There isn't all that much excitement right now but I tend to feel somewhat guilty if I don't write stuff, because then it's like people are checking in on me for nothing.
I finished my stupid sales tax forms on time. I guess I can procrastinate a little bit til the really horrendous ones are due in April...
I ordered a desk for my microscope. It won't be here for two weeks. It's bigger than I had in mind (the guy at the store said it would be much sturdier than the one I had in mind though, plus it was about $100 cheaper, woo hoo!) I need to bust out my map I made in InDesign of the front room/studio area and figure out ahead of time where the heck all this stuff is going to go. I think something will get banished. Maybe the easel will just be folded up most of the time. If things go how I want them to go then I do anticipate doing fewer paintings (that'll make a few people sad). I'm having a bit of a problem with the scope right now anyway. I won't get into detail but hopefully this will get resolved soon, one way or another! I really don't want to scrim next door anymore, but I might just to finish up the dog portrait...we'll see. There's quite a lot of stuff I need to do.
I've been sewing like mad working on the costumes for Rakkasah for "A" and I. They are gorgeous, if I can toot my own horn. You should come see us just to ogle the outfits I'm making, if nothing else!
I have two poultry shows this month.
Oh! And the big computer is back. Yay! It seems so huge! Hopefully at some point I will catch up on emails...
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Reno, casino, and a Greyhound bus
Wow. What a weekend it was. :-)
So by the end of last week it was looking like attempting to drive to Reno would be a really bad idea. When I had first thought to do this the forecast was for a sunny weekend, so I figured I'd drive up in the morning and drive home that night. Then I thought maybe night would be bad because of ice so I figured I'd just stay over. And then the forecast was calling for snow and wind and all that crap so it became pretty clear that my old car and me with no snow experience would be a REALLY bad idea. I couldn't find anyone else to con into going. The train took too darn long to get there. So the only option left was the bus. This made me nervous but by golly I HAD TO get to Reno. So I checked the weather and the road conditions, bought bus tickets (cheaper than driving, woo hoo!) and made a reservation at the Silver Legacy (cheap yay!).
I was dog-sitting out of town this weekend, so I had to get up at 5am Sunday to leave there and come back home so Mom could take me to the bus station down town (leaving a car there is a baaaad idea). Got there at 8, and there were hardly any people in line to go to Reno. I'd expected a nearly empty bus (after all who else would be crazy enough to go to Reno in that sort of weather!) but was dismayed to find the bus already almost full from people at earlier stops. Durn. I sat by someone who seemed quiet and normal, but unfortunately she left in Roseville. And just when it was looking like I might get a whole row to myself, this little tiny old lady with way too much makeup and biggest hairsprayed teased hair I have ever seen came and asked if she could sit there. So she tossed her duffle bag on the seat, and sat on it (so looking in the mirror she was suddenly a good 8 inches taller than me!). She then proceeded to remove a jacket, a vest, a sweater, and another vest, all the while elbowing me and getting her stuff all over me. And she did not sit still, she shuffled around the whole trip and bumped into me constantly, and also sighed LOUDLY approximately every 5 minutes. OMG. By the time I got to Reno my head was throbbing and I was pretty grumpy. Note to self, get a dang ipod! I read a book almost the whole trip but it sure would have been nice to drown people out.
It was snowy in the mountains, chains were required. Boy was I glad I wasn't trying to drive in that.
We rolled into Reno about a half hour late. I was thrilled to find that the bus dropped off at Circus Circus, so all I had to do was walk across the street to get to the Silver Legacy. I walked into a room filled with blinky noisy casino stuff and was pretty much instantly lost. I was lost most of the time I was there, that place is HUGE with so much stuff in it! I eventually found the lobby and got my room. On the 18th floor! Wow, somehow I felt so high class being way up there. :-) The room was quite nice. I snarfed down some lunch, got hold of my engraver friends, and headed down to the show.
