I’ve been offline for a while. I had a business trip to San Diego. The picture above is a laptop sleeve I made for my work laptop. It’s a bunch of bits and pieces left over from other projects that I layered on top of backing and batting. Once I got a layout I more or less liked, I put netting on top and quilted it. Then I sewed it up and put a zipper in and voila! laptop sleeve. It’s a little deeper than it needs to be, but other than that, it works quite well. I made it in a couple of hours the night before my trip.
The weather in San Diego was wonderful. I didn’t get to do any sight seeing, as I was in meetings non-stop the whole time I was there, but the hotel where the conference was held was spread out around a golf course. The meeting rooms were literally spread between the main entrance in the center and the opposite extremes of the campus, so I walked quite a bit between them and got to admire the flora and fauna. There were lots of luscious flowers - the daylilies above were outside my room - and birds and beasties, including a cotton tail rabbit or two that I scared periodically on my walks.
I got back late Thursday night in time to help my parents move into a new house here in the Austin metro area on Friday. Their moving truck had to be back to the rental lace by noon on Saturday, so we worked most of Friday, and started again early Saturday morning move furniture and boxes off of the truck into the house and garage. Their four-legged family alternated between being scared to death and enjoying the ability to explore the new surroundings. The house needs to be painted and cleaned, but at least my parents are here and the uncertainty of moving is mostly over.
I got the other wing beaded last night and tonight I beaded her head. I also got her arms and legs sewn in place and she’s self supporting! I still have to sculpt her nails/claws and do some finish sewing on the wings and a small bit of painting. All of that is easy-peasy stuff though. And that means I should be back to working on Mars this weekend. Whoopy! My friend Annie (she of the fabulous beaded hearts and awesome house in Denver) emailed me today and agreed that the lady needs a new name. I need to try some out. I’ll let you know once I christen her.
The other night was the almost full moon. I saw almost, because the full moon was the next night - but the rising wasn’t at a good time for pictures. My back yard faces east, so I can get some great shots of the sunrise and moonrise at certain times of year. We had some light cloud cover and a good stiff breeze, which made for great picture taking. I sat out for a while with the tripod and snapped long exposure pics. This is my favorite.
Last but not least, I picked up the newest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Studio’s and it has some luscious eye candy in it. I love looking at other people’s studios and their art. Very cool issue. I highly recommend picking it up.
I’ve been working on the second Draconis this weekend, in between cleaning and a few other distractions. I started reading Mercedes Lackey’s "Joust" series again on Friday. It’s a fantasy book that borrows heavily from ancient Egyptian lore and is a book in which dragons are the star characters. Working on this beauty, I was reminded of the series and have sped through 3 of the four books in the last three days, in between which I finished painting her head, formed her wing armatures, covered the armatures, drafted the pattern for the modified wing, cut them out and got one attached.
These wings are different than the first Draconis. For one thing, they come up off the back in line with the body. For another, they are single wire supported, instead of having multiple joints off of the main wire. I wrapped the wire with strips of batting and fabric this time instead of sewing tubes and stuffing them. Much easier to deal with, much! The wing fabric is also cut in one piece and I’m beading it to attach it this time.
This one is most definitely female. I am thinking of beading her eye and brow ridges.
I could have had her finished if I hadn’t read so much of the day. Oh well, it was good to revisit the Jousters of Tian and Alta. I think it factored into this lady’s personality a bit.
I finished the sculpting on Draconis’ head this evening and the instructions. Just to see how he’d look, I pinned his head on the body. The twist in the neck, which I was not so happy to see I’d done in the sewing, causes him to look pretty fabulous. This version of him has so much personality and I can guarantee I’ll never be able to reproduce the effect.
I am going to start working on the pattern for the wings tomorrow. I really think this is going to be way too complicated for the Gypsy. I’m at 9 pages already. Once I read through the instructions again, I may be able to edit it down and I’m going to get some drawings done that may help eliminate some words. We’ll see.
Here’s the close-up of the head sculpting.
He looks kind of ghostly with the white paint. It’s the base coat for the eyes and nostrils. If I didn’t put the white down, the eyes wouldn’t even show up.
So, EDAC 2009 is coming up in a little under 2 months. If you want to attend, you need to sign up soon (like by the 15th of June I think) because the hotel rates won’t be good after that. I’ve almost decided that I’m going to donate one of the Draconis’ dolls for the auction and I will use the other one for my challenge piece. My original plan was to use this version as the auction doll, but I like it so much! Oh well, I have a month to make up my mind.
I’ll be back tomorrow with more progress. I hope that I can finish this guy up soon and get back to working on Mars. I’d like to have both Mars and Venus done before EDAC.
You know how you have some days that are just destined to wear you out when you had very little energy to start? Well, that was my day today, so I thought I’d post about some fun non-art stuff I did in the last week.
First and foremost, I had to absolute pleasure of attending a live performance of wait wait…. don’t tell me! at the University of Texas Bass Concert Hall. This program has been broadcast on KUT, the local NPR affiliate for a couple or three years and I am hooked. I download the podcast and listen to it when I need a lift or a laugh as it’s guaranteed to bring both. It’s the radio quiz show for the News of the Weird. I listened to an episode yesterday where they interviewed Paula Dean and then made her answer questions about tofu. The more ridiculous the better. So - Austin’s performance had Austin musician Robert Earl Keen who talked about the difference between being a musician in Austin (he once played a garage sale) to being a musician in Nashville (tried out for an Open Mike night and got a spot a month later), where he got his inspiration for his songs (this conversation was edited out of the broadcast), and his new record. I laughed and laughed and got to listen to it again on Saturday morning.
A lovely fringe benefit of the small world variety - I was standing in line before the show waiting for food when a couple got in line behind me, then asked if it was the food line - to which I replied "Yes". We got to talking, and, although it escapes me how, happened onto the happy surprise that we both quilted. Joan mentioned a program at the local guild, which I haven’t been a member of in a long time, a year or so ago with a doll artist (I mentioned I made dolls and was involved in attempting to make a patter). She bought a pattern from this doll artists and said she’d be happy to give me the information if I’d give her my email address.
She emailed me Saturday with the name of the doll artist - and guess who it was? None other than eleanor peace bailey! Imagine my surprise and chagrin when I discovered I missed a chance to see epb here in Austin? I mean, I see her in Albuquerque at EDAC every summer, and saw her in Denver in February when I went to see Connie and the Gypsy and Consort Ken and Annie. What a laugh.
Anyway - long story short - I met someone locally, although she’s on the opposite side of town from me, who quilts and has made dolls and was tremendously nice! All because of a chance meeting in line at Bass.
Just thinking about that evening has restored my good mood for the day. Tomorrow night, I’ll be back to writing my instructions and will hopefully finish sculpting Draconis’ head!
