making things for no reason

How time flies. Every so often I need to get away from the paper, pencils, pens, and paints but that rarely means I don't do anything. It would appear I have a compulsive personality. I know you probably already guessed that. Continuing with my recent interest in making small containers I spent the better part of a week working on this little thing - and it is little at 3½ inches in diameter and a bit more than 2 inches tall when looked at from the side.

Several weeks before we left Portland I realized I had to deal with the silk dyes I'd mixed for painting since they were all stored in glass jars and bottles that couldn't be packed for the move. I also had a lot of extra white silk pieces. So jar by jar and bottle by bottle I used up all the mixed colors. I wish now I'd taken a picture of my living room floor covered in newspaper, plastic sheets, and everything I could find to use as clotheslines to dry all the bits. It's pretty funny in retrospect. Once they'd all been dried, steamed, washed, dried again and ironed I ended up with a large number of brightly hued scraps for future projects. So here is one of them - cut, stitched, padded, beaded, and every inch was a puzzle to ponder. The inside top is the opposite side of the flower on the front. The inside bottom is padded thick red silk.

I did happen to learn about someone far more motivated than me. Have you ever heard of Baldassare Forestierre? In 1906 he bought land near Fresno CA where he hoped to start a farm. Unfortunately, the land was too dry but rather than give up the idea he began digging. Over the course of the next 40 years he carefully carved out 10,000 square feet of underground living space that included living rooms, studies, bedrooms, a chapel, a fish pond, and a network of gardens, trees and trellises all by hand and without architectural training. He'd been a subway digger in New York. The caverns are supported by Roman arches, columns and domes - many of which are capped by skylights to let in the light. He used only a pick and a shovel and worked at it in his spare time. Now that's what I call true dedication.

I've moved too many times to manage that particular devotion but I appreciate the hearts of those whose happiness lies in making the world just a little more beautiful for no particular reason at all.


Why not?
♡

me and my bright ideas

In the midst of packing, or at least thinking about packing, I kept looking over at the corner of the living room where the silk dyeing supplies live. There's a fair amount still in the manufacturer's sealed containers but there was a complication and that was the large number of little jars of colors I'd mixed myself.

The silk painting projects required a number of different shades that don't just arrive on the doorstep pre-blended and besides that, I also use diffusants and thickeners to control the flow while I paint. That means I had dozens of 2 oz. jars at least half filled with dye that just might not be very secure in containers traveling a long distance. I could almost hear the Canadian customs agents demanding that everything be opened because weird colored chemicals were leaking out of a couple of boxes. That's an ordeal I'd rather not experience.

My first thought was to paint a few more scarves to use up the dyes but next thing I knew I was mixing more colors to get the effects I wanted. Obviously, that wasn't going to solve the problem so I came up with another idea, which is the one I've been working on for a couple of weeks. You see, since I have a lot of small pieces of white silk - both heavy and light - I've been dyeing them using the jar colors. One week the yellows - gold, bronze, sand, yellow green etc. and the next week the reds - coral, copper, crimson, russet, vermilion just to name a few. Tomorrow I'll be dyeing blues and greens and once again I'll have a big area of the living room floor covered in drop cloths, newsprint, jars, water, rubber gloves, paper towels, brushes and plastic drying racks. Once again, I'll be hoping the landlord doesn't decide to bring a potential new tenant to see the place. I hate having to keep everything tidy just in case..

I let the etsy space fade away a couple of months ago; I'm just not very good at that sort of thing. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean I won't be working on some new projects. In fact, I have one or two in mind that will make good use of some very prettily colored pieces of silk. What do you think of little stuffed beings wearing silk and beaded costumes? Some may even have wings, or tails, or scales. I don't know what I'll get up to next in the crafty side of things but whatever I make you'll see them here first.

Maybe I'll re-up etsy or seriously consider a web page. Then again, if you come to Halifax you may find me sitting by a quayside with handmade treasures for sale. Nah.. likely not.

✄

fresh out of the steamer..

It's kind of weird to name a silk scarf 'chaos' but that's what I called this one as I worked on it this past weekend. The times are chaotic both inside and outside. We're planning to leave the west coast of the US for the east coast of Canada one of these days but we don't know when. I hate not being in control while making major plans but maybe the idea of control is just a fantasy anyway.

I have a collection of mixed dyes that I'm not going to pack so I decided to start using them on some of the scarf silks. There's endless fascination in the complex and delicate symmetry that arise from the relationship of chaos and order and our world would be a drab place if we created things simply for utility. The wild beauty all around us can only be appreciated when we learn to let go.

