stupid city slickers

I guess it was bound to happen. We can't do the Starbucks ride anymore. Somebody complained about the horses.

Stupid stupid stupid.

*grumble* :-(

There must be places left in the world where you can still do things like that.

peacock scrim done!

Woo hoo! I am just totally excited that the experiment with a different ink (India and colored drawing inks) and a different technique (sealing each layer of color with wax) seems to work, and I CAN scrim from light to dark. Let me be totally clear though, this is REALLY hard to do! :-0

So, I'm going to have someone "test drive" this piece for a while and then I'll take a look at it and make sure there's no loss of ink. I think this'll solve that problem though, so although I still want to be *sure* I think I can safely say I'm once again able to make scrim jewelry and I am ready to take on color commissions (just over two months til Christmas, hint hint!). Contact me for individual pricing, it's going to vary immensely depending on the subject. Remember, elephant ivory can't be exported. I can export mammoth ivory though.

Remember you can read the whole tutorial here: Color Scrimshaw Peacock Pendant

I am going to be transferring the tutorials to my website too, eventually... I could post it all here too.. (?)

October 13 work in progress

Since the last time you saw this I've added the blue-green and brown layers. I'm currently working on the black areas, which is the biggest challenge. It's going pretty well though. Hope to be done with that tomorrow.

I'm too tired to photograph the other stuff, sorry.

I'm glad the wind has stopped. We had several days of chilly dry north wind, which was unpleasant.

I just joined Facebook, feel free to add me if you're on there. Just look up my name. If you don't know my name... you need help.

October 10 work in progress

Hoo wee it's been windy the last few days. It's so dry here there's dust blowing around like crazy.

I started the two Serama illustrations today but they are not far enough along to make for an interesting WIP photo yet. The bison scrim (on mammoth ivory) is just at the transfer stage, so not all that pretty yet. I'll show you the peacock-in-progress though. Remember this is NOT done yet. I'm experimenting with different ink than I normally use, so it's a somewhat different process. I'm attempting to work from light to dark (the same way I draw) which most scrimshanders will say is not the way it's done. Well, you can't just tell me something doesn't work, I have to find out for myself. And the good news is it does seem to be working.

There are three more layers of color to go. If you want to know more about this, see the link to the tutorial that I posted two postings ago.


peacock
18x25mm
color scrimshaw on pre-ban elephant ivory

Eddie

Eddie
Spring 1996 - October 9, 2008

Some chickens are just chickens. Some chickens leave a legacy. Eddie was the latter. Eddie hatched in 1996, he was the first BBRed I was ever able to show after five generations of work. He knocked their socks off at PPBA in January of 1997. He was the granddaddy (with a lot of "greats" in front of that) of every Black Breasted Red I have EVER raised.

Eddie was never friendly. He tolerated me, he didn't have a mean bone in him, he just didn't care much for being handled. For the last many years he always lived with the youngsters in the summertime, and the pullets always seemed to dote on him. For the last few years he spent at least a week or so living in a cage in the kitchen. The change of season always seemed to drag him down a little, but some time indoors with special treats always brought him around. Last year he spent the whole winter in the house, and I dare say he rather enjoyed it. On nice days I'd put him outside to roam around, and come evening he'd be right there waiting on the back step for me to bring him back inside for the night.

He'd been looking much older lately, but still spry and living the good life with his "big girls" (the 6 large fowl egg layers). He was out and about the coop this morning, but when I went to gather eggs this evening he was dead. At the age of twelve and a half, he was the oldest bird I'd ever had, and I have to think he left life as happily as a chicken can.

He lived a good life, he made a lot of people stop and look, he made me laugh, he always looked so grumpy if I picked him and made a fuss over him, but he took it.

Those times I've won big at a show with a BBRed Rosecomb, the promising youngsters out there, that is Eddie's legacy. He was a good boy and I will my ole Ed.

works in progress

You thought I was slacking off didn't you. *snork* No. I'm doing two more (and maybe more) or those engraving tutorials (yes, I want to win!) so I've been all focused on those and then I forget to post work in progress over there. Though there's not much excitement to show here anyway. A sanded piece of ivory, woo hoo!

