Pens and other small projects

Small projects are great, you can finish them quickly, have less time to get distracted, have less invested if things go wrong, and in the case of the small turning projects that I am talking about in particular here, are relatively safe and quiet and child-in-the-vicinity friendly compared to my normal hobbies.

As you may have noticed, I've been posting more not-knives than knives lately. Not because I don't enjoy working on knives anymore, but because I actually like to finish projects every once and a while.

It is amazingly satisfying to finish things, all day most days I work on projects that may take years or longer to finish. I am still finishing up projects that my predecessor started, and I've been at my job for about two years now. Coming home and adding an hour to a project that will take quite a few hour or multi-hour blocks is not very appealing most nights.

The inspiration for my small projects is the result of my friendship with Rocketpants and Bill.

Somehow I convinced them to let me teach them how to shave with a straight razor, and despite me spraying blood all over the bathroom (never wave a razor in one hand and wine glass in the other), they were game and now each has a razor and brush. Since I'm not ready (wrong set of tools) to try making the razors themselves, I decided to try shaving brushes, as seen in an earlier post (Bench and Brush).

Now Bill commented a couple times that I should try pens, since he likes fountain pens, so, because I needed more hobbies I started with some basic pens and a wine stopper (As the wood turns).

I thought they were pretty basic and realized that I preferred other types of pen, so I bought more.

I tried the POLARIS (like the rocket?) They look small but fit well in the hand, and take Parker style ink - which means that you can use gel refills - which I prefer to rollerballs. These are black titanium.

In Redwood Burl

In Maple Burl

I tried a heavy duty sketch pencil (5.6mm lead)

This is desert ironwood and chrome- the picture doesn't do the wood justice;

I tried a bullet pen (.30 caliber in this case) in black titanium...

This is the same block of desert iron wood - and doesn't do the wood justice either.

I tried a seam ripper...

In bloodwood, with copper powder inlay;

And finally I tried the fountain pen - first I tried Manzanita with turquoise inlay... and the wood tore off the barrel, then I tried Ancient Kauri, and the wood tore off the barrel, then I tried gabon ebony, and caught it and glued it before it tore off.

And I think it looks better than the other woods would have. I hadn't realized how much of the fittings were black. The shiny stuff is rhodium plated, and the tip is iridium.

Looks fancy! Writes well too.

Now all I have left to try from this batch is a walking stick - but I might need to buy some longer pieces of wood to pull this one off :)

And in closing, a gratuitous picture of Autumn:

Bye now!

A

So, in the news… Erica is due at the end of July with (odds are) baby girl number 2.

This is exciting, as it will:

1. Give Autumn a moving toy to play with for the foreseeable future.

2. Fulfill replacement value reproduction

3. Reward the parents with a tax break

4. Be another cute child

5. Give the grandparents something new to talk about

This is less exciting because it will require:

1. The purchase of Diapers for a few more years

2. Another baby seat, filling the car completely

3. Tolerance of house being a disaster for additional years

4. More of Mommies time, leaving less for Daddy

5. And will reduce the number of hours that Daddy can sleep

Generally, blacksmith shops are not considered very baby friendly environments. Carpentry shops are almost as bad. And Blade smith shops the worst of both worlds, plus some sharp edges.

I don’t know why, but people seem concerned about mixing a child (or children) with limited hand to eye coordination with a scattered and disorganized pile of blades you could shave with. Go figure.

I don’t think that I have ever seen Autumn hold a knife the wrong way, and she knew what they were and what they were called before she was 2.

I keep her out of the shop mostly because I don’t have protective gear small enough and she doesn’t like to wear it when it falls off like that. Also because she makes it more likely that I will hurt myself due to the distraction.

At least she can’t really open the door to the shop while I am working yet. But I can’t imagine that day is too far away. Sigh.

And here are some recent pictures of Autumn, since I was talking about her...

With her brand new big girl skates!

And again...

and just waking up from a nap...

Irons in the Fire

My thumb has healed from its stabbing – oh yeah, I didn’t tell you about that. So I was finishing up Rocketpants’ knife…wait I didn’t tell you about that either. Sigh.

