OMG PICS!
Yay so exciting! I'm not sure what to show first, and the only person reading this has seen them all already...so..... here's what I had for lunch
two days ago.
This was my attempt at a Juicy Lucy, and it was nowhere near as good, but still pretty good.
Here's a group shot of some of the beads I have ready for the curtain
It's amazing to me how much detail is lost on a photograph. Aren't you supposed to be able to accentuate detail with photography? Maybe you have to actually know what you're doing with a camera, first. Ahh. But I thought a couple of these were very pretty and needed their own close ups.
Note the funky shape on the beads above. It took me FOREVER to learn how to do that. I looked up instructions on websites, which basically read,"put a piece of glass on top of a round bead and rotate. Eventually the bead will shape itself into a bicone or lentil, depending on rotation and pressure." Huh? So I rotated glass on top of beads like my life depended on it, but all I got was a series of squashed damn beads. Then it hit me one day recently that there's more than one way to rotate glass on a bead! I need to make a video clip to explain it, but it really is so simple. Just some things need video to properly explain.
I made this egg!
I was photographing it on our third floor balcony, when for no reason whatsoever, it fell, and I was too slow to catch it. It's a chicken egg that I had blown the guts out of, then covered with intricate layers of mokume gane-to which the photo does not do justice.
And that only made it worse, didn't it? Anyway, the egg fell and for a long time, all I could hear was chicken egg on the wind, then a shatter. A loud, explosive shatter. I thought it had broken something belonging to our downstairs neighbors, and so I raced down the stairs and out the door to dispose of the evidence. Turns out it was my egg that shattered. Sounded like glass. Broke like glass, too. I was on hands and knees with a broom and a dustpan for about 20 minutes, until the neighbor's Pug, Stella, charged at me, then I decided I was done.
I hope a photo will do justice to this box I made. It's very intricate, very pretty...it's also the first box I did free form, meaning I molded it with nothing but my hands.
Well, I don't think the photos really helped, but it is the best hand-formed box I have ever made, and I love it. However, it has no lid, mostly because I have been trying and failing the art of lid making for years now. I don't want hinges. I want a lid with a "lip" that fits snugly down into the box just a titch.
These two boxes are cardboard boxes that I just covered in clay and then painted the insides:
The design on the purple box is really lovely, and the pink box taught me a lesson: don't blend translucents with light colored clays-there will not be enough contrast.
I've found that I really prefer to hand-make things. I've also learned that even the most simple objects are really freaking hard to make. Shapes are harder than you might think to replicate. I've made tons of little vases and water pitchers, but only one that I am pleased with.
I want to paint some kind of design on it, but I am no painter. Fear or ruining it has kept it sitting on my shelf for six months. It's in good company. I have SO MANY things I've made!! Most I don't care to sell, have no personal use for, but cannot bear to throw away for sentimental value. Like this
Some of my favorite things sold almost immediately, and I'm glad I found old photos of them!
Much of the stuff that has failed to sell, I'm using myself. I was even told by an ex boyfriend to stop trying to sell one of them, because it was so undesireable. And maybe it was, but I still love it. Pics of that and more at a later date. TTFN
two days ago.
This was my attempt at a Juicy Lucy, and it was nowhere near as good, but still pretty good.
Here's a group shot of some of the beads I have ready for the curtain
It's amazing to me how much detail is lost on a photograph. Aren't you supposed to be able to accentuate detail with photography? Maybe you have to actually know what you're doing with a camera, first. Ahh. But I thought a couple of these were very pretty and needed their own close ups.
Note the funky shape on the beads above. It took me FOREVER to learn how to do that. I looked up instructions on websites, which basically read,"put a piece of glass on top of a round bead and rotate. Eventually the bead will shape itself into a bicone or lentil, depending on rotation and pressure." Huh? So I rotated glass on top of beads like my life depended on it, but all I got was a series of squashed damn beads. Then it hit me one day recently that there's more than one way to rotate glass on a bead! I need to make a video clip to explain it, but it really is so simple. Just some things need video to properly explain.
I made this egg!
I was photographing it on our third floor balcony, when for no reason whatsoever, it fell, and I was too slow to catch it. It's a chicken egg that I had blown the guts out of, then covered with intricate layers of mokume gane-to which the photo does not do justice.
And that only made it worse, didn't it? Anyway, the egg fell and for a long time, all I could hear was chicken egg on the wind, then a shatter. A loud, explosive shatter. I thought it had broken something belonging to our downstairs neighbors, and so I raced down the stairs and out the door to dispose of the evidence. Turns out it was my egg that shattered. Sounded like glass. Broke like glass, too. I was on hands and knees with a broom and a dustpan for about 20 minutes, until the neighbor's Pug, Stella, charged at me, then I decided I was done.
I hope a photo will do justice to this box I made. It's very intricate, very pretty...it's also the first box I did free form, meaning I molded it with nothing but my hands.
Well, I don't think the photos really helped, but it is the best hand-formed box I have ever made, and I love it. However, it has no lid, mostly because I have been trying and failing the art of lid making for years now. I don't want hinges. I want a lid with a "lip" that fits snugly down into the box just a titch.
These two boxes are cardboard boxes that I just covered in clay and then painted the insides:
The design on the purple box is really lovely, and the pink box taught me a lesson: don't blend translucents with light colored clays-there will not be enough contrast.
I've found that I really prefer to hand-make things. I've also learned that even the most simple objects are really freaking hard to make. Shapes are harder than you might think to replicate. I've made tons of little vases and water pitchers, but only one that I am pleased with.
I want to paint some kind of design on it, but I am no painter. Fear or ruining it has kept it sitting on my shelf for six months. It's in good company. I have SO MANY things I've made!! Most I don't care to sell, have no personal use for, but cannot bear to throw away for sentimental value. Like this
Some of my favorite things sold almost immediately, and I'm glad I found old photos of them!
Much of the stuff that has failed to sell, I'm using myself. I was even told by an ex boyfriend to stop trying to sell one of them, because it was so undesireable. And maybe it was, but I still love it. Pics of that and more at a later date. TTFN