I am a bit lacking for artistic inspiration after completing my latest big project so I am opening up trades and commissions for just about any sort of thing that I do: leather work, bead work, felted creatures, leather pouches, etc.

Either post here or note me if you are interested.

Finally got a diagnosis of the persistent hacking cough I have had since the last week of February. I caught Whooping Cough, which is particularly strange to me because I had gotten the Whooping Cough vaccine when I got my last Tetanus shot about 10 years ago.

It is a miserable thing to have, coughing is tiring. And, of course, there is all the Covid 19 worries induced dirty looks I get when I start coughing in public.

And then , just to make things even more "interesting", an eight point buck decided to jump out in front of my car on the way home around 2:00 am on Election Day. Asurea was driving, both of us are fine, my airbag went off but his didn't so he was able to steer us to the side of the road safely.

I did find a new car since mine was "totalled", which wasn't a huge surprise.

That is what has been going on in my corner of the world lately.

I am considering putting together a book of patterns for the various leather creatures and pouches that I make that would allow people to make their own versions of them.

I am curious if that would be something people would be interested in. The book would also include pictures of various parts at different stages of progress, as well as tips and tricks for leather working.

If there is interest, I will also explore translating the leather patterns into fabric patterns since I know fabric is a more common material for these sorts of things than leather.

Adoptables?
Would anyone be interested if I did adoptables of my Sorki and Steelwing creatures?

Examples of the Sorki
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11622204/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11671119/

Examples of Steelwings
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11670976/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11622379/

They would be like $5 a piece.

Also I am open for trades and commissions. Note me if you are interested.

I haven't been much for dealing with the internet lately...or any other sort of technology, come to think of it. Between it being the crazy season at work and having to deal with a visit from Asurea's mother, I have been pretty busy. I am going to make an effort to get more finished projects posted in the next few weeks, now that things are finally calming down.

Stay safe out there, things are going to be "interesting" this weekend.

I suppose this is more of a place holder till I can really sit down and type something up. The big reason I haven't been able to post much of anything lately is that in March I had a dental abscess that required some pretty strong antibiotic to deal with (along with dental surgery to get thd infected tooth ultimately removed). The antibiotics did something truly horrid to my stomach so I spent much of April and May trying to make the constant vomiting stop. Thankfully, after many tests the GI doctor was able to prescribe me something that is keeping my stomach in check. June was spent dealing with getting back to a more normal routine and way of life.

Or "Why I haven't updated my gallery in ages"

I have been on a leather kick lately. Somehow, my plan to redo my shoulder piece/"saddle" that allows me to carry Imar'i (my green and black Night Fury http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16523699/) to ride on my shoulder for events has snowballed into an entire costume.

The leather wolf mask is also part of it ( http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20646759/ )(...though that piece has morphed into a very complicated head piece involving a fabric back piece with pony bead ornament. It has slowly become a supply nightmare, since I am using the 4mm pony beads instead of the more universally available 6mm pony beads (which are the sort most people think of when they think Pony Beads), since getting red beads in this size is a right royal pain the rump. They only appear to come in the mix color bags. (though I did finally find bags of just red on eBay). Thankfully black beads come in single color bags, which has made my life a lot easier.

So I have a lot of other color Pony beads that I really should come up with something to do with. So far, one of my plans is to make a couple of parade collars, one using the pastel pink, purple and blue in a diamond pattern and one American Flag pattern collar and put them up on Etsy. I will post pictures of those here too when they are done.

The biggest part of the costume though, time wise, is the gloves. It started as just a pair of wrist guards, then it morphed into overhand gauntlets and finally into full claw gloves. 28 intricate little pieces of leather later (3 pieces per finger x 8 fingers + 2 pieces per thumb x 2 thumbs) I am slowly working my way towards completing this monster of a project. The gloves also include sheet steel claws, cut from the same sheet of metal that the mask teeth are cut from.

