Not Much

Quarantine is over. Whatever it was that Darrell caught had pretty much run it's course by Sunday evening. I went back to work Monday and am back into the busy-ness of the world. During the quarantine, I discovered how often I go shopping because I need something to do instead of because I need something.

Since I wasn't supposed to go out, I found other things to do... projects that have been sitting around waiting for me to get a round tu-it got started. I pulled out the yarn I dyed and started knitting. I got diagrams drawn for the elfkins to use when I teach the ladies how to make them next week. Sometimes I puttered and putzed and didn't get a whole lot done.

I learned that rummaging in the freezer and the pantry can turn up all kinds of interesting food combinations. I rediscovered the fun of sitting in the window with a cat and watching the weather go by. I now know there's a very young chipmunk that's taken up residence in the front yard. It likes to sit in a patch of sunshine.

The craft room is no longer full of beds. I got the trundle pushed back under the daybed this morning. The spiny dog bones are put away. The cookies are stashed out of doggie reach. The floor's been vacuumed, all in all, it's kind of boring looking.

I took the fairy princess pin to the grandma. She was thrilled. She sat and looked at it for quite a long time. She says it looks just like her grand daughter. Now I must figure out my next project direction for after I have the (clay) baby making class. I've had a request for an inro to donate to a fundraising auction at the Museum of Aviation www.museumofaviation.org so that will probably be next on the agenda.

I'm going to make it bigger than the previous one so I'm not sure it will be by definition an inro but I'll use the technique that I learned at the Orlando Fandango. I'm going to make a very small purse with a shoulder chain on it. I've already found the perfect chain at Hobby Lobby. I think I'm going to decorate it in the Christi Friesen style. Since it's going to be 'large' I'm going to experiment with layers of clay with a wire mesh encased inside to make sure it's durable. I'm thinking on it.

Ain't Life Grand?!

Alrighty folks, this house has gone to H*ll in a hand basket. As previously mentioned we're quarantined - grounded - stuck. Darrell has some kind of, as yet to be identified, virus or infection that is mimicking Swine H1N1 flu. Swine flu tests out negative but the Doctor grounded all of us anyway. Darrell went back to the Doctor this morning to have blood drawn to check for any identifiable virus and bacteria. He's actually starting to get better, his fever is retreating. He is on three antibiotics now so we doubt that anything is alive in him that would show up in the blood work. Oh well. If Marsha and I don't get sick, we're allowed out on Monday. This started Wednesday evening.

Soooo.... Marsha has moved into the craft room as "She ain't sleepin' with him!". We have a daybed in here, but the cats sleep on it at night. We knew there was no chance in #$%^& that they'd share with her so accommodations had to be made. We pulled out the trundle bed for them so she could have her own bed. The room is pretty much taken up with beds as there seems to be no reason to push the trundle back under the daybed since she's camping out in here again tonight.

See the rubber mallet on the end of the bed? That's what I use for softening hard polymer clay. Yo!Fred, the cat, covets it. It's his favorite toy. It's a strange household. The mallet is on the trundle bed to entice him to sleep there on his little blue towel which he also favors lately. That little blue towel is his new fetish. We're calling him the 'little blue tow'l boy'. He doesn't seem to mind the new name.

I just stepped on the nylon, or whatever it is they make it out of, dog bone that's under the bed. It's well chewed and spiny on the bare foot, but I'll survive. The huge fan is because Marsha is the master of hot flashes. Everybody knows it, so I'm allowed to write it here. I think she's rather proud of being such a good flasher.

Back to the dog... we heard her crunching on the other side of the trundle bed this morning. Didn't have a clue what she'd found. Didn't want to look, but figured we'd best investigate anyway. She'd managed to get the lid off our cookie container and was helping herself. I retrieved the container and the remaining cookies. They didn't look too slobbery so Marsha and I are now eating 'dog cookies' when we need a snack. We've also discovered that the dog has probably eaten the cat's food today. She's enjoying her quarantine, and she doesn't even have a Doctor's note. Let it hereby be know to anyone from work who is reading this, Marsha and I do have Doctor's notes! Darrell doesn't need one as anyone who takes one look at him quickly backs away.

