Jan 21, 2019

Ice and snow is making it difficult for me to get out.  Dar put up handrails so I can get to my car and the garage (laundry facilities there) without falling!  Very helpful.  I carry the landry bag over my shoulder, then I have one hand on the rail and the other on my spiked cane.  It seems to work pretty well.

With the snow and ice, and the early dark days it’s a bit like being in prison right now…  but it will pass.  I am working on painting award scrolls almost everyday.  It is good to have something to keep me busy so I don’t dwell on this isolation.  Spring will come!

I’m seeing doctors to get reports for OWCP.  They messed up big time, and want me to fix their problem by providing doctor reports, on a yearly basis, from 11 years ago until now.  Can’t do.  Don’t remember who I saw (in four states as well).  The best I can do it get current doctor reports.  I sure hope they will accept it because having my income stopped is not easy to live with.  The government shut down worries me too.  When I do get the reports to them, how long will it be before they look at them?

11/2018 – My middle school granddaughter in NH is in a school play.  It is a play based on Shahrazad.  She told the sponsor that I am an artist, and expert on Persian culture (It’s good to have grandchildren).  Long story short, I am now in charge of designing the artistic parts of the set.   I put together some designs for the boxes, and a few other props.  Flew to NH a week early, enlarged the designs, and worked with the kids in the play to get them all painted.  It was loads of messy fun.  They added an “Ali Baba’s Cave Door” to my list of items to make for them,   That turned out a lot of fun too.  I made it an irregular, 3-D opening.  I could not get a pic of it open though .

At the last minutes they decided the platform had to be painted.  Originally it was going to be in the back where it would not really be seen.  Then they had to move it forward.  So two days before the play I had to pull this off along (although I did get my daughter to help a bit).  It had to be done with no time to plan at all, so was off the cuff.  That makes me uneasy, but…    I spent about 6-7 hours each day  getting it done (I don’t move easily, and it required a lot of sliding around on my bum.  That is a lot easier than leaning over, and it was too heavy to prop up against a wall.)  All in all I think it turned out well.   They school liked it a lot, and decided not to deconstruct it for recycling on the next play, but to preserve it and display it (at least for now).  The play was wonderful BTY.  The last two pics are of my granddaughter in two of her scenes.

 

3/15/18 – Wow – it has been a busy winter – I have been so busy that I have not thought to update this.  Here is a little summary of what I have been doing during this time:

First there was 12th Night – that turned out great, and I’ll add pics soon.   The castle was finished just in time, despite both of my thumbs being injured, and my down time for surgery.   Thank you Darius!

Last weekend, March 9-11, I attend the Known World A&S Symposium with Tatiana (it saved us a few $ to share a room and gas, and she could do the night driving). It was pretty amazing, with great classes and speakers.  An evening of dance and music was nice too.  Mostly I had fun getting to see old friends.

Aethelmearc 12th night:

The entrance was made up of five of the panels from the parade float, showing both sides.  The other two panels were the backdrop used for court.

12/15/17 

With help from Dar’s brain, we finally came up with a good plan.  The hinges were separated into two halves, and one side was flipped over and they were put together again.  This made them a little “offset” but the off set was on both sides, when attached, they two panels could be folded in either direction and there was only a small gap- that was the same on both sides.

Dar made a jig for the router (I learn sooo much from him) and he routed out mortises on each side edge for five hinges, on both sides of each panel.  That is on both the European and the Persian sides of each panel.  That is 60 areas he had to mortise.  He did most of this, but I did a few myself, just so I can say I did, and to get a little experience using the router.  A first for me.

We started this before my surgery, and he finished it afterward since I had some physical restrictions.  I hated that he had to help so much, but it was the only way to get it done in time.  He is such a good sport helping with my crazy projects.

12/1/17

Wow – it has been a while!  I have spent many hours everyday painting this project.  It had taken a lot longer than I expected.  First I had to trace the design on, then do the painting – including cleaning up some areas that were damaged during the parade.  Then I had to go back and remove any stray lines from when I traced and double and triple check I did not forget to color in a little flower, or bit of stem – very easy to do that.    While I am painting one piece, I have to constantly check it against previously painted pieces, so they are all the same.  Matching the patterns of the little colored flowers are the hardest!

