pilgrimage

Nesting...

2010-11-30T20:29:00.000-08:00

So apparently I have a desperate need to organize and make pretty everything in my house. Perhaps this is a way of avoiding all the real work I have to do. Today it was the bookcases. Here are some pictures of the results.

It was a strange day today. I have a lot to do, but am having a great deal of trouble settling in to do it. Lots of memories and melancholy as I sort through and let go of things. But it is definitely worth it to have more space.

Christmas is Coming.

2010-11-28T17:35:00.000-08:00

It has been such a wonderful weekend that I don't want it to end. We have been decorating all day, and continuing to work on our bedroom replacing the lights and organizing. Here are a couple of shots of the bedroom with the new lights.

Here are a few pictures of the lovely Christmas decorations that we have been putting up. This is absolutely my favorite time of year. I always cry when I pull of the ornaments and see ones that my father gave me when I was a child, and ones that came from my grandparents that have now passed away.

Hunting the Wild Christmas Tree

2010-11-27T20:08:00.000-08:00

The weekend is continuing to be wonderful in every way. I woke up at 4:00 am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep and so I went ahead and got up. I had some really lovely quiet time and learned how to pray the Anglican prayer beads that a friend gave me last year.

Once the hubby got up we had a lovely lazy morning. We finally managed to get ourselves together by lunch and head out to the Elgin tree farm to find our special Christmas tree. It has become a yearly tradition. You drive out to the middle of nowhere until you see the white tree farm truck and then turn left. My husband and I love the truck. Someday we want to have one just like it. Then you wind through a bunch of country roads and when you come around the corner you see a bunch of cars, cute buildings, and a little farm.

Tractors pulling wagons with hay bales will take you out to where the trees are being cut. They plant different sections each year and in several years the trees are big enough to cut.

We chose to walk for the first time because there were quite a few families waiting on the hay ride. It was a very pleasant 60° and sunny. We even found a tree very quickly. We usually take a long time looking to find one with the right shape, density of branches, and with pine cones.

This particular tree had outdone himeself making pinecones. There were 6 or so and they were quite large for this species of tree. Here I am pointing them out like a dufus for the camera.

You pick up a saw when you leave the hay ride to go out into the fields. Here is the hubby preparing to lumberjack.

And then if you are really strong and clever, you can hold the tree up directly about your head and look really manly while it drops needles and sap down your neck.

And then it is time for the walk back to the front for the helpers to shake all the loose needles out of our tree and bag it.

Once you reach the front you can either pay right away or take a look though the lovely ornaments in the Christmas Cottage.

So anyway, we got little tree home and started decorating him. We only have about half the ornaments on so far, but he is just lovely. I am so very happy.

The Best Thanksgiving Ever

2010-11-26T06:02:00.000-08:00

I think yesterday was the best thanksgiving I have ever had. After we had a lovely lunch and Mom and Bob took off we came back and lit all the led candles and my flicker light fake fire up and cuddled on the couch watching movies.

We had started Love Actually, which has become one of my favorite holiday movies, before my parents got into town on Wednesday and so we finished that one. We then went on to watch Stage Beauty which had been recommended to me by several of my friends. I am completely in love with this movie now. It was a fascinating peek into Restoration Theater and the Shakespeare Revivals and some of the best Othello I have ever scene. It confirmed a lot of the choices that I made when I played Desdemona at in the Shakespeare scene compilation that The Baron's Men did last fall. We then finished up with Julie and Julia, which I had really wanted to see in the theaters but completely failed.

I discovered something really important about myself in that sweet little evening of curling up with the hubby and movie watching. The hurt and anger left over from things that happened during my play has really been weighing on me. It has been really hard to deal with because there was no way to let it out that wasn't destructive to self or others. I learned last night that watching and weeping for other people's love, joys, sorrows, and triumphs is a very safe way to let that emotion out. It no longer feels like failure to cry, when I'm not crying because of the negative emotion, and my body doesn't seem to care except that it just gets the good cry that it needs.

So I am truly thankful today, for a beautiful day with loved ones, and for a tremendous insight into what makes me tick.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T15:11:00.000-08:00

The hubby and I had a lovely breakfast with my mother and stepfather and then finished our cooking and headed over to out best friends' house before noon. They have three delightful kids and it is always a joy to get to play with them. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the Turkey because it came out stunningly beautiful. My friend used my Turkey recipe and now they are hooked. We had a lovely meal and then my parents had to head back to Houston to fly out overseas tomorrow and the hubby and I headed home for some serious couch time.

I'm trying to get up the energy to work on the Egyptian collar project that I have been making. I think it may have to wait for tomorrow though because momentum to leave the couch just isn't happening. Here are a couple of pictures of the project in various stages.

A Little Taste of Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T16:23:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a lovely day of cleaning and getting ready to cook. My hubby took the day off and so we have just been enjoying being together and starting to get in the holiday spirit. My mom and stepfather are on their way to town and we are going to spend Thanksgiving with our best friends and their kids. What a beautiful time. I decorated the house this year for the first time and has really helped to get in the mood. Here are a few pictures. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

How did I loose a year of my life?

2010-11-22T08:10:00.001-08:00

So I looked at the blog this morning to retrieve so recipes from last Thanksgiving, and realized that this year has gone by so fast that it is overwhelming and that I have a lot of catching up to do with my life.

I should probably start with the wrap up from my play, which was the single thing that took up most of this year, but I can't quite face jumping in to that yet because it is a really long story.

Perhaps I can just skim over some of the basics. The Baron's Men put on A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by me, in the fall and it was more critically and financially successful than all of the plays that the group has done so far combined. It wore me down tremendously mentally and physically because of some of the interpersonal drama that happened as part of the production. It was definitely a learning experience, but even with all the success, I honestly don't know right now if it was worth it in the end.

I went straight from that into a Halloween show for Beth Burns that was a fantastic experience where I helped with costuming, set decoration and music, and had a really great time. This was in the middle of my busiest season with my mask business and so even though it was a blast there was a large amount of stress to try and keep up with my orders.

I then went straight into a week of making 30 masks and helping with a local event called Luminalia which was held by Austin Shakespeare. It was a crash course in how to fund raise as well as being the most masks I have ever made in one week.

Needless to say, I am not planning anything for the Holidays except relaxing and reclaiming my life. I am so looking forward to the quiet time, remembering my habits, rediscovering my interests, and just being.

As a part of trying to get myself out of the deep negativity that some of the interpersonal stuff in my play put me into I have been trying to look every day at what I am thankful for. I've been using my facebook status to do this, but I am collating them here as a way to "count my blessings". Some of them are pretty prosaic and sometimes silly, and yet when I look through them I realize how much I am truly blessed in my life, even in the little things.

Jennifer Davis is thankful for her amazing husband who enjoys cleaning and organizing as much as she does.
Jennifer Davis is thankful that she gets to do an awesome scene with Bridget Farias and that she got a dry run for her Monday audition.
Jennifer Davis is thankful that the pile of stuff to put away has dwindled from the entire living room to about 1/8th and that she can walk in all the rooms of her house again. She is also very thankful to stop and put her feet up for a moment.
Jennifer Davis is thankful to be back on her diet and that she has already lost two pounds of the stress weight. Only 18 more to go.
Jennifer Davis is both thankful and extremely excited to have gotten a callback. Happy dance.
Jennifer Davis Is thankful for people that listen and care.
Jennifer Davis is thankful to be back working on her business full time. It is nice to have an undivided mind.
Jennifer Davis is thankful to have a husband who supports her, loves her, and believes in her.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for reality checks from real friends
Jennifer Davis is thankful that she gets to spend the day making beautiful things that make people happy.
Jennifer Davis is very thankful to the wise women of her Bible study who always give perspective.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for little gestures of love that make a relationship of nearly twenty years feel fresh and new.
Jennifer Davis is thankful to be 4 pounds down on her quest to loose the Midsummer stress weight.
Jennifer Davis is thankful that she can laugh at the stupidity.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for soft beds, warm husbands, and purring kittens.
Jennifer Davis is thankful that the DVD for Love's Labors Lost from the Globe just came in and she gets to spend the afternoon listening to it while painting.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for Promise Pizza. If you haven't had it yet, go now. Mmmmmmm.
Jennifer Davis is thankful that the 30 masks for Luminalia are almost done. I think this is a record for me in one week. Of course I wouldn't have finished without the awesome and talented Katy Thompson.
Jennifer Davis is thankful to have been a part of Austin Shakespeare's Luminalia . What a beautiful and fun event.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for coffee with friends, the quiet satisfaction of a job well done, and exciting sides to practice.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for paying off some of her debts. It is always a wonderful feeling.
Jennifer Davis is thankful that La Madeleine has added slim and petite versions to almost everything on their menu.
Jennifer Davis is thankful to have succeeded in the loathed task of dress shopping and to have something sleek to wear to the Austin Shakespeare's King Lear Showcase.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for her hot coffee. It is darn cold out here.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for Cat naps with real cats.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for a good laugh and that sleep makes you feel better.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for an entire day to clean house and do laundry.
Jennifer Davis Is thankful to be released. What a fun and exhausting day.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for a nice dinner, a wonderful husband, and the chance to put her feet up.
Jennifer Davis is thankful for spending the holiday with a dozen good friends and for the excitement of getting to cook loads of delicious food.

Hope that the holidays bring you many good memories, good friendship, and love.

So I'm a Director now, and it is crazy.

2010-03-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got all the casting done for my show. It was amazing. We ran two weekends of auditions and it ran beautifully because my producer is fantastic. I did a lot of prep work between the two weekends, and after the second weekend, I was able to get the casting done in a day.

And then all hell broke loose. Apparently certain people felt they were entitled to a part in my play and didn't get one. Other people thought they should have gotten a bigger part. Other people thought that this person or that person shouldn't have gotten a part. It just has turned into a big snarling mess. So I have spent almost a week sitting people down person by person and talking through problems, and of course doing what I always do and worrying way too much.

I worked so hard to make a fair set up for auditions, which would value both peoples feelings and their time. Since so many of the audition process I have been through have been awful, I tried really hard to make it something joyful, with a learning component. It is so sad to me that some people can take the disappointment of not getting a part and turn it into such a dark place, and forget everything else that I have brought into their lives.

But anyway, at least most of the turmoil has settled and I am moving forward and so excited about how everything is looking. People are already memorizing lines and asking me about their characters, and I love the discussions that are beginning to happen.

I think that this process is really going to change me as a person. I already know that my feelings will be very different the next time I walk into audition for someone else. I think I'll feel more sorry for the director than afraid for myself.

We are taking a big trip next week to the fabric district in Dallas to buy fabric for the costumes. I can't wait to start seeing it all come together.

Amazing year so far!

2010-03-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hey friends,

I can't believe that it has been so long since I have written in my blog. It seems as if this year has been so intense that I have been running from on thing to another. So I realized that I need to get back to updating this on a regular basis, for my own sake.

Well, right now I am involved concurrently in 3 theatrical productions. I just finished The Bawdy Five, for which I was doing the music and also all the promotional materials, as well as supporting the directors. It was much more difficult for me to do the music for this show, because it was medieval music, and I am just not as familiar with that era. I like to listen to medieval songs, but I don't have them at the tips of my fingers, in my memory, and know all the sources like I do with the 16th and 17th century stuff. So it took a lot more time than I thought. I was pretty happy with the final result, however because we only had 3 weeks to put the show together, I really didn't get everything done till the second running weekend of the show. It was pretty stressful, but ended up being a fun experience over all since the last weekend of the show was fabulous.

I'm also working on the music for an original practice Taming of the Shrew which will be playing in April and May in Austin. Original practice means that they will be using men as the women's parts, and will be keeping everything as close to what we know that they did in Shakespeare's time as they can. I'm really having fun with the music for his one so far. It is looking like I'll have a good quartet to play with. I'm also going to be choreographing at least one dance, which is a new thing I have started getting in to. Interestingly, I also taught a movement class to the actors for this production, to teach them how to move in costume. The director asked me. I was a bit flabbergasted, but sat down and thought about it, and put together some good information from the dance and baroque gesture training that I have had and it seemed to work well.

My third show, is of course my Midsummer Night's Dream which will be running September 24-October 15th. I am in the middle of two weekends of auditions, as well as a ton of planning and other preparatory work. I am so excited about the way people are reacting to me and to my show. There is so much excitement and enthusiasm. I hope it continues through the whole process.

My mask business is continuing to grow. I am still selling several masks a week, and so the money continues to gently flow in, which is really nice. I have almost a hundred sales on Etsy, and I continue to have opportunities to sell in person come up as well.

So things are absolutely going as well as they could possibly be. For the most part I have been really happy, and I am enjoying living my life even though it is busy and complex. Anyway, I hope that I can get back to updating a little more regularly with all the wonderful things I am learning and creating.

Hope all is well in your worlds,

Jen

Amazing Archeology Discovery

2009-12-31T08:15:00.000-08:00

My husband found this terrific site for an archeological discovery of a hoard of Anglo Saxon Gold in Staffordshire here. I found the pictures to be very inspirational for me as an artist and jewelry maker. Here are a few of them from the site They are all from the portable antiquities' photostream, and are copyrighted by individual artists as listed on that site.

Gold scabbard boss with inlaid garnets

Press quality photo

Finds number NLM 675

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Gold hilt fitting with inlaid garnets

Press quality photo

Finds number NLM 449

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Recipes from the Holidays

2009-12-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

We had a truly amazingly edible Holiday this year. I have never cooked so much delicious food in my life in such a short amount of time. I was so pleased by the culinary success, that I decided to go ahead and document all the old and new recipes I used so that next year I won't have to try to remember them all and hunt them down again.

Roast Turkey

1 Turkey or Turkey Breast
2 tsp salt
2 tsp white pepper
2 tsp dried, powdered savory
2 tsp dried, powdered sage
½ cup (1 stick) butter melted
2 juicy pears (Comice or bartlett work well) cored and sliced
1 large, sweet, yellow onion, sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
garlic cloves (optional)
1 lemon, quartered (optional)
springs of fresh herbs (optional)

For Turkey: Position rack at lowest shelf of the overn and preheat overn to 375°. Remove Giblets and neck and rinse turkey inside and out and pat dry. Combine salt, pepper, savory, sage, and metled butter and cover outside and inside of the turkey with the mixture. Stuff a few of the lemon wedges, garlic cloves and fresh herbs inside the turkey cavities for flavor. Tie turkey legs together to preserve shape. On bottom of large roasting pan arrange celery, onion, and pear slices. Place turkey on roasting rack on top of pears and vegetables. Cover pan and roast for 45 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350° and roast for 11/2 hours or until a thermometer inserted into the breast or thigh reaches 175° . Check turkey every 30 minutes for temperature. If you prefer a crispy skin, uncover the turkey for the last 30 minutes of cooking. Allow Turkey to rest for 30 minutes before carving. Meanwhile, remove pears and vegetables from underneath turkey. Reserve 1 cup of pears and vegetables for gravy and transfer the rest to the serving platter. Place carved turkey atop pears and vegetables and garnish with lemon wedges andfresh herbs.

For Gravy: Rinse Turkey neck and add to 1 can chicken broth. Simmer on stove until the turkey is cooked. Remove meat from neck and discard bone. Strain pan juices from roasted turkey and add to broth. Pureé the saved cup of pears and vegetables to liquid and add to the gravy broth. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Simmer on stove until very warm but not boiling. To thicked mix a 1-2 tsp corn starch, rice flour, or regular flour with water until you have a thick milk cosistancy. Add the flour/starch mixture to the gravy slowly while stirring constantly and simmering until it thickens.