The craft room is the command post of the house right now. It's as far away from Darrell as we can get. Marsha and I both have laptop computers so we've got them set up between the two beds in here. We're both playing the computer game "Return to Ravenhearst". It's a mystery game. It won the Game of 2008 award. Most of the game is a mystery to both of us and we're faking our way through it. We're taking copious notes as we try to find our way around the manor where it takes place.

Here's the daybed where we're camped out. It's covered with bits of papers with strange looking symbols, series of numbers, little drawings and reminders of what's in each room of the manor and how to get to the care-giver's cottage and where the fuel is to get the trolley car running if we could just find the funnel. You'd have to play the game to understand that. We also have a collection of phone numbers. The problem is we don't know which phone numbers are for the game (there's phones to dial in it and all the numbers are secret) and which ones are for Doctors and friends. We just sort of dial in the game and on the phone using the same lists and wait and see if anyone answers at either place. We have a variety of phones mixed into the mess of papers and cookies and computers. If something rings one of us scrounges under the papers trying to figure out which phone it is. We don't care who's it is anymore, we're just happy to talk to anyone.

Marsha just announced she needs a dog cookie.

I've been alternating playing Ravenhearst with writing up directions for making babies. I could just leave it at that and let those of you who are new to this blog wonder about it... or I could explain. There's pictures on down in the blog of little polymer clay fairies. I'm going to teach some ladies how to make them later in the month. I needed some basic diagrams for them to use as 'go bys'. I also took photos of each step of the process of making (clay) babies and they might get posted here. Or they might not. It depends, on what, I'm not sure.

Darrell just reported his temperature. It's on the way back up. Oh well. He just said he'd go away now. He's not allowed in here as this is the uncontaminated room, if you can believe that from the pictures!

Here's what the other side of the room looks like, simply because I want to record the mess.

This is where the cookie container was tossed last night to the dog's delight. This is also the path I have to travel to get to my clay play table. If I'm very careful, I can even sit in the chair. There's a little half baked fairy over there somewhere.

See the pretty box? That had one of Marsha's Mother's Day presents in it. Actually the box is in part of the present. An inflatable foot bath. She hasn't tried it yet. There's my shoes. If I wore them I wouldn't get stabbed by dog bones.

For supper, we scrounged. We had boiled potatoes with carrots. I pulled everything out of the freezer in search of protein to add to it. I was successful. We had a few frozen turkey (meat)balls. I also found two artichoke spinach patties. A search of the refrigerator turned up 4 onion rings. We had a jar of turkey gravy and we feasted... well sort of anyway and there's always dog cookies for dessert.

So that's how our day is going. And you know, it's all good. Marsha and I are not sick and have no signs of getting sick. Darrell is getting better. The dog is happy and well fed... and Marsha just yelled "Olive" at her computer game. I need to go feed the fishies. I wonder if they'd like cookies too?

And the Yo!cat just came in to check on his mallet. He's a happy little tow'l boy.

We are blessed!

Fairy Princess

It's been a busy, crazy household the past week. Darrell has a vicious flu virus, not Swine - H1N1, not Avian either, according to the tests but nevertheless he's been very sick. Marsha and I have pretty much been confined to the house under Doctor's arrest to see if we're going to get it and to keep us from spreading it someplace else. Our plans are that we will NOT get sick!

I have had the opportunity to catch up on a clay project that I started a week or so back. I didn't post pictures as I wanted the lady I'm making if for to see it irst. She hasn't seen it in person yet, but she has seen a picture of it almost done.

Now, I think the little lady is done... Here we have the little fairy princess.



I used Penni Jo's (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pennijo/) tutorial for the oil pencil drawing for the face.

This just in!!!! Her video tutorial is online. You can see it at http://polymerclayproductions.com/videos/

Here's the little princess in progress with a black and white line drawing that I used as a guide for drawing on the clay.

I combined the Penni Jo style portrait with Christi Friesen style feathers.

