NaNoWriMo

Speaking of how distractible I am...I got interested in National Novel Writing Month, which is an organization rather than a governmentally-recognized holiday.  I like the concept: you commit to writing 50,000 words over the month of November.  There's a website where you can get encouragement and advice, and talk to other people who are trying the same thing, and where you can be held accountable for your commitment.  http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/dashboard   They help you track your word count, and allow you to post exerpts if you choose.  They're also very careful about maintaining your privacy/copyright; for example, at the end, when you submit your novel for a validating word count, they explain how you can randomize the word order before submission.  Kind of cool.

There are also forums where you can talk over plot ideas and stuff.  I particularly like that you can give away ideas too.  There are whole sections that just provide you with complete characters or quirks etc.  As a person who enjoys making lists, that has special appeal to me. 

The thing about this idea is, of course, that I got distracted right away.  Plus I am eager to find excuses to avoid doing such a difficult thing as consistent writing.  It's the 12th, and I've written about 560 words so far.  I haven't actually got any plan for a plot, which does tend to slow things down!  The fellow who started NaNoWriMo (as it is affectionately known) has put out a book called "No Plot?  No Problem!" but I have purchased quite a number of how-to-write books in my time so I'm going to try to finish them before buying another one.  What a concept! 

My stepson also tried to help me out using writing techniques he learned in school last year.  They were great, and even inspiring...I think what I want is a teacher who not only teaches those techniques, but also looms overhead, grading me on my efforts.  I wonder if that would cause me to finish? 

I hope you readers (I assume you are plural, ha!) go and check out the organization website.  If you've ever been tempted to write, it's an interesting motivational tool.  Good luck on that.  I don't expect to finish--or even to write any more than those 560 words, really--but I'll try to remember to post here when the time is up.

Dec. 23, 2011 update: Yeah, I didn't write any more than those 560 words.  I think I really need to go through that entire process that my stepson was describing--basically, coming up with the entire plot before writing.  I had nothin'. 

Gettin' Married

So, I wasn't kidding, was I?  I'm totally distractible.  I am tempted to look around on the internet for other blogs and bloggists who claim to be distractible, and check just how often they post.  Heh--I should have left it at one! 

I got all inspired to write again because I find myself with an extra hour this morning, and yesterday I discovered that a friend of mine had given me a shout-out from his website, "Give Us Art!"  Here is a link to the page where he did it.  I had recommended an artist for his blog.   http://giveusart.com/2011/06/02/stunning-glasswork-judith-schaechter/#comment-160

Anyway: I'm gettin' married.  I thought I'd tell you about it because obviously, it's my latest project.  We've chosen colors, ordered flowers from Safeway, started assembling favor boxes, bought dresses, and created & sent out invites.  Here's the art from the front of the invites:

I sketched that in my drawing book, photographed it, and colored it using the free Paint program that came with my computer.  We've also put together a website, but it doesn't seem wise to share that with the wide wide world.  Suffice it to say, that was a fun project!  I was all over it.  

Neither of us is originally from the state in which we live; we're getting married in my home state, some 350 miles away, so my Mom is helping with a lot of the running around.  The biggest challenge right now seems to be locating and affording a wedding cake. 

My town doesn't seem to have many cheap options; it has seemed like the only cake we can afford is the type with that frosting that I have always scraped off of the cake before eating.  My main bridal pickiness has been that I don't want that cake.  The cake is hundreds of dollars...it's not fair that it should also taste like cheap work-birthday-party sheet cake.  It should be special, I think.  I'm also aiming at plain-looking, so that the flowers can be the decoration--see the below example photo from theknot.com:

We did find a caterer whose cakes sounded delicious and much more to my taste, and she's even affordable, but she totally disregarded my request for references--and those online seemed to be 2/3 written by her.  Also, when we asked whether it would be possible for my folks to visit & test the goods, she replied that the taste would cost $100 because it required so much effort on her part.  I can't blame her, she being a one-man-show.  Still, I am spoiled by modern life and want references and a taste of the goods, so she's out for now.  Pooey.

I have made a birdcage veil to wear in the ceremony.  That required buying one of those little curved hair-combs, weaving some narrow ribbon through the base of its tines, and sewing netting to the ribbon.  The lady at the fabric store kindly gave me a 5-minute demonstration, although there are also classes available there.  I lucked out in that I have a wig form, so I was able to sort of sculpt the netting as I went, and to take into account the fact that I will wear the comb on the side.  She's slightly creepy, isn't she?  Even more amusingly creepy, she's styrofoam so when necessary I pinned the veil right to her head.  Ouch.

In order to really decide about the wedding colors, I sketched the wedding party and table setup and colored it a few different ways.  This is how I learned about saving drawings in Paint as bitmaps instead of jpegs, so that the quality won't deteriorate and make it imPOSSible to color neatly when you've decided to start over and see what it would look like if all the table linens were red.  Many thanks to Bill for that information, even though I learned it too late.

All right, I might add more to this topic (or maybe I won't write again for another year, so don't hold your breath waiting or anything).  For now, though, I've gotta go.  Talk to you in a bit!