As of this moment, I have all of the claws put together and two fingers (index and pinkie fingers) and thumb attached to one of the gauntlets. The great mistake I made with this project was that, due to some serious lapse in judgement, said gauntlet is for the right hand...I am right handed so fitting it together has been difficult. Usually I make the pieces for the left hand first and add a bit to make up for the slight difference in hand size. (Anyone who tells you that the right and left hand are the same size has never tried to make gloves) Since these gloves are made of leather, instead of my previous glove construction method using wire wrap rings, I can adjust the size of each separate piece rather easily using beads as spacers for where the pieces join. Each leather piece is flat and is turned into a ring by joining the ends, so beads work very well as spacers to adjust the size. Unlike my previous glove projects, I am quite intent that these gloves will be comfortable for long time wear, like for a convention or Ren Faire, instead of just marginally comfortable like my wire gloves tended to be (or as my mate so nicely described them, as "tetanus shots waiting to happen")


Other than the value of glue, I must say I haven't had to do much "engineering" on this project...and that is a bit annoying. Usually big projects like this result in some amount of experimenting and learning. This is much more of a "here is everything I have learned about working leather" project, which I suppose has its own merits.

So that is why I haven't been posting much, this project has been eating up my time.

Edit: After my art-ing day yesterday, I discovered I was very much wrong about the lack-oh-experimenting involved in this project. A better way to describe my experience with this project and the learning curve/experimentation related to it is as follows.

In terms of the actual "how things go together", yes, I have that down and could probably do it in my sleep...correction, functionally I suppose I have done that, where I am literally too mentally and physically exhausted to do anything that require real thinking (most weekends) but I could still stitch the leather pieces (still needed to keep my hands moving or I would be absently chewing on my nails...I have ADD). I could even do the edge stitching when not medicated (thus extremely fuzz-skulled) in between naps during a Sleep Study and Nap Test.

In terms of figuring how the gloves actually go together...human hands are complicated things and making articulated gloves is definitely a learning process. This applies to both figuring out the spacing for the finger pieces and attaching the finger pieces to the gloves. Unlike the other pieces of this project, which have in 5 and 10 minute intervals as thing-to-keep-my-hands-busy-so-I-don't-chew-on-my-nails-while-walking-at-work projects, fitting the fingers to the hand pieces is definitely a weekend sort of project. Lots of fussing and fiddling and re-doing to get the fingers to fit just right to create a glove.

WIP of the gloves. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21314666/

I am hoping to finish one this weekend, spend whatever time I have this week on the headpiece and put the second glove together next weekend...we shall see how well that plan goes.

Would anyone be interested in a commission or art trade? Beading, leather, felting, anything.

I must admit I might be a bit pickier about trades, at least if it would be super materials intensive. Or I would be interested in trading materials, particularly leather, for art, now that I think about it.

Between the mildly soul crushing work drama and the equally crushing mental exhaustion of my weird new work schedule, my muse is being cranky so an art trade or commission would help (hopefully) to get my creativity going.

If anyone is interested in what sort of insanity is going on at work, note me. It is way too complicated to be trying to type out on my phone.

It is a very neat idea and is a great reason to get out and walk around. I have had lots of fun going out and hunting Pokemon around my town and meeting people in the process. While I will admit that I am still terrible at throwing Pokeballs, I have had a lot of luck catching some really interesting Pokemon (though I continue to wonder why there are Tauros in my apartment on a regular basis). I am also lucky enough to have a Pokestop at the guard station at work...so my lunch plans are to put out a lure at the stop during my lunch break, now that I have a lure or two.

Only complaint, it doesn't do good things to my phone battery.

Not really sure why I feel like writing this but...

Lately people at work and elsewhere have been asking why I don't sell leather work. I suppose the honest answer would be that I don't expect anyone would pay for even half the time it takes.

For starters I use wire instead of thread so I have to do it all by hand. On the upside, wire is very durable and the look it creates is really spectacular, it adds a nice shine to a piece. Wire is much less painful to me to work with than thread or ribbon. Thread or ribbon can tangle in ways that can't be untangles, wire doesn't do that. Wire also lends itself to putting beads onto a piece of leather work, which is another level of ornamentation and allows for some very interesting detail work. Working with wire does have some downside. Any time I have to put more than one piece of wire through a hole, it all but guarantees that I will have to re-punch the hole to get the wire through. Leather has a strange habit of "self healing", which makes it necessary to do a fair bit of repunching. This is why I end up creating things like this http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18687141/ to help with the repunching issue. I would still rather use wire than any sort of thread or ribbon...using a needle doesn't really help with the re-punching issue. I have broken many a needle trying to stitching with thread or ribbon on a piece of leather.