You can see her 'stuff' at http://www.cforiginals.net/ It's worth the click just to get the free downloads.

Blue Yarn!

I decided to conduct the great yarn dyeing experiment last week. I didn't get it posted as I was under assault by a new medication. I have lots of cotton yarn left over that I never got knitted for my Mother. It's all very bland colors so I haven't been inclined to do anything for myself with it. Somehow, in a google, I came upon a website about dying yarn so I decided to give it a try.

It started with a trip to Michaels with a 40% off coupon. I bought a tie dye kit. I opened the box and stared into it, then dumped it all out.... there were lots of rubber bands. The cats in this house like rubber bands, they make great toys so there was some cat happiness for awhile. I attempted to stuff everything back into the box for the evening.

I wound my yarn into hanks and tied them off. I used a pale peach color and was planning on using blue dye on it.

Marsha says I have to credit the photo to her, so here's the credit. First photo by Marsha who managed to not cut off my head! I took the second photo though.

The next day, I put on old clothes and even rubber gloves. I usually skip the gloves as I find colorful hands to be amusing, but for once I decided to follow the rules.

I rummaged through the tie dye box and pulled out the squeeze bottle with blue powered dye in it. I added water. It was looking kind of purple to me but I figured with a good shaking it would be blue. Not so, it seems purple dye powder looks blue.

Change in plans. I decided right then and there that I wanted purple yarn. I started squirting and squishing the dye into the yarn. When I ran out of purple dye I declared the yarn dyeing done. I covered the yarn, tucked it in and let it sit over night.

The next day, I uncovered the yarn and untied the hanks and hung it up carefully. It dried beautifully and is waiting to be turned into a summer sweater.

Elfing sighted!

I went to ceramics class today and all the finished elfkins were there for a photo-op! They posed nicely and seemed happy to be together again. I think Ginny is hooked on polymer clay. She's coming over again tomorrow to play.

Inro Out!

From Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inro An inrō was a case for holding small objects. Because traditional Japanese garb lacked pockets, objects were often carried by hanging them from the obi, or sash.

I just finished making my inro. I took Penni Jo's inro class at the Orlando Fandango last month. I used the basic directions and sized up for credit card. Again, a thank you to Penni Jo for coming up with idea of a credit card sized inro and sharing her ideas and pictures online. While she was teaching the inro class, she did a demo for drawing portraits on clay. Amazing is all I can say. After the Fandango, she wrote a tutorial and provided lots personal email and Skype help to get me started doing portraits. You can see her art here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pennijo/sets/

I used as inspiration a photo of my Mother when she was eight. It is a tiny, blurry, sepia picture. I enlarged it so I could see it better then started drawing it on a piece of baked clay. I used a 10 to 1 Super Sculpey, white Premo mix. The same that I used for the elfkins. It seemed like a nice sepia toned base to work on.

I wanted the cameo to be the centerpiece of the inro. I attached it to the top half of the inro only so that when the inro is opened, the portrait remains intact. I created the bottom half of the surrounding frame so that it will remain stationary when it is opened. I used lots of cornstarch in the baking to keep the cameo from sticking to the bottom frame.

Here it is closed. I used a ribbon for the neck cord. I bought chain for it but I did not like the look. it was too delicate and too modern looking.

This morning when I was at Michaels I went through their clearance ribbon and found lovely sepia toned narrow ribbon. It worked well. I did attach a section of chain to one end of the ribbon and a clasp to the other end so the wearing length is adjustable. (Click on the picture for the big view.)

Here is the open inro. It is just the right size to hold a credit card, a driver's license, a bit of cash and a key. You can see in this photo how the portrait slides out of the frame.

And of course the back could not be plain....

My next project (besides claying).... I think I will try dyeing cotton yarn. I used my Michaels coupon this morning to buy a tie dye kit. I've googled the process, and I think I'm ready to tackle it. I'll knit it into a summer sweater.

Making Babies (Clay that is!)

