And for Today… a Selection of Projects to Choose From

#Edits! And Then — The Anthology Shot Up the ...

And for Today… a Selection of Projects to Choose From

I have yet to manage to get back to writing. This saddens me… and, I admit, worries me a touch. It’s hard to be an author when you are not being a writer.

However, stressing over it won’t help get a single word word written, so I go with the flow.

I busy myself during the day, with the other projects I have taken on. I’m trying to narrow the number of items I am working down. More often than not, I have a half a dozen – or more – projects all ‘on the go’ to varying degrees. I have reached a point now though, where I want to get some major pieces wrapped up and done. There are a few reasons for this, the first being the sooner I clean my plate, the sooner I can add new challenges. One of these pieces has been ‘in the works’ for far too long and need to just be completed now. There is also the A&S competition in March that I would like to enter. I’d like to enter at the more advanced level, of five projects – all of a different type of art or science. So, with little time left to me, I need buckle down and finish those five different items.

I have one project left to wrap up that won’t be connected to the competition – a lapis lazuli and opalite rosary for my lady. I bought the beads back in the early summer, and then stalled. Then I wanted to get going on it but had the bright idea to make it pomander beads… that slowed me down again. Slowed as in almost full stop. I have managed to make one of the two pomander beads that, well not as good as I’d like, will suffice. I have to complete the other bead, which means making tiny hinges and clasp, to hold the two sides together. But I have already started string the beads – making little wire connectors for each bead. It has to be done – SOON…

Because I have this to finish by March and it has a lot of work to go yet.

It is a pendant… pomander….toothpick. Yup, a toothpick hung from a chain, that has pretty smells coming from it. It has been designed to resemble a sea horse (my lady’s heraldry is sea horses so just about everything I make for her – or that she makes for herself- has sea horses on it.) I have ground a piece of amethyst, which will be set on the front of the ‘door’ over the pomander, into the shape of the sea horse stomach. Now I am hand sanding it, so it will eventually shine. I still need to perfect the hinge connection of the door, as well as a latching mechanism. Also, the whole thing will have ‘gems’ set into it. I will be making these gems by carefully cutting down coloured glass, shaping it, and polishing it. 2015-05-13 14.42.01 Then the gems will be placed in spaces slightly carved down into the metal body and the metal will be hand rolled over the edges to keep them in place. That is done with tiny repetitive moves, where one curls a minuscule layer of the metal up, and pushes it over outside edge. Pain staking effort -especially since one slip and the ‘gem’ is cracked or chipped- whose results are a securely held gem and a beautiful finish on the metal. Lots yet to do on this.

Then there is the Fian challenge I entered into – the carving of bone into a rosary. (Yup – another rosary). This must be done in a year and, although I am progressing nicely so far, anything can happen, so I cannot afford to take a lax attitude to it, for even a day. I am planning on entering one of the beads into the competition. I am assuming I can get at least one face carved in one bead by March. If I can’t, I am in serious trouble. So this makes two of five entries.

2015-11-24 11.08.44 projectfan The other thing I want to enter is a flag fan – very, very, popular for ladies of Venice in our time period. What will make this really different from the other entries of mine, is that this is what the embroidery floss was bought for. I could have just challenged myself to just do the embroidery (sense a theme of ‘challenging myself’ here -good, because I always try to). I never have done any before, and a small sampler would have been fine to enter, but I hate doing something with no end purpose…thus a flag fan.

I have started the embroidery. I am using a gold metallic thread to outline the body of the …. yup – sea horse. Metallic thread was designed in hell, by a committee of demons and criminals. It was brought into being by madman under the direction of the goddess Eris. I have nothing more to say on that matter.

The fourth thing I plan on entering – is already done.

The horn I made is both metal work and horn work, so it has aspects that are similar to the toothpick pomander and the bone carved bead. It is a step side ways from either of those however, making it as different as it is the same. The big thing is that it also falls into a category I have not touched yet – musical instrument. Yup, the thing can be played. I myself, with trumpet playing not utilized since grade eight, can get clear notes in three distinct ranges; low, mid and high. Having that already done is good feeling.