Too Long Gone

Hard to believe I haven't blogged here in over four years. With the decision to revamp and restart my Etsy shop I decided it was time to go back to writing about what I love.

I won't say that I stopped tatting, it is hard to stop doing something completely when you love the designing and the outcome, if not the actual making of the piece. I did stop showing my work online. I ran into far too many well intentioned tatters that were hell bent on making sure I knew I was doing it wrong. Because I was new and insecure in my abilities I went into tat-land and asked tons of questions. I came up with ideas and asked for advice on how to execute them. I posted images of my variations on other patterns.

I was shot down repeatedly.

It is extraordinarily hard to feel confident in a new craft when you are told that it what you want to do wont work, that it is wrong, and that you are a thief.
I grew up learning art by studying what others had done, and by recreating that art in my own way. Some say that is the best way to learn, for example, how a painter used light or layered color in their work. You don't sell these pieces, often you do a good whitewash on your canvas and start over; sometimes you will hang them up or give them away. I made the mistake of thinking that tatting had similarities. I wouldn't have been able to figure out or adapt techniques without looking at, or working off other tatters work. I won't say there weren't a lot of tatters that were super encouraging and helpful... but I'm sure you know that saying about One Bad Apple.

But that was then. Four years later I've grown and learned what it is about tatting and other crafts that I love. I've learned to take the parts that I love about those crafts, and combine them into pieces that I adore. I've learned to look at vintage patterns and see the pieces in a wider context, and I've lost that odd fear I had of doing things wrong.

My goal for the weekend is to list every single item that I have ready for sale on Etsy. I promise not to bombard this blog with everything I list, but expect quite a few updates in the next few weeks, and a lot more to come.

Well

I still haven’t done the pendant. Shucks.
Did this instead:

I’ll be printing up a couple of proofs today to make sure that its all set before listing on Etsy.

Quickie

I’ve gotten all into pen and ink again. And guess what? I actually listed art on Etsy!!

Seriously!

Go look.

So this is something called Zentangle. Basically its a system of doodling within some sort of confinement. I like circles.. so.. there ya go. The idea is to let your mind wander and create patterns, within that confined space by breaking it up into smaller spaces. this is great in theory, but it didn’t quite work for me. I’m not a mind wanderer when I’m working on art. Fortunately I am also not one of those hunched over nitpicky people. I’m sort of somewhere in between.
At any rate this was done on a 6x6 piece of paper, and then I cut it down further. Pretty small for all that detail. And yes it did take about forever. So I have a bunch listed on Etsy, and a small stack to bring to North Of The Falls this week. Hopefully by then I will have some more art to scan in and print out, but for now I think this one card is a good start.
My goal is to have several images on cards, and then see what this printer can do with photo quality for some prints that way. The bonus to this is that because it is pen and ink it would be pretty hard to screw it up unless I scan it at too low of a quality.
I am also thinking about taking it to the copy machine so that I can do some experiments with transferring portions of the art onto poly-clay for pendants and earrings.

Only other news is that I’m seriously late in sending out my tatted pendant for a swap over at InTatters. Late late late. I wanted to have this sucker done two weeks ago. So that is the project for tomorrow. I’m thinking that I might borrow a pendant idea from one of my favorite needle tatters. I’ll post pics tomorrow.

So…

I haven’t posted in a while because I haven’t finished anything. I’m stuck in a bit of a rut you see. I have a ton of projects going on at the same time, and only last night did I finally finish any of them…

Part of it is that I am trying to learn a few things (shuttle tatting being one of them), and another is that my space is a wreck. I can never find anything, and it seems that as soon as I get everything organized, I have to pull everything out to find something that I need for whatever project I’m working on… and then have to pull everything back out for the next little piece of whatever. It’s getting frustrating to say the least.

The main reason that I haven’t actually posted is that I’m afraid that I will go on some kind of rant, which I am trying very hard to school myself not to do. There are some goings on in tat-land that bother me a lot… And that is all I will say on it.

