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I know what I did, but I don't expect anybody else to notice. Half the time, I spend 3 hours creating a series of tones in a leaf to over-enhance a fold only to have somebody say, "Oh. You painted a leaf."

Uh. Yeah.

I'm finishing out the little 2x2 canvases and I'll get back to the big stuff shortly. I'm just a bit delayed.

The last of these were fun. I can't say I'm thrilled with the morning glory or a few others, but the truncated hibiscus (it never needed the stamen to complete it) and a few others worked out extremely well. It's now thirty ornaments with some spares, a few repainted, and a number of canvases leftover. Plus a couple larger ones that are palm-sized.

I practically destroyed a set of tiny brushes. So I can say the Creative Mark miniature brushes? Not durable. Definitely not up to the Silver Brush Company standard that I've become used to, but Silver Brush doesn't make a set of 20/0 filbert, flat, script, and dagger brushes, either.

Really cute Morph. The ants my even think Bob Ross sent them a present:) (loved his Afro)

Fun fact: he hated that afro, but it had become a company trademark (and still is to this day although there's a shady little company history if you like a bit of dirt). Company directors wouldn't allow him to change it even long after it had gone out of style.

Just because of what they did to his son, I won't purchase the paints or brushes (although they're fairly good) and tend to do business with Liquitex and Golden for paint, and Silver Brush for brushes instead. Technically, both are higher quality anyway, though, and I probably would have settled there anyway--but I bounced through Joe Miller's American Journey line instead of Bob Ross first. I still use some AJ, it's good stuff.

The Art Bits were a Bit of a failure; they do hang on the tree OK, but they're a little hard to see from three feet away and have to be surrounded by lights. They do better when placed around the house in compatible color regimes where they're fun and surprising.

And...'Tis the Season for Holiday Kitsch. I've got several on the way yet, but here are a couple to keep you warm (like most of us need it?) for the next little while.

Huh. The fireplace one seems a little blurry. I'll have to retake the image.

I've been busy. Like, really, really busy.

Here's two. I've painted four poinsettia (they photograph horribly because of all the reds, pale oranges, and slightly-deeper-reds), and four of the bough patterns (kind of a blow-off, really). Tiny seascapes. Three snowman copies, two of the fireplace, one gigantic desert scene (not photographed yet, but will be as it's staying here), and an icy winter scene. Here's a bough pattern (you see one, you've seen them all, really) and the winter scene.

I can now crack walnuts with my right hand.

I've been working on watercolors (I've always puttered but never done serious work with it, this time, I'm now doing the work and lessons) Nothing much to show there yet as it's not good.

We play a very complex game online and in it, I have a familiar named Quoth. The Raven. Who is, in a complicated story-line, a tiny Infernal I got saddled with from my family's distant ancestor. Hence the tiny little evil glow and fiery bindings on the wings. We're currently in the frozen north, so hence the icy landscape and twilight...

It's been a while. The first photo is not great, the original looks much better. The blues somehow grayed out, the camera can't see the dynamic range of the painting (it does go from 99% white to 0% black, though), and little I can do will rescue that. The second is simply a much more basic winter image I did for fun and nothing else; it's a monochrome in Payne's gray and white, and not meant to be highly detailed or complicated.

I'm working on making pens for Easter just for fun out of bits of dried flowers and leaves and whatnot and resin.

Form is harder than I expected and trying to get things evenly rounded, shaped, and without pockmarks. In this household, curing UV resin is easily done--what UV source do you want, wavelength, and intensity? I'll simply generate it out of my piles of LEDs.

I'm in a "not sure what I'm doing painting-wise" moment, which will change, I'm sure. So I'm fiddling with resin.

I cast a pyramid. With laser hologram glitter. And LED lights. If you look closely, you can see the bit of electronics I hid in the resin to control it, but it's not much (just a resistor; the rest is hidden in the USB head--turns out it was brighter than I wanted and I'd already sealed the head). It's designed to be a computer plug-in toy that I set on my windowsill to catch sunlight as well during the day and glitter in the light.

