media Monday

in which our plucky heroine takes a day off...

Trying to get in a tiny bit of yard work each morning, before it gets too hot. Today I finished pruning the sage in the front yard, which is done blooming (it is a bee favorite when in bloom, covered with purple flowers). The blossom stalks take a few days of careful cutting back to live growth, but now the plant looks "tidy" again, and my hands and arms smell delightfully herbal

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Yesterday, whilst hiding indoors from the daystar, I decided to go ahead and make the collaged mirror I had been planning as part of the baby gifts.

two vintage Little Golden Books* were combined to create this...

I cut apart the scenes in the book and layer the component pieces to become a larger landscape... I like how this one reminds me of looking down the Columbia River towards the west.

The cows in this corner remind me of the cow sculptures in the field as you come down the hill to Mud Bay

It can be a real challenge to get the various pieces to look like they belong together...

Foxes added to a scene with washerwomen and a cow... some of the background images in these books from the 40's are odd, though charming...

* the books were not in good condition, so I had no qualms about cutting them up. I do not destroy useable books.

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I love Steven Universe, and wish that I had the kind of media access that would let me watch all the shows... (I also love Adventure Time. My nephews accuse me of not being a grownup. Sometimes they are entirely correct.) The surrealism amuses me, and the meta-content delights me.

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	20 enamels for Wastekeep	apron dress	yard waste bin
2	tiny peach enamel	workbench refurbish	bag to Goodwill
3	tiny linen bag	closet cleared left	bag to Goodwill
4	octopus rattle	pruned sage	bag to Goodwill
5	rainbow booties	cleaned 4 box fans	recycle bin
6	mirror collage	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine keeps hiding indoors...

Though no one showed up on Thursday night for charter painting, I still took the evening off and started in on another local Baronial award... Even if this was not one that I myself had done the original artwork for, I would still enjoy the design. It is a lot of fun to see how it can look in a totally different colorway than the last time I painted this one, back in October of last year...

When painting the flowers, I was thinking about borage blossoms...

While there is obviously still a lot of detailing (and some of the base layers of paint) yet to finish, I couldn't resist adding some patterning to the garment on the righthand figure...

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Remind me not to check the weather, forecast looks really ugly. Heat is ramping up. Current prediction for next Wednesday is 107F, Thursday 110F. Might have to go fully crepuscular/nocturnal next week. Good thing my local grocery store is open til 11 PM, 'cos riding my bike to go shopping is not really a good option when the air is hotter than the body riding.

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	20 enamels for Wastekeep	apron dress	yard waste bin
2	tiny peach enamel	workbench refurbish	bag to Goodwill
3	tiny linen bag	closet cleared left	bag to Goodwill
4	octopus rattle	pruned sage	x
5	rainbow booties	x	x
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

darkness not at noon

in which our plucky heroine reflect that it is often darkest before the dawn, or at least seems that way in contrast...

And with that in mind, I am hopeful that the upcoming total solar eclipse will at least be fairly notable here in Portland, since we are quite close. I foolishly did not make any plans to be ensconced somewhere along the actual eclipse path ahead of time, thinking, oh it is only an hour or so away from here, I could day trip with friends... Hah! the forecast is for world class traffic jams on the roads, so staying home seems sadly sensible. It does appear that it will become quite dark here just after 10 AM PST. There is a charming eclipse "simulator", as part of a joint effort with UC Berkeley and Google, where you can type in your location and get a general sense of what will be visible.

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Monday musings and music....

in which our plucky heroine is awed by courage...

Here at what feels like the end of the Anthropocene it is difficult to maintain any equanimity. Troubles large and small beset me, and many people I know, and even more people I do not know. Often I think of how this future has been rolling in slowly and inexorably for as many decades as I have had awareness to see it, even longer than that of course, but I often feel like someone on the edge of the Great Molasses Disaster, stuck in place as the hot tide rises to unbearable heat

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And yet, in the face of all this uncertainty, I persist in makerie, I resist the impulse to give up, and I cheer those who bravely do even more than I can... Dear friends are going to have a baby early this Autumn. Deeply wanted, and to be cherished by not only the immediate family, but by our whole community, which has very few children compared to the number of adults. I live too far away to be an immediate part of their lives, but as an auntie on the fringes, I am putting together handmade goodness to add my own small prayers and wishes for the child that is coming.

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Back in June I started on a handknit rainbow octopus baby rattle, which I finally finished this weekend. I have used this pattern before to make a baby toy, and this time, instead of a jingle bell inside a film can (which sounds rather like a spray paint can when shaken) I used the chime ball that was a gift from an old sweetheart, which makes a much gentler pleasant sound, wrapped inside the stuffing so as to be secure and safe. Of course, for a baby toy, the legs do NOT get pipe cleaners, but they stitch up into wiggly shapes even without the extra help, and eight tentacles give lots of things for babies to grip!

