I did nothing today. Nothing useful anyway. It was great, it was just what I needed. I've been wound up pretty tight lately and needed to chill out a little. I probably should have gone somewhere pretty or done something fun, but lounging around most of the day worked well enough (no worries, even a day I do nothing still means fed/watered the critters, blogged, did some website work, dug some weeds out of the pasture, watched some wild turkeys, etc).
I'll be starting my next project tomorrow, it will go a whole lot faster than the belt buckle, since it'll be single-color and much smaller. I can't tell you what it is, it's a commissioned gift. I will be able to show you in about a month. Sorry about all the stuff I can't show in progress. :-(
Sunday, July 12, 2009
rooster scrimshaw belt buckle
This project has been a long time in the making, but from the start there was no doubt as to what the subject matter should be. This piece is done as a gift (from a group of people) to honor a professor of Avian Science who has done so much work for exhibition poultry, 4-H, and youth exhibitors over the years.... and who happens to have a particular fondness for belt buckles. :-) I knew that the Phoenix fowl has a special place in her heart, and thought that breed of chicken would make a great subject for the buckle. But how to do that.... How to fit a very "long" bird into that space. For a little history, this this is a breed I have depicted often in my art, in different poses and different formats. The American version of this bird can have a tail up to about 6 feet in length, but the ones you'd see at shows are usually much shorter than that.
Often they are depicted with the tail streaming out behind in a long horizontal piece, or perched with the tail hanging down in a long vertical art piece:
This one (deliberately not meant to match "Standard" descriptions, but positioned to fit a very specific shape of rectangle) obviously has a significantly shorter tail, that sweeps around beside him in this drawing:
I was thinking the bird for the belt buckle would be similar to this guy, but more horizontal in stance, with a longer more sweeping tail, and looking back over his shoulder to balance out the composition a little bit. Please don't laugh at this very rough sketch, everything starts out like this, and it's just a little thumbnail sketch:
So I started drawing that on a full sheet of paper, but just wasn't having any luck with it, I couldn't get it to look right with him turning his head that way. I got really frustrated, and then realized all I needed to do was turn the bird around so that he's looking over the other shoulder, like so:
Much better! That is the final mockup sketch. There were many in between which I'm not going to show you, but it was quite a long progression. As this is a belt buckle, which people tend to think of as being engraved metal, I wanted to incorporate some scrollwork, but I had to break some of the rules of scrolls, because it was more important that the bird have tail feathers that could be somewhat realistic, instead of just swirling off into totally fanciful scrollwork. So there was a pretty fine line of what I could do, and I went back and forth on how many feathers should be curled, how to intersect and overlap them, and eventually this is just what felt right, so I went with it. I was thrilled to find that font, because I could loop one of the letters around the border the same way that I did with the tail feathers.
So once I got that all finalized, it was time to start on the scrimshaw itself. I'm not going to talk about technique. I've done some tutorials, I've talked about it a lot, and certain things get to be my little secrets. As a review though, remember that scrimshaw is the art of engraving on ivory/bone/synthetic. The engraved markings are then filled with ink, to create the image. Multicolor images are built up one layer at a time (JUST LIKE DRAWING!). Sometimes I work dark to light, sometimes light to dark, sometimes I skip around. It has more to do with where various colors are located in a piece I guess, so that I don't end up smearing things into places they shouldn't go. Here's how this one progressed:
Transfered the outline:
Strengthened the outline so I can better see what I'm doing, and scrimmed the text in black:
Scrimmed all the black areas:
Added the green to the black areas so get that sheen that black feathers have:
Scrimmed the gold areas with several colors of golden brown ink:
Scrimmed the bird's red face:
Now, to my absolute mortification, I found that the Higgin's red drawing ink does not stick. Crisis! Most colors will stick down in the engraved dots but buff off the surface. Well, this didn't stick at all. So I had to do a crazy concoction of red, yellow, and brown just to give it some staying power. It worked. Crisis averted. Whew. I will be shopping for another brand of red ink (that's so weird!) And as a side note, the inks are topped with a few layers of microcrystalline wax polish (which buffs down to a microscopically thin layer) to protect them.
All that was left at this point was the border, signature, and to place the ivory into the buckle itself!
I kinda lost track of how many colors went into this. At least 11, maybe 12. This might sound weird, but I'm just flat out amazed at how much this ends up being like a colored pencil drawing as far as the layering and everything, and I did not think I would be able to get this sort of look from scrimshaw. Love it!
Here is the completed buckle, and some closeups (btw it's all dots):
Dr. B's belt buckle
multicolor scrimshaw on pre-ban elephant ivory
entire buckle is just over 2x3 at edges of brass, ivory inlay is 45x65mm
I have heard the phrase "over the moon" tossed around as a measure of how a recipient reacts to a piece, and I think that was definitely the case here. :-) This buckle is going to be a treasured piece. Thank you so much to everyone who helped make this piece possible.