WOW pretty much sums it up. It was a firearms and engraving show, so there were a lot of guns but a lot of other types of engraving too, and people who make gun stocks and other parts. Really neat. And so different than an art show. I'm used to seeing booths, but at this type of show people rent a table, and just have a few items out on the table. It looked really classy. I visited with B.H. and K.H. for a little bit (B.H. won the "Best Engraved Handgun" award. Awesome!) And then I just wandered around. I really only caught the tail end of the show, about the last two and a half hours. I introduced myself to everyone whose name I recognized (from the online forums where I post my scrim work) and showed my work to a lot of people. It was fantastic. I got really positive feedback, and people were impressed at how short a time I've been doing this. I asked lots of questions and was told several times that YES there is definitely a market for what I'm doing, particularly in the custom knife market, and that I definitely have what it takes to make it. I met people from all over the world, and some really really really well known people whose work I have admired. It was awesome. Probably the most common question/suggestion I got was people asking if I was going to learn to engrave metal. A lot of people said I'd be a natural at it. Well... I can see that happening some day down the road, but right now it's too much of an investment. What I want right now is to get really good at scrimshaw and be known for that. I can totally see learning to engrave eventually though. :-)
It was such a nice bunch of people, I really felt quite "at home" and welcomed there. I want to be a part of that group, I want to see those people again. I have every intention of being an exhibitor there next year. (you chicken people are thinking "but that conflicts with PPBA." Yes, it does. And I'm totally fine with that!) :-) At the risk of sounding totally cheesy, I think the engraving world is exactly where I'm supposed to be. (of course I'll still do other art!)
It ended way too soon, and everyone packed up the pretty things and left. I had dinner with B.H. and K.H. and had a really nice time catching up with them, it's been over a year since I've seen them (they used to live around here, I used to see them a lot). We'd heard that people were gathering downstairs that evening but didn't find anyone there right after dinner so we went to the bar and indulged for a while until the second hand smoke became totally unbearable (it seems SO weird for people to be smoking indoors.) Then we headed downstairs again and found a group of engravers having a musical jam session. There are some darn good musicians in that group! That was really a lot of fun.
I headed back upstairs around 10 but was so excited about the show and hopefully being in it and all this engraving and scrim stuff I couldn't sleep even though I was exhausted, I know it was well after midnight before I finally drifted off. And then the people next door turned on their television really loud at 5am. I hadn't planned on getting up til 7, but I had a hard time sleeping through it... Ugh I was a zombie that morning. There were a couple of seminars I attended yesterday morning, including one that showed some engraving techniques for creating realistic images. Fascinating to see that done in metal. I am eager to try some of those techniques in scrim. I still feel like I am doing a lot of experimenting. Different materials, different techniques. There's a lot to try!
K.H. took me to the bus station at 11:30, and I headed home and hour later. The weather was horrible going over Donner pass, a lot worse than on Sunday. It was gorgeous before we got there though. I don't have much experience with snow and it seems like it would be really inconvenient, not to mention cold, but gosh darn it's pretty. I wish I could have gotten some scenery photos, just for reference, but the windows on the bus were so grungy I couldn't get anything good. Too bad!
It's scheduled to be a three hour drive but it took over four. The people sitting around me were really scary. Every other word was a four-letter word, and they were talking about jail time and all kinds of things I'd rather not repeat. I buried my nose in my book and hoped I wouldn't get killed on the way home. Thankfully I survived. I can't say I really enjoyed the bus experience. But on the bright side it was really cheap, and it's good to know that should I ever NEED to get some place again (like Reno, next year, how will I get there if it's snowing??) it IS an option.
It was good to get home. :-)
So I'm just thrilled to pieces that I went, and how things went when I was there. I may have more news later about something that happened but I want to see if it pans out or not first.
