FRIDAY FENCE POST #14

It's been a long time coming, this Friday Fence Post. The weather has been colder than a fishwife's glare, and they do not call me "Temperature Wuss" for nothing, so I haven't gone out any more than was absolutely necessary, and certainly not to take pictures.

But. We went to our son and daughter-in-law's today, and thinking of adorable grandchildren on top of the drive through all that ruralness, I put the camera in the front seat. It was, like I said, cold. There was frost everywhere, even at 10am, but as I drove up the hill, following a white sun, there was this fence...oooh...

I was able to resist the impulse to park the car and grab my camera for the span of probably an entire ten feet.

Barbed wire never looked so beautiful...

and the moss atop the weathered black fence post was a world unto itself...

I wonder, as I finish this, whether my youngest will recognize her home, at the end of that fence?
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MORE SHANK BUTTON EARRINGS--Mini Tutorial

Once I made the first pair of shank button earrings, all I wanted to do was make more. So I did.

This little tutorial builds on yesterday's, so if there's something you don't understand, you might want to look at it. The thing I think about when I'm working with shank buttons is the space between the shank and the edges of the button. With a bead, whatever you're stringing with--wire, thread, etc.--won't show, but with a button there's that span to cover.

I use extra beads to do that. Sometimes they don't show at all. Other times, they become part of the design. In yesterday's pair, the beads were very much part of the design; with this one, not so much so, although there's just a tiny bit of color showing above and below, almost like a seed bead.

So again, you start with a wrapped loop at the bottom, then string on a bead, in this case a blue bugle, then the button, and then another bugle bead. There should be just a little of the beads showing from the front.

At the top of the bugle bead, begin a wrapped loop, but instead of clipping the wire, bring it down the back of the button, and around the shank, and then back up to the top of the bugle bead. Are you following me so far? Here's a picture, and below it I'll continue with the rest:



Loop it around where you've begun the wrap, and then bring it back down to the back, ending with a tiny coil. The wire will cross the front of the bugle bead on the diagonal.

There's a reason for all that looping around in back: It keeps the button from spinning on the wire, so that the pretty side of the button will face forward all the time when you wear your earrings. You could accomplish the same thing with a dot of glue, probably, but I like the simplicity of this, and the interesting appearance it gives the back. That's probably not very important--I mean, who looks at the backs of their jewelry? But I like it anyway.

Here's another shot of the back from a different angle:

And the finished pair:



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SHANK BUTTON EARRINGS--A SMALL TUTORIAL

Do you ever get the urge to just make something? Maybe you don't have a lot of time, but there's that need. It was that sort of a day for me. When time is limited, earrings can feed the creative hunger I feel, and anyway, the beads and buttons were already out, because I'd finished a bracelet just before going to bed last night. Since I'd been working with green, I just dug around in the green button baggie until I found a pair of buttons I liked.

Then I turned my fifteen minute project into two that took considerably longer by deciding to do this tutorial. Well, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

You'll need the usual array of beading tools--round-nose pliers, flat-nose pliers, and wire nips. And also

Fine gauge wire (I used 24 gauge)
2 matching shank buttons
4 matching flat, square beads (other shapes would also work--they just need to be flat)
2 seed beads

I'm going to assume basic wirewrapping technique, just enough to make a wrapped loop, to keep this brief, and also because I know others have already put tutorials for that up, and mine wouldn't be as good.

So start by cutting a length of the wire roughly a foot long. You want to give yourself enough to work with. Make a wrapped loop on one end, and the thread on a flat bead, a button, and another flat bead:
I noticed when I was working with my beads that the hole ran at a bit of a slant. If yours are similarly drilled, put the off-center hole against the shank of the button. Also, check to see whether one side of each bead is prettier or more evenly colored, and be sure to put the nicest side facing out.

This is where it gets just a bit more complicated. At the top of beads you've just strung, make another wrapped loop, but instead of cutting the wire, bring it down the front of the top flat bead, and under the button.

Now wind the wire once around the shank of the button, pulling it tight. Bring the wire down the lower bead, crossing it diagonally, and loop it around the wire-wrapping at the bottom, then back up the front of the bead, and under the button. Pull the wire in against the button shank, cross the upper bead on the diagonal, and wind it around the top loop a time or two, and clip.

That's a lot of words for something that really happens almost intuitively, so study the picture below and go with your instincts.

The last step is to wire wrap a seed bead, and hang it from the bottom loop.



I think they turned out rather well.
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CreationTwinne

I am bewitched by the unusual jewelry of Tuyen Huynh, who sells on Etsy as CreationTwinne. I stumbled across her shop quite by accident, and quickly bookmarked it as prime drool material! Maybe for my birthday...?