Some good news though. I got a ton of thread, shuttles and a book from Handy Hands, and I also snagged what seems to be just about the last of the Midnight Oil from Yarnplayer on Etsy, so that is pretty fun. Also I managed to win a birthday giveaway from this awesome lady. I have no idea what is going to be in the package, but I’m super excited to find out.
One other cool, but dangerous for me, thing. Our neighbors are moving out, not that I dislike them… but… a woman who does HDY is moving in. I checked out her stuff, and I think one of my first missions will be to get her to do some lace-weight yarn for me. You can see her awesome yarn at Fiberphile and instantly you will know how dangerous this is for me.

So what project have I finished? Upcycled Steam-punk Fascinators. Basically mini top hats with tons of lace and feathers and watch parts. I have one done, and about 4 or 5 more halfway finished. I made a mistake on the first two by making the cardstock base, and then attempting to attach fabric to that. After the second one I realized that it is much easier to attach the fabric to the pieces, and then stitch and glue it all together at the end.  The best part is that I am able to finally use all those little odds and ends of fabric and ribbon that I have saved (read: hoarded) over the years, and it combines everything that I love. A bit of sewing, painting, lace, glue, feathers…
The project in the works that I cant seem to get quite right? Tatted pasties. Yeah. You read that right. I have a great love for all things burlesque, so I thought… why not go with it? And I think that this morning I finally figured out what my problem has been with them, and it seems to be a pretty basic structure flaw that should be easily fixable. Hopefully one little adjustment will fix it and I can have a set completed today.

You see the theme here right? Combinations of things that I love into making things that I love. Lets hope it starts working!

whoops! and a quandary

I completely forgot to post photos of the tatting I did for x-mess!

I don’t have a really good shot of it, and wont until the aunt that I gave them to comes back from Mexico. But here it is:

This was adapted from a pattern I saw online at free-tatting.com
Forgive the wonkyness of it, I hadn’t stiffened it at this point, it was fresh of the needle.
This is one of those hard call pieces. Do I make more to sell, or is it too close to the original inspiration? At what point is a piece yours and not someone else's? I never looked at the pattern for this, I saw the image and made up my own version, is it mine, or is it still theirs? I have no idea how close the stitches are to the original, and I didn't use the multitude of beads that they did.. but..is it my creation?
I just don’t know, and I need to decide soon because I have several requests for this exact set.
I haven’t had to worry about this much because until I started tatting all of my work was completely mine. But, with something like tatting, I needed to look at other patterns to figure out what the hell I was doing. Now I can see a piece and make my own version of it… pull out that ring, add another here, up the stitch count…
Lately my work is adaptations of vintage doily patterns. Pull out the center part, add a bit here and there, and voila! brand new piece. There isn’t really anyone that is going to call me out on that.. and in some ways there are only so many things you can tat, only so many ways to make rings and chains that eventually you are going to come up with an original creation that someone, somewhere, also came up with as an original creation.
Example, I came up with a wicked cool cross a few weeks ago while playing around with old thread. I had never looked up crosses because they just aren't my thing, but my thought was that lace crosses would be very sellable to the Goth market. My intention was to make a choker out of them that could be worn either inverted or not. 3 days later I found the exact same cross on a tatting site that I had never visited before. I blew up the image, and sure enough it was exactly the same. So back to the drawing board I went, because the last thing I want to do is rip someone off, intentionally or no. But yet… I did come up with it all on my onesies… and I have not yet seen a repeating cross choker.

So what is a tattered girl to do?

As a side note, and update to yesterdays cake… the cake was apparently dead on to Sister’s, the frosting was not. Apparently it had the exact same taste, but the complete wrong consistency. In theory by the time my Aunt J visits, or my awesome Colorado cousin gets her butt back to VT I'll have perfected it. Anyone want to help me eat the experiments?

