A few eggs, spring 2025 – custom

These eggs are a little different than others I have made, in that they have embedded in them tiny pieces of fabric from the stash of a mother of a friend of mine who found a bag of 9 quilt tops that she had made in her lifetime but that were not finished.  There were just a few pieces of scraps and so i tried to give a feeling of a couple of the fabrics in the design of these eggs, but also included some threads from each fabric kind of as a “keepsake”.  For me, life is about having fun making remembrances, even as much as we would like to be remembered,  memories are pretty short.

See  the fabrics used in these decorated eggs on the left.

I made a polymer clay cane for the light fabric, not entirely successfully, and the other fabrics i used a backing of single color and added the elements and then flattened them into the flat backing of polymer clay.  Some of the eggs have texture, some dont.

Because the quilt tops made by this mom were all “granny’s flower garden hexagon quilts” i did use that hexagon style on a couple of the eggs.

custom keepsake eggs polymer clay and fabric custom keepsake eggs polymer clay and fabric custom keepsake eggs polymer clay and fabric custom keepsake eggs polymer clay and fabric

 

red and white daisies, street art

red and white daisies, street art  (no eggs made yet this year,  thinking about it however)

This is a vectorized (and otherwise doctored) drawing that I made decades ago, knocked off the wall in a hurry to get three kids to the airport on time one morning. Glass never replaced, and just kind of a memory at this point. Still a fun image.

Constance Braasch

Constance Braasch, music teacher and art teacher, who truly impacted my life. In fact two artists, the other was Lucille Castle Innes.  My mom was busy rearing 5 kids, and it was just after WWII. These women gave me a view for the future.

This card was painted by Constance Braasch circa 1950-1960

AI – scary reduction of detailed and tedious hand work to 5 seconds on canva

AI – scary reduction of detailed and tedious hand work to 5 seconds on canva

I dont know about you but it takes hours and hours to do needlework, quilting, stained glass, mosaic and while this generated in five seconds by AI is nice, it is still NOT the object, but in about two years, 3D printing will be so common that you will be able to reproduce what would ordinarily take months, in a few hours, or minutes.

New mosaic pot – “ice tea”

New mosaic pot – “ice tea”, the only pot i have named, and this is because of the square glass cubes which my daughter found in a thrift store and sent home with me (LOL). They were just over a square inch in two dimensions, and in the third dimension, probably just under an inch. They turned out to be reasonably difficult to grout around.

As usual, all tesserae are from the scrap bin, or thrift store or building value store for reuse of left over building parts. It weighs a hefty 30 lbs… LOL.

What can I do for the victims of the California fires?

What can I do for the victims of the California fires that have devastated so many lives, and whole communities?  I will come up with more ideas hopefully.  So far, polymer clay, and custom stained glass patterns — cross stitch, and printable street art (all are printable for that matter). (four different styles for a house pattern (all printable) but some for specific crafts.




Thinking of what might bring comfort to those who lost their homes I came up with this idea.  I dont know if this tiny contribution can bring any solace, but I think it would were I in that condition.

I am willing to try to make some kind of tiny replica (like a refrigerator magnet, or worry stone or plaque, using polymer clay), or small picture, or street art with or without some text, that can be printed on a tee shirt or hat or other item of clothing. Or, create a cross stitch or needlepoint or beading pattern using an image that is sent to me.

I began by making a sample (a refrigerator magnet) of my daughter’s house (150 year old two story brick (long ago painted cream color)).  So I fully understand this is not 3D printed, and not from some precise press, and it will take some practice, but there might be some comfort in this type of keepsake, and I am willing to contribute supplies and time.

Custom stained glass patterns are available too, but one needs to find a stained glass person who will build this, or this can be used for printing by a company like 4imprint.

Wood mosaic kitchen counter top.

Wood mosaic kitchen counter top.  About 6 years ago i asked a woodworking shop here in Cincinnati to cut me some wood….

the criteria were as follows:  1) that it must be half inch thick, and 2) that it be from the scraps of wood that most individuals find unusable.  That is, i wanted the wood to have worm holes, bore holes, little bits of knotting, spalting, and be unusual in all kinds of ways, even missing a corner here or there or having some bark left on it, 3) each piece needed to be an whole number, no fractions, or mm, in width and height. The blocks cut could be 1×1, 1×2, 1×3, 1×4 for instance, and or, 2×2, 2×3, 2×4 etc, 3×3, 3×4, etc up to about 6 inches in width and length.  4) number of iterations did not matter 5, every kind of wood (not composited (with the exception of bamboo wood which i did use).

 

The person who created the underneath framework, also made the border for the sink and back out of redwood.

So this many years later it has held up pretty well. I know i sanded each block to soften the corners, i remember using weldbond glue, II i think, I did space in some ceramic, glass, porcelain tiles where assembling the counter was needing some flexibility.  I know i gave the finished counter top 6 coats of urethane before using.   So while it was a lot of work, it was not that costly… and i enjoy the wood surface every day.  I needs a sanding and a new coat of urethane…I cannot remember if i covered the grout with urethane. I do remember using expensive grout, not cheap stuff.

The grout gets a little dirty and there are places where there are cracks but i have just added grouts to those areas.

Couple of trash tile-clay pots there also.