02-01T11:30:00.000-05:00

Ug. I'm still so sick. Worse today than the last few days. Blah.

So I made some Orange juice and an Orange Collection to cheer myself up.

Tangerine, Mango and Lime

I really need to get well.

For February, I will try to make 3 collections a week. I also need to finish several projects each week. My inventory is low at the SLC Arts Council gallery and in my ArtFire shop. I'm moving all of my supplies to LunasBaublebilities on ArtFire - I know! That's a shift. The Baublebilities shop will hold . . . baubles . . . and the Goblins' Market shop will hold my finished creations and, eventually, some of Molly Bryn's work. She's doing some pretty funky things with jeans lately.

Welcome to my BioRythmic Trench

2011-01-28T10:03:00.000-05:00

Let's face it. I'm depressed. It's January. It has been freakin' cold and a lot of the supplies I had stored in my South Studio (enamel paints for filigree, acrylics, specialized glues for jewelry and textiiles) froze and are ruined because we had to seal off that section of the house in order to make headway in the battle against Winter.

My North Side Studio looks like this.

It is the only warm spot in the house some days and this is where everyone wants to huddle. My dye table is covered with other people's junk and stuff from other projects that I would rather do in the South Side studio but can't. Because it is cold.

See the plastic? Some days it billows out like there is some enormous, liquid animal trying to push it's way through into the rest of the house.

The kids have been hacking and snotting and puking for over a week. I've had a low level of ongoing physical malaise for most of the month. I've been mentally incompetent and my work ethic is just gone. Completely.

The other day I took some time to thumb through some old journals because I wanted to revisit some favorite doodles. And because I was too lazy to get up and do any actual work. I discovered a few things;

First, I was a much more interesting person before I became Maxx's Mommy. I think that I might become more interesting again in the future - I remember feeling pretty burdened and lame when MB was small, too. (So - if you have a friend who used to be lots of fun, deeply intellectual, insightful, creative and generally good to talk to and she now has kids and is a total bore - be nice to her, O.K? It sort of sucks sometimes to have that part of yourself forced to the back burner or into total hibernation so that you can manage your kids and house and etc...)

Second, I found a great doodle I made during a talk by Pres. Monson during the April 2006 general conference. Isn't he adorable? Don't you feel bad for him?

Third, I found a good prose poem that applies pretty well to my state of mind this month. I scribbled it sometime between 8/2000 and 5/2001 - certainly it is a winter poem and was written before we had to put our old Springer, Roxanne, down. I miss her.

I know that what I need is to get the house clean, get some exercise and banish everything but fabric and dye from my North Studio & give myself permission to drag some beads and findings from the frozen tundra to the livingroom. Emmeth encourages this. He would like to help build a necklace. Or take one apart.

Anyway - here's the poem. Careful. It's ugly.

Welcome to my BioRythmic Trench

a trench = a ditch; a place to channel unpleasant/unwanted stuff from one place to its disposal; a place for smelly men with guns to lie in while they reload and to crouch in while they fire at the enemy; a long hole in the dirt; a place where people piss;

an entrenchment = a thing that soldiers dig and build to keep people out - to keep the enemy on the other side.

Who's the enemy???
Surely it is this old dog.

Blind, deaf, lazy, fat, stubborn, inconvenient.

I could just kick her.
But I don't
I know how she feels.

Weekly Doodle

2011-01-21T14:50:00.000-05:00

Still contemplating my course. Still fighting off this cold.

Here's Doodle #2

Inspired by Chris Neri's photo of a Red Tailed Hawk over on Night Flight Images.

Go take a look at the rest of their photos - really beautiful work. Chris & Nova have some of their gorgeous prints at the SLC Arts Council gallery in Potsdam. Nova is a North Country Native with connections to St. Lawrence Nurseries. The best place to get edible landscaping in Upstate NY!

Now I know

2011-01-18T08:25:00.000-05:00

Why Molly and Bryan and Maxx were so down and out last week.

Sore throat. Headache. And worst of all - an internal not feverishness but shakiness, imbalance, a palsy of the bones or something of that sort. Weariness and incapacity.

Not to mention the deep cold that wants to sink into the rooms of the house. I must fight it off with wood and coals all day.

Ginger & lemongrass tea and a nap maybe? There's oh, so much to do...

January Rut

2011-01-14T10:39:00.000-05:00

January is proving to be a challenge this year.

The news from Tuscon makes my heart sick.

You can read about house progress (or lack-thereof) over at the Beorningstead but my difficulties go a bit deeper than just the construction project.

