Findings Order

April 23rd, 2005

After a day plus of playing with jewelry making — i find myself compelled to place an order, mainly for findings.

50216 S/P Post Earrings Sample Pack, 5 pairs 1 $5.75 $5.75
50194 S/P Oval Drop Posts, 10 1 $5.75 $5.75
50215 G/P Post Earrings Sample Pack, 5 pairs 1 $5.75 $5.75
49076 White B Nymo 1 $0.97 $0.97
49074 White O Nymo 1 $0.97 $0.97
49075 Black B Nymo 1 $0.97 $0.97
49072 Silver Wire, 22g 1 $2.70 $2.70
49073 Black O Nymo 1 $0.97 $0.97
49057 White Silk 1 $1.89 $1.89
49069 Gold Wire, 18g 1 $6.50 $6.50
49070 Silver Wire, 18g 1 $2.70 $2.70
49071 Gold Wire, 22g 1 $6.50 $6.50
49055 Big Eye Needles, 5 1 $4.75 $4.75
24007 Cupids Arrow Collection of Beads 1 $10.95 $10.95
51006 Bead Reamer Set 1 $8.95 $8.95

Buying Art Supplies

April 6th, 2005

http://www.dickblick.com/

Golden discounts are as deep as the member’s discount at MisterArt and they have a good supply of calligraphy nibs. The website is far more comfortable for me, very easy to find stuff.

New brushes & surfaces

April 3rd, 2005

I’d read a guide about brushes (one i cannot find now, but the URLs below are also helpful) and had decided i ought to purchase boar bristle brushes next. I actually have no idea what material my previous bushes have had.

At the Sunnyvale Aaron Brother’s store, i purchased three new brushes, all Princeton brand with navy handles, silver ferrules, and white boar bristle. They were less expensive than some of the other brushes i was inspecting, but they were what i had decided would be useful. (We’ll see.) All at $2.99. The fan is for experimenting; the round to see if with boar’s bristle i find it a more attractive brush. I find myself always turning to the brights.

Fan #6 (2 in wide arc), Bright #4 (3/8″), Round #4 (3/16″ D ferrule)

The bright is very much like the silver handled, silver furruled Artisan (Winsor&Newton) #8 bright i have been using, and just a little shorter than the red handled, silver ferruled Azanta (Winsor&Newton) #4 flat.

I also bought a 3 pack of canvas boards (14×18; $7.49) and a pad of Canson Montval Watercolor paper (15×20; $16.99). I’ll use that water color paper as i have the bristol board. All to encourage me to work larger. (Why??)

I also got a small pad of the Canson Montval watercolor paper (5.5×8.5; $5.29) to use for gouache sketches.

http://www.opusframing.com/library/pdf/choosing_brushes.pdf

http://www.trueart.info/western_brushes.htm

Quick transplanting

March 28th, 2005

The nastrutiums and sunflowers i planted on March 05 along with other seeds have grown large. I’ve moved them into the same planter with the spent narcissus bulbs and budding amaryllis. I’ll need to knock the drainage holes out of that planter sooner or later.

Calligraphic terms

March 24th, 2005

Christine asked me what the looping florishing makes are called when they are under a chapter number (as in the book she was reading).

I don’t know for sure, but i did find this list of terms from Medieval and Early Modern manuscripts: Decoration and Illumination. It appears that they’re called flourishes.

Go figure.

Painting yesterday

March 13th, 2005

Shelter & Pain

This comes close to the sense i hoped to catch again, the small ATC in series JEB-ATC2003.05.01-07 (See the seven oil pastels).

20050312

This is a larger piece. Most of these are on 9 x 12 bristol board. This was on a larger bit of poster board. Thus, no scan but a flash photo with glare.

SWA2005.03 Experiment: Bobby McFerrin

March 10th, 2005

Bobby McFerrin

I’m giving this to Christine, who put on the CD for me while i was painting and who likes it so much she says it’s done.

I’m pleased with the translucency. I looked at some Kadinsky this mmornning and recognize i have cyan and magenta where he has red and blue.

Birthday Surprise

March 6th, 2005

I’ve been thinking about it, even though work keeps me from acting on it — Christine gave me a FLAX gift certificate to purchase a canvas for above the fireplace and a lovely glass palette* as gifts this year.

Tonight i gessoed four sheets of bristol board and a random squaker of poster board. Theres another prepared gessoed bristol board lurking about, as well. No excuses for not painting after work! I can put the circular palette… maybe in the old palette lock!

* Paragona Art Products color guide palette (TM) with the strange warning: “Clean after each use: if broken with dried paint, glass will break in larger pieces.” Aren’t larger pieces of broken glass better than smaller? [Item number 1212CG]

Studies for DL

March 6th, 2005

DL responded so enthusiasticaly to my studies SWA2005.01 , a study of depth, and SWA2005.02, a study of waves, I’ve sent them off to her. See my 2005-02-17 post for more about them.

Study of Depth Study of Waves

Golden acrylics on bristol board prepared with liquitex gesso.

Spring planting

March 5th, 2005

Because of my distrust of the SuperSoil (TM) i bought last year, i decided to switch the my planting plans around: twenty peat pellets and nine little peat tubs.

The peat tubs are filled with a mixture of my compost and the supersoil. The peat pellets are from Gardener’s Delight. I think the peat tubs were the same brand.

On to planting notes!

basil [1] basil calendula, lt [2] calendula, dk
sunflower dill statice statice
ancho (3) ancho (3) sunflower celosia
ancho (3) nasturtium (2) coleus (3) coleus (3)
nasturtium (2) catnip cleome marigold (4)

[1] I think it’s too cold for basil, but giving it a try, anyhow.
[2] i separated the calendula seeds into light & dark seeds. I don’t know if that means one plant with darker flowers than the other — but let’s find out!

In the ginger planter, i added seeds for dill & cleome. I sprinkled with hot pepper to discourage squirrels.