Finally I had all the panels painted (Nov. 29th.)   Then we had to put on several layers of polyurethane to protect all that hard work, and to add a sheen so it looks like tile.  Darius had to help with this by putting the panels on saw horses, and then flipping them over so I could put the poly-coat on the other side.

Just for fun we  propped up all the pieces (except for one doorway), to get an idea of how it will look.  It is as nice as I hoped for!

Painting the reinforcing strips to go around all the panels was beastly boring, but it had to be done.   Next was figuring out how to attach the  hinges.  I have several ideas in my head, but thinking about it and doing it are different.    I used to be able to  see it in my head, but since my TBI I cannot do that, so I must just try all my ideas out.  So for the past two days I have played with a model of the walls, trying the hinges in various ways.  Using them flat, with a gap between the boards.  Carving out a section so the boards are flush, etc.  Wish I had taken pics of all my endeavors!

Some experimentation shows that if I attach the strips of wood along the sides, so they are covering the gap (each half way over it) I can get a nice clean look on one side, no matter what angle I use it.  On the other side however that will not work.  I cannot cover the gap with the wooden strips, or I cannot bend it in both directions like I want to.   So I must bring the vertical support edge boards up to the edge of the panel only.

When folded together there is no gap and it looks good, but if it is strait across, or bent the other way, there is a gap.  So to hide that gap (and the hinges that are visible) I think I will out a long dowel, or PVC pipe in the space – to look like a column. It can be attached or removed, as needed.  I can paint it and make it look like part of the design.  At least that is the plan so far.

There will be a few spaces where nuts and bolts will show though.  Where the boards across the two sections of the ends are attached – to make the connection.  On one side I can inset permanent nuts, putty them and paint the.  That will look good.  On the other side though, the screw heads will show.  I will put that on the European side of the panels.  If I put two bolts on each side of the center, about 2″ and 5″ from center, and do the same at the outer edges, then I can put a gargoyle over those areas to hide the screw heads.  I would need to make 4 gargoyles for that.  Due to time I can print out pics of gargoyles, glue them to rounds of cardboard, and hang them over the areas that need to be hidden.  Later I can make better ones.

Across the bottom of the end pieces where the doorway is, I need to keep the two side attached for stability, but I don’t want a tripping hazard.

I saw some strips of metal with holes along the length at the hardware store.  If I put a strip between the two sides of the doorway, and screwed them into the lower horizontal support pieces, that should lay flat on the floor and be safe.  I can embed nuts in the wooden strips so it can be removed for storage.  I must remember to raise those lower vertical support strips up just a bit so the metal will fit under without lifting up the wall!

That is the plan after two days of testing and experimenting.  Tomorrow I will try and make a clean version of my little model.  This one is a bit of a mess because I just cut the wood by hand and chiseled the miters in.  Tomorrow I will pull out the miter say and the table saw and do a proper model with less error – just to be sure it will all work.

I have one week to finish this up before my surgery.

11/6/17

After dismantling the float into its 8 pieces, (a matter of removing the corner strips of wood and the staples that had held them in place) and storing it in the art room, I realized that it just HAD to be used for more than just for a parade or too.  Soooo – I got thinking, and decided to paint the flip side.  I could paint it as a Persian building and it could be used at 12th night – to fit in with that theme.   I used a Timurid period mosque as the basis for the designs.   By using my two easels to hold the panels, they could be adjusted to what ever height I needed so I could reach the upper and lower bits from my seat.  Dar helped my moving the panels onto and off of the easels when I needed to.

I feel like I am living in the studio working on this, but I LOVE every minute of it.  It is looking pretty good at this point.  I have one end section done (doorway ) and one side panel done – just a bit of cleaning up and detail left for those. It should go faster now that the bugs have been worked out and the best way to do the designs is decided.

My goal is to have the painting all done by the end of the month, and then have a bit of time to finish the construction.  This time all the corners will be attached by hinges, and some structural supports will be added.  It should be much stronger once it is done, and can be set up in a variety of ways, as a box, (like for the parade) with either side out, or straight across as a wall, or almost any-other configuration.  Cool.

10/13/17

It was awesome!!!  The float received a lot of attention from the crowd, along with the other Shire members who walked along with it, we were a hit at the parade. Unfortunately we did not get many pics since we were in the parade, mostly just pics of us in the line up before it started.   Several of us were in the float tossing out candy to the kids, and another group walking along with is.

