NightshadeRose Studio

So I’m working again, kind of? At least I’ve scanned in and started to post patterns for some marbled papers I did last December. They’re pretty spectacular on the paper, but they’re even more spectacular on stuff.

I’m back to work and hairpins are available again! Much of my workshop is still kinda cobbled together (the space still needs some basic work before I start permanently installing things) but my hammering table is new and awesome. It’s got wheels! (It might also have pockets at some point in the future).

I still have both of these if anyone has any interest.

(read: I only just now pulled the last 6 months of photos off my phone)

‪I was recently at Disney World and did pick-a-pearl at the Japan pavilion in Epcot. For my $18, I got a lot of ceremony and a 7mm pearl with fantastic luster and a very interesting surface fault. Don’t know what I’m going to make of it yet. I’m still trying to decide if the design should allow for adding more Disney pearls later.

In an experiment in complex box-making, I decided, as is 100% in-character, to go for broke. This is the Very Shiny Calligraphy Case. It is approximately 9″ long, 3″wide, and 2″ tall, and has a glass bead toggle & loop closure. Inside, on the bottom are 2 long compartments for dip or fountain pens. In the top is a separately closed section with 8 smaller compartments for nibs, ink cartridges/converters or whatever. All compartments are curved on the bottom to make it easier to extract things from them, and the cover on the top section has a metal ring pull. This box is made of chipboard, lokta paper, the glitteriest wrapping paper I’ve ever encountered that’s not actual glitter, and approximately 45% Learning Experiences. It will be available on my art show table at Foolscap, in SeaTac, WA, Feb 1-3. After that, who knows. Possibly I’ll just keep it for my own pointed pen purposes.

But today. Today is the first day of the year, also known as the Day of Counting, and I should go have breakfast and get to it.

Worldcon is coming and I’m getting ambitious. 

My table in the art show at World Science Fiction Convention (San Jose, CA) came through, so now I have to get serious about filling it. I’ve given the weekend over to design sketches/renderings/engineering sketches for necklaces, earrings, combs and tiaras. I’m looking forward to being in the new house where I’ll have a whole room just for office space and a proper drawing table

Check it out! I’m now on Spoonflower as nightshaderose_studio. My first batch of samples came in the other day, and I’ve put most of them up for sale. The blue lacy pattern had some issues on the white background, so I had to correct and re-upload. The next set of samples for other scales and variations of these patterns (including the blue on white) should be in for approval in a week or so.

See, transparent purples/reds/yellows/oranges (gold-bearing colors) were clearly created by a malevolent spirit to drive glass artists into fits of rage and madness, but opaques are usually pretty dependable. Those spirals were purple (the shade on the 3rd piece, right photo) when I started today, but olive goddamn green after another firing with a little bit of purple watercolor enamel on the clear/silver bits. It would have made sense if the watercolor had turned an odd color, but the opaque? Why?! I didn’t over-fire or anything! Clearly I did not say the right incantations this morning.

Hey! Hey guys! Look! Do y’all know what this is? It’s a piece of actual honest-to-gods water buffalo horn! Do y’all know what that means? I get to carve an actual honest-to-gods Horn Comb! What should I do?! Should it be longways or tallways? The piece isn’t big enough to carve in decoration too, so I’ll probably be adding metal/enamel work to it as well. Open to suggestions.

Hey, I just wanted to note that these guys, as well as a gray pair and a black/white pair are now available in the Etsy shop!

I have a new word! Not super happy with the shape of the “p” though. Will have to work on it. Also, I like the cats, but I need to find an easier way of cutting them out than starting with a 12mm disc and just cutting out the ears. Those suckers are hard to hold on to. These are from yesterday, and I think I’ll be turning the kiln on again today, too. Either that or getting an Etsy listing ready for the cats.

The other upshot of this adventure is that I’m now looking at new pyrometers (just in case), wondering why there aren’t any you can set a temperature alert for (like, beep when we get to 1350F so I know to put down anything else I’m doing and time the firing), and looking into building such a thing. I don’t necessarily need it to be a controller, just a slightly more informative pyrometer. Mind, if I go down this road, electronics and circuitry are going to be an entirely new skillset that I’ll be learning from scratch. I’m not 100% sure I’m up to that.

So after many many technical difficulties (including electrical work on the kiln), it looks like I’m just about ready to have a kiln/firing day tomorrow. I’ve got ventilation. I’ve got the right plug (the kiln does, in fact, heat up when turned on, and no breakers tripped). I’ve got the area cleared and the slate tiles down, and the pre-heat lamp set up. I’ve kind of sorted the enamels. I’ve even remembered to unpack the tools and kiln furniture and put a fresh coat of primer on the shelf. I think that’s everything.