Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Deprivation

Sun, sleep, fun....none.

Okay, a teeny bit.

We're soggy here in New England. Today, on the weather, they said that it has rained over half the days so far this summer. That's not a tan, ma'am, it's rust. So here's the rainy view out my kitchen window. Window number four out of six that I am installing...weather permitting. The fungus are thriving for the most part. Actually, a few are getting mold growth on them.

The sun has come out late this afternoon. This is spectacular as now, with the heating of the sun, we should have gigantic thunderstorms again tonight. Last night I got out of work at 10 p.m., came home and had a quick bite to eat and watched the Olympics until 11:30. I was just dosing off for the night when...



BAM!!


Scared me wide awake. Just how I want to be at 1 in the morning! I knew I should have shut the computer down and unplugged it. Lights on and up I get to take care of the computer. What a storm! I do like a good thunderstorm, but not when you see the lightning and hear the crack of thunder simultaneously. That's just too close for me, up on this hill amongst the tall oaks. So...not a heck of a lot of sleep last night.

Today I've been trying to have an 'easy' day. I've been working on more ivory necklaces. This photo doesn't do them justice - really. Sort of bleaches them out. Remember, these are only about .75" X 1.5". Not all have been 'strung' yet and some of the newer ones will have the necklace part threaded directly through the ivory, side to side, so there will be no visible hole at the top.Another design that I have come up with uses both the ivories (naturals) and the ebonies (sharps). These are on a trial basis as they will be more expensive. I've made two ivory and ebony, and one ivory and walnut.

Tomorrow is another triple D day (dreaded dentist day). Can't wait for Thursday!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Squish, squish . . wetness everywhere. The weeds in all the flower beds are giants and our sunflowers are now over 7 feet tall and all things green and flowering are threatening to take over the house! Like the giant killer tomatoes.

Takes too much expensive gas to mow the lawn too often (great excuse) so that is now lush and green - even if it is 95% green weeds.

Paintings on the piano keys are lovely. Wish those of you in blogland could see them in person. That Deb is certainly gifted -from paintings to installing windows and more - impressive.



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deb said...

Amazing that there were no new storms last night. At least not here. Maybe there were and I was just too tired to notice!

Yep, one more window to go, the lawn needs mowing and it's my turn to haul everything to the dump. Will I ever get some time off? My house is screaming for a good cleaning.

Claire said...

Your necklaces are good, Deb. Do they look more sort of translucent in real life under the paintings? Not the right word really, but with more depth I guess, more 3D-ish maybe... The ebony/ivory and walnut ones are nice too, a timeless design, I would think.

Funnily enough we were talking about ivory at work today, the jewellery men were showing me some imitation ivory resin stuff, apparently it polishes up like the real thing. Looked good and was surprisingly heavy, but nice to know that no elephants died for it!

deb said...

Thanks, Claire. Yes, there is a warmth to the ivory that gives it the depth I think you are talking about. Of course ivory, when sliced very thin as for key tops, is quite translucent and the wood of the piano key (or the glue used to adhere the ivory) is whitened with titanium to keep the ivory 'white' looking. Otherwise the wood color would visually leech through. The painted necklaces are a lamination of 4 pieces of ivory making the 'block' approximately 3/16th inch thick. In the larger wood and ivory necklaces there are 6 laminations.

Although there are huge stockpiles of 'new, old' ivory left in the world, all this ivory was put to it's original use over 70 years ago.

I can get the imitation ivory and have used it for key work. I do like the idea that the real ivory that I use is recycled. Beats sending it to the landfill.

Anonymous said...

I think they are absolutely gorgeous, Deb. Well done, m'dear!
PS. At what price will the bidding start, I wonder!

deb said...

Ah, prices. Guess I've never mentioned those, huh?

The painted necklaces are $10, the larger wood and ivory are $20.