Living in The Studio

A shot of the end of our kitchen.. we use it more like a studio, being as the house is so small... Everything is stacked up to the ceiling.   Brought one of the kerosene lamps out just in case the power goes out... I want to be ready... but right now I am enjoying the light being reflected off the snow.. altho I am not crazy about snow, by any means.

We had our first fire of the season back on Oct. 11. felt really good too.. had a little fire on most every day since.

 It has become cold very early this year... feels like we are going into our next Ice Age right before our eyes. 

Had the 2 cds. of firewood stacked outside and drying since early summer.. this is the wood for next year. mostly maple... we have this years wood already dried and stored inside.. we always dry our wood a year ahead if we possibly can... That is the woodshed John built last summer... sure is nice to have a real woodshed now instead of the Hobbit hut we had the first year here. that year it was stacked outside with snow piled all around it and John had to dig down to it every time we needed some.. looked like he was crawling into a igloo to get it on his hands and knees.. was not fun... good exercise tho, if one wanted to look at it in a positive way.

This stack of 2 cds was put away in the woodshed at the end of October.. that is late for us but it was not an especially good drying year. but John had it covered with two old sheets of tin roofing which let the air thru and kept it pretty well dry... all in now!!

Been playing around in my sketchbook this year during our sabbatical.

Oatmeal Brown Bread with raisins, sunflower seeds and flax... Love having time to make bread for us all.. it has been so many years since I have bought bread from a store, I can't remember. I always make 2 batches at a time and divide each batch in 2.. makes it easier to store and keeps it fresh as I put the other 3 in the freezer and then I don't have to make bread for a few days.

in the side field the milkweed is gently spreading its seeds... little parachutes flying everywhere.

Planted the garlic on Oct.22... later than last year.. was waiting for the ground to dry up a bit as it was a rainy Oct.  ...managed to plant over 100 cloves, double what I put in last year .. had to sacrifice them from the crop I grew this year.. sure hope they grow. 

to finish up I covered them with a thick layer of straw.  

I store them in a net bag I crocheted last winter.. this type is called Music and they are the best tasting garlic I ever had.. got the original bulbs from a garlic farmer not far outside Fredericton.

The birds are liking the sunflower seeds in the feeder outside my studio window.  We used another old piece of tin roofing to make a roof for the feeder, to give the birds a little shelter while they treat us with their beauty.. usually a big fat gray squirrel is sitting in there.. 

The snow is coming down out there right now and amounting to quite a bit. 

Still making a few earrings or posting some designs that have come to light after searching around in the backs of the jewelry storage cabinet... 

These sold in minutes on our FaceBook page soon after I posted them.

"Square Spiral" earrings, solid copper, antiqued with sterling shepherd  earwire... approx 7/8" across and 1 1/4" long. $25. pr.

"A little Medieval"... hammered shaped Sterling with African Turquoise... approx. 2" long .. handmade at Desideratum studio. $25. pr. 

If interested in any of our earrings please send us a message on our right sidebar. 

Well looks like winter has come early.. Hope everyone has a cozy place to curl up and stay warm.. till next time, Cheers, Gwen at Desideratum Art and Jewelry

The End of March Update

Just a little post of what we have been doing these past few months.

The Kitchen Jotul provided lots of comfort this year... always feels so good to feel that heat and see that cheery flame. 

Ok now, this was a fun find! ...  the Schwinn Air-Dyne exercise bike.. non electric... Manual.. totally works by just pedaling... you never have to plug it in! ...even gives you a cooling breeze as you pedal... 

It was given to us when we went to a yard sale.. the fellow just wanted it "gone" as he had sold his house and had to move that very weekend...  so we loaded it on the trailer and took it home..  Perfect condition and was it Heavy!!!   So solid... found out after some research that it is quite a Collectors item and I can see why... they don't make things like this anymore ... you know, things that don't wear out!  From the 1970's...  It is practically indestructible and you can do lots of different exercises with it other than just basic pedaling.. Love this !