Often they are depicted with the tail streaming out behind in a long horizontal piece, or perched with the tail hanging down in a long vertical art piece:
This one (deliberately not meant to match "Standard" descriptions, but positioned to fit a very specific shape of rectangle) obviously has a significantly shorter tail, that sweeps around beside him in this drawing:
I was thinking the bird for the belt buckle would be similar to this guy, but more horizontal in stance, with a longer more sweeping tail, and looking back over his shoulder to balance out the composition a little bit. Please don't laugh at this very rough sketch, everything starts out like this, and it's just a little thumbnail sketch:
So I started drawing that on a full sheet of paper, but just wasn't having any luck with it, I couldn't get it to look right with him turning his head that way. I got really frustrated, and then realized all I needed to do was turn the bird around so that he's looking over the other shoulder, like so:
Much better! That is the final mockup sketch. There were many in between which I'm not going to show you, but it was quite a long progression. As this is a belt buckle, which people tend to think of as being engraved metal, I wanted to incorporate some scrollwork, but I had to break some of the rules of scrolls, because it was more important that the bird have tail feathers that could be somewhat realistic, instead of just swirling off into totally fanciful scrollwork. So there was a pretty fine line of what I could do, and I went back and forth on how many feathers should be curled, how to intersect and overlap them, and eventually this is just what felt right, so I went with it. I was thrilled to find that font, because I could loop one of the letters around the border the same way that I did with the tail feathers.
So once I got that all finalized, it was time to start on the scrimshaw itself. I'm not going to talk about technique. I've done some tutorials, I've talked about it a lot, and certain things get to be my little secrets. As a review though, remember that scrimshaw is the art of engraving on ivory/bone/synthetic. The engraved markings are then filled with ink, to create the image. Multicolor images are built up one layer at a time (JUST LIKE DRAWING!). Sometimes I work dark to light, sometimes light to dark, sometimes I skip around. It has more to do with where various colors are located in a piece I guess, so that I don't end up smearing things into places they shouldn't go. Here's how this one progressed:
Transfered the outline:
Strengthened the outline so I can better see what I'm doing, and scrimmed the text in black:
Scrimmed all the black areas:
Added the green to the black areas so get that sheen that black feathers have:
Scrimmed the gold areas with several colors of golden brown ink:
Scrimmed the bird's red face:
Now, to my absolute mortification, I found that the Higgin's red drawing ink does not stick. Crisis! Most colors will stick down in the engraved dots but buff off the surface. Well, this didn't stick at all. So I had to do a crazy concoction of red, yellow, and brown just to give it some staying power. It worked. Crisis averted. Whew. I will be shopping for another brand of red ink (that's so weird!) And as a side note, the inks are topped with a few layers of microcrystalline wax polish (which buffs down to a microscopically thin layer) to protect them.
All that was left at this point was the border, signature, and to place the ivory into the buckle itself!
I kinda lost track of how many colors went into this. At least 11, maybe 12. This might sound weird, but I'm just flat out amazed at how much this ends up being like a colored pencil drawing as far as the layering and everything, and I did not think I would be able to get this sort of look from scrimshaw. Love it!
Here is the completed buckle, and some closeups (btw it's all dots):
Dr. B's belt buckle
multicolor scrimshaw on pre-ban elephant ivory
entire buckle is just over 2x3 at edges of brass, ivory inlay is 45x65mm
I have heard the phrase "over the moon" tossed around as a measure of how a recipient reacts to a piece, and I think that was definitely the case here. :-) This buckle is going to be a treasured piece. Thank you so much to everyone who helped make this piece possible.
Friday, July 10, 2009
one less monster
So the "thing under the house" that Mom told me about.... I found it. I heard it this morning, outside the kitchen window where she said she thought it was coming from the ventilation grate under the house, under the window where Olin was sitting staring intently downward. I went outside to confront whatever beast was clawing away down there, but saw only an empty feed bag that Mom had propped against the side of the house under the window, yesterday evening, shortly before she heard the monster under the house.
Scritch scritch scritch! Ah, the monster is clearly IN the feed bag. I laughed. The monster had two beady black eyes, a little twitching nose, lots of whiskers, and was about 5 inches long from nose to tail. ;-)
The monster has, uh, "gone to a better place" shall we say. I'm sure the world will sleep better tonight.
Scritch scritch scritch! Ah, the monster is clearly IN the feed bag. I laughed. The monster had two beady black eyes, a little twitching nose, lots of whiskers, and was about 5 inches long from nose to tail. ;-)
The monster has, uh, "gone to a better place" shall we say. I'm sure the world will sleep better tonight.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
checking in....
Yup, I'm still alive.
