Beads, Brushes, Bronze and Braids

I haven't written a blog entry in FOREVER -- probably because I was down in the dumps and had nothing positive to write, and I don't want a downer blog! Now it is spring, the grass is growing, the leaves are budding and the cat is going to have kittens. The hills are covered with layer upon layer of green -- in every shade imaginable. Birds are singing, turkeys are gobbling, and baby calves gambol in the fields. Sunshine -- it does wonders for the soul!

Anyhow, after a slump, I have finally gotten back into making jewelry and painting! I even have plans to combine the two. For now, I'll keep them separate though.

My latest joy is that I have two of my bead paintings going to the ANAC (Association of Nebraska Art Clubs) State Show in June. One is based on a fabulous moss agate that appears to have trees, a river, a winter sky and a rocky foreground in it, and the other is based on one of my miniature colored pencil paintings.

The moss agate piece was runner up to Best of Show at the annual member show at the Thedford Art Gallery, which is where I currently show my work in photography, painting and jewelry design.

I am also writing tutorials for www. jewelrylessons.com with the latest ones being:

http://www.jewelrylessons.com/tutorial/braided-hoop-earrings-posts

http://www.jewelrylessons.com/tutorial/freeform-bridal-pearlcocktail-cluster-ring

http://www.jewelrylessons.com/tutorial/curls-and-swirls-ring

http://www.jewelrylessons.com/tutorial/bead-encrusted-headband

I am working on three more right now.

Speaking of which, I had better get back to work on those.

Bangles, Beads, Bugs and Buddies

Finally, the end of a long, long week and the beginning of a new one. Last week was spent nursing sick kids and mourning the death of good Christian man who died much too soon. The kids are feeling better now, the hubby has gotten over his share of the bug and my buddy has been laid to rest, but the sadness lingers.

To help keep the sadness at bay, I joined in a bracelet challenge -- a cuff challenge to be specific. Since I don't wear bracelets much and NEVER wear cuffs, the challenge is an interesting one. We are all working from the same photo of a cuff made by a friend and doing a similar cuff in our own style. Very interesting and quite tough, actually. One friend works in colored wire and is making a bright, happy colored cuff, the other is working in earth tones and I am working, as usual, in two-tones -- gold and silver.

The other project I worked on was based on some lovely mini tapestries one of the local artists here does -- her name is Roberta Barnes and she does these teeny tiny landscape tapestries, and teeny tiny landscape paintings on ceramics. They are breathtaking. I decided I could do something similar, but using the landscape cabochons I have already been incorporating into my jewelry. So, now I am painting with seed beads! My first one was rather rough, as I was flying blind, but since then I have read up a bit on seed beads and hopefully the second one will be much improved. I really like the first one and it is quite a conversation starter. I also plan to use my miniature colored pencil paintings as the focal point of some of these pendants -- which will be lots of fun!

We also got some new "critters" for the acreage -- kitties! We have a mouse problem in the machine shed (including one that crawled up in the pickup's air conditioning shroud and died --peeyew), so a friend gave us some kittens. I went after two -- one for each kid -- but came home with four! Cute little guys though and one has totally adopted me. We now have one black kitten, one yellow kitten and two calico kittens. They are from three different litters, so all at different stages. The calicos are the youngest and the yellow one is the oldest.

Time to feed the calf and the kittens, then off to work at the art gallery for the day. Guess I will take my newest bead painting project with me to work on.

Happy creating!

Camp Comeca, carving and choosing to learn to paint

I just spent a week at the Great Plains Creative Arts Association's 60th annual craft camp at Camp Comeca south of Cozad. What fun! I was teaching a photo composition workshop, along with helping people decipher the settings on their cameras. When I didn't have students, I also had the chance to learn various things myself.

I started with the precious metal clay area, where I designed a textured fine silver and dichroic glass pendant and earrings set. I also brought home another matching cabochon to make a ring to add to the set.

I also tried my hand at carving wood. I'm a little scary with a knife, but when I switched over to using a dremel tool, it got much easier and I ended up making a surprisingly good looking walleye lure painted up in the fire tiger design. I also learned about using my flex shaft to engrave patterns in the wood stocks on guns. Fun!

Painting walls is something I enjoy and am good at, but the art of wielding a paintbrush to create beautiful pictures has always eluded me. Despite that, I took an oil painting class this week and came home with a rather passable painting of a wooden windmill at sunset. What is even more surprising is that my husband, who doesn't care for paintings in general, and my art in particular, actually LIKES it and wants me to hang it at home!

Now I am interested in learning more about all of those things -- which is exactly what my hubby was afraid of, LOL!

I have also started a beading project -- much harder with these old eyes and I hope to finish it soon.

For now I need to unpack and get rested before the work week begins again tomorrow.

Trim paint, summer creations and waiting on electricians

The painting continues, as does the waiting for an electrician so I can prepare the interior of the caboose. I climbed up on the roof and painted the east and west ends of the cupola this weekend. After much debate I decided to paint the aluminum window frames and the old caboose numbers yellow. Good choice! Wow, what a difference that made! The yellow really pops those windows and numbers out and ups the visibility factor 150%!

