24jul2024

Well, hello there, here's my 4th July post, 20 days late, not least because I had little germane to say on Independence Day—I mean, I've already posted what I feel to be the best historic speech in prior years—well, hey, at least it's 24July24, that's cool, right?

I was out of town at a kayaking conference, learning how to dump myself accidentally in the water (this has proven to be an extraordinarily difficult task for me, and I've achieved it, maaaayyybe, 4–5 times in the 2-1/2 years I've been paddling? But pushing to failure is, in my opinion the fastest way to learn) and owing to spotty cell phone coverage, didn't learn of the Democratic party's switch till I got back.

Frankly I wondered if they were hoping for a repeat of Obama—a relatively unknown (but talented) PoC who managed to beat the odds, with the added advantage of actually having had 3 plus years to practise for the job—but as he so often does, Scalzi pretty much summed up my feelings, and so on reflection, besides the important concerns expressed over there I'm glad the Dems switched for a couple of personal reasons, both extremely petty:

1. Biden gets to keep his promise of being a one term president, which I think is nice. No really. Not a big deal, politicians always lie about that stuff, blah, blah, blah, but now he can be elder statesman, and
2. I get a fun political post from Scalzi, I love those, and he hardly ever writes them anymore.

Yeah, I know.

That said, an awful lot of folks seem to be energized, and certainly now we have two very obvious, distinct visions literally embodied in the two candidates for president. I will admit, as a AFAB person, I really felt the hatred a lot of men had for my sex in the 2016 election results in a way that, like so many women of my generation, I'd mostly managed to tune out.

Here's hoping freedom for all prevails over hatred and fear. And on that note, some beads celebrating the USA.

22jun2024

Whoops, managed to fail posting noting the summer solstice (I was busy being a day late Juneteenth, you see) and the full moon (Thursday the 20th and Friday the 21st, respectively) That's me, always running behind...in my defense, the Solstice is pretty early this year.

Usually these little intros are my parking place for links I happen to find interesting, but for whatever reason I don't feel like doing that; instead, I thought I'd explain how I got an idea. It's probably gonna sound pretty dull, but if you've ever wondered how the ‘where do you get your ideas from?’ process works, here's an example.

As it happens, I was in fact thinking about the solstice yesterday—but the winter one: I was walking home from swimming, and because I have to leave my stuff unattended while doing my laps (all 10 of them), I don't take my phone, nor even my glasses, which meant I had no chance to photograph that adorable baby bun hopping near the bath house when I left—walks typically are an opportunity to think, but also to take photographs.

But I couldn't do that, my phone was at home.

I probably would've failed to photograph it anyway, but realized I could only share it with Fran (for whom I take bunny photos while walking—they don't really have many in Brooklyn, I guess, and she thinks they're cute, especially the babies, which is why I was particularly disappointed at not getting it) by talking about it or making art of it. Which perhaps reminded me of working glass with Fran a couple days prior.

I haven't been doing much with glass, I mean, we had heat advisories much of this week; but with Fran in town it was worth it. So last Wednesday, we visited while torching.

Because I'm that kind of person, I had started out by finishing off the blue-white shards leftover from making the red, white and blue omiyage I took to Japan this spring (which needs to be documented, sorry, but it's just a variation on earlier abstract); now that I hope to be going to Japan on a regular basis, I have a use for patriotic beads so making them is useful instead of mildly embarrassing. But even so, I started messing around with greys instead of the reds, making what was for me a softer and more subtle colour scheme: blue, white, touches of grey or cream.

By the time I'd used up the shards, I was starting to make progress with that, but as it stands now, the series is still kinda boring and unfinished.

Also earlier this week (well...maybe last week), while storing some beads I'd gotten from Page I looked at old projects stored in nearby drawers, and as a way of avoiding thinking about other projects I should be doing but are too intimidating (tidying up the sewing area, frex, or figuring out how to draw roses or dogwood—even peonies—in the Kyoto yuzen style), I came up with a scheme for finishing a necklace I likely started two or three decades ago: I realized I could make a 1.25" lentil and that would basically fix the weight/balance/hang issues. It would require a dark silver blue, red and grey colour scheme, which shouldn't be too hard, since I'm already thinking in those terms, but I've only been making 1/2" or 5/8" rounds, not over-an-inch lentils.

So I practised making lentils (using fuchsia because Fran was doing that). But once I finish this bead, then what? Fran and I are getting together Sunday to work glass again, one of three things will happen:

1. If I'm really lucky, the 1.25 lentil for the 30 year old necklace will go smoothly, and I'll need something to do
2. More realistically, I'll end up making round colour tests, several lentils, and that will take up the entire session
3. But also very likely, the efforts to make 1.25 lentil for the 30 year old necklace will go so badly I'll get frustrated, and need something easier to do

Hmmmm, what do I need to make that would be an easier alternative? Or, let's be honest here, ideas are so much easier to generate than the actual art, so I'm not actually certain I was thinking any more clearly than, huh, I'm working glass with Fran in a couple of days, what would be easy and fun? Unnnnnnhhhhh... Er, holiday beads for the family? I've done relatively clean patterns for the last three iterations (and, sigh, the 2022 beads also need to be documented...) so I was thinking something involving frits and powder and shards, like the Japan series I just finished up, might be fun, but problem is I've already done that, more or less Plus, the fam is probably getting bored of red and green, I know I am—But hey, just as my local guild finally switched it up from red/white/green to blue and white, what about that?

