Classes and Workshops Coming Soon

I hope once I get my new house situated I'll be able to start making interesting things like soap and candles again. Not that there is anything wrong with embroidery or knitting, but people always need things like candles and soap and you can make a lot of them in one sitting.

Down the road I also hope we will make a primitive kiln for pit firing in our backyard and get the forge set up. We are also making a big burlap archery target for our future arrow making and bow making classes, hopefully in the spring and summer. If you are interested in that, by all means let us know so we can save you a spot.

Our biggest limitation is we only have one restroom. So we'll have to limit the classes to five or six people. I hope to teach gourd art as well.

Congrats to Dennis Anderson

Every day I feel like I'm on a new creative path. Yesterday it was baskets. Today it's wooden marionettes. There is so much to learn and do that it drives me half crazy.
Congrats to Dennis Anderson, who is now the #1 seller on Etsy.  He joined shortly after I did. Now he's #1 and I'm about #3,392,211.  Ah well. He makes great soap and other gourmet toiletry items. I chatted with him in Etsy chat last night and I'm so excited for him. Theblackapple has been the number one shop ever since I joined Etsy years ago. I love her shop too, but it's nice to see someone else take the baton and run with it.

Soapstone Mold

I'm trying my hand at carving soapstone. I'm making a mold for soap out of one piece and a signature chop (stamp) out of the other. I'm using some rasps I got in Quartzsite AZ. The soapstone was some scrap from a roadside that my friend gave to me. It's white with gray stripes. Most people just buy soap molds from a store or online vendor, but I always wanted to carve my own so no one else has the same ones.

Nearly Free Bubble Kit a Tutorial

I wanted to do bubble photos for my self-portrait a day pool on Flickr, only problem though...no bubbles.


My first thought was to run to the nearest store and get a bottle of bubbles. But whoa! I had all the knowledge and tools to do it myself, and I bet you do too.

First I found an empty pill bottle. The type I picked doesn't leak when turned upside down either. I rinsed it out, dried off the outside and labeled it with masking tape and a permanent marker. Always relabel bottles for safety's sake.
Then I filled it 1/4 full with bargain store liquid dishwashing detergent. I filled the rest with tap water. Do not shake. Put the lid back on and carefully turn it upside down a few times or stir it gentle with your bubble wand. You don't want it to get all foamy.

Then I found some wire for the bubble wand. I've even used clothes hanger wire in the past, but this time I chose a thin copper wire. I made a medium loop on one end and a small loop on the other. Then I taped the middle to cover the sharp wire ends. Make sure your loop is small enough to fit into your bubble bottle. The bare wire worked okay when tested, but not great. Then I remembered commercial bubble wands have little spikes that stick into the loop to hold more solution. So I used crochet thread and wrapped the bubble loop and tied it off with knots. This made it work perfectly.

So here are some of the photos I took with the new bubble wand.

I made this kit in under an hour, but I can see the potential of a hand-beaded bubble wand decorated in peyote stitch or wire wrapped in sterling silver with gems and beads on it.
A little tip: Bubbles like humidity and will last a lot longer on a foggy day or near a lake or pool.
Another tip: No matter the shape of the wand the bubble will always be round because that is the physics of surface tension.