This recipe was adapted from a November 1990 Bon Appétit

Prociutto and Pear Stuffing

3 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 oz thinly sliced prociutto, cut into ribbons
2 cups celery , diced
2 cups yellow, sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp fresh sage, minced
2 tsp fresh rosemary, minced
2 tsp fresh thyme, minced
6-8 cups bread cubes or croutons.
2 ripe pears (Comice or bartlett work well) cored and sliced
1/3 cup chopped flat leaf parsely
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350°. Coat a 9 by 13 inch baking dish lightly with cooking spray. Heat one tsp of oilve oil in skillet and sauteé the prociutto over medium heat about 5 minutes until crispy. Drain on a paper towel. Wipe out the pan and heat the remaining 2 tsp olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, onions, celery and cook, stirring until softened (about 6-8 minutes). Add sage, thyme, and rosemary and cook for one minute. Remove from heat and transfer to baking pan. Add bead cubes, pears, and parsley and prociutto and stirr gently to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Add chicken broth. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the top of the stuffing begins to crisp (around 25 -30 minutes more).

This recipe was adapted from a November 2006 EatingWell.

Cranberry Citrus Sauce

1/2 small orange unpeeled
1 ¼ cups orange juice
1 cup sugar
1 tblsp and 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 12 oz bag cranberries

Finely grind the orange ina food processor. Combine orange juice, sugar and lemon juice in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Add ground orange and cranberries and cook untilt he berries begin to pop, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Refridgerate for 30 minutes before serving.

This recipe was adapted from a November 1990 Bon Appétit. This sauce added to a cup of greek yogurt makes a fantastic breakfast.

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

1 1/2 cups white pastry flour,
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons very cold butter
6-7 tablespoons of ice water

Mix flour with salt in a medium bowl or food processor. Add cold butter and cut in using a pastry blender, or pulse in food processor. Add 6 to 7 tablespoons ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until dough forms into a ball. Gather up and pat into a disc. If possible, cover and refrigerate dough for 30 minutes before rolling out. When ready to use, divide dough in two, roll each dough ball out on a lightly floured surface into a 10-inch circle. You can also roll out inside a floured 2.5 gallon plastic bag, which makes it very easy to transfer to the pan. Trim the edges and crimp for a decorative crust. Makes two delicious 9-inch pie shells.

This recipe was adapted from a Whole Foods recipe from their website.

Turkey Pot Pie

2 cups cups cooked turkey,
1 tblsp flour
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced yellow sweet onion
1/2 cup sliced celery
2 cloves garlic minced
1 cup snap green beans in small pieces
¼ cup butter
1 8oz can cream of mushroom soup (I use Amy’s organic)
1/2 tsp savory
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 tsp dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp milk
2 9-inch pie crusts

Preheat oven to 350°. Toss turkey in a bowl with the flour. In a skillet melt the butter and then sauteé the garlic for a minute. Add the onions, carrots, celery, and green beans and sauteé until just softened. Add the cream of mushroom soup, turkey cubes, savory, thyme, salt and pepper. Mix thouroughly, then remove from heat and set aside. Roll out the bottom pastry and fill the pie pan. Add the turkey and vegetable filling. Roll out the second crust and place over the top of the filling, crimping the edges. Cut several vents in the top crust to allow steam to escape. Brush the top crust with the milk. Bake at 350°for 45 minutes until lightly browned. Allow the pie to rest for 5 minutes before cutting.

This recipe was adapted from a recipe by Betsy Barnes

Gingerbread Cookie/Pancake Mix

Mix Ingedients:
3 ½ cups all purpose flour,
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice

For Cookies:
½ cup softened butter
¾ cup molasses
1 lightly beaten egg

Add all of the mix to a large mixing bowl and stir well. Add the butter, molasses and egg and mix until well blended. Cover and refridgerate one hour. Preheat oven to 350°. Roll dough to 1/4” thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and transfer to a lined, or lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes.

For Pancakes:
¾ cup milk
1 egg
2 tblsp canola oil
2 tblsp molasses
1 ½ tsp baking powder

In a medium bowl combine the milk,egg, oil and molasses. Blend in 1 1/3 cups of the gingerbread mix and extra baking powder. Mix until moistened but slightly lumpy. Cook on lightly greaded griddle over med-low heat. Watch closely, they will burn easily.

These wonderful recipes came as a gift from Steve and Dawn Hemphill.

And another Blog Feature

2009-12-03T07:11:00.001-08:00

So today I am featured on a really pretty blog by jennyndesigns which you can find here.

I spent last night working on Rosary Necklaces for the women at my bible study, because I have to deliver them today. I'm really happy with the way they are coming out. Here is a picture. I'm trying to package them up so I can deliver them today.

I really need to get some masks finished today also. I have about 6 that just need decorative painting and I need to form some new ones as well.

Fingers crossed that I get something done ;)

Another Etsy Treasury

2009-12-02T19:56:00.000-08:00

Well, I am in another Etsy treasury made by my Etsy freind stockannette. You can find the original here. All of these items were chosen from a group of people called the Sneak Attack Team. This is one of the coolest things I have seen on Etsy. It is a group of sellers who get together and find shops that are just starting out, and then they all go at one time and each buy something from a single shop to encourage that shop. I found them by accident, but once I found them I knew that I had found a home. For more information about the Sneak Attack Team follow this link.

Anyway, I got a couple of rosaries done today for the ladies in my bible study, and the Hubby and I hunted the wild Christmas tree, but other than that it was not a very productive day.

Sigh...

Featured on Jewelry by Tara

2009-12-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

Hey friends,

I have been featured at http://www.jewelrybytarabiz.blogspot.com/. Tara's blog is lovely, as is her shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/jewelrybytara.

I'm somewhat stuck in the fix and promote my shop blues. It seeps like I am so busy actually trying to make masks that the constant time it take to do all the work to make the Etsy shop work well is just exhausting. I also don't really know if it is looking good enough that I can advertise it, or if I should. Anyway, it is really difficult to navigate my way through these choices and try and find a good balance of time spent.

In other news I'm trying to finish up three Anglican rosaries today for my lovely ladies at church and then work on forming a bunch of masks. I finally cast the skull mask in plaster and now I just have to clean the mold to see if it will work. Too much to do, but still having fun.

I have 6 sales!!!

2009-11-30T01:24:00.000-08:00

Well, I am finally starting to make some sales from Etsy after all this work and I am so happy. It has taken forever to figure out how to get my shop looking good. I had to totally change my photography style. Unfortunately because the typical icon display in Etsy is so small, my gold fabric background just wasn't working. I switched out to photographing against a simple deerskin and the results were much more dramatic. Here are some examples of the old and new style. This is actually a burgundy mask in one picture and a purple in the other, but it shows the background difference

I also had to really learn my camera to actually make decent pictures. Of course the first thing I really learned about my camera was that it didn't really want to do, what I wanted it to do (grrr). I figured out how to use the white balance function which helped a lot to make the color true to life, as well as how to bracket automatically, and shoot with a delayed timer so that my hand wouldn't shake the camera when I pressed the button. I'm starting to be really happy with the results.

Anyway, so I have been trying to promote my shop heavily, and keep looking for more ways to get out there. I was having nothing really happening at all until this week/weekend when I finally started selling and have sold 4 more masks and some earrings on top of the first mask sale before Halloween. I definitely feel validated now, and really believe this is going to work if I can just keep growing it.

I'm going to have to raise my prices though because they really are too low. I have been ordering work from other successful mask makers on line, and it has been really interesting to see the pieces as they come in. It has actually made me feel really good in general, because it has validated that my work is good quality. However they are charging half again, to twice what I am for most of their stuff. I decided that Christmas would be my changeover and that I would add $10 to the price of all the masks.

Anyway, probably better get back to bed. Tomorrow will be a big day of learning how to ship something internationally.

Hope everyone has a great day.

My Etsy Shop Critiqued

2009-11-19T21:58:00.000-08:00

I had the wonderful experience of getting my Etsy Shop critiqued by one of the Etsy administrators named HeyMichelle today. Etsy has a really cool feature where they have a Virtual Lab where you can go to have live interactions with other Etsy users and with administrators

Wow, so much to tell!

2009-11-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been an amazing month so far.

My husband and I have actually created a real workspace for me in one corner of our kitchen, in the hope that I will no longer take over the entire kitchen and living room with my crafting. Here is a picture.

It has really helped a lot to keep the house cleaner.

We also cleaned out the garage and created a real plaster working area, as well as getting my cool spray paint booth that my husband built vented to the outside of the house.

Lat weekend I also did my first craft show with three of my favorite friends. We went down to Driftwood, and exhibited in La Ventana. The drive was really lovely, and it was a beautiful day, however the craft show itself was a bust. We sold very little because I think it was just the wrong audience for our stuff. Our display looked wonderful though. Here are some pictures.

Here are the wonderful scarves that Katrina knitted.

And here are pillows from my friend Amy Brumley. You can visit her blog here for more wonderful crafts and recipes

And these adorable pillows were from my friend Cherie. I felt like my set up was pretty bland in comparison, but oh well.

The really good thing about doing the craft show was that I was finally able to put together some of the jewelry ideas that had been percolating in my head. It is mostly just earrings right now, but I am slowly adding other types of jewelry. I'm putting them up for sale on Etsy, one or two every day. I did sell a couple of pairs at the craft show, and several to the ladies in my Bible study.

I also was able to finish a mask for my friend Betsy for the big Austin Shakespeare Luminalia last weekend. It is a little more girly than my other masks, but it was fun to use lace for the first time. Sorry, the pictures are not the best quality.

Apparently they got a lot of notice, and they were sweet enough to hand out cards for me, and so it made me feel really good.

So I am currently looking at 2 more craft shows, a bunch of Christmas performing, and trying to promote myself on Etsy. Lots of fantastic things happening.

More soon.

My First Etsy Sale and Treasury.

2009-11-04T02:23:00.000-08:00

Well it has been an exciting couple of weeks. I managed to make it through the Halloween rush unscathed, although there were a lot of late, late nights involved. I didn't even get sick, which I thought I would after spending so any cold nights out selling masks at Scare for a cure. We did really well though, sold a bunch of masks and handed out even more cards.

So now I am working toward a craft show in mid November that is out in La Ventana, which is a gated community south of town. What is really exciting for me is that I have gotten three of my friends to do it with me, and each bring their unique arts. I'm planning on bring out some leather jewelry at the show, and so I have been working on cuffs and earrings, and learning more about leatherwork.

In the mean time, I have been trying to clean up the house, and create a real workplace for myself, so that I am not always dominating every horizontal surface with craft. My husband is very appreciative of this effort.

In other news, I made my first Etsy sale. I shipped off a superhero mask just before Halloween, and the woman was very pleased with it and left me fabulous feedback.

My Greek Goddess Mask was also chosen for an Etsy treasury called Believe by misfitchic. Woohoo, my very first treasury!

I hope to have some jewelry pictures soon, and some of the new workspace.

Have a great week!

New Business Online

2009-10-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been an amazing few months. Our Baron's Men play Medieval Macabre came out fabulously, and I hope to have pictures of it up eventually.

In addition my idea of selling some of the masks I was making for the play has taken off like wildfire and become an entire business. I just got the website up today and transferred this blog over from it's original venue.

Onward and upward!

Away on Vacation

2009-08-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

I've been away for the last two weeks on vacation at an Early Music Workshop. I hope to have pictures soon of the culmination of all the work I did leading up to it. Hope everyone is having a lovely summer.

Chocolate Pudding

2009-07-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

I have become addicted to Chocolate pudding. Whole Foods has a chocolate pudding that I have an unholy love for. Rich and thick and creamy, and very subtle and it has become my comfort food. However, usually when I most crave it, they don't have it and so I determined that I was going to make my own.

Well needless to say my first attempt was a disaster. It tasted like thick brown starch. Bleeaahh!

So I went to Whole Foods and read the label and found out the SECRET INGREDIENT!!!! They use rice starch instead of corn starch. Hmmm... So I went looking. I didn't find rice starch, but I did find tapioca starch. So I decided to give it a try. Eureka!!! Success! Perfect chocolaty lusciousness.

Chocolate Pudding
2 tblsp tapioca and 1 tblsp Corn starch ( Or 3 tblsp Rice starch)
1/2 cup Zsweet (zero calorie sweetener from Whole Foods)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used 1/2 Giradelli, and ¼ Sarah’s Parisian Cocoa)
⅛ tsp. salt
1 cup heavy cream
1½ cups whole milk
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsp. butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Put the cornstarch, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Whisk the ingredients together thoroughly, making sure no cornstarch or cocoa-powder lumps remain. Whisk in the cream and milk.

Heat over medium-low heat, whisking steadily and scraping the sides of the pan occasionally. When gently warm but before the pudding comes to a boil, whisk in the egg, the butter, and the chopped chocolate. Increase the heat to medium and continue cooking and stirring until the butter and chocolate have melted and dissolved into the mixture.

When the pudding has come to a low boil and begun to thicken, remove from the heat. Whisk in the vanilla extract and pour the pudding into dessert dishes or a single large bowl.

You can let the pudding cool slowly on the countertop and serve it soft and warm, if you like. If you prefer to serve it firm and chilled, cover the pudding with plastic wrap (stretched taut if you like skin on your pudding, or pressed gently into the surface of the pudding if you don’t) and refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes to an hour.

Serve garnished with freshly whipped cream and grated semisweet chocolate, if you like.

You can replace the 2 1/2 cups of liquid dairy with any combination you like: all whole milk, all half-and-half, etc. Don’t use all skim milk, however; the pudding deserves the richness and thick mouthfeel of milk fat.

Feel free to add a splash of liquor, such as Grand Marnier or brandy, to the finished pudding along with the vanilla extract.

First Squash from the Garden

2009-06-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

I grew my first squash! I have taken the two really sunny garden areas of the yard and decided to convert them to vegetable gardens because I found myself really frustrated trying to grow landscaping plants in the full on Texas sun. Even plants that advertise themselves as full sun seem to need a bit of a break from it here in Texas. However the vegetables seem to be doing really well. I have decided that I really like summer squash plants. The plants themselves are beautiful, with their big flat green leaves, and they seem to be very productive. Here are some little zucchinis still on the vine.

Today we are having an unusual summer rain, and so I turned off the AC and have all the doors open, enjoying the beautiful coolness. I cooked my fist squash up for lunch using this recipe.

Summer Squash with Lemon and Basil
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 large summer squash

For the vinaigrette, in a small bowl, mix together olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, fresh basil and salt. For the squash, slice into large rounds. Warm a 10-inch skillet (cast iron is best) until very hot. Place squash in pan and sear over high heat, until browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip onto other side and sear additional 2 to 3 minutes, until both sides are browned. Place squash on a large platter. Spoon vinaigrette over squash. Serve warm. (I added some fresh paneer cheese which I I added to the skillet once the squash was cooked and browned for about a minute)

The other summer highlight in my garden in the Pink Phlox that blooms in the front yard. It always dies back in the winter and puts forth new leaves in the spring. By summer I have a glorious display of pink frothy blossoms with the most amazing subtle honey scent that fills the whole front yard. I always get compliments on them from the neighbors.

