09.30.09
Posted in Daily Musings at 11:45 pm by Kim Joy
I have the greatest students in the world. Tonight at class at the Lorton Workhouse my five students just amaze me. They are all first timers but jump right in and start working. We have helpers and everyone interacts with each other. And people share their glass. We even talked about a party after everyoneis done with their projects. I love teaching so much. It is great to watch people learn, overcome their fears and grow as an artist.
I have only been at Lorton since the spring and love the teaching venue. I also teach at Ft. Belvoir at Kawamura Arts & Crafts Center and have been out there for six years. I have had so many students but when we see each other around town we still recognize each other.
My Thursday night class at Ft. Belvoir is great too. Some of them have been in class before and they help out the newbies and remind me of tips I have forgotten to share with the new students. My students are not just students but they are my friends. In fact one of my students, Joanne, who recently moved, took 13 classes with me. She is an awesome artist and could teach very easily.
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09.27.09
Posted in Daily Musings at 12:41 am by Kim Joy
I picked up a great magazine at Borders today “Making Jewellry”, a British periodical. There are a few out there from England and Australia that are beautiful in photos and layout. I love looking at them, not nessasrily for ideas but for the content. I have found going to Borders to look at magazines is a great way to get fresh ideas, color mixes and style mixes. I love the tour magazines, wish I could go to those places. When I was a child my Dad worked for an international construction and we got to go and visit as well as live in England, Italy, Germany, France, Scotland, Ireland, Switzerland. He went to Mexico and El Salvador, but we did not get to go. I went to Spain in high school on an exchange program. When I married we lived in the US for his military career. We did go to Ireland and Scotland for the 20th anniversary/ farewell tour. I had a great time though I did not know it was to be the farewell tour at the time. I have lots of photos and keep in touch with two people I made friends with in Sterling Scotland and someone I met in Kilkenny Ireland. I hope to get back to Scotland and Italy, as well as a few other places. A friend has asked to go the France twice in the past year but it just did not happen.
I am a member of the MacLeod Clan here in the US and attend Scottish events in the area, like the Scottish games I shared earlier. I can not wait for the Christmas Walk in December. There are other activities that are coming up that I hope to get to. I have made a mold for a MacLeod pendant and hope to get some of them done before attending. I wore a stained glass pendant stamped with the MacLeod stamp I got in Scotland. I made it the night before so the quality was not that good. Needs a background or border to jazz it up. I did get 9 yards of my tartan at a sale in August, it was like hitting the mother lode.I do not know whether to have a kilt made or whether to make a ruana or two. I think Michelle would like a ruana also if that is the way I go. Will need to look for a pattern or find one to make a pattern from. More on this in the future for sure.
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09.26.09
Posted in Daily Musings at 12:23 am by Kim Joy
I was forced to buy a circular saw today. OK maybe I wasn’t forced but it was needed. Since the divorce I have been tool poor. When I need a piece of wood cut I have to ask a neighbor or take it out to the woodshop to ask Paul to cut it for me. He finished some fan lamp bases the ex started as well as fix the screw holes in the marudai the ex made. So I decided when I needed to cut two pieces of plywood for Meagan for sculpture class it was time to just pick one up for myself. So I got a Craftsman. Now I can cut my own wood. I have to make some 7 inch triangles for some lamps that are on the workbench, will go to hardwood store and see if I can scare up some exotic looking woods. That will probably mean I need to get a sander, I can hand sand if only doing a few. Does it sound like I like tools? Well you can never have enough tools of any kind. I treat myself to Lindstroms when I have been a good girl! They are the best for jewelry making and wire wrapping. I had to buy a socket, extender and socket to pull the sparkplug on the John Deere. Now I wish I had gotten a set but I was trying to control the spending. Maybe Santa will bring me a socket set.
I have tools for stained glass, tools for fused glass, tools for mosaics, tools for jewelry, tools for PMC, tools for wire work, garden tools, workshop tools and kitchen tools. I am a lucky girl! I have some of my Dad’s tools such as a level, hand drill, router and drafting tools. I cherish those tools.
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09.22.09
Posted in Daily Musings at 3:34 pm by Kim Joy
Today as I was driving down the driveway to the road I saw one then two and finally four buck deer. I thought one was pretty exciting but four was over the top. They must be out looking for women folk aka doe. They were eating in the neighbor’s yards at the edge of the woods. I just love our house, it is located it the greatest location in town.
Our neighbor, Tom, is finally getting siding on his house. They had a house fire in March which took the whole second floor and gutted the first. It took forever for the insurance company to photograph each item in the house and then it took forever for the cleaners to come and strip it down to what could be saved. The framers were great to watch, they were amazing. It was like a dance choreographed to hammer hits (air hammer). I could have watched them all day. I kept taking breaks from production to sneak a peek. The roofers worked with pulleys and were almost as entertaining. It will be nice to have someone living over there. He is the man with all the raccoons.
