December Musings and Holiday Decorating

I woke up yesterday morning and discovered it was December first.  It is time to start thinking about Christmas decorations.  Some of my neighbors already have the jump on us.  Their homes are decorated inside and out already.

When the children were small, we used to put up a real tree every year.  We picked the largest tree that we could fit into the room.  The decorations on the tree were very eclectic.  Each year we would also go on a shopping trip to find a special ornament to add to the display.  We also had ornaments that the children made at school or bought at a school bazaar to hang on the tree.  They are some of my most treasured ornaments.   Over the years the collection grew, and it took hours to put up the tree and add the lights and the decorations.

Then the children grew up, became adults, moved away and started families of their own.  Then it was just my husband and myself.  For a while we put up a real tree.  One year the tree we purchased was so dry that we did not dare turn on the lights.  On New Years Day, when we took the tree down, all the needles fell off and we were left to haul out a completely bare tree.  The floor was covered with needles:  a trash bag full of needles.  It was a mess to clean up because the needles clung to the rug.

The next year we decided on an artificial tree.  None of the children would be home for Christmas, so we were somewhat depressed and did not want to make a big deal out of Christmas.  We bought a small artificial tree that would fit on top of the table.  It was like a revelation.  The tree went up in minutes rather than the time it took to saw the end off of a real tree and then work with it to make sure it was standing upright in a tree stand.  What a concept!     

Since the tree was small we had to choose which ornaments were going on the tree that year.  Some of the ornaments were too big for this small tree.  We finally settled on which ornaments would be put on the tree and which would be saved for posterity for no apparent reason.  The Christmas collectable were labeled Christmas and Current Christmas to differentiate them when we were ready to pull things out of the attic.

The first artificial tree we purchased did not have lights attached.  When that tree became worn and shabby we upgraded to another table tree.  This one had LED lighting.  Now the tree was up and decorated in just a matter of minutes.  In some ways it seemed an improvement, but I found that it did not really share much Christmas spirit.   We lost something in not having those family hours spent decorating the tree. 

I still miss the smell of a real tree.  I tried adding some fake Christmas tree smell to add some realism. That did not work out all that well.  The smell was overpowering and it did not really smell like a Christmas tree.  At least not when it was first sprayed.  Several hours later there might be a slight odor that smelled something like a Christmas tree. 

There was still something missing.  Then I started making dolls.   I started making Santa dolls because at that time hand made dolls were in vogue.  At first they were not very good.  I was trying to make soft sculpture dolls.  I had a hard time with the faces.  Fortunately they improved over time.  

 At first, I just made dolls and they just sat or stood there.  Something was missing and it took me a long time to figure out what it was.  The dolls were just dolls until they told a story.  Once I began adding embellishments and details that helped fill in the story the dolls seemed to take on extra meaning.  They finally added something to the Christmas decorations that had not been there for some time.  Now, taking out the Christmas decorations once again seems like bringing out old friends.  I look forward to bringing them out every year. 

The last Santa doll I made was a Belsnickel.  A Belsnickel is sometimes called a Grumpy Santa.  One of the legends of Santa is that he leaves naughty children coal and switches.  So, my Belsnickel is carrying a bucket of coal and some switches. 

I put this doll in a state-wide contest a few years ago and it won third prize in the hand-made doll category.  I guess they thought it was a more original take on Santa than the traditional Santa and toys.  

Perhaps some people thought it odd that I would make a Santa like this.  Santa is supposed to be the jolly, loving character.  I think the problem is that modern day concepts have overshadowed the myth of the Belsnickel.  These days children expect toys, candy, and expensive electronics for Christmas.  Coal and switches would seem like a terrible gift.  But think for a moment about the time that the Santa/Belsnickel myth originated.  Coal and switches were the materials to build a fire to keep warm.  The message of the Belsnickel is that even in the years that you were not behaving at your best, (Let's face it we have all had them.)  there was someone that cared about you enough that he (or she) wanted to make sure that you were warm and knew that someone cared about you.   That is the message of the Belsnickel.  Someone cares about you even in the years that you felt unlovable or undeserving.

During this time of the Christmas season while we are so busy buying the latest electronics or heading out to the next holiday party, make sure that you take some time to tell those you love that you care about them.  That message is much more important than picking out the latest video game.  It will be remembered long after the must have toy or game of the year is forgotten.

