Apple Apocalypse

I had been babying my apple heads for three days. In the hot daytime, I’d put them outdoors to dry on the roof of the truck. In the evening, I’d heat the oven for a few minutes and leave them in there. But then we had a stormy day, and I didn’t want them to mold. So after dinner that night I put the apples in the oven and left it on the default, which is 350 degrees, and set the timer for 3 minutes. On our oven, when the timer dings, the oven turns off. So after I set it, I went in the living room, and heard the timer, and didn’t give it another thought. But it is a good thing I didn’t go to bed early that night. At midnight I was on my computer when a sickeningly sweet smell entered my awareness. After a time I grew curious and tried to identify the smell. Kind of like burnt sugar or…baked apples. OMG. I ran into the kitchen and as you can see in the photo, it was an apple apocalypse. I was so bummed because I really wanted to see the way the faces came out.

I don’t know if I forgot to set the timer, or if the oven malfunctioned. But I figure they baked for 2 ½ hours at 350.

Apple meltdown.

I let a couple of days pass and then I went to buy more apples. Here are the new guys. 

This time I soaked them in lemon water and sprinkled them with salt.

My man and I.

Fun apple head photo manip.

Broad nose.

Love the mouth.

I can't wait to see how they look dried.

Indian or witch nose.

Experimental Amigurumi Style Face

Pony Pumpkin

My boyfriend surprised me with a pumpkin and the comment, "Here go make something." Since I had just drawn a horse the night before I decided to try to do that on a pumpkin. Since I was at a friend's house I had to use the tools on hand.  I used a white gel pen to do the initial sketch. After the carving the ink easily washed off with a damp paper towel. It turned out to be a little short for a horse, so it's my pony pumpkin. It does have four legs but because of the curve of the pumpkin, only one is glowing.

Atlatl Carving

Yesterday I hit the jackpot at Art Supply Warehouse. They had many books on clearance ranging from .99 to $4.99.  I bought 20 books for just over $50. That's about $2.60 per book.  They are on wood carving, beadwork, sewing, and drawing.

Today I worked on the goddess atlatl I'm carving.  I got to use my new scraper tools and it's finally looking like I could finish the thing. We are going to see Chris at his art studio tomorrow, so that inspired me to work on my atlatl.  He makes beautiful and functional atlatls.  His art community is having an open house and potluck tomorrow so we are going to drive down there.  It's near San Diego, CA.  Looking forward to it.
Chris can be found at: http://paleoarts.net/

Walking Stick

I got up early to work on my walking staff.  Not quite early enough though because it was already hot out. I used a bigger draw knife this time and got some of the branch nodes smoothed down.  I think it's time to switch to a scraper so I don't take off too much wood.
Then I came in and spent an hour sorting out knitting projects.  I put them all in a big cubical box to get them out from under my feet.  I hope it doesn't become out of sight out of mind though.  I was sick the last two days so I don't want to overdo it today. I thought I'd rest a little and work on blogging before you guys all forget who I am.

Productive Day

My health issues weren't bothering me so much today and I got a lot done. I found the beads in the manila envelope I've been looking for. They were actually in a small manila envelope inside the other manila envelope.

I found my good penknife and got to carve more on my block printed heart border. I also got to start another knitting tutorial on cable stitch. I knew the camera angle would be too tricky for me to do by myself, so I asked my boyfriend to help and it came out a lot better than me struggling alone.

I also got another article posted to Hubpages.  It's not craft related so I won't link it here. I hope to try out my woodblock printing tomorrow once the sun comes out again. I spent most of today thinking it was Friday. Yesterday was so stressful I thought it was two days and not one.  Ha. Ha. So now it's like I got a free day out of nowhere. I also managed to do some chatting on Etsy. Hardly anyone I knew in chat when I first joined Etsy comes there anymore so I'm constantly meeting new faces and getting them all muddled in my head.

Wood Block Printing

I just remembered I need to make my younger daughter a birthday card.
I started a design for a woodblock print, and now I can't find my tools. I just used them a few days ago.  Now where did they get off to?
I just bought some basswood at the Tall Mouse sale and I'm using it to test out my wood block carving skills.  The assortment came with a lot of 1/2" square pieces about 7" long, so I'm going to do a heart border. It's just a practice piece. I don't really know what I'm doing yet. Nor do I know if I have the right inks/paint for this. So let the experimenting begin.

Strange Crafting Accident

Today started out okay. I rolled out of bed and started carving stamps.  Maybe carving stamps before breakfast was a bad idea, because the knife slipped and I gouged my thigh. First time in 30 years I've cut myself carving stamps.  First time ever. That's the last time I carve stamps on a table with slats. The angle was such that the knife cut right down the channel in the table and right into my thigh. If I had used a different table, or turned that table 90 degrees or worn pants or had my skirt pulled down over my knees, this wouldn't have happened.
On the plus side I did get some bird stamps carved that I rather like.

