so cold

in which our plucky heroine stays indoors...

It is rather awfully cold out, well below freezing. Last night the wind was howling through the turbine vents in the roof. There was only a tiny bit of snow when I woke up, but various sorts of white stuff have been swirling down from the sky, though by lunchtime the amount has not reached to top of the grass in the yard. My heat pump keeps trying valiantly to warm the house up, and has managed about 62, which is forty degrees warmer than it is outdoors.

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~ day 13 ~

What I choose to draw is very much random, today it was my small craft scissors. And I am not striving for "accuracy" per se, but just looking and sketching and putting in some detail. I don't know if I want to draw for a whole year, or do other creative things, but this is the least complicated option I can think of.

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I've been knitting a set of little hats for Kestrel's tinyfolk. The hats have a lovely shape being rather "witchy-fantasy" in style. I've finished a green one, am starting on a blue one, and saving the black one for last, for during daylight, because black yarn. I will probably also knit some little scarves to go with them.

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Earlier today, when Mischa mentioned a confusion regarding a particular sewing task, I had the very pleasurable chance to spend quite a bit of time explaining some of the relevant techniques. We ended up moving the discussion to Zoom, so as to make it easy and possible to share sketches as well as words directly. Next best thing to being in person, and a chance for me to put my teacher hat on, which is an activity I dearly love, and have far too few opportunities in this Time of Isolation!

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Jedi obi sash	reinstall octopus	recycle bin
2	Jedi underlayer	hang candle lantern	-
3	2 tiny books	paint tiger frame	-
4	teal knit top	patch closet holes	-
5	green tiny hat	-	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x

today's gratitudes -
1. shelter from the storm - the house has a roof, and walls, and a heat pump that is doing it's level best to keep the indoor air at least somewhat warm despite the frigid outdoors.
2. The new lighting setup for the computer zone is working really well as far as function, so when I can finally build a more aesthetically pleasing structure I will know the parameters. Yay for mocking up a design before building it.
3. A zoom meeting with my Mud Bay pals...
4. Spending time with Mischa explaining sewing techniques

Time of Isolation - Day 1290

Sunday snippets

in which our plucky heroine picks out the good parts to share...

Despite having exponential increase* in my pain levels, which rather severely curtailed some of the planned weekend activity, there were still some excellent times with my northern friends. Isabel brought her daughter, and on Saturday afternoon Genevieve wanted to make some block printed trim for her SCA clothes. We set up a work station and she took an assortment of my tiny blocks and printed (in multiple colors) enough trim yardage to decorate two gowns.

.

Genevieve asked if carving her own blocks was an option, so that is planned for a future visit... she has many things she wants to learn, where I could be a mentor; her mom and I talked about a Craft Camp here sometime during a school break, when she could come and stay for longer than a weekend

Saturday night we returned to Enat Kitchen, our favorite Ethiopian restaurant, and enjoyed a delightful feast of tasty lamb bits in two very different iterations, as well as salad and injera. Nom nom nom! Early bedtime, because time change the next day.

Isabel had spent time Saturday pulling out the fence stakes and tidying the former chicken zone, and we gathered more cardboard to underlay future expansion of the wood chips in the backyard. Because it was very cold Sunday morning, instead of yardwork first, we all three worked on another crafty activity, bead stringing...

These bead swag strands each will hang between the two brooches that fasten the "apron-dress", to decorate their Viking era norse clothing for events this summer. Isabel strung the lower strand, using beads she has been collecting, and supplemented with some from my supplies.

Genevieve strung the upper strand, and I gave her an assortment of possible beads to choose from out of what I have on hand. I always forget how much longer it takes to learn a new skill, and to choose which beads are desired, so they both spent several hours happily stringing beads.

I managed to restring the ends of my own bead swag, which really were in need of improvement. I had last strung them at least twenty years ago, and have been wanting for several years to replace the antler discs and amber chips for shaped beads more historically plausible.