Paneer Cheese

2009-06-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

I have discovered the most amazingly easy way to make a fabulous fresh cheese. My friend Pam mentioned that she had learned how to make Paneer cheese and loved it, and so being the curious person I am, I had to go find a recipe and try it. I had so much fun and the result was delicious. So here is the recipe.

Paneer Cheese
8 cups of Whole Milk (½ gallon) (I used Skim and it worked fine)
1 tsp. Salt
3 tablespoons Lemon Juice (½ medium sized lemon squeezed)

In a large pan bring milk, salt, and cumin just to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice. Let stand 15 minutes.

Line a large strainer or colander with several layers of 100-percent cotton cheesecloth. Strain mixture; discard liquid. Gently squeeze the cheesecloth to remove as much liquid from the curds as possible. Wrap cloth around curds. Place wrapped curds in a large strainer or colander and put a weighted bowl on top to help press out any additional liquid. Let stand, covered, in a refrigerator for at least 15 hours.

Remove curds. Discard liquid. Form curds into a flat rectangle or press into a large bowl to shape. Refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, until well chilled. Store in refrigerator, tightly wrapped, for up to 3 weeks.

I actually rinsed the outside of the curds wrapped in the cheesecloth with a little cool water to help me be able to squeeze them. I don’t know if I just squeezed really hard or what, but my cheese set up enough to eat in about 3 hours, and had a wonderful fresh mozzerella kind of texture. The flavor is a very subtle lemon scented.

I ended up making an spicy oil with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, ¼ tsp hot chile powder, and ¼ tsp garlic salt to drizzle over the little cheese round I eventually ended up with and the result was amazing.

Anyway, I got very excited and I think I will try my hand at some other cheese making. I did some research on line and found that cheese making kits are as close as your next Austin Farmers’ Market. Marc Kuehl of Brazos Valley Cheese (raw cow’s milk- made in Waco, Texas) has available to the public a cheese-making kit with rennet, booklet, cheese cloth, etc for making several pounds of cheese. He is at the markets both Wednesday at the Triangle and downtown on Saturdays. www.austinfarmersmarket.org for details. The milk you can get from Remember When Dairy on Saturdays at the downtown market.

Brazos Valley Cheeses - Homestead Heritage Farm. 608 Dry Creek Rd., Waco, TX 76705. Marc Kuelth - Marc is a quality cheese maker from near Waco, and graces the market with more than 30 different types of gourmet cow's milk cheeses through the season (you'll have to choose between more than a dozen each week). From brie to mozzarella, from cheddar to parmesan, he's got your taste buds satisfied. 512-284-0196, marc.kuelth@juno.com.

In addition to the fun you have making it, the cost of milk is a third of what you would for the cheese itself.

Medieval Macabre Poster Final

2009-06-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally came to a consensus on the Medieval Macabre poster. The Producer came over to my house and sat with me as we went through a bunch of stock images until we finally found an image of an iron skull which seemed to express the characteristic feeling that she wanted for the show.

Here is a little bit about the process of creating the poster. I first put the stock image in place exactly as it was, and came up with a type solution which I reused from my earlier design of this poster with the Dance Macabre.

I then cut a square piece of the texture from the main part of the skull and created a repeating pattern from it. To do this my typical process is to cut a 500x500 pixel or larger square of the texture I want to use. I then make a second copy of the texture onto another layer. On the first layer I run a high pass filter with default settings to even out the lights and darks in the texture. I then apply the second copy of the texture as a Color mode layer on top of the High Pass version to return some of the original color to the texture. I merge these two layers together, and then use an Offset filter to offset the pattern by half of its length and width. Then, I use the clone tool, or healing brush tools to clone over the sharp edges which are now offset to the center of the texture. I then run the Offset filter again with the same values, and Voilà, I have a tiling texture.

Once I had my texture, I created a new copy of the layer with the skull image and painted in the rest of the tombstone by using the eyedropper tool to select values from the skull, and the airbrush to paint the lines. I set up a second layer above the layer I was painting on and filled it with the skull texture set to Overlay mode. I then held down the option key and clicked the line between the layers so that the layer with my texture only showed through where I had painted the rest of the tombstone. I then pasted the original skull back in another layer and faded the edges so that my painted layer and the original skull image flowed together seamlessly. After a lot of painting, and some color adjustments, I was able to achieve an extension of the original skull image that looked fairly realistic.

I then took my type layers and applied a deep, hard chiseled Bevel and Emboss layer effect, and also applied my same skull texture as a Pattern Overlay layer effect (also on Overlay mode). This helped bring the text and image together so that they looked like they were from the same world and the type did not overpower the image.

Anyway, the poster ended up being fairly quick to produce once we had settled on a design. I was able to finish the image and apply it to all the promo materials in about half a day. The best part is that the Producer loves it. One of the board members for the group told me that he loved how it looked dark and evil, and was chortling in glee while he said it. I love making people happy with my art.

Textiles from the V&A

2009-06-21T07:15:00.000-07:00

On our trip to Egypt in April we had a day in London in transit and we were finally able to see the textile galleries in the V& A. So here are some of the fun pictures we took for all of my costumer friends.

Stamped, Slashed and Abraded Satins, late 16th and early 17th century

A Pair of Episcopal Gloves, Spanish, Second half of the 16th century

Couched gilt thread on knitted silk

Printed Textiles produced for Wall Decoration, Second half of the 16th century

The pattern is derived from contemporary velvet patterns. The example on the left has been lime-washed, block printed in two colors and sprinkled with crushed mica (it still sparkled), That on the right appears to be stenciled, and may perhaps be a later version of the same design. From the Forrer collection. said to have been acquired in Paris.

Egyptian Recipes

2009-06-20T05:52:00.000-07:00

Jim and are throwing a party today to show a bunch of our friends the pictures we took in Egypt. And so I am getting into the spirit of things by cooking a full Egyptian menu. I thought I would share some of the recipes here that I liked. Most of these recipes come from the EgyptDailyNews.com with some alterations from me.

Shawerma
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbl lemon juice
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp cinnamon, 
1/2 tsp allspice, 
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dry fine oregano 
1/2 tsp salt
2 bay leaves
2 cups yogurt
1 tomato
1 1/2 lbs of lamb, chicken or beef

Combine the first 8 ingredients in a bowl and marinate the lamb (or beef) in it for 6 hours. Grease a saucepan with oil and heat. Add the marinated lamb (or beef) and cook until tender. Serve it with Pita bread and tahini sauce (see below), mint leaves, tomatoes and onions. (Alternatively, you may hook the pieces of meat on small wooden skewers and grill on charcoal until tender).

Tahini Sauce
3 tbl sesame tahini
1 minced clove of garlic
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbl lemon juice
3 tbl water, or more
1 tbl plain yogurt.

Place tahini, garlic, salt and lemon juice in a small bowl and mix with a spoon Gradually add water until tahini becomes smooth. Add chopped parsley and mix well.

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Kofta
2 lbs ground lamb, or shredded chicken
1 cup mashed potatoes or thick white sauce
1 Onion chopped tblsp crushed bread crumbs (optional
Salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs Bread crumbs sun flower oil

Place in a bowl working with your hands to form a consistent ball like the dough. Start shaping into small balls and press to form circles (hamburger size) that are ½ cm to 1 cm thick. Refridgerate for 15 minutes. Beat 2 eggs and add salt and pepper. Place Kofta in eggs until both sides are properly covered. Cover with bread crumbs and fry in sun flower oil over medium heat for about 2-3 minutes per side.

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Taamiya “Falafel’
1 lb. fava beans, skinned and split
4 tsp. cumin, ground
1/2 cup dried chick peas
2 tsp. coriander, ground
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
2 Tbs. salt
1/2 cup coriander, fresh and finely chopped
1/2 tsp. pepper  1 cup green onions, finely chopped
2 tsp. baking soda
2 Tbs. dill, fresh and chopped or 1/2 tsp. dry dill
1/2 cup sesame seeds, roasted
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
vegetable oil for deep frying

Soak fava beans and chick peas in water overnight, or at least for 15 hours. First grind chick peas until very fine, add beans, fresh parsley, fresh coriander, green onions, dill and garlic. Grind altogether in food processor until a very fine paste is obtained, adding 7 or 8 tablespoons of water. Keep the water when grinding to an absolute mininmun. More water makes gringing easier but makes the patties fall apart in frying. Add ground cumin, ground coriander, salt, pepper and mix well by hand. Refrigerate for an hour to make it firm. At this stage the paste can be frozen in small packets. Thaw when needed and add baking soda 1/2hour before frying.

With wet fingers shape into walnut size balls 1 1/2" in diameter (or use cylindrical steel spring mold*), flatten to form small patties, dip one side in sesame seeds and deep fry in hot oil. Turn over until well browned and crisp. Drain on paper towels. If you get too much water and your patties are falling apart you can use cheese cloth to strain the paste, or you can mix in some breadcrumbs to give it a little more body. If you make the patties and allow them to dry for a little bit before you actually fry them, that helps as well.

Serve hot with pocket bread. Side dishes of Tehina dip, green onions, tomatoes, radishes, pickles and chopped parsley are usually served with Falafel. Yields 55 patties

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Egyptian Kusherie
1 cup lentils
1 quartered garlic clove
2 tablespoon cumin
6 ounces small elbow macaroni, or vermicelli broken into 1 inch pieces
2 cups dry rice
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 tsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
salt and peper to taste

Boil lentils in water (about 4 cups) along with 1 clove garlic cut into quarters, and 1 tablespoon cumin until cooked (15-20 mintes), drain and set aside. Boil the pasta until done accoring to the package instructions. Cook the rice in the chicken stock add salt if the broth is unsalted. Add the butter and olive oil to a large skillet. Add the pasta and saute, then add the rice and lentils, and 1tsp cumin and saute until warmed through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Kusherie Sauce
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 dash lime juice
2 minced garlic cloves
1 dash yellow mustard
2 tablespoons vinegar
pinch of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

In 1 tablespoon oil heated over medium heat add 2 cloves minced garlic and a dash of salt, stir and fry about 2 minutes. Add a pinch of sugar and the tomato sauce and mix well. Add the vinegar, a small squirt yellow mustard and a dash of lime juice. You can adjust the amounts according to your personal taste but it should have kind of a slight puckery bite.

To serve, put the kusherie onto a plate and add a small amount of sauce to the top. A little goes a long way, and you can always add more according to taste

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Basboussa
Sugar Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon clarified butter
2 talbespoons lemon juice

Put ingredients for sugar syrup into a pot and bring to a boil.  Add 1 tablespoon clarified butter. Simmer for about 15 minutes and cool.

Basboussa cake
2 cups semolina flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup coconut flakes
1 cup clarified butter
1 cup milk
1/2 talbespoon plain yogurt
1/2 cup slivered almonds, or 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

Mix the sugar, coconut and semolina flour. Put the milk and butter in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the semolina mixture to the milk and butter, plus remaining ingredients and mix well. Coat a 8x8 baking pan with butter. Pour into a baking tray 1/2 inch high and distribute evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes until golden-yellow. Remove from the oven and distribute slivered almonds or chopped hazelnuts over the top of the backed Basboussa. Press the nuts gently with your finger. Leave the Basboussa to cool for 1 hour. Soak with the cold sugar syrup. Bake at 200 degrees for 5 minutes until golden-yellow. Cut into pieces and serve warm or cold.  

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Baklawa
Syrup
3 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp lemon juice (to stop syrup from crystallizing
  3 tbsp rosewater
2 tsp butter

Pastry
3 cups finely chopped pistachio nuts
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 lb package phyllo pastry/strudel pastry
1 pound clarified butter, melted

 Make the syrup well ahead of time as it must be cool by the time it is used. Combine sugar and water, bring to a boil, add lemon juice and continue boiling for 3 minutes. Add rosewater and butter and remove from the heat. Cool to room temperature.  Carefully pick between the nuts for stray shell pieces. Combine chopped nuts, sugar and cinnamon and set aside.  Brush a 40 x 28 cm (13 x 19 inch) baking pan with butter. Lay down two phyllo sheets and brush them with butter. Cover with a single sheet and brush it with butter. Continue until slightly more than half the package is used. Spread with the filling. Cover with a phyllo sheet and brush with butter. Continue as before until all phyllo is used. Brush the top sheet well with butter.  Slice through the top layers with a sharp knife, forming diamond shapes - bite size or larger. Bake in a 450F oven for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 375C and bake for another 30-40 minutes or until lightly golden. (Carefully watch during last stage of baking as you to not wish do over-brown.) Remove from the oven. Slice through all layers, pour on the cool syrup and set aside.  Serve at room temperature. Will keep at room temperature for 5-7 days. Freezes well.

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‘Karkadeeh’ - Hibiscus Drink
1 cup hibiscus petals
2 cups sugar Large pot of water

Place hibicus petals in cold water. Bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes. Remove pot and strain liquid through a very fine sieve or filter paper. Return petals to the pot, add fresh cold water to cover, and bring to a boil, again filtering the juice. Repeat until karkadeeh loses its reddish hue. Discard petals and sweeten while juice is still hot.  

Medieval Macabre Poster Ideas

2009-06-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to create a poster for our fall show and struggling a bit. Here are the ideas so far. Unfortunately the producer and director really want an old fashioned look, and that is no longer my forte. I'm so into the photorealism now. So I made a photorealistic one which I thought was awesome but didn't make them immediately jump for joy. Anyway, I have to take a break from it. Maybe tomorrow inspiration will strike.

Casting the Roman Breastplate

2009-06-15T19:19:00.000-07:00

Jim and I were finally able to cast the Breastplate in Plaster tonight. Here is a documentation of our process. First I painted the model with Amaco plaster release.

Then I built up some wall of clay to hold in the plaster in places where it might run.

Jim helped me mix the Hydrocal plaster (purchased from Armadillo Clay in Austin). It's a much harder version than the normal plaster you can get at a drug store, which is good for mold making. For a long working time we mix 1lb 2oz of water to 2lb 8oz of water. This starts out as a fairly liquid mixture and then is workable for about 15-20 minutes in summer temperatures. We always wear masks when using plaster because it is dangerous, and always mix the pater into the water.

The first layer of plater we paint on with disposable brushes. As it begins to thicken you can pour it on and then use the brush to spread it. By the end when it gets really thick you can work it with your hands like clay.

In between the layers of plaster we put layers of plaster bandages for extra support. You can also use burlap for this. We just happened to have the bandages handy.

For the final layer, you can dampen your hands slightly and smooth it to a nice finish which will be more pleasant as you work with the finished mold.

We will let it dry overnight, and unmold it tomorrow morning. Hopefully everything will work out beautifully. This is the largest cast we have done so far, so it is definitely a challenge.

Now to relax with a good book.

The Poster has been Conquered!

2009-06-12T07:03:00.000-07:00

Well after two fruitless days of work I was finally able to make some real progress on the Billie Holiday poster yesterday. I learned a lot about Adobe Illustrator in the process and am very pleased with it now that I understand it better.

Illustrator has this incredibly cool function called live trace that will create a vector illustration from any photograph. I was struggling because all the photos that I had to work with were really low resolution and didn't look very good. So I ended up using the live trace to create this more subtle graphic. I then played around with the 3d effect to loft the Text at a matching angle to the edge of the illustration. This was also new territory and so I had to play around with all the settings to understand them better. Then I figured out how to use add decorative rules using the Stroke function which provided a nice subtle edging for the piece. The original background was just a simple black, but my friend wanted a little splash of color so I selected the background and added a gradient fill with the blue and I think it adds some nice dimension. The gradient is banding a little, so I'll have to work to fix that problem today.

