here is the boy i love most in the world.

he turned 13 today.

misguided creative efforts

 during the storm i struck on an idea that i thought was a really good one. i worked on it for hours. i worked late into the night and then went right back to work in the morning. about twenty minutes in i asked myself "what the heck are you doing?!" at that specific point in time i was sanding polymer like a maniac, thru several grits (320, 400, 600)...and i hate excessive hand sanding. the unpleasantness of the task at hand snapped me back to reality. i had been madly making polymer lucky-stone beads. like these, except there are LOTS more....

ummmm, what a bad idea. lucky stones are, well, lucky...and they're stones. these are lame and a pain in the tuchus (that IS how you spell it- i looked it up on obsessivejew.com) to sand. i think i was missing little cranberry, ME, where finding the REAL stones is more a matter of attentiveness than luck!

while looking on google images for some beachy scenes of little cranberry i came upon this image....these buoys look VERY familiar. (it's a lovely photo, by dana moos and the one above is a cropped version of a beautiful photo by paul andrew)

so i abandoned those and got back to work on this...it's coming along, although the lighting in my kitchen at night does not do it justice. when i finish stringing it, i'll take it outside for a photo shoot.

                                      

post-sandy

my heart goes out to all who have suffered/are suffering through the aftermath of this terrible storm. not a lot of suffering here in our part of central connecticut. the days off that we were lucky to have with our power intact have been spent in a frenzy of making things. maia has been especially productive, learning how to run the sewing machine herself.


after building a trundle bed for her bitty twins out of a shoebox and covering the backboard with slin and fleece, she sewed the twins coordinating blankets and pillows. she also made herself a pair of cupcake jammie bottoms (i helped a little with the fiddly waistband and hem).

i spent a bunch of time cleaning the studio to get it in working order and then took a wad of cast-off "scrap" polymer clay that maia had discarded and made a bracelet. i've actually been enjoying wearing it, too.



and i think i've figured out what to do with the giant bezel i made in a workshop with celie fago. that open circle will hold a sunstone in a fine silver bezel and the gap around the polymer clay disk will be filled with some more polymer (dark gray). maybe. we'll see.

 

all hallow's eve

 in 8th grade you think you can go out with NO COSTUME to collect candy. then your mama says you can't go unless you at least have a mask.....

 fun times in 5th grade!

happy halloweenie from the hairiest, scariest beasts you ever want to meet!

someone's obsessed

look at these fantastic polymer clay miniatures!!!! maia can't stop making them! it all started with that cool donut she's holding...hours and hours later we have cakes and sandwiches and pretzels and pencils and...and...and...i can't get her out of OUR studio!!!!!

pumpkin pickin'

 

finally. a blog post on the actual day the photos were taken!

one down, 2 to go!

happy to have lots of new babies to knit for!

great class at the aldrich

class finished up at about 8:30 pm on thursday night. it's first thing saturday morning and 16 sets of lentil beads, button closures and decorative disks are all fired, tumbled, and patina-ed. whew.

i'm glad i thought to supply fill-in-the-blank forms for the artists to sketch their beads and buttons. and ziplocs with labels-for-names to keep it all organized. 

i wish that i had been able to accurately assess how many hours it would take me to fire, tumble and patina so many pieces. not to mention the sanding and assembling each necklace. 

next time i will arrange for a 6-hour class where THE MAKERS will do the finishing and assembly work, instead of me!