 

my bead swag is the bottom one, and the various charms and coins hanging from it are either organization insignia, awards, or souvenirs of special occasions

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March SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	charter #2	stripey vest buttons	chicken wire
2	2 tiny enamels	bead swag ends	-
3	blue floral blouse	x	-
4	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

today's gratitude - living long enough to be a Virtual Great Aunt...


* stupid ankle pain, back to the level 8+ that it was in the beginning, bad enough that I decided to take Vitamin I (aka ibuprofen) despite the horrid effects it has on my systems, just so I could try and get some sleep. ankle hot, and is obviously swollen. I am icing it 3 x a day. In too much pain to do any of my PT... this is not okay, will be phoning my medical clinic Monday.

preparing for calming handwork

in which our plucky heroine sets things up...

It was beastly hot today. Well above 90.

The Tree Crew came early in the AM to check on the adopted trees, and gave me a few Very Useful hints about staking the wee new apple so it will grow nice and straight of trunk, and about how I ought to move the watering bucket to various stations around the quincelings trunk so the roots will get water from various sides instead of only in one place. And that the apple while okay, would probably like a bit of extra nitrogen. And mulch. I am most impressed with our local neighborhood association Tree Crew, and pleased to know that my baby trees are doing okay.

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This middle of the day I mostly hid indoors, and as Tullia came over for studio time, this suited us both. She has been making good progress on her apotropaic rings and pendants, and is ever more fearless and thoughtful in her soldering. I have started repairing the Birka enamel brooch which broke years ago and has been sitting in my studio to do pile ever since. A number of small tools seem to have gone into hiding in the workroom, including my two small bench pins and my plastic tweezers. Bah! I shall continue to look for them...

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Decided that preparing an assortment of lino blocks and carving sheets to be worked on is a good idea. Having a variety of small handwork, both portable and not, means that small chunks of time between other tasks can be used to further other personal projects long desired but perhaps somewhat "frivolous", by doing activity that I find as soothing and calming as others find meditation to be...

Preparing a new lino block, to use as a border for various central motifs, circular joining blocks, and interstitial designs of assorted small designs. The whole is inspired by 8th-9thC silk samite.

The larger (as yet uncarved) block, is 8" in diameter, the smaller block, already carved with a design of confronted horses beneath a stylised tree, is 5" across. My intention is to create an group of blocks that may be interchanged to create an assortment of polychrome printed fabric suitable for trimming both SCA and modern clothing.

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June SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	pickled garlic scapes	Isabel apron dress trim	small crock pot
2	seven baprons	Drusa hat trim	cracked iron pot
3	undergown Genievieve	pruned sage	yard waste bin
4	undergown for Isabel	pruned forsythia	-
5	Norse apron dress Aesa	continued pruning apple	-
6	Aelflaed pinafore	"brooches" for Aesa	-
7	blue curtains	x	-
8	Drusa wool coat	x	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	-
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

looking up

in which our plucky heroine is enjoying signs of spring...

dogwood blossoms against a springtime sky
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My student Tullia, a friend and fellow historic re-enactor (though she does Roman, and I mostly do Viking Age) is only a beginner at metalwork, but is diving into it with her usual enthusiasm. She decided that she wanted to make the wedding rings, in a Roman style, for her marriage later in May. The larger one (for Caius) is sterling silver, and the smaller one (for Tullia) is 18k gold. Although these look simple, it is in fact not simple to get the knotwork symmetrical, and the pieces soldered together cleanly. And, working with gold is not perzaktly like working with silver, and she and I both did research to make sure to get it right the first time, as I have only ever once had a chance to work with gold, so my own experience is very limited.

She did good!
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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	celtic enamel pelican	bathrobe shoulders	bag to Goodwill
2	trapunto knotwork	taxes done	bag to Goodwill
3	pliers rack	apple tree pruned	spare lawn mower
4	charter #7	tunes moved	old hose and reel
5	x	Aesa clothes mended	galvanised pots
6	x	torch holder	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

Sunday snippets

in which our plucky heroine notices a momentary halo...