Molly is struggling with some very unexpected back to school problems. It's not really anything I want to get into publicly but it has thrown into high relief my fears and frustrations with the drama and social stupidity of public school - even though this particular drama isn't restricted to school nor is school the root cause, it has proven to be a very effective catalyst. Add this to my growing frustration with her academic work and I am very, very tempted to bring her back to Home-school. Her Global Studies book covers all of world history up to the modern era in fewer pages than the supplementary text we used for the Renaissance in the second half of 7th grade, is written at a lower level than anything we used after 6th grade (when we weaned ourselves of from public school texts) and is full of HUGE pictures and many bullet points. Honors English is reading A Tale of Two Cities right now, which is review for Molly and they aren't covering half of the information that we covered in home school. Her teacher didn't know what Cruncher is complaining about when he accuses his wife of "floppin'" against him until Molly explained it in class. (HONORS ENGLISH!! Sigh.) I'm appalled at how sub-standard her education is turning out to be in High School.

She's still in public school this week because: (1) her voice teacher is Awesome and is really stretching Molly's vocal skills. I can't do that at home. (2) She is making friends, slowly, with kids she hasn't been going to Church with all her life. And (3) she's got a great Math teacher this year and is actually doing fairly well with math.

I'm also overwhelmed with paperwork - for the house, for the taxes, for my business. I've spent the last two weeks trying to convince myself to go into the freezing cold closet which used to be a shower, dig out all of the paperwork and start putting all of the pieces together. I really don't want to. But I will have to start Monday. I also have to pull my business into some semblance of order online - actually building a site (or at least a landing and launching pad) on GoblinsMarket.org, sorting out my supplies from my finished work, revamping my shops, etc...

But there are some bright spots. For the next couple of weeks I'm taking a class on Tarot symbolism from my friend, Rich Tenace, and I'm really enjoying the class. Don't worry, LDS friends, Rich and I are not going all Occult and Satanic on you. The main goal of the class is to explore symbols and learn how meditating on symbols can clue us into things that we already know in within our intuitive selves or sub-conscious mind. It has been useful for me as I try to navigate (and help Molly navigate) the difficult social rapids we have encountered this week as some of the symbols have helped me remember and call upon skills and insights I learned during and as a result of my own difficult teen years.

I'm trying to spend more time and energy creating and doodling as I contemplate where I want my creative path to lead me and how I want that path to merge (or not merge) with my business. I am starting a Doodle of the Week feature - On weeks that I'm not completely overwhelmed, I will be posting a weekly doodle on Fridays (?) Here's the first one.

The days get longer. This is a good thing.

. . . .

Another Gorgeous Hand Dyed Velvet Scarf

2011-01-04T10:53:00.000-05:00

I got a last minute Holiday Commission to make a hand beaded, hand dyed velvet scarf in sage green with rose accents.

I wasn't really sure how it would come out, I don't usually work in "subdued", you know.

But, Wow. I hated to send it away so fast.

. . . . .

To Sum it All Up - in 20 Minutes or less.

2010-12-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

What a year.

Here's where I was in January.

We've come a long way since then. We are in our new house. My new studio is functional when it is clean - though a bit chilly this time of year. The rest of the house is coming together and every project we finish in the rest of the house frees up time & space in my studio. (You can read more about our project on the house over at The Beorningstead.) I've developed some new product lines and I'm slowly learning how to manage my studio time better.

I still haven't gotten to finishing those tee shirts yet but I keep playing with screen printing design possibilities and I'm feeling almost brave enough to actually get one started.

Maxx is doing much better. Fewer fits, more friends at school, generally healthier. He is learning how to read - though it is a real struggle, especially compared with Molly who was reading almost straight out of the womb. His math skills are excellent. He is happier at Church and more likely to interact in lessons and pay attention and process information well. As much as I worry about some of the pitfalls of public education, I know that Maxx is really benefiting from the environment and services he enjoys in his classroom. His teacher this year is incredible!

Molly is doing well at school. She is admittedly bored and frustrated with the History/Social Studies and Literature classes. She loves many of her teachers, is doing surprisingly well in Math and thrives in Music class. You should hear her incredible voice. Her range has expanded and she is quite a chamelion - she can sing in a very mature, sophisticated, operatic style or she can jazz it down quite a bit. She had callbacks for the musical last night - we'll find out this afternoon what part she gets.

Bry has a job he likes - though it is over an hour away from home. We're struggling with how long he is gone every day. Luckily, his supervisor is very understanding and has encouraged him to take his time and be wise about traveling on the bad roads this winter. His assistant lives 5 minutes from the school so if the roads are awful or impassible out our way, he can take some extra time getting in. He has reached a level of frustration with the house because he has so few hours to work each day. We're really looking forward to some holiday time to work on the house and relax this week.