One trick I have learned that makes some of the more complicated stitching a bit easier is to use glue. Glue makes it possible to do the really complicated designs like on the front of some of the bags, particularly this one http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20486646/ since it keeps the small things in place until I can get it stitched. I never rely only on glue for anything, everything is stitched but a glued piece will stay where it is put while I am punching it (when unglued things love to move) and stitching it.

The other great thing about glue is that it can keep the "self healing" on the initial punch work from being a problem when the back side of the leather has been liberally coated in glue and left to dry. It makes the first stitch line easier, particularly when the stitching isn't edge to edge. It does not help when multiple bits of wire has to go through the same hole but any help, any trick, is very useful.

So there you go, why I don't sell my leather work right now and why, if you commission me, it will definitely cost...but what you get is nearly indestructible.

For anyone who doesn't know, I have a thing about technology. I trust it about as far as I can throw it and no further.

The idea that my laptop would suddenly decide to "upgrade" itself to Windows 10, despite me turning down said "upgrade" for months, is a bit creepy. Thankfully my mate will be able to un-upgrade it without any worries but still. My laptop was built for Windows 7, though it apparently meets the minimum for Windows 10....which to me means it should never ever run Windows 10.

Seriously, having no way to stop the "upgrade" once it starts is utter and complete BS. I usually haven't had any bones to pick with Microsoft but this might be enough to change my mind.

Microsoft really needs to understand that the average user is more than mildly superstitious about their computer (where most of their life is these days) and will freak right the hell out if it suddenly starts an upgrade process they didn't initialize. Sufficed to say not the best of PR moves.

*end of rant*

I am still around, just RL is being a bit all consuming. The last couple of months have been a bit crazy but things are calming down and I am expecting to get a bunch of art photographed and posted soon.

Would anyone be interested if I did adoptables of my Sorki and Steelwing creatures?

Examples of the Sorki
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11622204/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11671119/

Examples of Steelwings
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11670976/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11622379/

Is there any particular felting related thing you would like to see me do as a How To?

But it seems like the universe has got a grudge against the area in which I live. Three weeks ago or so, it was fire and last couple of weeks have been flooding.

My mate and I and our two cats are all safe and sound, thankfully...we seem to be living in the eye of the mess. Last Thursday and Friday, we tried to take some guests to the state capital...only to find the main highway into Austin flooded. Seeing the aftermath of the flooding on the drive to work this week is truly disconcerting.

We still need more rain (it is Texas, we ALWAYS nred rain)...here's hoping that the next round of rain is more like what we used to get in Michigan, and less the monster version of a Texas Gully Washer.

*throws up hands in utter frustration* I have been having a number of strange experiences in the last year and a half or so and I can't decide who or what to believe. This is the Cliffs Notes version of it, if you want the full version, I can note it to you.

So it started last January with a really strange experience driving home. I saw a form, blacker than night, in the form of what looked like an armored vehicle, for a few seconds on the highway I drive every night on the way back from work. It was a very unsettling experience. It took me the rest of the drive home to shake off the fright, even with my favorite songs playing (Sabaton's Ghost Division and E Nomine's Black Sun - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFROltjS7Ws) Of course my mate saw nothing but he did feel me starting to decelerate like I would to pass a slower moving vehicle and then a massive increase in speed as I had a feeling of "I must get home" wash over me.

