They call me The Chicken Lady

if it ain't one thing it's another

2010-02-09T22:18:00.000-08:00

Okay, really, could I have any more mechanical problems? Come on cosmos, throw it all on me now.

I won't bore you with the details, but a fluke thing happened with some of my engraving equipment (not a grinder!) and that sets me back a bit while I wait for the new part to arrive on Friday.

I started a new piece today (as best I could, just did the transfer), and yes I'm still working on my own cat pendant. I'm not sure yet if I can show WIPs for the new one, I'll ask. Of course I could for mine if I ever got around to posting pics. Huh!

The good news is I have plenty of other stuff I can work on tomorrow, including washing chickens!

It was a pretty uneventful birthday, which is totally okay. It was a regular work day, and then I went out for a nice steak dinner with my mom and Jan, and sat around and talked afterwards. Got a couple phone calls and lots of emails. I don't care what the numbers say, it was a fine 29th birthday. ;-)

And the new graver sharpener thingy should arrive tomorrow. Woo hoo!!! I am so excited to try it out, and I have ten little blank gravers sitting here waiting to be sharpened! (Into ten different points for different uses).

chickening part 2: rethinking the rethinking

2010-02-08T22:45:00.000-08:00

I knew this would be hard. That's why I've been avoiding it for the last few years. I've had this email all typed up ready to send out to the Rosecomb list for about a week and a half now, but I am incapable of hitting the send button. Because I still don't really know what I want to do the birds.

Let's look at the facts:

1) I cannot hatch birds until summer. That's not ideal, but that's how it has to be with my schedule. It means I have no birds to show in the fall, and can't raise many birds (because I have to keep the hatching season short, otherwise they are too young even to show in the winter, and then what's the point)
2) I don't show/raise/sell enough to justify keeping the number of birds that I currently have.
3) I don't plan on showing more than 3 times per year.

But:

1) I do want to keep raising and showing birds, just in a small quantity. All this thinking about cutting back to nearly nothing really makes me feel soooo sad, I don't want to be sad.

I have even been dreaming about this stuff lately. I dreamed I was selling my last two birds, Pablo and Diego (BBRed roosters). It was awful, I was heartbroken, I would have done anything to bring them back home. Now, in real life I've thus far parted with nothing, and those two old boys will never leave, they are keepers. But there seems to be this pretty overwhelming feeling of NOT wanting to do this, and potentially regretting the heck out of it.

Months ago, I had actually more or less decided to keep 10-20 totally random assorted birds, house them all together (no "breeding pens" of specific colors) and hatch whatever. But part of the appeal of this plan was that I actually wanted to free-range them, and have several roosters in the group. Due to not wanting to feed the local hawk population any more of my valuable birds, I can't do that. They have to be kept in, and if I'm going to do that I may as well keep them purebred.

See, two things that friends have said to me lately have really stuck. One is that if I've accomplished what I wanted out of my years of raising chickens, then it's okay to move on. But I haven't accomplished that. Oh sure, I've won shows, but I have not gotten the BBRed Rosecombs to the level of quality that I want them to be. Granted, all bird breeding programs are always a work in progress, always striving to be better, but I feel only half done (okay maybe 3/4) with the BBReds. And perhaps this is selfish, but if I sell them they will eventually cease to be my line. They become someone else's, as someone else fine tunes them toward their own ideal, which may not be my ideal. So I can hardly send them out into the world and expect someone else to do what *I* want done with them. Only I can do that, and that color in particular, well, it's kind of my baby.

The other comment was how weird it is not to see BBRed Rosecombs at the shows anymore. Yes it is! I didn't hatch any last year (because I had to outcross them to Black again) so it's NEXT generation (this year's hatch) that would produce showable BBReds again. It's really hitting me hard that I still want to do that. I want to keep working with this color. I'm not finished.

I think that despite the potential fun aspect of hatching a bunch of mixed-variety chicks, I would probably end up frustrated and trying to breed for specific colors anyway, so why not just stick with purebreds anyway, ya know.

So here's the start of a new plan:

Keep about 2/3 of the existing BBRed flock. They become the focus of my chicken efforts.
Keep about 1/3 of the existing Brassy and Blue Brassy flock, because I love Blue Brassy Backs.
Keep about 1/4 to 1/3 of the current Black flock. Genetically they are the basis for everything, therefore important, but if winning is not a priority then I don't need to be raising large quantities of them.

I'd still end up with about 20 birds, which is fine. That's less than half of the current flock. I would still end up selling a good number of really top notch breeder birds to really serious breeders who are active in showing and committed to raising them (yes I'm going to be REALLY picky). I could still sell eggs in the spring. And raise birds in the summer. And show a couple times in the winter. And rethink it next fall or in the early spring of 2011 if need be.

Hmmm, yes, something to think about. It doesn't solve the problem of me being rather tied down with the birds (you know, if Prince Charming rides up and says let's go to the castle, I'd be like "but wait, I need chicken coops there so I can take my birds!") but, I don't seem to be ready to do anything more drastic than sell more than half of the birds without turning into a blubbering blog of regret, so for the time being this may be a plan I can live with. And well, Prince Charming or otherwise, I'll just have to cross that bridge when I get there.

Oh, who's Pablo? This is him. He won Reserve Champion of Show at the Gold Coast Poultry Fanciers show in January 2006. Diego is his son. That was an awesome amazing win, but between you and me (don't tell the bird) I've never thought he had a very good head. See, he's not *my* ideal bird. That's why I want to keep trying. :-)

working in the barn

2010-02-07T23:28:00.000-08:00

I spent a lot of time in the barn this weekend. I like being in the barn. The barn on the ranch where I grew up was one of my favorite places to be. It was huge and there were all sorts of nifty old gadgets in there... some of which I wish I would have brought here, like a couple of old horse harness collars. They were not useable, but were cool. Why didn't I bring that stuff? Probably was told not to I guess, hmm.