If you would like to check them out (please do), here they are:

Experimenting with Mammoth Ivory

Color Scrimshaw Peacock Pendant

The next three drawings will be chickens. And then one I can't talk about til after Christmas. More western/horse stuff too. I have so many ideas I don't even know where to start. ;-)

ps- Anyone want to go see the movie "Appaloosa" with me?

horsing around

Whew, busy weekend! Yesterday I spent much of the day at "Avian Science Day," a yearly event at UCDavis. There were some really interesting topics presented this year. I did a little scrimshaw in the evening and gathered up the auction birds.

This morning I was out the door at 6:08AM (eww) and got to auction a little before 7. Only took 13 birds, but every little bit helps. I need to clean out a couple of the now-empty conditioning pens and move all the cockerels in there. It's time to get them away from the pullets, they are starting to cause trouble...

Got home, fed the horses, fed me, gathered up my camera and headed out to a gaited horse show at Brookside with JJ. That was really interesting. I'm getting a better idea what the various gaits are, but I think what was most interesting is how many of the horses weren't doing it right. Foxtrotters that just trotted regular, for example, or a running walk and a flat walk that were absolutely no different. I took some pics but am way too tired to go through them.

I did a quick ride on Dusty as soon as we got back here. Shylah must be rubbing off on him, he was very lazy today. Perfecting this stuff is going to take a long time. Here's a pic from today, bareback (well, bareback pad anyway) to get a good feel for what he's doing:


I spent a couple hours this afternoon doing everything in my power not to fall asleep, and then WM picked me and Shylah up around 3pm for another round of the Starbucks ride. It was just the two of us today, which really gives the ride a very different feel. She rode her young thoroughbred Toby, who was just as slow and poky as Shylah. Neither one of them is a really super confident leader but they both got to lead and both got to follow and both did quite well. There were a few times it seemed better just to get off and walk (like crossing a very busy street). When it's a big group, a horse doesn't really have time to think about stuff, they just want to stay with the pack. With fewer horses they notice more of the surroundings I think. I'm always of the "better safe than sorry" mindset so I have no problems hand-walking a horse. Good ride. Slow ride. Shylah got called majestic and pretty, by teenage boys! Lol.

chickens I guess

It's pretty weird not to be at the Central Coast Feather Fanciers show this weekend. I'm sad about missing it, but I had to do it. I'm getting a little excited about the big National down in Ventura. I sorted through the birds today to pick out what to take to auction Sunday morning and by golly in the last week some of the birds have really blossomed! Looks like I may end up with some pretty awesome pullets to show this fall. The cockerels likely won't be feathered out til winter. There are some pretty nice black cockerels. There's one I picked out to sell because his earlobes are actually too big. Weird! That's never been a problem, but considering the outcross, it's not unexpected. I'm thinking though that someone might just flip their lid over this big-lobed bird and he would be a good breeder if someone had a bloodline needing some oomph in that department so maybe I ought to take him down to Ventura to sell. I may have a few blacks for sale, I'll get that figured out soon.

Everyone and their dog wants to buy BBReds. Hmm, ain't likely to happen. There's one cockerel I like. I have three cockerels right now. One's going to auction (awful comb). The other I don't like much but *could* sell, though I don't really feel good about selling a bird I don't like when in the past I've had an abundance of really good ones. So that leaves me with two old breeding stock males and one youngster, and I won't use a cockerel for breeding so I think I'd better hang onto all three. Less than that would be unwise. I learned my lesson with the Brassies last year when my *only* male ended up infertile. I used a Black male instead but didn't get much worth keeping. Still toying a bit with the idea of selling off that whole pen of birds (Brassy Back and Blue Brassy Back), I'm just not sure yet the right person is out there who will take them and not ruin my 11 years of hard work with those colors. If you think you're that person, drop me a line and we'll talk, but I'll require some convincing.

Time to sleep.

In Good Hands

Finished!

I did have to crop it. It's a long story. Sometimes I'm not as smart as I like to think. ;-)


"In Good Hands"
graphite and charcoal on velour board
11 by 17 inches
price to be determined

come on now

It's October. It's 97 degrees outside. Enough already!!!