Saturday, November 26, 2005
Who? Me? A Magpie?
My friends Kyle and David make a bit of a production of trying to distract/steer me away from the windows of Blue Ruby, a Vancouver jewelry store... something about shiny/sparkly/colourful things just draws my attention, kinda like a kid with their nose pressed againt the windows of a candy store!
I thought I'd share some links for neato things to look at:
http://www.brewstersociety.com/ is all about people who collect kaleidoscopes (hey, I can finally spell that on the first try!) and teleidoscopes (those thingys that turn your surroundings into a kaleidoscopic image). When I was in Sedona, AZ, last spring, I was REALLY tempted to buy a handmade kaleidoscope from this huge arts & fine crafts enclave (think Granville Island x10).. for about $80USD. Food? Kaleidoscope? Food? Kaleidoscope? Food won.
My collection is small, but growing steadily... the first 'scope I was given, after pronouncing that I wanted to start collecting, is a plastic kid's 'scope, from Diane Fraser (nee Nakada), a coworker from the North Van Rec Commission who is also from Williams Lake. Second and third are beautiful art pieces, from my parents and Paul and Rebecca, respectively, made with stained glass bodies. PnR's has a funky tube filled with gel, sparkles and stars that slooooowwwly drifts past the opening to make a cool pattern that looks kinda like an "8".. very narrow mirror angles. MomnDad's has two wheels attached to the end, made of stained glass and jewelry bits, that create really cool intricate mandala images (one bit is attached by jumpring so it dangles... when looking THROUGH the 'scope and turning the wheels, I'd hear this loud CLICK, and thought at first that I was somehow being shocked by static electricity. Not so....) .. and then I have a plastic bug-eye 'scope, dunno where it came from, and a lovely turned-wood teleidoscope that I picked up in Fort Lauderdale (after warning Wolf that I'd need at least an hour in the shop to look at everything....) I think I'll be looking for a wearable kaleidoscope next.... something plain on the outside, but when I get people to look through it, they'll go "OOOOOoooooooooohh!"
http://wetcanvas.com is an online community of artists, working in a TON of different mediums, including glass. When I first discovered WC, I spent hours in the glass forums, looking at the daily Showcases of people's work, reading through the technical tips (particularly on which colours would create a cool chemical reaction with other colours) and enjoying the discussion ("*I* invented the sign language bead!" "No, *I* did! You copied ME!" ... third person: "Hey, lets all start posting the silly things that we thought we invented, until we found out the glass bead world was so huge that just about everything had been done before...") Whatever kind of art you like to create or to look at, you'll probably find it here.
http://www.canadiancraftsfederation.ca/html/inspire_gallery.html shows some beautiful work by Canadian craftspeople, in various media, and is also the place where EVENTUALLY something of mine should show up..
http://hooping.org/ has all the links to videos and photos of hoopers hooping happily that you could ever want...
WHOOPS, and it is now 9:30am, time to go get on with my morning so I can hit the Womyn's Craft Faire on Main, and then ge back here to get my hoops for this afternoon's hooping playdate! Woohoo!
Weather: holy @#%&(*! I can see nothing but blue sky and sunshine!
Chai's so far: None. I'm actually kinda cutting back, and instead totally devouring the "Russian Tea" mix my sister made for me for Christmas (last year? two years ago?) Anyway... Heather, I'll need more ;)
Water: still on water exposure rationing, due to still being off work.. will update THAT story when something radically new happens. Hot tub yesterday, no swim... polo later today, though, which will load heavily on my bellydanced/hooped body..
Wardrobe: I'm at home, and haven't actually done the breakfast/shower thang, so I'm in my jammies: blue tribal print pants, a longsleeve green t, and a blue-with-white-pinstripes flannel robe. Oh So Glam.
Craft in Progress: nothing being agressively worked on at the moment... finished the sweater, was BEAUTIFUL and I started wearing it right away (first time THAT has ever happened, I think...), have knit a ton of things that need to be thrown in the washing machine and felted, and have made some cool beads at Joanne's studio that may or may not become jewelry sometime soon.
