Quote of the week

Ok, it has to be said. It's not as if you never suspected. Not all movies I watch are highly intellectual. And some movies are plainly ... hm, how to put it politely .... crap. But even some of them are connected with very dear memories.

I think it's time for one of them today.

Imagine a group of people some of whom had one drinks or maybe two. To make it clear, I am not talking about people being wildly drunk. I am talking about a party which is not even an announced party. Some people met and they happened to retreat to a private home and the mood is just great. This is the perfect time for watching a movie you would probably usually turn off after ten minutes.

I can just imagine some of those actors still blush when thinking of that movie.

Needless to say that I haven't seen it a second time, but it still makes me laugh to think of that evening.

My favorite quote is:

Tonda aloonda Lana.

Well, hey! It IS pretty difficult to choose a quote from a movie in which people hardly talk much!

By the way, if you want to have some real fun, read reviews about it. I just had a blast with that ;-)

Curious now?

Caveman, USA, 1981

P.S. Ah, I forgot the translation. Tonda loves Lana ;-)

Tribal

When I saw that this month's challenge for the Polymer Clay Smooshers had the subject "Tribal", I felt a little clueless at first. It might have to do with the fact that the word "tribal" used in German usually means a special style of tattoos.

The idea for my first piece came from an online game. Who would dare to say inspiration can't come from about anywhere? Not me for sure. The game was about archeological finds and this is what came out of it.

It would be wrong to say I was inspired only by that game, though. The netting part, done on fangs, even if these are made from polymer clay, practically cries out Delia Stone. Thanks Delia!

"Rulaman" fang polymer clay earrings

The second piece was a mix of inspirations. I wasn't sure what kind of animal I wanted to use, a bear, a polar bear, a wild cat ... so I started to cut the clay and it ended up as an anteater. I love anteaters, so I was quite happy with that, too ;-)

The rope coming with the pendant is crocheted from gunmetal colored wire with seed beads going all around.

Tribal "Anteater" necklace

This challenge took me back to one of my favorite childhood books, "Rulaman".

As you may or may not know I live in Southern Germany, in Swabia. In our area there are a few very cool caves which as children we of course had to visit, with family or on school field trips. In 1878 David Friedrich Weinland, a Swabian zoologist and author, wrote about those caves when they were still inhabited. My godmother gave the book to me and I can't say how often I have read it since then. Cavemen, fights with cave bears and lions, burial rituals (one fight didn't go so well), hunting descriptions, summer trips to the lake to stock up on fish, the first Cromagnon people arriving, all that was described in such vivid language - and on top the fact that it could have happened just like this where now I lived .... wow.

The book is still published today, by the way. Just saying ...

Quote of the week

In case I haven't mentioned yet that Cary Grant is one of my very favorite actors ever, let me .... what? I have? Ok, get ready for a quote from one of his movies then.

Better drink some tea before watching this movie to calm yourself down, it's crazy.

The two aunts luring lonely old men into her house only to "help" them out of their misery by poisoning them with handmade wine, their brother who thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt and keeps working on the Panama Canal, digging holes for the victims of the "Yellow Fever" and their nephew Mortimer who just got married and gets drawn into the whole mess ... crazy, black, but hilariously funny, too!

My favorite line - or rather word - is when "Teddy" runs up the staircase, yelling "Chaaaarge!". I admit that I feel tempted to do that at times ....

Arsenic and Old Lace, USA, 1944

I love them

Sometimes I say I'll sell them to the circus or I threaten to eat them with French fries. They can be so annoying when they practice their new tapdancing steps on my ribs at night or when they start a fight to get me up early for their breakfast. They can be so clumsy knocking over stuff that they usually wind through like snakes, just to get your attention. They can hurt you so much, either by turning their backs on you when you need them most (yes, it was a traumatic moment when I came home from hospital and Merlin hissed at me and hid under the bed for three hours, even if I know I had been away for weeks and probably smelled really funny) or by digging their claws into most tender spots on your body.

And then they are on the bed, on the couch or on the desk, and knowing you are close by, they'll just roll around and trust you to catch and hold them. I have watched them and they rarely do the extreme stunts when there's no one is in reach. (Sometimes they fall off the furniture, but rarely when I'm around to witness it.)

No matter if Greebo is getting ready for his training units with some light stretching .....

.... or if Ponder is rolling over on the desk just to land on my arm and leg. Hadn't I been there to hold him, he would have taken a dive right down to the floor.

Sometimes I'm easy to please, these are special little moments to me.

