Brave Archery Event in Pasadena

We had so much fun making necklaces last Sunday. I could tell some of the kids had never used a rubber stamp in their lives. Oh the things we take for granted. For an ink pad I had one made for metal. It was a deep brown color. Even though I bought it some time ago it was wrapped in plastic and super saturated. Now I'm a big fan of buying ink pads wrapped in plastic. I put brown paper on the table, so the kids could try out the stamp on the paper first before stamping it on the leather. I probably gave out 50 necklaces and only 2 came out so poorly I let the kids make another one.  Usually they thought they had to press really hard.  But leather is spongy and requires a light touch. After the child stamped the art, I punched a hole with a leather hole punch, pulled the string through with a crochet hook, made a lark's head knot, and strung a bead on each end.  I let the kids choose their bead color out of a little bowl I had made of pine needles.

Unfortunately I was too busy working to take photos of the kids making the necklaces. But here are some photos of the event.

Arrows and Sycamores

Today we were off to deliver some arrows to a  young archer in Pasadena. Then we got to work on projects and shoot our own arrows.

I made progress on my white 'sandtones' hat.

And then I doodled in my junk journal for awhile. It was a pleasant day under the sycamores. 

I spotted some cool little finches up in the trees.  It was hard to get a photo. I don't really have the equipment for that and they move super fast, so I'm lucky I got a shot at all.

I want to start on some beaded leather pouches for the Brave event demo next weekend. I hope I remember to do that tomorrow.

When Archers Gather

The rain left us alone on this crisp day at the tail end of winter.

Last Sunday we met with friends at the Arroyo Seco area in Pasadena to work on bows and primitive skills. It had rained the previous day and the archers that drive from far away had second thoughts, fearing a wet day after a long drive.  We had a somewhat slow turn out for Paleoplanet, but our SCA friends showed up too, so we had enough to keep us productive and entertained. I worked on sewing beads around the rim of a gourd bowl. Aimee embellished a didgeridoo with beads. Amanda ran an SCA style practice. Altogether about 30 people showed up throughout the day.

Guy setting up his bow bench.

Gary, Guy, Sal, and Aimee enjoying a beautiful day together.

Alex stands on a bench while Tom holds the froe. They are splitting the wood to make bows.

Me wearing the snood I just finished crocheting.

Admiring the llama wool fingerless gloves Santiago let me borrow.

 

Santiago shoots his bow.

Details of the snood I made for St. Patrick's Day

Majestic sycamore

I like spending the day near trees

Popsicle Stick Loom

Barbara's son just got his 2nd tooth.

My friend Ren invited me to a craft group on Facebook. That was nice of her.  I shouldn't have named my group Fayme Crafts because I'm the only one for the most part posting crafts to it, when I wanted it to be a group that everyone could post to.

On Saturday I took my loom to the Arroyo Seco with me and talked my head off about it.  I made a belt. The hardest part was keeping myself parked in the chair. I kept leaping up to play Frisbee, talk to new people, run to the bathroom, hold Barbara's cute baby and eat.  I never get much done there, for all the schmoozing. But I did finish the belt. Now I need to start a new project on the loom.

Barbara's son is learning to walk.

Me wearing the headband I made on the loom.

Barbara took these photos of me using the loom.

Almost done with the belt.

It was Erick's first time. He's making a longbow.

Pasadena Bowyers Gathering

Today sure had it's ups and downs. Right now I'm just tired. I took photos at the Pasadena archery range but I won't be posting them tonight. There seemed to be a lot of dogs and horses there today.
And tonight when we were driving through Arcadia I saw 2 raccoons by the street. I also heard a bullfrog today.

At the archery range I worked on beading a hat and knitting a rug. At one point my hands were too cold to do much of anything. About then we decided to pack it in and go somewhere warmer.

My friends Roland and Merikan worked on their basket quivers. Most people were working on bows. We always take way more than we have time to work on.

Aimee showed us a beaded medicine pouch she'd picked up at a Fresno shoot. I wish we could go to the Fresno shoot but it's just too far from Anaheim for us to go.

I'm Going to Bed Early

I'm pretty tired from burning the candle at both ends, but here are some photos of the Pasadena Roving Archers  Traditional Shoot yesterday where we set up our little craft booth on Sunday. Enjoy. Of course going to bed early for me is before 1 AM. I sold some stuff. My boyfriend sold some stuff. It was good.

Traditional Archery Shoot

I went to the event today with empty pockets and came home with full ones. Somehow being an artist feels better when people are buying your work. And though I didn't sell any of my instruments, I got tons of compliments on them and some good reactions. This was a traditional archery shoot, so even though people liked the gourd drums, we didn't sell any. Next year I should make quivers. If was are going to be doing more archery events I need to have an archery mindset. We were vending at this one by special invitation, and they only let in a few vendors so that worked to our advantage. There was one man selling knives, one man selling leatherwork, a lady selling archery parts, and another man selling custom arrows. And I think we all made some money.

If you want to make instruments, check out youtube for tutorials.  There are some really good ones on there and also some pretty funny ones.

Archery Gathering in Pasadena CA

Yesterday I was out of town at the archery gathering. I haven't even had time to download the photos yet. It was probably the most perfect weather we ever had. Three of our friends showed up to make bows. They were very focused and their bows were shaping up nicely by the time they left.

I started out the day with some juggling practice. Then I worked on my knitting until my hands hurt too much. Towards the end I worked on some beading and made wands with a little boy there who has Harry Potter fever. I envy his energy. He was running circles around me.

My friend brought me peanut butter cookies.

And I learned from John that the tool called the 'spoke shave' is called that because it was originally used to make the spokes of wagon wheels. Who knew? Not I.

Pasadena Bead Show

Today I got dropped off at the Pasadena Bead and Craft Show and got to spend some time with artist http://www.kristismart.com/. I also met a lady that makes fantastic macrame' and woven necklaces. I said to her I bet that necklace is $1000, and she said, "No, it's $1200." Well, I believe it. The thread is so tiny and the necklace is like a collar with fringe. She said it took over a year to make.

I didn't buy much as I don't really need anything right now until I sell some of the things I already made. I bought 2 tiny hands and a skeletonized metal coated leaf. One of the bead vendors has a new store about 5 miles from my house, so I'll go there when I need beads and have a much better selection than he could have in his booth at the show.

When I was in the restroom the person in the stall next to me sounded like she was wearing a jingly belly dancing costume. But when I came out it wasn't a costume, but she was wearing a charm bracelet made of those stretched copper pennies like you get in those machines in tourist areas. So now I'd like to start buying those pennies and saving them up for my own charm bracelet. I think they have them in some of the restaurants down the street. I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled. I used to buy those for my kids, but who knows if they ever did anything special with them.

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.