THE cake…

Have you ever had anyone in your family say “she/he made the best _____, if only I had the recipe” and then extolled the virtues of said food goodness? I’m sure you have. Everyone has someone that makes the best something or other… So In my family there are a few such as Frito Pie, Cheesecake, fudge, tamales… recipes that we could come close to, but never quite do right. But there is one that always eluded the fam. Sister’s cake.

Sister passed on when my mother was a kid, but she helped raise my mother, and she was a very large part of the family, though no one is exactly sure how or why… one of those old southern adoption mythologies. So for years I’ve heard about Sister’s cake, and had no idea what was in it… or even what it was. This week it got brought up again, and a recipe was found.

Sort of.

Yeah, you know these too. The ones that list all the ingredients but don't actually say how much of each. Yeah. That's the one. And it turns out that Sister’s cake was really only a red devils food cake (red velvet cake), with a bit of a twist, but it was the FROSTING that was so important, and that it apparently has to be a 3 layer cake. Here is the list for the frosting:

2 c milk
2 c sug
salt
vanilla
butter
heat milk till hard, beat for a long time.

Um. yeah that doesn't help. So I did some digging, turns out that the popular frosting in her time, in that area was a roux frosting. Ok, I have never in my whole life heard of using a roux in frosting… but I looked in the old Joy and found a written note. The complete roux frosting, or Ermine frosting! But oh my god is it good! So here is the penultimate frosting.

2 cups milk
6 tbl flour
2 cups sugar
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Wisk together flour and milk until well blended (you might want to strain it to get out any lumps), and heat on med until thick, whisking constantly. add salt and remove from heat, let cool to room temp.
Beat together sugar and butter until light and fluffy, add vanilla.
Beat in milk one tablespoon at a time. viola!

Side note, you want a nice thick roux, it should be almost golden, but not quite. Secondly, make sure it is unsalted butter, and that it is real butter, not margarine or butter substitute because it needs to be something that firms up at least a little bit at room temp,(I would think butter flavored Crisco would work, but I haven’t got the courage to try it) it is much more important then you would think… and yes, I did mean 2 cups of it. This is super runny and frothy when its done, but hardens up a bit once you let it sit, if you want an added “crunch” factor, sprinkle a very light dusting of granulated sugar over the top.

So here is the cake in all its glory:

I love that it looks like something right out of the 50’s or 60’s. Hooray for Retro cake goodness!

One extra thing, I did finish the awesome skully scarf, and it should arrive in Ohio tomorrow… I can’t wait any longer to share it, and fortunately for me Michael probably wont check here before he gets his mail tomorrow…. so here is a little sneak peek at the skully scarf

and here is me looking like a dork wearing it

pretty pretty!

Choklit Chanteuse is doing a giveaway! I absolutely love love love her stuff. Lots of ruffles and beads and very steamesque. Is that a word? It should be, hell, it is now!

Seriously how could you not like something called “Adornments for Tarts???” Here is one of the prizes offered,

And here is the link to the giving: Raffle of Revealing Riches

S&M Crafting

Yep, I’ve done it. No, I’m not talking about whips and chains and gags (alright, yeah I’ve made those, and an eye patch too). I’m talking about crafting that is so painful to do that it feels so damn good when you get it done that you… well. ehh.. yeah.. you know.

So that is my latest commission. Why do I say this? Because after all my trials at crocheting or knitting wire, around glass, or even cassette or VCR tape, I have never honestly tried tatting fishing line. By the way, for those that have not tried knitting the afore mentioned tape, don't. Don’t do it unless you have ears made of steal! Seriously! That sound of “Screeeeeee, screee scree screeeeeeeeee” even sends my cat into orbits so great that no amount of coaxing with cat-nip will draw him back into the house.
for days.
Seriously.
(hint to those whishing to take photos of their awesome craftiness with cats un-present.)
For fishing line, I know I can do it (I made a small rosette) but I have never tried the full deal. Now I have to. Now I get to see if my fingers can take it. Oh, the sweet pain of success!

Oh god.
what the hell have I just gotten myself into?
And what comes next?

Though, if I can do this.. then…
Bring It!!!

