Shell Wax

 

Last Fall when I went to Chincoteague, VA to stitch with friends, Jim came and joined me for part of the weekend.

We had never been to Assateague Island so one morning we woke before dawn and headed East to the beach for sunrise...

The sun held promise for a new day and for warming the salt spray chill that blanketed the beach on that crisp November morning.

Except for a flock of terns and gulls...

We were quite alone.

So Jim fell into his tide line ritual of walking the wrack line...a beach intent Sherlock Holmes looking for clues in the interstices between sand and sea...

What he found that day amid the shells of oyster, atlantic clam and cockles...

Was a predominance of black scallop shells.

"Let's take some home", I said, inspired by our good fortune and taking their plentitude as a sign that I should use them in some special way.   I had been wanting to make a gift for my stitching friends that gather in Chincoteague, to honor our friendship and the special time we share together every year and these scallops were just the inspiration I needed.

So we collected 20 or so of the black scallop shells and took them home where they sat in a jar for almost a year until it was time once to return to Chincoteague this past week...

I took two of the largest and deepest shells...

And pressed them into a silicone putty that I'd found at a craft store in order to make a mold.

To prepare the putty, you have to mix a 1:1 ratio of Component A and Component B together.  It has a limited working time and you can see in the mold on the left below that the compound had already started to set before I pressed in the shell.  I was quicker mixing and pressing the second time around, and used the impression on the right as my final mold.

I found a candle making supplier for microcrystalline wax online and melted the pellets on low heat in a $2 saucepan I'd found at the thrift store [Note: area must be well-ventilated]...

In searching for microcrystalline wax, there are two types available, a soft, tacky version and a hard version.  I bought the hard version.

I had taken beading classes from Diane Dennis and from Laura McCabe over the Summer and both artists used microcrystalline wax exclusively to condition their fireline beading threads.  Laura McCabe spoke very highly of the archival properties of microcrystalline wax, mentioning that she had used it previously in conservation work.

In the past, I have used beeswax to condition threads for bead embroidery and for goldwork but I liked the microcrystalline wax a bit better.  It was less tacky resulting in a smoother thread than beeswax so I thought it might be nice to share my newfound favorite with my stitching friends.

I poured my melted wax into my little silicone mold...

Twenty times...

Et voilá!



A wax shell thread conditioner to place in their stitching workboxes.

A gift from the sea and from me.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Paper Roses

Hello Blog, it's so good to be here again.

After a looong month, I'm finally back in the saddle and have resumed a normal schedule.  Never, ever, ever will I take my back for granted.  As of today, I can sit for longer periods of time and I'm trying to be conscious of taking breaks to stretch and walk.   I'm also back to yoga and swimming and it feels wonderful.  I feel for all those folks who have chronic back problems...now I'm a bit more understanding of what you go through.



Last week, my niece Ellie put on a recital at her school.  After years of performance in theater and in singing groups, she was selected as one of three high school Seniors for the Steward Senior Honors Performance Award.  As part of that award, the recipients prepare all year for a Senior performance recital which was held last week.

It was a bit of a big deal in our family as we've spent many years watching Ellie's performances so we wanted to make her something special to commemorate her big day.

Her middle name is Rose so we gathered together the cousins and set about making her a bouquet of paper roses to be given to her after her recital.



There were many tutorials online for paper flowers but we loved these coffee filter roses on Aunt Peaches blog.

I bought a bag of commercial size filters from the office supply store and used RIT dyes from the craft store in different shades of red, pink and yellow.



It was easy to vary the shade by diluting with water or by dipping the center of the filter in one color and the outside of the filter in another.

I put them in the dryer on air dry.  When they came out they were a wrinkly mess so we straightened them out and sorted them by color and intensity.



The easiest rose was made by cutting the filter into a spiral and then pleating the spiral strip along a piece of masking tape...

Once the strip was pleated, we rolled the pleats around a wire stem to make our roses...

This step took a bit of practice and each person's roses had their own personal flair...

Even Jack's.  In the past year, Jack has become increasingly fond of the color black.  After the girls left he asked if I had any black dye and set about making a black rose for Ellie's bouquet...

We also made a few coffee filter peonies...

And painted a sign...

By the night of the recital, we were all in attendance, flowers at the ready...

She was brilliant.

Of course I'm biased.  I've heard Ellie sing and perform for years but this was the first time that she had the freedom to create her own production.

From the selection of her songs, to the timing of her delivery, to the emotions that she was able to convey through her voice and body language...I was taken on a journey.  And I was very moved by what she had to say...where she had been, were she is now and where she'd like to go.  To me, it was all there...a deep and tender message from her heart...to everyone who heard her perform.  She was more than a singer and more than an actress.  She was an artist and it was beautiful to see.

Afterward, we waited in the lobby for her to come out, bouquet at the ready...

And signs held high...

While we waited, we had time to notice that four of us were wearing striped dresses...

The Star and her Stripes (too bad I didn't think of that picture until now!)

When she arrived, there were enough flowers for Ellie and the arms of her parents...

And we were happy to see that our paper roses held their own when placed near the real thing.

In fact, Ellie didn't even realize they were paper until someone told her.