I am now in the process of trim painting the remainder of the caboose -- all the spots the roller can't reach (which are numerous) and I plan to paint the windows on the ends of the caboose red, since the ends are yellow. Hopefully that will make them pop as well. I may do the doors red as well, but I am undecided on that one. The hand rails on the side of the caboose may go yellow too, and the railings on the ends may go red. Still up in the air about that.

All of my supplies for the interior of the shop will begin arriving Monday, and I have nowhere to put them. The caboose does not lock yet, so I can't store them there, and there really isn't room in our tiny two-bedroom trailer with the leaky roof. Fun!

I am still in dire need of an electrician that will WORK with me -- meaning break down the total bill into parts, so I know what my costs were for what. I have only found one electrician with the time, and he is unwilling to do that one small thing for me, which makes me unable to use him without a bookkeeping nightmare. Also, if he is so unwilling to bend on that one thing, how impossible will he be to work with on other things? He also did not want to do just the interior of the caboose, and the landowner has dug the trench for the electrical himself to save us both money. So, the hunt for the elusive electrician goes on. I am waiting on a bid from a gentleman who seemed both very knowledgeable and very easygoing, but time drags on with no word from him. HELP!

On the other hand, a friend offered me some combination AC/Heat units he has in his barn that came from a hospital remodel many years ago. They worked when they were put in there, and I am welcome to them. So, the heat/AC problem is solved, once the wiring is done so I can plug them in, that is.

I was up until the wee hours last night as PMC design ideas kept pouring through my brain. I scribbled down three pages, front and back, so I have plenty of fodder to work with when the stuff arrives. Fun! I am so excited!

I did manage to make four pieces for the "Summer" Expressions theme event at http://www.jewelrylessons.com/ and that was fun too. Two were pieces that fit into my "Prairie Skies" collection and one belongs in my "Sandhills Scenes" collection.

I am trying to get enough jewelry made to put some in my first one-man art show at the Robert Henri Museum in Cozad, NE as well as in my shop, the Thedford Art Gallery and the Wild Rose Gallery in Broken Bow, NE, as they have requested I bring more pieces over. Yikes!

Laundry and dishes are calling, so I had better get them taken care of, then I had better get to work on my entries for our annual open art and photography show, my show in Cozad and to take to my folks. Happy creating!

The Waiting Game Again

The loan is approved, but the money won't be in my hand until Thursday. However, I am at a standstill until the caboose is wired. I need to powerwash the interior to get out years of accumulated dust and grease, but those things run on electricity. I want to orange peel the interior, but once again, electricity is an issue and it can't be done until AFTER I use the powerwasher. I want to sand the floors, but need to powerwash and orangepeel BEFORE I can do that. So, I'm waiting.

I sprayed a bunch of recalcitrant bolts yesterday and I hope to be able to remove them today. I need to get the desks, the diesel stove and the boiler out so I can make room for my workbench, work station, my desk, the display area and a safe.

I have hauled a few things out, but more needs to go.

I met with the plumber over the weekend and he will change out the railroad toilet for a regular one and insulate the pipes coming up from the ground to the caboose. I would like to have hot water, but I don't know where I would put the water heater. Hot water on demand is a bit pricey, so I'll probably just make do with cold water, or microwave some when I want some warm or hot water.

It was suggested that I contact Burlington Norther Railroad to see if they would be interested in donating the paint to take the caboose back to its original colors. After perusing caboose photos, it appears that would be a green body with canary or butter yellow ends and white trim and lettering. Not the best colors to grab attention in a world that is covered with green prairie grasses, but it would look nice and would keep the caboose true to its history (not to mention save me a lot of money).

So, the caboose would end up with similar (but brighter) colors to what it has now on the outside. On the inside I think I will emulate the old dining cars, with dark wood, hunter accents and cream colored walls. I want it to look rich but bright enough to work as an art gallery as well.

My neighbor is a master woodworker and he is working me up a bid to build the workstation and the display area. His work is awesome, so I'm sure they will look great!

Better go fix lunch for the kiddos and perhaps make some jewelry!

Happy creating!

A Lot of Work Ahead Of Me

Okay, the loan money is on the way -- now the work really begins! The caboose is cute from the outside, but it needs a lot of TLC on the inside! I need to scrub, scrub, scrub, years of debris and dirt from everywhere, plus I need to get it plumbed and wired. I also need to paint the interior, paint the exterior, plant a garden, build a deck, build a picnic table, paint the trash cans, build a workbench, build display areas, and make some really big signs.

I am still fine tuning my list of equipment and supplies so I can get the best bang for my buck -- but I am held back by the fact that I don't know what plumbing and electricity are going to cost. I can't find a plumber and the local electrician hasn't called me back yet, despite numerous messages.

So, today I will probably carry a cooler of hot water down there and start cleaning. I really need a power washer to power all the grime out of the interior, but since there is no water nearby I am going to have to just use elbow grease. I think I'll dig out my luggage cart and just cart the cooler back and forth with water. Fun!

I'm waiting on my husband to return so I can leave the kids with him -- the place spooks my daughter and my son would want to "help," which would mean he would end up covered with water and dirt and the caboose would be in worse shape than it started in as he "touched" everything with wet hands, transferring dirt from one place to another. He LOVES that caboose though and we have to go "visit" it every day.

I'm going to have my daughter help paint, so it feels a bit more "hers" and less scary to her.

I'd better get to work!