Today I spent most of the sketching designs for PMC pieces I have in my head. I want to do focal beads for the kumihimo necklaces that I have made. I also am going to make the cones for the ends of the braids and the clasp. Then it will be all made by me. I have sketched the cone designs so they are not just plain cones but embossed and carved and water etched. There are so many started projects on my workbenches that I don’t know where to go and work.
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09.17.09
Posted in Daily Musings at 11:17 pm by Kim Joy
Ok I have been gone for awhile… went to Louisville, KY for a work conference. It was long hours but I had fun also. Went to a Hill Billy Hoe Down Dance, was on the winning Toilet Paper Race team, went to a Maker’s Mark Bourbon tasting- found out I like bourbon and made lots of new friends. Got to know my co-workers more.
Artwise- I did not do any creating while I was gone. I did got to Glassworks to tour the glass studios. Some beautiful work. Lots of blown glass. When I came home at taught a Jewelry Basics class for Adult Ed- love introducing students to new techniques. Also started a new class at Lorton Workhouse, what a great facility. The glass class at Kawamura is going well. First timers mixed with returning students. I love the staff out there.
Tomorrow is my home class with Maureen. We have so much fun and lots of time it is just pick a project to do and we do it. She is also the person who challenged me to do my to repair list which is going well even though I took time off. I plan on making stained glass pendants to use in the Adult Ed class coming up.
Patrick and I will be going to the TV station to tape a show for Our Place, a show put on by TV & Me. TV & Me is a children’s show with children doing the interviewing and camera work. Pamela Haines, our dear Welsh friend is the producer. She stayed with us early spring and the kids fell in love with her cooking- shepherd’s pie and an egg souffle in a mug. We have been going to the TV station about 4 years. This spring we both took the Production Assistant course and got our certificates to work on any show produced at Channel 10 Public Access. Pretty fun and interesting. More on this tomorrow.
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09.08.09
Posted in Daily Musings at 9:54 pm by Kim Joy
NotJustPartz is a fun emporium of funky parts for jewelry making, altered art and just collecting. OK I know Myra Nicholas the owner and we help each get motivated to create, market and keep going when we get artist block or just plain lazy. She is a chipmunk sized powerhouse of ideas, her mind is never not working. We get on the phone and out flow zany ideas that will be completed projects next week. Myra is one of my muses. She can make anything out of anything. A CD purse, a CD clock, a repurposed piece of jewelry, polymer tiles, miniatures of her father’s paintings embossed into polymer to make polymer paintings. You name it she has done it. Myra writes a column for Altered Arts. One was on glues and I learned so much that I never knew could be done with glue. Another article was on metal sheeting and what you can make with that. Myra also started www.Yourcraftbusiness .com , a place where a budding craftsperson and artist can go to get information on how to start a business, where to go for business supplies, how to keep your sanity when starting a new venture. If you are looking for information on starting or running a craft business this is the place for you. Also there are great links to other sites that will be useful in your adventure.
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09.07.09
Posted in Daily Musings at 11:59 pm by Kim Joy
window repair
Color
Did you dream in color? What color do you see when you first wakeup? What color do you see when you open your eyes after a shower in the morning? What color towel did you dry off with? Are your underwear separated by color? Or do you throw caution to the wind and mix up the colors?!? Is your closet sorted by color or length? What color coffee cup did you pick this morning? Did you choose yellow butter or white cream cheese for your bagel topping? What color is the dashboard in your vehicle? What color is you office/workshop chair? What color is the refrigerator and appliances in the kitchen? What color was your lunch? And what colors will you dinner be? What color shirt did your loved one wear today? If you have children, what colors did they go off in? What color is your house? What color is your office building? What color is the metro seat you sat on? What was the last color you saw before falling asleep?
Color is all around us and we miss so much of it. The carpet here where I sitting is burgundy, green and grey peppered with paper shreddings. I never noticed we miss the garbage can when we dump the shredder. My desk is maple finished but there are two black scuff marks that just will not come off. I have tried more times than I can to think to remove them. On the white walls around the room ( not my color choice) there are black marks from things hitting the wall, grey spider webs and two red spaghetti spots.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 1:10 am by Kim Joy
I had a great day yesterday at the Scottish Games. I had been looking forward to the day for weeks. I woke up early to take Nanook for a long walk as he would be in the house most of the day. I had a slab of Apple Snapple bread from Great Harvest for breakfast. I sure do love that bread. Bonnie brought over a circular saw and saw house for me to use to cut wood for Meagan’s sculpture class. I will also use it to cut work boards for stained glass class. I found this oak bookcase on the curb in the old neighborhood and thought it would come to use one day. I will be able to cut 10 workboards out of it.