I thought I'd share some links for neato things to look at:
http://www.brewstersociety.com/ is all about people who collect kaleidoscopes (hey, I can finally spell that on the first try!) and teleidoscopes (those thingys that turn your surroundings into a kaleidoscopic image). When I was in Sedona, AZ, last spring, I was REALLY tempted to buy a handmade kaleidoscope from this huge arts & fine crafts enclave (think Granville Island x10).. for about $80USD. Food? Kaleidoscope? Food? Kaleidoscope? Food won.
My collection is small, but growing steadily... the first 'scope I was given, after pronouncing that I wanted to start collecting, is a plastic kid's 'scope, from Diane Fraser (nee Nakada), a coworker from the North Van Rec Commission who is also from Williams Lake. Second and third are beautiful art pieces, from my parents and Paul and Rebecca, respectively, made with stained glass bodies. PnR's has a funky tube filled with gel, sparkles and stars that slooooowwwly drifts past the opening to make a cool pattern that looks kinda like an "8".. very narrow mirror angles. MomnDad's has two wheels attached to the end, made of stained glass and jewelry bits, that create really cool intricate mandala images (one bit is attached by jumpring so it dangles... when looking THROUGH the 'scope and turning the wheels, I'd hear this loud CLICK, and thought at first that I was somehow being shocked by static electricity. Not so....) .. and then I have a plastic bug-eye 'scope, dunno where it came from, and a lovely turned-wood teleidoscope that I picked up in Fort Lauderdale (after warning Wolf that I'd need at least an hour in the shop to look at everything....) I think I'll be looking for a wearable kaleidoscope next.... something plain on the outside, but when I get people to look through it, they'll go "OOOOOoooooooooohh!"
http://wetcanvas.com is an online community of artists, working in a TON of different mediums, including glass. When I first discovered WC, I spent hours in the glass forums, looking at the daily Showcases of people's work, reading through the technical tips (particularly on which colours would create a cool chemical reaction with other colours) and enjoying the discussion ("*I* invented the sign language bead!" "No, *I* did! You copied ME!" ... third person: "Hey, lets all start posting the silly things that we thought we invented, until we found out the glass bead world was so huge that just about everything had been done before...") Whatever kind of art you like to create or to look at, you'll probably find it here.
http://www.canadiancraftsfederation.ca/html/inspire_gallery.html shows some beautiful work by Canadian craftspeople, in various media, and is also the place where EVENTUALLY something of mine should show up..
http://hooping.org/ has all the links to videos and photos of hoopers hooping happily that you could ever want...
WHOOPS, and it is now 9:30am, time to go get on with my morning so I can hit the Womyn's Craft Faire on Main, and then ge back here to get my hoops for this afternoon's hooping playdate! Woohoo!
Weather: holy @#%&(*! I can see nothing but blue sky and sunshine!
Chai's so far: None. I'm actually kinda cutting back, and instead totally devouring the "Russian Tea" mix my sister made for me for Christmas (last year? two years ago?) Anyway... Heather, I'll need more ;)
Water: still on water exposure rationing, due to still being off work.. will update THAT story when something radically new happens. Hot tub yesterday, no swim... polo later today, though, which will load heavily on my bellydanced/hooped body..
Wardrobe: I'm at home, and haven't actually done the breakfast/shower thang, so I'm in my jammies: blue tribal print pants, a longsleeve green t, and a blue-with-white-pinstripes flannel robe. Oh So Glam.
Craft in Progress: nothing being agressively worked on at the moment... finished the sweater, was BEAUTIFUL and I started wearing it right away (first time THAT has ever happened, I think...), have knit a ton of things that need to be thrown in the washing machine and felted, and have made some cool beads at Joanne's studio that may or may not become jewelry sometime soon.
# posted by Christa Giles @ 8:49 AM 
