TARDIS

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a great big geek. I have a particular love for the BBC television show 'Doctor Who', which has been on the air for YEARS.

Central to the show, besides The Doctor, is a vehicle in which he travels, called the TARDIS, which stands for 'Time And Relative Dimension In Space'. It's shaped like an old British police box, in which one could call for the police if help was needed on the street. In the show, the TARDIS shows up in many likely and unlikely locations as the Doctor travels across time and space.

This year, the BBC is holding a contest for fans to make their own TARDIS, and put it in an interesting place. My whole family loves this show, and I thought this would be a great project for myself and my eldest daughter and my husband to make. However, we promptly forgot about the contest until recently. The deadline is May 15, and in the form of a last-minute brainstorm, I single-handedly created our entry.

If you go to this link: Where's The Tardis?, you will find photographs and a description of my entry. Please click the 'Like' button if you are so inclined. I really, really want to win this contest!

(The winner gets a private screening of Doctor Who for 50 people, AND copies of ALL the Doctor Who episodes currently available on DVD.)

Thanks, guys!

Oh, and for those of you hardcore fans, I am currently working on Dalek beads, smaller versions fo the TARDIS for earrings, and a weeping angel. What else should I try to make?

State of the workshop

I posted the lovely shot of my "bead table" for Bead Table Wednesday the other day, and I thought, you know, that isn't the only place I work on my art. Lacking a real studio or my own dedicated workspace, I take over various places all over my house. A corner of the kitchen is my jewelry-making space. My lampworking stuff is set up along one wall of the laundry room. And my 'metals shop' is actually all over my husband's workbench in our small garage space. My little kiln is in there, too, and the poor guy has no place to work on his own stuff.

Someday, I will have my OWN studio space, where I can put ALL of my art stuff in one place, leave things out while I work, and keep them there til the project is done, and not worry about little hands or animals messing around with my stuff.

Until then, I have this:

My dad, who is a contractor, saves me all his leftover compound wire

Kiln doubles as stand for handheld torch station

Sawing, pounding, quenching, pickling

And my trusty bowling pin. I don't like to be without that!

Yeah, it's messy. But at least I have a little space. It could always be worse, right?

Muse-ic

From my torch session yesterday morning...

Storm

Sakura

Spring

Gypsy Rose

A good friend reminded me yesterday that sometimes the hardest part is just getting started. It is.

On Acceptance

Now that the first quarter of 2011 is nearly over, I think I have stumbled onto what my Word of The Year is going to be.

Acceptance

This past year, from my birthday in 2010 to my upcoming birthday, has been one of personal exploration, decisions, failed (and successful) attempts, and refining of artistic visions. I tried a lot of things (submitted to magazines, taught classes, did shows), was successful with some of them, and not so much with others. But through it all, I realized that I was allowing myself to get mired in negative thinking, spending way too much time comparing myself with others, and constantly thinking that whatever I did in a particular moment was somehow just. not. enough.

Which is ridiculous.

I mean, really.

So I hit a giant 'reset' button somewhere after the holidays, and took everything back about eight hundred notches. I thought about my plans and what I really want. I'm pretty happy with what I've been doing lately, which, compared to last year, isn't all that much. I've got a couple of custom commissions going on at the moment, and I was just asked to create bridesmaid jewelry for a friend's wedding this fall. And I'm making some personal projects that aren't all in the artisan jewelry realm. I'm also exploring my interest in art history, and dipping my toes back into the waters of my medieval living history hobby.

I have no plans to submit to magazines in the near future. I didn't do Lori's recent (and OMG awesome!!) Bead Soup Blog Party, but I am planning on joining the next one. I have signed up for no spring and summer shows. I'm taking it easy. Very easy. And it's nice! I'm finding that when artistic vision and inspiration really strikes me, I'm so incredibly productive, it's almost scary.

I can see now that there are only two more years before my littlest ones are in school full time, and after that there will be MUCH more time to get involved in all these things: shows, magazines, online stuff. Right now, I am doing what comes up and what I feel led to do in the moment, and that means accepting that what happens or what I do is simply enough.

It came to me over the weekend that 2011 is all about Acceptance -- of me as a person, an artist, a mom, all my various roles. Whatever I am doing is the best I can do at the time, and it's what I am supposed to be doing, and ALL I am supposed to be doing.

I guess this means I really can't Do It All.

Do I feel the insistent pull of "Sign up for shows!Submit to a magazine!Get yourself Out There!Be Involved!!"? Of course I do. I am a goal-oriented, responsible, achieving, first-born child! It's my Job! *snicker*

But I am consciously reminding myself (pretty much daily) that the most peaceful and happiest path I can be on right now is one in which I possess and define boundaries that allow me to not feel rushed, stressed, overwhelmed, ragged at the edges, and creatively spent. I don't have to be everything to all, and I don't have to do everything to be a successful person. Sounds like comprehending that would be a no-brainer, right? I mean, duh! But it's remarkably hard for me to grasp that and integrate it.

