Monthly Archives: February 2012

Jewelry Making, Spare time - Culture

Before I talk about Silverfin…

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I’m in the midst of reading Silverfin by Charlie Higson (“A James Bond Adventure”), in preparation for the 6th grade book group meeting on Tuesday, and I’ll be writing about the book here once I’ve finished it.  But until then, here are photos of my two latest jewelry creations.  The necklace with the red crystal beads is a prototype of my own design, rather flawed – but it was a great learning experience, and great fun to create my own woven design.  The copper diamond pendant necklace is currently wending its way to my sister’s house via first class mail (click on images to enlarge):

Jewelry Making, Spare time - Culture

More woven jewelry

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It’s official: I love making woven jewelry.  I’m still using designs and instructions from Jodi Bombardier’s book Weave Wrap Coil, but I’m just about ready to strike out on my own with my own designs (I even woke up this morning with a great idea for a star pendant, which I promptly sketched out for future reference).

Yesterday Jim and his band were at an all-day recording session – the CD they cut sounds great – which meant that I had an entire day, minus two hours to watch the season two finale of Downton Abbey, in which to make jewelry.  Fran’s birthday was a couple of days ago, so I thought I’d make her a ring, which of course means making a prototype/test model first (never give someone the first version of a piece of jewelry, unless you’re really really good, which I’m not).  The two rings that I made are vastly disappointing; one, a coiled ring with a bead between bead caps, looks cute on the table but a bit odd on the hand.  The second, a knotted woven ring, frustrated me beyond measure.  I made a long straight stretch of perfectly woven wire (best weaving I’d ever done), which I then wrapped around a ring mandrel, then took the two ends and tied them in a knot as instructed.  The ring looked great…but the flaw of the design (or perhaps, to be fair, my execution of the design) became clear once I snipped the ends of the knots on the underside of the ring.  No amount of filing could smooth those ends sufficiently to keep my finger from being cut by them, and the more I worked on making the ring smooth, the more screwed up my formerly beautiful weaving became.  It’s a mess, and way too sharp to be worn.

So then I decided to finish with a pair of earrings to match the necklace and pendant I made two weeks ago.  And I LOVE those earrings!  In my stash of beads I found small white freshwater pearls that dangle perfectly and add the right spark of brightness to the deep purple of the wire.  And my weaving looks terrific on these earrings – even and flawless.  I’m thinking that perhaps a pair of these earrings, in silver with black freshwater pearls, would be the better solution for a birthday gift for Fran…and I’m guessing my sister will probably want a pair, too…and Judy’s birthday is today…and then I’m hoping to have a booth at the farmer’s market this summer, and I would wager that these earrings would be a big seller, if I can make enough of them.

Here are the photos of yesterday’s projects – click on images to enlarge, and please leave feedback for me (good and bad, I’ll take it all).  Also note that some of the photos are a bit dark because I used the macro setting on my camera to show more detail.  Update at 3:15 PM:  Just finished – hot off the pliers, so to speak – the earrings in silver with black pearls:

Book groups, Young adult literature

Leviathan

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At last Tuesday’s Teen Book Group meeting, we discussed Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.  I have to admit that I was unable to finish the book myself, much as I usually like Westerfeld’s writing, because I think I have read the maximum amount of steampunk fiction that my brain can handle and absorb.  Maybe I’m just a little too old to “get” steampunk, or maybe my taste has never gone down those lines, but by half-way through Leviathan I was done – fed up – annoyed.

Luckily, all seven of the book group members who came to Tuesday’s meeting were enthusiastic about the book (whether they had been able to finish reading it or not), and the conversation was terrific.  We discussed the book for an entire hour, and probably could have gone on for much longer if we’d had the time available.

All of the teens enjoyed the steampunk genre, and several of them had already read a few other steampunk books.  And the ninth graders in the group had an additional attraction to the book, since it is an alternate, steampunk style version of the events leading up to and the beginning of World War I: the ninth graders had been studying WWI in school, and their test on WWI was earlier in the day on Tuesday.  I was blown away by their intelligent comparison and contrast of the real history of WWI and the version presented in the book.  Smart, smart kids.

And I loved hearing the enthusiasm they all felt for the steampunk style.  Things that I found rather revolting and hard to visualize (like the giant genetically modified jellyfish that exhale hydrogen and thus are used as hot air balloons) greatly intrigued the members of the book group, and I was able to better appreciate certain aspects of the book after hearing their perspective.