OK, so if you remember a few (many) months ago, I had some of the guys over and let them pound on some hot metal? Well, other opportunities haven’t presented themselves, and Rocketpants’ birthday was coming up, so I thought I would finish up the knife he started. It was a nice little thing, made from O1 tool steel I think – always hard to remember which scrap is what. So, I did a little hammering, quenching, tempering, grinding and polishing, and put the handle on, and then some more polishing, and some more polishing, and there were still a couple of little scratches in the mirror finish. So, more polishing, and it was about time for bed, and I was so proud of not stabbing myself during the whole polishing process…that I stabbed myself in the right thumb.

Now, this isn’t all that infrequent of an experience, so I can’t say that it was surprising. In fact, my wife, sitting 3 feet away working on the computer, didn’t even notice that I had stabbed myself. You’d be amazed how quickly you can apply direct pressure to a thumb, so, no big spurts of blood either. Unlike that time with the razor – Note to self - don’t ever show people how to shave with a straight razor after a couple glasses of wine.

Anyway, I got myself patched up. Finished up the polishing (with Kevlar gloves) a few days later, sharpened it some more, made a sheath, and gave it to Rocketpants AFTER winning the Twinkie Cup. So no one would accuse me of bribery.

Mind you, I have never eaten a twinkie (despite a picture that floated around facebook a while back), but won a very large margarita glass full of them. What!!?? You don’t know what the Twinkie Cup is?

Every year for the past 3, Rocketpants has put on a race at the Albuquerque Indoor Karting. This year, the theme was Mario Cart. Now, I don’t do the dressing up (because I am lame), and I am not the world’s greatest driver, but somehow I managed to be consistent enough between the two races to tie for 1^st, and then with my random powerup (again, a la Mario Kart), I edged out the other first place winner.

In other news, I tried forging the bronze chunk that I cast and it crumbled. I hit it when it was too hot, not that I knew it until it was too late. As it cooled, it became clear that it was forgeable at lower temps, but how was I to know. I guess I will have to melt it again later and try lost wax next.

Gratuitous picture of Autumn

That's all for now folks...

A

Last week we did something new and very fun, we too autumn to her first pixie class at the place that was once roller king. She is the one in the green shirt sitting OUTSIDE the big circle. I am pretty sure that at barely two she was the youngest one there, and I was surprised at how well behaved she was. She had a lot of fun and I plan to bike her up there tomorrow for the pixie class.

This weekend was very eventful, on Friday Adam's mom came into town via train, which sounds like a great treat. My brother was also in town from Las Cruses so it was really a big treat for me to be able to see him. We all went out to dinner Friday.

On Saturday we almost went to Old Town because Adam and I both enjoy it and thought his mom would enjoy it but she said she would rather go to the zoo after sleeping on it. I am very glad she stated an opinion because there are few things more annoying than a guest that isn't enjoying themselves or cant tell you what they want when you ask them. The Zoo was fun, and we got through about half of it before Autumn got tired and we were ready for lunch.

After that we went to the Tram to take it up Sandia Crest but it was closed for annual maintenance. Isn't that amazing? it closes once a year and it happens to be closed now. We ended up driving up to the top instead, and got there right around sunset. It was freezing and we headed back down the mountain. Before we got to the bottom I had a miserable cold, which I have since recovered from, and Autumn is now ailed with.

Sunday November 14th was Autumns second birthday. Last year we threw a huge party, but we kept things a little simpler this year. We ordered a pizza and some salads from dions and the grandparents came to out house. There was a huge social gaffe committed by a grandparent and it took a second for me to pick my jaw up off the floor. I only know what Adam thought about it because I didn't ask anyone else about it, and actually I think HE brought it up to me. I was glad that everyone at least appeared unaffected by it because it could have potentially elevated to a very unpleasant situation. Maybe I am too American or something. I know there are many other countries that are more open about some things, but I was very upset by it.

meh, family. You cant live with them, and thank god that as Adults we don't have to, but life would be far more dreary without them.

Autumn had fun either way, and she got lots of fun presents from Adam and I and the grandparents.