I am healthy-ish. What a pleasant surprise that has been. Last fall, I was beginning to think that I would rather just die and get it over with than continue to suffer with so many viral illnesses and subsequent sinus (or ear) infections over and over again. Why am I healthy all of a sudden? I think there are several factors: Maxx's immunity is a bit stronger than it was so he's sick less often and not mixing up as many mutations for me. Using Progest has had a profound effect on my entire body. I am entirely convinced that my endocrine system was completely off kilter and estrogen dominant for most of my life (WHY couldn't doctors have figured that out 20 years ago???) and the Progest has given me a balance that I've been needing for decades. Everything is better. Except maybe my weight - that is proving to be a bit difficult but I have established an equilibrium in the last couple of months and hopefully that means I'll be able to start bringing it down instead of watching it continue to creep up.

I have left Etsy. I cannot begin to tell you what a tremendous relief that is. My cash flow has taken a painful hit but I'm no longer playing the re-newing game and spending dozens of dollars each week just to keep my items in a search. Want to read more about Etsy Fail? Look here. I'm not going to talk about it anymore.

Now I'm examining my business plan again - or still. There are several issues that I need to resolve in the coming weeks and I'm looking forward to taking a few days this holiday to contemplate my business goals and personal goals and how I will get them to mesh comfortably this year. Mostly, I want to be a healthier, less-stressed mom and create more. I really want to get back to writing and Complex Cloth. Most of my dyeing in the past several years have been targeted for mainstream sales - which is great. We all love having those glorious silks floating around on rinse days. I also want to experiment with some more in-depth surface design techniques. Hopefully I can make time and space for that in my life next year.

. . . .

Another Front Page Appearance and Recent Work

2010-12-16T08:47:00.000-05:00

So -

I am totally and completely overwhelmed right now.

But things are good. Or mostly good. Just very, very busy and I am very, very disorganized and slothful. So that = Overwhelmed.

Here is a gorgeous rainbow Adventure scarf. The photo is not good. That blue is really an intense cerulean and the purple there near the edge is capable of burning your retinas out in real life. Think Lisa Frank rainbows and unicorns but with less glitter and more sheen and you'll be close. This scarf and it's velvet twin are going to the Arts Council today along with a few teal blue scarves for your buy local, buy handmade gifting pleasure. (If you are not local and absolutely must have one of these rainbow scarves NOW or you will DIE - send me an e-mail or contact me through Facebook or my ArtFire shop and if the scarf has not been sold in the gallery, I will retrieve it for you and ship it to you in time for Santa.)

(Again - don't let this blue fool you. It is bright cerulean turquoise blue, not midnight blue and that dark plum - screaming royal purple. Neither of our cameras will take a good shot of these scarves because there is too much color information and the poor little pixels get all confused about what hue they are supposed to be.)

here's another collection that landed my earrings on the FP of ArtFire and made my stats skyrocket again. I wish I could hug EarthMotherMosaics! Thank You!

Curated By: EarthMotherMo...

Last but not least - here is the Genesis of what I think is going to eventually become a gorgeous piece of Art Cloth. It is a bamboo/cotton blend that I scrunched almost to death, shoved tightly into a container and dumped some Teal Blue dye over. I love that crackley kaleidescopic look of the dye patterns.

ArtFire Front Page

2010-12-07T06:54:00.000-05:00

In checking through my stats this morning for my ArtFire shop, I noticed that visits skyrocketed on Sunday. That made me happy but perplexed. Perhaps this Front Page Collection had something to do with it?

Quintessential Girl

Curated By: BeautifulAddi...

I Will Reduce my Risk by . . . . .

I love ArtFire's Front page. Etsy has developed a very predictable look for their FP and they use a very rigid set of criteria for choosing FP items. It always looks clean and . . . predictable. ArtFire surprises me every day. Sometimes the collection is bright and wild, sometimes muted and soft, sometimes supplies are featured, or "crafty" crafts, sometimes wall art, photography or jewelry or a color theme is featured. Sometimes one of my products turns up there.

Thank you, BeautifulAdditions, for including my dragonfly in such a great collection. And thank you, ArtFire for putting in on the FP!

Artsy Science - Gorgeous Photos

2010-12-03T08:54:00.004-05:00

I popped over to Kingdom of the Blind today to see an intriguing photograph of a Rat's hippocampus that was the 2nd place winner in the Olympus Bioscapes International Digital Imaging Competition. (Amazingly artful life science photography using digital devices.)

Melody and her co-contributers live in Australia and work for the Queensland Brain Institute. Kingdom of the Blind is part of the Culture at Work project. Melody has done many embroideries exploring the structure of the brain in various stages of health and disease. It's really a fascinating project within Australia's wonderful endeavor to tie the worlds of science and art closer together.

I was very grateful for the link to the Photo contest. I remember being impressed with 2009's winners but that was a whole year ago and I forgot to go back to the site for more inspiration what with all of the packing and moving and construction and general chaos running rampant around here.

I see lots of textile possibilities in these winners and runners-up. How about an embroidered Dragonfly eye?