Okay, total tangent there, sorry, that just popped into my head.

So there's been this big saga with me and bench grinders. I don't know how much of this I've blogged about (versus mentioned on facebook so I'll just recap):

I need a power tool of some sort to use for sharpening engraving tools, because it takes me HOURS of precious time and makes my arm very sore if I have to get a graver from square to super fine pointy all with hand stones. Me no like. Now, the proper thing to do of course would be to get a power hone, which is made just special for that job. But I'm a tightwad and I don't really want to fork over several hundred dollars to buy one.

But I know it's possible to use a bench grinder also, and since there was an ancient one in the barn I thought I'd give it a whirl. I knew it was wonky, it was welded to a stand and if you wanted to use it (I think I used it once in the last 12 years) you had to actually put your foot on the stand (or ideally have someone else to it, because you kinda had to lean all your weight onto the stand) otherwise it would rotate itself in circles. Inconvenient, no? I thought it was a problem with the stand. So I bolted it to the workbench, flipped the switch, and it shook the room. Stuff fell off the workbench, tools on the walls vibrated madly. Um, not good. That's a problem.

So I asked for a bench grinder for my birthday (which is this Tuesday! Now you can't say I didn't warn you!) and off I went to Harbor Freight to fetch one last week, a bit early, yes... Got that thing all bolted down to the bench, turned it on, and it hummed to life. Nothing falling off the table. Ahhh. But then I swapped out one of the wheels it came with for the diamond wheel (what I need for sharpening gravers) and suddenly it was the same problem with tools falling off the wall. Crap! I think the problem is either that the diamond wheel is soooo heavy that it's throwing the whole thing off balance, or the diamond wheel itself is out of whack (doubtful, it's brand new). Anyway, bottom line is that isn't going to work with the diamond wheel, and I've about had it with machines lately.

I will likely keep the new grinder simply to replace the old one, which had some problems to begin with long before it ever met the diamond wheel. Meanwhile, an engraver friend has a tiny grinder set up with a diamond drum, tested, confirmed to work, no shake, very small and light weight, so I'll be getting that in the mail next week and if I like it I'll buy it... or I guess it'll be my new present. Whatever. I just wanna sharpen gravers! Waahhh!

Anyway, after I threw in the towel on that I still spent a lot of time out in the barn this weekend with other sorts of power tools because I decided to build a barn owl nest box. I'd been seeing a female barn owl around sometimes, and lately there has been a pair around the barn in the morning. The downside of owls is they are super messy, and I really debated if I wanted to do this. And I suppose they could be a predator if I had chicks or ducklings running loose. But I already have such a hawk problem I really can't do that anymore anyway, so I think that's not such a concern, and I think their mess will hopefully be offset by their expertise with rodent control. When you have animals, and hay in the barn, and live along a creek, you have rodents...

Unfortunately I have not inherited any of the construction skills that some members of my family possess, and that whole "measure twice and cut once thing" will always elude me when it comes to this kind of thing, but nevertheless I whipped up the ugliest darn barn owl box EVER entirely from scraps and managed to hang it all by myself, so I'm rather proud of that. And sore. Very sore. I hope the owls use it, and I hope I don't regret inviting them to move on in...

scrap lumber................................zero dollars
leftover hardware.........................zero dollars
hours of my own labor..................zero dollars
ugly but functional box.................priceless

it was a good show!

2010-02-07T16:24:00.001-08:00

Well, the reception for my "Among Animals" art show was Friday evening. I'd set up the work on Tuesday, and then hauled in a bunch more little stuff for the reception on Friday. The weather was decent, the turnout looked pretty good to me! Huge thank you to those of you who came to visit, it means a lot to me. :-) It was great to see some familiar faces (some of whom I had not seen since high school, OMG! The wonders of Facebook!) and I got to talk to a lot of new people. People seemed to enjoy the art (and all the desserts I brought!), and I heard people commenting about the variation of work all from one artist; I had drawings, paintings, hand-pulled prints, and scrimshaw on display.

I had to explain what hand-pulled prints are: artwork that is printed by hand, not with a machine, from an "original" created on linoleum, wood, metal, limestone, etc. And I had to explain about ivory a few times. There's a common misconception that ivory is illegal. Ivory that has been in the US since before the ban in the early 70s is legal to buy and sell within the US, but there can be no import or export, and I buy from a reputable dealer who can verify their sources.

Anyway. The setup looked really nice. The gallery space is a dance studio, and is where I take bellydance lessons every Thursday evening, so I'm quite familiar with the space and get to see my work every Thursday this month, ha ha.

I took these pics before anyone showed up:

And here are some that CS took when people were around:

another scrimshaw Sheltie dog!

2010-02-03T22:57:00.000-08:00

Heeeeere's Trevor! :-)

"Trevor"
scrimshaw on pre-ban elephant ivory
22mm by 30mm

I couldn't do work in progress stuff while I was working on this one, had to keep it secret. So I ended up being pretty lax about taking photos while working on it... I think I took one... I think.

I wish you could all see this stuff in person. The pics are darn good, but they are soooo much cooler in person!

I think I might have to change the business name to "Scrimshaw Shelties by Katherine Plumer." Or maybe just scrimshaw dogs... ha ha. (I'm kidding). However, the next project after my cat is yet another dog! And a cheetah. Not together, that's two separate projects.

I've been busy getting ready for Friday's art show opening. I set up everything on Tuesday and it looks great. I will have small items down there for the reception on Friday, plus I'm responsible for bringing dessert (YAY!) so I need to do a bunch of baking.

