#devotional projects

*runs in circles and screams*

Update on that temperature/devotional blanket (for Wolf King & Apollon) I started in August. I still need to catch up on December & January but regardless it’s going to be a big blanket.

My current devotional project for Mei. It is getting there. I had to order more yarn so I am waiting on that to arrive. I am hoping I’ll be finished by the end of this month or at least close. I have another project lined up to go along with my year and a day devotion to Apollon & Mei.

Hot off the bench! Finally finished Thoth's offering bowl (he was starting to get impatient). I'm not completely thrilled with the wire loops, but he said that didn't matter, I got what I needed out of the project, which was true. I got burned in grad school (metaphorically) and it's been really hard to do the serious jewelry work, so this was a very therapeutic project.

DYEING FOR HEQET: a tutorial about fabric dyeing and batik (part 1) So I'm doing a little bit of shrine maintenance, and I notice how shamefully the altar cloth on Heqet's shrine has faded (pic 1). Luckily I do some of my own dye work, so it's an easy fix. But it's also easier to dye multiple things, and I have a pretty green scarf that I stupidly wore with my freshly dyed purple hair, which could also stand to be fixed (pic 2). I really like the light green on the scarf, so I thought the best fix would be to do some batik on it, which would let me keep some of the green and still cover up the purple streaks. I know some of ya'll are also crafty, so I thought a tutorial post might be fun. These directions will work for plant based fibers only, so don't try it on like wool. Shoot me a message if you want specs on exactly what I've used here, I don't want this to be too long. 1) Batik is a type of fabric design where a wax resist is applied to the fabric prior to dyeing. It's pretty low tech- all you need is the fabric, wax, something to heat it with, and something to apply it with. Wax can be super dangerous, so be very careful when heating it. I like to use an electric skillet, but if you have to do it on your stove use a double boiler. I like to put something down under my piece to make clean up easier (like a shower curtain from the dollar store). As you can see in pic 3, I used a couple of cookie cutters and a paintbrush to apply the wax to my scarf. The dental pick us for scraping wax off my cutters. It goes without saying that anything used with wax will never be used for anything else again. 2) Now to the dye kitchen! Mine is my extra bathroom. This shit is messy and hazardous. Wear clothes you don't care about, and consider an apron and gloves. Pic 4 shows everything you'll need-dye powders, containers to mix dye in, measuring implements, iodine free salt, soda ash, the stuff you're dyeing, containers to dye the stuff in, and recipes for your colors. The dyes I use mix at a ratio of 1 tsp dye to 1 cup water, and that's the first step. Do not inhale the dye powder -it contains heavy metals. Might want a mask, there. I tend to dye in small lots, so I only mixed up a half cup of each of the colors I'd be using. Follow your recipe to mix the final color that you're actually using. In my case, I used a different shade of green for the scarf and the altar cloth. How you mix it is up to you, but a little dye goes a long way, so use plenty of water. I mixed up a cup and half of color for each piece, and the darker one used 4 tbsp of dye, just for reference. I do my color mixing in a measuring cup, and then pour it into a container (less messy). Once you've got your color in the container, you need to add salt and soda ash to activate the dye. Like the dye powder, it's one tsp per cup. For this amount of dye, I usually just dump in a tsp of soda ash (even though it's more than a cup) and just pour some salt in. Stir until thoroughly mixed (I have a scrap glass rod I use for this, but you can use anything non porous), and then add your item to be dyed (pics 5 and 6). Cover them and put them somewhere or of the way for at least eight hours (pic 7). An extra bathtub or sink that you don't use often is prefect. Tomorrow, we'll rinse them out and get all the wax out of that scarf! 3) Lastly, clean up your mess. Fabric dye is hazardous to breath when dry, and much easier to clean up when wet. Wipe down everything carefully, because you will have splattered dye in something that you missed. Once that's done, feel free to go about your day.

WIP pic of the very small offering dish I'm making for his birdliness (it's about 2" in diameter). The worst of the hammering is done, but I still need to even up the edge a smidge. Now I have to decide what I'm going to do about a foot for it. Currently, it's sitting on a domed copper washer, which would work if I can get a better fit. I was thinking using the same thing in silver, but I got it off center and doesn't look very good anyway. I think I want the contrast. Alternatively, I could rig up something with wire. I dunno. I'm going to sleep on it.

I promised I’d post a pic of the necklace I made for my Thoth charm, so here we go!  I would’ve loved to have made something fancier, but it would’ve overwhelmed the pendant.  The beads are vintage acrylic and glass (the green ones are acrylic, the rest are glass) and it’s strung on sterling with a simple handmade catch.  Thoth there was marked sterling, so I felt bad cheaping out with plated wire, so it is straight sterling. (I hope you’re happy Thoth.  Have you seen the price of silver these days?)  If you saw my post of just the charm when it came in, you’ll noticed I shined His Birdliness up a bit, too (it was less work than trying to patina the rest to match).

It’s shown here over the dress I originally planned to wear with it, but my ass is too fat to fit in it now (the dress not the shawl, obviously).  For those interested in the gritty details, it’s cotton and the weave is huck (pulled straight from the pages of Huck Lace: The Best of Weavers).