The demo following the parade also went well.  It wasn’t as large as we had hoped, but since we were up against Crown/20th birthday, that was to be expected.  We did see an 80% jump in visitors to the Shire’s website the day after the demo!  Our knight in armor was a BIG hit.  He walked along beside the float and challenged the kids to take a swat at him with his broadsword.   The kids (and parent’s) loved it.    I sure hope we can do  more parades in the future!.

10/10/17

I have been so busy that I have not had time to write about it!  The castle took more time than I figured it would (doesn’t it always?)  With the help of Dorothy, Jessica, Terry, Jim and Darius the castle was built, painted. and finished around 9 PM the night before the parade!

9/27/17

Yesterday we cut out all the big pieces for the castle.  Today Jessica and Dorothy came over and helped me sand and paint them – We got all the large side pieces painted the basic gray.  Next will be painting in the “masonry” lines to delineate the stone blocks.  Hope I can get a few more folks to come over for that part.   Still have to cut out and assemble the crenelations and paint them too.  Long day.  Tired, so I’ll call it quits for now.

9/25/17 

This past weekend I went to Agincourt, in PA, with Prose Cassells who could do the driving when it got dark and I could not drive.   We had a great time and much opportunity to talk about the SCA and art driving home.  It is fun when you  met someone who “gets” what you are talking about.

Agincoourt was a fun weekend too.  I taught my Illumination for Beginners class.  It went very well.  It was small enough to let me spend time with each one, and the questions were great.   Then I taught the Cheese glue class.  this also was great, but I learned a few things too.  Since it was the first time I have taught it, there were some bumps.  For example.  Next time I will give each one only about three ounces of cheese to work with.  It took too long for them to process the larger amount.  It is also a bit laborious, so a smaller piece would not be so taxing.  Other than that it was a good, but messy, class.

We are working to finish the castle for the Apple Butter Parade Float.  There will be several people coming Wednesday, and again Saturday to get this done.   Since Saturday evening is “Zombie Day” in Berkeley Springs, I hope that draws folks in to help.

9/17/17

Shire Day at the Park was great today.  Not a particularly big group – many were at an event and driving home today.  Many were sick (start of the school your bugs going around).  But those that were there had a great time.  I brought my grill, some hotdogs and buns and some salad, between all of us there was plenty of food to go around.

9/15/17

Took a bit (a big bit) of time today to add some new things to the “Illuminations page”  and also some items to the “Covers and Contests…” page.  More to add, but it is so time consuming to find the old pics and put them in.  I’ll keep working on it though, bit by bit.

8/30/17

This past weekend I attended Silver Chalice in Myrtle Beach.  It was great seeing old friends and spending time with my two granddaughters who attended with me.  I also gave a Youth Illumination Class (two, actually, for different age groups).   these are the first YAFA classes.  Pretty cool.

The Division 1 kids learned about illuminated letters, and they colored one from a coloring book.  Following that they could design their own, if they wanted to.  These kids were great and did a wonderful job.  Now they can follow up with some calligraphy work and soon earn their first badge!

The Division 2 kids drew out their own border design which they will finish at home.  they are learning some of the different styles of illuminations as well.

This is the first event my granddaughters have attended in a few years, which meant new garb.  I made them viking apron dresses, and added some bling I had found not long ago for them.  I think they enjoyed it a lot.

My oldest granddaughter presented the King with her art, and he rewarded her by taking his own necklace from around his neck and placing it around hers – she was almost in shock!

8/21/17

I need to back up a few days… This past Sat, 6/19 April and I gave our first non-SCA art class.  There was a small class of eager women, and we did a white vine letter.  t was more like a party than a class.  The Ice House provided wine and snacks for us as we worked.  I met some awesome people that I hope to remain in contact with. Not only that, these ladies filled me in on where to purchase some items I had not been able to find locally on  my own.  My niece organized all of this and helped teach the class.  It was wonderful working with her.  She has a lot of talent.

After getting home at 4:30, Darius and I went to his place of work (good tools there) and worked on the yurt roof.  I need it ready for when I get back home.  We put the holes in the tono, bent the uni, drilled the uni, filed the rough metal bits down and sanded the tono a bit.  I think we finished up and got home around 11 PM.

I repacked my suitcase, watered the plants, packed up some painting supplies (I’m in the middle of a scroll), took yurt parts out of my car and put luggage in, and managed to get 3 hours sleep.  Sunday, early AM, drove to Baltimore early to catch the plane to SC.  Arrived in SC midday.  Karen retrieved me from the airport and took me to my daughters home.   Spent the evening doing some painting with the girls…  lots of fun.