The sky was very blue that morning, and of course I've been making blue and white beads...the idea of doing something completely different than the red/green/white would make a nice change for family members who might like some other colour combo. Add in the softer, more subtle colour scheme (and siiiiigh, mebbe more of those blue/white shards, which I would have to make, and I just got rid of the last batch) and I have a not-too-demanding concept that nevertheless leaves room for exploring some new variations.

If this all looks like throwing a bunch of bits and pieces and mixing them together taking the parameters (holiday themed bead) and using recent work (the blue based shard variation on the Japanese abstracts) as a starting point, why yes, really, that's more or less how it's done. Now I have a not-too-difficult bead that will

1. easy to do,
2. small, definitely a plus during hot weather
3. while working glass with Fran
4. get a holiday to-do out of the way early (reducing stress)
5. which means I can make a lot of them, meaning I can dig into
6. a continuation of some mildly interesting variations on prior beads

If one's going for more serious art, you might have a more exciting set of initial parameters, such as ‘really exploit the fun effects of Double Helix silver bearing glasses’ or ‘explore the conundrum of being complicit in worldwide suffering and slavery’ but honestly, as far as I can tell—and other artists’ stories, for a variety of media seem to bear this out—this is the process.

It's really not rocket science. Anyone can do it, the tricky bits are getting the work to convey what's inside of your head—that's where the exploration and mastery of technique come in, but again, that mostly boils down to practise in the face of frustration, i.e., failure.

And, leading back to the subject of today's post, this 12 year old giftwrap also features blue and white. So, a little (or a lot...) late, happy Summer Solstice.

Enjoy.

20jun2024

Happy Juneteenth, everyone, a day late.

This is another one of those pages dug out of the archives, because it's so hot if I try to photograph beads that would appropriate, I think my camera lenses would fog because of the cooler basement temps. (My glasses did fog, just from washing them in cold tap water!) We have heat index warnings that I'm sure are laughable to the southern bits of the US, but the temps and humidity were, honestly, part of the reason I dug this page out of the depths: a reminder of my visit to New Orleans—it was hot and sticky too.

14jun2024

I was super lucky because although sakura 桜 was over in Kyoto, they were still blooming in the mountains, so I got to see them and later-blooming flowers such as peonies (& even roses—I was there for a month), the best of both worlds.

So this is another thing that makes me happy.

Enjoy.

12jun2024

Because I'm a doofus I can't find the kumihimo I so carefully documented and for which I've made almost complete webpages, & which I presume is floating around this place somewhere, though darned if I know where...and given that it took me days to find a bookbag of my favourite art supplies despite its being parked in the living room right by the front door, dog only knows how long it will take me to find this stuff.

So in the meantime, a couple of rather random pix taken during my trip to Japan. Like Pride, this sort of thing just makes me happy.

Enjoy.

10jun2024

Happy pride month, everyone!

I knew there were a bunch of different pride flags (my favourite is the pink and purple lesbian one, which is locally popular but not actually on that link:) and that there were some variations on the old male/female symbols (circle with cross, circle with arrow, circle with both) but until I saw one of my neighbor wearing some truly awesome earrings I didn't know any of the others, such as the plain circle, or a circle with just a stick. The coolest one was definitely the circle with the asterisk—

—Which, lucky for me just happens to be for nonbinary. Awesome:)

As with the flags, there tends to be more than one version, along with the assumption that you can just pick what you like. I like this newer version better because instead of being ‘made up’ of the traditional male arrow and female cross, or variations of them, it's own thing, and has the streamlined simplicity of the more common gender sumbols: 1 circle with one doodad.

I probably should just bought the fun plastic version of these earrings, but I wanted smaller, more delicate ones in sterling. And where, with all the other projects I have queued up, am I gonna have time to make those?

Anyway. Our town's pride was awesome, because just about everyone dressed up in fun outfits, often rainbow coloured, though there were plenty of other delightful clothes and shoes; but besides the colour, was the sheer joy and vibe. Food stalls! Flags! Roller skates! Bubble blowing! Music and dancing! I can't think of many festival type activities in the USA equivalent to matsuri but this is one where I think wearing yukata would actually be appropriate (especially if one had a rainbow coloured obi;) because while Pride—any summer USian celebration, really—is gonna be a bit looser in some ways (even in summer, Japanese typically don't expose their knees, elbows or collarbones, let alone midriffs) it just had the same happy community/outdoor food stall/wandering around & running-into-your-neighborhood-friends feeling.

But as I don't generally like to post pictures of people, have some lovely pink dogwood flowers instead.