Long time coming........

My husband and kids are the best thing that ever happened to me.  By just being themselves they push me to places I should have been a long time ago but was to scared to go.  They have more faith in me than I have in myself and I am continually grateful for that.  Well, grateful once the 'you want me to make what??' is over.

Recently Mark, my youngest son, asked if I could make him a small statue to represent his section of the Air Force Flight School class he was in. They used to have a mascot, but it had been stolen and sold on e-bay.  Very embarrassing, but also a good reason for an update.  He wanted it about 30 inches high and as heavy as I could make it. Oh, and could it please have a place on it for a chain and a lock? And can it look like a cartoon superhero but with six-guns, a bandit mask and a flight helmet?

Silly me, I said yes. Didn't even hesitate.  Be glad to help, I said the day he phoned.  You want it in six weeks? Piece of cake.  Ha!

Hubby Russ was in the background warning me not to do it. He said I didn't have the time.  Shows what he knows. I can always make time for something my sons want.  It was my lack of any idea of how to go about it that was the problem!

To make a long story short, The first try was a disaster.  I carved the figure out of foam insulation and used paper mache for details. As recommended by the miriad of websites I researched for the project, I sealed the figurine with several coats of rather expensive shelac.  But even with a good amount of release, it got stuck in the plaster mold. I mean really stuck. It ame out in bits and pieces.

The first deadline came and went. The idea of creating a mold to pour concrete into went out the window as well. Waaaaay to expensive. I'd need at least $200 worth of rubber compounds in order to avoid another disaster.  Even though I was dying to try out that method, the cost of materials certainly wasn't in the budget.

The next plan was to mold with the concrete itself. I had done a bit of this years ago but only over a form that was already solid. This needed to be a free-standing wire armature. Out came the concrete sculptor's bible 'Making Concrete Garden Ornaments by Sherri Warner Hunter'.  With the book and help from Russ in suggesting copper tubing for the basic armature the project finally looked like it was going to work.  This, of course, was after a morning of heating rebar and trying to bend it into shape.  And discovering we don't own a reliable bench vice and that the 3/8 rebar I had on hand was complete overkill.


Here's the wooden box for the base with holes drilled through it so the copper tubing could be anchored in the concrete that would be poured into it.  I used screws to hold the tubing in place. It was much easier to drill than I though it would be.

The mold base had to be supported upside down while the concrete dried. It got only 24 hours to settle before being righted so work could continue.  Ordinary mortar mix was used for the base with a layer of wire mesh added in the middle. The ends of the copper tubing were barely hidden under the cement so they would give maximum support to the sculpture right from the start.

Chicken wire was wrapped around the tubing to support the concrete. For added measure glass fibers were added to the mortar mix before it was applied. The water used in the mix was cut 3 to 1 with acrylic bonding agent that makes the concrete stickier and more suited to vertical application. This statue was going to be a strong as it was heavy!

Bit by bit the concrete was applied. Each layer or section was covered in plastic and allowed to set at least 24 hours before any more was added.  Two inch wide sections of woven scrim tape used for drywalling was wrapped around each layer before more wet cement was added. That way each layer had it's own integral support.

Some of the detail was created by careful grinding and filing. A dremel tool worked well for fine detail and for getting into the tight curves.  Using a big grinder was much more dramatic and way more fun!  

Other sections of detail were added by mixing concrete and using it like clay.   The bandit mask and harness straps were pieces of cloth dipped in watery concrete and stick to the surface. After they dried they were reinforced with several layers of thin concrete.  The final surface was a brushed on slurry coat.  

Painting took two days!   The eyes were a challenge. I had made the brow-bone too emphatic. It was much to late to change it. By now Mark's course was just about over and everyone would be leaving soon. It was time to wrap this project up and get it shipped whether I was 100 per cent happy with it or not.

Mark will apply a glossy spray once the paint has cured a bit. It really needs that.

Russ helped with the crating. Or, should I say I helped him with the crating. I didn't trust myself to build  it right. I knew I'd either overbuild or underbuild.  The shipping limit for the bus was 100 pounds. In the end the statue and crate weighed in at  93 pounds! Just made it!

Marks likes it and is presenting it to his class mates next week. Hope they like it too.
If this mascot gets stolen and sold on e-bay I hope it sells for more than the last one!

sewing 'troops'

These are so cute!

They are meant to be weights to hold pieces of sewing pattern on fabric.   Five Green Acres posted the pattern recently and I found it through Whip Up.  I couldn't resist trying the pattern. I was in a funk and needed a quick creative fix.  I may have been carried away just a bit but I can explain!

As a compulsive right brainer I sometimes have difficulty following rules designed for the left-brained analytical world.  It's been a struggle most of my life, especially in the work-a-day world where I am expected to 'just do it' like everyone else does.  When I can successfully put a bit of myself into my work the task at hand becomes easier and much more pleasurable.

When I found a pattern for these little guys something that had been weighing on my mind became fun. They would become my soldiers in the battle of 'getting it done'!  Obviously another explanation is necessary.

Part of my new job requires scheduling four employees. Normally that would be easy, but where I work there are some shifts that are more desirable than others. Staff all want a turn at working them.  Making sure everyone gets an equal amount of work and a fair share of the good shifts was keeping me awake at night.

Neither computer programs nor a piece of paper and an eraser appealed as the right tools for the job. That was much to ordinary and slow.  I wanted something I could move around quick enough to keep up with my thoughts.   I had just purchased poster board to draw squares on when I came across Five Green Acres design.  With different colors of fabric representing each staff member I 'whipped up' as many as I had material for.  Scraps in each color  made do for the rest of the shifts to fill.

 With the 'troops' all in place creating the schedule was easy!  If I need to change it I still have the weights available and now I have a bowl full of sewing weights for my next project!

