Category Archives: Life as an Artist

Suddenly

Posted on by
Reply

his week I hit a wall. I’ve been working very hard physically for over a month now, I got fired Feb 12th and Dad’s stroke was the next Sunday and the fire the Sunday after that.  The wall finally smacked me in the face.  No energy.  I’ve had 5 boxes from upstairs to unpack and it’s taken me 5 days to do it.  I look at all of it and wonder where I’m going to put stuff. I sold all my bookshelves you know.  I’ve puttered around a bit, every once in awhile I get enough steam to do a project like that closet and then I crash again.  In front of me this week is painting the spackle patches in the bathroom and installing the three shelves, towel racks, toilet paper racks, and the temporary carpet until we get the new linoleum.  Don’t seem all that interested.

I am itching to get back to crafty stuff but am still in a limbo. So much is still in storage and I haven’t had the energy to deal with the craft room.  I know some of you are hankering to see it but it is a very slow slog for me.  But slowly the urge is starting to percolate.

My dear long time and recently back in my life friend, Breath of Fresh Air Leslie, has a knitting meetup group.  As long as you’re doing something textile related you can go. Which is good since my brother and I decided that socks are no longer working for him.  I picked up the Bohemian blouse I’ve set aside and started hemming the rest of the pieces in prep for the embroidery and then the faggoted seams.  Leslie took a photo of me, one of my new favorites.  I have to say this photo really captures me.  Needle in my mouth, hands pressing linen, biker jacket on the chair, vanilla latte , hair in disarray, amulets and talismen around my neck…

Continue reading →

Watery box

Posted on by
5

For a friend’s birthday.   I’ve been so disappointed in all the different ways I’ve tried to add color to my wood projects.  I’ve tried watercolors, colored pencils, inks.  I want it transparent so acrylic paints have been out of the question.  The colors are a serious problem when it’s time to varnish/polish because so far everything smears.  No matter what I’ve tried, it all smears the colors.  Grrrr. Continue reading →

Mercury

Posted on by
1

I’ve been spending a lot of time with Mercury.  He called and, after a few Miss Oblivious episodes, I answered.  We’ve been tight Mercury and me.

Several months ago I bought some Mercury dimes from eBay.  I finally gave up looking for my own Dremel.  Dremel must be in the storage pods and will very soon be freed to be my trusty companion once again.  My friend Tink drilled holes in the dimes for me.  I began the Mercury Necklace and then there was The Everything In Your Life Will Change Like A House On Fire fire.

It is a work in progress.  I have many more little dangly bits to add to the wires around each dime.  Lots of bling.  The connecting chain and clasp haven’t been made yet either.  This is a good start, however, and has the main components in place.

I don’t know about you but I like to see what my intuition says about colors and stones and the like then I cross check with other correspondence lists to see if I’m on the money.  95% of the time I am which pleases me greatly.  I like to know I’m in tune with the energies.

As I was going through my bead stash a little box of Alexandrite beads said, “oooh pick me! pick me!”  I bought them some long time ago, they weren’t my usual type of choice and they’ve been waiting.  And then the purple and pink called me.  And some blue.  And I thought, huh, I have always thought of Mercury as golden.  But sure enough, those are his colors and stone too. The Alexandrite picks up the colors next to it so it appears as though its color is changeable.

The dimes dangle with the Alexandrite and beads between each dangle.  I used head pins with balls and with rhinestones to get the dimes to dangle. Behind each head pin’s “head” is a little disc of gold.  Several years ago I bought some gold filled “spangles” or “paillettes” from Threadneedle Street in Issaquah, my all time favorite needlework thread store.  I was into reproduction embroidery in a big way and had thought that I would do either an Elizabethan sweet bag or coif but I never did.  So the spangles have sat waiting too.  They are now on the mercury necklace.  So now I have real silver and real gold to honor Mercury silver in the form of money with his image to encourage financial bounty.  I hope to encourage him to bring me more silver and gold and not so much trickery and hard lessons. Or thievery.

For something completely different I used my sheets as background because, yes, I’m doing this all from my cozy bed with my trusty laptop. Still working out the finer details of the new camera too.  Looking forward to crispier shots.,

Little Projects

Posted on by
6

In the off times when I’m not schlepping furniture, sorting boxes, cringing at toxic chemicals, ranting over the mess that was going away, posting things for sale on Craig’s List (Thank Goddess for Craigs’ List), I’m trying to work on little projects that give me pleasure.  Things that I can do from my armchair, things that don’t need too much space, things that don’t need too much thought.

I realized as I was uploading the photos from my new camera (woohoo!), a Nikon Coolpix, that all the backgrounds on my photos are either the quilt on my bed or the rug in front of it.  I have no place for a light box or to stage stuff.  10′ x 10′ is just not much space to live and work in.  I am so very grateful to my mother for seeing this as an opportunity to treat the basement rooms as an apartment.  It’s certainly large enough for one.  One could easily add a small stove, fridge, and sink and rent it out but for now, no kitchenette.  I can hardly wait.  It looks like I’ll be here at least 2 more years, possibly three.  Since the fire made us do so much work and since my bro was coming to help and since it is completely throwing my father into all kinds of confusion, it seemed like the best time to just do it all.

Teaser photo

Continue reading →

Transitions

Posted on by
4

My brother flew out this morning.  He did very well for the time he was here.  What we had to do was extremely stressful for all involved and with only one small dust up I’m proud of them all.  I wore my High Priest’s emerald necklace to keep me in cool love for the duration and it helped immensely.  We have built up a momentum that I hope to keep going through the spring.

The basement rec room, small bedroom, and bath are officially going to be mine.  Before March is over.  O joy, rapturous, delicious heaven.  O space, oh pleasant, private space of my own away from the frantic edge of CNN, away from the 6am beeping of the microwave, into my own little retreat. O bliss.  O Gracious Goddess and Great God, grateful thanks for your genius, bounty, and timing. Next time it would be nice not to have change brought about by a house fire but I must admit the results are glorious to me.  Can you say incense?  I haven’t been able to burn incense for a year now.  Privacy to practice my circle building skills.  Privacy for ritual.  This witch, this artist, is just over the moon happy about all this.

Continue reading →