This beauty was also being given away.  It is one of the coolest looking sewing machines in my collection.  It needed cleaned and oiled as most all old machines do, but I like to see if I can get them back in working order. It even came in its own table. It has a very masculine appearance don't you think?... brown and cream with lots of dials... also very heavy.

This machine was very dirty and dusty mostly just from sitting someplace where dust and grime accumulated...  most parts of it were seized and needed quite some time for the oil to soak in. 

The original  Kenmore ad was still with it, torn from the pages of a mid 1960's Simpson's Sears catalog.  I believe it is one of the early fancy stitch machines... Made in Japan.  The sewing machine industry was something that grew huge in Japan after the second world war as they were trying to get their economy built back up... shifting from war machines to domestic machines... and Japan made excellent quality machines.. 

Here "He" is with his top metal lid removed... a bit of a look at the many working gears and moving parts.  I oiled everything that moved and even the parts that never. It eventually loosened up and everything started working in unison.... but it took a few days.  He had not been used for a long time but was almost like new.  I don't think it ever saw much use.

 Thought I'd test it out.  I had an old pair of oven mitts that were worn out, dreary and darn ugly... made from an old pair of recycled jeans years ago... they had done their service and were ready to retire.

  I took a pattern off them and sewed a new pair up using that groovy sewing machine above... worked great. I reused the inner padded insulating lining.  

The fabric was left over from the drapes in the living room.  I preshrunk it and it was fine for the job... besides it's pretty and heavy and so much nicer to look at.

We are still in the studio making jewelry too. Here are some new "Fiddleheads"... can't wait for the real fresh ones to pop their heads up...  and a pair of "Ship and Whale" that are always popular with visitors to the Maritimes.  

The sand dollars in the background were found on the St. Martins beach at one of the times of year when the tide is very, very low and goes out the farthest.  They were on the sand at exactly the point where the tide turned... you had to be quick to gather them.

 An in-progress shot of the  Fiddleheads after fusing, being set up to have the hole drilled for the earwire... at this in-between unfinished stage they have not yet been hammered, buffed or polished. 

Also doing some forging and shaping on the big steel textured block, my dad found for us years ago.  

And every once in a while I unload some art supplies and spend some time making art.  I particularly like the new Sakura "Koi" water brush.  That's it lying across the small white sectioned dish... the main body of the brush is a water reservoir... no problems with leaking and the bristles hold their shape well...  A pleasure to paint with.

Till next time. All the Best!

The Queen of Hearts and Studio Work

Been working steady in the studio these days 

It's the perfect time of year to design new work and build up stock.

My neck of the woods... working on the newest version of "Two Crows/Joy"

 They haven't been polished or finished yet, just prototypes... but I like them.

John's home territory...  working on little goblets... tiny pieces for big hands ... the red shirt on the floor is one of Max's old shirts and the dogs love to sleep on it.. I think they can still catch his scent.  

New stone bead drops

I love the texture of the Ocean Swirl and wood bark together.

 a new Treble clef stud added this year

A new version of The Muses... forged copper with wrapped silver

 More new stone earrings

 These were fun to do... 

 Sterling and olive Czech glass

 Rolling Mill and copper cuttings

Hammering the pieces flat 

... a pair of earrings requested by my youngest sister

 working in the living room one evening by the woodstove

 ... always love how the sunlight spotlights the beauty.

Take care everybody  xo

Desideratum Art Jewelry, St. Martins, NB

Steaming Cup of Coffee and A Second Quilt

Early morning sunrise peeking into the kitchen..  I love early morning light... even the air felt renewed.

 ...my favourite coffee  perked in a Moka pot

Ohh la la.. that looks good... perfect way to start the day 

a few sticks in the fire and the day has begun.