Apparently the bike lanes on the nearby primary street were just repainted, which process also includes the liberal sprinkling of reflective glass spheres. As I was riding home on my bike earlier today, my shadow was cast ahead and slightly to the right, the sun not having reached full height in the sky. A curious effect of a small but bright rainbow*, was following along slightly ahead of my shadow, apparently from the excess of microspheres, and a slight, quick, turn of my head showed that the rainbow formed an pennanular curve around my cycling shadow self. It was a most curious effect. I tried stopping to see if I could capture it with my cell phone camera, but the effect seemed to be predicated on movement somehow. In difficult times any glimpse of beauty is a benison.

*edited to add, that the scientific name of the phenomenon is called "a glory", and there is, of course, an optical explanation. Thank you to my Berkeley friend Flieg for the additional info.

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Back in the dawn of time, when I was a child (and the soft hot rocks made it difficult to keep the crayons from melting...) instead of giving crayola colors amusing descriptive names like "inchworm", and "jazzberry jam", the colors had simple names like "blue-violet", and "yellow-green", for example, which made it more obvious how combining colors led to more interstitial colors. This painted example of the color wheel (I made up outline coloring wheels to share with my charter painting students) is one possible useful and handy way to think about colors. I assumed everyone learned this in grade school, but not necessarily.

This is a more complex split primary color wheel; by starting with a warm and cool color of each of the three primary colors, more subtle secondary colors can be created. I realised once I started that this color wheel was a bit beyond the needs and available time for a single hour and a half introductory painting class. It was fun, however, to draw up the master for this, I got to use some of my geometry templates and triangles...

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I should mention that in fact, I did teach a new workshop on Saturday - Introduction to Charter Painting. It was intended for encouraging beginners to try their hand at charter painting, which is basically "illumination made easy". Charters are xerox copies of SCA award scrolls (certificates), with the calligraphy already done, and the design in place, as outlined motifs. Hence, painting a charter is a bit like coloring in a coloring book, only with gouache paint instead of markers or crayons, and often with a bit of additional embellishment. I greatly enjoy painting charters as a form of meditative relaxation, so encouraging others to also give it a try was not a terribly difficult step. I think that the class was pretty well received, and with some editing of the handout sheet, it could also be taught as a fun short workshop for modern folks as well...

get r done

It has been a while since our plucky heroine managed to make time for writing here...

In the interim, there was camping at Egils* last weekend, where I spent time with my SCA household, taught a class on carving blocks for printing, and realised that it has been well over twenty years that I have been camping with the same group of friends (and hundreds of other people - Egils is a BIG event, though not as big as it was formerly, there were only about 720+ people this year), some of the friends I have were not even born when I began to be active in this hobby...

While I was there I started the embroidery that will decorate the yoke of a new tunic for Vanya. While I remember him as a chubby toddler with golden curls, sitting outside his parents tent and banging on a saucepan with a spoon, he is now a strapping young man and apprentice blacksmith, tall and bearded, and about to get engaged to a lovely woman. Time flies, don't blink... Anyway, he requested bears, with hammers, and these Viking Age bears were the result. He, and I, are both pretty happy with how they turned out.

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There are actually two major SCA camping events that happen here in An Tir over Memorial Day weekend, Egils just to the south of Eugene, and Grand Thing out in Astoria... The illuminated scroll I was working on was awarded to Susan de Winter, outgoing StormRider of Stromgard, at the Grand Thing event. While I couldn't be there, my pal Dayna made sure the finished scroll got there safely, and even took a picture of the recipient:

(I plan on posting more about finishing the scroll tomorrow, there are a lot more photos to share...)