Here's the really super exciting news, that I haven't talked about for fear of jinxing it. I have a microscope!!! :-) It arrived this weekend. I don't yet have a desk for it, and I'll need to move the furniture around to make space for it, but I have a microscope!!!! My eternal gratitude goes out to the extraordinary Steve Lindsay for his help with this microscope adventure. :-)
I will get that set up as soon as I can, but my plan right now is to staple my butt to the chair and get those $#%^&@ taxes done! They're due on Thursday. Bleh!
So by the end of last week it was looking like attempting to drive to Reno would be a really bad idea. When I had first thought to do this the forecast was for a sunny weekend, so I figured I'd drive up in the morning and drive home that night. Then I thought maybe night would be bad because of ice so I figured I'd just stay over. And then the forecast was calling for snow and wind and all that crap so it became pretty clear that my old car and me with no snow experience would be a REALLY bad idea. I couldn't find anyone else to con into going. The train took too darn long to get there. So the only option left was the bus. This made me nervous but by golly I HAD TO get to Reno. So I checked the weather and the road conditions, bought bus tickets (cheaper than driving, woo hoo!) and made a reservation at the Silver Legacy (cheap yay!).
I was dog-sitting out of town this weekend, so I had to get up at 5am Sunday to leave there and come back home so Mom could take me to the bus station down town (leaving a car there is a baaaad idea). Got there at 8, and there were hardly any people in line to go to Reno. I'd expected a nearly empty bus (after all who else would be crazy enough to go to Reno in that sort of weather!) but was dismayed to find the bus already almost full from people at earlier stops. Durn. I sat by someone who seemed quiet and normal, but unfortunately she left in Roseville. And just when it was looking like I might get a whole row to myself, this little tiny old lady with way too much makeup and biggest hairsprayed teased hair I have ever seen came and asked if she could sit there. So she tossed her duffle bag on the seat, and sat on it (so looking in the mirror she was suddenly a good 8 inches taller than me!). She then proceeded to remove a jacket, a vest, a sweater, and another vest, all the while elbowing me and getting her stuff all over me. And she did not sit still, she shuffled around the whole trip and bumped into me constantly, and also sighed LOUDLY approximately every 5 minutes. OMG. By the time I got to Reno my head was throbbing and I was pretty grumpy. Note to self, get a dang ipod! I read a book almost the whole trip but it sure would have been nice to drown people out.
It was snowy in the mountains, chains were required. Boy was I glad I wasn't trying to drive in that.
We rolled into Reno about a half hour late. I was thrilled to find that the bus dropped off at Circus Circus, so all I had to do was walk across the street to get to the Silver Legacy. I walked into a room filled with blinky noisy casino stuff and was pretty much instantly lost. I was lost most of the time I was there, that place is HUGE with so much stuff in it! I eventually found the lobby and got my room. On the 18th floor! Wow, somehow I felt so high class being way up there. :-) The room was quite nice. I snarfed down some lunch, got hold of my engraver friends, and headed down to the show.
WOW pretty much sums it up. It was a firearms and engraving show, so there were a lot of guns but a lot of other types of engraving too, and people who make gun stocks and other parts. Really neat. And so different than an art show. I'm used to seeing booths, but at this type of show people rent a table, and just have a few items out on the table. It looked really classy. I visited with B.H. and K.H. for a little bit (B.H. won the "Best Engraved Handgun" award. Awesome!) And then I just wandered around. I really only caught the tail end of the show, about the last two and a half hours. I introduced myself to everyone whose name I recognized (from the online forums where I post my scrim work) and showed my work to a lot of people. It was fantastic. I got really positive feedback, and people were impressed at how short a time I've been doing this. I asked lots of questions and was told several times that YES there is definitely a market for what I'm doing, particularly in the custom knife market, and that I definitely have what it takes to make it. I met people from all over the world, and some really really really well known people whose work I have admired. It was awesome. Probably the most common question/suggestion I got was people asking if I was going to learn to engrave metal. A lot of people said I'd be a natural at it. Well... I can see that happening some day down the road, but right now it's too much of an investment. What I want right now is to get really good at scrimshaw and be known for that. I can totally see learning to engrave eventually though. :-)
It was such a nice bunch of people, I really felt quite "at home" and welcomed there. I want to be a part of that group, I want to see those people again. I have every intention of being an exhibitor there next year. (you chicken people are thinking "but that conflicts with PPBA." Yes, it does. And I'm totally fine with that!) :-) At the risk of sounding totally cheesy, I think the engraving world is exactly where I'm supposed to be. (of course I'll still do other art!)