An exploration of her shop led me to her profile, which is quoted below, for the sheer delight of it:

"My name is Tuyen Huynh. I am a Vietnamese cultured fashion designer graduated at Cégep Marie-Victorin in 2004 in Monreal, Quebec.
I am passionate of arts.

An excess of folly, a wave of creativity and 3 cups of patience is enought to drive me into crazy originals jewelry piece of art."

And now, without further ado, some of what excesses of folly, waves of creativity, and cups of patience will get you. Or at least, what they get Tuyen, because this level of creativity simply amazes me:









The last photo includes Tuyen's other website, still mostly "under construction", and also an attribution for her photographer, Elise Racine.

GIFTING "BY THE BOOK"

Daughter Melody wanted to make this Christmas' giving more "interesting". She suggested we choose a theme, and build our gifts around it, and supplied us with some possibilities, including gifts of a certain color, or having to do with a book, while not necessarily being a book.

Her sisters and I kind of cheated. We bought our gifts, and then thought of a book that could be the basis for it. For example, my son-in-law has been wanting to get into canning, as he's quite the gardener. I got him a waterbath canner and set a mug with fishing lures printed on it in the bottom (he's also a fisher), and said the book was "The Old Pan and The Sea". (All right, all right. I know it's lame!)

It became clear that we didn't "get" what Melody had been talking about when we opened our gifts from her.

Our first gift was a book:


We were instructed to read it aloud. After a couple of pages, we found a sticky note. It said to open Gift #2.


We had reached the page that said a moose with a muffin was likely to want homemade jam to got with it. The second gift was a recipe for Lemon Raspberry Spread, and the ingredients to make it.

A few pages later, another sticky note, saying to open Gift #3, on a page saying a trip to the store was going to be necessary, for which the moose would require a sweater. A black sweater was the third gift.


Gift #4 went with a page saying the moose would ask for socks:


The book finally comes full circle. The moose needs a muffin!


I absolutely loved our gifts!

And the idea, too. So next year, we're going to go with the book theme again. That is, Melody's sisters and I will. Melody says she'll do the demonstration for 2010's theme: a gift based on a Wiki-How. That's good, because I have no more idea how that would work than how the book theme did!

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SWAPPIN' LIES--Cd ART

Craig, who plays banjo and guitar, and sings bass, in our band, Swappin' Lies, has a new piece of equipment. If I'd taken notes, I could tell you what it's called, but I didn't, so we'll cut right to the chase: It makes recording music, even when you're talking about four people and twice that many instruments, really, really easy. So we did! We recorded an entire Cd, of music both original and otherwise.

(Is this where I get to say, "We're awesome"?)

If you have a Cd full of music, it's nice to have art for it, and I got to be the one who came up with it. I owe a great deal of that to Barbra Sundquist, who very graciously allowed me to use one of her pieces as the basis for my own. I want to show off Ms Sundquist's artwork first, called "Watching Her Heart". It purely won mine.


Lorna, who sings alto/soprano and plays guitar and banjo, was the one to come up with a name for the Cd itself: Four-story Heart. As soon as she emailed the suggestion, I got a picture in my head of an old building, old windows, possibly with our faces looking out. A heart with windows in it was also a possibility. I went looking for pictures of hearts, which is what I was doing when I found Barbra's website, and "Watching Her Heart". It shaped my focus.

I had started a search for the windows I'd need when I realized I already had them, on the buildings I'd photographed just a few months ago. ( Decrepit ) Once that popped into my head, the rest was just a matter of (hours and hours!) of PhotoShopping.

This is the color version, for the jewel case. I've extended both ends, to allow for the insertion of track titles and the like:


I used LightScribe to burn the image on the Cd's themselves. LightScribe does only black and white, but the disks come in different colors, so depending on the disks you buy, you'll get black and a color. I chose the gold ones, which give a sepia look.
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MY MOST FAVORITE WONDERFUL SANTA STORY

First things first: I do believe in Santa Claus. I don't know if he's in some other dimension, or is a real saint, or what, but I believe.

Having said that, this entry is about my grandchildren's belief.

My four-year-old darling, Michaela, recently wrote a letter to Santa. She said that she and her little sister thought he was wonderful, and they loved him. She said they had looked and looked for him, but couldn't find him, so they would have to visit him and the North Pole.

Sweet. Very shortly after that, their six-year-old brother, Justin, told them Santa didn't exist.

Micky wrote a new sentence to the end of her letter: "But you're not real, so never mind. I won't be seeing you."

Well, that just about broke my daughter's heart, but what was she going to do?

