Zapata and Rock Stacking March 31, 2008

This weekend I went hiking to Zapata Falls on Mt. Blanca. We walked right into the rocks on the frozen creek leading up the the falls which made me kind of nervous about falling in but the ice was so frozen this was not a problem. Once we are at the falls I found a part of the ice that was broken off and you could see that it was five or six inches solid. Still you could hear the water running underneath which was a little disconcerting. The little crack between the two cliffs is where we walked through to get to the falls.

The falls were still frozen which was really cool.

On our way back we discovered some rock stacking art and felt inspired to add to it. The top three rocks are our addition.

Then we made a couple of our own.

They are amateur of course and nowhere near as amazing as our inspiration at Team Sandtastic or Bill Dan.

Finally, My Eggs! March 28, 2008

For those of you who read my post earlier in the week about Pysanky, or batiked eggs I am now following up on my promise to post photos of the eggs I made. Again I want to reiterate that my eggs look nothing at all like the eggs that I posted. Unfortunately they are not nearly as well done. I have only made four so far and am still learning but am making progress I think. We have run into a few snags in the egg decorating process. One of which are these pesky smears or dots that show up on the eggs. We thought it might have had to do with the way we were letting the eggs dry so we started wiping the wet dye off the eggs with soft, clean flannel. Or perhaps we wondered, if it was the oil from our hands that was causing the marks so we started wearing rubber gloves. We also thought maybe it was the fact that after the vinegar pre-soak we did, we didn’t rinse the eggs with water. There were various other theories that I can’t think of right now. It turns out none of our tested theories are the culprit because the marks still keep occurring. After seeing some friends dyed eggs that don’t have the mark we have a new yet to be tested theory, the type of egg makes the difference. Turkey eggs don’t seem to have marks on them.

Anyhow now you know why there seem to be weird smudges, spots, or marks on the eggs. Let’s home the next batch is mark free!

Another lesson I have personally learned is to take it easy on the number of colors used. At first I wanted to have a very colorful egg with a lot going on. I think that the best egg designs (unless you are an amazing artist-see Eve Butterly below) are the ones with fewer colors. It seems that when mixing colors some mixtures come out better than others. Next time I will stick with two or three colors per egg.

First is the onion skin egg. As I explained before we wrapped yellow onion skins around the egg and then hard boiled them in water and vinegar.

Next is my tree with roots. There is another tree on the other side and the roots are connected at the bottom. I like this one.

Next is the floral sunburst. This one was supposed to have purple and blue petals/rays as well but they didn’t show up as nicely as the pink and red.

Next is my traditional floral design. Again the purples didnt seem to stand out as well as the warmer colors. Good to remember for next time.

And last is another floral design.

Pysanky March 24, 2008

So yesterday was Easter. In preparation I spent Saturday with friends decorating eggs. We of course did do the obligatory Paz dyed eggs but the hostess also had strong toxic acid dyes and styluses for a Batik egg dying called Pysanky. This dying method is traditional in many Eastern European countries. This was a very fun and challenging way to decorate eggs that will last for years to come. The process is pretty labor intensive and complicated but the results are pretty amazing. You basically have to plan out your design, planning backwards from lightest color to darkest color. You draw on the egg with the kystka which is a rod with a tiny funnel at the end. You fill the reservoir with wax and place it near a candle flame to melt the wax in the funnel. You then draw on the egg, etching wax in places you don’t want to be colored.

For example if you want a dark blue egg with pink flowers and light green you would first dip your egg in the pink dye. Then you would use your kystka to draw on the pink flowers. Then you would dip the egg in green dye and draw on the leaves. Finally you would dip the egg in the blue dye. We used both regular white eggs, green Americana eggs, and speckled turkey eggs for a variety of effects. After the eggs are dry you heat the wax and wipe it off to reveal your finished egg. The egg should then be punctured on either end and the innards blown out so the eggshell can last without fear of rotting. Of course traditionally different colors and symbols are full of meaning but our group just had fun experimenting with different looks. I don’t have pictures of my eggs yet because they are still at the hostesses house waiting to be blown out, but I will post them once I get them back. For now I am posting pictures of really good eggs that look nothing like mine.  The one on top is by egg artist Eve Butterly.

We also dyed some eggs using red and yellow onion skins. To do this you remove the onion skins from the onion and soak them in warm water with a little white vinegar until they are soft. you then wrap eggs with the skin and then wrap the eggs in scrap cloth with rubber bands to secure. Next hard boil the eggs in a water/vinegar bath. After removing the cloth there are beautifully dyed eggs in varying shades of browns, tans and yellows. These eggs can be used as a classy and practical centerpiece for Easter brunch as they can be consumed just like regular hard boiled eggs. The ones pictured are much darker than ours but you get the idea.

Finally I am posting some pictures of some really beautiful eggs that artist Franc Grom creates. He uses a tiny elecrical drill to create 2,500 to 3,500 holes in each eggshell. His remind my of the traditional Slovenian designs with a twist!