It ended way too soon, and everyone packed up the pretty things and left. I had dinner with B.H. and K.H. and had a really nice time catching up with them, it's been over a year since I've seen them (they used to live around here, I used to see them a lot). We'd heard that people were gathering downstairs that evening but didn't find anyone there right after dinner so we went to the bar and indulged for a while until the second hand smoke became totally unbearable (it seems SO weird for people to be smoking indoors.) Then we headed downstairs again and found a group of engravers having a musical jam session. There are some darn good musicians in that group! That was really a lot of fun.
I headed back upstairs around 10 but was so excited about the show and hopefully being in it and all this engraving and scrim stuff I couldn't sleep even though I was exhausted, I know it was well after midnight before I finally drifted off. And then the people next door turned on their television really loud at 5am. I hadn't planned on getting up til 7, but I had a hard time sleeping through it... Ugh I was a zombie that morning. There were a couple of seminars I attended yesterday morning, including one that showed some engraving techniques for creating realistic images. Fascinating to see that done in metal. I am eager to try some of those techniques in scrim. I still feel like I am doing a lot of experimenting. Different materials, different techniques. There's a lot to try!
K.H. took me to the bus station at 11:30, and I headed home and hour later. The weather was horrible going over Donner pass, a lot worse than on Sunday. It was gorgeous before we got there though. I don't have much experience with snow and it seems like it would be really inconvenient, not to mention cold, but gosh darn it's pretty. I wish I could have gotten some scenery photos, just for reference, but the windows on the bus were so grungy I couldn't get anything good. Too bad!
It's scheduled to be a three hour drive but it took over four. The people sitting around me were really scary. Every other word was a four-letter word, and they were talking about jail time and all kinds of things I'd rather not repeat. I buried my nose in my book and hoped I wouldn't get killed on the way home. Thankfully I survived. I can't say I really enjoyed the bus experience. But on the bright side it was really cheap, and it's good to know that should I ever NEED to get some place again (like Reno, next year, how will I get there if it's snowing??) it IS an option.
It was good to get home. :-)
So I'm just thrilled to pieces that I went, and how things went when I was there. I may have more news later about something that happened but I want to see if it pans out or not first.
Here's the really super exciting news, that I haven't talked about for fear of jinxing it. I have a microscope!!! :-) It arrived this weekend. I don't yet have a desk for it, and I'll need to move the furniture around to make space for it, but I have a microscope!!!! My eternal gratitude goes out to the extraordinary Steve Lindsay for his help with this microscope adventure. :-)
I will get that set up as soon as I can, but my plan right now is to staple my butt to the chair and get those $#%^&@ taxes done! They're due on Thursday. Bleh!
Monday, January 28, 2008
an ordeal but SO worth it!
I am absolutely exhausted. I had delusions of writing a long blog tonight but I'm not going to stay awake long enough. Here's the condensed version, on which I will expand in great detail at a later date (hopefully tomorrow).
I took the greyhound bus to Reno yesterday morning.
That's an experience in itself. I feel like I need to be disinfected.
The gun/engraving show was fantastic.
I had a GREAT TIME.
I met super duper wonderful important inspiring people.
They liked my stuff. A lot. :-)
I am SO glad that I went.
I fully intend to be an exhibitor there next year.
I think I was meant to do this.
Woo hoo!
Got home late this afternoon. SO tired. More later.
ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
I took the greyhound bus to Reno yesterday morning.
That's an experience in itself. I feel like I need to be disinfected.
The gun/engraving show was fantastic.
I had a GREAT TIME.
I met super duper wonderful important inspiring people.
They liked my stuff. A lot. :-)
I am SO glad that I went.
I fully intend to be an exhibitor there next year.
I think I was meant to do this.
Woo hoo!
Got home late this afternoon. SO tired. More later.
ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Friday, January 25, 2008
January 25 work in progress
Yes, one really does have to be crazy to want to do this for a living. ;-)
Part of the area under her jaw is incised but not yet inked...
It won't be done on the schedule I'd hoped for, and right now I am pretty much just keeping an eye on road conditions...wait and see...
Part of the area under her jaw is incised but not yet inked...
It won't be done on the schedule I'd hoped for, and right now I am pretty much just keeping an eye on road conditions...wait and see...
Thursday, January 24, 2008
January 24 work in progress
La la la....
Does anybody (*who I know already in person and am friends with, stalker types need not apply*) want to go to Reno? The forecast is looking like SNOW, and I'm desperate to get there. Meeting the people who will be there could be a HUGE help to my career. I don't trust my car to make this trip in this sort of weather. Does anyone with 4-wheel drive and/or snow driving experience want to go? Either day this weekend. Day trip or overnight. I will pay for gas and maybe more (ask me). Let me know ASAP if anyone is up for this! You'd be welcome to come to the engraving show but keep in mind there is zero obligation to hang out with me at all so you could go play in Reno all day while I meet influential people. I have to get there...have to.
Does anybody (*who I know already in person and am friends with, stalker types need not apply*) want to go to Reno? The forecast is looking like SNOW, and I'm desperate to get there. Meeting the people who will be there could be a HUGE help to my career. I don't trust my car to make this trip in this sort of weather. Does anyone with 4-wheel drive and/or snow driving experience want to go? Either day this weekend. Day trip or overnight. I will pay for gas and maybe more (ask me). Let me know ASAP if anyone is up for this! You'd be welcome to come to the engraving show but keep in mind there is zero obligation to hang out with me at all so you could go play in Reno all day while I meet influential people. I have to get there...have to.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
January 23 work in progress
I am not sure I can finish this by the end of the day Saturday. I'd actually hoped to get about twice as much done today as I did but the dark areas take SOOOOOO long. :-0 Done or not though if I can make the trip it's going with me!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
January 22 work in progress and other pics
Having drawn almost this exact same image in graphite a few months ago, it's really interesting to compare them. This is SO much harder! And it's going to take longer for sure. But, I think I'm going to prove what I aim to prove with this piece. Cross all your fingers and toes that the weather gets better by this weekend. I am a little worried about the drive to Reno....never driven in snow before but I *really* want to go!!! Eek!
It was a super busy day. I started the icky taxes this morning then did scrim ALL afternoon til it got dark and then worked on sewing tonight (along with rotting my brain and watching half of American Idol).
I was surprised to find the yard full of turkeys when I came back over here during one of two breaks this afternoon (once for hot tea and once to put on another pair of socks because I could no longer feel my toes, they went numb from cold). Not that turkeys are unusual, it just startled me to look out the window at them. It was too dark today (rained all day) to get good photos.
The dogs normally ignore them, so I was super shocked today when arthritic deaf Jessie leapt out of bed and ran after them and darn near caught one. I know this photo sucks but the black blob is Jessie and the other blob with a red head is a turkey. Wow! I don't like the turkeys coming up in the yard around my birds anyway so I'm okay with them being chased out (usually it's me doing the chasing). I am glad she didn't catch it though, that would have been awkward.
My cute soggy horses, Gwen (with the white blaze) and Shylah (with the fantastic hairdo):
What is it with cats wanting to sit on whatever I'm working on? Here is Olin "helping" me sew outfit parts.
