I Have Been Doing!

Sometimes you think about doing something. Sometimes you write about it. This past week I have been doing it. I have five projects in five different disciplines in progress and it feels GREAT! I also continue working weekly in a sixth discipline with a steady stream of projects coming from it. No, I haven't put my tax stuff together for our accountant yet. No, I haven't worked on my website or inventoried my extra glass studio materials preparatory to putting them up for sale online. No, I haven't done more than spot cleaning on the house in, oh, forever. But I am creating! This post is a celebratory drive-by of the creative fruits of my... fingers.

It's Sunday night, the wind is howling outside and the wind chimes practically have a symphony going on. Dave and Jessie have both gone to bed, and I'm sitting on the couch, rubbing my hands together and chortling at all the piles of creation nestled throughout the house (and car--all my wood lives in the minivan between Saturday woodworking classes).

The oldest continuously worked project is my spinning mash-up. In addition to the three bobbins on the table and the two spinning wheels with half-plus filled bobbins, I also have a good amount of plied yarn that I began knitting into a sweater earlier in the winter. I'm going to tink (unknit or knit backwards) the sweater and skein the yarn back up till I find the project I want to make with it. I still haven't found one that matched the yarn perfectly so I just keep on spinning.

Moving on through the fiber projects, I have finally finished warping the little table loom I got at spin-in (and correcting mistakes in it, and correcting again, and again...) and I have begun weaving dishtowels. I don't know why, but I am completely taken with cotton dishtowels right now, and as Mimi is an eight-harness loom, I am able to do several complicated pinwheel patterns all from the same warp. The first one has brown and white bands in the warp and the weft that make up the pinwheel pattern. As is the nature of weaving, all the dishtowels from this warp will have brown and white pattern stripes vertically, but I'm planning to swap out the brown for seven other colors for the rest. The dishcloths will measure about 16" wide by 18" long when they're finished.

The last of the fiber projects is a five ft by five-and-a-half ft fuzzy blanket I am making on a knitting board for Jessie. This project, like spinning, is a great in-front-of-the-tv activity. I started it last night while we were watching the Incredibles, and I worked on it for about another half hour this evening. Jessie picked the colors and is really looking forward to having it. I knitted her a similar one a year or so ago with traditional knitting needles... or maybe I crocheted it. I don't remember. Anyhoo, that one had a wide-open lacy pattern and this one--per Jessie's request--will be pretty solid.

Last week I also started back on the silver locket from the intermediate silversmithing class I took, and I tube set my first stone (the topaz--Jessie's birthstone). This week I hope to finish it by riveting the little silver stamped plaque inside, and tube setting the last two stones--sapphires from Montana. One of them is one I mined, and it's going to go into the remaining large tube (sapphire is Dave's birthstone). The other one is a tiny stone that will go into the little tube on the front of the locket. The blackish rainbow color of the metal is from liver of sulphur. I dipped it last week during open studio, and I'm still trying to decide if I like it.

Finally, I took a big step towards finishing the gaming table yesterday. It was a long, laborious, tiring activity, but I used the bandsaw to cut all the channels for the bridle joints at the top corners of the table, and dry-fitted them together. Next weekend is the glue-up for the top, and finishing the legs so I can do the mortises and tenons for the table apron. These pictures all show the curly pecan top rails of the table. Two of them show the bridle joints in the corners when they're together, and the other one shows the channels I cut for the joint. Right now they all protrude a quarter of an inch from each side and have sharp edges. The edges will be rounded down and maybe even shortened a bit when it's finished.

The final discipline is ceramics, and I swear my wheel-throwing is just improving by leaps and bounds! This past class I threw a pot similar to the leftmost one in the photo. Then I made two fitted lids for it. Jennifer, our instructor, recommends always throwing two lids in case one doesn't work out. When the vessel is bisque-fired, it'll have the lid in it to help prevent warping and uneven shrinking between the parts. Also new in my repertoire is the drinking glass in the middle of the photo. It's not huge, but it's the tallest cylinder I've thrown to date. Looking forward to trying a teapot this week.

Now off to join my dulcetly snoring spouse. Tomorrow, taxes. And feeding the bees. And working out. And weaving, and knitting, and spinning...