Oh and I got a new bench grinder today! It's an early birthday present. It replaces the OLD one that shook so hard it rattled the tools off the wall of the workshop (yes, really, it did). Sweet. I'm not quite done setting it up yet, because I need my brilliant neighbor to help me with something, but soon I will be able to sharpen gravers, woo hoo! I ordered another pack of blanks and one more template, so I'm excited about being able to try out different graver geometries. So far I've been abusing practice plates with a, uh... I think it's a 126° graver. I'm getting a teensy bit better, but definitely want to try some other things to see what different tools produce.

dragon scrimshaw pendant redone

2010-02-01T22:12:00.000-08:00

Remember how I said I picked up my Chinese dragon pendant and looked at it under the microscope a couple weeks ago? And how surprised I was by what I saw? The dragon was originally done when I was working in my neighbor's barn, hoofing it across the field every day with a bag full of supplies. I knew that people were using colored drawings inks for color scrim, but I wanted to blaze my own trail and was determined to use etching ink. I'm stubborn like that. It didn't work out as planned. Mind you, it had turned out cool even then, but I didn't have the technique down like I do now, so I didn't get the real saturated color, plus trying to "layer" the etching ink was #$%& hard and I lost a lot of detail in the process.

I've come a long way, baby. ;-)

This is how it looked upon completion in the fall of 2007:

It was kind of a dilemma, figuring out what to do, but unlike some of the early B/W stuff (which is fine) this color piece wasn't up to snuff. If I'd felt anything was unsatisfactory about the composition or design, I would have simply kept it, but that wasn't the problem. So even though it represented my first color piece, I decided to rework it and bring it up to my current standards, therefore keeping it on the market. You know how sometimes you watch old movies that have been "restored to the artist's original vision?" Well that's how this is. This is what I meant for it to look like when I originally scrimmed it, I just didn't know how to do it back then. ;-) Since the original was done with a different type of ink, I ended up really scrimming it quite deeply to remove all the old ink. You'll see...

First I redid all the black areas. Of course this made everything very very dark! That's okay.

Because then I really dug into it and removed all the old red etching ink.

And re-inked it with liquid drawing ink, sealed with microcrystalline wax.

And then I finished up the belly and face and here it is all finished!

chickening part 1: what I got

2010-01-31T22:30:00.000-08:00

If you're not into the chickens, you should skip this post.

I was waiting for a sunny and non-muddy day to sort birds. Today was sunny, but still muddy, but I decided to go ahead and start the "what to do with the chickens" process. See, I can't really figure out what to do til I know what I got, right?

FYI, C= male over a year, K= male under a year, H= female over a year, P= female under a year

Here's what I found:

4 large hens in egg layer flock (all will stay)

10 "pet quality" Rosecombs to either take to auction or sell as pets, mostly young, various faults make them non-breeder birds (all will go)

Of the following listings, at least a dozen will be kept, the rest sold. All are cream of the crop birds, my breeding pens, the best stuff I have.

BLACK:
4C (two are 100% my line, 2 are 50% my line)
3K (all 75% my line)
5H (2 are 100% my line, 3 are 50%)
6P (all 75%)

BLACK BREASTED RED:
3C (two are sentimental old "keepers" that have faults that should not be bred from)
6H
(I hatched no pure BBReds last year, only BBRed X Black, see next list)

BLACK BREASTED RED X BLACK:
(this was done to improve type, all are "Black Red" in color and need to be bred back to BBRed, or to each other)
3K
6P

BRASSY BACK:
1C
2K
2H (1 is "keeper" due to being extremely old)
1P

BLUE BRASSY BACK:
1K
4H
2P

BLUE (not purebred, he is from Blue Brassy Back X Black):
1C

BLUE SPLASH (may throw brassy genes?):
3P

GOLDEN DUCKWING-ISH:
1H (high % Old English)

------

So.... now I need to figure out how they would best be paired/penned for breeding (can do this on paper) and then figure out what I want to keep, and what to sell.

Here's everyone getting sorted (no they don't normally live in little cages!)

Oh yeah, and I went down to what used to be my "home" poultry show yesterday for a couple hours to drop off some birds. It was weird. I enjoyed visiting with a few good friends (who I seem to be able to count on one hand these days) but over all really didn't feel comfortable. I was amazed how many unfamiliar faces are there! Wow. Thank goodness for a few friends, and a good dinner and conversation after leaving the fairgrounds. :-) To REJ, I'm sorry I forgot the cream puff!!! You were sweet to save it for me, unfortunately I didn't remember it til I was halfway home. :-(

Upcoming Art Show!

2010-01-29T23:38:00.000-08:00

Come visit me at the opening reception of "Among Animals." I am the featured artist in the month of February at the "First Friday Art Hop" in Lodi, CA. The reception is held in the Thomas Theatre Gallery at Hutchins Street Square, 125 S. Hutchins Street, Lodi, CA. February 5th, 6pm til 8:30pm. Hors d oeuvres, wine, and desserts provided!

My show will feature 30something art pieces: drawings, paintings, and hand-pulled prints. I will also have a few scrimshaw pieces for viewing on the night of the reception.

Stop by and say howdy!

stacked

2010-01-28T22:30:00.000-08:00

Tee hee!

I'm not even going to caption these, they speak for themselves. :-)

Reno recap, and a mind full of stuff

2010-01-27T23:49:00.000-08:00

I'm never sure how to begin trying to recap the adventures of a weekend in Reno at an engraving show, but words that come to mind are: amazing, inspiring, friendship, competition, determination, and intimidation. There is some of each of those things.

Every year I stay longer, for one reason or another. This year I was there for four days. I thought it might be overkill, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It made the trip feel relaxing, like I didn't have to rush around to see everything but could take my time perusing the items on display and chat with people in a more leisurely fashion. And of course it helps that I had a very sweet roommate, big shout out here to Emily from Tennessee who said she would read this... so I won't say anything embarrassing about her other than I got a kick of her accent (or "ack-see-uh-int" as she says). Emily, "we are here." ;-)

I took the bus again this year, not the greyhound but the casino bus that picks up in Elk Grove. Love it! Can't beat a $32 round trip ticket, plus it's warm and comfy and I can take a nap and let the driver mess around with tire chains! Plus I had some company on the bus, as fellow engraver Rod C caught it in Auburn to avoid having to drive Donner Pass.

