FRIDAY FENCE POST #15

Well, after weeks and weeks of not doing a Friday Fence Post, I finally have one. I do apologize for being such a wimp. It was the weather. I just can't bring myself to suffer rain, wind, snow, and cold for my art. I don't have a problem wrenching some piece of metal until I cut or bruise myself. Just don't ask this Temperature Wuss to be cold on purpose!

I spotted these fences on the way to Mama's last week, and pulled off the highway to snap them. Meggie seemed to think it was perfectly normal to do that, although she did have questions, and the photos of fences shot on edge had her tilting her head this way and that, completely puzzled by the point of view. But she did seem to find new interest in something she'd probably never paid much attention to. Well, after all, what five-year-old is likely to have noticed something like a dilapidated old fence?

BUTTON BUTTONS, I'VE GOT THE BUTTONS!

Oh, boy, did I score when Mama, Meggie, and I went to the Goodwill the other day. We pulled into the parking lot, and one of Mom's friends was standing a car or two away. They said hello, and stood chatting, and Mom's friend told us she'd just come from the Goodwill herself.

"You know," she said, "There's a gallon jar of buttons on the top shelf in the craft aisle. I almost bought it, but it was twenty dollars."

Twenty dollars. Whew. That's a lot to shell out for a jar of buttons. Mama and I discussed it as we were walking into the store. I was suddenly struck by something.

"Mom, think about it," I said. "We'll spend twenty-five cents to get a shirt we can cut the buttons off of it. Imagine how many shirts we'd have to buy to fill a gallon jar!"

That was almost enough to settle it even before we saw the jar itself. It didn't take long to decided I needed that jug of buttons. We practically had a party, the three of us, going through it back at Mama's. I poured the buttons into a 9X13" baking pan, and six hands pawed, and three mouths "aahhhh"ed.

This is most, but not all, of the buttons:

Two close-ups of some of the buttons:


The first card of buttons I pulled out had six of these on it:

We, as in my dear husband and I, will be leaving tomorrow, driving to Arizona. I plan on sorting buttons while he drives, and can hardly wait to get started!
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AND THE MORNING AND THE EVENING....

Spent the day with my little granddaughter yesterday, taking her with me to my Mom's. As we were going to the car, I saw a mass of purple, and pointed them out--"Look, Meggie! The crocuses are in bloom!" She was probably not as thrilled as I was. The harbingers of spring have not become familiar to the average almost 5-year-old.

I bundled her into her car seat, telling her I had to take pictures, and got not a word of argument. She's well acquainted with the camera bug that runs rampant in the family. Besides, for both of us, it doesn't matter a great deal what we do, as long as we're spending our day together.

Crocuses at morning:



When we got home, just beofre dusk:






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MEET THE NEW CUFF BRACELETS

Okay, I've been talking about the new cuff bracelets I've been making for weeks and weeks. It's about time they actually made an appearance on my blog. (My apologies, by the way, for being so completely absent of late. I got sick, followed by rather lazy, followed by way too busy trying to make up for the first two things in this sentence!)

The bracelets came about because a stack of nice, but small, faux leather samples from a local design house came face to face with my deep reluctance to throw anything remotely useful away. What, I wondered, could you make with something that little?

Here's what I came up with:


That's one of the very first styles I came up with. Basically, if you want to do your own, you cut a piece of faux leather a little larger than 4" X 6" (10.2cm X 15.2cm). Attach a button or buttons. Placement will depend on where you want the decoration to be in relation to the lacing--near one end if you want it right next to the laces, or in the middle, if you want the button to ride on top of your wrist.

Once the button is securely attached, fold your piece in half lengthwise, and sew about 1/4" to 3/8" (0.6cm to 1cm) from the edge. Pink the sewn edge, and punch five holes on each end. Cut a length of elastic cord about 24" (61cm) long, and lace through the holes like you would a shoe. Lace each end of the cord through two holes of a four-hole button, and tie a knot. You can cinch the laces tight after the cuff is on your wrist, using the button.



After I did some simple button adornments, it occurred to me that the scraps from cutting the cuffs could also be put to use, and I did this:


Then the idea of using pinked disks of colorful fabrics popped into my mind:


You'll notice there are a few beads, too, I'm sure.

A couple more:






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A HAPPY "MISTAKE" & HOW YOU CAN MAKE IT, TOO

I've been working on cuff bracelets lately, and are mostly pleased with them, but because I work with recycled fabric samples, some of the faux leather and suede I have is rather blah, nondescript beiges, to be precise. I've been wondering how to dress up those less lovely shades.

The thought I had was to do simple collages, and then laminate them, and sew them to the cuffs. Fun. So I did the collages, and then the laminating.

Well, bummer. Once the collages were laminated, they wouldn't bend. If you can't curve a piece around your wrist, it sure ain't gonna work as a bracelet.

But they make great bookmarks!

What I've used are scraps of fabric and lace, and pictures and/or text cut from magazines, with the addition of the occasional piece of ribbon or colorful sticker. Just lightly tack everything together with a dot of glue or short strip of double-sided tape, slip into a lamination envelope, and put it through the laminating machine. (If you don't have one, clear Contac paper works almost as well. Just cover both sides of your collage with it, and you're good to go.)

Because I thought I was making something that woud be sewn to a cuff, I didn't put any backing on the first few I made. Didn't think the back was going to show, you know.

But for bookmarks, you'll want to use a backing of whatever attractive paper you have. I have scads of old music, so that's what I used.

And here are a bunch of the bookmarks. (I plan to put a bit of ribbon and/or cord through a hole at the top of each of them later.) Note: Because the clear laminate didn't really show anyway, in the scan, I've gone ahead and cropped the photos down to the collage itself.

FELICITY'S TIDE (MUSIC & SLIDE SHOW)

This is another of the pieces of music Paul and I wrote and performed together, Felicity's Tide. I wrote the lyrics after dreaming the story, and Paul wrote the music, including my flute part. You'll hear him singing and playing bazouki, and me singing and playing flute. I'm sorry to say I've forgot the name of the man who stepped in with the fiddle. Our album, by the way, was produced by Steve Einhorn of Artichoke Music.

WALTZING IN THE WOOD (SLIDESHOW & MUSIC)

My niece, genius that she is, has shown me how I can, finally, put my music online. I put one tune on in an earlier entry, but it has odd clicking noises in it from my camera. This is perfect--combine a slide show of my photography with a cut from the Cd Paul and I recorded together, Waltz of the Wood, which was also the name of our two-person "group".

In this piece, you'll hear Paul on vocals and guitar, and me on flute, with a snippet of vocals thrown in. The photos I took on a rafting trip down the wild portion of the Rogue River in Oregon, which I adore.