Gingerbread art?

 
 
 
 
Does this count? Not sure, but sure was fun, and oh so pretty. It has taken me years to get around to this old tradition from my childhood. Mamma made the dough and bakes the pieces, Pappa would put the houses together with melted sugar. And then Pappa and we kids would do the icing. We never used to decorate with smaries etc, just plain white icing in the "good ol' days" but our kids were quite pleased to sample the decorations again. In our version, I designed and baked (repeatedly, while i figured out that 200 meant C not F, and raised the temp to 400F.. boy, that sure helps to cook the ol' gingerbread. Then I put together with melted sugar. Yes, I did burn myself once, but not badly. Murray made up some icing and did the thick stuff, the kids put on smarties etc... and I did the finer stuff after adding another 2dl of icing sugar to firm it all up. And look how lovely all Mamma's wee figurines look around and about!

Another fish gone

 
Pottery fish-- need to do more of these cuties. Only 4"x2", modeled after a spoon I have (in silver) that I use in my sugar bowl. This one is going to live with Neta in Sweden.

Pre-christmas fusing fun

With Val (down from Nanaimo) and Jeni. Not a flower made this time, can you believe it! Just three Hundertwasser heads, the biggest of which is a Christmas gift to Eric.

 
 
 
 

Crafternoon: Flag-making

 
My flags from last week are all dry. I will give these out for Christmas to the respective people.

New home for FLIP

 
Kel had all the felt and material out, so it was quick and easy to whip up one of these wee jobbies after I finished the "flag portion" of the afternoon (pictures to follow-- my flags are all drying right now). Made me want to do more embroidery. Clearly I need the practice. (finished dimensions ~ 5"x3")

Sweather skirts

 
 
 
 
My newest craze.... these are super comfortable and warm. Now that it is snowing and cooler, these rock!

Halloween Craftiness

 
 
 
For Fenna I made everything but her dress (a Winners find from last year). So: cape, cape for Momo, and wee Princess of Hearts "Card". For Hamish I made his entire bat costume, which was inspired from a design Lynne pulled off the internet for her bat, Fiona. Face paint for the mask worked really well. The kids and I were really pleased!

Hundertwasser Head

One of my newest idols is Freidensreich Hundertwasser, a crazy swiss dude/ artist/ environmentalist/ sailor/ free thinker/ architect/ landscape designer/ graphic artist. He's dead now (aren't they all) but his work lives on and I encourage you to google him. His stuff combines the best of Matisse, Klee, Klimt, and any other funky, happy work you can think of. I designed this fused glass head from one of his postage stamps... tipped the hat to let the fish out, but otherwise, his idea. I was very pleased with it, and Kiki fell in love with the piece, and with his work, so she bought it from me for a cool $200. A steal, but she is family, and one of my biggest supporters and cheerleaders. The Hundertwasser piece is 30"x 20". The angel and the butterfly are small christmas tree ornaments (1"x3").

 
 
 

VISA mapping assignment

 
 
 
Wendy Welch Director of VISA sent me (and many other students) an invitation to participate in a workbook she is writing. She wanted us students to do the exercises she was proposing to use in her book. I chose the chapter on Mapping nad did two exercises from it. The first was a map of a familiar place, so I made a Map of Windrose. The secodn was to portray your day in the form of a map. Instead of physical spaces I felt my day ranged among a group of roles that I cycled through in a random and weird way. I did two versions of this second map. The first with just words, and as this seemed a little crude, I did a second using images instead, which I actually like a lot better. I ended up not sending her the one with words at all, but here I display both.

Daily Tweet: Sand

The sand squeaked as I ran along, such a weird combination of firm and soft. The beach was pock-marked with footprints. I dodged onto an expanse that had none and tried to imprint where I was so I could look for my marks on the way back. Did I run as bandy-legged as I walked? Where waves came in gently, I ran down close to the edge, away from all the others. People were on their evening parade, often hand in hand, but sometimes with the woman blissfully following their determined husband striding in front of them. Other pairs and singletons were on the run, red and sweaty and more often than not, iPod-ed. Still others were walking their dog, eyes on the blazing colours of the setting sun. As I passed a condo, a child blew a rude honk from a conch shell, the traditional salute to the sunset.

Many had not noticed the humpback whale parallelling my run along the shore, but the further I went, the more aware people became. The lifeguards were warning the heads bobbing in the water. "Please get out of the water immediately!" The whale was only 50m offshore, and a large part of me wanted to swim out to it, or at least submerge beside it to see if it was singing.

"I'm taking my whale for a run" I said to people as I ran by them. "I'm not so sure he'll turn around when I do though."

He didn't.

When I got back to my start place I took off my shoes and shorts and settled them into a neat pile far from the water. I let the sand wedge between my toes as I ran into the surf and dove into a wave. I submerged to listen to the hauntingly joyous sound of whale song telling of the funny human parade witnessed.

Sock Monsters

 

Karen came with an example of a sock monster that she had made for Aspen. She had been to the market in Edmoton and had seen some selling for $40, and figured that she could do as well. I had some birthdays to make things for, so I convinced her to show me her technique one afternoon, and here it is!

More fused glass-- this time with Karen

 
 

Writing

"We are just ripe canteloupes rolling down the hill towards inevitable irrelevance"

Happy Easter, eh?

Nanoose Fused Glass I

 
 
 
 
Val and I headed to Nanoose to use a glass fusing studio there. The Angel and Plane are Fenna and Hamish's valentine's day presents. The Sailboat is Murray's. Karen requested a white iwth yellow center flower, and Kiki a replacement for her red flower which broke. The extra flowers I am thinking of selling...