Underneath the chicken foot bath (a shallow dish of water in the run because my hens like to cool their heels), some night crawlers have been hanging out for a few weeks. I picked up the bath to rinse and refill and found that they have decided to start an earthworm family there. Hm. I had to go look up the earthworm life cycle because I honestly didn’t know how new worms were made. Earthworms are hermaphrodites, but not asexual. Two organisms need to exchange genetic material before they can lay cocoons in which the new generation of worms develop. Here is an interesting article if you are so inclined. Learn something new everyday.
When your youngest likes to rearrange her room, and convinces you to let her change rooms, even though you just put up hundreds of pink and glow-in-the-dark stars, and you have to transfer the stars to the new room. In my defense, she first said the stars wouldn’t go to the new room. In her defense, her old room is above the garage and gets cold in the winter. With all that is going on health-wise, spending the winter in a more temperate room is really a no brainer. But so many stars. So many, in fact, that I think some will stay in the new office. Maybe they won’t show on the Zoom meetings.
My newly purchased book and my loom to practice the new things I’m learning!
I’ve been happily pouring over my new book “The Art of Tapestry Weaving” by Rebecca Mezoff. I’ve been following her blog for awhile and it was there I saw the upcoming release and so pre-ordered it. I had every intention of reading it cover to cover then go back to weaving. It lasted one chapter before I was too excited and had to warp my loom and try what I was reading about. But, being me, I’m not starting with a tapestry, I’m making dish clothes, because again, even an imperfect dish cloth is useful. Oh the ideas I have for weaving alpaca though!! But first cotton, and the loom I own. (Then later make my own with bits and bobs from the hardware store. She has instructions on that in the book too! Joy!)
I used to make quite a bit of jewelry; strung, wire work, some bead creation. It was a good thing to do when my kids were little because the projects were generally short term (although I did have a few hour intensive pieces). When my children were babies I also stopped wearing jewelry because little hands are hard on adornments, and being tugged at the neck is irritating. As they grew, I found I could no longer wear necklaces for long, then not at all. It bothers me to have something touching the back of my neck. Then I found out from a jeweler that I really should take off my rings for everything: washing, working, in the shop, in the craft room. That is all the time for me, so I switched to a silicone wedding band and that’s it. My ears are pierced, but will grow closed overnight if I forget earrings, so I have gold jump rings that stay in well, but are hard to remove. Hard to advertise that you make jewelry when you functionally don’t wear any! I do still do repairs. There is something different about making an object knowing it will eventually break, and repairing a broken item that can now be used again. There are also lessons to be learned not only repairing your own work, but that of others.
Broken paua shell bracelet
I designed this paua shell bracelet as part of a set. I used jump rings to connect the paua shell discs, and the jump rings failed multiple times. (It is a good thing my mother-in-law is understanding!) Jump rings are very easy to open with a twist, and flat elements are very good at twisting. To fix it, hopefully with a bit more permanence, I removed all the jump rings and made closed wire links instead. I had some 18 gauge half round wire that did beautifully on the wraps to secure the links. Each link is set at 90 degrees to the interconnecting link so they have some horizontal movement, but shouldn’t twist. Because the twists of wire take up more room, I reduced the number of shell elements, but I think the aesthetics are improved. And it is wearable again.
Critters and Craft 