I finished the big project I've been working on, right on schedule and exactly on the mark with the time investment that I estimated. I need to photograph it tomorrow, and will post pics by the end of the weekend. It is going to be a difficult piece to photograph.
I still have not gotten the computer looked it, and it still occasionally makes strange noises. Almost only at night (right now, for example). I need to open it up, I know I know. I absolute hate doing that. Maybe it's haunted. Mom says there's something under the house, she heard it scratching around under there and Olin cat was pretty perked up about one of the ventilation holes. Great, that's not going to creep me out or anything...
Tomorrow I take my artwork in to State Fair. I still need to write my artist statement. And clean brooders. And make cookies. And a zillion other things.
I got a phone call this morning that I've been waiting a long time for, and it completely lifted my spirits (which are pretty good already! Other than some griping..) brightened my day, and plastered a smile on my face, and put to rest some worries that have been taking up way too much brain space lately. It's so good to be back in touch with someone I have missed like crazy. :-)
And with that, goodnight.
I finished the big project I've been working on, right on schedule and exactly on the mark with the time investment that I estimated. I need to photograph it tomorrow, and will post pics by the end of the weekend. It is going to be a difficult piece to photograph.
I still have not gotten the computer looked it, and it still occasionally makes strange noises. Almost only at night (right now, for example). I need to open it up, I know I know. I absolute hate doing that. Maybe it's haunted. Mom says there's something under the house, she heard it scratching around under there and Olin cat was pretty perked up about one of the ventilation holes. Great, that's not going to creep me out or anything...
Tomorrow I take my artwork in to State Fair. I still need to write my artist statement. And clean brooders. And make cookies. And a zillion other things.
I got a phone call this morning that I've been waiting a long time for, and it completely lifted my spirits (which are pretty good already! Other than some griping..) brightened my day, and plastered a smile on my face, and put to rest some worries that have been taking up way too much brain space lately. It's so good to be back in touch with someone I have missed like crazy. :-)
And with that, goodnight.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
things that annoy me
Maybe they will annoy me less if I write them down.
When planning a party:
People who don't bother to RSVP. I assume these people aren't coming, but it would be nice to know. Like, even an email would be fine.
People who say they'll be there and then don't show up. Common courtesy I think would at least be a phone call afterwards saying "so sorry, we were deathly ill and couldn't make it." Or whatever the excuse of the day may be.
People who don't RSVP and then show up anyway, sending me scrambling to find more chairs.
Okay I kind of hate party planning, and twice in two weekends is threatening to make my brain explode.
Other things that annoy me:
People who write "U" and "R" instead of "you" and "are." And other things like that too. I'm down with the LOL and the BTW, but when someone writes and says "I want 2 get chickens from U, R U selling any" I don't want to reply, and dudes, you need to know that when you send me a note that says "How R U?" you lose major IQ points in my book and that's pretty much an instant dealbreaker. Call me picky, I just HATE THAT. Really, is it THAT DIFFICULT to write a few more letters and not look like a flaming idiot? And I only thought about being an English minor in college, thank goodness it didn't go any farther.
When planning a party:
People who don't bother to RSVP. I assume these people aren't coming, but it would be nice to know. Like, even an email would be fine.
People who say they'll be there and then don't show up. Common courtesy I think would at least be a phone call afterwards saying "so sorry, we were deathly ill and couldn't make it." Or whatever the excuse of the day may be.
People who don't RSVP and then show up anyway, sending me scrambling to find more chairs.
Okay I kind of hate party planning, and twice in two weekends is threatening to make my brain explode.
Other things that annoy me:
People who write "U" and "R" instead of "you" and "are." And other things like that too. I'm down with the LOL and the BTW, but when someone writes and says "I want 2 get chickens from U, R U selling any" I don't want to reply, and dudes, you need to know that when you send me a note that says "How R U?" you lose major IQ points in my book and that's pretty much an instant dealbreaker. Call me picky, I just HATE THAT. Really, is it THAT DIFFICULT to write a few more letters and not look like a flaming idiot? And I only thought about being an English minor in college, thank goodness it didn't go any farther.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
weekend warrior
Wow, Sunday night already. I think I'll sleep well tonight. Saturday was busy with the usual 4th of July festivities. Food, friends, family, and a few fireworks. :-) It felt like kind of a whirlwind evening.
Today was the dance performance down at the Galt Festival. We had an hour long spot, but nobody danced that entire time (whew!). It was good, the weather was very nice although it was pretty windy which made for some veil challenges. I think it was a really good show though, I hope everyone who saw it enjoyed it. :-)
The group that performed tonight:
Me getting my veil all tangled up:
Today was the dance performance down at the Galt Festival. We had an hour long spot, but nobody danced that entire time (whew!). It was good, the weather was very nice although it was pretty windy which made for some veil challenges. I think it was a really good show though, I hope everyone who saw it enjoyed it. :-)
The group that performed tonight:
Me getting my veil all tangled up:
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Stars and Stripes
Beaker, the Swedish Chef, and the chickens! Be still my beating heart! :-)
Happy 4th of July!!!
