.Loosing my landmark

I remember that there was a place, near a lake where there was an wells.  I was sure it was there.  Instead I found this:

The wells seems to have dissapear.  Someone seems to have remove it.  I don't know if those are the remain of the wells.  I will never know.  I didn't ask questions.  Well, know, I am left totally out of word.  Really, the place I thought I knew well are no longer place that I know now.  Time ro find new landmark for myself.  Not an easy task.  I am a bit upset because I wanted to show the place to some people.  I am out of luck, I guess.

Trees are resilient

There are trees that are very resilient.  This time, I won't talk about the big ugly trees with misshapen trunks.  I found a tree that really have a sense of survival.

The tree seems to have fallen from the rest of the forest.  It was probably too much on the edge and the forest's ground was not strong enough.  Will the tree put his roots below him?  Will it die before?  I will see next summer if he had survived the winder.  I will also see if it will get leaves again.

Places are changing

I will let the photos speak for themselves.  The place had changed more than I remember how it was.  Trees are everywhere.  I didn't regocnized the place.

I think that the above photo show a place where I went often.  Around that place, there was a few big rocks that were forming a circle.  I couldn't found the place and it was in that area.  It was as far as I could go.  I find it sad to have to leave behind a place I like very much.

Good looking barettes

I have done two barrettes with some fino.  One of them have already done in the past.  It is a piece of fimo that look like other I used in the past to put on a barrette.  So, nothing new with that.  It was going in a familiar area.  The other barrette is with four different piece of fimo.  That one is a departure from what I had done before.  I am happy with the result, so I may try more of that in the future.

Here what the barrettes look like:

Of course, the one on top need to have some trim of the macrame thread.  I wanted to leave the glue to cure before finishing the small details.  I don't know if those will be durable through time.  It is one thing that I often worry about.  The rest look good.  I will look up to see if I have other beads that I could use for barrette.  It will be interesting to see what I could come up with in the future.

Could it be bracelet?

I have done two projects that I consider to be bracelet.  I doubt it will be useful projects.  Here they are:

Could be more used as display more than anything else.  I don't think they will be wearable.  I mainly wanted to see what I could do with those fimo rings.  I wonder if wearing those bracelets would be a good idea.  Fimo is a bit fragile.  If there are too much shock, they will break apart.  I know from experience.  After taking a fimo class, I wanted to know a project to a colleage.  When I got the project got out of the bag, it was in pieces.

This project is not too bad.  I don't consider those totally a waiste.  The red bracelet is the most good looking of the two.  Those two projects are more for looking at them,  I don't know if there are jewelry that are more for the permanent display.  Those two project would fit that category.  It was nice to do them.  It was for the fun side without any purpose in mind.  No objectives of selling.  Just wanted to see if it was workable.  I guess it is a success for what I had in mind.

It will have an impact on the next fimo bead project

I consider it a failed project.  It will have an impact on another project I have involving fimo bead.  Here the project I am talking as a failure:

It is a perfect example where my inner vision didn't match up with reality.  The interval between the beads are uneaven.  The other problem is one place where I tried to correct a error (no knot for a bead) and it ended with a few beads knotted together.

Of course, it is a learning experience.  I won't do the same for the next project I have in mind.  I will probably never do that again anyway.  I just hope I won't forget this terrible looking project.  I may try to recuperate it a little bit.  I can reduce the distance between the beads, to a certain extent.  The main problem is where the beads are knotted together.

The next project I had in mind will be better, I am pretty sure.  This above project explain it in part.  I won't do the same.  I will do knots between the beads instead.  The second thing that will help me are the other beads I will use are round.  It will look better to put the knots between the beads.  It will give the future project a prayer bracelet look.

Bad resulting projects are popping out once in a while.  Bad preparation?  Bad thinking?  Bad execution?  I think it is all of that.  It a little bit sad that it is part of the experimentation process.  Only by doing that I see if I thought is giving up good result.

barette in the making

This photo show a barrette before assembling.  The step after this is glue the two part together and let it dry.  It is the quickest part of doing a finished barrette.  Well, there is nothing to do for the long drying part.  The bolts are tied together by a macrame cord.  The bare barrettes had been bought in a craft store.  I think that this model of barrette, with the bolts, are the coolest ones that I have ever done.  I had many comment on them when I get them in my hair.

It is a relatively quick project.  It is not as quick than the earring I had done latey.  The part that is the longest to do is assembling the bolts together.  After glueing, I can forget about them funtil the next day.    I usually wait for 24 hours for the glue to dry.  It is usually enough for the two part to be stuck together for a long time.  I also put the extra macrame strings in the holes of the barrette before blueing.  I makes a knot also because I fine it help secure the two part together.  It can be handy if there is a malfunction.  The holes in the barrettes are barely visible on this photo but they are there.  They are at both end of the barrettes.

Non essential food and creativity

There are some food that are more for pleasure than anything else.  It is also the category that can be creative, especially for decoration.  It is the cherry on top of the sundae.  It is a place where two person can have two different result.  It is the part of creativity.  It express itself in various ways.

The above photo was the result of a outside activity.  The one with the green and brown decoration have been mediculately fill with the colours.  The other one seems to be a bit rushed but the white frosting can be seens.  Both have their charm.  The decoration was the only part done.  The rest was already made.

It is a fun thing to do, for sure.  Sprinkles could have been added.  Some colours can accentuate the shape of the cookie.  Otherwise, it must had been fun to do this project.