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Doing my best to focus on the positive, which is a challenge, but possible. Hard not to be grouchy, as the ongoing pain from my left achilles tendon issues continues to make walking really difficult, particularly when on uneven ground, like when camping. This morning I woke up with "exciting" new neck/shoulder pain, having slept badly last night, stretched on awakening and now have hot coals under my scapula. Grump grump grump...  but... on the other hand... I was able to set up my tent this year, with minimal help, unlike last year when I was too weak to be able to do it at all. And, thankfully, I was away camping this last weekend, and not riding transit during the horrific attack here in PDX that killed two men and left a third still in hospital recovering. I spent time yesterday just sitting on my front porch and being grateful, thinking about all I have to be grateful for and enjoying the shade and listening to the children of the neighborhood playing down the street.

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June will be busy. I intend to take time to set up a food plan, to help with budgeting and with my ongoing effort to take off a few pounds to try and make my legs less painful. There will be sewing like the wind, since I have at least eight or more garments to complete for others, prior to ATWW at the beginning of July. There is enameling - the Wastekeep hat enamels need done, and I will be teaching an introductory enamel workshop at the end of the month. Not to mention, it is time for summer pruning trees, the apple is looking quite shaggy, and I need to seriously thin the fruit set so I will get some nice big apples this year, and I need to apply the nylon footies to foil the bugs that want to live in said baby apples. Had best get out every morning early for a while for tree care. Plus somewhere in there, I ought to get back to the declutter efforts, which have been rather lax the last few months

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	grey jersey pants	loom weights	bag to Goodwill
2	brown trim bands	sakura embroidery	bag to Goodwill
3	brown jersey pants	supports for peas	x
4	planter box	repair bathing suit	x
5	calligraphy for scroll	x	x
6	Thora hat cone	x	x
7	illuminated scroll	x	x
8	bears with hammers	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

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*Egil Skallagrimsson Memorial Tournament XLIII

media Monday and other musings...

in which our plucky heroine enjoys springtime...

There is something amazing about being able to walk outside on a clear spring day, and even in the heart of the city, to smell the sweet scent of tree blossoms and the the green earth waking up. My ornamental plums are a glory to behold right now, and my heart is eased momentarily by the simple act of walking out the front door and standing underneath them and looking up into a cloud of pink fragrant flowers and tiny deep red unfurling leaves.


The white violets are done for the year, but the pinky-purple ones are all flowering and there are assorted buds happening on some of the other spring bulbs. My tiny star magnolia has a few stars on it this year, I suspect that the harsh winter did not make it happy, but it did survive, unlike half my euphorbia. And, in the back yard, the apple tree is showing signs that there will be appleblossom later this spring...

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Had a chance today to stop off at Drusa's wood shop and view the progress on the tine boxes she is making. There are more of them, and she has picked out compatible wood for their lids and bottoms. Woodworking is not a fast process, and I am looking forward to seeing how they all turn out. I have been encouraging her to also make assorted smaller wooden items for sale to SCA people, shuttles and threadwinders and tablet weaving cards and suchlike. She has also started making a few of the Norse bag "handles" and will have some of them available this tourney season.

She has, in addition, been doing some urban wood salvage of tree parts damaged in this winters snow, and has some greenwood to experiment with, maple and birch, for making coopered buckets and other delightful possible future projects! I will continue checking in with her, and am hoping to swap sewing expertise for woodworking skills...

an assortment of tine boxes in process...
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Good progress has been happening in the workroom, but as the commissioned projects are gifts, the images of those will have to stay hidden for now. In addition, this weekend I spend a good chunk of time teaching some introductory metalwork skills to Tullia, and open studio time with Zenobia. Tullia wants to eventually be able to add greater realism to her Roman era historic re-creation, and making unique component parts of jewelry that are not commercially available is one of her goals. It was also my first time teaching metalwork skills, as opposed to enameling. We decided that her learning to solder would be essential; and she took to it with aclarity. These are her first soldering efforts, which I call quite successful for her first time driving the torch!