However today I am taking a bit of a day of rest because I have been working so hard this whoe week. I plan to do a bit of gardening, taking advantage of the wet ground from the lovely rain we had last night, and then a lot of house cleaning. We finally got the grand piano that had been visiting us moved on to its permanent home and so we are planning parties for the next three saturdays. What fun!

More Roman Breastplate

2009-06-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

Here are some other pictures of the in progress breastplate. After I got the main form molded, then I had to figure out how to add ornamentation that would be mirrored across the sides and consistent. I ended up drawing out a design on paper and flipping it in Photoshop. I printed the design out and then formed the clay into tubes and followed withing the lines. After I had the design, it was a pretty simple matter to position it on the body and then use a tool to meld the edges and smooth it out. I'm very pleased with the results and can't wait to cast it tonight.

The second project I am working on is a poster for a Billie Holiday concert. Unfortunately it is not progressing nearly as well as this project. sigh...

Making Roman Armor

2009-06-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

Having finished my round of concerts that were eating up so much of my time, I am now getting to enjoy my days again. I have been puttering with many things. I'm continuing to improve my play proposal since it looks as though it will be at least a month before I find out if I get it.

I am also starting some drawings from a friend of mine who is a science fiction and fantasy author. She wants to get some drawings of the characters from her new book for her website. I don't really know if I am a good enough artist to pull it off, but she has given me till the end of June to try. Here is the first in progress sketch. This is a character names Dorrin Verrakai

I am also starting the great costume push for the Baroque Opera at Amherst Early Music Festival. This year we are doing Dioclesian by Henry Purcell which has about every fantastic Purcell song in it. It is all Roman Costumes this year, which should be a lot of fun.

The first thing I am tasked with making are some Roman breastplates. I am going to try to make them using the same technique I have been using for the Leather Masks, where I cast a negative form and then mold the leather into it. Here are some pictures of the in progress clay sculpture. The first stage was just laying down the shapes and the second was refining them.

Puck Sketch

2009-06-05T06:31:00.000-07:00

Here was yesterday's sketch. This one went a lot faster, both in the actual sketching on paper and in the painting in Photoshop. I think I am getting better. I found a ton of painting tutorials on Youtube that I am enjoying watching which will hopefully make the process even easier.

I also have a sketch of Bottom and Titania in process, and then I think I only have to do one of the Rude Mechanicals in the midst of their play and that will probably be enough to convey the feel of the play.

More Midsummer Sketches

2009-06-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

I have been happily working away on the laptop with the Wacom tablet having a lot of fun with these production drawings for my play proposal. It really is amazing how I am growing as an artist now that I don't have the pressure of having to make a living at it. Now if I can only achieve some of the amazing facility of some of the computer painters out there that I admire.

So here are some sketches of my Lovers in their undress, and of Oberon's Unseelie court. As a point of interest I have included the original pencil drawing before it gets taken into to Photoshop and painted.

Hip Deep in Midsummer Night's Dream

2009-05-31T13:15:00.000-07:00

I have been creating a proposal for our Shakespearean Theatre Group to do A Midsummer Night's Dream next spring. It has been a very educational process, as I am learning a lot about scheduling and planning for that large an endeavor. However the most fun part so far has been starting to do some production drawings of the different characters from the play.

Here are a few. I sketched them out on paper and then scanned them and painted them in photoshop. I put the drawing on a layer and changed the layer mode to Multiply, and then I could create another layer underneath to paint in the color, and montage some textures for fabric.

I have also started working on the costumes for the Amherst Early Music Workshop that I am going to this summer. They are doing Purcell's Diocletian, which has just about every fntastic Purcell song in it. It should be fun because I get to make Roman clothing for it. Here is a draping test that I did for a Tunica. Sorry for the blurry picture, my iphone had stuff on the lense. Anyway it looks like it going to be a very creative summer.

San Diego Pictures

2009-05-20T05:23:00.000-07:00

I managed to get a few fun pictures in San Diego. Although I realized that I didn't actually remember to take many pictures of the people. When I am with people I enjoy their company so much that I never remember the camera.

My friends Steve and Angelina are the people I went out to visit, and these are their children Elizabeth and Samuel. They are two incredibly sweet kids and it was really fun to get to play with them for several days. Samuel is two and I believe Elizabeth is 5 now. The second photo is from Steve and Angelina's Facebook Page, and it shows a bit of the wonderful spirit of Samuel and Elizabeth.

Here is a Photo of Steve and Angelina's house out in the Suburbs of San Diego past the Miramar base. It is really a lovely area but you drive through 20 minutes of nothing after you get out of San Diego to get there. I was taking these pictures very early in the morning as the sun rose so they are very misty. All the sun rises while I was there came up through a deep fog that hung on the hill and slowly burned it off.

Here is the sun rising over their street.

The first morning I got a chance to walk around and see their neighborhood. The gardens were amazing and so I got my camera and was able to take some fun pictures. They were a wonderful mix of traditional flowers and tropical plants and every one was obviously well loved. The roses just blew me away. This white rose was considerably taller than I was. It was almost tree sized.

This was my favorite rose that I saw. The picture doesn't convey the depth and complexity of the color. It was a riot of subtle pale reds, red oranges and hits of gold.

These were my other favorites. Their lovely scent just filled the whole yard and they were surrounded by prostrate rosemary in a really nice combination.

I also saw a lot of fun things with flowers in unusual shapes. Plants seemed to grow much larger there than here. I saw geraniums that were waist high. Here are a couple of pictures of plumbago and lantana trimmed into flowering bushes. The orange lantana was just fantastic.

In addition to the more traditional flowers there were a lot of succulents. There were entire yards where the grass was succulent pants like iceplants. I didn't know the name of this one but I thought it's tiny purple flowers were just lovely.

On the other end of the sale were some really giant succulent plants that gave a fun sculptural effect in the gardens.

And I wish I know what this plant was. It was a small mounding bush form and had the most wonderful scent like a cross between jasmine and gardenia. You could smell it all the way down the street.

These pictures are from the 2007 workshop, courtesy of Jim and they show a bit of the lovely state park we were in. I was having so much fun I kept forgetting the camera. I went walking around this pond and tried to go the hill the first morning but my shoes were unequal to the terrain so I gave up halfway up.

And this is a picture that I took os the view on the road up the mountain. The view was lovely but the road itself was a twisty carsickness inducing nightmare for me.

And last but not least, here is a sunset from Steve and Angelina's back yard on the last evening. What a stunning view.

Hopefully some other people will have more pictures of the workshop in progress and I'll be able to repost those eventually. What an inspiring trip.

Watching the Sun Rise in San Diego

2009-05-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

Sadly I left my iphone at a grocery store yesterday in the flurry of activity we had trying to get ready for the music workshop so I can't post my San Diego pictures just yet. I'll just have to try and draw you one with my words.

This morning I got a chance to walk up and find the top of one of the hills near my friends' house and watch the sun rise and color come back to the world. The landscape is so different from Austin. The hills are very rounded and covered only with scrub brush, where in Austin they would be much more jagged and covered with live oaks, sumac, and small trees. The soil is very red from high iron content and the rocks look mostly like red and yellowish sandstone and black metamorphic. The scrub is mostly a combination of a yellow wildflower which looks a bit like a large sized baby's breath, some small dark green juniper looking bushes, and an upright growing gray-green bush that resembles rosemary. The tree lines mostly follow rivers and creeks through the valleys, or cluster around the housing developments and are a mixture of tall pines and deciduous with palm trees near the houses. It has been very misty the last two mornings and so the sun rise has been a very slow lifting of the grey and clarifying of the landscape. The light has been very subtle most of the day without a lot of contrast until the height of the day. I love it. I can see why artists might love living here.

I also saw three bunnies and a bob white quail from my hilltop perch, and heard an amazing bird concerto. Hopefully I can retrieve my phone and get a few real pictures before I have to come back home.

In San Diego

2009-05-14T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm in San Diego for the weekend visiting my friends Steve and
Angelina for the Palomar Music Festival.

San Diego is really beautiful. The weather is in the low 70's and
everything is blooming. The different textures and colors of plants
are fascinating. Lots of succulents and palms mixed with roses,
lilies, iris and all kinds of other flowers.

I hope to find a wireless connection and send some photos. We drove
over the bay to Coronado island yesterday and saw the fancy Hotel del
Coronado where I got a small cup of plain mediocre coffee that cost
almost $3.75. It really was gorgeous though, and we walked straight
out to the beach in the back.

I'm not sure of the plan for today, but I know it will be an adventure.

Sent from Jen's iPhone

Leather Masks up for Auction

2009-05-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

The Leather masks went up for auction on ebay two days ago. The link is here. Unfortunately I don't think there is enough publicity that people are really going to our website enough, and there is not a direct link to the website so I don't know if they will get any bids on them at all.

It is kind of depressing actually, because I thought I had several buyers set up that would benefit the group, and it looks like they have kind of fallen through.

I find one of the hardest things about being an artist and musician is that everyone loves your work until it comes to trying to sell it. sigh... Oh well, I believe we will be taken care of and that everything will work out.

Larkspur

2009-04-30T19:04:00.000-07:00

We are having an absolutely lovely Spring here in Texas. The weather has been partially cloudy and breezy for weeks and we've had a lot of rain. My garden is looking really good. With a lot of help from my friend Gia, we dug up and replaced the stone path all along one side of the house. Also the work we have done with using newspaper mulching seems to be helping a lot to control the weeds. I was able to get out last saturday and weed, and trim everything back so the whole yard looks good. Of curse everything is blooming including the asian jasmine just outside the window where I am sitting to write this entry.

The highlight of the spring though is definitely the larkspur in the pictures. I have been trying to grow them for years, and this is the first year that the seeds have actually sprouted and given me a lovely display. I'm hoping to collect the seeds from this years crop and spread them all over the garden for next year because I think they are so lovely and reminiscent of English cottage garden. Happy Spring from Texas.

Back from Hiatus

2009-04-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

Boy, it has been a really intense month. First the big trip, and then getting sick right after during Holy Week where I was singing every night. The latest bump in the road has been me changing jobs without warning and starting to sing at a different church. So basically it has been everything I could do just to live my life, which hasn't left much energy to blog. Finally today I got the chance to finish writing up the first day of the Egypt trip. This is without a doubt the longest day, so I am hoping that the others will take less time.

However, I have missed sharing my creativity, so I decided to go back to posting, even though I haven't finished the rest of the trip.

I have been still exploring working with the clay molds to replicate Egyptian jewelry with polymer clay. I have made several new molds and am very pleased with the results. Here are some of the latest necklaces, and then some pictures of the molds.

I have been experimenting with ways to make the molds. My best luck has been with creating a positive from polymer clay and then baking it. I then use the air dry clay to form a mold around it, and then use metal tools and bushes with water to clean up and heighten the carving in the mold once I remove the positive from it. The large scarab with a sun is done this way. I have also experimented with carving directly into the air dry clay, but I am not as skilled at seeing how the negative image will turn into a positive form. Some of the molds are made by taking leather stamps and punching them into the clay. To use the molds I take a flat piece of acrylic and use the mold to press the clay down on top of it. The clay sticks better to the acrylic than the mold so I can then just pull the mold off. I then use an exacto knife and some metal clay tools to clean up the piece and a metal spatula to transfer it to my baking rack.

In other good news, I have had a tremendous breakthrough in my voice. I found a whole new resonance when I was sick and it has finally helped me really get in to my upper range. I also hope to go back to working on the Etsy store next week, and have a friend who is going to help me put a link up to this blog. Onward and upward.

Down Sick for a Week

2009-04-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hey Friends,

I am really sorry that I haven't been posting. I caught a really nasty bug on the plane home from Egypt and I have been completely down sick for over a week. Of course this is the worst week that I could possibly have been sick because it is Holy Week and I have a four days of services to sing in a row. I tried all my natural remedies and they just didn't cut it this time. I finally

broke down last Monday when I had no voice at all and had to go get a steroid shot and antibiotics and finally today I am actually feeling much better.

In the meantime in the couple of hours that I have been conscious per day I have been trying to write up the rest of the trip, and so it should be showing up on the blog in the next couple of days. I have also been creating a bunch of art that was Egypt inspired. I was really energized artistically by the trip which has made it very hard to be so sick when I got back that I haven't been able to do much. However, these are the thinks I have made so far:

I brought home a letter sized sheet of Papyrus paper for about $5 from the wonderful Aboudi Book Shop that was next to our hotel. I had looked at the Papyrus paintings that they sell as souvenirs, but they just didn't look right to me. They looked like they were printed instead of painted and they artwork didn't seem to be right in terms of the colors and proportions. So I started painting my own. The first five paintings are taken form different vignettes in different copies of the Book of the Dead. In the second three paintings, the top painting is loosely based on the Tomb of Nebamun now in the British Museum, and the bottom is a scene from the Satyrical Papyrus which has animals acting like humans. The center painting is another Book of the Dead vignette.

I also want to make Faience in the worst way, but you have to have a Kiln to fire it. Faience is a special kind of Egyptian fired clay that is self glazing. They used to make lot of small amulets and beads from it as well as other jewelry. Anyway, I have been experimenting with making my own amulets from clay molds and then turning them into necklaces. I have been using polymer clay for the time being until I find a kiln that I can use.

Anyway, I finally have my spirit back today, so I'm hoping for a lot more next week to tackle the huge backload of stuff to do, Inshallah -(God willing).

Day 3 - Cairo Museum

2009-04-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well we got a late start this morning. Apparently there was some confusion with the wakeup calls. We were supposed to leave the hotel at 8:00 to get an early start in the Cairo Museum and avoid the crowds. However we ended up waiting for people at least half an hour and then we spent another hour stuck in traffic on the highway. Apparently one of the high egyptian officials lives in a distant subdivision of Cairo and whenever he travels the roads to and from work they completely close them down for safety reasons. It was a mess.

When we finally got to the museum, it was already quite crowded. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the Museums or Tombs in Egypt which was very depressing. I have tried to find pictures of some of the things we saw on the web. Of course we started with the Tutankamun exhibit. Seeing the beautiful throne of Tutankamun and his wife (photo from www.richard-seaman.com.) Our guide pointed out to us that Tutankamun and his wife are each wearing one of a pair of sandals, and that was a sign of love among the ancient Egyptians similar to an exchange of rings today.

We also saw the giant nesting golden shrines from Tut's tomb. When you see them in person you cannot imagine that they actually fit inside each other.

We saw many other amazing things. Of course the jewelry was my favorite thing to see, but there was also an entire room full of daily life objects including musical instruments. I saw flutes with holes and I immediately began wondering if anyone had tried to put together what their music might have sounded like. Our guide, Islam, didn't know, but I found out later from Dr. Weeks that there has been some work done by a german musicologist named Hans Hickman and that there is some current work being done at Helwan University in Cairo by professor Khairy El-Malt.

After our too short time in the Museum, we had a bit of a rest and coffee in the Museum garden where there are many interesting statues and obelisks. We wanted to go in the gist shops but they were so packed with people that we couldn't bear the press.

The fountain in the center of the Museum garden is truly lovely, and it is the only place where the rare blue lotus still grows. This is the lotus flower that you see in so many egyptian paintings. Apparently it is an aphrodisiac/drug and when combined with alcohol produces quite a high. So it has been consumed out of existence in the wild.