Or maybe DaddyLonglegs eyes? (Both eye photos by Dr. Igor Siwanowicz from the Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology, Munich, Germany.)

Molly thought some screen printed pattern designs would be awesome - Silk Diatom Dress, anyone? Yes, please! (Photo by Dr. Michael Shribak over at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. Dr. Shribak obtained this image of Diatom arachnoidiscus using incredibly cool techniques he and his team invented and are exploring with the video enhanced polychromatic polarized light microscope. Click on his name above to find out a little more.)

Please visit the website to see all the winners and honorable mentions. This work is simply incredible.

Thanks to Drs. Siwanowicz and Shribak for their permission to post their photographs here.

A Gift for Me

2010-11-30T10:18:00.000-05:00

Today I broke down and ordered a couple of samples of mineral makeup foundation. I'm trying to wean myself and our family off from commercial product that contain xeno-estrogens and endocrine disruptors. Molly Bryn has many, many strange difficulties that seem to be related to her hormonal state, which has gotten worse lately. We definitely need to cut out commercial meats - easier said than done when we don't have our cow or chickens or piggy yet. Beans, anyone?

My own levels have been much more manageable for the past couple of years but a recent discussion with Bing from Natural Way in Massena alerted me to the fact that our personal products may pose as great a risk as the food we eat - more in some cases as cosmetics are not regulated in the same way as food.

Skin Deep manages a website which includes a tool that will allow you to see the risks associated with the cosmetic an personal care products you use. I use the palest shade of foundation I can find that does not dry my skin. Sadly - it has a rating of 7 in terms of toxicity because it is so pale. It looks like something I should avoid. As do our soap, our shampoo, our conditioner and my favorite lipstick.

So today, I ordered a couple of sample colors of foundation from Pink Quartz minerals. I'll let you know how it works for me. One thing that is really nice about these mineral makeups is the sheer number of color choices. Look at all those foundation tones! Have you looked at the eye shadow possibilities? Pink Quartz has tons! At the drugstore, we are held hostage to the whims of the Runway when it comes to color.

Molly and I would like one of each, please!

You can read about our color plans for the Beorningstead here!

More Holiday Handmade Wishlist items

2010-11-29T08:52:00.000-05:00

O.K. so this is a stretch for our budget. More than a stretch. I've owned cars that cost less than this - but it is worth every penny. I would LOVE to someday own something beautiful from Dryad Studio and this would look so wonderful in my new house.

More Handmade Rings

2010-11-23T09:25:00.000-05:00

Another shop that Molly and I have been looking at for alternative Class Rings is Billy Reb's Manufacturing.

Billy specializes in Medieval, Gothic, Skull and Biker Jewelry. He has an ArtFire shop and a website. It looks like his website contains items that he produces regularly and the ArtFire shop is for more one of a kind pieces.

Some of you may find it strange that Molly and I have been considering asking a guy who makes biker jewelry to make a graduation ring for her.

You know, I do have a faux biker jacket. I bought it because

- I was the last one in the family without a pleather jacket
- it was the right length and fit nicely
- it was on sale
- and it says "Somewhere inside this soft, middle aged LDS woman with a braid and progressive bi-focals is a rebellious soul who won't listen to any of your conformist crap."

(did you find the irony?)

Anyway - we liked the look of several of his Medieval rings including the one with the Orange CZ and the Green Crusader ring and we suspect that with his background, he might be a good bet to custom make a graduation ring for Molly Bryn. He's got very strong design skills, decades of experience and his jewelry is bold and very well crafted.

And I sure wouldn't mind finding something like this in my stocking:

ArtFire Contest! Buy Handmae This Holiday Season!

2010-11-22T09:21:00.000-05:00

ArtFire is running a Promote Handmade contest this season. Anyone can enter and you can read about the contest here.

The requirements for entry are to find a handmade item you like, blog or tweet about it and post your link on ArtFire's Handmade Gifts Facebook page. I would love to win one of their cool prizes but more importantly, I want to help other people find wonderful hand crafted items to give as gifts or buy for themselves. I love real-live-artists and I want to contribute to their success. Today, I'm featuring some beautiful rings by LinneaSilver. Here's why:

Molly Bryn came home a few weeks ago with a flier from Jostens and spent several days on the Josten's website designing a ring. A $350.00 ring, which is about as inexpensive as they come unless you want to but their ugly-butt cheapo $75.00 ring that no teenager really wants to wear. It was perfectly clear that no one in this household had that sort of cash for a ring this year so she was content to wait and start saving her pennies for next year but then . . . I spent a night laying awake feeling sick about ever spending that sort of $$ at Jostens.

You've heard my School Photo rant?

Same thing with class rings. Let me tell you a story.

