Ups and Downs

The studio is a wreck.  The window was recently replaced and hasn't been framed in yet.  This means that the work table is still down, things are piled everywhere, I barely have enough room to work on the wedding dress, however, I think the bed is still in there somewhere...under all the piles.  Book and box making has come to a halt.

Lace making is in full swing.  That is to say, it was until Boo decided to help Mommy by unraveling 2 spools of thread at the same time.  Not by pulling and pulling it unwound, but pealing it off the balls like an orange.  It took two hours to separate and sort it all out.  One of the balls was to be a gift too, so I have to go buy a replacement.  *laugh*  Maybe I should just set it all aside till after Halloween.

Rocky's Birthday

My neice is turning 12 this Saturday and I'm sending this to her.  It was fun to make and my first attempt at a Split Ring.  I love love love how the coloring turned out.  So not planned.

Torchon Icicle

This month at Lace Guild we did Torchon icicles. I have never done Torchon Ground before and Shirlene Mayo helped me hobble through the learning stage. It's an interesting form of lace making - LOTS of pins, which you can see at the start and where I'm currently working.  I took most in the middle out to see what it looked like.

My husband took a look at my work and said something along the lines of it looking like 3 wavelengths of varying frequencies interacting with one another - especially the pricking.  It was much more scientific than that, but It made me laugh.  One person's lace is another person's wavelength.

Fist Bobbin Lace

Here is a bad photo of my first bit of bobbin lace ever. I made a few mistakes, but it still turned out, I need to stiffen it somehow and then decide what to do with it. Next on the list is the bat.

Home Depot 1 Lowes 0

I have been trying to find 1/4 inch wood that's wider than 6 inches and that isn't a lament. Home depot has it in Poplar 8 in wide *Happy Snoopy Dance*. I think I'll still try to find an online source or see what that local cabinet store (if I can even find them open) has, but I can officially move forward with the Carol Berg rebind.

Teaching people

I have had another person say they would take a bookmaking class from me. I wouldn't charge $400 like the not-so-local Book Arts studio. They do, however, have all the lovely tool * mentally drools over the guillotine cutter*.

This has led me to think about all the "mad skills" that people have. I do believe that people should be compensated for their time and talents. Maybe I'm kidding myself about costs, but I do have a hard time, especially in this economy, charging a high price for a class. On the other hand people shouldn't expect to get it for free. I DID pay $350 to take a book arts classes. Maybe it's just the LDS culture I live in, people think you should give it away free. I don't know, but maybe teaching a class is in my future.

etsy and walmart

Once again this week several people who know I make books asked if I had considered selling them on etsy. And once again I had to explain that I don't have time to make a lot of books right now and that I'm not sold on etsy. You have to pay to post items wether they sell or not. I'm not about to put out money like that with no guarantee of investment. I may look into local craft malls or make a goal of selling at some of the "arts" fairs next summer, but for now I'm just going to make the CB books.

That project moves forward in snail like fashion. One step forward two steps back. Ripping pages, but still don't have hard wood covers. I also wanted decretive corners, but the Lowes "no longer carries that sort ot thing" Lord I hate the WalMartization of America. It's turned us in to red necks. Cheep, but here's no quality or substance anymore. Perhaps that is why places like etsy are doing so well. People actually DO want something fine made and are willing to pay for it.