So as I commented in response to the loverly TotusMel on my last post, I decided against the TIAS idea. I basically came to the conclusion that people will give me crap no matter what I do. I can argue about it, fight it, so on and so forth, but it will never ultimately change their opinion. (as I have experienced in 90% of all my other untraditional art) I have far better ways to spend my time. Such as.. the afore mentioned hats!
Somehow I managed to convince my loverly and beautiful cousins and aunt to model their hats for me (as they are the only owners of the “slouchy” un-slouchy hats that I came up with {ie they are supposed to be slouch hats, but worked out as more of a skull cap which is much more fitting for VT weather, you can blame that on my “fuck the mainstream” crafty/artyness}) and I should have a few of them worked up to sell this week. Considering that I am one of the unlucky few in the world that have no hatatitude, it would be very good for me to have beautiful models. Fortunately my family is 99% beautiful and they all look good in hats! The great part about them (the hats, not the fam) is that they work perfectly in the “super saver” Red Heart yarn that my local crafty shop sells. (or, unless I want to spend a 20 spot or more on a hank of hand spun yarn this is what I get)

Finally. I have to ask, is no better time in the world to be working on crafty goodness then while listening to Emilie Autumn?
As a side note (not really)… for x-mess next year, speaking of Ms. Autumn… anyone who wishes to prove their love for me will buy me this!!!

and YES I welcome multiple copies.

un update

I’ve been really busy. And i cant share any of it. Drat.
I’m making the wicked awesome skully scarf that I mentioned in my last post. The front side is about half way done, but because it definitely has a front and back I’m going to have to knit up a back for it. Which will take about 1/4 the time that knitting the entire front has.

One super cool thing? I discovered while I was sitting there getting annoyed about dropping one color and picking up the next, that there is actually a use for having learned to knit with both hands… Yep. I can knit with continental and english *at the same time.* Do you know how handy this is? Granted it only really works if you are using two colors and carrying them through pretty much the whole row, but, good god that is a time saver! Plus, I don’t think I’ve heard of a whole hell of a lot of people doing it. Perhaps I’ll post a vid at some point.

On the same note (that being yarn) I’ve decided to go ahead and use up every piece of worsted weight yarn I have on making the hats that I hate, but that everyone loves. (I’ve sold 4 so far, and told about 10 people that I wont make more… because I hate making them). I have a huge stash of yarn that I will probably never use otherwise, and will end up getting donated to the thrifty, so I might as well make something with it that will bring in some cash. I have to admit, I don’t like making them because they are easy… that’s kind of counter-productive.

I got my first official commission for tatted jewelry! On x-mess I had given my aunt a pair of tatted earrings, and wore some of my own work. She called yesterday saying that she wants me to make up a set based on what I was wearing for her sister. Cool huh?

Lastly, I decided to do a little experiment. I’m getting super super sick of hearing that what I tat is fake, that it isn't real tatting because its done with a needle and not a shuttle. Pooie on that. I’ve joined a few discussion groups and whatnot online, and been called everything from stupid to lazy, and been told that needle tatting can never hold up to shuttle in structure or symmetry. Again, Pooie on that. So here is what I decided. I’m going to do the TIAS, and I’m going to use both needle and shuttle, and the same thread. So I’m going to snap a photo of each one as I go, and see if anyone can actually tell which is done with needle, and which is shuttle. My guess is that it will be about half and half as far as who guesses right. This isn’t really going to be a priority for me, I have other stuff that is top of the list, but fortunately each day is only a small portion of the whole piece, so I might actually be able to do it in a timely manner. We shall see!

Give to mee!

So I’m starting to become a bit of a sucker for giveaways. I almost never win (The awesomeness of Dark Candles being the exception), but I still keep entering the damn things. Today’s is from Pineapple Mint.

http://pineapplemint.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/giveaway/

She sells wicked cool vintage clothing in her Etsy shop, though I have to say that most of the things that I love love love are way too small.
Like these:
 
I mean really, how can you not love day-glow yellow vintage pumps??? But, they are a 6, and my feet are decidedly not.

