Filed under: Bloggidy Blog
Me and Erika went to Sam’s Club yesterday to buy snacks for the party tonight. I love giant containers of food. They remind me of pop art. This cheese ball container is about 1.5 feet tall. It’s size drew us to it and we had to buy it along with four pounds of jelly beans and a three pound summer sausage. I hope we live to see 2008.
Meanwhile, back at the house…It’s back to clean on the first floor. I think we got a lot more done than what we thought we would have a week ago. I thought we were just demo-ing a sink and bringing in a bar but we ended up making Real Progress in several areas. And now the house is clean! I am so glad that is out of the way. My hands still smell like Murphy’s Oil Soap. What a swell way to end the year.
I’d like to say thanks to all of my ebay customers and to everyone who commented on my blog in the past year for all of your support. This is the first year I’ve relied souly on Internet income for my living. You people keep me going. Your financial and moral support makes it possible for me to keep my studio open so I can continue to make art by myself and with my friends. Thanks also to Lori Greenberg for generously taking the time to hook me up with the comment blog. I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year!
I just popped by the studio to pick up the last two glass pieces I made for the house. It was really fun this week just making stuff for me. I made this big lizard knob for a cabinet in my work area. It’s almost 2″ across. I made a tap handle for our new beer refrigerator out of that creature I made for the Watch Me Create blog:
I had to make a new body to accomodate the threaded rod. It’s pretty easy to turn beads functional with threaded rod and JB Weld Steel glue. That’s how I make the knobs too. I’ve always been leery of applying the hot glass right on top of a metal fixture–over nuts or over a threaded rod. Gluing them in afterwards seems to work just fine.
I’ll be back up on Ebay in not too long. We’re finishing up a lot of stuff at the house today and then we clean up.
The kitchen bar project is metastasizing into an episode. A host of improvements are happening suddenly in other areas. I am most excited about finishing the drywalling in my work area. The wall was taken down to the studs last year when our sewer pipe broke causing the great Cosmic Shitstorm of ‘07. I was fine with the studs but drywall looks nicer. And you can hang art on it. We’re also getting rid of the giant beer refrigerator that sat in the corner and turning that into a seating area with one or perhaps two chairs that look like this or perhaps like this. I have always always wanted shoe and/or hand chairs but never had a spot for them. It’s a dream come true, I tell you.
I may not be around much between now and New Year’s on account of the project. I should be making beads today but I’m trying to finish up knobs for the cabinets. I really, really wonder what’s going to happen after I’m gone to all of this crap we’ve been making for the house. It is a sight. I think it’s the best house ever. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to tear it down or keep it the same, though.
Filed under: Bloggidy Blog | Tags: bar, ice bucket, kitchen, linoleum, name the new year contest
We’re back at work in the kitchen installing new cabinets and removing the old. Yesterday we removed the old sink and found this enchanting linoleum beneath. It is strikingly similar to a rug we have in the living room. I kind of like it. All of the kitchen activity relates to the fact that we want to have a bar in the kitchen for our New Year’s Eve party. We should have the place cleaned up by then. I hope.
For the new bar, which is actually a nifty curved display case I’ve had for years in the store, I chose an ice bucketfrom the vast selection on Ebay. It’s sort of beat up but, you know, what isn’t? I really like the font that the word “Love” is drawn in. LOVE! I LOVE ICE!
Ah, crap, I don’t know what to do today–stay here at the store where it’s warm and clean and make beads or go home and try not to make things worse there. The house is at the point where it’s such a mess that it bothers me even though I’m separated from it spatially. A new and uncomfortable feeling, this one. What to do, what to do.
While I ruminate on what to do today I might as well tell you about Lost School’s name the year contest. Each New Year’s Eve (since we’ve had the house) we come up with a new name for the year. ‘07 was the Year of the Apocalopse (pronounced “a-POC-ca-lops”) which is the imaginary mascot of the Lost School and ‘06 was The Year of No Consequences. So far we do not have a “Year of the _____” for ‘08 though we have been trying very hard to think of one.
Would you like to help us name 2008? If you do, just leave your suggestion for the year name in the comment area. A winner will be decided among popular vote of whomever shows up at our house on New Year’s Eve. Even if we don’t find a winning suggestion and end up using a name of our own, everyone who comments will be eligible to win an interesting treat of some kind in a random drawing which will also be held on New Year’s Eve at our party. If we use your suggestion you will receive the grand prize which will be two interesting treats. Right now I’m not sure what the treats will be but rest assured there’s no shortage of interesting things lying around here. Each individual may post up to two comments, though your name will go into the hat but once. Good luck! You have until 6pm CST on Dec. 31 to comment.
Filed under: Bloggidy Blog | Tags: bugs, jean yates, Karen Leonardo, links, painted bead
Jean Yates is the #1 fan of my painted beads. Here she is showing her love by creating this excellent chain maille necklace using three of my giant beads. As you can see, Jean does not clown around with her materials–she only uses the best quality stuff along with beads she buys from artists that we all know and love. Here’s a link to some of her for sale work. As you can see she is a true supporter of the bead community always promoting other people’s work.
We are all eagerly awaiting the January ‘08 release of Jean’s book “Links”. It’s available on Amazon for pre-order now. It features more than 50 projects and portions of interviews with Kim Miles(floral bead lady) Emma Ralph (polymer clay lady), and Me (crazy lady). It promises to be a very satisfactory read. Go order your copy now! Woot!