Last but not least a picture of us in front of one of the typical Cairo haphazard buildings. They all look very post-apocalyptic to me, especially the unfinished ones.

The afternoon was spent flying to Luxor. Egyptian air travel is very, very different. First they make you go through security before you even enter the airport complex. They scan both your bags and your person before they even let you into the airport, and then again before you go to the gate. The airport is a big giant building filled with hundreds of shouting Arab men. Very intimidating. Fortunately on flights within the country the security is much more lax that on international flights and so our guide was able to bribe us into the airport and a fast load on the plane without too much trouble. Because we were running so late though, we didn't get lunch and so we had to stop at a little grocery store outside the terminal and have chips, chocolate and nuts for lunch.

We got into Luxor around sunset and the Bus ride from the airport to the hotel immediately showed us that Luxor was a very different city than Cairo. It is a much smaller city, and survives almost totally from Tourist income and so the roads and environs of the city are much better taken care of. All of the curbs and medians were planted with flowers. We even saw an irrigation truck dumping muddy Nile water on them as we drove past.

Our hotel was amazing. There are no words. You go up a magnificent double stairway to the entrance. Inside is a truly decadent Victorian lobby full of glass, brass, carpets, and ancient furniture. You then pass through a door in the other side of the lobby and out into the immense circular garden full of flowers and ancient trees and palms. The hotel buildings are all built around the edges of the circle, and all the rooms have balconies onto the garden. We couldn't believe how beautiful the view from the terrace was, as we could see the garden in front of us, and the ships sailing down the Nile on the side. The hotel is directly on the Corniche (the river walk) and so the Nile is right outside the front door. We sat and watched the sun set over the Nile and listened to the calls to prayers from Mosques all over the city. It was wonderful. Here is a view of the hotel garden at sunset. We went to bed very excited for the next day.

Day 2 - Saqqarah and Giza

2009-04-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

Today started really well. We woke up refreshed and raring to go well before breakfast so we had plenty of time to get ready for the day. Breakfast was amazing. There was a full English Breakfast Buffet with eggs, sausage, grilled tomatoes, back bacon, baked beans and toast. There was also a full German/Eastern European buffet with all kinds of meats, cheese, pickles and olives. I especially like the Egyptian soft cheese which is something like a cross between a goat cheese and a soft fresh mozzerella with a very nice subtle tanginess. In addition there was a full Oriental breakfast buffet with fowl mesdames, couscous, and several other meat and vegetable dishes as well as a huge bar with fresh pastries and homemade jam, a yogurt and cereal bar, and if that is not enough an omelet bar with a dedicated chef. Ok, I feel spoiled and I haven't even seen anything yet.

Here are some pictures of the lovely Movenpik hotel in the daylight. If you notice in the background of the second picture you can just see the Great Pyramid at the end of the row. It looks pretty subtle in this picture, but believe me in person, it is all you could see as soon as you walk ut of the hotel. The first picture is of the lovely outside Patio of our room. Unfortunately we may not get to use it it because it is actually pretty cold here, colder than Austin actually, and I am really glad I have my jacket.

We packed up in the minbus and drove about and hour south of town to Saqqarah. So we got to drive through and see more of Cairo in the daylight. OK, I have to say so Cairo is one humongous dirty city. There are over 24 million people in Cairo now, and the city infrastructure is totally not capable of supporting the load. It is a really interesting mix driving through it. Here are a couple of examples of the things you would see out the window.

The most characteristic sites are the irrigation and transportation canals that come in from the Nile. The city government is actually in the process of removing them and filling them in with gardens, but currently they are construction site/trash heaps as shown in the picture above. The second thing you notice is that all of the buildings are left unfinished. We heard a couple of explanations of this, one of which is that it was a custom among families to leave the top floor unfinished and build on as the children grew up and needed space. The other less picturesque explanation was that property taxes increase when the buildings are finished and so no one finishes their buildings. The other amazing thing is the traffic. On a marked two lane roadway you will have 4-5 "lanes" of traffic along with assorted animals and pedestrians. We were continually astonished that we managed to make it to our destinations.

Further out of town the landscape became more green as we got into the farming area near the Nile. There were also a lot more animals and picturesque tradesmen such as fruitsellers, charcoal burners, etc.

Ancient World Tours is taking us to Saqqarh first so that we can see the development of Pyramid building. The Step Pyramid at Saqqarah is the first step in the Pyramid building process. Before Pyramids, The Ancient Egyptians built their tombs in rectangular flat roofed buildings called Mastabas. The Step Pyramid is actually a series of Mastabas built on top of each other and diminishing in size. Like many other sites in Egypt, the Step Pyramid is not just a single structure but actually a huge complex with all kinds of Archeological sites everything from Old Kingdom Egyptian to Greek and Roman temples.

Of course the first thing you see driving up is the Pyramid looming over the hill, but then to enter the site you drive up to the gates of the enclosure which are very intimidating. We were the first group at the site and so we got to have it all to ourselves for the first hour or so. The complex was built for the Old Kingdom Pharaoh Djoser by the famous architect Imhotep (I have no doubt that he was the inspiration for the guy in the Mummy movie, but as far as the history books go there was no king killing, or subsequent undead highjinks.)

After the impressive Zigzag gate, we came out through a Hypostyle Hall (hall of columns) into the main complex. This cool panorama that Jim shot gives a better idea of the scale of the complex.

There are archeologists currently working on the Pyramid to reinforce the bottom step, because in the time since the pyramid was build people have been robbing stones from the bottom layer for other construction projects and the weight of the upper layers is becoming too much for the remaining stones. The archeologists plan according to Islam, our guide is to actually restore the white limestone casing that used to cover the bottom step as well. We were not able to go inside the Pyramid, but inside there are some amazing walls of faience tiles of which we later saw examples in the Imhotep museum on another part of the site. None of the museums in Egypt will allow photographs any more but I found this picture online of the walls from this egyptian monument website which is fantastic. There are 2 miles worth of tunnels under this Pyramid that have been mapped so far, and many of the rooms within those tunnels are still full of artifacts. Amazing!

As we left the pyramid and went around the backside we ran into what we would soon come to realize is the ubiquitous line of Camel drivers, "guides", souvenir sellers, beggars and various other people who want to take your money who hang out at every Egyptian tourist site. You learn that you just have to make your way through them saying "No Thanks"every ten seconds and refusing to make eye contact or engage in conversation. Unfortunately at out first encounter, innocent that I was I ended up asking a camel driver if I could take his picture. Somehow I was the one who ended up on the back of the camel which was a terrifying experience. Camels are dirty, freaking tall, and they make noises like they are possessed. Don't ask how much money Jim had to pay to get me down. But anyway it made for a great picture and hilarious video which will eventually be linked here.

Around the back of the Pyramid we saw where Khaemwese one the sons of Ramses II had actually done some restoration to the Pyramid and monuments in the New Kingdom period. We walked down a long walkway (the Causeway of Unas) and saw where full size ships had been buried as part of the funerary equipment. Ok, so it's a hole, but a really big, cool ship-shaped hole. They actually have a similar ship that survived in a museum at Giza behind the Great Pyramid.

We spent a coupe more hours exploring the Mastaba tombs of Mehu, Meruka, Idut, Kagini, and Ti. Of course we weren't allowed to take pictures of any of them, but we began to learn about egyptian art and funerary practices from the remaining wall carvings. As we were wandering between the tombs a sandstorm started blowing up and so we were running from tomb to tomb to avoid the weather. I was very glad I had worn a headscarf like the Egyptian women because it protected me from the sand very well. Finally they put us back on the bus and drove us over to the nearby Pyramid of Teti which looks like a big pile of rubble on the outside but which we were able to go down into and saw our first sarcophagus. Then we had to hike our way back to the bus through the sandstorm. As we were coming over the hill I managed to catch this picture of my cute husband in a very Indiana Jones moment.

Most of the rubble you see on the ground is actually potsherds from hundreds of years of history. This, we would learn, is the amazing thing about Egypt. Almost every site you go to, everywhere you step are potsherds like this. You can lean over anywhere and pick up something from Greek or Roman times. Of course you can't take any of it home, because they don't allow you to take anything over a hundred years old out of the country, to try and preserve their heritage and discourage antiquity robbers.

We stopped for lunch in a wonderful countryside restaurant on the way back to Giza. Stupidly, I didn't get a card and almost immediately forgot the name of the place. It was a wonderful buffet of traditional Egyptian specialities and very good. Because I was wearing the headscarf, a lot of the people who worked at the restaurant thought I was Egyptian and they were very friendly. I had a particularly nice time talking with the school girls who were the restroom attendants. Unfortunately they were the attendants for both the female and male restrooms, and Jim did not find them nearly as amusing as I did.

After lunch we drove back to Giza ahead of the sandstorm. We managed to get to the site just in time to get a few pictures of the Pyramids before it blew in.

Our guide took us to a place on the Great Pyramid near the entrance that tradition has was dug by one of the Arabian kings around 1000 AD. There was a fascinating place where two of the stones had been separated and you could see the stone mortise and tenon holding them together.

Then as the storm was really bowing up and you almost couldn't hear he let us go on our own for free time. We tried to find the ship museum on the backside of the Great Pyramid so that we could see the giant funerary ships they dug out , but there was so much wind and sand, and so many tall ruined walls of the complex that we couldn't find the entrance to the museum, only see the wall of it. Here is a Panorama of the Plateau in the storm looking toward Cairo.

So we kept walking along the road and eventually came around the corner where we could look down the backside of the hill and saw the Sphinx. We wanted to try and walk to it, but the wind was so strong, and we were running out of time so we held on to each other and made our way back to the bus. It was amazing, when we got on the bus and closed the door, it was like someone turning off a very loud stereo because the wind was so loud, and we stood there dropping sand everywhere. I think this picture gives the best impression of what it was like.

So we begged our guide if we could take the bus down to the Sphinx, which he assured us was the next stop on our agenda. We hit the Sphinx in the full height of the storm, and all we were really able to do was get a couple of pictures from the roadway, but it was still really cool to see it. They are doing a lot of restoration work on the statue itself and the temples at the base of it.

Anyway, we finally gave up and headed back to the hotel early. When the bus let us out, Jim and I stopped off at the room to drop our stuff and pour the sand our of our shoes (into bags to take home for our friends who had asked for sand from Egypt.) We then went back to the front of the hotel to the lovely French cafe and had coffee and a sour cherry tart that was wonderful. Afterwards it was time to go back and try to rid ourselves of the rest of the sand. I immediately fell asleep, while Jim went souvenir hunting at the hotel gift shop we had seen the night before.

It was a very cool shop, and so when he came back later and I was awake we went back together. Shopping in Egypt is very strange. There has been a huge influx of cheesy souvenirs from China and Japan and so it is kind of hard to actually find Egyptian made goods. And then of course there is the "flexible" pricing. Just for the record, my husband and I completely suck at bargaining. sigh... But we were able to find some interesting scarab beads and some lovely little carved limestone fish and ducks. I also got a book on Arabic, because it is a really fascinating language. Aurally it seems to have a lot in common with French in some ways, but the structure and grammar are very unique among the languages I have studied.

We had a lovely dinner in the Thai restaurant at the hotel. We intended originally to go back to the main hotel restaurant, but when we came down a bus of german tourists had come in and the restaurant was packed and very loud, whereas the Thai restaurant was empty and blessedly quiet. It turned out to be an very lucky thing because we had the best meal of the entire trip that night with a sizzling shrimp dish, with incredibly fresh vegetables, Tom Ka Ga soup with chunks of fresh lemon grass and coriander, and lovely fresh fruit for desert. It was a lovely way to spend the evening. When we we finally got back to the room we immediately fell asleep because the day was so long and exhausting.

In Cairo at Last.

2009-03-22T16:32:00.000-07:00

Cairo is amazing at night. We got off the plane around eight and it

took us an hour to get through customs and get our luggage and meet up
with our guide Islam Falgoul, who is a very handsome, well spoken
Egyptian.

Our hotel is in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo and so we got to spend
45 minutes driving across Cairo at night I'm a fascinating trip. The
first thing we noticed was the horns. Customized horns are very common
in Cairo. I heard horns playing Charge, The Conga, Dixie and many
others. Of course since traffic laws are something optional these
horns get a lot of use and so it is a wonderful cacaophony of song
fragments following us down the highway.

The second thing we noticed about Cairo is that it is incredibly
varied. The area near the airport in the modern and wealthy part of
town and it looks like any modern city in America. It is well lit,
lots of steel and glass and perfect highways with beatiful paintings
of Egyptiam motifs along the edges. Then we passed through the Old
Moslem quarter which looks very much like a barely modernized medieval
city. The buildings, though ancient, are in good repair. The lighting
is more atmosphereic but still present and the roads are still
perfect. Then as we came to Giza we moved into the poor area of town.
It was like we turned a corner and were suddenly in a third world
(think post-apocolyptic) county. There was almost no lighting. Every
building looked at least half fallen down. The streets were fairly
smooth but all their curbs were broken and something that was either a
canal or open sewer runs down the center between the opposing traffic
lanes.

The brightest thing about Cairo by night is the towers of the mosques.
They light up the minarets with multicolored neon at night so they are
the tallest and brightest things in the whole city. It is bizarrely
reminescent of Vegas.

And finally we can see the Nile. As we cross the bridge over the Nile
we notice that many Egyptians have parked in the outermost lanes of
the bridge and brought their lawn furniture and picnic dinners. It is
and odd and touching glimpse into Egyptian social life.

Our hotel is lovely. Giza becomes nicer the closer you get to the
Pyramids. We are in a Bungalow and so it is like having our own
private little house with an adorable patio with outside eating area
complete with an overhanging tree. Interestingly enough the weather is
almost exactly like Austin. It was definately cool enough tonight for
a sweater and light jacket. The flowers planted all around the hotel
are also almost exactly the same as Austin. There are zinnias, African
daisies, vincas, and that lovely deep purple verbena which is native
to Austin.

Anyway, have to try and sleep now because we start at 8:00 tomorrow
for Saccara and the Pyramids there and then come back to Giza in the
afternoon for the culmination of Pyramid building.

Sent from Jen's iPhone

Hotel in Cairo

2009-03-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

Highlights from the V&A

2009-03-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

Jim photographing me phptographing a magnificent 19th century
altarpiece. Most of the textile pictures are on the high resolution
camera.

Weirdest English Food

2009-03-21T02:47:00.000-07:00

We love to visit food markets in other countries and see the different
foods. This one was the funniest thing we found. Cajun squirrel
flavored chips. Wow.

Our Hotel, the Ramada in Cranford

2009-03-21T02:44:00.000-07:00

How cute is that? The inside is very nice although their wireless is
not good.

We Made It

2009-03-21T02:42:00.000-07:00

We are sitting in the Le Pain Quotidien outside the Victoria and
Albert Museum this morning having the most delicious hot chocolate and
waiting for it to open.

The flight to London was very nice. I have decided that I adore
British Air. The food and wine on the flight were fantatic, even the
coffee was good. The stewards were very pleasant and attentive and I
was very happy.

We got in at about 8:00 and it took us a couple of hours to find our
bus to Cranford where our hotel was located. We had hoped to go and
see Hampton Court yesterday, but I should have remebered how
incapabable we are the first day after the flight. We tried to get a
bus ticket but all the local ticket stops were out so we ended up
walking a few miles into Hounslow the nearest town with a Metro stop.
Sadly the shopkeepers didn't bother to tell us that we could buy a
ticket on the bus.

Needless to say after having a long walk in the sunny but chilly day,
jet-lagged as we were, de d'ère pretty warn out when we finally made
it to the station. We pretty much went back to the hotel around 4:00,
had some dinner and then read a bit and went to sleep.

Today is much better though. We woke up early and are full of energy.
We went to the tube station in Hounslow and there was a lovely open
air market that we had fun exploring. Looking forward to the museums
and the Globe.

More soon...

Sent from Jen's iPhone

Sitting in the Airport

2009-03-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Well,l we had a couple of hours in Dallas before the big flight to
London. We went to a place in the airport that was supposed to be an
Irish Pub. The good news was that they had Strongbow cider, the bad
news is that the food was very mediocre in spite of the amazing
pictures. However the manager was very attentive and when they brought
my plate back almost untouched, he came out and apologized and took it
off our bill.

I had a lot of fun watching the group of gentlemen at the next table
who I think were Englishmen because they had that look and they were
having way too much fun playing with our money. They managed to pay
almost their entire bill in change. Turns out they are on our plane so
I may be correct.

Off to the boarding. See you tommorrow from jolly old England.

Sent from Jen's iPhone

Here we go!

2009-03-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well we are sitting at the gate waiting on our plane for the first leg
of our grand adventure. Jim scheduled the flight at 2:00 which let us
finish packing with only a little stress this morning. Flying in the
afternoon is very pleasant, much more so than the morning. It is
pretty fun in the airport because there are a lot of people here
associated with SXSW and so there is some really rich people watching.

We fly to Dallas and have a couple of hours there and then straight
through to London. Woohoo!

Sent from Jen's iPhone

Another Strange Day

2009-03-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

I think that I am just unsettled because I am excited about the trip, and trying to wrap everything up so I can go. Both my emotions and creativity are all over the place. I was able to make my friend Melissa make a lovely Etsy banner and Icon for her shop.

I also got some pictures taken of the needle felted Easter card I made on Friday. I found some nice plastic sleeves for the cards, and so I think all I need now is to figure our how to mail them and I can put them up for sale.

Then I almost had a last minute audition tonight, and so I got all dressed up and printed all my resume and stuff in a hurry, but then I finally got the guy in charge on the phone and found out that I couldn't do it because I would miss the first two weeks because of Egypt. *sigh*

Anyway so now I'm all dressed up with no place to go. Ah well, maybe I can get the hubby to take me out.

Busy Time

2009-03-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been an odd few days.

Thursday I was up really early working on Logo ideas and I kind of wiped myself out. So I spent the rest of the day taking it easy and reading a book.

Friday was something of an Epic Fail day. Pretty much everything I tried creatively totally didn't work. I was able to help my friend Dirty finish a dress for Gulf War and fix a shirt for Iolo. I also had a fantastic voice lesson, but the only other thing I succeeded with was hemming a couple of scarves and making another needle felted card for Easter, which I'll take pictures of tomorrow in the light and put up.

Then Saturday and today my Mom and Stepfather were in, so that made for very little time to do anything but entertain them. However we were able to take them to our favorite Italian restaurant Andiamo, and then today to Chinatown for Dim Sum. It was actually a lovely visit.

Today, was making lovely music for church, and then reading with Austin Shakespeare. I'm excited because I was invited to make music for the Shakespeare's Birthday Party. It will be a fun thing to plan and prepare for when I get back.

Making Logos

2009-03-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days I have been drawn into a pro bono project for one of my favorite music groups. We are doing a concert of Negro Spirituals and they need a graphic, and so of course I volunteered. (Doh!)

Here are some of the random ideas coming out. It has been really fun doing these because I have been able to use Adobe Illustrator again and actually do a bit of illustration instead of just type design which I never really did before. My design also seems to have become a little less inhibited. For the Illustrator work I referenced a tutorial here that was really helpful to begin learning how to make an illustration. The result was the woman on the top left, and though it is still pretty rough I am quite happy over all.

Have a great day!

Art for the Day

2009-03-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful breakfast and visit today with my friend Melissa at Mandola's. It must be divine inspiration because she told me that she thought I should open an Etsy store, and I was able to tell her that I had just done so. Anyway we went over to walk through Silk Road for the wonderful textile and artistic inspiration of all the amazing fabrics.

After that I had a lovely couple of hours to practice my music. I had an epiphany this morning. I realized that I had found so much inspiration by looking at artist blogs on line, and maybe I could use the same thing to help me out of my musical slump. Well on my first search I found this blog, and some of her quotes really touched me to the heart and inspired me, particularly this one:

We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.

—e.e. cummings (1894-1962); poet, essayist, painter, playwright

Later, I had a little time to sit quietly and make some art. This is one of my photographs from a window in The Cloisters of New York that I altered in Photoshop to become a watercolor. At first glance it is a wintery darkness, with the cold bare branches, but there are small signs that spring is coming in the little squirrel and buds on the branches.

The Joy of a Clean House

2009-03-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything creative today to post because I have spent almost the entire day finally getting my house clean. There is just nothing like a clean house to get you energized and ready for a new day. So I guess today I am going to talk a bit about cleaning.

When I decided I was going to remove all chemicals from my life, one of the first things that had to change was the way I cleaned. We use so many different chemicals for cleaning that it is amazing. So I started researching and then I completely lucked out because a friend of mine introduced me to some Microfiber Cloths that she had bought from Sweden.

Microfiber is my friend. It is truly a revolution in cleaning that few people know about. I wish I could find the original site my friend sent me to because they had a clinical trial and their results were that cleaning surfaces with just Microfiber and water was more effective than cleaning with either Bleach or Ammonia. However, I can't seem to find the link so I am posting this article from CleanLink which is pretty good and informative about why Microfiber works. Find it the article here.

So I bought some Microfiber cloths and began to experiment with them. I found an empty spray bottle and filled it with water and started cleaning. Not only did it really get the surfaces really clean, it also cut my overall cleaning time in half because I didn't have to do nearly as much scrubbing, and I didn't have to dry afterward to remove any leftover water or lint.

Over time I got a nice looking spray bottle that I could keep right next to the dishwasing detergent on my sink, and I learned to put just a little bit of lemon or lavender oil in the water to keep it from molding, and for extra cleaning power as well as that amazing clean smell to the whole house. I also learned that you could wash the cloths in the washer with normal detergent but you shouldn't use bleach in the wash because it breaks down the Microfiber. You should also never use the Microfiber cloths with any kind of harsh ammonia or acid for the same reason. It has really been amazing. My house has been cleaner than ever before. Jim and I have been getting sick a lot less, and I don't have to deal with the horrible smells of the cleaners, or the worry that I will combine them in the wrong way and poison myself (ala McGuyver Epic Fail.)

I knew I had won the cleaning battle when my friend Kay came over for lunch and the first thing out of her mouth was "Oh, it smells so clean in here!"

Oh, I did get my Etsy store opened today and the digital collage sheet listed for sale. Wow, I'm kinda official now. Now I just have to get back from Egypt and start stocking up. I did find a printer for art prints, and so I think I am going to test out printing my digital poetry paintings and if they look good go ahead and list them. I don't really know if any of it will sell, but it is so cheap to list things and so easy to maintain that it is worth a shot.

Taking the Plunge

2009-03-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I went and did it. I started the process of setting up my shop for Etsy. I don't have any thing to sell yet because I have to set up a PayPal account tomorrow and I can't list things until I do. Here is the link to my Etsy Shop. I'm very pleased with the logo and banner that I came up with.

So the other thing I did today in between Church services and test packing for the trip was make up my first product for the store: a digital collage sheet. I saw another shop that featured them and I realized with my computer skills, artistic talent, and huge amount of art related photography that this might be perfect for me. So here is my first one made from images from Amiens and Paris.

More Beading

2009-03-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

It is strange, I keep thinking that this spurt in creativity is going to slow down but it just keeps going. Today was mostly running around and shopping but we finally had some quiet time tonight after dinner. So as we were watching the tapes of our current favorite shows from Friday night I pulled out my beads again. I had one fleur-de-lis earring left over from a pair that I had loved so much that I kept the single for years after I lost it's mate. It seemed to work beautifully with some glass pearls and some vintage gold glass beads. I was so pleased with the necklace that I immediately had to make earrings to match.

I think I have to figure out something to wear tomorrow so that I can wear them. Hope the weather stays as nice as it was today.

Camera Love

2009-03-07T09:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I am falling in love with the Canon Powershot S3IS camera. I call it the big camera, but it isn't really. My hubby has a Rebel with a giant lens that is really the big one. I went out to the Garden this morning and dug up a bunch more on the path project for some physical activity. The I just walked around taking pictures of the flowers, all of which are starting to bloom. This was the best of the lot of the Columbines in the front yard. I want to get a good picture of our little Pear (Brad) who has flowered in all his white glory, but it was a bit too windy with the storm moving in. More later.

Adventures in Beading

2009-03-06T21:06:00.000-08:00

One of the good things that always happens when I finish a big project is that I have to immediately start cleaning. This always means reorganizing and putting every thing back in the craft closet. While this is usually tedious, it can also be fun because it reminds me of other projects that I have on hold waiting for time. Today as I was putting up my bog box o' beads, I remembered that I had bought beads to make myself a bracelet to go with my favorite earrings.

So when I had a respite, out came the box and I was able to spend the afternoon making this little bracelet. I was very pleased with how well it matched the earrings, and that I remembered how to use bead pins to make pendants. By a fun coincidence one of my freinds called and invited me to go see Othello at the Velvet Rut Theatre (How's that for a name?) and so I even got to wear it tonight. I'm getting a little better with the big camera I think. This photo seemed to be much easier than the first time.

The rest of the day was pretty slow because I was feeling really tired. I did make a little watercolor of the Pyramids as a surprise for my hubby, but I didn't take a picture because it was really bad. I kept it though and put it in a little frame for my guy. Then I tried to do one of the Sphinx and it came out looking like a noseless Groucho Marx. I actually threw it away. So basically, my non judgement phase only lasted for two paintings. Heh.

First Needle Felting

2009-03-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

Well I spent a bit of time in an odd round-about yesterday. I had a really productive day and so I was able to take some time in the evening to work on art. I wanted to try and finish some kind of frame for the little picture of Feathers so I could give it to my friend today, but I tried a couple of times and failed miserably. The first try was felt covered with silk, and I kept cutting it wrong until I just trashed it. The second try was felt with a needle felted covering. Well I started to make the second one and then realized I really needed to try something smaller with the needle felting first, so I got out a test pice of red organza and then started applying some crimson wool to it to learn the process. In the middle of the testing somehow it started becoming a heart and so I just went with it. The needle felting is pretty amazing in that you can twist a very fine piece of wool and get some really cool detail. I haven't figured out how to get the back of the piece to look as pretty as the front yet.

I don't yet know how to use the camera well enough to show it, but the organza turned into this crinkled shiny halo around the soft flat surface of the wool heart with a little dark outline that almost looked like it was stitched. Well, I learned the technique and then tried to apply it to the frame and failed miserably. It pretty much looked like poo.

So I took a break and decided to play with my cute little heart and make it into a card, Valentines day being still fresh in the memory. In the process of figuring out how to do so, I came up with the idea of putting a gold edge on one of the layers of paper with some of my Acrylic paints. I tried it and it looked so good that my brain immediately made the leap to put it on the two little watercolors as well. It turned out to be the perfect thing to make them look finished.

The top photo shows the little Fairy as an example because Feathers got given away at lunch. Anyway, it was such a simple, easy and perfect solution, but I think it is funny that I had to go it such a different direction to finally get there.

I'm also proud that I am learning how to use the big camera and download the pictures to use here. I love my iphone pictures but they are just not high quality enough for the future endeavors.

Onward and upwards.

The Inspiration Trip

2009-03-04T14:45:00.000-08:00

OK. All I can say is Wow. Jerry's Art-O-Rama is just amazing. I walked in the door and almost started crying because it has the smell. The smell I remember from so many years at the Art Building at UT. That smell that is tangy with chemicals, sweet with linseed oil, and liberally seasoned with plaster and dust.

And inspiring? You never saw so many different colors and types of media. I even found tools for bookbinding and resin casting, which I never expected. If I still did art in the SCA, I would be in heaven because they have the real stuff for oil painting (rabbit skin glue gesso, linen canvases, hard wood panels, and make your own pigments kind of stuff.)

Well, I did really well on the looking for inspiration but not buying until I found the section for Sumi painting and these little pearlescent water color immediately jumped out at me and insisted that I take them home. And then, of course, they insisted that I paint with them immediately regardless of my plans for the afternoon.

And I am really frightened by the fact that this painting with the pearlescent paints was so much easier than the painting yesterday. I have painted so many masks in these colors that I may be doomed to live a life in metallics and pastels. NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo.

Well, regardless, now I have two paintings to make frames for, plus everything else that I was supposed to do and didn't. Ok I'm off to go do it.

Touch of Blue

2009-03-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

Today started as a garden day. The wonderful gift of this week has been the emergence of the first bluebonnets in the garden. Pictured here is the overachiever who was the first to bloom. My hubby and I always have a little contest to see who can spot the first bluebonnet of spring and it pleased him to no end when he saw the first one in our own yard.

So Gia and Jim both came over today and we were able to make a ton of progress on the giant path project. Basically I am having to dig out and replace all the rock paths and gravel areas around my house because the original landscaper just cut back the sod and put half an inch of gravel over the dirt. So we have to dig them out to 6 inches, put down a hefty layer of newspapers to kill any deep growing weeds and then backfill with decomposed granite and an inch of pea gravel on top.

I forgot to take a before picture, but here is a picture of one of the other paths that we haven't gotten to yet to give you an example of how awful it was.

And here is the current in process picture. Last week we scraped up all the gravel and went to dump it at my friends place. This week we started the digging and I was amazed by what we accomplished in just a couple of hours. We had to take two loads of dirt away to dump during the process.

So I already feeling a lot of accomplishment, which is added to the fact that the house it very close to being clean and I think I'll get it back to good condition today after the three weeks of project hell. I'm taking a bit of a break to go off to Jerry's Art-O-Rama and explore because I have never been there and I thought it would be a fun inspiration trip, and then back to cleaning and cleaning, and cleaning the house. I'm hoping I can make some progress and then finish up the last remaining project I have for the Tempest, because if I do then I can work on the fabric frame for the little watercolor I did the other day to give to my friend tomorrow. Wow, is that a sentence or what?

And one more little personal accomplishment. I finally got my little messages framed and figured out a way to mount them on my bathroom mirror. The little frames came in a set of three from Target and I had to take the hanging brad off the back and replace it with foam mounting tape. It feels very good to have them back up where I see them several times a day.

The first just says "I love you". A lot of people talk about hearing God's voice but I never really do, I guess I am thick enough that I mostly see his impact in hindsight in my life. The only time I ever heard a voice that I thought was God, all it said was "I love you".

The second says "Your heart is pure, your mind clear, and soul devout." which was a fortune that came to me at the end of a long dinner conversation about life direction. Whether or not it really applies to me at any moment is in doubt, but for me it's a case of "Act as if" it did, and maybe someday it will.