Tomorrow I'll start another piece with no idea of how it will look when it's done.

losing the thread

Last weekend after spending three days working on a pair of black (I just can't seem to get away from that inky shade) pants for the new salwar kameez project - cutting, marking, sewing 16 pleats, matching marks and cutouts, adding pockets - I discovered I'd made 2 left sides. They were very nicely made left sides but I was too tired to even think of ordering more fabric to make 2 right sides and absolutely too fed up to attempt a repair. I'll try it again but there was nothing to do but throw them away and read a book instead.

Earlier this week I considered sending a story to a blogger who's collecting snippets people have written about their experiences. It seemed like a cool idea and since very few people have read any of the Adventure's Ink posts I thought perhaps I'd submit one for her to share so went back to read them. It turned out the ones I'd written only work well in the context of having been illustrated and she wasn't looking for pictures. Oh well, at least I had another book to read.

I feel aggravated, annoyed and depressed every time I read anything about the oil companies, the major banks, the escalating wars and the propaganda fed through the major media about how all our troubles are the fault of some other people. Today I saw that drone aircraft will be patrolling the border with Mexico. They aren't going to be equipped with Hellfire missiles.. yet. Feeling helpless to change anything and not being in a position to do much of anything I went in search of some good news and found this. It's good to know ordinary people can make a difference. Maybe one day I'll find a way to put my small talents to good use. It seems the only freedom we really have is to be kind to each other.

Tomorrow is another work day but meanwhile, I have another book.

inside story - Weasel & Crow

One day last summer la Belette Rouge asked if I could do a portrait of Weasel & Crow so I drew this picture and sent it off the next day. She liked it and so did I - and so did Crow.
Then some time went by (as it usually does) until the day came when I mixed up some colors and my table looked like this and continued looking like this for a while.
The painting was begun and it looked like this. Then there was more painting (lots more) then steaming and washing and sewing and beading until one day it was finally done.
On the inside there is another little painting. You see She-Weasel has a dear little friend called Lily (a West Highland White Terrier) who is always there to keep la Belette company no matter who flies by for a visit and flies away again. Crow never stays anywhere long - except here.. sometimes.

Crow in color

Last time I saw Crow he presented me with a portrait painted by an artist who's obviously very skilled and sensitive.. a veritable Renoir of Corvid Classicism was my first thought. My second thought was, 'Now I know why he asked me to press those weird pants'. He still hasn't told me who the lady is.

accidents and intentions

This is one I finished last weekend and it still has me wondering where it came from. I called it Desert Sun because it required a name that suited its character. I turned an accidental splotch into a little oval with the Tibetan Om sign which was no mistake at all.










Real beauty is more than skin deep. Just about everybody gets to be young and pretty once, but all revert into what they actually are: a person. Superficial good looks can go ugly fast, just a glimpse into the future at age thirty or forty, the emerging truth at fifty or sixty. Ultimately we see who a man or woman really is.








People with real character and depth grow more beautiful over time, no matter whether they are conventionally attractive or not. Their natural beauty dawns as their nature shapes their looks from inside out. Eccentricity or plainness matures into glamour and charm that are as individual as they are wondrous.

At least I'd like to think so. Me? I'm just addicted to colour.

back in style

I finally finished the 'Lioness & Cub' painted silk bag on the weekend and thought you might like to see how it came out in as close to the real colors as I could manage. Now that we've had some rain and wind storms the girl with the horn is no longer visible in the trees outside my window and likely won't return in the same form next year. Never mind, she's safe here.

Crow's off visiting some old friends and making new ones. He sent me a telegram yesterday to say he'd be back soon but in the meanwhile he told me about the bioneers - an interesting group of social and scientific innovators who are working right here in the US on projects that mimic nature's ways of looking after herself. Crow sounded quite excited about the organization and promises more news once he gets home.

Now I have to go and find his fruitcake and a bottle of Remy Martin. Maybe I'd better polish his perch and his goblet too - but I'll remember to use a separate cloth this time :-)

saturday phantsying

I spent the day painting what will be the next silk bag and then I took a picture that looked like this when it came out of i-photo. Then I decided to see what it would look like if I played with photo shop elements:


This is what it it looked like with normal diffuse


and this is how it looked as a poster.


I think this one is my favorite - just plain with all the color switched to sepia. Maybe I'll paint it in sepia next time and then play with colors. Makes you wonder what's real, doesn't it?

