spontaneous shibori
Folded on the diagonal, "accordion" style and clamped with 4 small "c" clamps. Check out the polkadots!
This is my piece from yesterday's camp.
becka on 06.28.07 @ 08:09 AM CST [link] [Add a comment]
About Me
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etsy.com
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beckarahn.rdf
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My Book of the Week:
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope
What I'm Currently Reading:
Lady's Maid by Margaret Forster
Textile Word of the Week:
merino - High quality wool yarn made from fleece of merino sheep which is short, fine, strong, resilient and takes dyes well.
The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope
What I'm Currently Reading:
Lady's Maid by Margaret Forster
Textile Word of the Week:
merino - High quality wool yarn made from fleece of merino sheep which is short, fine, strong, resilient and takes dyes well.
| Becka's Library Shelf |
| Becka's Games Shelf |
Thursday, June 28th
Wednesday, June 27th
summer camp season
Summer Camp has started and so I am doing all kinds of crazy art, but not spending any time blogging! Yesterday I did "Spontaneous Shibori" - the group called me the day before and asked if we could do a class. Today is tie dye, felting, bead making and a challenge with recycled materials. Hopefully pictures to follow soon!
becka on 06.27.07 @ 06:50 AM CST [link] [Add a comment]
Wednesday, June 20th
coffee and dragons
A photo of the goodies my swap partner sent me. Not pictured are another container of coffee (in the kitchen because we were making cold press) and a package of lovely wool/silk roving. The roving isn't in the picture because I took it with me on Sunday to an outdoor art fair where I was demonstrating needle-felting and some of that fiber turned in to this guy...
He doesn't have a name yet (suggestions welcome) but the kids at the fair decided that it has to be a "he" since I was making him on Father's Day. We also decided that daddy dragons must look after the eggs, so he has 2 polkadotted eggs (not in photo). He is entirely made from wool/silk and some metallic "angelina" fibers, with crystal bead eyes. He probably took about 4 1/2 hours to make with some breaks for cold drinks.
Then since I still had some hours to go and a need to demonstrate, I made Fawkes.
Fawkes is going in the mail today to someone...
Andy stopped by with the camera and here is a picture of the very beginning of Fawkes head and neck.
becka on 06.20.07 @ 09:28 AM CST [link] [6 Comments]
Wednesday, June 13th
Tuesday, June 12th
pattern review
I can't think when the last time was that I made myself a dress. On Saturday, I was at the fabric store and they had a sample of this one made up, which reminded me that I bought this pattern at some time or another. They also had lovely printed eyelet fabrics on sale, so I decided to see what I could do. The pattern is this one: McCall's 5137
Rather than shorten the whole thing, as I am not what you would call tall, I decided to just skip the contrasting band on the bottom, so I bought about 3/4 yd of the contrasting fabric rather than the 1 1/2+ that they call for. Otherwise I pretty much followed the directions. With McCalls, I usually find whatever size it says for my measurements and then go down one. They build in a lot of ease and I don't care for that. When I got to the point of trying it on, I had two problems - the armhole openings were about 2 inches too big and the decolletage was too low - more of my bra showing than the world really needed to see. Easy fixes - I hand stitched last 2 inches of the sleeve openings together. The top is basically a rectangle with a fancy neckline, so those sleeve openings are straight lines. For the low v problem, I stitched a piece of vintage lace trim in to the low point of the v. I debated about just throwing a tank top underneath, but the point of a summer dress is cool, not two layers. I also had a little fun with the hem since I had just a bit of my contrast left over, I made a little bias strip and stitched it on as I hemmed. I also decided that the butt bow with the belt was so much improved by a little wrap around and tie in front - obi style. The cream fabric is a paisley print which is over-stitched in a swirly pattern with a few eyelet holes. The green is a light gauze with a little openwork kind of stripe.
becka on 06.12.07 @ 05:26 PM CST [link] [3 Comments]
Monday, June 11th
more with enamel and pmc
More leaves pre-firing. Andy collected the baby gingko leaves, which I think are my favorites.
A non-silver experiment. This is mica. Andy collected a chunk of mica from Slate Creek. We peeled off a "leaf", punched out the stars with a paper punch and embedded them between 2 layers of glass. It is beautifully iridescent. This one's for me. More pendants in my etsy shop with mica in them...
becka on 06.11.07 @ 10:02 PM CST [link] [Add a comment]
Contest Winners!
Thank you to all who entered in the Goldfish Contest!
The answer: Harvey (the invisible rabbit), Elliot (Pete's Dragon), Aloysius (Snufflupagus). All 3 are invisible friends. Our goldfish are very shy and although I could show you their pond, all you would see is a little flash of orange and no fish. I know they are there, but you would think they are invisible.
The correct guesses: Danielle, Thursday, Heide, Heather T
The winner (by random drawing): THURSDAY
The winner in our "Most Creative Wrong Answer" category goes to Miss T. You had me at McElligot.