It was a super busy day. I started the icky taxes this morning then did scrim ALL afternoon til it got dark and then worked on sewing tonight (along with rotting my brain and watching half of American Idol).
I was surprised to find the yard full of turkeys when I came back over here during one of two breaks this afternoon (once for hot tea and once to put on another pair of socks because I could no longer feel my toes, they went numb from cold). Not that turkeys are unusual, it just startled me to look out the window at them. It was too dark today (rained all day) to get good photos.
The dogs normally ignore them, so I was super shocked today when arthritic deaf Jessie leapt out of bed and ran after them and darn near caught one. I know this photo sucks but the black blob is Jessie and the other blob with a red head is a turkey. Wow! I don't like the turkeys coming up in the yard around my birds anyway so I'm okay with them being chased out (usually it's me doing the chasing). I am glad she didn't catch it though, that would have been awkward.
My cute soggy horses, Gwen (with the white blaze) and Shylah (with the fantastic hairdo):
What is it with cats wanting to sit on whatever I'm working on? Here is Olin "helping" me sew outfit parts.
Monday, January 21, 2008
cold
My overwhelming impression of today is this: cold. Or perhaps "OMG so cold, I darn near froze my... coins off!" The performance today was interesting. Not a huge crowd but they seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately it was running quite late. I'm not sure what time we actually got on stage (outdoors!) but we all stood huddled up like those penguins braving an Antarctic winter while waiting our turn.
"A" and I did two dances. There were five total, but two were solos and the other is one we don't know. Other than the weather it was fun, and afterwards we went out for ice cream (on a cold day, yeah, I know...) at Cold Stone, and that was fun just to sit around and shoot the breeze and get to know people better. There were only six of us in the performance today.
Here are a couple pics my mom took before we left here. I do have permission from "A" to post these but she wants her name to stay anonymous so if you know who she is please don't put her name in the comments. (I'm on the right, in case you didn't already know that).
No scrimshaw today. Back to it tomorrow, plus I had better start my stupid sales taxes. Icky!
"A" and I did two dances. There were five total, but two were solos and the other is one we don't know. Other than the weather it was fun, and afterwards we went out for ice cream (on a cold day, yeah, I know...) at Cold Stone, and that was fun just to sit around and shoot the breeze and get to know people better. There were only six of us in the performance today.
Here are a couple pics my mom took before we left here. I do have permission from "A" to post these but she wants her name to stay anonymous so if you know who she is please don't put her name in the comments. (I'm on the right, in case you didn't already know that).
No scrimshaw today. Back to it tomorrow, plus I had better start my stupid sales taxes. Icky!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
January 20 work in progress
Slow and steady wins the race, right?
I spent a long time on that today, and my back is definitely feeling it. Toward the end of my hours over there today I decided to try a different chair. I think it'll help a little but not much, the desk is so darn low I can't scoot far enough up to the scope so I have to lean way over, and that hurts. It's been so cold in there the last few days (even with the heater blowing on me to keep the eyepieces from fogging up) that my hands have been just miserably cold. I tend to have cold hands anyway (as in "gah! don't touch me with those icicle fingers!" type of cold) but it gets downright painful, so I dug up some old pink cotton gloves from the back of my dresser and chopped the fingertips off so I can still grip the tools and ink the scrim but it's a big improvement. And fashionable too... ;-)
I also started sewing my Raks costume this evening. I made a pair of red satin harem pants. They are... very red. And very shiny. Lol! I can't wait to get the whole outfit done, it's going to look great. And my sewing skills are really improving!
Wish me luck tomorrow!
Happy Birthday JMB. I can't recall your email addy (it's on the other computer) so I am hoping you see this here. Sorry I'm so bad about emailing... :-)
Saturday, January 19, 2008
January 19 work in progress
Woo wee. I need to put in a lot of hours between now and next weekend if I'm going to pull this off. And I have to do my #$%& business sales tax forms next week. Ugh, barf, hack...
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