Sunday Sketches September 3

Popping in here for Sunday Sketches. This is my lady for today. You can check out what other sketchers are doing today over at The Blue Chair Diary.

The remodel is not going as planned so it won't be a couple weeks but more like months.  We ripped up the carpet and then Dave decided to expand what we are doing. He wants to do the kitchen floor first.  So we are removing the linoleum which is a thankless job. It may take a week to do that. We need to replace part of the subfloor in the kitchen and most likely the living room. We might also sand down the textured walls and re-paint. So my blogging will be intermittent at best. I will blog at least once a week just to keep my sanity.

I decided to include this one as part of 29 faces in September. See next post for details.

Remodel Blogging Break

By the title of my post you should know what I am going to say.  We are ripping up our living room carpet and putting down a new floor. Since this is going to take a lot of time I will not be blogging for a little while. I will be ripping out carpet and those awful tack strips and trying to remember how beautiful it will be when its finished. Soon I'll be back with pictures of the finished project.

Hot Wax

After talking about it so long I finally got out to my garage to do some encaustic painting.  Instead of more samples I decided to jumo in and make a real piece.

So here is the first one. I wanted to do something totally different but as soon as I laid down my first layer of wax I knew it would not be what I had planned. The wax was not hot enough so it became a texture piece early on. I thought it would be like a sampler. I would try out several things, like adding a color stripe, toning down that color. I tried a stencil that didn't work, did some carving and adding down oil paint in the grooves. I used a napkin for the focal point and just built around those colors. Despite all my mishaps I kind of like my first piece. I have a lot to learn about this new medium. Oh by the way the new torch worked fabulous. I am so glad I purchased it.

More Jewelry

I have been editing a book for a friend this week so that has had most of my focus. There still has been time for more jewelry making. I like to do this while watching TV in the evenings.  I have been watching Foyle's War on Netflix and really enjoying it.  The actor Michael Kitchen is a favorite of mine.  He seems to portray such a gentle man in a difficult era. The series is based on some real stories so it is like a real lesson in the history of lives of those who lived during that time.  I highly recommend it.

Some glass bead earrings.

These yin yang earrings are some kind of bone or made to feel like bone most likely.

This necklace I started awhile ago but ran out of one of the beads, so I couldn't finish it.  Finally I found the bead at a local craft store.  I was happy to be able to finish it.

These stone chips in this bracelet have such amazing colors in them.  It was fun to make.  I know when I wear it I will be twirling those chips around and marveling at their color.

Writing Wednesdays - Not

Work in Progress: I hate to say it b ut I have done zilch on writing all week but this is what I have been up to instead.

I made this little painting using gelato's on watercolor paper.  Water was added to bring out the color. I used charcoal for outlining.

Next I made this 6 bracelets. They are done on stretchy cord and were easy to make.

Then these 4 pairs od simple earrings came about.

I think the hummingbirds are so sweet.

This was a bracelet I ought in Paris and it had fallem apart so I worked at re-making it.

The following two piece were dyed using old rusty pieces I found in my barn. This fabric was offwhite muslin when I started.

This one was white cotton fabric.  The rusty item was wrapped in the fabric and then sprayed with vinegar and water and left to set overnight.  I plan to use them as backgrounds for encaustic wax paintings.

What have you been doing in your spare time?

Making Order out of Chaos

This past week I have been making jewelry which resulted in all my bead boxes becoming a disaster.  So this is just a little bit of the mess of my reorganizing.  I had piles of colors all over the tables in the house. I worked on organizing for 2 days but now everything is in its place.  Sometimes I can handle only so much disorder. I can get such pleasure of putting things in little piles of color and shape and making order out of chaos.

 

 I found this video on twitter this morning. Its an advert for these silicone tools that look really great. I also liked watching this artist and her philosophy about using the tools. They also have wedges that work well with encaustic painting and would be great for mixed media. I may have to get some of these, yes Dick Blick has them.

This little guy should be arriving at my doorstep today.  Its a self igniting torch for encaustic painting.  I have been re-watching all the video's from Judy Wise's encaustic painting DVD.  I am looking forward to doing some of the exercises I didn't do while the class was live.  I hope the UPS driver comes early rather than later.  I want to play.

Hawk Flying School

We have some Swainson Hawks nesting in our yard and today they were having what I call flying school. I attempted to get some pictures which is not easy, even with my 300mm lens. Here are two of them in the field behind my house.

This one I caught in flight.

I like this upside down view even if it is blurry.

There were actually 2 hawks on this telephone pole.
                                                                              

Another hawk in flight.  I like how you can see its little feet curled under him.

This was my best pic you can at least tell its a hawk.

Addition:  here are a couple more shots.

Writing Wednesdays and Charts

Writing work in Progress.  There is really nothing new to report today. I  am still reading up on writing technique and practicing archery.

I decided I would report on something else that I am doing.  I've got about two weeks where I have no obstructions on doing what I want to do.  I have some ideas on how I want to spend that time.  I am very cognizant that I could whittle the time away doing frivolous things and I don't want that to happen. With so many choices where do I begin first. Or how do I remember what it is I wanted to do. So I made myself a chart on the back of a huge calender.

I listed some categories of what I wanted to do and then sub categories.  I'll mark these off as I do them, not in the way of a usual list but more in the sense of celebration. I started with just one color marker but had to go get some others to make it more colorful. Its on my fridge so I am reminded of what I want to be spending my time on. When I have a lot of unstructured time I find if I create some kind of structure it helps tremendously.

Now having a chart really does not help in the decision of what to do in any given day but I can see all my choices on one piece of paper.  When I am having difficulty choosing an activity I choose the task that I feel a little draw of energy to. I am washing fleeces today because I started them yesterday and I really want them finished. Then I will move on to something else. I don't always do what I think I am going to but that is ok.  I can make different choices at any time.  The chart help me keep my focus and that is a good thing.