Mary, Adams mom, went home on Tuesday. I hope she enjoyed the train home as much as she enjoyed the train trip here.

and this is the new screen I burned this week, a Dinosaur. It is oddly unisex. It is blue, but the dino has flowers and hearts.

and I bought these super cute and cozy arm warmers from my friend Tracy at www.babynest.etys.com .

See you all later, I hope to post sooner than later, but I will be back next Wednesday if not sooner.

♥Erica

Adventures in T-shirt land:New Packaging

First off, here are some pictures of autumn in her Halloween costume.

If you ask her what she was for Halloween she says "pumpkin face"

And every morning since halloween she wakes up and the first thing she says is "Halloween?"

So, this would usually be my workshop post, but I don't have many good "in progress"pictures. I am working on some new things, that aren't ready to be photographed, and then there are the same projects I have been working on, but the details are not very interesting, and there are a few graphic design things I am working on... which has been a little daunting. Sometimes I wish GIMP were a little more like photoshop, I am trained in photoshop- but alas, gimp is free.

One thing I am working on that I can show you is my packaging. I am trying to come up with a new way to package my items because I have discovered that what I am doing becomes very time consuming when I am mailing several packages a day.

Right now I am wrapping most of my orders in tissue, tying a ribbon around them

and putting a label on the back. My pillows don't fit in tissue, and I do something extra special for bearing necklaces. I use solid tissue most of the time, but I have not restocked since I am trying to come up with something new.

Since I usually feel like I am fighting time in the morning when I am getting my packages ready to ship, I am trying to come up with a professional looking way to package my items that takes much less time. I am pretty sure I have settled on shipping in brown paper bags with either my logo or any of my other designs screen printed on them, and then sealing with a thank you label.

how do you package your items to ship?

I got an email from the owner of stilo lifestyle today and I will be getting my first consignment check this week! WOOO. I also need to replenish some items, so that is awesome !

I hope everyone is having a lovely week!

xoxo!

♥Erica

We had a fun and busy weekend around here, which is usual. I was hoping to have pictures of autumn in her costume to share with you all, but, I dont. The only pictures we took were on Adams new fancy smart phone. I played in the duke city derby championship bout on Saturday. My team lost but I felt like I played really well and I had a lot of fun.

On Sunday I fit the last girl for the damas dresses I am making. She was about a half an hour late, after not showing up at all for the scheduled fitting. I am not annoyed with the girl of corse, it is not her fault, it was her mother that caused her to be late and also to not show up for the scheduled fitting but it really bothers me that she wasted my time like that. I am already offering these girls a STEAL as a gift for my old co-workers daughter, so I am annoyed that she was so disrespectful of my time. After that we took Autumn trick or treating and that was soooo much fun! she was so cute! I will get some pictures soon!

Autumns birthday is coming up, here are some great handmade items that are inspired by autumns birthday:

• 

  Sweet Vanilla and Confetti...

  BiscottiQuee...

  $8.49 USD

• 

  BIRTHDAY PRINCESS RIBBON

  Joosycardco

  $5.00 USD

• 

  Swing high, in the sky. 4...

  ibitelikeamo...

  $14.99 USD

• 

  Ballet Baby Booties Amy Bu...

  BriannaBeans...

  $18.00 USD

ok, hopefully I will have something good to write about later this week!

take care!

♥Erica

I got up a little earlier than usual this morning to get some packages ready for Adam to take to the post office since I dont have any cash on me right now, and we didn't want to run out and get some last night. Oh, they are going to Canada, or I would have just shipped them through paypal.

After all my packages were either with Adam, or in out mailbox with a shipping label I seriously considered going back to sleep. Not only am I tired, but it finally started getting cold here in albuquerque after an unseasonably warm October thus far. When it is cold a few things happen, first, I take longer warmer showers, second, I stay inside more, and third but doubtably final, I have quite an urge to stay in bed much longer. It is like I have hibernation instincts that kick in or something. Anyway, I stayed up to write a blog post instead.

Above is the newest screen I have printed, this image is straight off the scanner, I had to clean it up a lot before burning the screen. I think it is pretty cute, but we will see how it does. I will post a picture of it on a shirt in my Wednesday post, along with the results from my little experiment last week and some other on going projects.