Project Waiting: Fused Glass Portrait Tiles



1) The template for all of the portraits


Let's say I'm going to have a series of entries that are partially titled "Project Waiting."  These are projects that I started in the past but that are now just waiting.  I certainly have a lot of those, and it's not utterly infrequent that I document them with photos I can share with you.

The portrait tiles were a very fun and challenging project.  I have included the pictures in order of progress so that you can see how I was working.

I wanted to create a small series of tiles that had a feeling of regularity but which depicted different people.  I chose to do portraits of my family, so there are four tiles in all.  The first thing I did was create a portrait template, so that each one would have certain qualities exactly the same: proportion, location of eyes, size, etc.  That portrait is photo #1.



2) My personal portrait



The second photo is the portrait I did of myself, more-or-less on top of the template.  For each portrait I picked through family photos until I found ones that seemed to represent folks the best.  One of the portraits is actually an amalgam of several photos, but the others are just copies of one photo.  It was tough to find photos that were crisply focussed and flattering and that showed all of the details I was wanting, but things worked out fine.  And yes, my eyes always felt crooked like that, to me.  Heh!



3) Translating the drawing into a glass cartoon



Photo #3 shows you how I simplified the portrait for glass cutting.  I chose areas that could be all one color, then figured out the fewest cuts I could get away with.  These tiles are actually pretty small, about 4"x4" if I remember correctly, so I couldn't get away with as many sharp inside curves as a good glass cutter can do when the project is larger.  On this particular tile, I would say that piece number 3 was the toughest to cut, but fortunately, at that size you're not wasting a lot of glass when you have to cut over and over again!





4) The glass, cut and laid out



Next thing to do was cut the glass, of course.  Check out the tiny bit of my blue shoulder you can see on the left.  A piece this small would by no means be worth bothering with if this were a leaded or foiled pattern, because the metal would cover it. With this tile, though, it gives a nice bright spot.  Plus, heck, no harm done if it ends up covered by paint or lead.

By the way, keep in mind that all of this glass is Spectrum fusible 96COE; cutting random glass that hasn't been labelled fusible and trying to fuse it will just result in an unpredictable and probably unstable piece, and often in a big waste of time.

So the last step I completed before becoming distracted by school, dating, housework and other life things was the step of fusing.  Ooh, I'll tell you, that was frustrating the first time!  I was taking a class at school to help me with kiln work (you'd think that a professional stained glass person like me would know how to do that stuff, but it's just not my forte).  One piece came out just fine, but I made a mistake with the kiln wash and my other three portraits cracked during the annealing process.  Since I was in class, I got a lot of sympathy--fine with me! 



5) After fusing



I recut the glass and fused them again, with much better results.  Photo #5 is as far as I've gotten on the portrait of myself.  The plan is to paint them using Reusche vitreous paints (I know, glass people, some of you find it redundant to call Reusche paint "vitreous;" sue me).  These are the most permanent form of glass paints, sold in powder form and mixed with a medium for painting, and they are to be fired on at about 1250 degrees.  Due to the pieces cracking earlier, I ended up with a spare of my sister, so I'd started painting that before getting distracted.  Unfortunately for you, I'd rather have her permission before posting those photos on a public site like this. 

Maybe someday I'll paint this one, and add the photos with the date and comments.  If I do, I'll even write about how the heck I found myself all motivated and back on track, too.  Surely there are some of you out there who have similar problems finishing projects.  I know I have an aunt like me in that way...!

Anyway, I do hope I come back to this project sometime.  It would be a very nice thing to be able to have this record of the family.  It's probably way too optimistic to hope that I might even do tiles of my fiance and future step-son, but wouldn't it be great if I did? 



 



Short Attention Span for Projects

Hi there! 

I realize that I get very much into various projects, and then lose interest.  An example would be my Breakfast In Seattle blog (http://seattlebfst.blogspot.com/), which I did manage to keep up for a while, until I stopped going out for breakfast.  My single follower was probably very let down--sorry, Sister! 

So I thought, maybe I'll just allow for that in my blog, and not force it to be about anything.  Instead, while I'm doing something I'm finding interesting/exciting and that I want to show off, I'll post about it.  Then, when I get distracted, you can't say you weren't warned! 

The picture that I've used as a tiled background (for the moment anyway) could be considered one of these truncated interests.  I like photography, and occasionally think I'm being arty about it (I especially like closeups that show texture and pattern).  This--yes, I'll just reveal my methods to you--is a close-up of a coil of nails that are supposed to be fed into a nail gun.  I thought they looked really neat with their iridized surface. In fact, I thought they were some sort of art project when I found them at a yard sale, which certainly amused the owner! He told me I could just have them, if I gave him a copy of a photo I took of them. I left that tucked into his front screen door over a year ago.  

The tiled photo is not my favorite picture of the nails, but I'm still learning about how to run blogspot and thought they would make a better background than some of the others.   I call my favorite one "Marching Nails."  I've just succeeded in adding it to the blog here, yay!

There are other things I think I would like to post about already, but some of them might involve other people so I'll be waiting until I have permissions.  In the meantime, welcome to my newest little project--let's hope I don't get distracted too quickly!