In other news…. We are supposed to get a shit-ton of snow. Yes, that is a proper measurement. Its between a ton, and a fuck-load. So instead of bitching about living up in Vermont where everything turns white and bitter, I’m going to be working on a skully scarf for my dear friend, bestest bud, all around awesomely creepy guy Michael who will be having is birthday soon.  He does wicked awesome art, which he has up on Cafe Press, which more people should own. You can find his shop here. I’m still trying to convince him to branch out and sell on Etsy or Artfire, but no luck yet… (yes, that is a hint spooklings)

I hope everyone had a fun, and not too terribly eventful New Year, and that everyone got what they wanted for X-Mess!

Owwwwwwwwie!

You have one. I know you do. Everyone does.
It could be a drawer, it could be a box, it could be a cabinet.. but everyone has at least one place that they throw all those odd bits and pieces that they don’t know what to do with, but want to save.

Yeah, I have a few of them.

One is a giant box that I throw beads into. See, I have this habit of collecting old necklaces, bracelets, or clothing that has some funky bead on it, and then pulling the beads off and throwing them in the box for later use.
The thing is a gold mine…
IF you have the bravery to stick your hand in it.
Which I did.

Now…

Well now I’m bleeding.
Apparently at some point I threw in a bunch of small round mirrors. They broke.
I also apparently at some point, of base stupidity, threw in a handful of thumbtacks.
Add to that the various bits of wire and metal findings that are lost in there, and my hands now look like they were attacked by a rabid badger.

But I did find the shiny silver filigree bead that I had braved the box in search of!

Here, I’ll show you what I needed it for:

Its hard to tell, but its a big ol ostrich feather fan. It has much in the way of fluffiness, but it requires some sparkle to be complete.
Now, if I can just find what I did with those black sequins……

To the Queen of Frogs

I signed up for the “Secret Santa Can Suck It” gift swap over at the Art of Darkness blog. While I really want to tell you what I got… giving is more important then receiving.. so.. My task was to find a gift for The Frog Queen, who I have been following for some time now.

I decided to go all out this year, so here is my gift (s) to you:

FIRST!
an army of minions for you to use in all your spooky needs.
as you can see, they are already super excited to help!

SECOND!
Your very own spider killing machine

She is hard core man. Harrrrd core! From the littlest wolf spider, to giant tarantulas, she will stomp them (or shoo them outside if you prefer) with all the righteous indignation of… well as much as anyone could while wearing that… She comes highly recommended though. I swear.

THIRD!
actually, its not for you.
Sorry. I mean, you can play with em if you want, but…

Plus! They are packaged in a big cardboard box with tons of paper inside. Which, if your spook kitties are anything like mine, they will have more fun with then the mice themselves… err. yeah.

 

So… what did I get?

Just my very own Repo Man. Squeee!
You can check it out here: Hellesbelles

My camera blows…

But I did manage to get a few photos of my current works in progress. I’ll start with my Asylum Girls.

Like little Kelly.

She started behaving badly at her birthday party. She still wears the tatters remains of her party dress under her straight jacket.

Her favorite things are teddy bear heads, cake, and her fuzzy slippers. She is quite self conscious about her bluish skin, and while she must never be allowed to roam free, she craves love and snuggles. She will be up for adoption this week.

 

And for all my little spooklings, a preview:

Sometimes there is nothing that gives me the creeps more then a smiling child…. Amanda is no exception.  I seem to have misplaced a very important piece… so once I find what the hell I did with that severed head she will be ready to go up for adoption as well.

And yes, all the clothing is completely hand made. Yes.. I am mad. Mad, mad, mad. Do you really want to know how long it takes to hand sew a party dress for a doll with NO pattern? Didn’t think so… Don’t ask how long it took me to make that mini-straightjacket…

There goes the neighborhood

Used to be a quiet little place. All us song birds had a grand old time in our condos. Then, who moves into the neighborhood but three mangy imps!