Not at all related to any surrounding pictures, I have also decided to skate in Duke City Derby's championship bout on Saturday... and I am REALLY excited :) I thought I was over roller derby, that I could retire just like that... but even if I dont have time for it anymore, I really love it. In addition to asking me to play Adam was asked to ref, but he stayed strong and said no. I expect the reffing to be questionable since they will be short staffed, but I am sure I have seen worse.

Since I am playing this upcoming weekend I decided to go to the rink formerly known as Roller King this past Sunday, and I had a blast. A few skaters came up and told me I was a great skater with really good endurance, which I suppose is true for the general public. Unfortunately, not true for me, or in relation to roller derby. My actual skating skill was fine, although some of the things I was just starting to get before my surprisingly brief hiatus (specifically crossing over while skating backwards) felt a little shaky. I don't have the endurance I would like to to play a championship bout, but I cant change that in a week, and I did do better than expected after pushing through the muscle aches. I decided I need to make sure to go skating, and JUST skate at least once a week, for myself. I miss it.

Other than that we really didn't do much this weekend. I remember doing some cleaning, but that is really boring. We also went to rocketpants' house Sunday evening, Adam dropped me off at the rink and went over and then picked me up and since he lives so close we went back there for a little while longer. It is always nice to see Jon, but I cant say it was eventful.

I have had a pretty insatiable craving for green chili lately, not chopped, it is very important that it is green chili SAUCE. Right now I would eat it with three meals a day until I couldn't stand the sight of it if it were up to me... fortunately I have other people to feed who get tired of eating the same thing every day, so I have NOT been eating it with three meals a day. It is also fortunate that I live in New Mexico, as it would be very hard to find green chili in abundance if I lived anywhere else. My only guesses are that I am pregnant again (with autumn I was craving spicy V8- which I usually hate, and for my recent failed pregnancy I wanted salsa) or that since I have cut back on fruit (and other sugars, but a lot of my sugar intake came from sweets) per a suggestion from my OBGYN, that I am craving the nutrients that I am missing from all the fruit I had been eating. Green chili has Lots of vitamin C, and some other nutrients.

Oh, the outfit autumn is wearing in these pictures is a silly little thing I whipped up for her on my surger in about 20 min. Cute.

Welp, Adam calls my posts schizophrenic , and this post is no exception. See you all tomorrow for my workbench post.

♥ Erica

A lovely weekend

Happy Monday folks! I am enjoying the postal holiday because although I am working today I did not have to get any packages ready to ship. On one hand I am VERY happy to have orders to ship, but it is sure nice to get a little break!

If you have not entered to win a tee shirt of your choice from my shop, you can enter here:

http://christiecottage.blogspot.com/2010/10/win-it-wednesday-new-giveaway.html

Saturday we woke to an unfamiliar noise. It was the last day of the international balloon fiesta and there were hot air balloons flying right over our house! Autumn was so excited watching them fly right over us!

(autumn with daddy's keys)

my Dad babysat Autumn on Saturday and Adam and I both did something very unusual. Other than packaging and a trip to the post office, We didn't work. We spent the WHOLE day together. It was really fun. I actually felt a little guilty about not working with all of the deadlines I have coming up.

(autumn and adam looking at a lizard the cats brought in)

We biked around town and went to the Rio Grande arts and crafts fair. Part of the reason we went was because we wanted to scope out the scene and see if it would be a good fit for us, and obviously the other reason we went was to see some awesome artisans. I didn't feel like my items fit in there at all, although because my tees are SO different from anything at the fair they may do well, you just never know. The fair seemed geared towards an older crowd. I think Adams knives would be a good fit but I don't know if he really has the inventory for it. we bought some really yummy honey comb and also some homemade pasta, and almost bought a print from one of the artists. Later that evening we went out to dinner with or friends bill and rocketpants.

(a new screen I burned, this is a scan of the drawing on photocopy mode)

Sunday I made up for not working on Saturday by seriously busting ass. I Got 4 more damas dresses from just being cut out to being almost ready for fitting and I plan to contact my former co- worker to tell her she can bring the girls over this weekend. I sure hope there are no major issues with fit! I also got to sewing the wedding dress I am making for my good friend Missl Command as a wedding preasent. It is going to look really awesome, I can tell already. I will share pictures of these projects and talk about them in greater detail later this week. I also got a ton of printing done, and this morning I have been printing like a madwoman.