I need practice or to try it again

I found a bracelet recently.  It was with black wire and red beads.  I used a crochet to make it.  It is easy to do but I think I need to work on finishing the project.  There is also a problem with keeping it straight but that problen is also there when I use yarn.  My guess would be the tension.  It is an hypothesis that need to be tested.

It doesn't show really on the photo.  What is evident is the finition, how I ended the project.  It really need to be more polished.  For that problem, I will have to look up how to do it with wire.  I don't know if there is a difference between the wire and yarn for finishing a project.  I am curious about it.

Otherwise, the match between the color of bead and wire is a very good match.  There is potential to make a bracelet that is better than the one on the photo.  I imagine one that is larger than the one above.  I still have some material, so I could do more test for that.

Frustration while doing research

I like inforamtive tv show that present people and their projects.  It is kind of a documentary but with a tv show format.  World's strangest is a perfect illustration of that.  It is now a bit old, dating to 2013.  I decided to make a little research to see if this tv show had a website.  The only entry I found that match what I search of is the one on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3803532/

It is a bit frustrating to stumble on a page with so little information.  Not surprising on the other hand because there was only one season.  Now, I am stuck.  I wanted to do some research on that show and get the inspiration from it to write.  Getting uncommon facts or origianl people are always fun to have in a story. Even if it is only an inspiration and that I write something with new factors.  I have to stop that now.  I guess I now have to do research on another topic.

It is not fun but it is fair game.  Not always hitting the jack pot of information everytime I hit the internet.  Things goes fast these days.  My conclusion is that I took a too old tv show.  If I choose to get another tv show, I have to take one that is newer than 2013  My hypothesis would be a tv show that is still on tv and not on rerun.  It is a frustrating experience but I learned a few things along the way.

Synchronicity

It been a while since I took a class.  Any type of class.  I didn't know where to go to get them.  There is the first place I had classes had closed down to let it's place for something related to the art of the scene.  Other places no longer offer classes or had closed down, it was local craft stores.  So, all the outlet I used to go for classes are closed doors for me.  Of course, for those craft stores still open, I can go for materials.  I almost stop believing to be able to go for new classes.  It almost feel like mourning.  I not only learn a new technique, I was also meeting new people and got some good acquintance.

So, I felt my doors where closed when I come into conversation in a small group.  One person told me to a place on a street I know.  It is a store who offer classes and they had interesting material.  So, it got my curiosity aroused.  I have to find the exact place because the person didn't remember the name of the store and she didn't have the address.  I don't mind.  It makes me feel like a detective.  I do have general direction to go, the rest will be pure adventure.

So, this little synchronicity gives me the right mindset to go out and search for new places who gives classes.  I just hope it will be an easy search.  Word of mouth is okay when you have the right connection as what happened above.  Otherwise, it is useless if the information doesn't spread out.  Internet is another way to find information but we have to know what to look for.  In addition, we don't always knows where to look, what is available.  There must be a balance in a large search and a specific one.  Having the up to date information is another thing to look for.  Beside that, I hope in finding out a few new places where I can attend classes.

Will it be the new trend?

Maybe it will be a new obsession of mine or just a lone project.  I have made a bracelet for a change.  I used fishing line as a thread.  It is the second time I use this material.  The first time I used fishing line, it was a long time ago, like maybe 10 years ago when I was taking jewelry classes near my job.  I miss taking those jewelry classe very much.

Here is the finish product, nothing fancy.  I find it a bit on the gothic side:

It is hard to see the fishing line but it is there.  It had not been easy to pick the right background for this photo.  It seems that I took more fishing line than needed but I wanted to be on the safe side.  In addition, when making jewerly, I always do my pieces to fit my body.  When I give jewelry, I always tolk the recipient that a fitting can be done, if needed.

I don't know if this is the start of a trend but I thought that those beads would be perfect as part of a bracelet.  It is true even if I could have added a few more beads just to fill the gap between the beads and the clasp.  It is by doing that I usually learn and see if more is needed.  Maybe, one day, I will be better in translating my ideas to reality.

The lastest earring

Above, there is the latest earrings I had made.  A bit out of the usual.  It is almost dark elongaged bead on a stick.  I should had taken less wire.  I am not totally displeased by the end result.  It's just that I won't make much earrings like that.  It was really quickly done.  I had to take a reamer for some, on one side of the beads.  The holes were not even on both side.  While doing it, I broke two beads:

What I learned is that even being careful.  Sometimes, there is fragility in the stones/beads and it is more so near a hole.  I didn't knew how to salvage those two beads, so I had to throw them in the garbage.  I hate doing it but I had no solution and they weren't that big.

Unsuccess on the fabric wash and Ironing

Wel, it was a learning experience.  Two problem I got with the washing part:  I washed the fabric with towels and it wasn't a success.  There is discoloration in the fabric.  The second problem was fraying.  Both didn't look terribly good.  Could be worse but it bug me.  Here is the result:

It is not terrible, just enough to see it and get bugged by what I see.  The ironing part was going smoother.  It is not perfect ironing but I could remove the biggest creases and get the fabric more even:

I decided to iron another fabric to see if I could skip the washing part.  I guess not but I won't put the fabric with the towel this time.  Fabric with fabric only.  For ironing unwashed fabric, it is harder to remove the folding crease: