Busy season

Hello all,

I am sorry I have not posted anything lately, Ive been busy but not taking any photos of things Ive been working on. Naalbinding is the latest thing. I made a sock and started a funny pointed hat. Naalbinding for those who dont know is an ancient stretchy fabric construction method similar to knitting, except that naalbinding cannot unravel if a thread is pulled, and it is made with a single needle rather than 2 needles. It is a bit more time consuming, but I am seeing that it has great potential for being a fun diversion. Plus there is something about it that seems more like crochet, which is more freeflowing to me than knitting.

I also went yesterday to a local knitting/yarn shop with my lunchtime knitters from work and bought this lovely yarn from japan I am still just loving it an petting it and thinking about what I might make out of it.

current projects

This weekend Ive been working on a pewter snowflake, but it is not working out so well yet... so I put in some time on these veil pins topped with birds. They are inspiring- what next- acorns? shields? I know! how about little ships!?

Beautiful Dogora Scarf

I did a scarf out of the borzoi

fur I spun and it turned out

great!

Here are the photos. what do

you think? I am going to do a

couple of nicer photos with a

better setup.

Dogora!

I finished the borzoi fur I was spinning. After the yarn is spun, then it has to be washed and hung in skeins with a heavy weight on them in order to set the twist, and since my shop is rather cold it takes several days to dry out. I use the metal window sash weights we found in our walls when we remodled our kitchen, they are perfect for that!

I am not sure what I am going to make out of all this. I am not sure I have enough for a scarf, so I will probably make a few small items, picture frame, key chain, or maybe a knitted hat.

If anybody has a long haired dog, please save me your brushings to spin! I am ready to spin more different breeds. I really want to try Alaskan Malamute, and Berniese Mountain dog. Online they call this Cheingora, but I think I like calling it Dogora, especially since I read about the 1960's movie of the same name in the Godzilla vein. Cant wait to watch it. Attack of Dogora!

And now for something completely different

I made a loom today! I had the plan in my head and I knew it was just going to be a simple loom, similar to a tapestry loom. I wanted the width to be adjustable so I put it together with bolts with wing nuts and made the short sides longer than the sample I made, so I can add extra holes later, and weave wider panels.

I have been spinning dog fur and I have had the idea of making scarves out of the fur for people as keepsakes to remember a favorite pet. Dog fur or rather some dog fur is really angora- like in its softness. I just finished spinning several skeins of Borzoi fur. I did a test sample on my new loom just to see how it worked, and it went well. I will try weaving a scarf in some dog fur yarn on my new loom soon!

1 project winding down two more starting up

I finished the 200 fishplates for the Baronial banquet saturday, now I have to file off the knob where I clipped off the sprue, and project done. I may ask for some help finishing polishing the sprue off.

Then I did a load of work on Maxine's new garb for baronial banquet. this is the sketch. Her birthday is the day before the banquet, so we are bringing her freind Stevie, and we will have a lovely time. the under dress is a paleish blue, with grey wool cuffs and hem panel, edged with cream color ribbon. I will be sewing small pearls into the center of each diamond. and the headgear will be a challenge. Rus-style with dangling pearls at the temples. If I get to it I will make some red shoes too.

Mongolian boots are another project I want to put some time in on. I am still undecided if I am going to use poodle felt, of if I am going to figure out how to felt sheep. my last attempt was such a failure I am scarred, or maybe just scared.

NASCAR Shoes!!!

I have been working on these in the past year, and I am very proud of them. The company is called Raceway shoes. Brilliant Idea, but we are still looking for a reliable source of startup capital. The best thing is that they are made with recycled NASCAR Tires for the soles. We have an exclusive source for the tires, and have our factory set up and ready to go. Shown Here is the Dale Jr Shoe. We have also designed styles for Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton and at least 10 other driver/styles. If all goes well, we should be up and running by the beginning of next NASCAR Season. Run faster, jump higher! Pretty cool huh?

More fun with pewter casting

As promised, here are photos of the finished fish plate front and back, and a picture(not very good I am afraid) of the extant fish plate I based my fish plate on. I cast 20 or 30 a few days ago with my new pewter pot. Tonite I cast about 70 more. almost half way to the goal of 200!

fun with pewter casting

As part of my Society for creative anacronism associations here in Madrone in the kingdom of Antir, I am a member of the pewter's guild. I have made a few pewter molds, and been having fun with it. In looking for things to put onto my new blogsite, I found this process photo of a medieval toy, a fish on a platter. I offered to use it for the baronial banquet, and so now I have to get busy and start production. I finally have the mold right, and I got a nice pewter melting pot for my birthday! Later today I will post a photo of a production fish plate, and try to post a photo of the extant fish plate that is in the museum of london. I have about 3 weeks to finish 200 pc. I should be ok.

Welcome to my new blogspace

Hello! I intend to use this space to show some of the work I am working on, we will see how it goes. This is the first of I hope many posts. I am showing here a few of my gothic benches. I have been working on many projects, including pewter casting and felting. Once I get this site up and running I hope to have some of the things I am making available for purchase.