I hereby pledge to send a handmade gift to the first SIX people who comment on this entry. No real promises about time frame, but it’ll be within the next 365 days.

By the way, I'm going to just keep moving this post to the top until I get 6 people signed up...

Winter Print, 2nd layer

So now I've cut the main portion of my "Winter print" for the print exchange. One more linoleum block to go....



The following decisions still need to be made:
- Do I still want a third layer? (yes)
- Which images will be the top/middle/bottom?
- What paper to print on?
- How will I line up the print on the paper?
- What colors will I use?

Between taking this picture and posting it, I've tried out this super bright blue color for the snowflakes... which is NOT going to make the final cut...

Two necklaces

Two necklaces I made before Christmas. Both are sterling silver and amber. The top one, however, is made with a "reconstituted" amber bead. It's kind of like someone took all the cut-offs from their other amber projects, glued them together in a big lump with amber-colored glue, and then shaped/sanded/polished the bead in to shape. The filled-in cracks look pretty neat-o.




Top one was a commissioned piece, sold shortly before Christmas.
Bottom one was a gift to myself :)

Tin can christmas ornaments

Wirework

Disgruntled holiday cookies!!!

This weekend there was a small cookie baking event at D's house.... two people made 'normal' cookies on one side of the kitchen... meanwhile, on the other side... little did they know that B would start an all out disgruntled/disturbed/demented cookie cutting spree.... ok.... maybe D *did* know what would happen if B were involved.... enjoy!

By me:


By B:


(Hopefully I'll get to post a few more in the next few days if I get more pictures sent to me... I find myself wishing I'd had my camera along pretty often at D's house..... there were sooo many more cookies i wish i'd have caught on 'film'!)

Winter print - layer 1

Left side = layer 1 of the winter print I am working on. Eventually there will be 3 blocks to be printed in 3 colors (resulting in a 3-color print). I've only finished this one so far. I have until January 15th to finish the rest of the cutting, print 30 copies, and send them to a printing press in California..... so really, it woudl be best if I finished these and put them in the mail by January 12th. wish me luck.

Right side = 3 layers of the same print in different colors and rotated each time. I don't think it's a very good outcome, but I'm glad I tried it out. If I would have stopped at just 2 layers, you would have said "hey, that's pretty neat!". Next time I say "hey, that's pretty neat!" I'm either stopping or taking a picture before continuing to prove that it *was* neat.

Industrial supplies as art.....

Here's what happens when you are attempting to staple canvas to a frame.... and are also positioned exactly on top of a screw which is holding a large metal plate on to the wood....



This staple also currently lives in my wallet.... right next to the ninja sticker :)

More mugs...

You know, it's hard to keep to a weekly posting schedule in the end of November & beginning of December because you might not want to post pictures of things you've made if they are going to eventually be gifts... these were gifted today, so it's safe to post them:

Ice critters in my front yard....

Oh no! They MOVE!!!





I can take no credit for these. It was all the work of J & Ian (as it was pointed out to me eariler - you can't abbreviate his name and still make your point --- it's true!)

Accesory trade pin

Tonight I went to a potluck/accessory trade. Here's what I brought to the table:


Obviously, not all of those miscellaneous beads from last week are as bad as I thought they were right after making them. I quite like both of these pins.

Jillian's pin

Here's the pin that I just sent to Birmingham, AL:

Misc beads.... none of them match....

Spent some time in my garage today making beads.... now what?

I s'pose in other news it might be itneresting to note that this means I switched over from hard glass (pyrex, COE-36) to soft glass (moretti & one or two of those other brands, COE-104) which means I needed to readjust where/how I set the oxypropane torch (in terms of psi AND in terms of what kind of flame I use when)... ummm..... I discovered that it's not really easy for me to switch from one style to the other when I haven't touched the soft glass in months and months and months.... i ended up with a bunch off soot-y streak-y beads
:(
BUT! the good news is that they DID get progressively better and more clear so I would say that I am starting to remember what I need to adjust for what :) yay!

now to figure out what to do with these beads....

I will go slightly out of my way to step on that crunchy looking leaf.... or walk through my yard with a camera just because I can

Morella's mug

Made on Friday November 23rd (^_^)
which just happens to be Morella's birthday!

Technically, this was a team effort. Someone in china made & glazed the mug. I cut the design. My mother was kind enough to wrap it before I headed off to the sandblaster.... which did not like me, so after 40 minutes, 2 bruises, and a bunch of swearing, I asked my father to do it for me :)

...why on earth i felt the need to spell out all those details for you, I have NO IDEA....

Electrical wires as art?

This weekend the shift from flourescent to incandescent began!
(finally. this is only 3.5 years "in the making")



With D's help, not only does my basement bar now have 4 recessed lights rather than 2 gosh-awful, flickering flourescent lights...... but the "fear of" electricity has been shifted towards "healthy respect for" electricity. yay!

The ceiling tiles still need to be cut to fit around the new lights and trim will be put up, but I'm closer than ever before!!!