Back in the day you waited until mid year Junior year to get your class ring and they arrived just before the end of the school year - you know - just to be reasonably sure that parents who shelled out big bucks for a class ring would have a graduation to attend in the same year listed on the ring. So in 1987 I happily browsed through catalogs of designs and chose a ring and my dad handed over an astoundingly large chunk of cash and I skipped down to the Jostens booth in a dark corner of the lower floor of the school to order my ring and get my finger sized.

My fingers are really small. Really really small. My wedding band is a size THREE & 1/2

The Jostens salesman would not accept the fact that I have very long, skinny fingers. He insisted that my fingers were only so skinny because it was a cold day and they must be shriveled up or something in the cold. He refused to sell me a ring the right size. So the day that everyones' rings arrived, I happily took out my ring and wore it with my fist clenched tightly so it wouldn't rattle off my hand. I've taken the ring in twice to be re-sized and they've never gotten it right.

Knowing what I know now about the commercial jewelry industry, they probably can't make a ring the right size for me and can't re-size the one I have without losing the stones because they made it so stinking big to begin with. (It has fit for only the last year or so with the extra 40 pounds I'm carrying but I'm hoping that won't last for very long - when the weight comes off, the ring will again be too large.)

I also know that their retail mark up is despicably large. The ring MB was looking at was actually pretty small, made out of some cheap metal alloy with faux stones in it. The rings are mass manufactured - yes, there are custom additions - name, school name, date and maybe some special club names or something but all of that stuff is pretty easily switched out in their process. I get the trade catalogs. I know that the materials costs for these rings are under $30.00. The other $300+ are going straight into ad campaigns, traveling salesmen's expense accounts and some CEO's pocket. You can bet your booties that no real-live-artists are seeing fair value for their labor in their plants. (To be fair - they do seem to have a clean environmental record and their manufacturing facilities are here in the states but I have heard lots of complaints about their quality and customer service.)

So, I'm having a hard time justifying spending that kind of money on something commercially made. Especially with a company that provided me with such poor customer service. However, I love the idea of getting Molly a very special ring made out of real jewels and precious metals, to commemorate her school accomplishments and graduation. Molly and I are now looking at ArtFire jewelers to see what other options are out there and we will probably contact a few of them eventually to see if they are interested in making a special real-live-artist made class ring.

LinneaSilver has some really beautiful things in her regular line. She might be a good bet for a custom piece sometime in the next couple of years. Molly Likes the celtic design and the southwestern looking one. I like the medieval textured band with the carnelian set in. All of them look very well crafted. At the prices these are listed at, these rings would make great Christmas gifts! The best part - if you buy one, you know that your money is going straight into a real-live-artist's checking account to help pay bills or feed her kids or buy more silver (which is skyrocketing, this month, BTW) or take a much needed vacation. That's SO much more fun than throwing your cash into the maw of some giant corporation this holiday season.

I'm Featured!

2010-11-19T21:01:00.000-05:00

Morita of Inspirational Beading has been doing a series of interview with other beaders on her blog and today she published an interview with me! I'm so pleased. She took the time to post some gorgeous photos of my work and she made me sound like an expert.

Go take a look at her site - she posts regularly and has some very interesting things happening on her blog right now.

Potty Talk

2010-11-17T11:19:00.000-05:00

"Maxx, what are you doing in there?"

"What does it look like to you?" (shouted through the open bathroom door)

"I don't know, Maxx, I don't like to watch people when they are in the bathroom."

silence. . . . more silence.

"Maxx, I'm thinking you had better wipe your butt."

"How do you know I need to wipe my butt?" (closes door, begins making sounds of frustration and annoyance)

Boy continues to make strange and incoherent noises for 5 minutes, refusing to answer questions seeking to diagnose the problem from behind the door. Mom enters, discovers that a bum definitely needs to be wiped, that no attempts to self-wipe have been made and that at this point she must resort to using wet TP to clean the problem area.

This is not unusual. Maxx was very slow to potty train. He still does not stay dry at night and often needs to be reminded to pee during the day. Research shows that FAS kids, especially boys, have problems with toileting issues well into late adolescence because the neural pathway that the bladder and bowel use to tell the frontal cortex that a potty stop is urgent is fried before birth. We see that all the time - the boy will dance around holding his parts but insist that he DOES NOT need to pee until you physically place him in front of the toilet. Lo and behold - it WAS urgent! He occasionally has very unfortunate accidents because his bowel can only give him a few brief moments of warning before he needs to get to the toilet.

Now we are struggling with wiping the bum. He was doing fairly well for a little while after I pronounced that I was Done wiping his bum this summer. His bum is now (supposed to be) his responsibility. Sometimes he is successful. Lately, he actually seems to be using the butt wipe problem to raise my irritation level. He will get to the bathroom on time but then sit there for a long time - until wiping is um. . . more difficult than it needs to be. This might be a good sign. He may be processing a cause and effect and be experimenting with the outcomes of different actions. He may be consciously resisting one more inevitable step toward independence. He may be seeking to prolong his dependence on me for the sake of attachment.