Ahh, this one is nice too - invert suggested by Marja-Leena:



Having too many options confuses me.

etsied at last

I did do something new last month that I haven't mentioned yet and that was to finally go live with the etsy on-line craft market site. Over the course of the past couple of years I've occasionally been asked about whether or not various pieces of my work are for sale and the answer to that is both yes and no. My guideline is that I'll only sell things I'm currently working on and right now that's silk bags. The watercolors aren't for sale even though I occasionally paint a new one.

It was a very difficult decision for me to decide on marketing my stuff in public as I go through all sorts of anxiety attacks at the very idea. I don't know why that is since once upon a time I was very involved and active in promoting myself as an artist and my list of gallery showings in New England was important to me. It helped me to define myself as a 'real artist' when the essential truth of what I was doing to earn a living in the daily world didn't suit my ego. I stopped coddling my sense of self importance so long ago I know longer remember when it disappeared.

All I know is I like to draw and paint. I set up phantysythat at etsy last May, posted a couple of items in June, took them down a week later and finally set it up (and left it up) on the Labor Day weekend. So far I've sold one bag and that was to Liberality who found the shop on her own. Thanks Lib! There are only a few pieces for sale and there'll never be lots because each one takes as much time as required and I can't be a factory. If I'd rather read a book, write a story or visit my friends here or in the real world, that's what I'll do.

Now I'm off to finish a new Adventure story. It's been a while :-)

lioness & cub #1

It sure would be a lot easier doing posts if my main skill was writing instead of the drawing, painting kind. Nevertheless, I thought you might like to see the image I've come up with for the next silk painting project. They do start out plain, don't they? I'll post more as it developes.

The funny thing about the little girl is that I've been looking at her in the treetops outside my bedroom window most of the summer - well, on those mornings when I can linger in bed with my cup of coffee. There are a number of benefits to being slightly myopic, one of which is being able to visualize things only half seen (also handy in not seeing wrinkles and acne :-)). The interesting thing is watching her move in rhythm with the sound of the breeze. I'm not sure my drawing has done her perfect justice but I think I've caught the essence.

Changing topic here, I'll have a new computer by Friday. Jerry bought a new Mac Book last year while I took over our by then 5 year old G4 Power Book. Now it's 6, the newish battery only keeps it running for half an hour at most so I've kept a separate power cord plugged in at my end of the couch. Recently it started burning through the power cords. ooops. Buying another Mac Book would have been easier and cheaper but I hate the high flash, glossy plastic screens. It turned out the new Power Macs all have glossy glass screens and I was very disappointed and, apparently, not alone once I discovered a number of artists have complained and were recommending refurbished Books from a few years ago - or companies that charge several hundred dollars to replace the screens. Turns out they're a very hot item. damn.

Anyway, unbelievably, after hopping around the Googlesphere for a couple of weeks I read in a blog that as of August if you order a 15" Power Mac you can also order a matte screen as a separate configuration for just $50. Apple does not advertise the fact but it turned out to be true. I clicked on 'buy now' and then 'configure'. Hurray! Half way down the list of special odds and ends was the choice of a matte screen. I'm far from being the computer genius my husband is - more of a Luddite if truth were told - but we both see the benefit to having a really good computer as part of our essential household goods. Now I'm looking forward to the multi-fingering touchpad and learning how to right click without a separate bar. It should be interesting but one thing I do know I'll enjoy is being able to look at high level visual blogs again.

If I haven't been by lately, I will be soon.

a maniac in the house

There's a great deal to be said for the idea that communication technologies lead to enslavement. Once such far reaching media becomes electronically viral it's very difficult to maintain individual freedom. For the past 60 years just about every American family has been sharing their living space with a maniac known as television which has corrupted the language of common discourse. I mean how is a person supposed to react to a headline like the one I read a few weeks ago that said 'Organic Food is No Healthier Than Conventional'? When exactly did it happen that chemically produced factory food became the norm and organic food became unusual? We all know how much worse it's become when we're subjected daily to Orwellian concepts that leave our heads spinning. War is peace in Afganistan and Iraq, torture has been rationalized, national health care is dangerous, the super rich are benevolent and care about you, banks can't afford to lend money, the stock market gained 3000 points so what are you complaining about? It goes on and on.

