Intentional Stones

Artist's weekend

My family will be out of town having the time of their lives.

And I'm staying home to have a party! (yes, I do feel like a teenager whose parents have left town for the weekend)

It's an artist's retreat at Simbelmynë's house!  I'll hit Costco and fill the house with food. I'm used to all sorts of eaters-picky eaters, carnivores, vegetarians, vegans, food sensitivities, OmNomNomNivores... Also I have hot and cold running WiFi, which is, of course, optional.  And, never fear, coffee.

Everything's ship shape with lots of room for big projects.  I'm not far from Construction Junction, really you could get pretty crazy. I'm planning to set aside areas for specific things, and we can adjust as people arrive with their projects and goals for the weekend.  I have lots of places to sleep, if you're from out of town or just don't want to leave.

The jewelry studio will be in full swing.  I have almost every type of equipment anybody could need-from torches to finishing equipment. I have tables and corners and quiet areas for writing, being quiet, meditating.  A park next door for walks and listening to the world around us.  A full crafting room with all sorts of supplies, if you forget anything.  I even have a macro photography studio, if you want to get some small photos.

We can swap, dump, laugh, play, work, meditate, trade secrets, teach, learn, whatever we want to do.

If you RSVP I can make sure I have what you need.  Or just show up, the more the merrier!

Stay all weekend or come and go as you please. 

Official Start is 7pm Friday, March 18 and end at 7pm Sunday March 20.

-Simbelmynë

(412)608-8986

235 Oakview Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15218

(Please ignore the photo it's from the highway, for some reason)

We're the last house on the left.

The Infernal Contraption

 

Theater class is winding up to the holiday show and we're doing Willy Wonka this year!

Come to the Winchester Thurston School at 4pm on December 18th to see the kids hard work.

(and mine)

Right, it's all about the kids, we adults sometimes forget that.  Especially when I was making this one.  Even using coloring pages off the internet I didn't let them work on this piece.  The Contraption.

I had a hand in helping choose the play.  I couldn't imagine a better production to design props for than Willy Wonka.  I hum the "World of My Imagination" as I work. 

The kids and other families have done most of the prop work.  I kept this one to myself only because I color pretty fast and it would have been impossible to explain why the roast beef was green and pink.  The candy in the production is all different and amazing colors.  I can't wait to see everything on stage!

Pieces completed: Wonka's boat, the chocolate river, the Contraption (that eventually turns a little girl into a blueberry!) and several smaller contraptions in the lab, the camera to send a child to television, a ton of little costume pieces...

Pieces in progress:  A cotton candy tree (designed by my own Persephone), the gates to Wonka's Factory- the bed (these will use the same pieces),  and the half office. We need a couple more small props-a candy vendor's box of goodies, bubbles, and a bad-egg meter, but that's the big projects for this week.

Maybe I should get my drawing instructor some tickets, so he can know why i haven't done any homework this semester.  Oopsie.

-Simbelmynë

 

Squid that Ate My Life

or STAMLey.

I've been tweeting about him for two weeks. 

He began as a lowly stationary prop for the play.  Then he was to chase children around the stage on a rolling platform.  Then his looooong tentacles were to loom over children as they discovered a treasure.

 

But by the first dress rehearsal, he had to chase said children around the theater.  

His design is based on artist's renderings as well as photos from the actually siting of the Giant Squid.  I started with a bridesmaid's dress I found at Goodwill, a kids play ball and a few yards of fabric.  Wire in plastic tubes and short tent poles from one of the kid's old broken toys support him.  And he could be worn by almost anybody.  The arms are lightly supported by steel wire inside thin plumbing tubing.  And he's been a work of love for weeks. 

I really feel that my costume construction is starting to improve. 

but from now on, I will not accept changes to the purpose of my props after 21 days before the performance.  really.  I barely survived.  I was sewing on suckers 2 hours before curtain.

Adam wants to be Stamley for Halloween.  We'll trick or treat at your house, if you ask.