Pretty pic from the ride to Reno:

Baby it's cold outside! There was snow on the ground the whole time:

You can't tell from this pic, but it was snowing when I took it. Emily and I were walking back from In N Out burger. They don't have those back east, so I had to introduce her to it. As a person who doesn't live in snow and has nearly no snow experience, I'm completely enthralled with it and had to resist the urge to run and jump and roll around in it. I know that in much of the country they get rather tired of it though...

So what did I do for four days? Well, three of those were the show itself, so I talked to a LOT of people, enjoyed catching up with old friends, enjoyed meeting new ones, and spent a lot of time ogling the amazing guns, knives, jewelry, and other items on display. I wish I could take some of those things home to study (note to self, forgetting to buy castings was really stupid). The fourth day was seminars and show-and-tell, and that's one of my favorite things, educational and enlightening!

If I could, I would exhibit there in a heartbeat, but unfortunately under the rules of the organization I cannot do that. Best not get me started on that subject. I had a great time anyway. ;-)

Mirrors mirrors everywhere! It actually got a little confusing with all these mirrors...

I finally got to meet Mike D! We've done a couple of collaborations on Colts in the last year but had never met, so this was a real treat and honor:

Carl B, me, and Roger B. These are two of the nicest and most helpful guys ever. They rock my little world:

On Saturday I had the surprise opportunity to go see the Safari Club Internation show over at the convention center. Oh. My. Gosh. I have wanted to see this show soooo much so it's pretty awesome that I had the chance to go there, even though it was a scant three hour tour and I didn't manage to see everything. I tried, but it is sooooo big. There are guns, knives, fine art, amazing taxidermy (how are there any animals left in Africa? I think they were all stuffed in Reno!) and of course LOTS of people selling safari trips all over the world. It was seriously amazing, the kind of place I could have explored for days and still not seen everything. The art was pretty impressive. And the prices blew me away. Man I'd love to show in a place like that! Thank you Scott for the chance to check it out. :-)

This is the sort of thing you see at SCI:

Okay yeah I'd like a few of those...:

I actually went to the banquet this year. That was definitely the most expensive dinner I've ever had, but it was really good, I haven't had steak for ages. I didn't stay for the auction afterwards though, because evenings at the show are all about the jam session. I'm musically inept, but I sure enjoy hanging out with the crowd and admiring the musical talents of others.

One of the important parts of this show for me is getting to talk to people who are experienced engravers, who have been doing this since before I was born, and asking them for advice. Sometimes it's hard to hear it, not because it's bad in some way, but because it's hard for me to believe in my own abilities. That's why it always feels so important for me to attend these sorts of things, it inspires me, and I seem to need those pep talks, even if the pep talks make me feel a little bad at first. The big question at these things is always when will I engrave metal, and my answer always seems to be that I will, but this, but that... I have a lot of excuses, some of which are better than others. My bench was not set up right. Now it is. I didn't have sharpening equipment. I kind of still don't. The old bench grinder is in bad shape and won't do the job, so I will get a new one very soon (how many women want bench grinders for their birthdays?! Lol).

I think the big hangup comes down to some sort of intimidation, like there's a million miles of distance between where my abilities are (with metal engraving) versus where they need to be, and it feels like an unreachable distance. People are so confident that it will be an easy transition for me, but I have a hard time feeling that confidence myself. I am really really bad at engraving metal right now, I have practically no tool control and get very discouraged. Now the bulino dot thing, that's a different story. I can do that. But I don't like the Italian style, where you can only see the engraving if it's angled just so, in just the right light. I don't want to do that, even though I can. I want my work to be visible, and that is something I have yet to figure out how to do, though I have things to try and new tools on the way. There just seems to be this giant mountain of tool control that I need to get over, and I have to plow through it without getting discouraged by it. This'll sound weird or snotty probably, but I'm not used to being bad at art stuff. I pick things up easily most of the time. There was one time, one thing I never could do... throw pottery. I tried and tried, it shouldn't have been that hard, I knew how to do it but it just didn't work and I'm not sure it ever would have. That is what I'm afraid of. But... I have to keep trying, otherwise I'll never find out if I can get through that mountain. :-)

I DO want to engrave metal, if I can get it to look how I want it to look, I really do. I love the scrim, and I don't want to give that up, but I definitely see the need to do the metal work. It commands a better price than scrim, and an increase in income would be a very good thing! That's unfortunate that there's such a discrepancy, but it seems to be the way of the world and the perception of scrim. Why do I pick the hard things? You know, it's like colored pencil versus oil paint. Galleries want oil paintings, some of them won't even look at colored pencil.

I digress. :-)

I have the potential. I know it, and a whole lot of people reminded me of that this weekend. Thank you to those people, I needed to hear it and I need to get to work so that I have the confidence to do the work that people ~~want~~ expect me to do. I'm sure I'm going to ruin a lot of practice plates before I get there.

Determination will beat intimidation.

To my friends in the engraving world, you are awesome. I wish this happened more than once a year!

Now, I know you want to see more pics than this, so check out Rod's photos here.

And Sam's photos here.

really, I am still alive

2010-01-25T22:56:00.000-08:00

I'm running on only a handful of functioning brain cells tonight, the rest are asleep. I have been in Reno at the Firearms Engravers Guild show/convention since early Friday morning. I had a great time and will have lots to talk about but I'm sure it will take me some time to get my thoughts organized. And photographs too.

scrimshaw initials on Colt pistol grips!

2010-01-19T22:41:00.000-08:00

I do like a good ivory pistol grip, yes indeed!

