Pisces Moon Studio

Beware of
round-bottomed ostriches
that go where no one goes
and eat what no one knows.

Keyword search in Google Analytics just showed someone searching “how to sew an ebook.”

Use invisible thread, of course.

I’m in the process of redeveloping the main Pisces Moon website. Until that’s done, I have redirected the main page to the blog, so there’s at least something for you to read. :)

It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?

I essentially quit writing earlier this year for several reasons. I broke my hand; I was busy with work, which includes much typing and was progressing much more slowly than usual due to the break; I had done no art for more than a year; and my life was very uneventful and I simply had nothing to say.

The hand has healed, mostly, although it’s still not quite as it was. I’m busier than ever with work, for which I am extremely thankful. I still haven’t done any art.

But for some reason, a couple of months ago my husband decided after 34 years of marriage that perhaps it was time to go out and do things. Social things. Visual and performing arts things.

It started late in the summer, I think. We had gone to several of the summer classic movies at the Alabama Theatre, a 1927 movie palace extravaganza in downtown Birmingham. At one of them I noticed a poster advertising a performance of the Nutcracker by the Moscow Ballet, scheduled for the Alabama late in November. I made some general comment about not having been to a live ballet since elementary school, and he asked, completely out of the blue, “Would you like to go?”

Then he started wondering about seasonal events. I started checking local calendars and setting up things for us to see and do. So far, just in the past month, we’ve

• seen an exhibition of artifacts from Pompeii: Tales of an Eruption at the Birmingham Museum of Art;
• attended a performance of Handel’s Messiah by the Alabama Civic Chorale;
• visited an exhibition by many of Alabama’s famous folk artists, including Thornton Dial, Mose Tolliver, Nora Ezell, and Lonnie Holley;
• attended a performance of Christmas music by Colla Voce, a 30-voice ensemble, presented at a local church.

The ballet is Friday night. On Saturday night we go to another Festival of Christmas Music at Samford University. There’s another one Sunday afternoon by the Birmingham-Southern College choir, and an orchestral performance the following Sunday. I have at least one more art exhibition I want to see, The Black Madonna at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

So I will have some things to talk about for a while. I’m looking forward to comparing the various choral groups’ performances, because there are great differences even to my untrained ear.

It isn’t fiber art, but hey. I’m getting there.

Ever since YouTube became a genuine phenomenon, more and more of the blogs I read are embedding videos into their posts. Now I happen to be a curmudgeonly Luddite: I have my browser set for no animations, no ads, and no Flash unless I deliberately click on it. This means that when I view a post with an embedded YouTube I see

Note: This is not a link or embed; it’s a screen capture. Don’t try to click it.

Now in this particular case I know who Steve is (a brilliant, insightful, well-liked political blogger who died this week at a tragically young age) so I can guess what the content might be.

In many cases, though, the posts consists of a title like “For your viewing pleasure,” which is uninformative and does not inspire me to click through and watch. It takes up screen room, it takes up bandwidth, and it strikes me as being supremely lazy. When I have nothing to say, I don’t post. It seems like such a waste of effort to embed a YouTube video without comment just to have something to list on the post calendar for that day.

Okay, now I’ve had my say for the day. It was perhaps a trifle lazy, but I got it out of my system.

Contrary to popular opinion, I have not fallen off the face of the earth.

April was extremely busy. My sister and I spent two weeks in Houston at the M D Anderson Cancer Center (she has a rare type of thyroid cancer). I worked on a new website which should be launching in the next few weeks.

Oh, yeah, and I fell and broke my hand. My right hand.

I never before realized just how right-handed I am.

Cooking, everyday chores, and gardening are all extremely difficult with only one hand available (and that the weaker hand). But it’s getting easier with practice and my left hand and arm are growing stronger. I’ve learned to chop vegetables backwards and discovered that ragged trapezoids taste just as good as perfectly neat little dice, even if they don’t look as good. Yesterday, with the help of my son, I transplanted another four tomatos and six pepper plants. I got one potato barrel started. I’d planted a few of my seed potatoes into small clay flower pots when it became apparent that I was going to be out of commission for a while, and the vines were coming up strong and sturdy. They needed room! And dirt! There are still two more barrels to prepare and more vines to transplant, but I am feeling fairly good about what I’ve been able to accomplish.