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The problem with having so much fun mentoring folks in the skills I have is that it also has me looking at supply and tool catalogs, and finding nifty useful things for the workshop... currently resisting spending money until further decluttering and organisation happens in the workroom, but there are several things on the wishlist... quite frankly, I am sort of a tool junkie, and have been my whole life. Just look at this gorgeous jewelers saw frame, which several of my metalworking pals have and enjoy... These titanium soldering clamp blanks look mighty useful, and there is an article with instructions for how to customise their shapes... even something as simple as this slide gauge will be a good addition to the workroom capabilities, and this blog post has good information about how to use it in various ways. I may have to promise self assorted tools as rewards for meeting various personal goals! Positive reinforcement is a good thing...

※※※

The world is so full of talented dedicated artists who put in a lot of effort and time to create beauty. I am filled with gratitude not only for their efforts, but for the world of technology that allows me to even know that they are out there, and to see even a small bit of what they offer to us...

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	-	-	-
2	-	x	-
3	-	x	-
4	-	x	-
5	-	x	x
6	-	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

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several Sunday snippets

in which our plucky heroine attempts to raise her spirits by raising her activity level...

...at least as much as is possible when the outdoors is a sheet of ice. Went as far as Green Zebra yesterday to pick up extra produce and a container of milk, but then decided against any further travel since the snow was picking up. We didn't get anywhere near as much as places further south, or higher up; the grass is visible under the snow, here, but there is ice layers all over the place (this afternoon I took the flat end shovel, and cracked away all the ice over the concrete next to the back door, so as to render chook patrol less fraught with danger)

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In the interest of starting 2017 off in a positive direction, I am going to be offering Enameling Workshops here at Acorn Cottage, on the weekends of January 28th/29th, and February 4th/5th... anyone out there interested and available at either of those times? All materials and supplies would be provided, as well as knowledgeable instruction. Cost for the workshop will be $250. Completion of a workshop allows you to come to my open studio times for further fun with enamel...

I intend to to offer workshops here at Acorn Cottage throughout the year on various skills, not only cloisonne, or painting enamel, but other jewelry techniques, as well as sewing and decorative textile arts. Some will be whole weekend workshops, others for either a day, or an evening. Is there anything you would like to learn from me? drop me a line...

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Spent almost two hours this morning working on the black/cream wool pinafore, as my next SWAP garment. Decided that timing how long it takes to complete will be helpful in future estimates of sewing commissions. I am suspecting that my rough estimate of about four hours labor is likely to be close. So far I am up to 2¾ hrs, and still have all the edge binding, and attaching the skirt to the bodice yet to go; tempting to just go on and finish it today...

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my interpretation of "wintery mix" (where snow starts to turn back to rain and vice versa)...

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January SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	black/cream pinafore	brown pinafore hem	expired medicines
2	-	-	paper recycle
3	-	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	-	-	-
7	-	-	-
8	-	-	-
9	-	-	-
10	-	-	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-
13	-	-	-
14	-	-	-

Egils 42

Almost every year for almost the last twenty, our plucky heroine goes to the Egil Skallagrimson Memorial Tournament...

Our household, Caer Lutris, has this lovely spot next to a big pond...(Frogsong yay, hungry mosquitoes boo!) In addition to the pleasure of a long weekend spent with friends, I was fortunate to take a workshop on a beautiful esoteric metalworking skill, had the pleasure of teaching an introductory leatherworking class that had all ten spots filled and a waiting list, and was surprised not once but twice in court: on Saturday with a "Friend of The Summits" award*, and on Sunday with an Adiantum "Baronial Brownie" (for service to the Barony of Adiantum) The event was fun, exhausting, too warm, and thoroughly worthwhile; I missed eventing so much last year, as my injured knee last year precluded such activity.

***

I was fortunate to be one of the six people taking the three hour workshop on Damasquinado de Oro (applying precious metal foil to steel, to create decorative motifs) at Egils this last weekend, taught by Jarl Sir Styrkarr. . Here he is showing us how to use the scalpel knife to texture the steel ground used in the technique

A closer view of how to hold the knife and showing the beginning of applying parallel cuts to the steel surface

This curious object is "the cannonball", a very clever vise used to hold the pitch block that holds the steel substrate. The combination of the sphere and the base allows moving the block in any direction or angle, and the holdfast bolt makes a good handle

After applying the gold to the surface with a wooden tool, the edges of the design are cut to match the motif. I am quite concentrating here, as Ursel watches...

