bodner015

Once she has mastered one technique and pushed it where she wants it to go Manuela starts another.  Now she is corking to produce straps for her purses.  but, today, she added beads into the mix. As you can see, she has one thread strung with many beads and as she corks she manoeuvres the beads to become embedded evenly throughout the cord. And she can do this while watching tv. Me, I can hardly watch tv. String the beads loosely onto the thread. Determine the spacing of the beads as you cork.

Once Manuela started she just kept on going with making purses.  Note all her embroidery embellishments  -not unlike all those she puts into her "fabric paintings".  Also note the use of the quilted yo-yos -the new technique and addition for her.  The purses are in the 10" x 8" range. These would look great on the shoulders of our granddaughters.

The deadline is fast approaching for the next cottage cartoon for the Lake Cecebe Waterways Association newsletter.  https://www.cecebewaterways.ca   And so to work I went.  Ideas are my biggest issue and so I go through the cottage magazines about the house and websites about cottages.  Something often catches my curiosity and the idea is allowed to percolate awhile. Not too long -I have a deadline. In the studio, and once I have an idea, I make some rough sketches of the main character.  I use the reference books I have to determine the shape of the animal and then work to create a cartoon character from the sketches.  I will do a number of these. Then I add another character if necessary to complement the first and reinforce some attitude or look that I want.  Once the drawing is on its way  I use a table light to trace the drawing.  I check the line flow and spacing, keeping in mind the dialogue bubble that comes later.My lines must all c...

Now Manuela had a plethora of Yo-Yos and began to look at how to use them in her work. As usual she used some of her hand dyed fabric, beading, embroidery, corked threads, found objects and now yo-yos to embellish some of her works. Book covers Purses and bags Now that she has this cache of yo-yos I am sure they will pop up in a variety of ways. I still have't figured out how she can make them so quickly -and watch tv.

Mannie makes many of her art/isan items while watching tv.  Quilting Yo-Yos became the latest endeavour. She started with a square-or a circle -or a hexagon piece of her own dyed material.  Then there is this folding, origami, quilting thing she does. And then, she adds a button, beads or thingamabob to the centre. voila!! Then she adds them to her other creations.  More later.

I had picked up an old headboard and footboard at a garage sale for $3.  Maybe I could use it at the cottage; maybe something else.  I had seen beds into  benches on Pinterst and had made plans to do the same  -some time in the future! I had taken the old bed home, stored it in my workshop and didn't notice it until I was doing a major cleaning recently.  The need to do something with these random project pieces reared its head.  Sometimes it doesn't pay to clean up because, as in my case, I found those project pieces I had intended do and now am doing -all in one time span it seems. Here is what it looks like on the work table.  Notice I have not cleaned it as I have a lot of sanding to do.  I put wood filler everywhere as I like things without gaps and in cutting the footboard in half I had left gaps that could not thoroughly be sanded out at the time. The 3/4 inch oak plywood seat was cut from a piece I had around the workshop.  I cut it a...

I took my wife's idea to teak oil the pew-like bench I had made from an old solid wood door. I painted the teak oil all over the bench -even the painted wood parts.  All the nicks and scrapes were covered and seemed to disappear.  The freshly cut areas still remain lighter but I'll work it out. Now, after letting the teak oil stay on the bench for 12 hours (6-8 recommended) I found that where the teak oil lay on the painted part of the bench it had not penetrated and had become sticky  -not nice.  So, I took a cloth and mineral spirits (varsol) and wiped the bench down with the varsol and then used a clean cloth to wipe away the varsol.  (Need to deal with the varsol smell -help me if you know how.)  Nevertheless, the bench looks pretty good. The bench sits in the garage by the back door.  Our boots fit underneath and make a great place to put the them on.   If you look closely you can see a hinge area and the place where the door knob had been.