I go back to the orthopedist Thursday for a follow-up. If everything is healing well I may graduate from the cast into a removable splint, which will be delightful because it’s driving me nuts not being able to wash.

Next goal: get back into the studio and figure out how to create without doing any more harm. (Left-handed rotary cutting? Um, no.)

I’ve just upgraded the installation of WordPress and appear to have lost the custom features including the title and the colored background. Not to worry; just give me time to figure it out and we’ll be back in purple.

Guest post by Boo (my daughter), printed with permission

Hot Glue Tip #1: If you glue your finger, hand, or any other appendage to your project, don’t panic. That burning sensation will fade away eventually. (As you’re waiting for it to fade, think about how great it is for reminding you that you’re alive!)

Hot Glue Tip #2: Once the burning sensation has subsided, don’t rip your project off your appendage. (Unless you want to feel alive some more.) Gently roll your project off your appendage. Or, just leave it there and stay decorated!

Hot Glue Tip#3: If you cut yourself with your craft knife, a blob of hot glue will stop the bleeding very nicely. (But again, there’s a great feeling of aliveness involved.)

Hot Glue Tip #4: If you have a glue string coming out the end of your glue gun, don’t pull and pull on it for several minutes, unless you want a huge spiderweb to appear.

Hot Glue Tip #5: After you have unplugged your hot glue gun and waited a few minutes, don’t use your fingers to check and see if it’s cool enough to put away.

Fast speaking announcer dude: This public service message has been brought to you by your friendly neighborhood ghost.

2006 has been an extraordinarily busy year for me. It’s been productive and fruitful in many areas, but art — and writing — have been relegated to the back of the closet. Although I can’t promise that will change completely, I have a little time now while things are slower at the bottom of the year, to catch up a bit and maybe to start something new.

One thing I want to do is finally to clean out some old projects, some fabric I will never use again, maybe some materials as well. I’ve spent years collecting things and making samples for classes that I’ve taught, but now I’ve come to the conclusion that teaching is in my past. I don’t need to keep these samples any more; I have no place to put them; and neither of my children is interested in keeping them.

I began this morning, actually: I pulled out half a dozen samples and a couple of art pieces. I pressed the wrinkled ones and set up the photo backdrop. I took pictures of the first piece and set up the second. The camera batteries gave up the ghost, and when I put new batteries in, nothing happened. The camera’s about four years old and there’s a new and worrisome little rattle inside the body — did something short out? Fall out of its socket inside?

Well, I didn’t plan to spend the money right after Christmas, but… for less than I paid for this one, I can get a much nicer, new model with more bells and whistles and the 6X optical zoom that’s a must for my work. I ordered it today and it should be here on Friday. So samples, fabric, et al will be posted toward the end of the week or on this weekend. I hope you’ll come back and browse.

In other news: The mannequin has been missing most of the year. Last winter and spring the house where she lives suffered damage in at least two separate storms. The roof was covered with blue tarp for months, and her window stayed empty while the owners waited for the roof to be repaired. She appeared briefly in Hallowe’en costume and again in evening dress just before Christmas, but neither time did I have the now-defunct camera with me. Yesterday when I passed her house, I saw that her window was tarped over with plastic. There were chunks of broken concrete lying on the porch near the window — did some neighborhood hooligan throw a block through the glass? I’ll keep an eye out and report when I know more.

My husband has a really bad cold today and stayed home from work. Around midday I took him to the pharmacy to pick up some prescriptions. (He has to do the paying since prescriptions are paid from a medical savings account that only he has access to, and he didn’t feel well enough to drive.) It was going to take a few minutes, so I went to the car to wait for him, whereupon I promptly had a sneezing attack. (I’m coming down with The Cold as well.) Reached behind the seat where I keep the box of tissues… which was empty.

Grumbling and trying valiantly not to drip, I went back into the pharmacy, bought a box of tissues, blew my nose, and waited for him to finish and come back out.

Halfway home it occurred to me: This morning I went to Costco. I bought a 10-pack of boxes of Kleenex.

They were still in the back of the car.