Fun Fact: To super-clarify resin, microwave the mix 5 seconds at a time until about 110 degrees F, then mix. It'll go thin and easy to stir, and lose bubbles with no problems. You end up with that ultra-clear final result.

MorpheusPA wrote: ↑

March 30th, 2021, 6:05 pm

I cast a pyramid. With laser hologram glitter. And LED lights. If you look closely, you can see the bit of electronics I hid in the resin to control it, but it's not much (just a resistor; the rest is hidden in the USB head--turns out it was brighter than I wanted and I'd already sealed the head). It's designed to be a computer plug-in toy that I set on my windowsill to catch sunlight as well during the day and glitter in the light.

Nice!

Morph, this is totally OT, but I know you are active in this topic, and the answer is going to be short.
Did you take down your screen name on that other forum? No explanation needed, just wondering if they have a glitch or not.

Gone-ski. Goodbye. I got tired of being triple-tapped by three people who did nothing but contradict me with bad science and upvote each other. The weekly "you're stupid and wrong" that went unanswered by Admin had gotten tiresome as well.

Since it had gotten to the point where I was being stalked around the site and contradicted on every post (while having it claimed that I was stalking the poster who was stalking me...it was...well, mentally disturbed and getting rapidly worse), I just finally removed the account and walked. With a very nasty note to Admin and said stalker on my way out, who has no idea what my real e-mail is, fortunately.

Thanks. That answers that.

I had been given two pairs of white pants (which I would never wear as I don't wear white [plus a ton of other pants of colors I will wear]) and a ton of white shirts (which I will wear, but not that many) by the widow of a gentleman who passed away. I knew both very well, so I was glad and honored to receive the clothes.

After I sat down and modified them (he was a 36 waist, I'm a 33, he'd been in a car accident and had two different sized legs, I'm a 30)...oh, yeah, I can sew...I bought some Rit dye. I've never done this before.

Turns out, it's easy and tons of fun. Tan dye, a bit of green to cancel the orange overtones I could see in the photos of clothes dyed in the tan. I pulled one at ten minutes, and left one in the full thirty.

Next up, dyeing the cotton-poly blend shirts in green, which is out of style this season. Like every season. And I like green. Emerald, pale green, gray-green, true green...

Before and After. Or, Curl Up And Dye.

This was a stovetop dye process. Rit DyeMore tends to be less saturated than others (like Jacquard), which is why I chose it for this shirt. I wanted a darker, more subtle green, not leprechaun bait, for this particular shirt which is a bit older and has a stain at the shoulder. It covered the stain nicely, which you can now only see if you look very closely.

Note that the plastic buttons dyed green...

Morph...nice job!!...I took Home Economics (for males) in high school and yes I can use a sewing machine and I have dyed a couple of shirts although it has been many many years. What caught my eye was the phone on the table next to the shirts. My wife has the same one on her night stand. I didn't think anyone else still had one of those WOW

I knew somebody was going to comment on that. Yeah, we keep an old one around in case of power loss. It's come in handy a time or two as the only working telephone in the house when the power goes down. Or the nieces visit as they'll happily disconnect the master phone to charge devices (in a house where every room has multi-device USB bricks in them. They're not very observant) after being told not to multiple times.

Seriously, I keep a 20-port brick in my office alone. Even my watch needs one these days.

Yeah....same reason she keeps hers around. Sadly (or not) technology is leaving a lot of things to just a fading memory

I got the Moderna vaccine on Tuesday and I dyed three times within 36 hours. Maybe I should put in a vaccine report?

I'll be back up to speed here shortly. Much of my spare time is going to putting in 10 yards of mulch, finishing off 13 flats of plants for the season (which then have to be planted in early May), and helping my mother put in her yards of mulch.

I favor all three of these colors; warm green, neutral green, and cool green. I have three more to go, ionic dyes this time on cotton (these were heat dyes) in neutral green, emerald, and forest.