Ursel and I worked our pieces on the same pitch block, taking turns... here she is tamping her gold foil in place, while my piece has had the design tamped, edges cut, and is waiting to have the matt tool used, to crimp the gold foil down permanently

The result of my efforts in the three hour workshop, with chased line details added by Styrkarr. This small piece of decorated steel, about 1 1/2" across, will probably become a pendant...

I wish I had managed to get pictures of all six of the pieces made in in the class... the lefthand one was made by Angelique, and the righthand one by Brizio...

.

***

Even in my rudimentary garden, everything is running about a month or so ahead of normal this year. The night before leaving for the event, noticed that all the garlic has well formed garlic scapes (blossom stalks) which usually show up in mid June. They need cut off, so the plants put all their energy into forming garlic cloves, not making flowers and seeds.

So, I did a June task in late May, and harvested about 10 ounces of scapes. They are good cooked, and even better pickled. Texture a bit like asparagus, and taste mildly garlicky. When I asked Cathy about her recipe for pickled garlic scapes, she said she uses the recipe in Joy of Cooking for dilly beans... but my edition of Joy is missing that recipe (and has very few preserving recipes at all). Kindly she sent me the recipe, and while I hate to heat up the kitchen in the middle of this heat wave, a few jars of pickled garlic scapes will be worth it!

***

* "Given to those who reside outside the borders of the Principality of the Summits and who make great and note-worthy contributions in support of the Principality. Recipients are entitled to wear the Symbol of the Award, an Argent grail on an Azure field."

Norwegian medieval money pouch

in which our plucky heroine does a dab of leatherwork...

I've long been wanting to try this project, a small medieval coin pouch. I followed these directions on Katafalk, and found them to be both accurate and useful.

The design, based on an extant 13th/14th C medieval artifact from Bruges Museum in Bergen, has a clever and simple round of gathering, that shapes the pouch, helps make a space for the coins, and actually creates an almost flat bottom for setting the pouch down.

The first step, after cutting out the circle of leather that makes the pouch, is punching the holes for the drawstring and the lower gathering

Next step is to run a strip of leather through the holes in the middle of the circle...

Then pull the leather in to create the pouched center. and anchor one end of the strip so it will keep that size

Take the long end, thread it into a large needle and carefully stitch over each of the gathers, catching the gathering strip at the same time. Once all the way around, send the working end of the strip to the inside of the pouch, and tie it off.

Voila! a clever pouch, with neatly anchored gathers. Approximate size 3" from base to top edge. I looped the drawstring strap around the top edge, which still leaves just enough to loop and tie onto a belt.

There are more detailed process photos on Cathrin Åhlén's blog Katafalk, I find her various works very inspiring, and am grateful that she found this delightful small purse and showed so clearly how to re-create it.

:::

May SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	printed trim samples	caged feral roses	cardboard recycling
2	banner design	block printed undergown hem	-
3	small coin pouch	-	-
4	-	-	-
5	-	-	-
6	-	-	-
7	-	-	-
8	-	-	-
9	-	-	-
10	-	-	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-

early springtime is early...

... in which our plucky heroine notices that right next door, the sunshine says that spring is here, even though the calendar denies it...

Saturday was the Dragon's Mist monthly Arts & Sciences shindig, with many classes offered... Despite only a few hours of sleep the night before, since Seattle pals arrived here shortly before dawn, my class on Surface Couching and the Bayeux Tapestry stitch went surprisingly rather well. All the students were able to do both stitches in the two hours allotted, and we even delved into the mystery of Outline Stitch. Had some good feedback about an additional way to improve the class by using a series of step-by-step samples of the stitching process (a la Julia Child).

