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)

resolute

... in which our plucky heroine turns resolutely to the motto, perseverance makes positivity...

Organic Seville oranges mean the start of marmalade season, though they are difficult to find and usually only available for a week or two. I need to remember that they come ripe usually in January, and set aside a day for making preserves. After my burn-the-marmalade debacle on the 18th, it was good fortune to find some more still available, and this weeks attempt will be most cautious, having no desire to deal with another heavily burned pan, though learning the trick of applying peroxide and warming it to remove layers of burned-to-carbon sugar was a big help, the waste of all that time and effort, not to mention the oranges and sugar was most upsetting. This will be the first of three batches of marmalade, blood oranges are next, and then probably red grapefruit. Finishing up citrus season with some candied peel would be excellent; this year am hoping for a good balance between a bit more preserving, and a bit more garden activity, and since citrus are from faraway, any citrus preserves must needs happen when they are here!

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Yesterday my student Freydis came over for the afternoon, and as a way to demonstrate some basic soldering, I worked on fabricating the setting for a very small dress form enamel charm. The charm will be part of a larger sewing tools pendant/necklace, which in turn will be part of a shadowbox artwork: "time is a dressmaker specialising in alterations". This particular project has been percolating in the studio since the first concept showed up in my sketches in December 2012, but I am far more excited about the way it is shaping up now... stay tuned for further updates in the next few weeks. If all goes well I shall be having a small show at Azure Fine Art Gallery in Corvallis, in April, so in addition to my everyday work, am focusing on putting together a series of interactive shadowbox artworks that include my metalwork and enameling.

Obviously, this is the unset enamel, and the back of the bezel setting that will hold it (7/8 x 5/8"). I initially and unintentionally cut the base plate just a little bit smaller than the already soldered bezel. Some hammering with the ball peen both textured the back around the maker's mark, and stretched the base out just enough to make a good solder joint possible.

:::

Fortunately I am not always rarely quite as sunk in the depths of an emotional swamp as Monday's post might make it seem, and in truth I expect no magic answers, despite the stories in children's books... I do enjoy my own company, and enjoy time spent with friends, and strive to be accepting that my life is not shared in intimacy with anyone, and that the tactile and affectionate world, that for many some is a constant, is in my life more akin to Halley's Comet. I long for simple affection, the arm around the shoulders, the hugs and contact that tell our skin that all is well... ... a few good productive days like yesterday and I hope to be my usual and more cheery self.  In general I feel blessed with how many wonderful friends I do have both locally, at a distance, and online (as well as my parents and siblings, since we are also close though not nearby geographically). I do count my blessings every day, and practice gratitude, as a counterbalance to despair.

ghosts of creatures passed

...in which our plucky heroine walks again the old walks...

but more alone than ever, because alone is on the inside, not in the situation. Traveled up to Mud Bay last Friday, after a late start leaving Portland, with the intention of staying with my Fjords End pals, and having a chance to see the Blue Cedar House folk, a visit with both the little girls there who have been most vocal about missing their honorary "auntie", a visit with my oldest friend SC who is dealing with serious health issues, and an assortment of other Olympia area errands and etceteras...but first, here is an obligatory internet cat photo: Huginn and Muninn, the young cats of Mud Bay

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Early Saturday morning, took Toshi for a walk out to Perry Creek Bridge. All the valley was shrouded in  gradually lifting mist; couldn't help but remember all the myriad times I'd walked there, in brightness and in darkness, with my beloved Smokey, and with other dear ones now gone or gone from me. The memories of hands no longer holding mine, of little cats in the now derelict house, the ridge where the mushrooms grew, and the tiny houses with the goat pens in the back... the mist seemed all too full of wispy ghosts, like a surreal cross of Miyazaki and Adventure Time, that only I could see. The moss and lichen on the old bridge are larger than when last there, but girl is grateful indeed to be still hale enough to walk with a dog there and back, more than one time this past weekend.

Indeed, my Jen-bead earring fell out while I was faffing around with my camera, but fortunately when she and I walked back there later that day, it was still visible in the roadside mud; I'd have been most desolated to have lost it.

:::

Made progress over the weekend on several handwork projects. The Dragon's Mist crowns had their center panels cut to size and shape, though after discussion with Bill was decided that completing the enamels and settings first before the engraving of the supporting dragons is necessary, so those will be done in time for handing the work off at Founder's Revel in a few weeks.

My other projects were all textilia: did quite a bit of knitting on the Twilit Sky neckwarmer, and am about halfway done or more... I was worried that I might not have enough yarn (despite the fact that the listed amount of yarn in the skein is supposed to be 560 yards and the pattern only takes less than 300) and then it occurred to me that it might be that the reason for running out was that perhaps I put the yarn into two yarn balls because it exceeded the capacity of my winder! Sure enough, there was the rest in the box of blue yarns…

Have made good progress on the embellishment for the first tunic I am making for Mr Robertson, indigo blue linen embroidered in cream:

The edging is all couched, and the corbies are done in outline stitch, for better ability to render details. The one on the right is still just tracing paper, which will be basted in place then the embroidery stitched right through the paper, which is just barely durable enough to hold up to that, then can be easily torn away, leaving just the stitchery (as seen on the left)

:::

It was fun to see Blue Cedar House folks in their native habitat, and the girls flung themselves at me when I arrived, before returning to play with their friends. We all had a lovely lunch cooked by H and B, and Ellie gave me a watercolor landscape she painted. In my opinion, every kitchen is improved with some child art; this pretty thing will be a great addition to the decor here.

Unfortunately after the lovely lunch there was some serious though unintended foo between SC and myself that had her leaving for home before we could even talk. This was really upsetting to me; she'd made some assumptions about what I was and was not willing to do (without asking me). My primary goal this weekend was to have a chance to speak with her [on safe territory, since she owns a large and known to be unreliable Rottweiler-cross that I (and many other folks) am not willing to be around, a dog that nips/bites/disrespects humans. I have been bitten more than one time by large dogs, and do not intend to ever choose to put myself in a risky situation] but sadly, she took my refusal personally. While it is easy to say "not my circus not my monkeys", that rubs raw and wrong when it is an old friend of so many decades standing. Am still trying to figure out where to go next...

So it was rather a weekend of antinomy, where despite being in the places, and with many of the people, I am closest to, I went home feeling more isolated than before... not sure how I ended up in a life where I am tangential to some few, incidental to more, but central to no one but myself. Not sure if it is more painful to just stay by my ownself, and focus only on handicraft, or to continue to be with others, while standing outside the window with my nose pressed against the glass, watching those who are family together, with my pockets empty...

I know that this week will be all about getting work done, there are enamels to be made, various sewing work to be stitched, and a whole assortment of material world tasks that will fill as much time as I am gifted with. My time is better spent doing the work of the world, than in useless speculation and beating head against the brick wall of solitude...