Jenny at CraftTestDummies (and CraftCritique) is a friend I met in a roundabout way through Chris Miller (of The Secret Lair).
And right now on her excellent blog (which you should read)Â she is giving away a Lisa Pavelka pendant! Go check it out and comment, to win!
And for MORE great Craft info, collected into one place,Â
here’s an excellent resource: Top 25 Articles on Craft Critique !
I have been intensely wanting to make jewelry lately, and had a necklace in mind. I had been intentionally collecting copper, green, yellow, pink and amber colored beads. Â So I hauled out my current-favorite-mess-of-beads, and discovered a lone old packet of beads I had been completely avoiding. Note: I just sort of snapped photos as I went, so the lighting isn’t that great on these photos.
I started to open them, then I realized this would make a fun blog – that’s why they are ripped at the top. Fun blog part being: I didn’t really plan or want to use these old beads, my goal is now to use them before the night is over!
These beads are made of tan colored glass, with little lampworked dots of glass with coppery inclusions (much like goldstone). So my first idea was to look for more rustic neutral beads to add to them. I dug up this.
Now effectively armed with a bunch of neutral beads, I put them together on my handy bead board and got this.
It’s rustic, it has wood, painted wood, glass, a ceramic focal, copper…what more could you want? Well.. I don’t know, but I wanted something! It is a nice blending of neutral earthtones, and it just didn’t do it for me. I couldn’t feel anything from this pattern. Not that I don’t love that Celtic focal, but it wasn’t working here, for me. So I took it apart.
My second attempt began with the long black glass bead you can see in the middle of the bead board up there. I decided to go with one of my “standard” color schemes, really. Copper and black. I just like the drama you get when those colors play off against each other – they pop!
So here is what I ended up with next, and kept: black czech glass, goldstone squares, and those tan disks. That long black focal really draws the eye. Feel free to disagree with me, of course, but I like this design much better.
Have you ever started a project over? I have done it on some much more frustrating projects (the time I burned a big clay sculpture comes to mind). But with beads, it’s forgiving: You can string and unstring and see what you get with various combinations!
PS. this necklace is on Etsy now.
Continuing where I left off: The Graphgear 1000, and the Nomadic PE-07 pen case. Making this order from Jetpens convinced me to sort and organize the pens I already had (and throw out the ‘dead’ ones).
That, resting magnificently (note the consummate v’s) Â on top of the box is the Nomadic pen case. I bought it because it had a bunch of pockets and the product info said it would hold 30-40 pens. I had this idea, just now, that it might do well at holding gaming dice, or craft supplies, or a GPS, or a Nintendo DSi & game cartridges, too. Quite versatile!
Finally is the Graphgear 1000. This has immediately become my new favorite pencil. I love that the sharp lead-holder retracts when you click the clip on the side. It has a sturdy metal grip, with rubber knurls, and a thin barrel. I also appreciate that it has an indicator to show you what lead hardness you have loaded into the pen. I didn’t know there was such a thing, and that is one of the main reasons I bought this pen. It runs $15, which is high for a pencil, but I found this one on sale for a few dollars less. I HIGHLY recommend it if you like drafting-type mechanical pencils. Here is a much more in-depth review. It was Dave’s review that spurred me to buy the pencil.
So, in a nutshell, I am happy with every product I bought from Jetpens. You use a pen or pencil every day – you may as well find some you really enjoy!
And, continuing from my last post, here is a run-down on the pens I bought. When they arrived they came like this: A Platinum Preppy (in violet), spare ink for it (in violet and green). A Sailor Recruit (blue) with spare ink, and a pencil case.
These pens are both a joy to write with, and, considering the difference in price, I am surprised how much I like them both. (The Platinum Preppy is $3.50 while the Sailor Recruit is $15.)
The Sailor Recruit feels better in my hand, because I really like slim pens and pencils. But the Platinum Preppy is not uncomfortable. I was afraid it might leak, but it didn’t. Neither have leaked at all; not in shipping, and not while being used and hauled around in my purse. I would never have been so worried about leaking, if every fountain pen I had tried in the past was as good as these two are!
I have discovered that I really like pens (by which I also mean pencils). I guess I always knew this, but I just realized “it’s a thing” and I’m not the only one who likes pens. So I found a few blogs of people who actually review pens. And via those blogs, I found some pens I wanted to buy.
I really love my Pentel P205, so much so that I didn’t have to go find it to remember the actual pencil part number.  So when I went to Dave’s Mechanical Pencil blog and looked at his “top 5 mechanical pencils” I was aghast to find it wasn’t on his list! And it had been edged from the top five by something called a Graphgear 1000. Vat ist dot?! (Yes I got so excited I went into really bad Jägermonster accent.) I had to go buy one stat!
(And I… ok just lied about that because I see now that the pencil that actually edged out the Pentel P205 was something else, but that makes my story much less compelling.)
But no one else reads this blog so I shall blithely continue.