My most recent pistol grip job was putting the client's initials on the grips. Though much faster than scrimshaw that involves "drawing" animals or figures or scenery, lettering certainly does present its own challenges! I have to say these turned out great. Like the other grips, these were for a Colt .45 SAA. These have the screw hole though, just a different method of attaching them versus the other ones I've worked on. I don't know enough about them to tell you why some are one way and some are the other.

rethinking the chicken thing

2010-01-17T22:41:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a long post, and very rambly I'm sure. I've been kicking this around in my head for a long time. Maybe it will help me to air it out.

I have been raising and showing chickens for twenty-two and a half years. That's nearly as long as some of the "old timers." For many years, it was my life. My world revolved around it. It seems weird to say that now, but the shows were the absolute highlight of my existence. I used to raise hundreds of birds per year. I got into tinkering with color genetics in the early 90s and bred to a pretty high level several colors in Rosecombs that either never existed or hadn't been seen for a long time. I sometimes feel uncomfortable when someone says it, but I know that I have made major contributions to the breed. I have awesome chicken coops, and have raised some amazing birds. And I've made friends with some of the best people in the world along the way.

My level of involvement started to change when the Exotic Newcastle Disease outbreak struck CA in the early 2000s (2003 I think?) The shows voluntarily shut down for an entire season (some never started up again) and I didn't hatch more than a handful of birds that year. I started to see that there was life outside of poultry shows. I got more involved with horses. I devoted a lot more time to art (you know, like my job and stuff). I allowed weekends to be taken up by other things. At first, I had every intention of getting back into it with full enthusiasm when the shows started again. And I tried, but something had changed. A little bit of the spark had gone away. It wasn't quite what it used to be, it seemed more subdued to me. But I carried on, hatching under 200 birds per year, showing as much as I could, doing my best to perfect my birds.

In the last couple years I've approached hatching season with a sense of duty but also one of... not dread, but resignation. Like, okay I need to do this but I kind of don't really want to. I love the chicks, they are so darn cute and adorable, and I could sit by the brooder and watch them all day. But raising them, finding the space to raise them, keeping them in condition over winter, it's hard. If chickens are the focus of life, it takes a tremendous amount of time and energy, and in the year off I had channeled that time and energy elsewhere. I never really found enough spare time to devote that much of it to the birds again.

And then things went downhill in the club I used to be heavily involved with. I saw some bad politics and some nasty personalities and a lot of disrespect. I didn't want to be part of a group that worked that way, so I resigned and I no longer show with that club. That really changed things. It soured the show experience for me. I don't think that will ever go back to how it was, I've seen the dark side and I can't forget it. It changed the dynamic of my relationship with a lot of people. There are several I really would rather not see again, but of course I will and do run into them. I was pretty public with my resignation, and I think that was the start of my feeling somewhat distanced from the main crowd. But, one door closes and another opens, and though I severed my ties with some people, I became better friends with others.

I used to show eight times a year, back when my life revolved around it. Between October and February, there were stretches when I would be gone every other weekend. Last year I think I showed twice. So far this season, once. I went to a show this weekend for the first time since last February (unless you count State Fair, but I really don't, it's not a normal show). When I pulled into that old familiar parking lot early Saturday morning, I didn't feel excited. I felt apprehensive, nervous. Who would be there, what would they say, would people be happy to see me, had anyone even noticed that I haven't been around... Well, turns out a lot of people really have missed me and really were genuinely happy to see me, and I'm getting all teary-eyed writing this because that REALLY means a lot to me. I had a good weekend, my birds did well (Best RCCL on a Black pullet, nice to know I still got it, lol!) ;-) I had a great time hanging out and chatting with the people I did hang out and chat with (you know who you are!) and yet I left there feeling sad that I barely talked to some of the people I miss the most, people I used to talk to all the time, or perhaps I should say people who used to talk to me.... I'm sure some of what I feel is all in my head, I'm pretty prone to reading way too much into things and taking people the wrong way, but I feel a distance there that I think isn't entirely imagined. I don't feel like part of the old crowd anymore (I mean the old crowd of friends, not the old crowd of people I don't want to hang out with), I feel like an outsider. Not that they wouldn't graciously accept me if made the move to put myself in with the group, but something has changed, some subtle shift I can't really put my finger on. I want things to be the same as they used to be. I stood at the door of the "chicken party" last night, hearing my old friends laughing and having a good time. I couldn't knock, I felt like I didn't belong. I don't know if I'm imagining that or not, but it's weird, and it pains me how much I miss a few people who I have known for most of my life. Sigh.

So I guess the big question is what to do, and there's a long term and a short term aspect to that. What to do the rest of the season, and what to do with the birds. I REALLY want to go up to Eureka for their 50th anniversary show. But what used to be my poultry show travel budget is now my art/engraving show budget, and I'm likely going to be making some BIG trips this year and simply find myself unwilling to spend money going to poultry shows. I can't do it all. Honestly I probably should not have shown this weekend, but it felt important for me to do it anyway. I have an idea for how to get to Eureka, I just need to ask someone for a favor, and of course it might not work. Fresno, well, that's an easy enough day trip, I can do that. I don't want to lose my connections with people I have known so long.

The friendships and social connections are just one aspect though, and perhaps the bigger question is what should I do with my birds. For the last few years I've been cutting back little by little, trying to avoid what seems to be inevitable, but I can't really put off any longer the fact that things need to change. I can't devote the time and effort to raising and showing so many birds anymore. Even with half of what I used to have, it's still too much. I can't do it. I don't do it. Don't get me wrong, they are well cared for, but I don't put the time into training or conditioning and I don't see that changing back to how it used to be. I keep going back and forth about what to do and I still don't know. I thought I had it figured out last year, I was going to sell all the Brassies and Blue Brassies, and keep the BBReds and Blacks. But I couldn't do it, so I backed out and kept them, but raised very few birds. It still feels like more than I can deal with.