They aren’t here for one day, and suddenly. squawk-BAM! The house has turned all kinds of shades of grey, there are weird white rings around everything, the pretty moss is half dead, and every inch is over run with cobwebs! Squawk!!

And around the back, squawk, I almost cant bring myself to say it.  “Jimy Ets Bugurs”

And what are all these bloody paw prints? Squawk- What?!?!?!

 

So all bird jokes aside, this was a hell of a lot of fun! I knew I wanted to repaint the super cute “Love Shack” but had no idea how until I slapped a coat of paint on the top of the chimney. See that weird heart? Yeah, its actually what the rings looked like. Inspiration galore!
I have the three little imps, made out of paper clay, drying right now. I’m still debating if they are going to have glow in the dark mouths and eyes, but they are definitely sufficiently dorky and weird.
Also, unfortunately you cant read the “Jimy ets bugurs” along the bottom of the back side, but it also says “Do not” and “do to” and “do not!” and “do toooooo!” and finally “SHUT IT!”

Next project?

It has something to do with a London bus toy… that’s all I’m sayin.

also…

Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to write tatting patterns without noting where a join would be? Its one thing to not say when to reverse, its a complete other when they ignore both. Who the hell would do that?
Who, I say, who?!?!

Yeah, picture me sitting here with a paragraph of a design (that I wanted to use as a basis for an idea) in one hand, and a useless pile of knots in the other.

So lets hear it for inadequate patterns and fuzzy images! I love it when I realize 1/4 of the way through something that the whole thing is completely wrong! yay!

/sarcasm

This is odd…

So I spent some time this morning looking up shuttle tatting, and it turns out maybe I wasn't doing it backwards. Maybe half the population of tatters does it backwards.

So now I am wondering if maybe the whole problem is the way that I am holding my thread, and not what I am doing with my shuttle? I am also wondering if it really matters, once I flip it all over it looks exactly as it should.

interesting……

I’m still going to use needle for the projects I have brewing right now, but my theory is that I’ll do the projects in needle, and then once I’m done with them try them out with shuttle.

The other problem is that I know me. And I know me well enough to know that if I decide that I really enjoy shuttle tatting I am going to want to make my own shuttles. Ok, actually I have already started doing searches to see if I can figure out how to make them with poly clay.
Ok, ok.. I have made a couple of them in the Lady Hoare style, but I want to make some with bobbins.
Do any of you fellow tatters have any suggestions?

projects

Couple things this week. Got in a small order of paper clay that I have been wanting to fool around with for a while now.
Fun stuff! I did a small head, just a quick doodle, and played around with it for a while. I’m not exactly shot through with the stuff, but I love that you can literally sculpt with a damp paint brush. I managed to give the little dude some nice sculptured bones and even sort of wrinkly veins doing that. I don't know that it is something I would want to use a lot, its a bit mushy, but I can definitely see myself using it from time to time.

I also managed to figure out a few beading things. I have one super cool bracelet done, its big and chunky, and I love it lots. I also figured out a cool pattern for a cuff, but ended up frogging it because of one bad bead in the middle. Ok.. more then one, and I would rather redo the whole thing so it is firmly in my mind. So yeah, crafting is good… Crafting from cool stuff I picked up at the thrift shop is even better!! and I cant find any batteries that will hold a charge…. so no photos. Which also means no Etsy.

Hopefully I can remedy that tomorrow.

I also managed to figure out that my shuttle tatting is… well I am dyslexic, so I was actually doing the entire thing upside down, or backwards. Which is fine, I suppose, but I want to do it right. I’m thinking I might go back to needle tatting, partly because I don’t really have to think about what I’m doing as much, and I’m a bit into the “I don't want to think about anything” mode lately.

I did also get my flickr all set with photos of my glass art and some old  projects that I had photos of. You can find them all here.