Then there was all the insanity chronicled in one of my previous journals. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5657729/

The next incident involved my tools disappearing because I didn't want to put an ornament on my cellphone case. I don't remember exactly when this was. I am thinking it was March or early April. On top of my disinclination to put any sort of ornament on a piece that I show to mundanes in order to avoid questions), the symbol my muse wanted...wasn't exactly the most warm and fuzzy thing. I was looking for a CD of a favorite song, E Nomine's Black Sun, on eBay when I came across a medallion of the Black Sun symbol (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sun_(occult_symbol)). My muse decided that that would look so very good on my cellphone...even though I wasn't too keen on the idea. After a half a night of work, I had to take my mate home due to being sick. This gave me a chance to work on my new cellphone case. Sufficed to say, my muse didn't stop insisting on the medallion as an ornament on my cellphone case and my refusal to include it. After about an hour, my awls started to disappear. I searched EVERYWHERE for them. I finally went "okay fine, you win, I will order the dang thing" and my tools reappeared in a pocket of my bag I know I had checked at least 5 times. One awl, the one best used for the less precise work reappeared that night, the fine work awl reappeared the next day in the exact same bag pocket.

After that, something managed to make my headphones disappear. It was one of those days, I was in a very strange mood. I had downloaded a new WW2 book, written by a former Panzer commander but I wasn't that interested in listening to it that day. About the time that the authors narrative started to talk about the beginning of WW2, I decided I was done listening to that book for the night. I decided I needed an extra jacket (work is chronically cold) and I went down to my car. I pulled my ear phones out of my phone and stuffed them into my pocket. I seem to remember growling something about "I think I will listen to Raising the Hunley instead" under my breath. I go down to my car and then go back to my desk. I reach into my pocket and my headphones aren't there. So I rewalk the path I took to my car and back. Where I work, if you drop something, it will be there till whenever the janitorial staff gets around to sweeping that area, which could be several days. However, I didn't end up finding my headphones. I finally pointed out to the universe that I can't listen to the book without headphones and a pair finally appeared. Not the pair I lost, oddly enough. I must admit I did enjoy the part of the book I listened to that night. It confirmed my very high opinion of Erwin Rommel.

Then I was touched on the shoulder by an unseen hand, twice. The first time was at work and I saw a strange shadow on my way out the door that night. It wasn't a frightening hand, not cold or a hard grip, just a gentle "I am here." I must admit I was stressed, that season of work had been pretty drama ridden so I suppose something decided I needed a friendly hand on the shoulder.

The second time was right after a truly frightening incident involving one of my friend's horses. Her horse, Lion Queen, had been sick for a couple of weeks, one weekend we thought she was getting better but I found her lying down, breathing hard and looking very sick. She ended up dying that night. The night felt threatening, like it had the night that another of my friend's horses freaked out and nearly killed himself from fright. The place I used to ride at (we had to leave due to drama) is a living history museum property. During the day, it was very inviting, at night, it could become frightening quickly.

A couple of days after that, I was at my parents house watching TV (I was laid off at the time and I would drop off my mate at work and then go to my parents house to work on things). I was watching something on the Military History Channel on Patton when a bit of footage of Erwin Rommel came on the screen. At that moment, I felt a hand on my left shoulder, the same sort of no-threatening hand that I had felt at work. I was sitting with my back up against a wall. Given that I was still scared after Lion Queen's death, this was particularly strange. I was in "shields up" mode.

I think that was the last real incident last year. This year is has just been a couple of strange lights on the highway, nothing really frightening or obvious...until I have started having issues with my music player developing a sense of humor. Skipping songs that it has no technological reason to skip, repeating one particular song (Sabaton's Heart of Iron...which was the first song it decided to repeat of it's own accord) and (more rarely) E Nomine's Black Sun), playing music appropriate to the book I was listening to while I was trying to listen to Audible (Sabaton's Counterstrike over Six Days of War: 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East). My mate, use usually handles the technology, has no idea what is going on. It took me explaining this problem in great detail for him to understand why it was bothering me so much, he said he understood why it was bothering me, that there is a pattern.

