Wednesday, November 2, 2011

P.S.

We just had company visiting from Washington state!  We had a really good time!  When they left, they gave us this ristra!  We are drying it out in the sun & bring it in at night.  Once all the Sandia chilis are dry, we will use them this winter to spice up our meals!  They smell wonderful!  Thanks, dear friends!

Creation Vacation!!

After talking with an online class teacher, I realized that I had projects clamoring to get done!!!  Here are just a few of some sample boxes/trays that need to get finished!
These are full of almost finished projects:
One of a series of mixed media beaded projects to finish:
Other misc. beaded projects to finish:
And all the yarn to make into things:
Anyway, she told me that someone once told her that 'artists couldn't organize their way out of a paper sack'!!!  I believe it.  I have so many projects on my "to do" list that I decided to take a Creation Vacation!  I'm really excited about it!  I spend alot of time online, which can be a great tool if used for creativity.  But I was just deleting newsletters and checking out ads!  ACK!  So, one project at a time, I am going to take the next few months to get them done!  Well, to at least attempt to get them done.  And who knows...maybe start some more!  So I will be offline for awhile.  If anyone needs to get ahold of me, please feel free to call and I'll call you back as soon as I can.  Or you could always try my DH!  :)  He loves talking to people!  So I'm covering up my computer and hoping you all have a wonderful holiday season!  Wish me well!

Amulets and Talismans

So I decided I wanted to make some amulets and talismans.  Not sure if I'd carve them from stone, bead them, or what.  So since I couldn't decide, I decided to practice with some pouches to hold them.  This one is to hold a small item.  I used a larger yarn:
This one is a copy of my iPod holder.  Only I used a crochet thread instead of yarn to see how the size of the pattern would change:
The one on the right is a knotless netting pouch I made with waxed linen.  I decided to see what would happen if I changed the technique to crochet & used a larger yarn.  The result is on the left:
This one I used crochet thread & a ridge stitch.  People seem to like it almost as much as the knotless netted one.  But this tiny pouch took 2 and 1/2 hours!
So after all this experimenting I decided that, except for special occasions,  I'm just gonna make a flannel or felt pouch for the talisman or amulet.  Now to get to making them!!!

Meanwhile...

...someone came to show us something...the Kirby salesman!!!  Yup, they're still around!  So they showed us all the nasty dirt that is hiding in our carpet, sofa & bed!  Ugh.  I noticed there was a difference in colors on the samples he cleaned!  Then I realized that some of what he'd cleaned had come from Kaua'i & the rest was dust & sand from here.  I had to take a pic of the different colors of soil!  Kaua'i soil is more red.  The soil here is darker.  See if you can tell the difference!
After 3 and 1/2 hours we still decided not to buy!  Whew!

More Doodles and Symbols

I've always been interested in symbols & how they are used.  So here are a few more that I did.  I had practiced with them in my Imagineer book, and had to copy them into my doodle book.  Plus a couple I did just in my doodle book.
This one is some I copied from my Imagineer book:
These are more I copied from my Imagineer book as well as a tag I did:
Here's a couple of heart ones I did right in my doodle book:
Studying where & how symbols came about has been very educational!

Oh no!

I have a wonderful e-pal in Italy who sent me an embroidery design for a pincushion.  It was so cute!  You can check out her site here.  She also has another one with more cooking!  (Pizelles, Mom!)  Anyway, I have 2 pens for embroidery.  One is a disappearing ink one & one is a water soluble one.  I thought I'd try the disappearing ink one first.  Here's a pic:
So I started to embroider it here and left the rest for the next day.  BUT when I got to it, all the lines had disappeared!!!
Apparently the air here sucks the water out of everything!!!  So I decided to retry copying it with the soluble ink pen here.
I'm hoping I can get this one done before the soluble pen disappears!!!
If not, I'm going for pencil!!!
Wish me luck!

More RAAKS and some crochet

We got RAAKed with more yarn!  Wowee!!!  This is fun!  Here's a couple of pics:

So I've been busy rolling balls and I started this scarf:
This pic doesn't do this yarn justice!!!  
It's called Juniper & is beautiful!
I'm keeping the yarn in my Tibetan prayer bowl 
so each stitch is full of prayers for whoever gets this scarf!

Test Swatch

Spoonflower has a special once a year.  You can send in a design and they will send you back a free test swatch.  I sent in a jpeg of a pin I made a pal.  Here is the result of the test swatch on quilt fabric:
The fabric design came out a little darker than the original, but it was a fun idea.  I guess you get better results with paler designs, but I'm not that kinda gal!  LOL!

Where have I been???

Wow!  I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted!  And what have I been doing?  Well, since I had a bit of a relapse, for awhile I did nothing but read and do Oprah's Life Class!  So here's a pic of some of what I've been reading:
Been studying a lot of nature religions.
I also just got a book on over 3,000 motifs for artists & craftsmen!
So I guess I'll be busy with that.