Happy 4th of July!!!
Friday, July 03, 2009
just a tease
I'm just going to tease you with a little closeup of what I'm working on. :-) In real life this is about a half inch wide. Not done yet...
I hope you all have a safe and happy 4th of July! Gonna be a long day, I'd better hit the hay!
I hope you all have a safe and happy 4th of July! Gonna be a long day, I'd better hit the hay!
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Cream Cheese Brownies
If you're looking for something healthy and low calorie to make... go find someone else's blog! If you're looking for something that's decadent and rich and full of calories, you've come to the right place. ;-)
I modified this recipe slightly from that which I found in a book, so I'll give it to you as I made it.
Cream Cheese Brownies
2 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar, divided
3 Tbsp milk
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup instant hot cocoa mix (I used Nestle)
4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa (or to taste, use your judgement on this one)
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups flour
1 cup chopped nuts (optional, I did not include this, you could also use chocolate chips)
1. In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and milk until fluffy; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, hot cocoa mix, cocoa, and remaining 1-1/2 cup sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour and nuts.
2. Pour half the batter into a greased 13x9x2 baking pan. Spread with cream cheese mixture. Top with remaining batter. Cut through batter with a knife to swirl the cream cheese.
3. Bake at 350° for 48-52 minutes (times may vary! The recipe called for 35-40 but that nowhere near enough) until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, and the edges are starting to pull away from the pan. Cool and cut. In my opinion, these are best when COLD so I keep them in the fridge!
4. Enjoy!
I modified this recipe slightly from that which I found in a book, so I'll give it to you as I made it.
Cream Cheese Brownies
2 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar, divided
3 Tbsp milk
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup instant hot cocoa mix (I used Nestle)
4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa (or to taste, use your judgement on this one)
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups flour
1 cup chopped nuts (optional, I did not include this, you could also use chocolate chips)
1. In a small mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and milk until fluffy; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, hot cocoa mix, cocoa, and remaining 1-1/2 cup sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour and nuts.
2. Pour half the batter into a greased 13x9x2 baking pan. Spread with cream cheese mixture. Top with remaining batter. Cut through batter with a knife to swirl the cream cheese.
3. Bake at 350° for 48-52 minutes (times may vary! The recipe called for 35-40 but that nowhere near enough) until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, and the edges are starting to pull away from the pan. Cool and cut. In my opinion, these are best when COLD so I keep them in the fridge!
4. Enjoy!
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
sort of a foodie day
Okay, there really aren't enough hours in the day lately.
I am so excited to show you all the belt buckle when it's done. It's not done. I should refrain from ever thinking something might go quicker than my initial estimate, because it never does. ;-) The day just flies past. I must really get into "the zone" especially when I'm using the AirGraver. I've noticed my breathing gets really really slow. Weird huh!
I got enough orders to make another batch of apricot jam today. Yay! I really love making jam. Perhaps the best part is getting to scrape the bowl and eat the tiny bit of leftovers that don't make it into the jars. ;-) I'm pretty fast at it now, I can crank out a batch of jam in no time. Lots of water, lots of boiling, lots of sugar. It's an interesting process.
And this afternoon I made cream cheese brownies, which are dangerously good. Really, like, consume with caution because you might croak of sheer bliss. I will post the recipe another day. New recipe for me (which I of course modified).
And I fed more watermelon to the ducks, because it's hilarious. This end piece was kinda mushy and gross. It didn't take them any time at all to eat all the good stuff, leaving only a green and white "bowl" behind (which Shylah the horse was entirely happy to eat). Animals, the great recyclers. :-)
I am so excited to show you all the belt buckle when it's done. It's not done. I should refrain from ever thinking something might go quicker than my initial estimate, because it never does. ;-) The day just flies past. I must really get into "the zone" especially when I'm using the AirGraver. I've noticed my breathing gets really really slow. Weird huh!
I got enough orders to make another batch of apricot jam today. Yay! I really love making jam. Perhaps the best part is getting to scrape the bowl and eat the tiny bit of leftovers that don't make it into the jars. ;-) I'm pretty fast at it now, I can crank out a batch of jam in no time. Lots of water, lots of boiling, lots of sugar. It's an interesting process.
And this afternoon I made cream cheese brownies, which are dangerously good. Really, like, consume with caution because you might croak of sheer bliss. I will post the recipe another day. New recipe for me (which I of course modified).
And I fed more watermelon to the ducks, because it's hilarious. This end piece was kinda mushy and gross. It didn't take them any time at all to eat all the good stuff, leaving only a green and white "bowl" behind (which Shylah the horse was entirely happy to eat). Animals, the great recyclers. :-)
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