Primitive Craft Skills Bowmaking and Spooncarving

I had a blast at the archery range today. Before it got hot out I did some archery practice. Later in the afteroon I taught Paige how to do some basic embroidery stitches. Diane was there working on her beadwork. Tim showed up and he's my frisbee buddy so we played frisbee (tm) for about an hour. The day was pretty much none stop activity.

I put the rest of the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/almostfamous/sets/72157623549893647/ on my Flickr page.

Carving Eraser Stamps

Today I got into a stamp carving fever. I carved a big steampunk stamp, a big leaf and 3 monkeys. I had two more stamps ready to carve but I ran out of steam. It's so handy having orginal stamps to use. I want so use some on shrinky pendants, or on polymer clay, or even on cookies. We'll see. Stamps look so much more impressive stamped on anything other than notebook paper. They even looked better on a brown paper napkin. I don't know why more people don't carve their own stamps. You can get started for under $20.

Soapstone

My friend gave us some odd bits of soapstone so today I thought I'd try carving them. I'm going to make one into a triangular mold for soap and the other one into a 'chop' or hand carved stamp to put on my artwork. At this point I want to make a dragon handle but that may be beyond my skill level.

I'm not sure why I keep picking projects that are hard on my hands. I finally had to give it up for the night and let my hands rest until tomorrow.

Earlier in the day I did some cable knitting as well, which is also hard on my hands. And I cut out a denim plush monster. So I got a lot started today and nothing finished. Story of my life.

Carving Basswood & Making an Art Journal

I figured out how I can actually succeed at my goal of reading 100 books this year. Don't turn the TV on. Or if my bf turns it on turn it off the minute he leaves for work. I've not only gotten tons of reading done, I'm getting a lot more art finished.

Today I worked on my little basswood bird. I did manage to nick myself for the first time, partly because the bird is getting so small now it's hard to hold. Must find remedy for that. But it is starting to look more like a bird and less like a blob.

I finished my hypnosis embroidery. Now I need to block, mat and frame it. Now I'm working on a Da Vinci quote, "Impatience is the mother of stupidity." I got most of the illuminated "I" done.

I also decided to go with the monthly art journal I mentioned earlier. I found one of those blank books on my bookshelf. Only the first 5 pages had been written on so I cut those out, which was easy because it's spiral bound, and got started on it right away. I'm getting a late start on it. The month is nearly over. I should keep my eyes open for a book to use for February too. This is a 'chronicle my life' type of journal so it will have writing and art in it.

wood carving, embroidery and crochet

Today I worked on my wood carving. My boyfriend provided me with a better carving knife and things started to go a lot better. I have the basic bird roughed out but you can't really tell it's a bird yet. I keep reminding myself I'm just a beginner and it's a learning curve.

I crocheted a purple neck scarf yesterday and I want to run some purple ribbon through it. I'll probably add a button closure.

Someone invited me to add my embroidery photo to this Flickr pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/embroideredstuff/pool/ If you want to meet other crafters that do the same category of craft that you do, there is probably a flickr group for it. I'm in a lot of groups on Flickr.

Tomorrow I'm still hoping to go to the bead fair in Pasadena CA. I'm still getting over my cold though and didn't sleep much last night.

Weaving & Woodcarving

I started working on the board loom tonight. I've noticed the fabric is getting narrower and narrower. The local library didn't have any books on weaving so I'm going to look for some internet sites to see if I can get some help.

I got 8 books at the library. One of them is the sequel to the book I made the sweater from. It has more interesting sweaters with cabling as well as more hats and scarves.

I got two books on woodcarving that I'm looking forward to working from. I have some wooden eggs that I used to paint on, and one book has some carved wooden eggs. It never occurred to me to carve on the eggs so I'm looking forwards to giving that a try.

You can make your own original art stamps.

Right now I am working on rubber stamps. To see the most recent ones, visit this link. http://erasersn2stamps.blogspot.com/

New Harry Potter Book

Today I'm going to be waiting in line at the Barnes and Noble in Huntington Beach for the release of the last Harry Potter book. I'm taking my arts and crafts with me for what I hope will be many hours of crafting. I'm going to take my eraser carving kit and swing by Pearl first to get some more erasers or carving material. I'm also taking the Harry Potter Slytherin scarf I'm still knitting. And this morning I had another idea for a witchy scarf with dangly bits to wear with my witches costume in purple and black. I may take some beadwork with me as well.