Ice, coral and potassium

  I must admit that this place in winter is not for the faint-hearted.  On Wednesday I took this photo on the way to work - I know, I need to trim the grass.

A dear friend came back from a trip to the north and brought me some bananas - at current prices, a gift equivalent to a small gold bar - and a beautiful piece of coral, found washed up on the beach.  While my potassium levels climb I will be putting the coral into some type of frame arrangement, both to preserve it and to show off the amazing starfish detail.  

I was also featured in the blog of another dear friend, fellow wage slave, and cupcake queen.  She has very kindly included lots of my work and you can find the post here.

Hairspray - the true story

I nearly overdosed on hairspray, but I made it.  I haven't seen so much hair lacquer since the primary school production in Year 7 - sixty 12 year old  girls, one room, pre-performance jitters - it was character building.  School Ball, "prees" (pre-ball drinks), "afters" (afterball party) tick.  Girlchild returned so exhausted she can't speak.  Sanity - intact, almost.  Finances - crumbling. And oh yes - another working week to look forward to.

A glorious, sunny, warm weekend. Right now the wind is howling and thunder threatening but the washing is dry, and it's dark, so I have no more need to be outside.  I tripped over this earlier and so have spent a few hours working on it - doesn't look like this any more but you will have to wait to see the finished product.

The manchild, on the run from ball hysteria, hid out at mine and had a quiet day.  He had a bit of a sleep in so I got some time to work on some semi-assembled projects and recover a bit of the kitchen table's surface.  It's that time of year again.

rhinestones, bluebirds and how the stars move across the sky

I'm exhausted.  The girlchild has a school ball this weekend and every mother of a similar aged daughter wears the same hagged look.  We hemorrhage money. Dress, hair, hair extensions, eyelashes, shoes, nails, makeup, jewellery, more is not enough.  At 7pm this Saturday we retire to our virtuous couches (possibly clutching a bottle of gin) and relax.  Finally. 

I've been working on some models, for which I finally accumulated the bits needed for completion. I still have a star-ship under construction, as soon as I have an hour or so to myself it too will be done.  My star-ships are my version of how the stars move around in the sky - some have several stars, others massive infrastructure to support a single star. 
 
Once the models are complete, it's time to start on jewellery again.  The kitchen table is already overwhelmed as I'm sorting out what I have from what I need, and enjoying the randomness of putting things together and finding that they work.  I spent almost an hour last night untangling metres of chain.  The enamel bluebird earring finally turned up - I knew it was here somewhere.  I found trays of rhinestone jewellery, completely overlooked in a drawer. Some very nice sterling silver and marcasite. It's all looking very very shiny. 
I found a badge/button making machine yesterday on my travels - I'm thinking fridge magnets - who can say?  Note to self: read instruction book. Today, in a mid-week surprise inspection of the opshops I found a cute little box with lovely old (blank) cards for recipes - the colour and texture of the blank cards is just beautiful. Now, I need some tiny old bottles for a project which is starting to take place.  And I'm developing some definite plans for the giant plywood pterodactyl skeleton which has adorned the kitchen for the last two years.  You never know when you'll need one of those.


News just in... I hear that hair scrunchies are making a comeback - from the nineties.  Wasn't that only yesterday? Is it just me or is time speeding up?

Neopagan, occultist, ceremonial magician, and anarchist: how ducky...

I have been musing on musing as a pastime.  Some may call this staring into the middle distance, with prejudice.  I prefer to think of it as gathering my thoughts, indexing them and stashing them with the others.    Some would say it's the best place for them.

A quick dash through Vinnies last week yielded 2 handcarved wooden ducks.  I think they were handmade as they seemed to have some interesting joints and some very interesting bits where it looked like plaster had been used as filler instead of wood putty.  A little work, a little plaster removal. Some paint. Two rather ducky ornaments.  If I'm ever hunting wooden ducks I have the perfect decoys.

I remembered a great song about ducks, which I was unsurprised to learn was available on YouTube - you can watch it here.  I think that ducks are underestimated and we should watch them more closely.
I note that the lead singer of the Sinister Ducks, and the creator of the song, was known as Translucia Baboon, and described as neopagan, occultist, ceremonial magician, and anarchist.  His photo from wikipedia is not a complete surprise.  I think I shall have to have a little lay down -  YouTube and wikipedia in one day, it's all too much.  I see that I am not the only midcentury modernist not aging gracefully, and that's a good thing.



Otherwise an uninspiring week, treasure hunting-wise.  Positively barren of excitement, despite advertised deceased estate sales.  I'm working on some new bits and pieces, which will eventually show up here. I'm looking for my original Sinister Ducks record, with artwork by Translucia.   In the meantime - I shall continue to muse.