Thanks Mary Jo and may your Five Acres always be Green.  And thanks to Whip Up for pointing me in the right direction.

Amazing necklace

Sometimes you get to be a part of something really cool. This was one of them.
Shannon (aka Square) fell in love with some of my beads on Etsy. (http://www.nellabellabeads.etsy.com/  and http://www.squareeffects.etsy.com/) A conversation ensued and I sent her some to see what she would do with them. Boy, did she do a great job.


My bead is dwarfed by the cascade of beads she chose to surround it.      

There are thousands of beads in this necklace and a killer clasp.

It's incredible!

And then she sent it to me! Now it's mine, all mine!!!!!  Now I just have to come up with something to wear it with.

Written pattern for the Band

http://www.scribd.com/doc/21322142


It's not easy putting a PDF into a Blog. If anyone can find a better way, please let me know. In the meantime, the pattern is at ScribD.com at the above link.

Please let me know if it works out all right.

Thanks,

Beginner Card Weaving Video

A card weaving tutorial on how to make this!

This is an easy two-forward-two back pattern designed to help beginners figure out the details of card weaving.  There is no selvedge and the cards are  threaded in alternating S and Z.  They don't have to be threaded that way; they can all be 's' which is from the left to the right, or 'z' which is right to left.   Try all three if you like that way you can see what happens when the cards are threaded differently.

how to Card Weave

There's a video to go with the pictures of the earlier post. Check it out.

I'm still working on how to get a PDF of the pattern posted.

Soon!

card weaving step by step

Creating woven messages has been a goal of mine for ages. I'd practically given up trying to learn how to do it. It took a broken foot to slowed my life down enough that I could concentrate on it. Then I discovered it's really quite simple once you break it down into section .

All the videos I found and all the books I read were great at showing me how to make a loom and thread the cards. How to turn them remained a mystery.

This post assumes you already know about card weaving, how to thread the cards and how to set up the loom.If you've done threaded-in designs with card weaving but want more, this is the place to be. It is intended to be a visual reference for how the cards need to be turned in double faced card weaving.

Double faced card weaving is where the pattern you work on the top shows up in reverse on the other side. It usually involves two different colors of thread. You can use this method of weaving to create pictures and works in your bands.

In this case the two colors are green and white. I drafted a simple leaf and vine pattern with a repeating pattern. You use any pattern you like but for learning it's best to start with something simple. My pattern will be on the blog as soon as I can get it there.

In the photographs the blue line you see is drawn on both sides of the cards. It acts as a reference to make it easier to work the pattern. A line is easier to see than are the the A and B holes that decorate most cards. Once you master and understand how the weaving is done you probably won't need the line any more. You can just use the colors of thread as reference.

Photo number 1 shows the 'home position' I'm using for this project. The home position can be close to you or where I have it, further away. The key is to keep it consistent. Once you decide where it is don't change it. Having the blue lines on each card together in the same position at the same time is important.The home position you use is an indicator of when a row of the pattern has been completed.

When the cards are directly opposite the home position you are finished one row of your pattern. If the card line is adjacent and horizontal to the home position then a row has only been half worked. It takes two one-quarter forward or back turns of the cards to complete one row of the pattern. But that is getting slightly ahead of things.

Photo 2 shows the pack of cards divided into two groups; the cards that will be turned towards the fell (the weaving that you've already done) to create the background and the cards that will be turned the other way to create the pattern. That is, the cards will turned to bring the appropriate color of thread to the top where it would be locked in place by the thread of the shuttle.

If you get into the habit of sliding the background cards close to you and the pattern cards further away from you along the warp the work will move along faster.

(A rather inspiring weaver, Philia has written a 'law' that she calls the first law of tablet weaving, and it works. "The color that crosses the top of the band when the tablet is turned is the one that will show up in the band." If you get a chance, check out her page. It's well worth it.)

Another helpfull hint is to mark your pattern to indicate which way to turn the background pack (for this project the green threads). Linda Hendrickson advices this and she does beautiful work.

For this row my marked pattern said to turn the background cards backwards. The blue line for the background cards is now on top so the green thread shows.

For the pattern cards, the white thread needs to come to the top. Those cards turn forward one quarter turn sot he blue line is at the bottom

The shuttle is moving through the shed from right to left.

In double faced card weaving the cards move twice per row of the pattern It takes two-one quarter turns of the cards to work one row of the pattern. With the shuttle on the left of my weaving I know that I am only half way through the two step row of the pattern. The more ways I give myself to know where I am in the pattern the less ripping out I have to do. That's all good!

Photo 3 shows the second part of this row of the pattern. The blue line is closest to the fell now, because the background cards were turned backwards for the second time (towards the weaving). The pattern cards turned forward. The white threads showed up against the green background, just what was supposed to happen!

The pack cards were then slid into one group with the blue lines all in the same place. If they aren't all in the same positon a card was missed or not turned correctly.

The shuttle moved through the warp from left to right. When it's on the right hand side of the warp it's an indication that the pattern row is completed.

Photo 4 shows the start of the next row of the pattern. The magnets I use as an indicator of what row I'm working got moved to the next row of my pattern so I can easily tell where I am and what cards I'm supposed to be moving what direction.

My pattern shows that for this row the background (green threads) had to turn forward. The blue line shows that those cards were, indeed, turned forward, away from the fell. My pattern cards will be turned backwards, towards the fell. With that line marked on the cards it is easy to see if I've turned them the right way. See? In photo four the blue line is on the top of the background cards and it should be on the bottom. I can catch the mistake before I make it.

Photo 5 shows the cards all turned the last time for this row of the pattern and resting again in the home position. I slid the cards all into one pack to tell myself that the pattern row was finished.

Now I move my row indicator again on my pattern and just keep going.