Monday AM, Maddy and I made some cupcakes for the eclipse picnic.  Hit the community pool at about 11:30.  Swam, ate and watched the eclipse.  It was cloudy all morning – through the totality – and then suddenly cleared up JUST at the end of the totality, so we could see it, and stayed clear.  We got to see the second half of it pretty well.    Returned home tired, stuffed and satisfied we did it!

8/18/17

Today a friend needed a ride to town for a doctor’s appointment.  It wasn’t what I had planned to do, but I did need to get a prescription refilled and pick up a few things anyway.  We started out early and got her appointment out of the way, then had a bit of fun shopping.  Her daughter is taking a trip soon, so I got her a going-away gift.  Some gouache, paper and a few nice brushes.  This girls is a superb artist, and I wanted her to be able to work on her art while she was gone.  It was pretty fun doing this.  I have worked with her before on her art, so this was a nice way to follow up.

Once home I harvested 7 more zucchini, my garden only has some baby ones left.  It should be OK while I am gone.  I used all the eggs and some zucchini making a LCHF bread – some to take while traveling, the rest for the freezer.  I feel like I am about ready for the trip. Fridge is empty and cleaned out.  Art studio is cleaned up.  Laundry done.  Just have to pack the suitcase and I’m good.

Tomorrow I teach my first mundane art class with my niece, April.   It will be fun!  then I can come home, relax and hopefully get a good night’s sleep so I will be ready for the drive to Baltimore, and the ordeal of the airport!

8/16/17

Its been busy around here lately.  I had to go to Winchester to see a hand specialist last week.  A few weeks ago while I was carving some oak, the chisel slipped and I cut my thumb.  Not a horrible injury, BUT I severed a nerve.  It was incredibly painful – knees buckling and stomach churning kind of pain.  But soon it was feeling better and healed up fast – EXCEPT – if I touched anywhere in the area.  Say, like forgetting (because it does not hurt if  the area is not touched) and turning on the sink tap – then knees giving out again.

Inner half of the thumb numb too, so I can’t feel if I am gripping something properly…  lots of drops.  So Dr. says….  give it a few more weeks to see if the nerve will heal itself.  If not – a little bit of surgery will happen.  BTY – I now have a kevlar glove to use when carving.  The area of intense sensitivity has gradually gotten smaller, so I don’t hit it as much now. and the numb area often tingles, I see that as a positive, if annoying, thing.

At the same time, I have decided it’s time to get my eyelids fixed.  Ever since my car accident, when I hit my eyes on the steering wheel, and broke my nose and zygomatic bones, I have had droopy eyelids.  I just couldn’t stand the idea of more surgery after everything I went through at the time, so I did nothing about it.  BUT – I keep hitting my head on cabinet doors.  I don’t see anything above eye level.  After a lifetime of just moving your eyes up to see things, I still do it (insteading of tilting my head up, as I need to).  Only now I don’t see them.  Ouch.  Recently I knocked a big masonry T-square off a high shelf.  It hit me in the face.  It could have hit my eye – so —-  I guess its time to do it.  Two days ago I went to VA to a specialist ophthalmologist/plastic surgeon.  He said its so bad there is no chance my insurance won’t cover it.  So I go back in a few weeks for pre-op, then surgery, then stitches out, then last follow up – 80 miles each way, each time!  Geese – living in the boonies isn’t easy!

 

In the meantime – our bid for the Kingdom’s 12th Night was accepted!  Our team will be AMAZING!  This is the first time I will be autocrating at an event.  With Tammy, Erica, Jessica and Daniel, it will go well.   I spent most of yesterday making the website and Facebook page.  Now I’m onto the invitations for the royals, and finding my staff.  I have a good start.  I love doing the art work!

8/9/2017

A while ago I started organizing my new art studio.  A room in the garage that my brother set aside for me to use.  It has a long counter that runs the entire length of the room, and we have added some shelving.  I have two studio easels and a drafting table, two tabores  and my rag tag collection of art supplies.  All my SCA camping gear etc. is stored in bins under the long counter and on the shelves.  I also have my small collection of word-working tools .  In no time at all it became a tight space.