Yesterday, Ginny, Marsha and I got together. I was the designated teacher as I'd been practicing making babies for the past week or two. Ginny is in a group of porcelain doll artists. They want to learn how to sculpt in polymer clay. Ginny asked if I would give it a go.

I had told Ginny that she would have to learn to sculpt a baby before the class so that she'd be able to help. I wasn't going in to the class without an assistant. As it turns out Marsha is off work the day of the class so she too will be an assistant next month at the 'real' class.



We 'set up shop' yesterday afternoon for a trial run. I preconditioned the clay. Ten parts Super Sculpey to one part white Premo. I had a few preliminary diagrams drawn for Marsha and Ginny to use as size guides. We settled into the craft room and got to work.

First we made little balls of different sizes, using the diagrams I'd drawn and positioned them in the right places.

That's the butt ball off to the right by itself. Every baby elf's gotta have a decent little butt.

We were moving right along and I assured Marsha and Ginny that little hands and feet would magically appear soon. After all elves are magical little beings and given a chance they'd pop right out of the clay. I told them that with just a little nudge of assistance here and there, they'd venture forth into the room. Ginny wasn't quite believing me yet, she was still nervous about finding that first tiny hand. Marsha was very quiet, I think she was trying to sneak up on her elf.

Before we knew it though, we all had heads, arms and legs. We did use a Penni Jo Sweetbrier mold for the face to give us a head start. Those were baked first, then the back of the head was attached. That way, nobody lost their noses in the head smooshing.

That's Ginny's on the left, mine in the middle. Notice both our elves are surprised to find so much of themselves showing. Marsha's elf, on the right, is cool and calm. Marsha apparently gently sort of pulled her's out of the underbrush... very quietly without waking her up. She has a calmer little creature who's still snoozing.

Marsha's elf legs were especially cute! I had to take a separate picture. It seems her elf was going to be a bit chunky.

We went on our search for our little elve's bodies. They were still holding out on us. Using the biggest ball of clay, we asked them to appear. It was amazing!

Here's Marsha's fat little elfkin. It seems this little creature already has the sleepy giggles. Marsha must have tickled her elf out into the open.

Marsha and her baby were starting to bond!

Ginny and Marsha were both engrossed in finding their elves.

Ginny's little girl is long and lean... It took a bit of extra attention for Ginny to get her elf's body out of the underbrush. She pulled and nudged and finally got her baby all the way out. Then suddenly, with one last tug, there she was, a cute little butt nekked elf. There was a big grin on both their faces.

Ginny's elf startled her at one point when she suddenly began to develop cute little baby wrinkles as Ginny move her arms and hands around to find out what position she liked best.

The little elves moved to the warmer (oven) so we could convince them to stay around and not go hiding under bushes again, without permission anyway.

As soon as the babies were out of their warmer and cooled off a bit, it was time for a hairy adventure. We asked their opinions on hair color. Ginny's elfkin was adamant, had to be pink. So pink it was. Marsha's elf insisted on a firey look to help her pretend to be awake.

We found their wings hidden in a bottle of Kato Liquid Clay. A bit of wire from under the bushes and some tiny glass beads for shine, all elf babies need shine, and our elf wings were ready for the warmer also.

We used E-6000 glue to attach the wings. It was getting late so we decided to do the eyes on our own later when the hands were steadier. Here's the three little elfkins, all decked out in their wings and hair. If only they could see! I'll post the final portrait soon...

HIgh Hopes!

Yesterday's wanderings took us to the Lowe's Nursery department. The yard is a considerable challenge because it is so shady. There is an area at the front door of the house that does get a bit of sunshine.

It had been a mess. It's where all the mistreated variegated ribbon grass used to be. The ribbon grass was relocated to bordering the labyrinth in the backyard. Moving it opened up a lovely garden area at the front door. Something had to be done with it before I had a hissy fit. I hiss a lot, sometimes for reason, sometimes for no reason.

Marsha and I traipsed out to find 'filler'. Now of course it had to be inexpensive (read cheap) stuff since it's annuals and it had to be colorful. We ended up with begonias, impatiens, portulaca and marigolds. All tried and true in this area.