Huh…

so after about a year of working with needle tatting, and enjoying it but being very frustrated because I can’t tat super large or onto wire the way that I wanted to…. I finally figured out shuttle tatting.

This means I can now use leather cord or tat onto wire to make awesome 3d goodies!

We (my super crafty mother and I) also invested in supplies for cards, that being cards, envelopes, plastic sleeves, and quality printer ink. Next came the tedious task of scanning everything that I thought would make a great card. Old artwork, cool old vintage family photographs, that kind of thing.
I believe that she wants to sell them only locally, and it seems to be taking some convincing to get her to think a little more broad, but hopefully she will go with the idea of putting them on Etsy as well as selling them at North of the Falls, which is a cool little shop here in Bradford.
The thing is, i like the store. I love the fact that i can go in there, check out pottery, jewelry, art, and then walk into the back half to find nifty yarn. I know, most people have a cool little lys that they love, and while I don’t love her selection, or her prices, I do love that she is so very willing to order (and spend half an hour looking for) just about anything I am craving. As far as the front half of the shop, I like that they are willing to give space to just about any local artist.. I don't like that they charge 40% commission on everything. The idea of marking everything up by that much just to get what I need out of the sale bothers me. I cant fathom selling a card for more then $10.00 just so I can get enough to cover the cost and split the dollar or so of profit. I mean, they are cool, wicked cool even… but not that cool. Well… maybe they are, but I figure that if I wouldn’t spend that much on them not many other people would either and the whole point is to sell the item, not have it so over priced that no one will buy it. I don’t really understand how they can get away with charging gallery scale commission in such a small store, but I guess that is their deal.

At any rate, enough bitching. It is good that I am coming up with more things that I can sell, and I should stop bitching.

Challenge!

Icky week to be sure! I got a couple of my glass pieces listed on Etsy and then the bottom dropped out. Or, I got sick.
I hate nothing more. I truly believe that colds should be abolished. On the upside is that while I was bonded to the couch with ear aches and fits of coughing I managed to learn how to bead a bracelet that I had been wanting to redo for about 6 months. So now I can make a few more from the nifty coral beads that have been laying around for years waiting for a use.

But, on to the challenge!
This is totally inspired by one of my man-heroes, so I'll have to give props to The Captain on this.
I posted a quickie of this on FB, but I need more. (more more more) So here is the drill. I need your favorite funny/gory movies. Anything that has ever made you cringe and laugh within 5 minutes of each other is appropriate.
Here is the only thing, I don’t need to be told about Shaun of the Dead, ZombieLand, Black Sheep, or Dead & Breakfast.
I can’t tell you what I am going to do with all of this because I have a project curse (if I talk too much about it, it never seems to get done), but I can tell you that there will be presents!

Yup. presents.

If you manage to suggest something that I haven’t seen, and that makes me cringe and nearly piss myself laughing I will give you a present. Also, if you suggest something that is so out there that I feel that everyone in the world should be inflicted with its gory humor, I will give you a present. Or, if you find something hysterically funny that causes me to wonder if perhaps we are kindred, you will get a present. (I did after all almost get kicked out of the theater while laughing at Devil’s Rejects.)

There is no fixed deadline on this for now, mostly because of the lack of visible followers (hint hint), but eventually I will have to start the project. For now I’ll just give it till the Christmas and see how it goes.

Art Glass and other stuff

I finally got the final touches done on my art glass pendants and hangings. Things have been pretty productive lately. I have 10 or so pieces done, or nearly done, so just as soon as I figure out prices I'll be listing them on Etsy. I also have one art doll 99% done, she is a cute little asylum girl in a hand sewn straight jacket with a tattered dirty party dress and fuzzy slippers. Actually she appears to be rather dead.. but she still needs a loving home. All she really needs is a coat of sealant and to be photographed. Hopefully I can get to that today. The second asylum girl is coming along nicely, she is a little more morbid then the first girl, but I think that might only be because of the sickly sweetness of her. So once I figure out what in the world is wrong with flickr, I'll have some photos up here of the process of making the art glass.