I guess I kind of don't feel like I'm doing them justice. I have awesome birds, rare stuff that you won't find anywhere. But if I only show once or twice a year, and don't hatch in large numbers, I'm NOT helping the breed because I'm not promoting or selling any. I think it's time that they be in the hands of people who can show and raise a lot. And yet the thought of selling all my years of hard work, well, it's scary. There's no guarantee as to what would happen to them if they leave my hands, I don't want the bloodlines to be lost. I want fewer birds, but I'm scared to make that leap, which is why I have put it off for the last few years.

I've talked to a handful of people about this, and the immediate response is always concern that I won't show anymore, that nobody will see me again. That's not the case. The lack of showing... that has already changed over the last few years. I already only show once or twice a year. I'd like to keep doing that. I'm okay with that number, I don't think I could show eight times a year anymore. Two is okay. That has already changed, the bird population just hasn't caught up with the drop in showing.

I DO want to keep some birds. I love them. They are beautiful, I enjoy seeing them, and in smaller doses they are a lot of fun and can get quite friendly. That is what I miss. I miss them being fun. Now, they are work. I don't know them, there are few that stand out as individuals. They are the flock, and I want few enough to know them individually.

I've tossed around a lot of options, trying to decide how to handle this. These are all the options, even the ones I don't like:

1) Sell everything. I don't like this, I want to keep some (15-ish sounds good to me, I have somewhere around 60 or 70 right now).

2) Keep everything, and do one of the following:
-same as the last few years, hatch about 75, show once or twice, not have many to sell, just keep doing what I've been doing. This doesn't really help anybody though
- hatch a few hundred again, everybody wants them, I could sell a lot of babies if I raised them. (Ugh, I don't want to do this, plus it's become really hard for me to raise the babies since I have out-of-town obligations in spring and summer, and to raise chicks I really can't ever leave)

3) Sell one or two varieties. I have Black, BBRed, Brassy Back, and Blue Brassy Back. I tried to do this last year, I planned to sell the Brassies and Blue Brassies but it broke my heart because the Blue Brassies are my favorites, and I couldn't do it. The Blacks are the most competitive, they make sense to keep for showing. The BBReds are my pride and joy, how could I think about not having any of those. But to raise BBReds I still need the Blacks for occasional crossbreeding to improve type. See, it's really to the point where they all work together and I can't have one without the other.

4) Sell some of each variety, and keep a small number of each, still keep them purebred and raise a small number. This is a definite possibility, but I sort of feel like I've already reached the point where I have as few of each as I can without running into problems inbreeding them. I don't think I can cut back each individual variety much more. Plus the whole breeding pen thing is kind of a pain in the butt, I really don't have any desire to do all that this season.

Side note here, but I guess I need to talk a little more about my show goals. I don't feel competitive anymore. I'm not in it to win. Yeah, it was very very nice to get a bird on Champion Row this weekend, but I didn't expect it and wouldn't have cared at all if it didn't happen. I really don't care about winning anymore, I just want it to be fun and enjoyable and a relaxing hobby. I think that right there was probably the most important sentence in this ramble.

5) Keep my favorite birds, assorted colors, 15-ish of them. No more breeding pens, no more purebreds. This is Random Rosecombs after all. Keep them all together, or maybe in two or three groups (mindful of what colors are together and what colors they could produce, but keep them MIXED). Hatch some, maybe let them go broody and do the work themselves, who knows what I would get! That was one of the fun things early in the development of the varieties, I never knew what I would get. Could be fun. I am leaning toward this very strongly as my favorite option. Even in mixed flocks they are all the same breed (body type) and can still produce showable offspring in assorted colors. This allows me less birds, a potential for showing, and a little mystery. I would sell the rest. How exactly to sell them is also a pickle. Because of their rarity and the work I've done, I want to be sure they go to reputable homes. But, well, I'll just say it, I want to get a good chunk of money for them. If this is the final sale, they aren't going to be cheap.

So... it's not easy, and I keep waffling. But I think something needs to change, and if I'm going to sell a bunch that needs to happen soon. It's hard to let it go because it's been such a huge part of my life for such a long time. But I'm hoping that it can remain a small (but important, and fun) part of my life for a long time. After all, they call me the chicken lady. :-)

takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'

2010-01-15T21:59:00.001-08:00

Okay, I gotta gives props to Remington!

Right before I went off to college (1997) I got a watch. Nothing fancy. It came from *cough cough* Walmart. It was $30. Made by Remington, mostly silver, kinda western looking. It's been through a lot of batteries and I think it's on the fifth leather band by now. I love this watch, I'm very attached to it.

Today I was washing chickens in preparation for a show, and I didn't want to get water on my watch (remember this fact) so I took it off and put it in the pocket in my sweatshirt.

There's nothing like the smell of wet chickens, so upon finishing the chicken-washing, without thinking, I tossed my clothes in the wash with the dirty towels.

The washing machine did its thing. But I'd stuffed too many clothes in there and it didn't rinse well, so I put it through the rinse cycle... again. And then threw everything in the dryer.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought it seemed particularly clunky sounding, but I didn't pay much attention since there were some jeans in there, and you know how jeans are kinda clunky against the sides of the dryer.

An hour later I took the clothes out, and there, forlorn in the dryer, was my watch. I said some expletives, and then I cried. My watch, my beloved and trusty watch! I had killed my watch!

And then I looked at it. There was water inside, but... it was still running! The plate with the numerals on it was askew (12 was in the 10 position!) but the hands were moving! It wasn't dead!

Taking a watch apart is something I NEVER do, I let the jewelry shop replace the battery. But this was an emergency situation, I had to get it dried out, stat! I'm sure a needlenose pliers is not the right tool for unscrewing the back, but in a pinch, it worked (just a few more scratches on the back now!). I let it air out for a while, painstakingly moved the number plate back into position under the microscope (that thing is so handy!), put the rest of the parts back in, and closed it up. The glass looks like it's been through a hail storm, or maybe it's residue from what got inside the watch. It'll never be crystal clear again, but by golly it works!