It's all good, though. And it's going well.

Oh, and here's a shot of my latest custom order....

Fun stuff!

So, my question to you is...how are you doing with your chosen path this year?

Shawl All Done!

Just a quick post this morning to show the end result of all that knitting....

Ta-DA! Wildfire!

I've been trying to figure out what to knit next. Something small, probably -- fingerless mitts or a hat, socks, or something -- but I can't decide on a pattern.

Now I think I need to make a shawl pin....a copper pin would be beautiful with this shawl! And maybe a couple sets of stitch markers for my shop. Maybe I will try to do that today. Hmmm...

The ideas keep coming, but the time to do these things still escapes me. At least the weather is warming up -- that means more chance to get into the garage to saw and pound some metals!

My friend Ken reports that my work did very well at the auction Saturday night, and the group overall did raise nearly $7,000 for their trip! Yay!

Enjoy your Monday off, if you are off for the US's President's Day holiday!

Book Destash!

I've been cleaning out my extensive library of craft and sewing books, and I've come across a few I don't need. I'm building up my funds for classes and to pay off my kiln, so if there are any books you would like, please email me at ahotpieceofglass AT yahoo DOT com. First come, first served!

Here are the titles, all are in good or excellent shape, and I will be happy to ship for $5 in the US (let me know if you really have to have one of these books and are overseas, so I can figure out a good shipping rate).

$ 8.00, hardcover with dust jacket

by Wendy Rosen, $12

$10 (in new condition)

Beader's Bible, $12 (in new condition)

Advanced Beadwork, $8

If you've got any questions, please let me know!

January has been a month of hibernating and reorganizing and doing other things while it's too cold to work with metals and glass. February is starting out much the same, although I am working on a piece for a fundraiser. As soon as I am done with it, I'll tell you all about it!

Not much else is going on here; I feel unfocused on metal and jewelry stuff, and taking that lack of focus and directing it at other handcrafts that I enjoy -- like knitting and sewing.

Here's an in-process picture of the shawl I am working on. It's not meeting my need for instant gratification, and I should have chosen a smaller project to make my re-entry into knitting with, BUT I am determined to finish it. It's the Herb Garden Shawl, and it's on Ravelry.

Sorry for the unglamorous lumpy, undefined shot of it. I was outside in my jammies without a coat this morning, trying to get a picture of how it looked so I could post it here, and couldn't get a good shot! Ack! I need to practice photographing knitting!

Anyway, you can see the rows and rows of garter stitch. It's really pretty and it will be beautiful and warm when I am done. I am hoping I will be done before it gets too warm to really need it this year! Next on the knitting queue is a hat or socks or arm-warmers or something smaller. :)

I refuse to start another project, though, until I finish this one. I want to be able to say that I'm a knitter, and finishing a project is part of that! Right?

That's the update from me for now. I hope everyone is staying warm (if it's cold where you are) and enjoying the beginning of the year. More later...

Indoor Fibery Goodness

So no metalsmithing and no torching of glass or enamels....much too cold for all of that. And apparently, now that I have gotten to this age, my hands now swell and my joints hurt periodically. I hope it's just a function of winter, but regardless, it's annoying.

I've turned to my sewing machine for comfort. Bernina never lets me down.

What with the new year and all, I needed a new planner to keep track of all the things I keep forgetting. But the cheapie planner I got (which suits my purposes perfectly) was a boring as HELL plastic-covered thing that cried out for cosmetic help. Being the magnanimous person that I am (with a killer stash of fat quarters), I obliged my little planner. And now, no longer an Ugly Duckling, but a beautiful Swan:

It's perfect! I love it!

And then I decided that I HAD TO make a new purse. I just wanted one. I'm a bag lady and I love bags, totes, purses, containers of all kinds. So I saw this pattern in one of my RSS feeds, and although it was cute, I modified the entire thing to suit my particular tastes.

Originally the pattern called for the bag to be kind of tall and skinny, but I wanted something that would fit my planner and sketchbook, and be more like a messenger style bag. I also wanted the flap-over top. I did really like the easy interior construction, though, so I kept that. It's a fun bag and I actually completed it just about all in one day -- while ALL 3 of my kids were home on a snow day!! Unbelievable! That was about as astonishing as anything.

Plenty of room for 'stuff'. I love it!

And it's pretty cute to wear. I made the strap long enough to wear cross-body, but I am working on a way of making the strap adjustable for a shoulder bag and for a handbag, without using d-rings and buckles. Still thinking on it.

One of the best parts is that I got the home-dec fabrics for the lining and the outside of the bag for $3/yard at Hancock's the other week. I love that. And I couldn't help myself, so I bought about $12 worth of flat-fold fabric (remnants that were off the bolt)in the home dec department for my next few bag projects. I'm already thinking of a custom knitting bag/handbag/shoulder bag thing. Just got to nail down the design.

Anyway, this is what I have been up to lately. Much warmer than metals right now.