(one of the "presents" the cats brought in)

It is finally becoming noticeable that it is fall, and the evenings are starting to get very cool like they should in the dessert. I really love fall in New Mexico, the crisp air perfumed by roasting green chili is something that I look forward to every year, but this year I am really excited, because I know pretty soon our cats wont be bringing in lizards, birds, katydids, and mice any more.

Craft Inc.

Hello!

First of all, Thank you to Jacki over at ChristieCottage for featuring two of my shirts in her two for Tuesday blog post... also, if you already visit Jacki's blog you may have noticed that she hosts giveaways AND that the two for Tuesday is a hint about who's Item she may be giving away! Make sure to go back to her blog tomorrow to enter to win your choice of $16.00 and under tees in my store!

I recently read a book in preparation for jumping into the uncertain waters of being a business owner and entrepreneur. (by the way, day two of "quitting my day job" is going pretty well, though I still don't work fast enough to keep up with my to-do list! )

I really enjoyed craft inc! It has a ton of information that I didn't even know to look for! It is also surprisingly well written. This kind of book has the potential to be a borefest but it was fun to read in addition to very helpful. I definitely recommend it to fellow crafters, weather they are interested in making their craft business a their full time job or not!

Also, I burned some new screens recently, and I thought I would share one of my drawings (this was scanned at the photocopy setting and then colored in with bucket fill for fun)

... and what kind of blog post would it be without some pictures of autumn to satiate the grandparents who read the blog!

Thanks for reading! I think you are extra special fancy!

♥Erica

Daydreaming and... Coming soon to caustic threads...

So, I have been doing more sewing and designing the past few weeks and as much as I REALLY LOVE screen printing, it is very revitalizing for me, as designing has been a long time passion. Soooo I have been daydreaming about making some investments that I think would really help me make more of a business out of my designing.

I want to buy two adjustable dress forms in addition to the designers dress form that I already have. I CAN grade (or size) Patterns, but I do not trust this method fully and would like to have SOMETHING to fit my clothing on. Since my business is an Internet business I usually don't get to fit the item directly on the customer (which is ALWAYS Preferred). So I think an adjustable dress form is the next best thing. I need two because they come in sizes sm/m and m/l.

The other thing I want is to either get my industrial overlock machine going OR try to resell it and buy a household one. I am hoping to find all of these things used, but I have a few ideas for coming up with funds if I cant.


I finally got back to this dress, it has been sitting in muslin, really just waiting to get ruined, so I finally made the pattern for it. This is what it looked like in muslin : http://acrylicandsteel.blogspot.com/2010/03/from-workbench.html

I was able to cut and sew most of the pattern this weekend, and I think it is SOOO cute. The problem is that I don't know if I can get this fabric again, so it may be one of a kind.

It has some really interesting details at the top that I just love...


And this Too Cute print in the pocket for a little interest. It helps that I love this shade of green I am sure, and I just swoon over Japanese prints. There are several variations of this dress that I have swirling around my brain, so I hope to get a chance to sketch them out and make the patter pieces soon. On this one I just need to do a little finishing on the inside on the neck and then install the zipper and do the hem for the outer skirt. It is fully lined.

I also want to offer this dress in several basic colors and fabric choices that I know I can always find, and do a version where the halter part of the dress is in a sheer fabric.



I burned two new screens this morning, this is a sample of one of them, of course the real thing will not say caustic threads across it :) the other one is a fox. I am trying to think up some cleaver text to print along with the fox but I haven't come up with anything yet. I am going to print this screen tonight to see how it turned out! I cant wait!


I also made two shirts like this. I whipped one up for autumn pretty quickly and had just enough fabric to make one to sell, so I decided to make another.



and... a bonus picture of Adam and autumn for family, fans of Autumn (fans of Adam???) and anyone else who likes cute kiddo's.

I'll be back late tonight to do my treasury of the day!

Take care!

Xoxo

Erica