After living with it for a while, and seeing where the biggest problems were, it was time to seriously organize.  The goal was to get it ultra organized, free up counter and floor space, and do it at little cost.

I had two sets of children’s toy bins on racks, these are  stored on the long counter to make accessing them easy, and because all the space under the counters was full.

It was an OK system, but took up so much counter space that there wasn’t’ much left to work on.   So after a bit of thinking we decided to recreate the shelves that held the bins, but on a larger scale, and to have these shelves hanging from the wall above the counter space. We used electrical conduit and made wooden end pieces to hold them.  The bins fit on easily.  We made two sets, one at each end of the room, and left the center area with no bins, to have more work space.   The space behind the drafting table has bins on the counter too, since that area  can’t really use it for working on.  That left a lot of space free.

We got this much of the project finished in the spring, but then Darius was too busy to help me work on it again for a while.  Today we finally finished the other part of the project that I have been wanting to do for a while.

We recycling the original bin holder racks into a useful item.   After putting solid bottoms onto the two racks, and added casters they could roll under in counter.  I then added some old (from Goodwill) to  line them (to keep items from falling out).  There is one for papers, and one for canvases and painting panels.

NOW I feel organized.  Dar just needs to finish the ceiling, moulding, and add the last three light fixtures.

 

8/5/2017

I am trying to put a “follow me” button on this blog.  Hopefully I have it working now!  I had to do a lot of Googling to find a good U-tube that led me though it.

8/2/17

Just booked a flight to Myrtle Beach!  I’ll get to see my grandchildren, it has been toooo long!  ,I will be just in time to get there before the big eclipse!  I will be directly in its path!  It is probably the last one I will ever see.  So cool I can share this with daughter and grandkids.

7/31/17

I signed up to be a Mentor in the YAFA program, to mentor kids in Illumination.  It is a great SCA wide program.   The website has a few glitch (a new program, after all), but I think I have jumped through all the hoops.  I’m just waiting to hear back about the background check.

7/15/17

I finished the AoA scroll to replace the one I did before that was lost…   This one is for a friend so I wanted it to be really nice.  She lucked out, because I get better all the time, and this one is nicer than the first one I did for her!  I’ll add it to the illuminations page once she receives it in a few more weeks.

I worked on creating a children’s persona/heraldry class for tomorrow’s Shire Day in the Park.  Jessica was going to do a cooking class, but it is so hot right now – it makes no sense to cart grills and cooking equipment etc to the park (at least in addition to the BBQ stuff we usually have) – so I suggested she do her class later when it is not so hot out anymore, and I will substitute with this class, its mostly just a matter of finding appropriate coloring pages on internet for them to do..

I started on my newest project – which requires some carving, this time on oak.  It is a LOT harder than the pine I was using before.  However, it is a lot nicer.  The wood is firm and does not shred or crush like the pine did.

My late medieval period garden (not-really medieval – but I like it any way) is slowly getting put together.  Darius woke me up early this AM with the noise he was making outside – It was a GOOD thing – he notched the uprights of my trellis supports so I he put the cross pieces in.  It was so nice of him to put up this trellis for me.  I thought I would be of more help on the project, but I can’t work on a ladder safely due to my balance problems.  It is not as crooked as the pics make it look – I just took the pics at an odd angle.

7/10/17

We found a location for the 12th night event!  Hopefully the group will approve of it.

I have two Scrolls to do – one is in progress now (I spent 10 hours on it today- 6 in the two previous days).  I haven’t received the details on the other one yet.

I spent several days this past week tearing my studio apart and reorganizing it.  It was a mess!  But now it is a lot more usable and is a bit more roomie with a lot of things off the floor (that had been stored there before).

After thinking about all of the above,  I decided to get a hard copy calendar to carry around with me.  Using Google calendar is great, but you can’t see everything at once, and I really need to.  So I ordered one and it arrived today.  It makes me feels so much better to have all my commitments laid out like this.  Thats a win for me.

6/21/17

Today at Shire Day in the park I tried my hand at rapier, from the ground (due to my balance issues).  Lady Ariana let me use  her garb – it was pretty fun, I hope to pursue this some more.  I did not know you could do it this way, but apparently there are other disabled SCA folks who do, as well as from wheelchairs.

 

5/30/17

I’m just getting started on this site – in fact, it was just born, 30 May, 2017!

So give me some time, and come back again – I’m sure it will have grown.