Salmonella is Gross March 19, 2008

So yesterday when I was out and about town I saw that the front page story was that 20 residents or so had myseriously come down with Salmonella. I thought that was odd and read on hoping to find out where they had contracted said bacteria. The article didn’t say so I assumed it was from some dingy restaurant and hoped I would avoid falling ill and put it out of my mind.

So then this afternoon I receive several e-mails instructing residents to not drink the tap water. Apparently the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has placed a bottled water only restriction on the city water until further notice because that is what is making people sick! Residents aren’t even supposed to brush their teeth or wash dishes in the city water. Boiling the water is also not ok. They aren’t saying how the water became contaminated or how long the restriction will continue.

I’m not sure how common this is but I have never had anything like this happen to me before. Has this happened to anyone else?

Yay Front Page! March 18, 2008

I am very happy today because my birdie napkins that I wrote about earlier in my blog were featured today on the front page of Etsy by Portovert, an online guide to greener weddings! I embroidered little birds on high quality clothe napkins I discovered at a local thrift store. I can only assume the napkins are meant to be given as a wedding gift? Not sure but I definitely appreciate the compliment. I have had one other item featured on the front page, wool convertible mittens. This resulted in my first (and sadly, only) sale. Hopefully the same will be true this time, except of course it would result in my second and not only sale.

Alchemy March 13, 2008

 So Etsy, the site where I sell (or try to sell) my hand made goods has just come out with a forum where people can request custom orders. It is called alchemy and it allows potential buyers to name their price and describe the item they want created for them. The sellers then make bids stating how much their item will be and how exactly they plan to make it. The seller then gets to choose from several bids. Apparently this was a feature on Etsy before but it went away so they could fix some bugs and now it is back.

I am excited about this feature but also a little nervous. When a buyer is saying exactly what they want and has an idea of what they want in their head I think it is harder to satisfy them. So far I have only made one bid for a cable knit hat mittens and scarf set that I feel pretty confident about. Other requests I have almost bid on but then I second guess myself. The other thing is that for knit goods so many people make bids compared to other requests so competition is definitely fierce.

Pointless Nostalgic March 10, 2008

 

Today I would like to feature my friend and fellow Etisan emmylouhelmuth at Pointless Nostalgic. Emmy and I are volunteers together and pass much of our free time doing creative things. Emmy is the one who reintroduced me to knitting and got me into selling my goods on Etsy. She has been doing so since October and has had much luck at her shop.

She has a wide range of items available from bookmarks made from a vintage quilt to fingerless gloves and hats from recycled silk spun from the ends of saris.

Her newest addition to her shop is a To-Go Cup Sleeve made from wool she dyed, spun, and knitted all by hand. How amazing is she?! Anyway, be sure to check out her shop and blog.

Etsy Shopping Trip March 8, 2008

So I have been wondering why my etsy shop has been so slow and thought that perhaps it was because I had no feedback rating. I know this would be a deterrent for me. I like to know that the person I am buying from or selling from has a good previous record and is going to actually come through with the money/product. Unfortunately, the way to improve feedback is to sell stuff. Kind of a catch-22. The other way is to buy… So I went shopping…

From ChainFlower I bought the blue birds nest pendant that I thought was so cute…

And from Indulgent Creations I bought this Tea Tree Oil Soap.

Hopefully they will give me positive feedback and buyers will be more likely to take a chance on me.

Grrrr! March 6, 2008

Well it’s Thursday and I haven’t blogged since Monday, but its not because I haven’t been working on this blog. I recently discovered that unlike blogspot, wordpress does not accept flash or java script. This is bad for me because it means I can’t import my etsy mini store. Its basically a widget on the right column that displays the items in your store and provides links to them. Scroll about a third of the way down this shop and you can see what I am referring to. The forums said it was for security purposes. I don’t know much about this stuff but I will say I am pretty disappointed. I am attempting to make my own mini etsy in the right column by uploading thumbnails of my products. The problem is its not formatting the way I would like, I would prefer to columns, centered, with small spaces in between. And each thumbnail would have a link to that product in my shop. Well I am simply not that computer savvy but maybe I will figure it out sometime here…

Bird Napkins March 3, 2008

Cute birdie napkins

Well I finally finished a project. It has been ages since I could say that. I think the last project I finished was a pair of fingerless mittens a month or two ago. I really don’t know why I have been so unproductive. I guess because I have been pretty busy at work lately and haven’t had a ton of time to spend on my other pursuits.

Anyhow these little bird napkins are the fruit of my labor. I found the yellow napkins at a local thrift store and they were in great shape so I decided to add a little charm to them. I hand embroidered a bird in the corners. Each bird has a different color wing. I think they are kind of retro and cute. My friend thinks they look like partridges, someone else said geese, someone else said hens. I don’t know what they are but I like them.