 Below are a few designs I made to send off to customers and to post on my FaceBook 

(yes I am on Facebook... kind of a scary place for a Hermite but not as scary as it was 2 years ago when I initially tried it and then hurriedly ran back to my cave )

After working on them and finishing a few other things, I decided to make another patchwork quilt... out of fabric I already had in my stash this time.. I gave myself limitations.. I like to have perimeters when I am creating...  a few confines... I feel it makes one more inventive... besides I hate to waste anything... and we can always use a warm quilt instead of a bunch of fabric stuffed in a cupboard really being no use to anyone..

I looked at what I had and searched through some quilt pattern books, did a few sketches and went with this design... sort of a double 9-Patch... prints, plains and all pieced with varying shades and weights of white cottons... Initially when I was drawing up the pattern I did not have the border drawn in... that was added later when I was figuring placement of colours.. even still it evolved again.

 I'm trying to figure the placement here.   I laid a black piece of fabric on one side of my bed and a white piece on the other and began placing the little 3" blocks out on it... wondering  which way I liked best...   they each have a very different effect..  I took several pictures and studied them on the computer screen for a while too... of course I puzzled over this for quite a while and then I thought Why???.. I could always make another in the opposite manner sometime if I wished... and then I got on with it.. 

 the bigger 9-Patch blocks are beginning to be sewn together and placed again for "Judgement".

 Here I have all 7 rows of 7 blocks sewn together in strips. 

I have to say there were a few times I said to myself " what were you thinking???.. this thing is going to take everybodies eyes out".. and "now you have chopped up all this fabric and you wasted it all.. You! Wasted!!"  What could I do but carry on.... sort of like a traveler lost in the woods.. hoping I was going to come out the other side in a place I wanted to be... or even if I was going to make it out of the woods at all. 

These are the strips/sashes with the red squares centered to fit where the corners of the blocks meet.

In the background you can see some of the sewing machines I have been collecting during the last year. Kenmore, White and Singer.

 I pieced the entire quilt on a 1936 Singer Treadle.. it would go as slow as I wanted no problem... as I was piecing carefully to make sure all the seams were sewed in the right direction and that the seams met where they were suppose to.  I LOVE this machine. 

 that little light clamped on the back of the machine was pitiful to see with tho... The bigger clamp on lamp in the last picture above was much better and more flexible.. Probably I just have to figure how to replace the little old sewing machine lightbulb... so long as they still make these kind.

I'm sewing the long black and red strips in now between every row.

Look at the beautiful design that Singer incorporated into the end cover-plate.. so lovely and the metal is as good as the day it was made.  It gives me pleasure every time I see the machine even when I'm not using it.

The blocks and windowpane sashes are all sewed together... but I really feel it needs a border.. something to pull it all together.  Yes even at this point I kept saying to myself.. What Have you done.. this is so bright, it is like a carnival.  Hense the name of the quilt came to be known as  "Carnival".

 well sometimes more of the same works, so I cut narrow strips of some gold cotton.. I barely had enough... I used every last piece of it... each strip was only 3/4" wide and when the seams were taken away the gold only measured 1/4".  But being a very bright color.. that was all that was needed. then a bit wider red border to tie into the small corner pieces and a 3 1/2" black edge.

The borders.

The finished top waiting to be quilted. Very bright isn't it?  kind of crazy bright... kind of "quit trying to hypnotize me" bright.... oh well, onward through the forest.

 I used a soft gold patterned sheet for the back... but to make it big enough I had to pick out the wide hem.

Here she is going into the frames with the backing below and the lofty fiberfill in the middle.. I did it lying on the floor for this part of the process this time.. It was so big, 84" x 84" sq., my old frames would hardly hold it.. I don't have it stretched in this pic, I'm just pinning and basting it in place. 

 I'll stop here for now and show some of the quilting and the finished work in a future post.. Hope you had your sunglasses on.

During the piecing a cold spell of weather hit and this snow covered view to the west greeted me one morning.

It's gone now but it was pretty then.

till next time...

Wishing you All a Most Wonderful 2015 !