The afternoon I devoted to learning something new to me: "Punto in Aria" 16th century style needle lace. In the four hour class, we started on a wee sample of the very basics of this stitchery:

This is the not-quite-completed sample of a technique that is a lot of fun to work. The pattern is on thin cardboard, and all the joining places have a basted thread to guide the actual lacemaking and hold it in place until it is all properly stitched.

The completed Punto in Aria needlelace medallion is surprisingly solid for something so dainty... I have done nothing to it other than cut the basting threads and take it off the cardboard and it stands up all by itself! Thank you to THL Prudence Goodheart for a wonderful workshop, you are an inspiring and passionate instructor!

:::

Sunday was an excursion to our local Ikea, with much looking at various housey items, a break in the middle for necessary and tasty lunch (thank you Jess, the salmon gravlax was delicious!) and I not only brought home the beechwood cutting board I have been eyeing, but also found inexpensive packages of ball bearing shower rings (BRINGEN) that I had no idea Ikea carried, since they are not on the website. Those will be just the thing for the closet curtains I plan on making, and this means I need not hunt them down by going to hardware stores all over town, as delightful but excessively time-consuming as that would be...

:::

February SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	blue tunic embroidery	Kon-Mari 3 drawers	bag to Goodwill
2	corbie cowl	nightstands cleared	bag to Goodwill
3	gastropod needlebook	bed lamps transformed	bag to Goodwill
4	blue kitty needlebook	lamp brackets installed	bag to Goodwill
5	rosewater candied peel	closet cleared	paper recycling
6	-	dressers moved	paper recycling
7	-	kitchen art rearranged	cardboard recycle
8	-		monitor to Goodwill
9	-		paper recycling
10	-	-	box to Goodwill
11	-	-	bag to Goodwill

hmmm... still need to fix a few more things this month...
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Saturday snippets

... in which our plucky heroine makes a bouquet of straws grasped...

A portrait of the second snowdrop of 2015... I am tempted to find a way to plant more small bulbs here, they are always so cheering, not because eager for winter to be over, but because they are so stalwart about returning...

Yay! Seville orange marmalade success!! Six eight ounce jars, and one four ounce jar sealed and cooling. Nothing burned, texture is perfect, and I've some oranges left that didn't go into the batch, to try making period orange peel preserves. I'll probably also make some blood orange marmalade in the next week or two, now that I've got my confidence back again... My three favorite sweet preserves are quincemeat, marmalade, and strawberry rhubarb, and that order is the one in which the ingredients come available...

Just started reading "the life-changing magic of tidying up". While I am not sure I could carry out some of her instructions (no way am I dumping all my books in a pile on the floor to sort through them) I am drawn to her ideas, and finding myself starting to think about my possessions slightly differently, already...

In March, at the Heraldry Arts & Science Day, I'll be teaching a two hour class on carving a simple stamp that can be used for block printing.

This is an example of the kind of design that can be made in this class (this is my current SCA badge, which is used as a mark of "ownership")

This is an example of something you can do with a simple stamp... the background fabric of this sizeable tent wall hanging is printed in an allover pattern using the stamp of my badge (the central panel is a painted decoration inspired by my arms, that I made in a worshop taught by Linnet Kestrel many years ago)

Saturday snippets - a Painted Enameling workshop

... in which our plucky heroine spends two days teaching a private workshop on using painting enamels...

This most recent time teaching Introduction to Painting Enamels, only one person signed up for the class, so she basically had a two day long private lesson, (even a full class only has four students, so there is always plenty of personal attention) and made excellent use of her opportunity:

She decided to work on two different painted enamel projects. Here you see her avian inspiration, her sketch, and a partially completed enamel

and because it is always better to work on more than one enamel at the same time, to better utilise the kiln while waiting for one piece to be either drying out or cooling down... she is also making this larger piece, a portrait of one of her cats.

