I sits.
If I fits
Month: March 2023
Pan handle
One of my Dad’s favorite cooking implements is a cast iron pan. I saw ideas on leather handle covers so thought I would make him one. I started out with some card stock to make a template. I liked the idea of a wrap around handle cover because it seemed it would be more comfortable to grip.
I used the template and leather shears to cut the design from tooling leather. With the wrap around design, only the end needs sewing, the wrap has enough give to slide onto the handle, but should stay in place. I wetted the leather and punched holes, then I lashed the end with a strip of leather.
I let the sewn assembly dry in place on a cast iron pan (both my sister and I have pans at our house in case Dad needs to cook something while he is visiting.) When it was dry I sealed it with Resolene to protect it from food spills.
Resist
Resolene is an acrylic based leather finish that can protect smooth leather. I have a very large bottle of it. What else can I use it for? Will it work as a resist for watercolor art? It should, and it does!
I used a small paint brush to write “Happy Birthday” on two sheets of water color paper, then used a hair dryer to dry the writing.
My youngest and I then each painted watercolors over the entire paper. We wanted to try out some new pearlescent watercolors, so it was a double experiment (not recommended in scientific experiments, but encouraged in artistic endeavors.)
I think if I use Resolene to make words again, I will make the letters a little thicker, but overall the venture was a success! The clear acrylic kept the resisted areas mostly white, so the writing is readable in the final product. Pearlescent watercolors don’t photograph well for sparkle, but they do have a nice shimmer in person.
Henbit explosion
Yup, spring. And a wetter spring than we’ve had in a few of years. We have a bumper crop of henbit, with its pretty purple carpet, in our meadow as well as throughout the countryside and town lawns (the ones that go natural, at least).
It was easy to pick a handful (for at least the past two years it wasn’t), and offer a snack bouquet to the chickens.
This is the time that I get a little wistful that my hens can’t free range the meadow, but I haven’t done a metal sweep of the whole meadow, oh, and there is the plethora of predators. There’s that. Everything likes to eat chickens.
Beauty like the night
Here is another picture of not-my-cat, but isn’t he in a pretty pose? This definitely gets marked as a favorite and saved for a reference for future art. The arc of the tail! The perfect feet! That light necklace of fur that gives him an even more regal air! Those eyes! I missed the picture of him meowing at me. He will approach, but not allow the familiarity of pets let alone brushing. He is Mr Tom’s Shadow, and they hang out in the meadow.
Critters and Craft 