Well we left for The Plains around 9:30 and thought we would stop in Front Royal to pick up clay, clay store closed 6 years ago! They were still listed on the web as open. The number had been reassigned and the lady was very nice and understanding after all these years and calls. Pulled into Great Meadow around 10. You could hear the pipes before we got out of the car.
First stop was the Stage to listen to Alex Beaton then off to see the sights. Passed the beer tent… alittle too early to start drinking beer. Next stop was the MacLeod tent, bought a license plate bracket and talked alittle about Christmas Walk. We walked around looking for Macdonald and passed the whiskey tent, definitely too early for whiskey! Found the Macdonalds for Bonnie, she just needs to figure out which branch of Macdonald she is from. Some future research will have to be done there. We watched the pro hammer toss. Some good looking athletes there! Then walked around to see what other fun we could find. Stopped by craft tents on the way to Dogs of Scotland and the rescue groups. We did not bring home any extra dogs, though we thought about it. Back to the games to see the caber toss. There was some guy from FSU tossing for the first time and he was having the time of his life, happy as a can be. He was NCCA shot put champ and it paid off in the hammer toss. Everytime he threw he had the biggest smile on his face. Oh did I tell you he is a Rhodes Scholar also? Pretty wild. There was a great looking guy that we were watching all day. Bonnie thought I was stalking him because I took so many pictures of him. I will post some don’t worry. We did find out he does hold a world record. The calves on this man were amazing. And he could throw 56 lbs up and over his back over a bar above his head like no tomorrow. Gene, another athlete beat his own world record for sheep toss. A 16 lb sheep over 98’ and then he went for another 6’ to just see and low and behold he did it!
Check ou the arms and calves on Mike!
Next stop was the Border Collie Shepherding . These 3 dogs were so well trained. One was a youngster just starting out but he listened to verbal commands so well. I think Nanook would have loved to be part of this event. The sheep were pretty.
Border collie
Lunch was haggis for me and Bridie for Bonnie. The haggis was alittle dry and heavy on the liver flavor. I could only do half. The Bridie was yummy. It was hard to choose. I did want haggis but I also wanted meat pie. Next time!
Met Martha from TN that does PMC and actually took a class from someone I know at Conference. We talked about bronze and copper clay as well. It was nice to meet someone who does PMC at the Scottish Games. She had some good looking pins with celtic designs on them.
Off to the stage to see Glenngarry Bhoys from Canada. They had a great set. They had the crowd standing and dancing and clapping along with them. We met Scott and chatted with him for awhile, His dog has the whitest teeth you have ever seen. I thought Nanook had the whitest but they are not that white and will never be. Scott said he does not brush them, just lots of bones. We got to meet the band and of course got our picture taken.
It was a long and hot day and we had so much fun.
The Glengarry Bhoys with Bonnie and Kim
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09.01.09
Posted in Daily Musings at 9:58 pm by Kim Joy
I really should change this from Daily to Nightly. I just get so involved in the morning I do not take time to sit down to type. Today was take the cat to the vet day. Wesley got his rabies shot. He is 3 3/1 months old and 7 1/2 lbs. He did not like the temperature taking or the shot at all. After the vet’s visit, I picked up my watch from repair place. It was the last gift I got from my father as a graduation gift. I overwound it back in 1984 and it has been sitting in my jewelry box since. They took the guts out, which I will use in some jewelry piece in the future and put in electronic parts, no winding. To look at it, it is the same. Feels good to have it fixed and wearing it. I did love my Dad. He died a week after high school graduation and I was so lost without him. Don’t get me wrong I did love my Mom but I was a Daddy’s girl. Came home and took Patrick out, we wanted to get Apple Snapple Bread from Great Harvest but they only bake it Wednesdays and Fridays. WHAT! We taste tested two others but walked out breadless. Our dreams dashed for the bread that is hard to just have one piece, tomorrow is another day. We came home then went to the high school for Spartan Spree- pick up your schedule. Well Patrick had been transferred to a non-public school in July somehow. Wonder how? SO it took 1 1/2 hours of talking, filing, refiling and waiting to find out if he was back in. Thank you to the staff at WSHS Patrick is now back in his old high school!
There was a doe in our front yard after dinner, She was just eating her dinner, our grass. Wesley was trying to figure out what it was. It was amazing how long she stayed out there. She only ran when I went to take a picture. The flash went off and off she went.Oh well I did try to get a photo to share with you. We usually see at least one deer a day. Some days there will 6-8 in the back grazing. Nanook wants to chase them so badly but sits and watches until he can not stand it anymore. Sometimes I can distract him and he never even knows they are there.
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