He may just be trying to make me furious.

My sister-in-law suggests a funky green frog shaped container of wet wipes.

It's on the shopping list.

Speaking of potty talk - I started reading Gaiman's American Gods a few days ago.

He's playing with some very interesting concepts in the book but . . . I'm finding that I frequently need to skip several pages at a time. I'm not sure I will be able to justify finishing the book. Call me a prude, but I don't read R and X rated stuff. It frustrates me that so much of that seems to be here. I love Gaiman's writing. His imagination is brilliant and his voice and characterization are rich and satisfying. There are some aspects of imagination that I think should be kept private. I don't like to read about explicit sex or violence. It's getting harder and harder to find fiction that avoids graphic descriptions, especially in fantasy.

Sigh. I've included links throughout this post for some other Gaiman books that I've read that I feel confident about keeping in my house. (Someday Maxx will be interested in reading the sort of stuff Gaiman writes - he doesn't need to have that sort of graphic stuff inserted into his imagination, either.)

I've been so busy . . . .

2010-11-15T10:15:00.002-05:00

that the Neil Gaiman book I bought last Monday is still sitting on my night stand unopened.

Did you process that? I have had an unread book - an unread book by Neil Gaiman - sitting practically untouched next to my bed for a week. (confession - I did read the first page last night before Bry came up to bed. Maybe I'll get to read some more on the treadmill later this morning.) (Edit - CAUTION! I cannot recommend this book to LDS friends and family members. I love Neil Gaiman's writing and was aware of the fact that some of his short stories are a bit . . . beyond racy. I still wasn't prepared for what I found in this novel based on the others I have read. - more about that in this post here.)

I have orders to ship today- yay! I'm trying to upload more beads and brass findings into my shop this week as well as paint more scarves, paint the bathroom and finish a custom jewelry order. Plus I brought Amelia home to her new studio on Saturday so I can finally photograph some of my new scarves.

Speaking of scarves - I have a new coupon code for jewelry and scarves - free shipping! From now until mid- December.

Enjoy!

Studio Tour and Holiday Sales

2010-11-08T12:39:00.000-05:00

Well, Studio Tour was a bit of a bust. Which is O.K. I was still feeling pretty worn out on Saturday and had several coughing fits triggered by trying to speak - the few people who did stop in mostly got to hear me cough.

The up side - we got the house clean. My mom is a hero. She has got the same miserable virus that I have been fighting off for a week but she came by on Friday to help me get the mess under control. My studio looked pretty good in spite of obviously being under construction.

I got lots of scarves dyed last week and my studio is now in working order so production from here on out should be easier and more fulfilling. I have a tentative wholesale order for Alchemy scarves - once that customer chooses her colors, I will post the remaining ones up in my shop. I'm still having lots of trouble photographing velvet scarves. I might actually have to set up a light tent.

Oh - and today starts my Supply Sale. From today until the end of the month, all supplies in my Goblins Market shop will be 15% off. Use the coupon code THANKSGIVING SUPPLIES at checkout. I'll be adding lots of bead kits and mixes during this time frame for those who want to make handmade gifts for Christmas. I'll even gift wrap your supplies if you request it - I know lots of people who think beads are awesome things to find in your stocking!

Etsy Strike

2010-11-06T12:27:00.000-04:00

Etsy Bitch is calling for a Strike this weekend.

Probably no one will see my banner in my shops because I've been in vacation mode since August but I'm striking anyway. On behalf of those who are still trying to eeke out a living by selling handmade.

Please shop at ArtFire. They do much more to make Artists' lives better.

Sinus Infection

2010-11-04T07:56:00.000-04:00

wow. I have not felt this awful in a year. The timing is horrible. I was supposed to work today,but considering that I can't even sit up straight or keep my eyes focused or stop the effusion of horribleness coming from - well, suffice it to say that I'm sick and unpleasant about the face today.

The real miracle of all this is that I haven't been this sick in a whole year.

The first three years Maxx lived with us, I was sick more or less like this every 3-6 weeks. Maybe not this bad every time, but seriously unwell with some viral cocktail or another that the boy mixed up to share with me. It was bad in pre-K and got much worse in Kindergarten. In 2009, I think I used twice as many antibiotics as in the whole of my life leading up to that year -

)News Flash - strange shimmering stuff going on at the edges of my field of vision . . . that's new. Guess I had better call the doc to see if that's related to that junk she gave me to squirt up my nose as soon as they open.)

- Then last year, I caught Swine Flu and suffered the Ear Ache fro Hell and then was . . . . better. Great, even. It was as is Swine Flu had cured me of everything. I started using ProGest in January 2010 as well, and that made a definite difference with my entire endocrine system. So I've been very healthy for almost a whole year.