In other news…the studio has been pretty full with both Patrick and James over here working on stuff. I don’t have quite so much computer time when folks are here but I do intend to list some new stuff tonight on Ebay including a Leafman bead. Patrick is working on some insect paintings including a stink bug and a butterfly. Stink bugs are striking black and red beetle-looking-types. FYI: Stink bugs are not beetles (coleptera) but rather true bugs (hemiptera). One difference between the two is in their mouthparts–beetles have chewing mouthparts while true bugs have sucking mouthparts.
All of this I am reading from the book “BUGS” by Frank Lowenstein. My pals Phil and Renee gifted this book to me many years ago and it is still my go to book for bug information. It is quite large, this book–as big as a record album. It appears to be a kids book but it’s got a lot of scientific information in it. If you go to Amazon to buy Jean’s book you may want to get this one too. And also Karen Leonardo’s book with my mask bead tutorial. Then you can get free shipping. Woot!
Filed under: Bloggidy Blog | Tags: bob dylan, i'm not there, leafman, painting
Meet Leafman! I don’t know much about him. This comic strip just showed up in the books one day. A guy named Dave drew it. Leafman is a super hero and his arch nemeses are an evil light bulb and an evil muffin. I’m not sure what the light bulb used to incapacitate Leafman in the second frame. Something is going on there.
So the noteworthy news is that I successfully backwards wrote on a piece of glass in letters that are about the same size as the text on a dime. I had to throw out the notion of replicating the original author’s handwriting because it was actually even smaller than mine and some of it was cursive. Normally I don’t hunker down and making myself learn how to do something for no immediate reason. It’s probably a good idea to try that every once in a while. Word bubbles could be a useful element in these beads.
In other news…I went to see “I’m Not There“–that movie about Bob Dylan where five different people with five different names play Bob Dylan. I really liked it. I think anyone who really likes Dylan would like it. Other people, not so much. It’s really strange and hard to follow in any logical way. But that Cate Blanchette, it was worth the ticket price just to see her playing Dylan. She totally deserves an Oscar for that. Everyone else–Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and the rest–they were all too meaty, physically. Not that they were trying to make all the actors look exactly like him. I would rather have seen her do the whole movie. But doing that would have probably left out some critical metaphor about something I didn’t quite get. And you can’t have that.
I think that the more you know about Dylan and Alan Ginsberg the more you’ll like the movie. David Cross played Alan Ginsberg. That was worth seeing too.
Filed under: Bloggidy Blog | Tags: bat, bee, doo, poop, scat, stamps, writing backwards
Click on the tree!
Yesterday I spent a bunch of time trying to master the art of writing backwards on glass in letters that are about two millimeters high. That seems like the kind of thing one could learn if they practiced, doesn’t it? I’m doing this because I’m trying to reproduce some frames of comic strips that the Lost School wrote eons ago. The comic is called “The Adventures Of Leafman” and there isn’t anything in it that the general public is going to understand or care about. So basically I’m putting a lot of effort into insuring my beads will continue their descent down the ladder of popularity. Why not. In the end it is I who will know how to write backwards on glass in tiny letters. I’m going to lord that over all of you.
In other news…I went to the post office today and noted that they had a new series of stamps celebrating pollination. No, not Polynesia, pollination. On the stamps were pictures of all the great pollinators of the world-hummingbirds, the soon to be extinct bee and even a bat. I was really glad to see bats getting a little good press. They have a hell of a time. Though the purpose of the stamps was probably to raise the public’s bee-awareness, I thought it equally possible that the stamps were a general celebration of animals that help plants get planted. If that’s the case then I think the next stamp series should depict all the different animals that generate plant life by eating seeds and then pooping them out onto the ground. You could have, like…monkeys…and certain birds…I don’t know…maybe people did that too at one time. They may still in warmer climates. Anyway, I think that would be a dandy stamp series. That’s my thought of the day.
Smoking dinosaur with a gun is going up for sale this evening. Another labor intensive bead from down in my soul for you, the public, to enjoy. If it helps you come to terms with this image the dinosaur is pointing the gun at a cactus that has it’s arms up. The cactus isn’t pictured on the bead because there wasn’t room without making the bead huge. Also, in my opinion, the dinosaur is relatively rich subject matter. Also, would it matter if I put the cactus in there? Would you like a smoking dinosaur with a gun bead better if there was a cactus in it? I’m not psychic. You have to tell me these things. Your opinion is important to me. Especially if you’re inclined to buy one of these beads. Then it’s very important.
In other news, it will not stop snowing here. And there just isn’t anything else to talk about. I’m going to try to make the snow-pile in front of the store obscure the front window. That’s my goal for the winter.
This bead rocks. I think it’s my favorite one. Click on it to go to the auction.
Lost School is celebrating Tycho Brahe’s birthday tonight. I’m not sure how it all started but at one time or another he became kind of a running joke with us. Not on account of him being an astrologer but because he wore a prosthetic silver nose. He lost part of his real one in a drunken duel at nighttime. Whenever I think I’ve used poor judgement I just think of Tycho Brahe all liquored up swinging a sword around in the dark and I feel downright smart. Now I have to go home and make little tinfoil noses for everyone.