The problem comes in that I have a number of friends and acquaintances that all seem to have an opinion on the matter. The bulk of them, plus my mate, don't seem to find any of this terribly threatening, with the exception of one of my co-workers who has some experience with the supernatural. She seems to think that whatever it is is actually bad for me, has been attached to me since I was very small and needs to go away. She gave me several spells to help with this. The problem is that, if the dark thing attached to me that is, supposedly, effecting my health is that powerful, a couple of from the internet random pagan banishing spells probably isn't going to do anything. I also don't like the whole "you have already found what you are looking for but I can't tell you what that is" line she has adopted in relation to my chronically looping back to my books on the North African campaign. She has also told me stories that are either utter nonsense or a sign of something being very wrong, with food and other things disappearing and reappearing at her house. The only things I know of that can do that is demons or devils. The only things I have read that can do that are evil things too. I almost wonder if the entity that is supposedly talking to her and telling her things doesn't like me and wants to jerk me around. All my instincts tell me that the entity that enjoys talking history and strategy with me isn't harmful but she says it is. I am also less inclined to believe her because I had a Tarot reading done by an outsider, that showed that my health problems were a physical matter, not a supernatural matter.

So, what do you all think? I am out of ideas.

Next weekend is DragonCon so I am in full travel-tizzy mode. At least my mate got us new, really nice, hard case luggage for our trip. The old luggage is still in good enough shape to be used for moving clothing when we finally get a house but not much else. I have done a bunch of pre-shopping looking at all the artists and dealers at DragonCon using their website and am very glad to be going with plenty of extra luggage space. I also went out and found the right size Really Useful Boxes (I am not usually a big "it must be the name brand" person but in this case...nothing matches the brand name Really Useful Boxes in all the important matter of durability)

Yesterday, meanwhile, I finally bought a new car. My old Honda was a 2008, which had a very nasty little gremlin in the engine that had it burning oil since it rolled off the production line. I really liked my old car but it was just too much of a risk, having hit 120,000 miles, to be driving it with that gremlin. Since I got it with 60,000 miles (give or take) on the odometer, I had no idea if I was risking the engine seizing or doing something equally dangerous (blowing up) some time on my 28 mile long commute during which, for the bulk of it, the flow of traffic is 75 to 80 MPH. As much as I would have preferred to just keep my car, 120,000 miles on the odometer or not, but the risk was just too nagging.

So, after much debating and researching, I went out and bought a new car. A silver 2015 V6 Honda Accord. It is my first truly new car. 93 miles on the odometer when I got it. The experience was a bit overwhelming since it was the first time I have bought a new car. It also didn't help that my father, my family's resident car expert, was along for the test drives. He is also driving professionally right now...which probably wasn't helpful. I am a good driver, he taught me how to drive so I drive like he does (i.e. I am not a classic "female driver") but dang it, he is a horrid passenger and back seat driver. I give as good as I get when it comes to such things but it still wasn't helpful. My mate, who also came along, knows better. After an incident in which I was flooring it to get away from an idiot (my policy - put the idiot at least two miles behind you before ceasing the "bat out of Hell" routine) and he made a comment about me driving a bit fast ("you aren't charging the flank"...a rather annoying reference to the song we were listening to at the time, one of my favorite highway songs, Sabaton's "Ghost Division"), he got his ears ripped about back seat driving in my car. My father, on the other hand, might only be silent if I shoved a sock in his mouth.

The dealership itself was extremely busy which never does anything good for my nerves. Once I decided what car I wanted, the dickering began. That was the worst part for me...even though I sat it out and let my father do it. We ended up getting a pretty good deal on the car. Then my parents left...and the horde of paperwork began. The sales person was very nice and put up with all my father's impatient behavior earlier on but he was a bit scattered with the paperwork. I think that that was a problem of the dealership though, since no one has a permanent desk and thus can't keep the paperwork in the desk (unlike the fiance people who get their own offices with large desks). It all went pretty smoothly, I also found it amusing that he recognized the origins of my coat. I wear a long coat from Uzbekistan to keep me warm inside, since Texans LOVE their AC. So we had a minor digression about that and trading a few stories about international travel and our preferred "how not to get pick pocketed" methods.

When all the paperwork was done, we finally got to go out to the car and the sales person walked me through all the technology in the car, including the navigation system. I really didn't want any of it, I am a big "cars are for driving" person but, as my father pointed out earlier that day, having the tech in the car will make it worth more on sale (in 10 years or so if I get my way). My mate had some fun though, since he is the one who will be handling that thing. We call it "Passengering", the act of being an active passenger, duties include navigation, music and cell phone handling.