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Next up were some tiny rainbow bootees, because autumn babies need warm feet! I was unsure if continuing on with this theme would be a good idea, but when I asked Ariadne if a rainbow baby sweater would be too much, she responded "there is no such thing as too much rainbow"... indeed, my plan has been to create useful and colorful gifts that do not reference the current obsession with gendered baby gear, but celebrate the vivid reality of our outer and inner worlds.

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The current knitting project is an Elizabeth Zimmerman "Baby Surprise Jacket" in the same rainbow wool as the bootees. I love the colors of the yarn.

It is very slow going on this project… the knitting itself is not difficult, but the yarn, which I've never worked with before, is a challenge. It is very soft and smooth, feels more like cotton than wool, which will be really lovely for a baby sweater. OTOH, it is very splitty to knit with, which given that I needed to go to size 2 needles to get gauge, means that I cannot simply knit on, but need to pay careful attention to every stitch. Using it as an opportunity to focus attention on good wishes for the child coming to my dear friends, rather like a fairy godmother would do…

Thanks to Sharon Rose for lending me the wee size 2 long circular needle! (and the EZ book with the instructions so I don't have to keep borrowing the book from the library)

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	20 enamels for Wastekeep	apron dress	yard waste bin
2	tiny peach enamel	workbench refurbish	bag to Goodwill
3	tiny linen bag	closet cleared left	bag to Goodwill
4	octopus rattle	x	x
5	rainbow booties	x	x
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

kolrosing

in which our plucky heroine wants to add decoration to all the things...

Whilst at ATWW earlier this month, I took a class on "kolrosing" (a method of decorating wooden objects by incising lines with a sharp knife, rubbing charcoal into the cuts, then smoothing the surface to allow the design to be visible)... when I got home, I realised that this one wooden spoon in my kitchen would be an ideal candidate. It is a quick, fun, relatively easy way to add simple embellishment to everyday objects.

a closer look at the handle of the wooden spoon decorated with an interlace pattern

There is not a lot of information out there on how far back kolrosing goes in history, primarily I suspect since the objects so decorated have not survived. Here is one article that attempts to document the process. The process is similar in some ways to tattooing, and also to scrimshaw.

workbench Wednesday

in which our plucky heroine has a dream come true...

I have wanted a European style metalworking bench for decades. Instead have made do over the years with assorted thrifted desks, and most recently for the last almost twenty years with a kludged together combination of Ikea IVAR components, which allowed for adjusting the benchtop height to a better level. When Blue Cedar House let me know that they had a source for surplus 3/4" furniture grade plywood, a cunning plan ensued.

My first thought was to use the plywood to greatly stabilise the basic Ivar structure, using it almost like creating a partial torsion box; the plywood skin is much stronger than the thin steel x-frame that usually keeps the IVAR structures from rack and ruin.

Since it doesn't take much surface area to do the job, I had Farbjorn cut a variant on my house decorative motif into the top edge of the back, and mount that panel a little bit lower than the top of the framework, but just high enough that anything on the upper workbench shelf would not roll over the edge and onto the workroom floor. The side panels only cover the benchtop area and partway down the sides, about half of each side panel in total, which adds a significant area that can be now configured for storage without making the bench too heavy to move.

This view makes me all kinds of happy, with all the different complex curves. Right now the workbench is empty of contents, but the corner spots on the upper shelf that usually hold lazy susan turntables are visible in the variable color of the upper shelf. I had created the upper shelf from a standard IVAR shelf when I moved here to Acorn Cottage, as a way to keep more of the small hand tools accessible, and as it works well, saw no reason to change that aspect.

The workbench top, however, was significantly reinforced, gluing and screwing two layers of the plywood to the former benchtop, for a total of just over 2" thick. Since my sabre saw wouldn't be able to cut such a thick chunk, Farbjorn marked out and cut the curve from each layer separately, then attached them together, and finally spent time with a rasp and file making all the curves smoothly align. This thick benchtop has a very solid feel now, and the additional layers bring it up to a good level for me to comfortably rest my arms while working on tiny details. We had to raise the upper shelf one notch to compensate for the increased height.