And now I realize that I had a darn good reason for gaining 20 pounds, being depressed and unproductive and miserable. I felt like this all the time. Hopefully, I will feel better next week. Hopefully I will learn someday how to be productive again and keep the house clean-ish again. In the meantime I'm going to call the doctor and go back to bed.

Adoption!

2010-11-03T09:22:00.000-04:00

November is National Adoption Month.

We just voted. Did anyone have anything to say about adoption? Not that I'm aware of. We were all just too busy pointing fingers at each other and assigning blame for economic ills. It would be nice to have the issues of Adoption and Infertility to come to the forefront of national attention.

In an effort to raise awareness, I'll post a few things about Adoption this months. To start out, Here's a list of links to some things I have written in the past about our family's experiences with Adoption.

Here is our rather long adoption saga:

Here's a slice of Toddler Adoption Reality

Here are a couple of posts abut the challenges of parenting an adopted Toddler - one centering on health and one on . . . shoes.

If everyone were fertile when (and only when) they wanted to be, Adoption wouldn't be such an important issue. Here are some posts about Infertility and Secondary Infertility.

And a post about Family.

We are blessed.

. . . . .

That's Much Better!

2010-11-02T08:58:00.001-04:00

Remember the ugly scarves that went horribly wrong and didn't end up as magnificent anythings?

A few hours in an Imperial Purple dye vat fixed them right up. There's even some subtle variegation going on with some nice deep bluish tints in the middle of the swirls and a chocolate undertone around the edges of the swirls. The overall color is a rich aubergine/royal purple - which gets lighter or deeper as the light moves around the scarf.

Sigh. I love velvet!

. . . .

Halloween sickies

2010-10-31T12:01:00.000-04:00

I hope this isn't the beginning of a trend. This is the 3rd Sunday in October when I have felt lousy. I'm going to end up on the 'watch list' for our branch - seriously. I considered going to church today but since my throat hurts when I breathe, speak or swallow, I thought it would be kinder to everyone else to stay home and keep my coughing Maxx home, too.

Hopefully, my body will take advantage of the rest and I'll be back on my feet tomorrow.

I got to use my dye table for silk painting yesterday. It was wonderful. It still needs some tweaks - like a few pull out trays for balancing my dye tray on while painting and it would be nice to get the wall behind it painted so it doesn't look so much like a low budget garage but it is generally functional and it makes me happy. The halogen lights do make the dye dry faster but not so fast that salt effects stop working - just fast enough that I can work a bit faster. In the past I have always had to either leave the silk on the stretcher until teh dye dried or try to carefully remove the wet silk and hang it where nothing would touch it while it dried. hat could take hours and I ruined a few scarves trying to move them. Last night, scarves were dry within 10 minutes of completion. Awesome.

I also unrolled my foam floor mat yesterday since I was on my feet all day at the dye table. It also makes a real difference in how tired my legs get. Now I just need to decide whether or not to secure it there and how.

You know what else is awesome? Molly Bryn finally figured out that camera angle makes all the difference. Change the angle - mom looses 20 pounds! I don't know why everyone else usually wants to photograph my jowls.

More Proof that Etsy is Evil

2010-10-29T11:41:00.000-04:00

Or else completely and utterly stupid.

I would think this was some sort of Horrifying Halloween Hoax if it weren't for the recent history of other, multiple horrifying "adjustments" over on Etsy.

On Wednesday, Andrew - an Etsy admin - posted here:

"Hi all,

We've made some minor adjustments to our search functionality to make it more user-friendly and to help keep our search results returning quickly.

- Due to technical limitations, we’re capping the number of items returned in a given search to 50,000. Our research indicates that clickthroughs drop to less than .001% and purchases drop to .000001% on item listings beyond 50,000 in a given search, so this change won’t negatively affect item discovery or sales. Also, many of our searches currently return less than 50,000 items. In those cases search listings will apear as they always have.

- When a visitor searches for something that our system has no match for, we won’t return any listings. Visitors have long been confused when we returned all items in this case. Now they’ll get to refine their search and find what they’re looking for more effectively."

Search at Etsy has been a huge problem from day one because the search function relies so heavily on tags that people add to their listings when they put items in their shop. Sellers have been asking for YEARS that etsy address this issue. So - did they fix the BLINKING blatant tag abuse problem? No.

Basically, what this new change means is that if you sell in a high volume category - like jewelry or supplies, the search runs out after 50,000 items and there is no longer any way to jump around and find items that were listed a long time ago. Like yours if you didn't re-list yesterday. Your 20 cents no longer buys you 4 months of exposure. For some of us - jewlers, supply shops, you're lucky if your 20 cents buys you 4 days.