The thing is you don't have to watch television to be affected by it because everywhere you go you're surrounded by people who've been accommodating this crazy uncle for several generations. They talk about characters they listen to more closely than they listened to their father or teachers and even if much of the time it's with disdain for celebrity gossip they still know all the dirt and are more interested in it than how it is that 3000 points on the Dow mentioned earlier was paid for out of our own taxes and those of future generations. A trillion is one thousand billion and so far the banking industry has been bailed out to the tune of three trillion and still counting. The idea of instituting national health care is a cruel joke being fought out in the media under the guise of rational argument with the brain washed, ignorant and hate addled downtrodden part of our society. I can't tell you how many former fiscal conservatives I've had to find public assistance for at my job. They had a career and health insurance, then got sick with a possibly terminal disease, lost both the job and the benefits accrued and now need public assistance they voted against all their working lives. Such things are beyond sad - they're criminal.

The novel 1984 presented a number of symbolic words, phrases and concepts that have become common parlance but the less well remembered novelist and social commentator from the last century was Aldous Huxley whose novel Brave New World described in satire a perfected humanity where everyone is fed their daily dose of Soma. 75 years later just how close have we come to the society of vapid consumers, idle pleasure-seekers, inner-space trippers and programmed conformists that it presents? Meaning has been eliminated and the populace has embraced its own intellectual dismemberment.

I have no doubt there are a few uplifting things to be watched on television but overall, it's like watching a giant lightbulb and you know what happens to insects who get seduced by a flame. Lastly, it's occurred to me that high intelligence is far from being a valued commodity in society at large. If you're very intelligent you're much less likely to follow the political strictures that make the larger culture amenable to control. Smart people are trouble makers.

Okay, that's the end rant from the August of my discontent. I promise to be more positive next month and will let Crow grumble now and again when he returns from his summer excursion.

set your own limit

A funny thing happened on the way to paint a soft and gentle image of a dancer looking out a window on a summer's day. The dancer is here but what the heck is that outside the 'window'? I have a habit of drawing images and sylvan scenes but before I know it a rage for color comes tumbling in without my having intended such a thing. Then again, we may think we have good intentions but our deeper selves have plans and designs all their own. Art is all about freedom within the limiting context of whatever medium of expression is currently available and of course, reasonably understood. If you can't find the chords on a piano you may as well not try to play that sonata you heard in your dreams for your friends this afternoon.

I tend to take out my anger and frustration in bursts of unlikely color combinations - or at least that's the way I'll see them once they're underway. I get curious about what will happen next . This piece happened because I had a piece of heavy silk that was wide but only a bit more than a foot long and I wondered what I could do if I cut some of it into smaller chunks and started painting. It turned into a reversible pouch of about 6x6" or a lined twelve inch long silk painting. It has ties for wearing around the waist, or over the shoulder, or just to hang on the wall with something precious inside. It was a spontaneous project resulting in something I actually like.


I love making things I imagine seeing and that's what encourages me to get up every day. Intention is an important element in keeping ourselves healthy and emotionally sound. I prefer not talking to doctors unless they're paying me. I don't see a list of medications as a sign of maturity. The best doctor I ever knew was the one who liked hanging out with me in his office smoking cigarettes, drinking thick black coffee and discussing philosophy. I always felt better after seeing him but they don't make them like that anymore. Instead we get the vocabulary that shapes the medical world and the often defeatist ways we define our physical health. No wonder people get old and weak in a culture that worships the fleeting attributes of youth and beauty.

We're physical beings who sometimes need treatment beyond our own abilities but getting older is not a diagnosis for imminent demise. If you have a problem and I've had a few - chicken pox at 42, a stone in my salivary gland (damn thing looked like a tiny dog bone), the avm-aneurysm and more - I've never given in to becoming a 'patient' since I refuse to allow myself to be labeled. After sickness comes cure.


Whether it's bad temper or the need to see the humor in every situation I can hardly wait to get on with the next project. There's another window and another view in the works right now.

water works

It's been a week since there was a new post up here but I'll have you know I haven't been away sunning myself and drinking margaritas on some faraway beach - which would have been fun if I had the money. Instead, I've been painting more silk bits and turning them into little pouches and bags. These are two new ones I'm not especially delighted with but at least it's a new piece of artwork to show you while I work on something a bit more in depth (pun intended).


(duck not to scale - or surprised fish either)

I've also been indulging in reading and thinking again even though I understand that's not necessarily the modern American way. I realized that not all big ideas are are bad ones if they're logical and relatively inexpensive solutions to local problems. As we move toward a general awareness of how our actions now affect the future well-being of the planet we'll see more innovative solutions like this one the Japanese have come up with for fighting pollution in some of their canals and small waterways. Floating solar powered water processing plants deployed in Osaka's Dotonbori canal remove pollutants from 2,400 gallons of water a day, sucking in the bad water through the bottom and shooting the clean water out the top like a fountain. Not only is the fountain pretty in it's own bizarre UFOish way but the water spray cools down the solar panels, increasing efficiency.



