Finished projects, in the "Jewelry Inspired by Palimpsest" category

I tried to make these visually interesting in their own right even if you're not familiar enough with the book to know what they're alluding to... did I succeed?

Casimira earrings:





A more abstract November pendant:



(these are available at the etsy shop)

Pasta machine printing

I had the idea to use my pasta machine (which I've previously used for rolling out polymer clay) as a printing press. Ink a thin plate with a raised design, place it on top of a sheet of paper, and roll it through. If you click on the image above, you can see a sort of haphazard step-by-step sequence of the process I used. I'm fairly happy with this technique, although the rollers on my machine seem to not be exactly parallel. I may investigate alternate press approximations. (Maybe a vise would work? And a vise would be a useful thing to have around anyway for other crafts...)

I recently read Palimpsest and have a bunch of crafty ideas in my head because of it. It's a great book with lots of rich, visual language and interesting characters.

a horizontal surface of one's own

This weekend Susannah and I rearranged a bunch of stuff in the house so that I could have a corner of the living room as a crafting area! It is so amazingly awesome. Since the above picture was taken, I also brought out my stacking drawers that I've been using for my yarn stash; I need to weed through it so that only yarn I actually care about is in the drawers.

I also made a mixed-media painting! The media are acrylic paint and silver wires.



I am pretty happy with the technical side of things on this painting, though I'm still mulling over whether I like the final composition or not.