Soon* you'll all get to see what the painted ceiling mural looks like on here....

*by soon I mean in the next 3 or 4 weeks/months/years... don't get your hopes up just yet ;)

Silverwork....finally

Here's the first silverwork I've done in all of 2007 that required use of a torch. yay! Torchwork is lots and lots and lots of fun! Next time, though, I'm going to prepare stuff at home so that I'm ready to play with fire the moment I step in to the studio :)

(note that I probably won't make it back to that studio until some time in January... *sigh*)

the other pendants

I almost wish FTP wasn't back in business... I don't care for the yellow one and I have no idea how it turned yellow. I imagine it must be related to the kind of flame I was using (it was just past neutral and into the oxidizing range of flames) and I bet I was working too close to the heat and burnt the other colors out. Hmmm.

boro pendant

Due to technical (FTP) difficulties, you guys only get to see this one tonight.

a challenge!

3 pumpkins in 30 minutes

Furniture refinishing

Here's what I worked on on Sunday after K ditched me to do laundry instead of going biking:



This is furniture refinishing 'lite'.... the shelf wasn't in particularly bad shape to begin with. There were just a couple of dings and scratches, plus a 3"x4" spot where someone had spilled something that practically fused some cardboard on to one of the shelves. That was the hardest thing to fix without scratching the shelf more since it was really stuck on there. I probably could have sanded the sides more, but I got bored and/or antsy to just get it done :)

Now it's chock full of books in my bedroom.

Finally finished this piece, too.... I made the bead some time last year and started twirling the metal and left it.... for months and months.....

For my little brother....

Here's the first draft of his birfday invites:

What to do with leftover red paint?

Here's what happened after working on Dan's painting... someone may have possibly gotten a little enthusiastic with the amount of red paint she squeezed out and didn't want to just throw it away.... so here are 3 views of an unfinished painting.... it's starting to (almost) look like a patchwork flower that's unraveling. Right now, though, it's floating in space and definitely looks unfinished, so you only get to see these three close-ups.

Dan's paintings

I'm still debating whether or not to straighten out the red line....and also whether or not to post the original pictures he sent me so y'all can see how i slightly changed the style....it maybe might have gotten a little boring trying to paint all 'smooth' so i dropped that idea and became more textured... *I* like it... now let's see if the recipient likes it....

Notice that in the original sketch (sketched during a mandatory 4 hour work meeting, of course :) i ran out of light to finish the rt-hand border - they dimmed the entire auditorium for the last hour and a half or so) the border was much bigger.... I couldn't find any linoleum locally that was the right size to make this happen. What you see here is the biggest piece i could find (6.75" x 11") ........ plus i realized that I'm so out of practice with my linoleum/wood carving skillz that I needed some practice before trying to create intricate details:







Ummmm... i got sidetracked... i was going to do the entire 26 print edition tonight, but.... it's already almost 11pm. i guess i'll do it later this week. So far, I have 3. The plastic sleeves haven't arrived in the mail yet, anyway, and I still have to write a (small) something or other to send in along with the prints, too. ugh.

What I'm trying to decide is whether to:
A) add background color? (if yes, what ones?)
B) vary the print color - either via ink changes or paper changes? (is it kosher to vary the ink color i use w/in an edition? I think I may get tired of printing entirely in black on very white paper by the end of the run....)
C) I could just start working on those other blocks, since in a moment of crazed internet use ala Gerald inspriation I ordered a bajillion of them....

Here's what I've been complaining about working on the last few weeks. Done. Finally. This took way longer than tiling the front porch with slate. The front porch was 54 sq ft, this back one is 96.... but it took far more than twice the amount of time/effort/materials. Luckily, it's done. Just before winter. wonderful. Keep your fingers crossed that the workmanship is solid enough to withstand the freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw that is Wisconsin winter.... I guess my new project next spring might be "Learn how to repair tile flooring" which isn't necessarily a bad skill to have...

I think I need to arrange a porch-warming party in the next month or so.... perhaps with some grilled food and a bonfire... hmmmm....

I promised my neighbor I'd restore his frontdoor Buddha back to his earlier gloriousness. Turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.

in the pipeline....

Here's what you'll see in the next few weeks:

1. a three panel painting. Total size = 8' wide x 3' tall
   (I'm still working on making the frames and stretching the canvas)


2. a lino-print for a print exchange in California (I'm still..... ahhh.... remembering how to cut linoleum. yeeeouch.)


3. some Latvian-inspired metal work


4. some more sketches from work
   (need to remember to bring work notebooks home for the evening)


5. Eventually some more lightswitch plates, too.
   (It's about that "that time"... though I have yet to signup for any holiday fairs... I am procrastinating. a LOT.)

These two paintings need your help...

There's something missing from both of them and I've had no luck figuring out what it is... I'm sure I could just sit down with paint and 'doodle' but there's a good chance that if I do that I'll end up massively changing the 'feel' or the 'look' of the painting to the point where it won't be recognizable as what I'm showing here right now... thoughts? ideas? suggestions?