Wrapping Things Up

I'm starting to move my mind-set into vacation mode. I still can't believe that I leave on Monday. It's a good thing that I still have Sunday for packing though because although I packed clothes for the trip, I still haven't packed any of the tools and supplies that I need for my pre-conference classes. But my charms are finished, I am making sure that I have at least one sketchbook and pencils/markers, and I will have tools. So what could be bad. Actually, the only bum thing about the entire trip is that I'm really broke so any purchasing must be minimal. That's much harder to do than to say since I'll be seeing some of my favorite vendors and friends while I'm there. But I'll manage, and I'm really looking forward to seeing Shruti again.

Shruti and I met last year at the Purdue PMC Conference. We got along very well, so when she posted asking for a roommate for the MCW Conference, I volunteered to share with her. She comes from Dehli, India, so it is refreshing to get a viewpoint that is not US-centric. Additionally, she also does enamel work so we have another point of artwork in common. I can only envision positive things from this trip and getting together with her again. And even though my broken arm is still waking me up with jags of pain, it's just one of the problems that come with healing and I am getting better every day.

Here is my July snowstorm photo. The cottonwood trees in my neighborhood have been shedding massively and it looks like a fall snowfall from a distance. I thought I would share the joy of "snow" that won't melt and that is "fluffy". The little sparkles of the cottonwood seeds almost look like fairies. Can't you just see the fluff as a massive fairy cotillion?

Movies, Friends and Pie

What could be better than movies, friends and pie. After a busy day trying to get things prepared for next week's trip to Metal Clay World, I met my friend Chickie at the mall to see Ice Age 3 in Disney 3-D. FUN! Very cute movie. We were laughing throughout. I love feel-good movies. Her Mom, Claire, was supposed to have joined us but had to bow out at the last minute. So it was just the two of us. Not a problem :-)

After the movie, we headed off to Baker's Square for salads and free pie. Wednesdays is free pie day and we were counting on it :-) I was too stuffed from my wonderful Bar-B-Qued Chicken salad to eat my pie, so I brought it home and I'll have it tonite instead.

I'll do the last finishing bit on my charms today while watching the morning's run for Le Tour de France. Yesterday there was a breakout of six riders and one of them, Thomas Voeckler, pulled it off and won the stage. Congrats to him! Although he wore the yellow for several days in the Lance Armstrong era, he had never won a stage before. He was SO happy! I love this year's Tour - yippee!

Packing and Art

Well, today is my "day off", my "studio day", my laundry day (that's an absolute, no options - LOL). I leave on Monday for Metal Clay World, so I will spend today finishing up the last packing on my charms for the charm exchange and packing. I want to make sure that I am not forgetting anything I will need for my classes.

Chickie finished adding gussets into my name pouch yesterday. She did an amazing job with this pouch - I am SO pleased with it. I knew I didn't have the time to deal with making it, and she is very good with leather. So I hired her to make it for me according to my specifications. It had to hold my name tag, business cards, sketch book and pen. The basic pouch design was based on an old plastic pouch that I had used for many years. The designs were totally my own. The front features papyrus and lotus plants with my Isis Rising logo in the center front. The back has an ankh for life, two feathers of Ma-at for justice, the triple moon symbol for the Goddess and the female existence, and Tengwar script that roughly translates to "What you have to decide is what you will do with the time you are given", a paraphrased quote of Gandalf's in the Lord of the Rings. (I'm too lazy to look up the exact quote right now.) So I'm sharing my vision in leather with all of you because I'm very happy with the results of my name pouch. Now, back to packing...

