Thing-a-day.com

Emergency post!

edit: Phew! Okay, I posted with no blog component just so I could get it in at 11:58. It’s probably pointless to be anal about the time, but, oh well. Now that it’s posted, I’m editing to write.

I was busy today and sort of neglected to think about Thing-a-Day for quite a bit, so I rushed this. I couldn’t even think of what to do. I shouldn’t have done a self-portrait because I’m always bothered about getting it right, it always looks off, so… well!

Anyway. THRIIILL as Sophia gingerly dips her feet into the icy cold waters of INK WASH and then runs away like a little sissy. The whole point of ink wash is to be spontaneous and fluid and expressive, but, as I say, I’m always in — this — this mood. This intense no-fun mood. Always with the looking and the peering and the getting-so-wrapped-up-in-details that I neglect the sort of — the health of the work. I can’t relax! But I am trying to move towards relaxation as a goal in my work this month. And yeah, I’ve been looking like a fruity teenage boy ever since I got this haircut. I daresay I look even more feminine in this painting. YEAH anyway everyone should see Hotel Rwanda, it’s a good movie.

[media: .7 sakura sumogrip mechanical pencil and yasutomo sumi ink in cachet linen watercolor sketchbook.]

Click here!

Took an old photo and played with it a bit in gimp. Make that a very little bit:

These are made out of 2 identical placemats each. The tall one my daughter wanted, but a little smaller, so we folded down the top then sewed them. We added a man’s tie as the handle. She can’t wait to show her friends in school tomorrow! The others were made for my friend’s two girls.

Today, I took a hike, along with my parents and overly-anxious dog.

I could hear the wind whistling through the trees, but it wasn’t a nice whistle; oh, no, it was a fireman’s whistle, loud and powerful.  The wind itself was like a cold punch to the face.   I felt the stretchy gray sleeves of my mother’s borrowed jacket on my hands; I’m petite, and it was a little big for me.  Crunch.  The leaves shredded under my feet.  I enjoyed brief moments of serenity, but they were quickly ruined by constant bathroom stops for my dog, or her strain forward, pull back motion.  The dumb creature is lovable, but she never understood the idea of pacing.

The wind quieted once we got into the actual forest part, instead of an actual road.  At some point in the walk, I read a sign that warned of hunting.  Luckily, no hunters on Sundays.  Neon orange vests caught my eye as they peeped out tentatively from a dark box.  Safety vests.  Everything that is “safety” is orange: life vests, hunting vests, inflatable rafts, and traffic cones.  The dob peed again, for what must’ve been the half-billionth time.  On the way back, she stepped into a puddle and began lapping it up, never mind the fact that we weren’t far from the van where water awaited our return.  Silly dog.

I didn’t take any pictures, so I tried to paint a (brief) portrait with words.

I have a habit of walking away with people’s writing utensils at work.
It’s not intentional, but I always feel bad about it.

So, I’ve customized my pen & pencil by putting rolled up pieces of paper
with my name on them. Hope that helps!

Today I learned how to make a ball out of beads.  This skill proved to be more difficult than I first thought and if you look closely one is a better ball than the other; and neither being perfectly correct.  It didn’t help that the instructions were in Japanese.  

Tonight me and Natalie decided to set up  the chia herb garden we got for Christmas.  The pots were boring, so we painted them super amazing colors.  It was harder than it looks.  But they are the snappiest colors ever, so it was worth it.  And soon we will have some delicious herbs.

My son aidan and I have been working on a pair of arduino based robots. Today I had him look at the boards from the check reader pile and reverse engineer the emitter detector pairs that tell the reader when the check is present. After poking around at the circuit board he came up with this diagram. Which we distilled into this circuit.

I was making a set of paper encoders to attach to the wheels but aidan thought it would be better just to use the holes in the gears After a trip to the hardware store for some epoxy putty to sheild the phototranister, I put two pair in each of the Tamaya Wall Following Mouse based robots and bench tested them with an arduino.

Today I worked more on my turquoise duck egg from yesterday. I decided to fill the entire egg with a geometric triangle pattern, and because of the amount of detail involved, it is taking me a long time to finish the initial wax application. The egg will have more colors eventually, maybe even by tomorrow.

Matt’s ValentineMatt’s ValentineToday I made Valentines for my sons. I’m pretty pleased with how they turned out. The sons and my cards!

Jim’s Valentine Matt’s Valentine

Day 10 being Sunday I was going to do what I wanted. I read Stephen King’s Duma Key, made a cane and made beads, now cooking.

The beads use the canes I’ve made the last few days. The small lampwork round shaped ones in the main focus are about 12mm across. In the edge of the picture are larger pea pod shaped beads made from the scraps of the cane making - the design is called ‘natasha beads’ and each face of the bead (the edges are rounded but they start rectangular) is a mirror image. They look like inkblots. After they’re done getting toasted, they get holes drilled then they get the heck sanded out of them in the tumbler, then buffed and polished.

I found I craved drawing with colored pencils today. So I noodled around with them a bit, and there’s a really poor picture of my efforts below. It’s a simple thing, but it makes me inordinately happy.

Today i made 2 drawings as my things of the day - the dude has big hair and the rhino always walks downhill.

You —>  (You’re small because you’re so far away)

me—> (So much love)

Remember TAB soda? It is a bit of a joke between us, so I made this stamp this morning for my daughter to take letterboxing. It is also my first handcarved stamp.

Then on her first box ever we found a hitchhicker! She is so excited about this now.

Saturday was busy and i was out a lot - so i  made stuff on the road:

1) A Giraffe Posse sharing a meal in 2D

2) a Mermaid on the sidewalk

Wellll…I’m not having much luck coming up with proper handles for the patchwork project (I think the big problem is that I can’t cut or sew in a straight line!). So while I’m pondering the completion of that project, I made these simple earrings for my day 10 thing. Just silver threads and Swarovski crystal drops. I think I’ll wear them to work tomorrow… ^_^

This is very similar to what I made yesterday.  I’m madly in love with udon noodles now.  Instead of dark soy sauce, I used sea salt and garlic powder.  I added a little more sesame oil and miso and used two different types of mushrooms: dried shiitake mushrooms and the other, I have no idea.  They have much fatter stems than the enoki mushrooms but taste a little like the oyster mushrooms.  So they add a natural seafood flavor to the noodles.  I have to share the photo here since I love how the noodle bowl looks.

I forgot to post yesterday, but I did create something: an event! I hosted and ran the Shakespeare Competition for our region. Whew! I was whipped when it was over.