That week, she and her husband went to Pioneer Place to do a little shopping, and who should spot them but the mall's Santa Claus. "December! Jeff!" he called, waving a red-clad arm. They hadn't realized until then that the store Santa was our dear friend, Steve. (To forestall possible confusion: December is my daughter's name.)

In the course of the conversation, December told Steve what Justin had told the girls, and they formulated a plan.

Yesterday, Jeff and December took all five kids to the mall to see Santa. When he came back from his break, they were all lined up, sitting on the bench at the head of the line. Now, Steve is absolutely the personification of the best Santa you ever dreamed up--no padding needed, snow white beard and hair, endless patience, and a very real love for children. He came striding up, as all the kids in line cheered and called, "Santa! Santa!", and when he turned to see who was first, exclaimed, "Well, hello, Caitlin! Great to see you!" Caitlin, who is eight, gave a start, she was so amazed at his knowing her name, and her jaw dropped. Then Santa turned to Justin, "And Justin! Great to see you, too!"

While he chatted with the other three, Caity and Justin clammered, "How did he know our names? How did he know our names?"

Soon he had them all gathered around him, talking about how good they'd been and how much they'd grown. He asked them if they'd liked the flashlights he'd put in their stockings last year. "Mine got lost inside the wall," Astoria said. "Oh, I remember that," said Steve. "That was a shame, wasn't it?"

One of the others said the flashlights had burned out very quickly. "I know," said Santa. "I felt really badly about that. I really thought they'd last a lot longer than they did."

Then he turned to Justin again, saying (he knew this from a phone call December had made the day before), "Justin, I know you've really been wanting to pull my beard." He stuck his whiskered chin out. "Well, here it is. Give it a pull." Justin did. He gave it a good, hard pull, and when it didn't budge, his jaw dropped again and his eyes opened their widest. That's when the photographer snapped the picture. Justin looks like he's in a total state of shock.

Before they all left, Santa asked if it would be all right if he had a word with Justin, privately. December and Jeff said yes, and they all moved a bit away, as Santa knelt down and said, "Justin, I know you're having a hard time believing in me right now, so this is just between me and you. Don't tell your parents. Don't tell your sisters. When I come fill your stocking on Christmas eve, I'll put a marble in yours." He held his hand out to our wide-eyed boy. "This is what it will look like," Santa said, and centered in that white-gloved palm was a marble. "That way, when you find the marble you'll know I've been there."

When Steve shook hands with December, he transferred the marble to her hand. The minute they got home, she rushed to put it in Justin's stocking, not trusting herself not to forget it

Santa, at our house to visit, shortly before Christmas, also left one of his gloves at our house. He told the children he would do that, and they knew to ask if I found it when they came over on Christmas day.

So what happened after that? Christmas day, they came over to visit. I had draped the glove over one of the fireplace screen doors, and when the kids asked if I'd run across "anything unusual" told them I hadn't, but I'd been pretty busy.

Imagine the excitement when they spotted the glove! They ran to the adults, all gathered in the dining room, exclaiming over it, and then realized our son John is about the same size as Santa-Steve, and promptly made him put the glove on, so they could stroke his hand, to see if it really was Santa's. They were sure they'd remember the texture of it, especially with a large hand inside. They clustered around John, each touching the glove, sometimes two of them at a time stretching towards it, marveling.

"It's his! It really is! Santa left his glove, just like he said he would!"

That was part A. Part B? The kids hadn't been at home that morning to get their stockings. When they got home, the kids all rushed for the fireplace and their stockings, but Justin was especially intense. He grabbed up his stocking and upended it, dumping all the contents. There, in the toe, last thing out, just like Santa said, was the marble.

Justin gasped. "It's here! It's here!"

December craned her neck to look. "Uh, yeah. You got a marble."

"No, you don't understand. You don't understand. I...it's...the marble...Santa's real!"

You'd think that would be enough, wouldn't you? This story actually spans another Christmas, though. December and Jeff took the kids to see Santa-Steve the following year, too. Again, he knew their names, and talked to them about things that had happened during the year.

This time, the kids had each colored a picture for him, and written Thank You on each, signing their names. They gave them to Steve, but did you know store Santas aren't allowed to keep anything the children give them? As they got ready to leave, Steve slipped the pictures into a Christmas coloring book, and gave it to December.

Christmas eve, December took glitter pens and wrote on the back of each picture, in her fanciest handwriting, "You're welcome! Love, Santa," and put each one in the appropriate child's Christmas stocking.

I suspect that someday there'll be a nineteen or twenty-year-old man telling his friends they're mistaken, that he actually met Santa when he was a little boy, and that he has irrefutable proof of his existence.

(From my personal diary, 2003-2004)

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