Forging Ahead

I brought my finished enamel charms to the shop and have started attaching them to jump rings and including business cards. I think I'll print tags explaining the process for each bag as well. I have culled the best seven out and I will choose one for myself from that group, as well as one for my roomie, Shruti. I'm starting to look forward to this next trip, even though I need to figure out a couple of things. Primarily in my mind is what I want to do for my bronze clay class. Gordon and Louise are teaching what they call a "Sea Witch". The techniques are most certainly going to be helpful to my own work. But I don't do human representational work. So I'm trying to figure out how I can wiggle here. I'm thinking my best bet may be to work with one of the Egyptian gods as my imagery instead of making a more human-styled mask. I don't really have any good reason why I tend to not make "human" or "doll-like" images, but I have steered away from that for many years. I'm sure there is some subconscious reason for it.

And Le Tour de France is turning into a great race this year. Yesterday's wonderful catch-up and breakaway by Columbia was incredible to see. Only those riders who were very aware and up front were able to keep up with it, including Lance and Fabian Cancellara. Mark Cavendish won another sprint stage (the man is absolutely incredible as a sprinter) with the Hammer - Thor Hushovd, coming in second. Lance moves up to third place overall, and today is the team time trial. Lots of great racing still to come - call me HAPPY!

Charm Continuation...

So I baked my glass painted charms on Saturday night. I had to resort to glass painting for the final coat because they were not accepting any more vitreous enamel or high heat (I guess I found one of the limiations of copper clay). So the final layer and my back signature had to be done with something requiring low heat. The glass paints worked very well. I had some sacrifices to the gods of craft experimentation . I think I ended up with almost 10 sacrificed and unusable. That would mean that I had an average 20% loss. Not a good percentage. Now I'm on the wait for a good %off coupon from Michael's so that I can purchase a small pottery wheel. I think I'd like to try throwing a pot from copper or bronze clay. Why not? There are a lot of drawbacks to it, and I've heard that these small wheels won't work for this application. But if I can get one of these "toys" for $12-$13, it seems worth the experiment to me. And I'm sure I can figure out other things to use the wheel for also.

And Le Tour is on again. Call me happy! I truly love watching the major races - Le Tour, the Giro, the Vueleta, etc. But Le Tour is the biggie and I try to not miss any of it. I'll be very disappointed to have to miss next week while I'm out of town. I'll catch what I can on text message and on-line, but it won't be the same. It's a sacrifice, but I'll learn a lot about my craft so it's a sacrifice that I felt was worth it. But I'll still miss my daily "Le Tour fix". (My picture isn't from the 2009 Tour, but isn't it it a lovely one? The peloton sillouetted against the clouds - perfect!)

Happy Birthday USA & Le Tour de France

What a wonderful day. Not just the 4th of July - a day off from work, a holiday, fireworks, grilled food, fun!!! But also the beginning of the 96th Le Tour de France - Lance Armstrong, Alberto Cantador, Carlos Sastre, and many many more. I'll be glued to my TV for every day I'm in town watching Le Tour, and those stages that I'm out of town for I'll be catching what I can on my laptop before or after classroom hours.

I'm also down another pound. I'm starting to get happy. I want another two off before I leave for my conference at the end of next week. That shouldn't be a problem.

Just a short posting today - back to the time trials of Le Tour. Happy!!!!

High Gear

Time to switch into high gear. I have a lot that I need to accomplish today, so I'm cashing in my "certificate" for an extra day off. It gives me the chance to do more enamel work. I'm hoping to get the charms finished today - but everything has to work out perfectly for that to happen.

After looking carefully at them under daylight yesterday (and giving my arm a day to recover from the abuse that I gave it on Wednesday), I decided that I needed one more coat of color before I paint the details in the final fuse. That means, unfortunately, that I will need to stone the sides and faces of the charms at least two more times today and that hurts. I'm going to have to see if there is a way that I can use my left arm more for that today or repetitive stress injury becomes a possibility.

So, one more coating of color (I hope that one more will be sufficient and I won't need two), then mixing up my colors and using my pens and brushes to put on my logo and paint the details. Then the key will be getting everything fused on properly, having the temps accurate, and not losing the pen work to the fire. I am SO looking forward to an intensive day of playing. And then I get two more days off! It is such a rarity. I hope all of my readers have a fabulous 4th of July while I wish the USA a Happy Birthday!