-Simbelmynë

Wordless Wednesday: Something creepy is lurking in that basement

Chasing my Dreams

The blog's been a little travel and jewelry and everything-sparse of late. Mostly because of our return to the States. (yes, I'm still posting our Australia time, but we're back home in Pittsburgh) And, with the kids trying out school, I have several hours a day.

I'm learning the metal and making the jewelry.

So I cleaned up my studio, made a change to make pictures easier, and I've been working for a week.

Shaping and Hammering Silver

Stringing pink opals and pearls

Nothing makes the piece look as good as the outfit and person it was designed for.

So, I apologize for the long blog-cation I've taken.  It's been well worth while.

There will be wire. There will be stones. There will be beads. Most of all there will be metal.  (And travel and food and fun too!)

-Simbelmynë

Concert Milestone

The big day came, our departure depended on staying long enough to complete my daughter's semester of dance and theater.  And it was time to perform!

It was busy, busy, busy, since we packed as much time as possible with friends and relatives into our schedule.   After playing with her two best friends forever, Persephone was eager to get on stage!

She even got a locket to help keep them close to her heart!

I took a million photos of the Three to print and put into the lockets.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to get three people to all have lovely expressions in one picture at the same time?  I found out.  I think we'll be picking our favorite of each beautiful face to put into the locket.

The troupe performed their own unique story of Cinderella.  With a modern happy ending.  They incorporated song, dance, and humor to bring together all the skills in the dance school.  Tremendous fun!

I'm always admiring of the ingenuity of the props and costumes, since the budget for a kids theater group is pretty small.  I didn't participate this semester, since I was in the too busy getting ready for Australia.  I was a little sad, but I'll be that much more invested when we get back for the Spring semester next year.

Perseph was one of Cinderella's Mouse friends.  One of the two transformed into horses to draw the carriage.  Simple long leotards and hand made components made beautiful girls into beautiful mice and horses.  They were adorable.

 

My Princess danced in three numbers during the dance portion of the program.  I envy her the sparkly beautiful costumes.  Unfortunately, my pics from the audience came out fuzzy from the fidgety boy wiggling in my lap. 

After the satisfaction of a semester well spent in performing arts and school (we got our scores that day too!  Everyone "passed" into the next grade!), we were free to leave!

-Simbelmyne

Brain's having trouble sleeping again

Today I had an experience that really caused me trouble.

The dance/theater instructor upbraided me for bringing the Princess in late to rehearsal.
Fair enough.

But, this was a last minute extra rehearsal.
And I told her on Monday that we had plans today and it would be difficult to be on time.
And NONE of the other girls playing along with my daughter made it to the rehearsal today.
And the other extra rehearsals for this play were at even more inconvenient times and not all of the kids in these roles have had an easy time making it.
And even after making it, their part was excluded from the promotional production.
And I was explicitly told that the rehearsals were scheduled to be convenient for the people with "more important parts"

So, please, since I DID bring my child to the rehearsal that occurred on one of her last days IN THE COUNTRY for six months, and since I was the only one.  And I warned you that we were going to be late, Don't tell me that I screwed up. 

Find a way to help my daughter rehearse in the time she has.  Don't make her waste her time by crying in the back room.  And DON'T yell at me.

Thank you.

What I will actually say is:

"Please, in the future, do not expect people in "less important roles" to be at extra rehearsals unless you ask if they can make it.  And please, ask how it could be easier for them to attend."

I'm also planning to make some aggressive suggestions with regards to my possible involvement with costumes and props.  Since my efforts to get involved were met with enthusiasm, but no organization.  Making it quite difficult for me to effectively participate this semester with it's extra crazy busy-ness.

And all of this will happen when I return and it is not the day before the studio's massive end of semester production.  And everyone is calm and thinking ahead.

Sorry for the rant, I just needed to clear my head. 