Here's to you, Remington. Thirteen years, one wash cycle, two rinses, and an hour on tumble-dry-high later, your watch lives on.

An almost matched set of Colt .45 SAA guns

2010-01-12T22:39:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness, I was going to post these weeks ago! How did I forget that, hmm.

These were the "turkey grips" I was working on months ago. The guns were given for Christmas, so I'm allowed to show everything now.

This project included two consecutively serial numbered 2nd Generation Colt Single Action Army Revolvers - .45 caliber 5-1/2” barrels. The client’s objective was to create twin Colts for his daughters that reflected evocative images of personal and family history.

In the case of the father, an oil producer, the image of an oil derrick signifies a successful and rewarding career. Oil Derricks of his design and particular to his company are inlaid in 24 K raised gold on the leading gates. For the recoil shields the father choose 24K raised gold inlays of the athletic logo of The University of Kentucky, (Wildcats - circa 1970-78) his Alma mater. The daughter’s names and birthdates are engraved in script lettering on the backstraps and shovel heads.

The engraving is classic Colt style scrollwork with background removed and dot punched. All borders, factory lettering and the Rampant Colt are inlaid in 24K gold. The Colts are presented in individual custom Oak and Glass Museum cases.

Scrim Subjects: The father is an avid wild turkey hunter and a fan of the artwork of John J. Audubon. The goal was not at all to copy the work of Audubon, but to depict the toms in a similar manner; non-display pose and in their natural settings. On the other sides of the grips the images were more personalized to each daughter. One daughter plays softball in school, and this is her portrait. The other daughter loves horses and has shown and competed in horse sports. This is a portrait of “Little Red,” her beloved horse who died while she was away at college.

The Artists:

Mike Dubber, Master Engraver
Katherine Plumer, Scrim Artist
Jim Aliamo – Ivory Grips
Reliable Plating – Gold Plating
Turnbull Restoration – charcoal bluing
Les Yoder – Museum Cases
Photography – Michael Wheatley

Grip photos by me:

Professional photos by M. Wheatley:

checking in....

2010-01-10T22:37:00.001-08:00

I'm still here, just haven't had much to say lately. All is well, things are good. :-) I'm working on three scrim pendants (one for me, reworking an old one, and one commission), and tomorrow I will start a new pair of pistol grips.

It's been very gray and foggy lately. I haven't seen the sun for a while.

I'm obsessed with getting a cell phone again. I go through this more or less yearly but never managed to break down and do it, but it's on the list of things I absolutely must do this year. Because:

- I need to be able to post a phone # on my website so clients can call me. It's really bad to be unreachable by phone and I can't post the home # up there. This is probably the most compelling reason to need one.
- I lose serious cool-points by not having one
- it's awkward when dudes call me and get my mom on the phone (this is very infrequent, dudes don't call me much)
- it sucks not to be reachable when traveling

I do have serious iPhone envy, I'd like to be able to do all that nifty stuff too, but the phone plan needed to use one is more than I want to spend. Besides, ATT coverage is pretty spotty around here, and my older-than-dirt emergency phone on the older-than-dirt zero-minute plan it shares with Mom's phone is with Verizon, so maybe they could make me a deal.

Every time I get into researching this I pretty much just get frustrated and give up on it. And that doesn't get me anywhere!

I kinda want to wait a while longer and get a really GOOD plan and a really COOL phone. Eh. [throws hands in air and walks away]

art show postcards

2010-01-08T12:32:00.001-08:00

Just a quickie blog for now, but if you would like to receive a printed postcard (you know, like through the postal service) for my show next month in Lodi, let me know ASAP. I need to tell them how many I need. I will post ALL the information here anyway.

out with the old?

2010-01-04T22:25:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of my own art. Sometimes I find that some of it is no longer very representative of the work that I do. What to do? In some cases, I give it away. At other times maybe I'll sell it at a deep discount. Or I'll decide to keep it. Or I might destroy it. It's not always an easy decision, but sometimes there are things I've done years ago that I no longer want out on the market representing me.

But sometimes I can make them better. :-) I was sitting at the engraving bench tonight working on something, and I happened to take out the dragon pendant and look at the under the scope. Yikes! I scrimmed the dragon pendant a little over two years ago. It was my first color scrim, and the fourth scrim I ever did. It's a nice piece, a very cool image, but hoo boy have I come a long way since then as far as technique and tools are concerned. So suddenly there is a decision to make: keep it and don't have it available for sale, or make it better. I have mixed feelings about working back into a piece that was done years ago, I've never done that with my drawings but sometimes think about it. This feels different though, more okay somehow. I can really improve it, a lot, and feel really good about having it up for sale. I think I'll do that, I want to make it awesome.

So, what am I working on? Well, a few things:

1) something (top secret, it's a scrimshaw of something, I can't talk about it because someone commissioned it for someone, and someone and someone both read this) ;-) That's right, no WIP pics while I'm working on it
2) upcoming soon, scrimshaw lettering (initials) on a set of pistol grips
3) upcoming pending approval, a knife collaboration
4) reworking the dragon scrim
5) a pendant for me
6) there are a few other things "in the works" but far from being confirmed

For me? Yeah! I want to make myself something. I need a show piece, something I can wear to shows that's really nice but that I don't feel obligated to sell. I wracked my brain for a while trying to come up with good subject matter before I realized the choice is obvious. A subject near and dear, and orange and fuzzy. :-) It's going to be VERY difficult, and there are a few things I want to try that are kind of experimental, and that's why it's destined for me. I want to try some stuff on my own before tackling it in commissioned work.

I still need to post all the cool things I made people for Christmas...

And I need to set up the bench grinder so I can use all my nifty new sharpening stuff!

cursed by links

2010-01-04T12:52:00.000-08:00

Arg! Ever since I've had the scrimshaw website set up, I've had a links page on it. While updating the site with new images yesterday, I realized that none of the pages actually linked to the links page, so probably nobody was even aware of it. D'oh!