Now I'm craving sweets!

I am doing pretty good progress on my WIPs. Sometimes I have to take a part off that stopped the whole process, sometimes I have to strip the piece down to its fundamentals.

This is what happened with a simple silver colored copper wire crochet tube. It looked lonely after I took the "charms" off that I added to test the look.

Maybe it was my latest tube shaping experiments' fault that I played around with this considerably bigger tube as well. When flattening it slightly and shaping it into a spiral, I got reminded of those rolls with nuts in them that my sister makes sometimes. Or poppyseed. Cinnamon? And suddenly there was the idea. Instead of nuts peeking out of spiral-shaped dough .... Swarovski crystals peeking out of a wire spiral?

Spiral nebula was born. Well, not that easily and fast. It was quite a task for my fingers, but I am happy with the result.

Now where do I get my sweet rolls??

Quote of the week

I haven't touched one of my favorite TV series here yet. So, without further ado, I'll present him to you.

His name and today's quote are the same.

"Denny Crane."

Nuff said.

Boston Legal, USA, 2004 - 2008

P.S. I think there'll be more quotes from here to be expected .....

It was about time!

Yes, it has been a long time, I know. It had different reasons, but here I am. I even brought stuff, ok, pictures of stuff.

Today I went into a listing frenzy, taking pictures of pieces who had silently and sadly been waiting on top of my light tent for their debutant photo shoot, editing those pictures and actually listing things. I don't know when I'll get the chance again, between work and laundry (omg, almost forgot the shirts in the washer!). Ok, I am back.

Not even Ponder could distract me from my task although he looked pretty scary (even scarier if you turn that picture around ...).

The pieces I'll show you now are pretty different from each other although most of them are wire crochet. I think I haven't reached the end of what I can do in this technique yet, especially now that I can combine it with the needle lace technique. Viking knit is still on my list and more spool knitting with beads. I need more time. If you have any you don't need, please e-mail it to me. I promise I won't waste it on naps. I'll take those on my own time ;-)

Enough now, let's get to the items instead of rambling on.

Caught in my heart isn't all new, it's one of my rejuvenation items. The amethyst bead in its cage has been one of my very first pieces, but somehow I felt it was missing something. This something turned out to be a heart. I like it much better now.

You know I'm hopelessly addicted with Deronda O'Neil's lampwork beads. It's hard to use them in a design, not because I don't want to see them go (beautiful lampies shouldn't live in a drawer), but because I am determined to do them justice. This design was approved by her which made me very happy.

Copper cage is a mix of needle lace and wire crochet (ah, you remember what I said before, huh?). The bubble lampwork beads in a stunning red are caught in a cage of pure copper wire which is held by wire crochet tubes.

Once again I decided to use up some of my stash before ordering new supplies. So far it has worked pretty well.

This colorful wire is twisted from four differently colors of wire, blue, violet, gunmetal and hot pink. I never had an idea for it, but I decided those grey bubble beads (guess who made them ...) could live with a little color. The name Glass floats comes from a forum friend of mine and means the glass floats that were used on fishing nets in former times.

This bangle called Mélange for obvious reasons is from the same wire, just an everyday lightweight comfortable bangle for that bit of color in your life.

Silver and amber - a classic combination which also works well on this blossom pendant. For those who don't like it too big and flashy, this is the perfect always matching little pendant.

I like it shiny, but hard-working friends of mine have done their best to convince me of the fun of oxidation. They succeeded, at least partly, as the next two items will show you.

Remember my clef pendants? While the other two I made stayed shiny, this one was a great candidate for a little darkening. I think it worked out well. The color gives this piece a vintage look, like something you could find in an old jewelry box. The pearl and the tiny peridot beads I added work as a small, but nice contrast.

My favorite piece today is the next one, though. You know, the last but not least thing.

For deviantArt I even wrote a little story for it, about the knight leaving his love alone, clutching his last gift. The lovely maiden in the tower, that is, not the knight.

Although I had never heard of Septarian nodules before I got them from a friend (hope the vibes make his ears tingle), I totally fell in love with them. It took me quite long to finish this necklace. The bezel was the easy part, but I couldn't decide on a bail. After several attempts I finally added a wire crochet tube and finally I was happy. The piece then struck me so much as medieval looking that I HAD to oxidize it. I'm so happy I did.

I love this piece so much that I will take the one stone that I kept for myself and turn it into a similar necklace.

If you made it to this point, you are pretty good! Thank you :-D