Then he walked me through using the back up camera and the other cameras on the car. The back up camera is going to be super handy downtown. Then we took some photos and headed out. My mate then decided that he wanted to go to one of our favorite restaurants, which was fine by me. After dinner, we headed home. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Night Mode on the console that turns off all the screens which is a really big deal for me. I hate any source of light other than my headlights when driving at night.

So that is one huge source of stress off my to-do list. Next up, DragonCon.

I am wondering if any of you all use Google Music and have encountered either it randomly repeating or skipping a song.

My mate is usually good about solving these sorts of problems but we are both stumped...and unsolved techno-mysteries drive me nuts.

It is particularly disconcerting since it seems to only misbehave with certain songs. Given some of my experiences with strange things over the last year, I am not sure if it is a technical issue or something else. I might or might not write up a post about ithat if anyone would be interested.

So, at some point in the last couple of weeks, I went and said something I shouldn't have and now my mate and I are planning a trip to DragonCon. The timing is perfect to get a much needed trip to Atlanta out of the way and be able to go to DragonCon at the same time.


Thus I am opening up commissions, particularly felted critters. PM me if you are interested.
Night Furies are usually $40 unless you want something bigger than 18 inches in length.
I am going to try to make a Night Terror from the Netflix How To Train Your Dragon series. I would offer a discount on that if anyone was interested since I haven't made one yet and am not sure of the results.
Tigers, wolves, panda bears would be $20.

Shipping isn't included. Night Furies are easy enough to stuff into a small Priority box, the more solid beasties would be $10.

To all you yarn tail makers out there, I want your discard fluff (assuming you don't use wool). From the videos I have seen of how to make a yarn tail, I am guessing you all have plenty of fluff lying about. I am forever in need of fluff for core making and am tired of using fluff from yarns I bought specifically for a project. It seems wasteful. I know that most all yarn tails are made using acrylic yarns which is perfect for my work.

I am offering to buy fluff, $5 per 1 Gallon Zip-Top baggy stuffed with fluff plus I will cover shipping. It's a way to make money on something you would otherwise throw away. It's good for your pocket book, good for the environment and good for me.

Update 1 (I expect to be adding to this for a while as I experiment more with different materials).

85% Bamboo 15% Silk-
Pros
- very soft
- easy to make fluff out of
- neat texture
- shiny

Cons
- Requires more stabbing than any other material I have worked with
- cost - this is the most expensive yarn I have used, $6 a not-very-big skein, 130 yards according to the package (as opposed to acrylic yarn which tends to run in $3 range)
- slippery, which makes it hard to felt

Other Information

I decided to see what would happen if I used yarn or other fabrics as part of my felting projects. Fabric of various descriptions (read raiding my mother's scrap bin) is very helpful for making the softer bodies, as you can wrap stuffing in it and it will keep the stuffing material from felting when you felt a skin on (mostly). Since so many of my projects of late has required things like wings, I decided to try to see if there was an easier way, other than making a full yarn core...particularly after making those huge wings on my big felted Night Fury plush. So far, I have used it to make a facial frill and the tail pieces for a second, smaller Night Fury type plush. I am pretty happy with the results. It saves me having to make the core from yarn and needing a piece of foam the size of whatever I am making. Once I get the piece's core cut from the fabric store felt, I can felt on the yarn fluff no problem and don't really need as big a piece of foam to work on it.

I have been experimenting with and have created a method of creating a much more plushie-like felted critter. It is a multi-stage process involving using paper as a space holder that I then remove after felting on a first level of fluff and replace with the strings left over from making fluff from the Lion's Brand Homespun, which includes several strings to hold the yarn together (and this is removed during the process of making it into fluff). It is a pretty brutal looking process since I cut open the main body cavity and removing the paper at one point, stuffing it with the strings that done felt (thus remaining soft despite all the much needed stabbing) and then sewing it shut and applying a couple more layers of fluff, just as I would have with my more usual core design.

I also found that I could felt onto the cotton webbing material I used for my shoulder strap project, (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16007562/) since I have at least 5 yards or so left form the roll I bought for the shoulder strap project. I am thinking of felting ornaments onto a new cloak harness I am making (I wear my cloak on a harness to keep it from choking me every time I sit down and my current one is starting to feel heavy when I wear it) made from the same webbing and wire wrap fittings (16 gauge black annealed steel wire core with 19 gauge black annealed steel wire wrapping).