Brushes Part 2

2009-03-03T06:52:00.000-08:00

Here is the second picture of my friend Hink that I painted in the van
while we were coming back from Houston.

Well the blogging by iphone is a mixed success. I figured out how to get pictures up from my phone by just using the blog email address, but I seem to only be able to do it one at a time, and it limits the text I can add. Oh well, this is a better place than I was. At least I'll be able to post some pictures from Egypt. Anyway, I'll keep looking for a better solution.

New fun Iphone Application

2009-03-03T06:49:00.000-08:00

Ok, I couldn't stay away. Here is my next test of mobile blogging from breakfast at Taco deli.

I have been having fun playing with a new Iphone app called Brushes by Steve Sprang. It's a bit expensive at $5.00 but the interface is really nice and the tools are very responsive. It has multiple undos and redos which is a huge plus. This is by far the best Iphone painting program I have tried.

The things I wish were slightly different are that you have to adjust the size of the brush and opacity of the brush in two different tools, which is something I always do at the same time. And eraser tool would also be very nice. It is also very interesting to paint with your finger. I wish that the program had a smudge tool like photoshop because that is what I instinctively want to do.

Off for a couple of days

2009-03-03T06:07:00.000-08:00

Well, I may not be able to post here for the next couple of days because my little Mac Air will be in the shop getting a larger hard drive. I love my computer so much that I have finally filled it to capacity.

I'll use this as an excuse to try again with the mobile blogging and see if I can get that working. If not, have a great couple of days.

Wonderful Day

2009-03-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

Today was really a wonderful day. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off me now that I have been able to pass the Tempest stuff on and don't have to worry about it anymore. I still have one promo thing to do, and I still have some stuff to do to support Thomas, but that's all right.

So I spent the day practicing music, and cleaning house. I didn't get all of the house cleaned because I took the time to go over to my evil Uncle's house and beg him to help me fix my harp and I stopped at a couple of craft stores on the way and mostly just look at cool things and input into my brain beautiful colors, textures, and materials.

I got back to the house and just had time to play with the one thing that I did buy at the craft store. I found something that I had always wanted which was a good pocket watercolor set. It has been more years than I can imagine since I have painted in watercolor, but I promised myself that I wasn't going to judge or over think the process, just paint.

I decided to paint a prayer for my friend for whom a feather on the wind is a symbol for trusting God. OK so I did judge myself a little when it came out, but I didn't beat myself up about it at least.

It was pretty fun though, and tomorrow I'll finish the edges of the silk and try sewing the image to the background fabric. We'll see how it does. The poem is from emily dickenson

Tomorrow I get to tune up the harp and play it. I'm pretty excited. Ok the eyes are closing so I think it is bedtime.

Good night.

Finished Mask Pictures

2009-03-01T19:03:00.000-08:00

Well, here are the finished pictures of the masks taken by my sweet husband. What do you think, would anyone pay a couple of hundred dollars to support a theatre group and get one of these? Jim and I actually started taking about investing in some real photography lights if I am going to try and maybe open an Etsy shop. We found a beginning set for an amazing price. Jim and I both got kind of excited about the prospect. But, we have to wait till we get back from the Big Egypt trip to see if there is even any way we can do it. Ah well, if it is meant to be, it will happen.

The pictures are the 4 elemental spirits (Air, Water, Fire and Earth) and the the three Goddesses (Juno, Ceres and Iris) and then individuals of each mask.

God and Goddesses

2009-02-27T09:49:00.000-08:00

Well I finally got all the Gods and Goddesses finished (Ceres, Iris, and Juno from topleft.) The mask on the bottom was the first one I made in this process, and I find it amazing how visible the improvements in my process are if you look at it in comparison to the top two. Anyway, have to run and work on the last two Air elementals so that I can go to Uncle Iolo's party tonight.

Get Out of Your Self

2009-02-26T20:55:00.000-08:00

Today was the first good day in about a week and a half since I started getting sick. It is very strange but I swear that this last cold really affected me emotionally as well as physically. I saw my friend DW again today, who was the generous person who gave me the cold, and asked about her symptoms and she mentioned the exact same thing. She said that it didn't last very long congestion wise but that she was exhausted and emotionally messed up for several days.

I actually had quite a bit of energy and managed to finish a second Earth Elemental mask, and almost finish the second Goddess mask. I'll put up a picture tomorrow morning as soon as I polish off the last bit on that Goddess. I also helped DW perfect her 14th century dress pattern so that she can start cutting fabric. I also got a copy of the pattern so that I can alter it for myself. I have some lovely yellow linen that I think would make a wonderful cotehardie with some of the pewter buttons we have cast on the sleeves and a dark brown belt with pewter findings. DW also brought over lovely food, brownies, and beer and so I was very happy.

Then this evening I was able to take the masks over to fencing and show a friend of my husband's who has done a lot of work with leather hardening. As soon as I get this project out of my life then I am going to have to go to Jerry's Art-O-Rama and find some real rabbit skin glue and traditional, non-acrylic gesso. He gave me a lot of great things to read and so I'm looking forward to having time to go through them.

I also was able to get back to my Bible study for the first time in a month, and what a gift that group of people is to me. I never have had a women's group before and it is such a warm, nurturing, supportive environment. I also had a realization afterward as I was helping someone try to work though a really hard problem, that sometimes the bright side of the darkness we go through in our lives is that having been though it, we can help others find their way. It was a tremendous blessing to get out of my self for a while and in to compassion for another person.

The picture is one that I took two summers ago of the Labyrinth of the Cathedral at Amiens seen from a window in the Organ Loft. It seemed to express the way I have felt this week. With great thanksgiving for another day on the journey, I wend my way to bed.

Memorization

2009-02-25T20:15:00.000-08:00

Well, the mask progress was slow today. I did completely finish one and got two more close but nothing that would make a good picture. However, today I codified some of my methods for memorization of lines for theatre (Shakespearean theatre specifically,) so here they are.

Motion

Always move in some way when you are trying to memorize. Kinetic motion somehow causes the brain’s memory system to function better. Strangely I find sewing great for memorizing because of the motion and the repeated pattern of sound from the machine.

Chunking

I can only learn about 8-10 lines at a time in a long speech, or about half a page of short line dialog. So when I am learning I take this much, learn it then move on to the next chunk. Then I go back and try to put the first two chunks together. When I get that right then I keep going and add another chunk to the end. About a page of 12 point type lines is the most I have been ever able to learn at one sitting.

Rule of 3’s

Education theory says that you have to do (or hear) something 3 times correctly in order to learn it. For me I start with the book and say the chunk of speech aloud from the book 3 times (by the third time I’m trying not to look at the book so much). Then I try to say it from memory 3 times checking myself from the book at the end. By the time I can say it right 3 times in a row, I usually have it.

Short vs Long Practice Sessions

Practicing mindfully for 15 minutes a dozen times a day is better than practicing for hours straight. This is perfect for single speeches. If you write your speeches out on cards, or have the play on your phone this is perfect for carrying around with you whenever you have a free moment.

Different types of Input

Using multiple types of learning helps to solidify things in your memory. If you can write or type your lines, as well as read them, as well as make a tape to listen to or read aloud, as well as read with onother person, you will learn it much better than if you only do one of these things

What Are You Saying?

You will never be able to remember a line well unless you know what it means. If you are having trouble take the line apart gramatically, and then make sure you know what every word in it means specifically (not just in a general sense). Looking up words is a great way to find images and connections that can help you remember the lines.

Following the Verse

With Shakespeare in particular, the rythym of the verse is very strong and if you flip just one word around, or replace a word with a different number of syllables you will loose the entire line.

If you are having difficulty with a line try slowing it down and really exagerating the rythym of the verse in your speaking (in practice not performance). Also if you just can’t get a line make sure you have correctly analyzed the stresses and verse pattern within it.

It also works very well to look for cool language tricks like Alliteration because Shakespeare uses them all the time and they can really help the line stick in your head once you recognise them.

Do Not Compromise

As a musician I have learned that if you make mistakes in practice you will make them in performance. It works better for me to slow everything way down until I can do it perfectly and be totally conciously engaged even if this means I can’t practice as long (because total attention is exhausting.)

As you begin to get off book, make sure that you go back to the book at least once a day because every day at least one error will try to creep in. If you do something wrong twice, you will learn it that way (whereas it takes 3-5 times to actually learn it right).

If you are working with another person to learn lines, insist that they correct you with every little thing.

Earth and Air Basecoat

2009-02-24T21:13:00.000-08:00

Well lots of progress. All six of the yet to be finished masks have a basecoat now and at least 4 of them have quite a bit of detail. The earth elemental on the left is almost finished, I just have to finish his aurora and then seal and add sparly bits. Wow I'm tired. But I have a friend coming tomorrow so I'll at least have company in my projecting.

Earth and Air Elemental forms

2009-02-23T20:30:00.000-08:00

Well, here are the final shapes of the masks for the Air Elementals and the Fire Elementals. I actually was able to form the last of the masks for the Tempest today and so tomorrow I just have to stiffen them, cut the eyes and paint them. There are four total of these elementals to paint and then I have detail painting on two of the goddesses to finish. Afterward I have to punch holes and string ties on all of the masks. I hope to deliver them this week because I think they will really help to create the character of the spirits, and because I so want my life back.

On the good news front, I got word that my message in a bottle was approved with one small change so I need to make 20 of those. How did I volunteer for all this again? Oh that's right because I love my friends.

I am eagerly looking forward to Wednesday because my friend Gia is coming over to help dig up and fix one of our garden paths which is really overgrown with weeds, and I hope to document the process. It is absolutely the best weed defense I have ever seen and has cut my garden maintenance time significantly.

Off to bed now to hopefully sleep.

Final Two Mask Shapes

2009-02-22T11:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we got the last two sculpts molded and we experimented with the new molding material Hydrostone from Armadillo clay. It was much more difficult to mix to the correct texture but made for a beautiful mold. Here are the first masks made in the molds as well as the finished and in progress masks all lined up on the mantle. On to design the auras for these two. I look forward so much to this project being done and having my life back.

Earth and Air

2009-02-20T18:51:00.000-08:00

Well I actually managed to make progress. I'm 4 masks down and 7 to go. I also managed to get the air and earth sculpts done so that we can cast them tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be feeling up to it. But for now it's just nice to have my sweetie home for some quiet time.

Finished Spirits

2009-02-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

Finally got the masks finished last night. Added in more details and faded back the sharpie with a glaze of color over the top of it. Then once dry I gave them a coat of clear UV proof acrylic sealant and let that dry. Then I let that dry and then glued on some clear iridescent sequins to catch the light and sparkle.

I wonder if I have put in too much detail. The fire spirit in particular came out a little girly. But that's all well, I have a second chance with the second pair.

Still feeling off, but the cold is pretty mild and so I am mostly just having to nap. I work up from the nap today with one cat on either side of my legs in the perfect yin yang of kittens. It was terribly hard to work myself out of the covers without disturbing them.

Adding Detail

2009-02-19T16:44:00.000-08:00

Well I am now to the stage where I can really tell what they are going to be. I am going in and adding details with a Sharpie marker (OK so I am a total hack, but I can draw a cleaner line than I can paint). Next step is to fill in some contrasting colors and a few more highlights and shadows and then on to ornamenting with gems and sequins. The trick for me at this stage is I see all the asymmetry in the masks and it bothers me, and so I have to keep reminding myself that even God doesn't make faces symmetrical so it is a little presumptuous for me to think that I can.

Blah, sick. Going back to sleep now.

Building up layers of Color

2009-02-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

So I finally am getting to do the fun painting today. Here is the first step, building up translucent layers of color over the base coat to try and establish the over-all color. Next step will be adding detail and more shadows. Have to take a break to go get soup and juice from whole foods to treat the sickness, and head to Armadillo clay for more Hydrostone for casting. We used up an entire 50 lb bag on three casts. Amazing! Hope to finish these 4 today but it will depend on how long I have to nap for the sickness.

Basecoat, Finally!

2009-02-18T20:43:00.000-08:00

Finally got a basecoat on the masks today, I also have four of the spirits that have been finished shaping and are being painted, and two more goddesses cut out and being shaped. The fire elemental is 2 coats of Ceramcoat Gleams Metallic Gold and the Water Elemental is on coat of Folk Art Metallic Green Pearl and one coat of Folk Art Metallic Blue Pearl. The picture makes it look bluer and darker than it actually is. I really like using the metallic and pearl paints on the leather because I feel it maximizes the unique character of the material.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I get any farther tomorrow because apparently I am coming down with something so tomorrow may be lying around feeling miserable. sigh...

Can I paint yet? Now?

2009-02-18T14:47:00.000-08:00

Well my friend Gia came over today to copy some patterns and to help me with the masks. We got a lot done. I now have 4 spirits completely ready to paint and 2 more goddesses cut out and about half way shaped. She forgot to eat lunch, but she brought a bunch of vegetables from a client's garden that she is caring for, and we made up a lovely salad. I didn't know you could eat Broccoli flowers but they are absolutely delicious. Anyway it way so pretty as well as tasty that I had to take a picture, besides which Gia dressed to match my plates. I am going to have to go and find some broccoli to plant now.

Anyway I had a great discover today that I can paint the backs of the masks with Gesso and it makes them much stiffer and also makes the back more comfy on the wearer's face. These are the masks with eyes cut, one layer of shellac, Vinyl spackling in the crevices to make them less obvious and gessoed backs. I am so ready to paint. I have been ready to paint for the last 3 days. However I have rehearsal tonight so I can't even start till I get back. sigh...

Closer and Closer

2009-02-17T11:58:00.000-08:00

So close to finished I can taste it. I got the aura pieces cut out and shaped and now am gluing them on. I made them from a slightly thicker leather for support and then just shaped them by hand by pinching to form the details. In this pick I am gluing them together with Crafter's Pick The Ultimate Super Glue. I am trying to find an alternative to Barges Contact Cement which always makes me feel bad from the fumes. We'll see if this works. The clothespins are holding together the glued seam. I think that once it sets up I will cover the seam with a very thin goat or pig skin to make a nice finished look.

First Masks

2009-02-17T03:54:00.000-08:00

Eureka! I finally got the first leather masks out of the molds yesterday and they are gorgeous. I was able to achieve much more interesting detail by pressing the leather into the negative mold than I was shaping by hand. Here is a picture of the end result with the patterns for the auroras which I have to shape by hand and add to the mask today.

I also came up with a unifying theme for the show spirits. After looking at the forms all day yesterday as I was making them I realized that one reminded my of fire, and the other of a crustacean. I then realized I could go with an elemental theme and have fire, air, and water spirits. The earlier fancy mask I made could be used for the gods and goddesses. So I just have to come up with a design for the air spirits and I have my concept. I thought I would try to get these two finished today and then hopefully tomorrow just start cranking them out. I think my friend Gia may be coming over to help make them tomorrow which will be great if it works out.

OK so I'm off to greet the day and find more coffee.

Casting Plaster

2009-02-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

My husband and I are a bit odd. One of the ways we express our love is to work on projects together, because we find that the interplay of our skills and intellects very satisfying.

So for Valentine's day we got up early in the morning and started get ready to cast the plaster for the mask molds. We decided to make a very simple copy of one of the life masks first so that I would have a male and female head to work on when I have to give the loaner ones I am using back to my friend. Then we had to make a hardware store run for buckets to mix the plaster in. So eventually we got back and painted the masks with mold release and got the head we were going to cast set up.