Artfulbeginings spells it out right here:

"So I just did some calculations for the top seller here, Yadanabeads. She has 1829 listings in Supplies. Main category "supplies" cuts off any listings made before October 27th (!). 940, or about half of Yadanabeads listings are from before October 27th - for those, she paid $188 to NOT show up in her main category, Supplies. She only needs to choose one main category, Supplies, to list and supposedly that listing should be good (i.e show up) for 4 months. The $0.20 is a LISTING fee, not a SEARCH fee."

and here:

"Going back to Jewelry, there are 1,617,214 listings. Of those, only 50,040 are showing up on the main category listing page (1251 pages, 40 listings per page). So due to the "technical" difficulties, Etsy is NOT honoring $324,234.80 in listing fees in Jewelry alone.

sadly, my math is good."

This is all very ugly. Come visit me and a whole world full of excellent artists and crafts people on ArtFire

Frantic

2010-10-27T09:34:00.000-04:00

Studio Tour is coming!

I have approximately 6 working days to get ready. With a beading party thrown in this Friday. And a Halloween costume to make tonight.

The house is a disaster. I have two weeks of laundry piled hither and tither. (A washing machine is coming today! But not a drier - we need to make sure that we can afford all the other critical construction materials before we buy a drier.)

What was I thinking?

I feel a bit like Kermit the Frog backstage as the show is falling apart. Aaaaahh! The Muppets always manage to pull it off, will I?

Time to go clean a spot for said washer, prime the bathroom, make some more sparklies and dye some more silk. Oh - but first I have to wash the dishes because I can't get to my blasted studio sink because my teenager seems to be completely incapable of washing a dish.

Cue manic screaming and and flapping of arms.

Silk Fail - again

2010-10-25T17:15:00.001-04:00

Ugh. This was supposed to be a magnificent Peacock scarf.

Instead it is . . . something else. Something else that is less than magnificent.

I don't know what happened.

Those dark blackish grey areas? Supposed to be deep, rich, warm brown.

The blue and purple are almost rich enough but there's very little definition and they just sort of . . . die as they merge with the brown.

It may be that I mixed too much ivory into my orchid dye - the transition point between the purple and brown. But that doesn't explain why the brown migrated so little and the blue seems to dominate. The Brown is supposed to dominate. Sigh....

The overall effect was supposed to be more like this:

I will over-dye it tomorrow in a rich purple color and hope that will salvage it.

But using my new dye table was awesome.

There are still issues with lighting - in this case the halogen lights are very bright but also very hot. I'm a little concerned about how fast they may dry out silk painting projects - will I still get good salt effects?

I plan to find out tomorrow.

Here's my table with all of the tools moved off of it. no - it's not glamorous but its a great height and length. I don't have to dye on the floor anymore!

It is also not good yet for photographs. I lit the area up and it looked good with my eye but once I got the photos on the computer it became obvious that I need some mode of diffusing the light and some other sources for front lighting.

The halogens are great for back lighting but the ceiling lights paired with my little Ott light are just not quite bright enough to show colors well and I get lots of puddles of brightness surrounded by encroaching gloominess.

This one of a beaded necklace is O.K.

But the scarf photo is terrible.

. . . .

I Will Reduce my Risk . . .

2010-10-15T10:16:00.000-04:00

This has been a poignant month.

My girlfriends and I at Church learned that a dear friend who moved away a few years ago was diagnosed with breast cancer a few weeks ago. She lives far away and we can't take her out for chocolate or help her keep her house clean and her family fed while she goes through whatever treatments are in store for her. That's particularly frustrating and painful for all of us.

My Aunt Di, thankfully, is still in remission.

The SLC Arts Council is currently running a memorial exhibit of the quilts and textile art of Lorre Belt, who recently lost her life to breast cancer. Every Thursday, I walk into work and am surrounded by the work of a sister artist who I never met but whose spirit was so strong that she left significant energy in every piece of fiber she touched. The first week the show was up, I found myself wandering around the gallery touching everything - sweaters, penny rugs, quilts, socks, felt applique work . . . - in spite of my inner conservationist's strident protests. Some of her work is unfinished. Seeing it makes me think about the huge jumble of things - art projects, construction and decorating plans, children & family - that I would have to leave behind if I were called home early.

I will be 41 in a couple of months. I'm carrying far too much weight which raises my risk factors for cancers and heart disease. Photos from our weekend visit to the mountains high lighetd that fact for me - my Weston jowls have completely taken over my face!

There's a lot that I do not want to leave behind early. While I can't control all the events of my life, it is high time that I start controlling a few more of my risk factors. I've been successful with managing my endometriosis in the past and I need to translate that success to managing my diet and weight a little better again. I seem to be past the constantly sick and/or broken phase of my life as Maxx's Mommy. I'd like to fit into my awesome brocade pants again for the holidays. I'd like to worry less about my longevity. Feel free to nag me about it.

Here's a collection of pinks for October- fellow artists working in the color of the moment.