I also used needle felting with a black acrylic yarn (Red Heart brand, since it is so rough and felts really easily...for acrylic) to patch a hole in the back of the bag, which is cotton canvas and at least 75 years old. I figured I would try felting a patch since it struck me that felting would stop the fraying around the hole in its tracks. I did that 3 months ago and so far, so good.

Foam

On the matter of foam, if you can get it, the egg-crate foam that electronics are shipped is good if you can get it. I particularly like that it comes in large sheets, larger than foam blocks sold for felting. I did find, however, that it can be very flimsy and putting two pieces together so the egg-crate sides interlock makes it infinitely more useful. When I need a very stiff surface for felting, I use the rigid foam that is also used to pack electronics. One of the other things I Like about it is you can take a bunch of little pieces and make a big piece with glue and toothpicks/bamboo skewers. I scrounged a bunch of small pieces from the trash bins at work at one point and with the aid of a bottle of Elmers Glue, some toothpick, bamboo skewers and...my Indian "skull-splitter" knife (I needed a sharp heavy blade to shape some of the pieces and it was easily at hand) to make two very nice blocks perfect for felting on. It should be noted that any sort of foam material will wear out. My current thick foam block (the kind sold for felting specifically) has a nearly collapsed center (the result of my old way of making wings). I am trying to design something that will last longer, I will let you all know how that project goes.


What to do if you get your finger (which you will...more than once)
On a less pleasant and grosser but very serious note, as strange as it sounds, if you poke yourself with a needle make sure to squeeze the spot. You want blood to come out if it is deep enough to make you bleed, since puncture wounds are otherwise a pain to clean out and can get infected very easily. I didn't do this once and ended up with a pimple on the grip surface of my thumb, not pleasant in the least. A few drops of blood coming out is a natural and reliable way to make sure the wound is clean. It is also important to watch out for yarn fibers getting driving to the wound, had that happen a couple of times too, while removing them feels REALLY strange, it is a small price to pay to keep a wound from getting infected. This is definitely one of those crafts you get used to seeing your own blood.

I hope everyone got through this last weekend's worth of weather safe and sounds. That was a heck of a storm. Gods knows we need the rain but that was something else.

I drove through the storm since my mate needed new glasses and it was a holiday and it would have been perfect day to get him new glasses. The driving was interesting...I haven't driven that slow on Texas 71 ever. 35 mph with the E-blinkers on (going slow and they make you more visible). I was worried it would be unsafe to be going that slow until I realized there were a couple of sports cars around me, doing exactly the same thing. When we got to the mall, I let my mate out and went to park the car. When I was getting out of the car, there was a lightening flash and then a thunder clap, so loud and so close, I could hear the lightening sizzling across the sky. It was that close. It also foiled our glasses plans. The mall had started to shut down due to a tornado warning. The eye doctor had gone home. So we walked around the mall for a little bit and then went to my parents house. The storm had moved on by then.

I shot two videos of the previously dry ravine by my parents house.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_WXn45iVHw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgM3PJLqcZk

The scariest part of the whole day was the drive home. Rain requiring the windshield wipers to full and crawling along the road is one thing...horror movie grade fog is quite another. The drive home was a lot of that sucks the light out of everything fog.

Wool and I have never gotten along. It makes me itch like a fiend and in fluff form gets into my eyes and nose and that really doesn't end well, so I have messed around with felting materials other than wool. I thought would share what I have found so far.

Acrylic

Pros -
- Availability, you can get acrylic yarns in just about any craft store or craft
sections of most big box stores
- Cost, acrylic yarns are inexpensive, particularly as compared to wool felting roving
- large range of colors and textures available in acrylic yarns
- can be blended using fingers,
- many yarns require minimal work to turn into fluff (such as Lion Brand Homespun
and just about anything with the word "bulky" in it)

Cons -
- requires lots and lots of stabbing,
- some yarns require breaking into its constituent strands and a carding brush to turn
into fluff

Needles - I like 3.5 inch needles, 30, 36 and 38 gauge as well as 36 and 38 gauge star needles (which only come in 3 inch

needles). I have all of these in my needle collection. I have had good luck with using a 3 needle "pen" as well as using a

single needle, depending on the situation.