Partway through the process, as the cat portrait is gradually taking shape. The painting enamels have their own aesthetic, more impressionistic than cloisonné. In some ways folks find it slightly more accessible than other styles of enamel, as most of us have had at least some experience with using a paintbrush, though it does handle rather differently then ordinary paint. But even a large piece like this is still pretty small, and requires a light and delicate handing of the brush.

By the end of the two day workshop, Zenobia finished these two enamels... the cat portrait, at just over 2" in diameter, will be framed as a small piece of wall art, and the bird enamel will probably be set as a pendant or brooch. I am mightily impressed with her designs, productivity, and how well she was able to translate her ideas into these beautiful pieces...

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While wearing my teacher hat, it helps to have a project to work on that demonstrates the processes being taught, so adding another charm to the "time is a dressmaker" jewel was exactly right. This charm pendant was begun months ago, and at this point all that still needs done is to fabricate a tiny thread spool (the final charm), drill the holes and attach the charms and the actual necklace to the carved bone measuring tape. If you look closely, the second bit on the right is a new tiny painted enamel, with the image of a dress form...

eutectics

in which our plucky heroine digresses back to metal and glass for a moment...

There was some online discussion this week about using sterling instead of fine silver, for enameling. In both my own work and when teaching, I feel this is counter-productive, as the cost difference is minimal, compared to the effort needed to deal with the copper content in the sterling. What I have read is that you need to treat sterling in the same way you would treat copper, because the surface oxidises (turns dark) in the same way that copper does. If you depletion-gild the sterling then the outer surface would react more like fine silver. Using fine silver means that oxidation is not a problem because it (fire scale) doesn't happen on the surface. Fine silver and copper interact differently to different enamels, so sterling would have its own characteristic ways of reacting which you would have to learn. Sterling has a somewhat lower melting point than either pure silver or pure copper. In addition, if doing cloisonne, you would need to be careful about the fine silver wires touching the sterling surface. It is just so much simpler to use fine silver from the beginning, to avoid the hassles.

This is a piece I made back when I was beginning to learn enameling; we were taught to use copper as the base substrate. I took out of the kiln *just* as the eutectic action was in the middle of dissolving the wires... I had almost finished the enamel when this happened. I was able to salvage the work by creating a different pendant design, that worked with the changed enamel motif.

It was meant to say "enough is as good as a feast" and believe me bending those tiny little letters was not easy! The enamel is about 1 1/4 " across at the bottom edge. This is why I mostly never use copper as a substrate when doing cloisonne, the very slight added expense precludes a lot of heartbreak!

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melting point copper: 1,981°F (1083°C)
melting point fine silver: 1,763°F (961.8°C)
melting point sterling silver: 1,640°F (893°C)
melting point eutectic formation: 1,450°F (788°C)

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Sunday satisfaction: part the first

...in which our plucky heroine teaches a smaller class in Cloisonné Enameling...

The previous Enameling Playdate was a really full house, this workshop was rather towards the other extreme, but fewer students mean lots of extra time per student. My friend acupuncturist Sharon Rose was my primary student this time, as the other person scheduled for this session had a time conflict. In addition Larry and Cindy both returned to finish their projects, as they had had to leave the former workshop/playdate much earlier than the scheduled close of day...

Three students in the workroom on a Saturday afternoon...

Sharon arrived having done research and with several possible ideas for a first project; after choosing one, here she is bending wires for the design lines

Her first enamel is underway, and she's enjoying the process so much that she has started on a second one, that will be a two-sided design

the first cloisonné piece that Sharon Rose completed, motif based on Roman archaeological finds - (this will eventually become a brooch)

a two sided piece for her second effort; SPQR is the obverse side...and the reverse side has a very simple and effective design, also inspired by archaeological finds. There are specific challenges to making two sided cloisonné, and she did very well

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Cindy finished her first cloisonné piece, and used a lighter blue for accent shading on her blue cat.

Larry's first cloisonné piece, a beautifully precise heraldic ermine spot