Jim found some boards in the garage which were perfect to use as a base for the head and then we decided to cut the bottom out of an old plastic storage bin and use it to contain the plaster.

We got a lot of good information from the tutorials at Goblin art available here. We mixed up the plaster using the proportions in the tutorial and pored it on the first basic head with this result.

I purchased Hydrocal White by mistake instead of Hydrostone at Armadillo Clay down on east forth street. Hydrostone is much harder and makes a mold less prone to wear and tear. However I think it will be fine for this project and I will simply by the correct stuff for next time. We were able to separate fairly easily. The mold release works very well on the plaster and the clay does not stick at all. However we did have a problem with an undercut piece in the nose and ended up breaking off the tip of the nose in the positive life cast we were working from. However I think it will be all right because we have filed down the problem in the negative mold and we will simply get the right casting material and make a positive.

Working hard we were able to cast one of the clay masks I made which came out beautifully. We also got the third one ready to cast on sunday and then I cleaned up the house of all the project stuff so that we could have a nice evening and dinner at home with some time together.

It was a really fun, creative Valentines day for both of us.

Message in a Bottle

2009-02-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

I had some adorable visitors today. My friend DW came over to finish her pattern and brought her two Italian Greyhounds, Lou and Willow Rose, with her. They are amazingly calm for dogs. They are a lot more like cats in that they like to curl up in a nice warm spot and sit there for hours. This is Willow Rose all curled up in her blankets which I just thought was so sweet.

So, we finished DW's pattern and are cutting the full size mockup from muslin, which she will finish at home. I am very pleased with the result and can't wait till Tuesday when we get to sew the mockup together.

The rest of the day way taken up by finishing the clay sculptures for the mask casting tomorrow, and then making a prototype for the message in a bottle promo piece for the Tempest. My friend Casey who is coming up the marketing ideas for the Tempest described this letter to me as being written on the back of a ships log, aged, and beaten the sea. So I decided I would try to recreate that process exactly. I took an old book which I had begun but never finished and tore several pages out of it to work with. (I can always finish the book with one less signature of paper if I wish). I then came up with a design in Photoshop for a ship's log taken from real 19th century logs that I found on line with some small maps and drawings that seemed appropriate. I then set up a custom printing size and ran the book pages through our large format inkjet printer. They printed beautifully, better than I imagined.

I then took the printed page and soaked it in salt water and crumpled it. The paper is wonderful because it retains it's integrity and becomes almost like a wool fabric when wet. I then laid the paper down on a protected surface took the distressing ink pad and ran it ink side down just above the paper so it picked up the high spots and added brown aging. This was a little intense so after I did the backside I put it back in the salt water bath and scrubbed it some to fade it.

I then let the papers dry out in the sun. I then took some watered down Gesso and a natural sponge and gave the paper an uneven coat to simulate the effects of salt on the ink. Once the paper was dry I ironed it flat and smooth and then went back into Photoshop to design the message for the other side. I printed the other side with the message and then tore the paper into segments and re-crumpled it. I then took some sand and shell fragments and some glue and made some random spots of glue on the note and poured the fragments over the to give it a kind of crusty feel. Here is a picture of the finished piece. I actually wonder if it is too subtle. Maybe I washed out too much of the ink. Anyway I think I will take one copy and try tea dying it to age the whole thing darker and then spray it with a light coat of acrylic sealer.

Well, we will see if it works with Casey on Monday. Time to turn in. We have a big day of mask mold casting tomorrow.

Lunch with the Evil Uncle

2009-02-13T06:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't get to blog yesterday because I was being too productive. (Isn't that exciting). I got a great start on the clay mask sculptures that I am going to use to cast mask making forms. I also helped my friend DW work on a pattern for a lovely 13th century dress which I am completely going to steal for myself.

However the highlight of yesterday was taking my dear friend and adopted uncle, David to lunch. We went to Madola's italian market which reminds me a lot of the lovely little cafes in Europe particularly in their wonderful pastry case which is just so beautiful I had to take a picture of it. I had a lovely salad niscoise (definitely my favorite it Austin.) and so I could share some of the delightful goodies with David.

I was also able to get down to fourth street to Armadillo Clay and get the special Hydrocal paster for casting the mask forms for the Tempest masks. So I started shaping the clay forms for casting.

I built up rough areas of clay on the life cast and then smoothed them out and shaped them with some basic tool and my finger until I got the effect I was looking for. The white clay is Sculpy and the Yellow clay is Plasticina Medium. The Sculpy was much easier to work because the Plasticina was crumbly and did not bond well with itself. I hope the Sculpy does OK and doesn't deform in the casting process because I much prefer it. I can't cast till saturday because I'm hoping to have my hubby's help to figure out the Plaster process, and so today I'll be trying to create the message in a bottle to use as promotional material for the Tempest. So I'm off to the paper store to find a good base paper.

Sadness and Worry

2009-02-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

Today was an odd day. Scattered through the day came bit of news that my old employer was laying off another round of people many of whom I know. It is the strangest feeling of remembered sadness from all the times I was in the middle of it, and odd guilt that I am finally free of that particular endless circle of pain. I found the words to the anthem we sang tonight at choir practice spoke directly to my heart.

I'm weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

Devil Woman

2009-02-11T10:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I am feeling a temendous sense of accomplishment today because I finally finished cleaning up and reorganizing my art closet. I had to make some new boxes to store the mask making supplies and had to clean up so I would have a place to put them. I absolutely love my craft closet. Originally it was actually a linen cabinet and a coat closet that was too shallow for hangers in the hallway leading to the bedrooms. When Jim and I redid that area of the house we decided to combine the two into one big shallow closet with double doors and it seemed to be the perfect place to store all the arts and craft supplies.

We decided to use the same shelving system from Lowes but this time with wooden shelves since the boxes were much heavier and we didn't want things falling through wire shelves. We got the boxes from the container store and then used them to set up where we would put the shelves so that we could have them fit perfectly. It is a dream to go and just pull out the whole box of supplies for whatever I am working on. I just have to remember to put it back.

Today's craft project was actually finishing a pair of horns that I started as an experiment when I was making the prototype mask for the Tempest. I had a couple of little scrap triangles of the 2 oz leather and so I quickly dampened them with some water, curled them in to a cone shape and glued them together with ModPodge just to see what would happen. After they looked like the would stay together I gave them a little bit of a curve by pinching them with my fingers and then dried them in the oven.

So today to finish them off, first I trimmed the open ends of the horns off flat and even so they wouldn't irritate me against my face. Then, I took them in the mirror and figured out where they should be on my head. Next, I used a magic marker to make small horizontal dots where I was going to punch hole to put a string to hold them on to my head.

I then used a leather punch on the smallest setting to punch two opposing holes in each horn and strung them on clear 1.8 mm elastic (used for beading.) I tied a knot around the elastic so it would fit on my head. I used vinyl spackle to fill in the crack that was left over from rolling them into a cone so that they would have a nice even surface and let hat dry for about an hour while I went out to an appointment.

After they had dried I gave them a coat of ModPodge for extra stiffness and let that dry while I took a short rest.

Then I got out my acrylic paints and painted them to have a nice variegated surface. I wanted to keep the kind of fleshy leather color at the bottom so that it would look like they grew out of my skin. I started with a base color that was a flesh color with a little bit of champagne gold for sparkle. I then built up some lights and darks with a dark copper brown and a light pearl white. I then tinted the ends of the horns a bit redder with a wash of metallic red. The finishing coat is a thin coat of pearl white which I put on with a brush and then blend in with my fingers to make a smooth texture without brushmarks. This helps to blend together all the shading into a seamless texture. This picture shows one horn finished and one with just the base coat.Violà. Devil Woman.

Keeping Cats Clean

2009-02-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

I love our kittens. They are absolutely the delight of our lives. However I have to say that having cats has its drawbacks. Animals in general just seem to generate dirt. Who hasn't had the unpleasant experience of walking into someone' house and immediately knowing they had animals? Well my husband and I are determined that our house will not smell like cat, ever!

So to achieve this goal we have experimented with many different litters and moving the box to different places in the house. We sound the most successful place was the garage and we added a cat door to the interior door for the garage so that our kittens could get to their box. We also came up with a really great idea of putting the cat boxes on the lowest shelf of the wire shelves that we use to organize the. The reason that this works so well is that litter falls though to the catcher mats below. After you clean the box then you can give the mats a quick shake out onto the floor and then easily sweep everything up from under the boxes without having to lift them up or move them. Also we keep the litter, the broom, and a set of grocery sacks close by so that everything to clean the boxes is easily available. The Fresh Step Unscented and Undyed litter is absolutely the best we have found. We tried corn litters, wheat litters, paper litters, pine litters and other clay litters and the Fresh Step absolutely has the least odor and clumps the best.

Now for inside the house. The other thing that bothers me from a cleanliness standpoint is that our boys scatter their food outside their bowl. So you end up with little cat crunchy bits all over the kitchen floor. We managed to fix this problem with plastic mat that keeps the bits contained. Then my fantastic husband bought me a little inexpensive brush and dustpan that I keep with the food in the cabinet just above where I feed them. That way every time I feed them, I just sweep up the old crunchies. It is like preventative cleaning. Hooray!

And then of course there are those days when the kittens have a little problem with personal hygiene. For that we found some great cat wipes at the local pet smart. They don't have a lot of scent or too many bad ingredients and they work like a charm. The boys tolerate them pretty well, and they don't seem to irritate sensitive places.

Now for the breath, well we haven't found a solution to the cat breath problem yet except not to ever feed them fish.

Saffron for Relief

2009-02-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

Well this is mostly going to be a post about women's issues, so be forewarned.

There are times when I simply despise being female. They happen with regularity once a month. I have never been able to figure out if I am simply pathetic or what, but for at least 3 days out of the month I feel as if something is tearing me apart from the inside and it really affects both my temperament and quality of life. And so in the current Renaissance I am experiencing with natural health, I decided I was going to fix this problem! Sadly it was easier said than done.

Finally last December, I found a fleeting reference for saffron being used to treat women's cycle issues. I didn't think about it much at the time because I was busy with the holiday season, but mentally filed it away as something to investigate later. However, less than a week late I happened to be in the wonderful creative chaos that is Sur La Table looking for Christmas gifts. As I turned around, in the very center of the shelf exactly at my eye level, haloed in light from the overhead was a tiny jar of saffron. I stopped dead. Now this is going to sound strange, but I immediately had the thought that this was in some way important to me. God tends to work in my life in these kind of strange coincidences and I had actually been praying for a way to better cope with these issues in my life. So, I thought, what can it hurt to try it? I could always simply use it as a spice if it didn't work.

Well amazingly, it did work incredibly well. I have gotten to the point where I can really sense when I am started to feel the effects of my cycle. As soon as I started to feel off a bit, I went and had a cup of tea to which I added a few threads of saffron. I let it steep till it was a nice golden color. Sure enough about and hour later, I had no pain. I still had some of the other effects of tiredness and emotional fragility, but I could actually function. And so it became a pattern. I would wake up in the morning feeling like I was tearing apart, and have my saffron tea, and about an hour later I would feel almost normal.

Well it may be a placebo effect, but it has worked very well for two months now and I have been more comfortable for these two months than ever in my entire adult life. I found a really interesting (but small scale) study from Iran which actually supports the same thing I have experienced. You can find a link to it here.

So to make my tea, I usually take Traditional Medicinals Organic Pregnancy Tea which contains raspberry leaf, lemon verbena, spearmint leaf, and several other herbs that are also supposed to be helpful with PMS symptoms. (I would never actually drink this tea if I were pregnant without consulting a doctor. You have to be really careful with herbal remedies when pregnant. Traditional Medicinals may have a PMS tea as well but they don't seem to carry it at my Whole Foods.) I then add about 2-4 saffron threads and let it steep for 8-10 minutes. I also usually add a little Stevia to sweeten it because I have found that Stevia is fantastic at helping with women's yeast issues. It comes out a lovely golden color, tastes delicious, and helps me feel much better.

Saffron is available from Sur la Table for a small jar for $14.00. It is actually the dried flower stigmas of the saffron crocus. It is expensive, but it really lasts a long time because you only use a few threads at a time. Make sure when buying that the stigmas are a bright red color. If they are faded that means the spice has been on the shelf too long and lost it's flavor and effectiveness. I get Stevia, and Traditional Medicinals teas from Whole Foods, although some HEB's actually carry them as well.

The glass teapot in the photo was a gift from my mother, which at the time I thought was pretty extravagant and a bit silly. However, once I started using it I have absolutely come to love it. The candle warmer in particular works extremely well for long leisurely mornings.

Spirits Finally Finished

2009-02-08T21:20:00.000-08:00

I finally got the prototype mask done for the Tempest and I am very pleased. I had to paint the back, and do some small touchup work to the front. I then added a few gems and some transparent sequins to the front to catch the light, and a bit of gold trim to cover the leather seam. I put them on with Crafter's Pick glue which seems to have worked very well on the first mask that I added gems to. The sequins and trim are a new thing so we will see if they stay on. I also sprayed the whole thing with a light layer of acrylic sealer to see if I could give it more protection from absorbing heat and moisture. Only time will tell.

It is by far the most complex and cool mask I have done so far, and I'm very pleased also by the process improvements. I think tomorrow will be a documentation day before I put everything away.

Anyway, short post today because it has been a very full weekend and I am exhausted.

Spirits Some Progress

2009-02-07T19:33:00.000-08:00

What a day! I had to get up at 6:00 in the morning and go down to Sanctuary to leave at 7:30 for the van to Houston. I was running so slow that I only made it with a minute to spare. The van ride was a bit of a tedious adventure but full of very pleasant people and fun stories. I just hate traveling en masse.

However we finally made it there in time for an early lunch and then we performed our play Rubies in front of an audience of around 100+ women. It was a wonderful audience, very responsive and sensitive and it inspired all of the performers to new heights. It was really beautiful afterward because Cynthia Clawson, the author's wife (and one of my heroines musically) told me that the character I ended up playing was a real woman and dear friend of hers that had passed away, and that she had been very moved by my performance. It was a blessing to get to be there and make that kind of magic with such cool people. I was fascinated to hear stories of many of these people who have been in theatre longer than I have been alive and have done amazing things.

The trip home was very long though, and I was so happy when I finally got home around 6:30 to just sit on the couch with my glass of wine and paint my prototype mask. It seems to be close to done. I just want to touch up a few gluing and painting places tomorrow, and then paint the whole thing with sealer, glue on some braid to cover the joins and a few gems for fun and call it finished.

I'm not sure what I'll do with it, if they decide they don't want them, but I'm sure I can find an occasion to wear it. It would probably go great with my sari.

Spirits and Busy Days

2009-02-06T20:44:00.000-08:00

Well, today was really busy. I worked on the prototype mask for the Tempest all morning and then I has to stop to clean the house for the people coming over. My gardening buddy came at 10:00 and we were able to clean up the whole front yard so it looks beautiful and ready for spring. Then there was more mask work until my friend DW came over at 4:00 to work on costumes. Fortunately she was late so I was able to get the whole house clean and ready for the party before she showed up. We started drafting a pattern for a 14th century dress, but I ended up draping her instead because the pattern was pretty tricky. And finally around 7:30 everyone showed up and we had a lovely party. So anyway I am exhausted and still didn't finish the prototype. sigh... However I did make a bit of progress from the picture above. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll have it done and ready to send for approval. And now swiftly to bed.