An everlasting bouquet of roses made by her supporting cast of girl cousins...

and Jack who loves black.

Happy Monday everyone.

Ravens Wrap

It's Purple Friday here in Baltimore...

And even though we have a Bye this week on the football schedule, I've suited up anyway with this new wrap bracelet.

It's freezing here today so the more wraps the better.  This bracelet has five.

I've completely fallen in love with these wrap bracelets because they allow so much flexibility in design.  And because of the wraps, it feels like you're wearing five separate bracelets instead of one.

I was psyched to find these vintage black glass buttons that kind of look like footballs in my stash.

And you can purchase official NFL charms from FireMountain.com.  You might want to check around for a cheaper price.  I noticed they had gone up a few dollars since when I bought mine.

There are great video tutorials on Beadshop.com on how to ladder stitch between leather cording.  Once you master that, you can make bracelets for any occasion.

Remember the ones our family made for Fourth of July?  They're here on this post.

These bracelets would make great Christmas gifts.

A big thank you shout-out to the Friendship Bracelets website.  I modified one of their friendship bracelet patterns for the "Ravens" logo.

Have a great weekend everyone~!

Party Hats and the Fountain of Youth

There is a fountain of youth.

It lies in our minds, our talents, and the creativity we bring to our life and to the people we love.

Did you see the New York Times Magazine two weeks ago?  

The entire issue was on the Fountain of Youth and aging.  There were two articles in particular that are worth a read.

The first...Old Masters:  After 80, some people don't retire.  They reign. [The online version is a longer article with more pictures and in-depth interviews than the printed one.]

They Reign.  I love that.  

And if you're going to reign, you need to wear a party hat. Why they didn't include that little tidbit in the issue, I'll never know.

After all, party hats represent so much that is youthful: joy, frivolity, free-spiritedness, happiness...and the list goes on and on and on...there's just no underestimating the power of the party hat. 

So, I've added a very important, new job title to my curriculum vitae:  

Maker of party hats for Octogenarians, Nonagenerians and Centenarians

My first hat was for Jim's Aunt Ruth who passed away last year at 92.  

My second hat was for my friend Dolores who turned 85 last month.  Since I wasn't able to make it to her birthday party, I sent a party hat along instead.

At 85, Dolores is still studying Japanese Embroidery with me and is full of life.  

Which brings me to the second article in that NYT that was worth reading...What if Age is Nothing but a Mindset?

It discusses much of the work of Ellen Langer, a behavioral psychologist at Yale University who has spent her life demonstrating that using mindfulness to overcome our habits and ingrained biases can have profound effects on our outlook and performance.

My friend Carolyn (seen below assisting Dolores with her party hat) called me a few months ago to ask me a few questions.  She was doing some research for a psychologist friend of hers.  Her question, "How often did I look in the mirror?  And what did I see when I look?"

I don't know about you, but I tend to look in the mirror only once in the morning to make sure that I'm groomed properly: hair straight, nose clean, chin hairs plucked.  I wear no makeup most days.  And when I look in the mirror, I see myself at about 24 years of age.

It turns out that seeing yourself younger than you actually are might be a very successful strategy in defying age.

The other big takeaway from the Old Masters...

The tree of knowledge and the fountain of youth are one and the same.

Happy Birthday, Dolores!  Time to get crackin' on that Japanese Embroidery...

Sweaty Ribbons

Sweat and ribbons?  I know.  It sounds like they don't belong together, right?

That may be true, but to my athletic and active nieces, the use of an elastic, hairband to keep the hair off their faces has become as much a part of their activewear as spandex and jog bras.

There are many types of elastic hairbands but the ones that are super popular right now are called Sweaty Bands and cost anywhere from $12-$15 apiece!

That's a lot of money for two strips of ribbon and a bit of elastic.  

So when this niece turned sixteen this past Summer, I offered to make some non-slip, sweaty headbands to add to her sports arsenal...

One of the key differences of sweaty bands is the velvet on the underside of the ribbon...  

The nap of the velvet keeps the ribbon from sliding off the head while you're scoring goals, running a marathon, or jumping out of an airplane...

Ribbons can be found at your local craft store but I used the "gift" as an excuse to order some designer ribbons from Renaissance Ribbons...

If you've never checked out Renaissance Ribbons, give yourself a treat and browse around.  Many of their ribbons are designed by artists such as Amy Butler, Laura Foster Nicholson, Kaffe Fassett, etc.

Hey, my niece needed to have choices, right?

The project was fairly quick and easy...

I found two tutorials online that helped with sizing and tips.  

I followed this advice of Gladys of Desert Chic blog who suggested fusing the velvet and ribbon together before sewing (which I did) as well as using invisible thread in the bobbin (which I also did).  Likewise, I found this tutorial from the Undomestic Goddess to be most helpful in figuring out sizes.  I have one niece who finds that the standard size headband is too small and gives her a headache so I made a couple bands one inch larger for her.

All in all I think they're great as gifts, stocking stuffers, teammates, etc.

Today I'm working on making leaves for Mrs. Rose.  It's a gray, rainy day so I'm wearing white to help with the low light...but roses seem to grow faster when it rains.

Tell you about that next time.