This style of workbench with a central cutout is more commonly found in the Old World, and not commercially available here. I am not sure how far back in history the concept goes. The basic idea is to have a tall workbench that supports your work and your arms at a useful height to avoid back strain. I found some useful hints about bench ergonomics on this website about the "FrankenBench"

This half circle cutout is close to the shape of a traditional jewelry/metalworking bench. The bench pin to support sawing and filing small pieces will fit neatly in the center of the curve, I plan on a visit to Oregon Leather, for a chunk of hide to make the traditional hanging leather underbench drape that catches anything dropped from the benchtop. The refurbished workbench will make my shop a bit more congruent with the premise of William Morris, I know it to be useful and believe it to be beautiful... plus it will make that aspect of my "going to work" much more pleasant and functional.

Tuesday tidbits

...in which our plucky heroine shares some recent items of note...

this tiny OCF peach, made from a disc of pure silver just under 3/4" in diameter, and stamped by Bill Dawson... I enameled it using an attempt at the medieval basse-taille technique, where the bas-relief of the base plate is enhanced by adding transparent enamels in various colors across the surface, without using wires to separate the color as in cloisonne.

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All the small decorative enameled discs for the Wastekeep coronets are finished, and were sent off northwards to be added to the component parts in process, bringing the project that much closer to completion. In addition, I have now acquired cobalt blue and golden yellow dupioni silk, so as to start on creating the striped silk coronet padding, which will be an interesting project in itself.

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This is, in fact, a tiny drawstring bag, inspired by a Japanese style of rice storage bag... made by me. I was inspired by the talented Gwen Bury to start creating small cloth bags-of-holding to contain my assorted bits inside the lovely tine box that Drusa made for me, so that when opening the lid, the interior does justice to the beautiful exterior. Also small bags keep the contents of sewing box or purse well organised and tidy

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I was in the backyard, summer pruning the apple, when I noticed that the young feral grapevine has two tiny bunches of grapes!! This grape plant showed up in the middle of the backyard three years ago, probably planted by squirrels. When I realised what it was, we transplanted it next to the chain link fence, where it has been growing for the last two years... this year it grew exponentially, and had some tiny flower bunches, and some now seem to have turned into grapes... No idea if they are a tasty variety, but can always be used for verjuice... I figured to be happy with some grape leaves I could use for making dolmas, actual grapes are a plus.

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	20 enamels for Wastekeep	apron dress	yard waste bin
2	tiny peach enamel	workbench refurbish	bag to Goodwill
3	tiny linen bag	x	x
4	x	x	x
5	x	x	x
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

media Monday

in which our plucky heroine remembers that some friendships go way back...

Dogs and humans have grown up together for a long time. Millennia...

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	20 enamels for Wastekeep	apron dress	yard waste bin
2	tiny peach enamel	workbench refurbish	bag to Goodwill
3	tiny linen bag	x	x
4	x	x	x
5	x	x	x
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

home again home again jiggety jig

in which our plucky heroine returns broken but unbowed....

This year ATWW was extra long, instead of a long weekend we got almost a weeklong SCA event at the lovely site near the southern Oregon coast. The moon was rising towards full, so the nights were well lit, and several mornings the cool mist from the ocean twisted its way down the valley and cooled the weather.

That lovely site, however, along a twisty creekside road, is several large pasture fields, with trees here and there and no real pathways or flat places. Cows and horses don't care about that, but the long event was really challenging for me physically, since getting anywhere involved walking (over very uneven ground mowed farm field) and my already damaged ankle was most unhappy at being asked to repeatedly take me overland from my tent to the portapots, particularly in the middle of the night, and to the few things I determined I had enough spoons to manage.

The good parts were that the class on block carving I taught was well received, I got to witness Vanya propose marriage to his ladylove (I have known young Vanya his whole 22 years of life, and his parents were some of my first SCA friends), and I had a chance to have a bit of a visit with Eilis who I dearly love and as she lives in Berkeley, almost never see these days. The other good thing is that all the clothing I made for them, and for Blue Cedar House over the month of June worked out really well, fit everyone, and were put to good use during the event.

Vanya and Elizabeth
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Other than those few good aspects the event was pretty grueling. I was in tears more than once. I began to doubt that camping with my friends was a good idea. I spent a lot of time remembering all the various activities that just a few years ago were so very easy that I rarely gave them thought, like walking from one end of the site to the other, or from camp to the portable shower truck on the other side of the creek... I sure am not 25 any more. I am not even 45 any more. Not only do I have no spoons left, I am not sure there is anything left of my "kitchen utensils" at all...

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	20 enamels for Wastekeep	x	x
2	tiny peach enamel	x	x
3	tiny linen bag	x	x
4	x	x	x
5	x	x	x
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

media music Monday

in which our plucky heroine is speechless...

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	20 enamels for Wastekeep	x	x
2	tiny peach enamel	x	x
3	x	x	x
4	x	x	x
5	x	x	x
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x