So I added the link to the links page, and then (I thought) linked it to the links page, and then copy and pasted that onto ALL the other pages.

Are you confused yet?

Just right now I happened to be looking at my site after making another small update, and I realized that I didn't link the links button to the links page, I linked it to itself, the "links" jpeg. OMG. I can't believe I did that. That means I have to go through every darn page again and fix it.

I know that probably didn't make a lot of sense to a lot of people but I'm annoyed!!! And what are blogs for but to express that sort of thing.

I think I'll rummage for lunch first.

Groan.

(EDIT) And then when I fixed it I managed to somehow link it to the index instead of the links page, on every page. What the????!! Did my brain fall out? Aaaarg!

poultry shows

2010-01-03T22:39:00.000-08:00

Oh my, 2010. I am still having trouble writing the 10, I keep making it an 09. I feel as though I ought to write some lofty post about resolutions, but I'm not going to. I have some big goals for this year, and a really good feeling about things. :-)

A few people have been asking if I'm going to be showing this year. I still need to explain what's going on with the chickens, but the short answer is yes. A little bit. I am planning to go to Hollister with a few birds. I don't think I have much in show shape.

I no longer show in Stockton but someone has requested my presence to discuss some art business, so I'll be down there that Saturday afternoon. Gulp. I can't quite begin to explain how weird that's going to feel. Friends, are any of you going to be there without banquet plans? Want to meet for dinner or something?

As for February, well... I'd love to attend the 50th anniversary show in Eureka but I don't see that as being likely. I might do another day trip to Fresno like last year, but I don't know what the bird situation will be at that time.

Big changes this year...

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T12:33:00.001-08:00

A new year, a new decade, and a blue moon. Good things are coming, and I'm excited. :-)

Here's to a happy (and safe!) New Year!

The Generations Knife

2009-12-30T22:39:00.001-08:00

Now I get to show you the completed photos! :-) I hear the recipient is pretty happy. :-)

Remember, if you click on the "Generations knife" tag at the bottom of this post you can see all the pics together!

Doberman Pinscher dog scrimshaw pendant

2009-12-29T16:44:00.000-08:00

Yay, I can finally post this! :-) Well, I shouldn't say "finally" I guess, I only finished it on the 23rd!

This project is a pendant featuring a Doberman Pinscher dog named "Rosie." It's a 30x40mm pre-ban elephant ivory cabochon, set in sterling silver, and it was a commissioned Christmas gift. I scrimmed it in full color, and it used 8 different mixes of ink. So I guess you could call it an 8-color scrim! I'm also big on gradation and tonality, so there is light and dark within each color of ink. It takes me a loooong time to build up the layers from light to dark, and then to layer the various colors. But the process is so worth it to get the right look!

I'll show you the work in progress pics. These are photographed under various lighting conditions over several days. Please pardon the weird yellowish tone to some of the pics.

The outline lightly transferred to the ivory (out of focus, sorry):

The outline heavily scrimmed. That's not really something that has to be done, it's just my style of working, I think it helps make tiny images a little easier to "read"!

Okay, so at this point I had this major dilemma of what order I wanted to work in. Originally I was thinking I'd start with the darkest areas. But I didn't want to. I want to go light to dark like I'm drawing even though I think most people go dark to light. ;-) Yes, that right there is the extend of my rebellious streak I think! But I figured doing the eyes and nose first made sense:

And then the pink of the ears and muzzle:

Then all the tan areas (this took a few layers to get it dark enough, but I didn't photograph all that):

Starting the dark reddish brown:

Building up the dark color on the face:

Starting work on the neck:

Then I forgot to photograph it for a while until all the dark color was on:

Added a darker tan to the tan areas (yes, I do sometimes "backtrack" to work on colors):

At that point all that was left was to darken the darkest brown areas with the last layer of color. And then it was done!

And with a penny for scale:

What I hope you can see in this pic is that it ends up pretty heavily engraved, though you can't really feel it much with your fingers. There is NO surface ink. It's all down in the dots, and I buff these things down quite hard between ink layers!

The pendant with the original reference photo (the color in the original photo was pretty bad, that's where knowing the subject matter comes in handy!)

re-establishing normal

2009-12-29T12:38:00.000-08:00

Whew. I'm back.

We left here at 6:30am on Christmas day and headed for southern California. I unfortunately managed to come down with a cold two days before Christmas and was feeling pretty amazingly crappy that day, and slightly less crappy each day thereafter. We stopped in Riverside to visit with some of Dad's relatives, and then drove onward to San Diego for the traditional couple of days with Mom's family. It was so nice to see everyone, I just wish I would have felt better. I wasn't very good company!

I got back yesterday evening. Traffic yesterday was AWFUL for almost the whole drive. Ugh.

Some pics from the trip:

I went to the ocean while I was doing there. This is at La Jolla:

Seals have taken over what used to be the Children's Cove. Now people are not allowed. I have pretty mixed feelings about this. I'm pretty sappy about things that involve animals, BUT I swam there as a kid.

Brown Pelicans:

Pyramid Lake (along side I-5 in the Tejon Pass):

Descending into fog on the return trip. Eventually the fog turned into rain. Lots of brake lights on the way home.

I have four new scrim projects to show you, but I need to organize a whole bunch of photographs first. I'll be working on some price quotes and preliminary sketches in the next couple days, but am not officially starting work again til the 4th. I have a bunch of house work to do in the mean time anyway, and if there's a nice day outside I'll do some serious barn-cleaning.

Merry Happy Ho Ho Ho

2009-12-24T17:06:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Seasons Greetings! Etc!

My work is done, my presents are wrapped, myself is sick. Tis the season.

Have a good one, and don't overdo the egg nog or you might end up like this guy:

It's break time, see y'all in a while. :-)