-Simbelmyne

Gobble gobble

If you were a little Kratchet child yesterday, in my daughter's drama class production of "A Christmas Carol," then your Christmas feast was rather small. 

The roast goose.

(ok, without the binding wire and clamps, since the glue was dry well before performance time)
I think the finished goose was about 8 inches long on this 24 inch pan, it looked pretty pathetic.

Ah, poor rubber chicken.  You caused great hilarity in my home.  Perhaps we'll find your cousin someplace and invite him to join us.  Fortunately, there was no distress when I actually cut the head off.  The chicken's biggest fan laughed out loud when he saw that this goofy thing was becoming a tasty looking roast goose.

But fortunately, Ebinezer woke from his terrible dreams and averted the fate of the large family sharing a tiny feast, and had delivered:

The Prize Turkey!

I am totally in love with the kid who played the messenger boy (and a bunch of other roles, the dance and theater arts school doesn't have many boys) for bringing this huge guy onto the stage as if he weighed 50 pounds.  Everybody laughed. 

My only goal was to make something "almost as big as" him.

Yes, that's right, somebody should have checked the package, because instead of hand raised, very juicy turkey meat.  The family was getting a pillow, some feathers and a pair of socks!  Oh, with a few recycled rubber chicken parts thrown in.
Mmmmm tasty.

I hand stitched everything together, since I'm averse to my sewing machine.  I simply break the things by looking at them.  And, in this case mostly, a machine wouldn't have done me much good. 

My favorite part was making the feather fan.  I've seen similar things sold, but only with very tiny feathers to use on a mask or something like that.  So I took the turkey (or goose, either way it's ironic, I think) feathers, poked a couple holes through the quills, and sewed them into two layers of satin ribbon.  And then gathered the spaces in between to make them fan out properly.  Two rows of ribbons were plenty to keep the feathers from twisting around.  I spray painted the feather fan with brown, tan and black and then let it dry.

It turns out that the rubber in squeaky dog toys is quite easy to sew through, so I gathered the socks as I sewed them onto the hollow legs.  Then they got stuffed with acrylic fiber fill. 

The head is just a sock puppet, essentially.  I stitched it up to give it some shape, stuffed it and little acrylic paint made it nice and red.  I needed to make sure the neck was nice and secure, so that it could be carried over the actor's back, so I found an old strap that had fallen off a sleeping bag and sewed it in before stuffing.  This strap was attached to the body as well.  Good strong stuff.

Then I doubled over the pillow, sewed in the corners of the front portion to give Mr. Turkey some breast meat and wrestled the rest of him into a tight package.   Attaching the body parts was very simple, once the pillow was in shape.  Then me and the spray paint went to town.  I had intended to make the color a bit more uniform, but I ran out of brown paint.  In retrospect, I really like the mottling, since turkeys are not solid brown anyway. 

I just hope my holiday feasts look as good.  (at least from afar)
-Simbelmyne

Drama Class

Someday Syndrome? Is this what I have?

Anyway, my current project has my stymied.  I need to make props for my daughter's drama class play, a Christmas Carol.

A roast goose:
 (This one's real, I know mine won't look tasty)
I'm not a plush maker, but I think maybe I can handle this.  Either I'll get my hands on a rubber chicken, and doctor it up, or I'll make something stuffed (out of nylons? and fiberfill) and some felt fruit.  It needs to look good from a distance, not up close.  I also want to get an old beat up metallic finish plastic platter that's huge.

and a prize turkey

This buy needs to be able to be slung around.  I have an old pillow that would be perfect for the body, but I haven't figured out how to add neck and feathers yet.  I also want it to look more silly than gross.

Feathers for cuteness and maybe a hiking strap or an old belt sewn into the neck and securely attached to the pillow with some good strong stitching for durability will solve these problems.  At least there's only one performance, so it doesn't have to take the beating more than a few times in practice and performance.

The girl also needs a white shirt and maybe a tie and hat for her costume.  At least I can find these things around the house.

-Simbelmyne