Winners. please email me at r s r a h n [at] v i s i [dot] c o m with your mailing address and I will send off your prizes.
becka on 06.11.07 @ 08:38 AM CST [link] [1 Comment]
Sunday, June 10th
joys of a klutzy dog
One big blonde dog + rope to tie her to tree in backyard + friendly neighbor saying hi + not moving fast enough = I lose. One big rope burn stripe spanning about 6 inches of my calf. Ouch.
becka on 06.10.07 @ 10:02 PM CST [link] [3 Comments]
4.8 Hour Book Challenge
There's a small circle of bloggers participating in a 48 Hour Book Challenge . Read as much as you can in a 48 hour period and blog about it. Mostly focused on that middle level reader kind of book that I just love. 48 hours just wasn't going to happen for me, but in the spirit of "summer and school's out and spend a whole day drinking iced tea and reading", I went for 4.8 hours (ok, probably not even that long) and read this book:
How could I resist a book about a mermaid? It was just pure fun. A couple of smart girls on an adventure, a little bit of mystery and mermaids. It has lovely little illustrations throughout. Emily (our narrator) has a great voice and sometimes reminds me of myself at 12 - in fact it's the kind of story I would have written at age 12 - "girl discovers that she is a mermaid and has secret adventures". I will definitely pick up the sequel when it arrives in paperback.
becka on 06.10.07 @ 09:56 PM CST [link] [1 Comment]
Thursday, June 7th
Another prize
Here's the prize for the "Most Creative Wrong Answer" in my goldfishy contest (See below!). Be sure to put in your answer! This is a set of two fabric coasters featuring adorable goldfishes with bubbly blue backs.
becka on 06.07.07 @ 11:17 PM CST [link] [Add a comment]
Wednesday, June 6th
First Prize Fishy Felted Bowl
That's right, this is first prize in my Goldfish Names contest (see below). Fours days left to win this fabulous fishy felted bowl.
I knitted this from a lovely olive green with stripes of hand-dyed yarn in melon and yellow. Then it was felted in hot water. Finally I added the little goldfish by needle-felting him in to the bottom of the bowl. It is about 8 in round.
becka on 06.06.07 @ 10:08 PM CST [link] [3 Comments]
Tuesday, June 5th
10 things about PMC
1. PMC = precious metal clay. It is made from recycled photo negatives. They use the silver from those combined with a binder to make basically modelling clay. When you fire it, it becomes almost 100% pure silver. It is very cool.
2. It is the consistency of bubble gum. Very sticky. I was not expecting this. The package recommends olive oil on your hands. My friend Yasya says "badger balm". I will have to look in to that.
3. Water is your friend. The clay dries out incredibly fast. It reminds me of working with "paper clay" more than polymer clay/fimo/sculpey.
4. Have a plan. Both Andy and I discovered that we got much better results if we started out with a definite plan as to what exactly we were making. Globbing it up and starting over just didn't work.
5. The above pieces are collaborations of one sort or another between Andy and I. The goldfish was sculpted and enameled. The little tiny circle charm is also enameled (very light blue). The oval is a rubber stamp impression with an added patina. The shield shape is Andy's which he intends to enamel. The leaf is the biggest success. More about the leaf later.
6. My same enamels for copper work on silver as you can see. The colors look very different over silver rather than pinkish copper. That is fun for me.
7. The patina was created by dipping the pieces in a Liver of Sulphur solution. You can get crystals that dissolve in water and it's super easy. It makes copper dark and does fascinating iridescent things to silver on its way to being black. You can also polish off the patina on the high spots. The oval pendant doesn't show its colors very well in the picture, but it has pinks and blues over it. Andy's piece is a rich gold color.
8. The leaf was created by painting the silver clay on an actual leaf. I got a little container of silver clay "slip" but you can make your own by just carefully watering down some of the regular clay. You fire the whole thing leaf and all. This one was pretty thin, so we embedded it in the enamel glass and then polished. We've already made 6 more leaves this way we liked it so much.
9. After you fire it, the silver still looks like white clay. You have to polish off the white residue with a metal brush. Leaves are a little difficult to polish.
10. All of the projects above were created from most of one package of clay, which I got for about $13.
becka on 06.05.07 @ 11:42 PM CST [link] [4 Comments]
Monday, June 4th
CONTEST!
I have decided it would be fun to have a contest with prizes! I know I don't have many who comment, but I know those readers and lurkers are out there, so here is your chance!
The contest:
We have a pond. My mom and dad got it for us a year or so ago and we finally have it set up in a cosy little corner of the yard and it has lily pads in it. Because this is Minnesota and we are overrun with mosquitos, we got some goldfish for the pond and told them that their job is to eat mosquito larvae. We will see how they do with that. Here comes the contest part. I have named the fish : Harvey, Aloysius and Elliot. Your job is to tell me why. Answer the question "What do these names have in common?"
First prize is a funky felted bowl made with some handdyed yarn. I haven't finished it, so you can't see a picture yet. First prize goes to whoever gives me the right answer (if there is more than one, I will draw names)
Second prize goes to the most creative wrong answer. There is also a prize!
Leave a comment with your answer. Winners will be announced June 11.
becka on 06.04.07 @ 04:27 PM CST [link]
knitters coffee swap
My swap parter, Jen, recieved her box, so now I can show off what I came up with to send her. Dark Canyon Coffee's "Black Hills Gold" (thanks mom for fetching it for me). A skein of baby alpaca yarn in exactly the color scheme of Jen's blog. A skein of handdyed cotton/wool blend which I called "Sandpiper". Jen likes blues & neutrals, so I kept with the color theme and made her a coffee cup coaster in blue/cream. A scrabble tile keychain - the first blog entry of hers I read was about playing scrabble with her mom. And finally treats - a bar of white/dark chocolate and Kahlua lip balm.
becka on 06.04.07 @ 04:12 PM CST [link]