Everything was bloomin' in the Nursery and it took quite a bit of time to find just the right pots, this one... no, this one... maybe this one? It also took quite a bit of time looking at all the stuff that wasn't right. Wasn't right meant it required lots of water or a little bit of attention. Put it down. No, step away from that one too, NO way, that thing needs swampland water levels to grow.

I did weaken and buy a water plant to put in the backyard 'pond' to keep the fat goldfish company. I've wanted a lily since I put the pond in. The water lily requires full sunlight, which it won't get, but it does have a bird's nest a few feet above it, so maybe that will work too. The baby birds in it sound quite sunny in disposition. If it really won't grow there, I'll put it in a pot of water and find it a sunny spot, maybe on the roof. But I digress.

Marsha really coveted a bunch of tomato plants, I jokingly suggested she could put pots on the roof to as it's the sunniest spot in the yard. She took me seriously. We may be sprouting tomatoes on the roof soon.

Darrell, called to reel us in from the store around 6:30. Supper was ready. We headed home with our 'stuff'. After turkey bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches we headed outside to get everything planted. Getting everything planted the day it's bought is a record in our house. Generally, we put everything to the challenge of surviving in a too small pot with absolutely no water for two weeks. If it lives, it gets planted. We're giving stuff a fighting chance this year.

So, here we have a picture of the front garden.... everything's planted far apart with high hopes! If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can almost see the tiny plants! Marsha tells me that the rosebush from Pasaquan is out there too, I have yet to find it. Oh well...

Inro at 8:30

Here's the inro so far. The inro portrait was done on the Super Sculpey 10 part to Premo white 1 part. I decided to go with a bit of cream color instead of a light base to get more of a sepia look. The flowers and leaves are from a Sweetbrier mold. It's a 'special' one that every student in Penni Jo's class at the Orlando Fandango received in the class packet.

The portrait slides out of the bottom half of the framework when the top is opened. I haven't quite decided yet how to 'do' the necklace cord, although it will be attached to the sides of the inro.

My wanderings today included a trip to the Dentist to double check the crown I got a couple of weeks ago. Everything met with her approval. I don't have to go back until July.

Sarah at Eight

This is a practice portrait for my practice inro. I'm making a credit card inro. This is a portrait done from a tiny school picture of my Mother when she was 8. The drawing is done with Penni Jo's tutorial using oil pencils and a waterproof fine nib pen.

I'm using a piece of balsa wood wrapped with paper for my inro form. When I went hunting for something to use as a form, I was very surprised to see just how big a credit card is!

Spring Blossom

Here's my little Spring Blossom. I took Penni Jo's advice and mixed Super Sculpey ten parts to 1 part of Premo white. Eyes are painted with acrylics. Body color is done with pastels and a soft brush.

The 'hair' is made from a cane I made at the St. Augustine Fandango. Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg had us all caning like maniacs in her Petalmania class.

I made the wings of wire and Kato liquid clay. I sprinkled tiny glass beads into it before baking. I was surprised to find that some of the beads were not color fast. Not to worry, it provided a lovely swirl of color through the wings.

Next project is a sepia portrait inro... I think.... (unless I get sidetracked and go off on another tangent.)

Today's Fairy Fun

Yes, I'm obsessed. I've got to 'get it right'. Here's the first fairy for today. I'm finally over the frustration and am finding a degree of satisfaction in the finished fairy. I'll let this one keep her wings.

This little one is made of Premo. I switched back as I simply wasn't satisfied with the Super Sculpey. It darkened too much in the oven. I did find that now that I'm more confident in what I'm doing that I'm working the clay less and the Premo was more cooperative as it didn't have time to melt in my fingers.

Oh! I just pulled the next fairy out of the oven. Penni Jo suggested I make a mix of 10 parts Super Sculpey and 1 part Premo or Kato white. I did. I like the effect. No more little white moons in the clay and no more darkening in the oven. I'll have to figure out a way to add a touch of color as I don't have Genesis paints yet. Perhaps pastel chalks will work with it also. Pictures soon!