The Japanese have already provided us with robots that cook dinner, rice cakes, fuel efficient cars, Samurai warriors and Godzilla so perhaps their solution to the problem of inefficient toilets isn't so farfetched as you might first think. Low flush toilets are still part of the technological dark ages and we all want to stay up to date, don't we? Besides, it could get awfully messy in the woods if we return to the natural way. Might even put us off our evening stroll.

mr. pup goes om

His friends have always treated him well, but he's an old dog now and a bit tired, so he's retired to his favorite spot to prepare for his last trip. This time he won't be walking; he'll be riding in style.

As a good friend of mine said recently, 'Om is where the kibble is.'










This is the latest of the silk bags - 7x9", painted, steamed, quilted with a few beads for extra sparkle, a pair of 30" ties and finally all stitched together today. I thought it would be fun to try something a bit different and cartoony and so it was but for getting slowed down by weather too hot for doing much of anything. Please try a close-up look and tell me what you think.

btw: Here's the best poster I've seen recently that describe my feelings about our current leadership from one of my favorite magazines - Adbusters.




'It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.'

J. Krishnamurti

you were gone?

Apologies for not having been around much this past week but I had a little project that turned difficult right from the beginning. It's done now so I thought I'd show you what developed when I decided to make a bigger bag (7x9").


This is the front.

















This is the back.





















And this is the inside.




Why was it difficult? First it was a piece of silk that really didn't want to be painted black. All the other colors were okay but you'll likely notice black was an important element and after overpainting and drying the top three times I finally took it off the stretcher and painted the back. That worked. Then there was some difficulty in me imagining how it could be sewed for best effect without just plain sewing up the sides by hand. Once I could no longer see straight I asked my clear headed husband for help and he immediately saw what I was missing. Thank goodness for numb.

It has stitched in loops at the sides and two 36" long ties so it can be worn across the body or tied at the waist. I've never thought most belly bags very attractive but this is a cool idea. I think I'll work on a couple more til I get it just right but meanwhile I'll be back to posting and visiting as usual. Sometimes you just have to work out a problem so you can relax again.

I hope you missed me :-)

Now I just have to figure out how to get i-photo to finish three pictures taken in succession to all have the same colored background which is olive green...

2 etz or not 2 etz?

Typical for me is being in two minds about a simple thing. In this case it's whether or not to attempt selling some of the silk bags at that huge web based market known as etsy.com.

I've been painting and sewing more of them recently. There still aren't a lot because each one takes some doing (as I've described before) but I see advantages and their opposite. Since the ladies themselves have little help to offer, in fact they don't seem to care, I thought I'd ask your opinion.





1. It's a bad time to hope for buyers of unnecessary fripperies.
2. It would boost my income with the loss of same that retirement will entail.
3. Is $60-$75 an unreasonable price for a 3"x5" wearable artwork?
4. How can I put a price on anything?
5. Do I write a story for each one?
6. Are 6 too few and 20 too many? (Now there are 6.)

A few weeks ago I established a 'store' spot and opened a PayPal account. I'm painting some larger bags (7"x9") which will be quilted, maybe beaded but definitely more substantial than the little ones. I'll post pictures as they're done.

Turning the blog into a commercial enterprise just isn't going to happen and you're always so supportive it's probably silly of me to ask for an honest opinion but that's what I'm doing. 2 etz or not 2 etz, that is the question. A little real world store run by some nice people may still be in my future.

as april whispered to june

.. May Be (I love that line)

Not that I don't read a lot but sometimes I go all non-verbal. Although you'd never guess it by looking at me I'm intoxicated by color and here are a couple of new examples of my personal peculiarity. Sometimes I wonder if I'm painting portraits of disembodied spirits since each and every one of them arrives with a way of seeing the world and occasionally, if I listen closely enough, something to say. Of course, this may also have something to do with what the artist has been reading..


this is sophia:

I think it will take at least a thousand years to attain socioecological metamorphosis on this planet - and we may not have that much time; the current civilization certainly doesn't. Secular human activity occurs on a stage so far removed from its unconscious source that we can't know whether present awful events portend a coming quantum leap or total catastrophe.


