20110707

Looking Back

Hemp Kumihimo no.1 Hemp Kumihimo WiP

Over the last week or two I've been digging around. This summer has me in an experimental mood, and I wanted to do something I haven't done in a while. After picking up Jacqui Carey's Japanese Braiding: The Art of Kumihimo at the library I remembered all those hemp necklaces I used to make. So I decided to go for it, working a three strand split weave with these painted porcelain beads.

Carnelian Darks & Naturals

While digging for the beads, I found these carnelian rounds and oblongs. I honestly don't remember where I got these, but they don't seem to have been graded. There are some great quality pieces in here with perfect color/opacity contrasts, yet they were strung together with some lower quality ones. I isolated the rounds to make these two necklaces, using the oblongs for the backs. I didn't string the rest of the oblongs though, prefering the fruit-like brightness of these irregular rounds. They remind me of pomegranate seeds and giant orange cells.

These make me glad that I save things. These are materials and techniques I was using over fifteen years ago.

20110702

First Bloom



So I'm geeking out about this the past few days. This is the first bloom on a cutting I took about a year ago. It's called Autumn Splendor. I ganked it from the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden thinking it'll probably die like the last time I tried propagating a cutting. But no. This one sat under a mayo jar and rooted in about a month. No problem. Once I got it outside I thought it would start blooming, but all it did was get leafy. For the past year I've been watering it and keeping it in a nice, sunny morning spot waiting patiently for the magic to happen.

Autumn Splendor blooms into a bright orange with red tipped petals. The flowers tend to cluster which is what drew me to this particular rose in the first place. I like orange, and clustering minis like this one have a dense look to them that I like. One interesting thing I've noticed is that aphids don't attack it. I guess that's a good thing.

It was about a week ago that I noticed this bud pop out. Yay! So now I've transplanted it into a larger pot for the summer, so this ought to be the first of many orange explosions to come.

20110701

Skew Foxtrot

Skew Foxtrot (Sold) Skew Foxtrot WiP

For number six in the Skew series I wanted to try some consecutive transitions. Nothing major, really. I worked the transitions in the same direction as usual, with shifted 6x2 ribbing creased by a thin transition of stockinette to accentuate that characteristic parallelogram shape.

The yarn I used was recycled from an H&M sweater consisting of lamb's wool (50%), Nylon (38%) and angora(12%). At twelve percent, the angora content adds a very sparse furriness to this piece, and the nylon anchors the fibers quite securely.

It kinda looks like I hugged a rabbit with it.

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