This is such a great book group, and I really look forward to their meetings each month.  And it will be sad when we bid good-bye to the ninth graders at the end of this school year – they’ll be moving on up to Lisa’s 10 – 12th grade book group – all of the ninth graders have been in my book groups for many years, and I’ll miss their insights and enthusiasm.

Jewelry Making, Spare time - Culture

Woven wire jewelry

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Since last November, I’ve been carefully studying the book Weave Wrap Coil: Creating Artisan Wire Jewelry by Jodi Bombardier.  Bombardier’s projects are so cool, so unique, and so beautiful, and I couldn’t wait to try out a few.  But then, as these things go, the more time I spent studying the instructions and the photos, the more impossible the projects seemed.  I hit a wall – a wall of intimidation – and it looked like I wasn’t going to ever try to make any of these rings or bracelets or necklaces, especially not with expensive silver wire.

But then I realized that I could purchase “Artistic Wire” in the two required gauges, 16 and 26, for a mere $10.00…and probably have enough wire for two entire projects.  And so today I finally got up the guts to try the first project in Bombardier’s book, the Diamond Pendant and matching handmade chain, using purple wire.

Progress was a little rough at first, as I tried to figure out how to weave with wire, but I was amazed by how quickly I caught on to wire weaving.  It’s a bit like sewing with wire, and as long as you’re careful not to kink the wire, it’s actually pretty easy.  The weaving style required for this Diamond Pendant reminds me of the technique used to create my favorite Greek leather wrap bracelets; wrap once around one side of the frame, then over and under and back to the other side of the frame.  Very fun.

And so, after about two hours, I had finished my first wire weaving project and its matching handmade chain and clasp.  And it doesn’t look too amateurish, either.  I’ll wear it to work with pride tomorrow!  (Click on images to enlarge.)

Storytime

New storytimes

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I’ve been working on adding some new lesson plans to my collection for the Storytime for 2’s & 3’s, and have been very happy with the three I’ve just added.  A couple of weeks ago I added a singing theme lesson plan, and it went over very well; I was pleased by how many books I was able to find that are either songs turned into picture books, or picture books that feature classic nursery rhymes, or picture books that can easily be either read or sung.  The three books that I used with the group were The Wheels on the Bus by Paul O. Zelinsky, Boom Bah! by Phil Cummings, and Today is Monday by Eric Carle.  In addition, of course, there were twenty-plus other books that I pulled and placed around the room for the quiet time (when each adult shares a book with their child).

Then last week I debuted my Monster storytime, which was a huge hit.  I was very careful in planning this one, and especially in picking the books that would be featured, because I didn’t want to create a fear in these kids that didn’t already exist, since these kids are so young and impressionable.  Best of all for the Monster storytime were the two Folkmanis puppets that inspired it:  Blueper and Twickety.   The kids absolutely LOVED the puppets, and came up and gave them hugs and gentle pats on the head – and asked to have the monsters taste their fingers instead of our usual Zebra puppet fingertaster.  The two books that I read aloud were Leonardo the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems (one of my all-time favorites), and Jeremy Draws a Monster by Peter McCarty.  Both are just the right combination of silly and didactic – yes, there’s a lesson in each, but it doesn’t hit you over the head, and the humor in each keeps the lesson from being cloying.

Tomorrow I’ll be debuting my new Mouse theme storytime, using two mouse puppets from Folkmanis.  This afternoon I’ll be making some feltboard pieces for the story All For Pie, Pie For All by Valeri Gorbachev; there will also be another book – no feltboard pieces – that will precede it: Inside Mouse, Outside Mouse by Lindsay Barrett George (I like that George’s book features mice that live in the wild and mice that live in our walls).  And each child will taste like a different kind of cheese when Zebra tastes their fingers at the end.

It’s a lot of work to add these new storytimes to my repetoire, most of which work is done at home, but it is so fun to have some fresh new material and new themes.  Storytimes are only as good as the level of excitement brought by the presenter, and I’m always more jazzed about something new and fresh than something I’ve done too many times before.  At some point, though, I’ll run out themes and ideas…but that’s ok, the older storytimes will then seem fresh again.  And now I’d best get going on those feltboard pieces:  a cat family, a mouse family, an ant family, and a rapidly disappearing divided pie.