Cotton

Pros -
- texture, felted cotton is very soft
- hypo-allergenic
- cotton roving, if you can get it, also felts amazingly well

Cons -
- making cotton fluff takes some time and patience (it requires a carding brush, tn order to create fluff, the cotton yarn must be broken down into separate strands, a large number of strands, from 15 or more 4 strand pieces of yarn or more)
- requires a lot of stabbing (a trick is to use a very easily felted acrylic yarn (such as Red Heart brand) also broken down into its constituent strands and mix the strands into the cotton strands before brushing into fluff.),

Needles - Felting cotton also tends to eat needles in a way that felting acrylic doesn't. I have found that more frequent stops to let the needle cool down helps a lot. Get longer needles, 30, 36 and/or 38 gauge (depending on how fine the cotton fiber is) are all good gauges and having multiple gauges is a good thing. I don't recommend star needles. I also have had better luck with a single needle than a three needle "pen".


Pet Hair

You can felt pet hair.
- Cat hair doesn't require anything to be mixed in but it is usually a good idea to put
it on a yarn core, since cats don't tend to shed enough for a solid animal.

- Dog hair varies. For example, Yellow Lab hair can be felted straight but I have
gotten better results by blending the dog hair with acrylic.

- Horse hair can be felted but needs to be mixed with wool or an acrylic wool blend.

Other useful information

For any felting project, a piece of foam and a hard surface to rest it on are both really helpful, particularly for working with non-wool materials.

Since I have a great deal of experience with building sculptures from wire by wrapping the wire on itself, I have found it easiest to make cores for felted animals by wrapping yarn like I would wire. This makes for a very dense, very stiff core. I have made felted horses that can stand up on their own.

Lately, I have been experimenting with cores made from stuffing, a mess of thread or left over yarn fluff, which create a much more cuddle-able creation. I also found putting a piece of fabric between the stuffing and the outer felted skin works well to keep things cuddly, since it stops the needle from turning the stuffing into felt. I have also used sewing felt as a break between the stuffing and the felted outer coat.

I tend to make bigger critters so making a core out of cheap yarn is a very efficient way to do things. As an example, my largest creation is an 18 inch long Night Fury with a 24 inch wing span (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16523699/). For wings, I use yarn as the core and cover with fluff. I don't recommend trying to make wings without a piece of foam bigger than the wing you are trying to make.

Felting of things other than wool can be done, when doing so experimentation is a must.

Anyone know a good exorcism ritual because I think that the pipes in my apartment are cursed.

In the on going saga of my apartment and its unreliable plumbing...I woke up after falling asleep on the couch (not unusual) for a short nap this evening only to discover my mate running around like crazy because the closet was completely flooded. So I had to clean out the closet while the irate mate tried to impart a sense of urgency to the less than helpful property manager...at 2am. All the while, I am hearing this very ominous sound of water spraying out of a pipe inside the wall.

We haven't been able to use the second bathroom because the toilet isn't proper sealed to the floor so every time it is flushed, water leaks out. There is a good chance that there is a lot of water damage under the floor. We haven't been able to get the apartment complex to fix it since they seem to perpetually busy. Now it would seem the problems got their attention. Pity it took a massive flood. At this point, they will need to rip out all the carpet and padding since this is the second time it has been soaked since we have moved in in July of 2013.

As I write, the maintenance staff person who came to fix the pipes is punching holes in the wall, looking for the offending pipe and leak. The pipes are copper and the water is very hard so it has slowly eaten holes in the pipes of the complex (the complex was built in the 80s).

I will be very interested to see how all this gets fixed. I may have to go spend the night with my parents tomorrow...but that isn't as bad as it sounds since I need to get to a much too early doctor's appointment in town on Monday anyway and staying with my parents will save me the bulk of the drive.

I will post an update as soon as I understand what is going on...but I don't expect I will be getting much sleep tonight (or I will just crash at some point, too much excitement does that to me).