Interesting

Gotta love it when your government legislates what you should eat:
http://www.businessinsider.com/denmark-fat-tax-2011-9
I just wonder when that'll happen here.

And how about this one:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/national_world&id=8374727#&cmp=fb-kgo-article-8374727
Two year minimum, huh? Sort of like leasing a car.

Art it isn't ................

................... but it sure is fun - experimenting, that is. Learning new things, playing with that newfound knowledge, trying things.



The above were all made in a class or just after with Anat Silvera - stenciling and stamping. Stamping was easy, stenciling took a little more practice.

The above is stamped. I just happen to have a stamp with artists' signatures.

Everything below is an experiment. I discovered Barbara Lewis' blog and her brandnew book (http://paintingwithfireartwear.blogspot.com/ ) and "ning" - a forum for enamelists to hang out and exchange info, ask questions and learn.

Tried overfiring. Didn't quite work, neither propane nor butane get hot enough. The piece did get hot enough for me to hold my breath, hoping it wouldn't slump and totally melt into the trivet.

These, too, are experiments in overfiring. Here I did try Barbara's method of holding the copper blank, heating it and dipping it into the enamel powder (as opposed to the traditional method). Results are more interesting because, I think, the opaque enamel in the bottom rose to the surface through the transparent. I can't decide whether I like the pendant with the holes or the one with the bumpies (made with centerpunch and hammer) better.
No art, but definitely lots of fun.

A week of high drama

I like my life quiet and uneventful and this past week hasn't been. And it's not over yet - there's still the anniversary of the San Bruno explosion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion) and the 10-year anniversary of 9-11. No link necessary, we all know about that huge tragedy.

The following happened, in no particular order:
My PayPal account was hacked and somebody tried charging something to my bank account. I caught it within minutes and filed a claim for fraudulent charges and everything should be okay. Still, one feels violated.
The plane crash in Russia with a whole hockey team. We are hockey fans and several of the players are familiar. (http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/09/07/russia.plane.crash/index.html?hpt=hp_t1).
The neighbor's kid bought himself a pitbull puppy. This family has a rather bad record of pet ownership and, while the son doesn't actually live at home any longer, I don't see this ending well.
The local newspaper published my annual letter yesterday and today we are giving away Henry's old car - just as soon as we can get it started. Sitting in the driveway and not being driven enough isn't doing anything good for the battery. (http://www.henrysmomsmusings.blogspot.com/)
Obviously, not all of these things are bad and not all of them affect us directly, but still ............ it's drama.
Let's hope next week is quieter. I need it.

On my bench today

Work(s) in progress. Wires that have been textured and annealed but not shaped yet. Some that have been shaped and are waiting to be finished.

A pair of copper hoops that needs a bit more polishing.

Silver hoops.

Abacus earrings - a little wonky. My first try. Actually, I seem to specialize in wonky.

And today's finish - Boho Bangles. Not perfect either, but sometimes finished is better than perfect.
The camera and I still haven't made friends again, I used the camera phone for these. Easing in slowly. And I'd better get back into it, I have a huge backlog of photos that need to be worked on.

From the garden

My first attempt at growing onions (and garlic - no picture). Not a great harvest, but not bad. Not much is doing well in the garden this year - weeds don't count. Not sure if it's the cooler than normal summer we've had or the rainy season that lasted longer than usual. But the lettuce is puny, the beans that managed to survive aren't producing as much as they did last year and something ate about half of my bean plants even though I did what I could to protect them. Better luck next year.

What I learned in the last two days

I am taking on online jewelry making class ( http://somethingsublime.typepad.com/jewelry_works/bo.html). We're making earrings, several different types. There are videos to watch, there's a message board to post questions and there's a flickr group for photos of finished eye candy.
I joined late because I didn't find out about the class until it was well on its way and I'm trying hard to catch up. Thankfully, I had most of the supplies - tools and materials.
I've learned during the last couple of weeks:
Copper is a lot softer than sterling. It is much harder to ball the ends of copper wire than sterling wire. And it takes lots longer to work harden copper.
Sterling likes a cooler flame. I have been using the propane torch to ball the copper and used it on the sterling this morning and those balls fell right off into the quench bowl, three times. After that, I turned down the flame and had no more problems. Oh, and those balls shattered completely in the water.
Brass and bronze are much harder to work than either copper and sterling. I pounded those two until my arms hurt and still didn't get to where I wanted to be. I've put them aside for now.
Worm binders from Bass Pro Shop are excellent for storing and organizing wire. We actually made a road trip to one of two Bass Pro Shops in California, quite an interesting trip. Photos are here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150274659593129.328904.708398128&l=f654373a2d&type=1)
Okay, I needed to put that down somewhere before I forget it, but now it's time to go back to hammering and shaping.

to dye for

Here are the results of my dyeing class:



















































First the buckets where I soaked the fabrics (twice) one by one, then the finished fabrics. The last is the one piece of tie-dye. It isn't anywhere near as bright as I expected, but it's okay for a first piece.

Dyeing

As I said in the previous post, I took a dyeing class on Saturday and spent most of Sunday with my hands in water, rinsing in cold water and washing in hot water until the water ran clear. Today, I decided enough's enough and chucked everything into the washer. Since I have a front loader and a pretty new one at that, I don't think I'm wasting all that much water compared to running the sink full 5, 6 or more times.
There are some winners and too many losers (for my taste) among my dyed fabrics and I still don't have pictures of the finished product, but I put a few pictures of the rinse buckets on FB:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150248434143129.320764.708398128&l=9a2b0c2265
Hopefully, I'll get around to taking more pictures this week.
And it's not as if I need yet another hobby, but I wanted to learn to make dyed silk scarves after seeing them at a farmers market (and being a bit shocked over the price), walked into Dharma Trading and saw the class samples and decided I had to try it. Lynn Koolish taught and I already signed up for the intermediate class.

MIA

I didn't realize it's been over a month since I last posted. It's not that I've not been doing anything, it's more that I still haven't made friends with PSE. There's been a lot of sewing going on - but no pictures.
Yesterday, I took a class on dyeing and I seem to be spending today with my hands (in gloves) immersed in water, lots of water. I'm reluctant to put multiple pieces into the same bucket for soaking and so it's taking a long, long time and an extraordinary amount of water. There seem to be a few successes (Jerry Garcia would like some of my stuff) and a few failures. Not sure what went wrong, maybe the dye solution was too old? Once dye and soda ash solutions get mixed, there are only 30 minutes to use the stuff, after that, all bets are off.
There just might possibly be some pictures in the near future.
Until then, I uploaded to flickr and, after a rather long and painful process, managed to upload the flickr badge to the sidebar.

Postal mishap

Today's mail contained a plastic envelope for DH. On the very top, it says "WE CARE." in very large letters. Under it, is a long letter that starts with, "We sincerely regret the damage to your mail during handling by the Postal Service. We hope this incident did not inconvenience you. etc. etc. ....." Basically, it says that sometimes things get damaged in transit.
It concludes with, "We hope you understand. .......... Please accept our apologies."
Inside the envelope was the front cover of The Economist, nothing else.
Inconvenience? Let me think about that one .............................