Yet conscious acts aren't a measure of real consciousness; they're the outcome of all that's working through the unconscious. They notify the psyche, not men and women who really don't get it, but the psyche that always gets it and is always capable of sudden radical shifts. Truly screwed up behavior, whether participated in or simply witnessed, has a way of blowing out the accumulated garbage.

We can all envisage trite, simplistic ideas about how everything could improve (if only so and so would stop doing whatever) but we need to start getting radical (yes, it could be fun) because the tidal wave of change will come. In full understanding our utopian visions can only be part of a larger whole we must be willing to dare to think about alternatives.



kazu:

I only know those people I've met, the ones I see daily and those I remember. I know people who've taught me things I needed to know whether I felt like learning those things or not.
















I know the people I've shared thoughts with including all of you I've met here on teh internets. We may not know one another well but we share some beliefs and interests.. sense of humor too.














I neither know nor believe in people I haven't met - the ones who exist in the news. At an existential level I know they're there but for me it's only hearsay. I know them no better than I know Mt. Everest. To know a person or a place you have to experience them yourself.


But I do like this. Sometimes all you can do is laugh :-)

when work is fun

The new sewing machine arrived last weekend allowing me to finish the scarves I'd been painting in the meanwhile. It's so smooth the next thing I did was go shopping for fabric to make myself some new clothes.. just a few things that will allow me to not have to wear more when I go outside in summer than I do on the average winter day. I'm not so shy as all that but I have become more prudent as I've aged about what's showing when I'm in public. Short skirts require I wear stockings and see through ones mean wearing a slip. Skirts with no waistbands sitting near my navel tend to swing around backwards or sideways whenever I walk and I don't like that. Neither do I like the short skirts that are too short and long ones that are too long. I'm pretty much average in height among the women I know and a 35" long skirt comes close to dragging on the ground and is certain to get caught under the wheels of my chair at work. I've missed serious injury or accidental disrobing more than once while scooting across my office.

Long ago I got a summer job as a model in a bridal/evening gown shop in Toronto. At 5'4" I was too short for runway work and was smaller than the size 8 required for catalog/magazine work. Even though it was flattering to be considered attractive enough to get dressed up for customers, my favorite part was spending time with the chief seamstress in the basement workrooms. She was French and had worked with Balenciaga in Paris for many years. She could look at the measurements of someone she'd never seen and make a perfect dress for her. The summer job turned into evenings and weekends for a year while I speed learned couture, enthralled and happy to learn everything that lovely woman was inclined to teach. Even though I'd already learned to sew she made me unafraid of seeing and cutting.

For years afterward I designed and made all my own clothes and some for friends too. I didn't like what was available then and now I can't afford the things of quality I might like to wear. Besides, I hate fashion when it's geared toward 20 year olds. I haven't been that age in nearly 40 years and there's no going back. Now I've learned to paint silk and there's a beautiful little jacket I have in mind as a project but I'll make it first in a less flashy fabric for daily use.

I'll try not to overdo all this but it's nice to rediscover an enthusiasm I thought was gone for good.. and all because of a little sewing machine that can do tricks and runs smooth as silk. Isn't she pretty?

In case you wondered these are the new scarves just finished although I still haven't figured out how to photograph their nearly 9 foot length. I suppose I could go out to the woods and wrap them around trees and bushes but it doesn't sound like fun.

after 42 yrs warranty runs out

No, not me, not yet anyway, but it's a close thing. Instead, it was the sewing machine my parents gave me when I was in highschool. Except for the few years I spent in Europe it went everywhere with me and was the only mechanical device I've ever been able to repair.. but not this time.

The foot pedal has been getting really hot the last few years but my response for that was to stop using the machine while I took a break. My other solution was to sew the early scarves by hand but the hours it took spoiled the fun so after a while I got the machine adjusted for the silks and all has been well until now. I think a spring has broken because no matter what I try the stitches won't loop. There's a line of thread on top and one underneath but they never meet in the middle. I'd take it to be repaired but there's nobody around old enough to know how to fix it or have the parts in stock.

So I shopped for a new one and while I wait for delivery I'll do other things. Did you know they can cost thousands of dollars? If I spent $3k for a sewing machine I'd expect to be able to leave a pile of cloth on the table, close the door and return later to find my new outfit finished and a perfect fit. Damn. The one I chose cost $300, was marked down 50% and has a 25 year warranty but I'm still going to miss the old one. We were attached.

The picture is a close-up of a new scarf with one of my wrist cuffs sitting on top that says 'Quantum Mechanic'. Aren't we all?

(ps - It's not your eyes - they're intradimensional beads that don't like to be photographed.)