I also started reading The Pen Addict blog. Many of his neatest pens are from Jetpens. So I decided to make an order. Now, Jetpens had the Graphgear 1000 pencil that I wanted… but they also had many other pens that I wanted. Specifically I had it in my head that I wanted a good fountain pen. First I checked Levenger, which is a lovely site that I have long drooled over, then I realized that I was too cheap to buy a pen there.
So I started throwing pens into my cart on Jetpens instead. And when my total started approaching $75 I got scared and removed most of it. Alas, I removed my Graphgear 1000! But, you ask, why did you remove the pencil you wanted so much? Because I found it locally!
Googling, again, I discovered an art store selling them right nearby (within an hour, that is), called Utrecht.
I was going to tell you all about the new pens and pencil I bought, but this is post too long without it, so I’ll add that info next time… HEY LOOK, I’m going to post more than once in a month!
If you read this far, here is an unfinished sketch, and my Pentel P205. I was considering starting a whole bunch of blog posts just to highlight “unfinished sketches” since I never seem to finish anything…
Well: the cold I had in the end of November has finally run its course. I know, that was an insane amount of time, but it turned into a sinus infection. Then, somehow I got vertigo, which I at first assumed was from the sinus infection, except it didn’t clear up. So I got a CT scan, which showed nothing (this is good) and I finally saw a neurologist this week, who said it was Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (and actually, I had decided that must be it, via the art of Intense And Precise Googling, but you don’t tell a neurologist that). Basically the otoconial debris was floating around telling my inner ear I was in the wrong position, and it made me dizzy.  He performed The Epley Maneuver which I am sure I heard Captain Kirk command numerous times on Star Trek.
So the neurologist moved my head all around in this maneuver and said “Ok, the chips in your ear are moved back where they belong, don’t move your head for 48 hours!” To which I cleverly replied, “Huh?” He went on to tell me to get a cervical collar, and sleep sitting up, and was pretty cheerful about it. But I had a dentist appointment in the morning, which had been postponed since about October so I was definitely going to be moving my head in the morning. He gave me instructions on how to do the maneuver again later since I was about to go foolishly get the ear stones all out of place again before they had time to stick where they belong. Anyway… that’s that, and thank God the dizziness was nothing serious.
PS. I am actually going to post AGAIN this week. No, really! Stay Tuned!
I’ve been busy lately!
I have been sculpting a lot, and even trying to sketch a bit.
I promise to show you soon. Er, maybe I shouldn’t promise.
But I will definitely try.
Amazingly, the Mech Dragons are starting to catch on! I really planned to have a pile done to take to OddMall this fall, but I have to start figuring out how to make them more quickly, because I am not doing a good job keeping up at the moment. If you are interested in commissioning one, please let me know! {Email glimmer @ glimmerville.com is a good way}
Worserly, I am not keeping up with the Ladies Bible Study at church. But I AM keeping up with the “read through the Bible in a year” program – which I highly encourage you all to try. I have discovered some really interesting things, and it’s really helpful to read through the sweep of scripture and not just take it a verse at a time. It all fits together better this way.
I teach the 4 & 5 year olds in Sunday School. Recently we were going over the events around the Christmas story, and spoke of Joseph, Mary & Jesus escaping to Egypt. This conversation took place because 5 year olds are pretty cool:
Child: “Did King Herod’s army have tanks?”
Me: No, he had horses and swords.
Child: Why didn’t he have tanks?
Me: They weren’t invented yet.
Child: When were they invented?
Me: Um, around 1918 I think.
Child: How many people were in his army?
Me: I don’t know.
Child: Fifty-five??
Me: Probably more; they went through the whole country.
Child: Fifty-SIX??
Me: The Bible doesn’t say how many.
Child: I want to be like King Herod!
Me: No you don’t he’s really mean.. !
Child: But I want a crown.
Me: Oh ok, you could have a crown like Herod.
Hunter: I could be King of my room!!
Me: Yes, you could be King of your Room.
Someone asked me “did I get a best/significant/special” gift this year. I did!
Actually, three come to mind, but two are mistakes.
How about you? How was your Christmas?
I ought to have a Christmas post, as I sit at work, basking in the glow of the USB Christmas lights on my desktop tree. But I am busy having a full “very bad” cold, of the sort that makes me uncomfortable to be near anyone in public because I look so awful (red nose, that is. I keep putting hand cream on it, but it still looks frightening – do they make nose-cream?). I even put on my glasses instead of my contact lenses today, so I look strange to myself. Back to drinking hot fluids and buying Kleenex brand facial tissues and watching the cat gleefully tear up paper for no apparent reason.
Oh yesterday I was excited because I found a 1.3mm lead pencil at Staples. I am easily amused. I also found a Christmas gift I have to hang onto until I can give it next year – we’ll see if I can keep track of it.
Thankfully the cold did not hit until after the Cantata, Teen Christmas party, Church Staff Party, Â Women’s Missionary Fellowship party, AWANA party, and was just starting during Carolling but I sang anyway. Tomorrow is the office lunch party, I will be sure to wash my hands.