Cabin Trip November 2018

We made a trip to the cabin just before Thanksgiving.  The weather cooperated with us this time.  The rain and sleet did not start up there until after we left.  We were able to get up there during a pocket of fairly decent weather.  The daytime temperatures were in the forties and fifties (Fahrenheit).  At night the temperatures dipped into the low thirties, but never went below freezing the entire time we were there.

When we crossed the bridge at the bottom of the mountain, we were surprised to see that the water was roiling.  Usually this time of year the river is a sedate little stream calmly flowing over the rocks.  This time the water was rushing angrily, heavy even for the spring run off season.  When we left last time, Hurricane Michael had just come through.  The water was even higher now than after the hurricane.  Friends and Family that have been to the cabin might remember a low lying concrete bridge that spans the stream.  That bridge was fully underwater by a foot or more.  There are a number of places along the road where water is pouring off the mountain.  Usually they are dry.  This year there are waterfalls in places where I have never seen water moving at all.

There has been a lot of rain up there this year.  We noticed that here at the bottom of the mountain that some people had brought in loads of rock to help keep the banks from eroding.  For about eight years there was a drought in the area.  The drought broke last year and we started having a lot of rain.  It has rained heavily at least once on almost every trip we had taken up there this year.  All that rain is soaking into the mountains and running down into the streams and rivers.  The rivers are definitely higher than normal.

Since it is late in the year and the leaves are down, it is easier to see the huge boulders that cover the mountainside.  Many of them weigh several tons.  It makes you wonder at the forces of nature that can move these huge monoliths. Clearly, some of these boulders were part of the same rock that split apart sometime in the past.  Even more amazing is watching the same rocks over time.  In my life time I have seen some of these rocks crack and pieces fall off.  Near the top of the mountain there is an area where the side of the mountain is covered with boulders and smaller rocks.  It is clear that a huge section of granite has split and those pieces have split continually until the mountainside is covered with smaller and smaller pieces of rock.  The power of water and ice is amazing.  Nature finds a way to break down everything into smaller and smaller particles.  The streams are filled with rock and the fine grit of rock dust.  Sometimes when I have felt that I was stuck in some situation it was helpful to remind myself that if I wait long enough that even rocks will change.

We raked leaves one more time, although most of the leaves were removed during the previous trip.  It may seem counterproductive to try to rake up all the leaves in the yard when the cabin is in the middle of a forest, however it is necessary.  Leaves piling up against the house and around the yard are a potential fire hazard.  Piles of leaves, a stray spark or a bolt of lightening combined with high winds can be a disaster in the making.  It is necessary to keep a little bit of a fire break.

Leaves on the lawn would kill the grass.  The grass helps hold the soil in place, preventing erosion.  On a mountainside, everything runs down hill in one direction or another.  Water tends to run in channels where ridges meet.  Water can very quickly dig out a rut if there is not something holding the ground in place.  Each year we carefully tend the yard, fighting the forces of nature and gravity.   I sometimes wonder if we own the cabin or the cabin owns us.  We seem to toil ceaselessly in its service.

Our other big project this trip was splitting and stacking wood.  Two years ago we had a locust tree cut down that was threatening our shed.  We had the tree cutter cut the tree trunk into appropriate lengths for firewood.  The tree was almost more than we bargained for as some of the pieces of the trunk were twenty-four inches in diameter.   We have been splitting wood from this tree ever since.

My husband splits the pieces of trunk with a huge wood maul or wedges and a sledge hammer.  The maul is so heavy that I am not able to lift it over my head.  How he can manage to use these heavy tools to split wood all day long is somewhat of a mystery to me.  He is very strong.  Anyway, he splits the wood and tosses it down to the the next level of the yard.  I pick the wood up and pile several pieces at a time into the log carrier and carry it into the shed and stack it.  It is a lot of work.  They say that chopping wood warms you twice.  Once when you chop it and once when you burn it.  That is true.  Fortunately, the cool temperatures were just about ideal for chopping wood.  Although I cannot say that chopping, hauling, and stacking wood is enjoyable, it is at least tolerable when the weather is cool.

Every once in a while, when my husband was starting to split a large log, I would catch up on picking up the split wood.  I would take the opportunity to grab a few of the large branches that had come down and haul them out of the direct view of the porch.  The ground between the cabin and the stream is a lovely view from the porch as long as you keep the area picked up.  Otherwise it is a pile of lumber.  The trees, especially the birch trees, drop limbs constantly.   At least once a year the area needs to be cleared out or you are knee deep in branches.  Some of the branches are broken up to make kindling.  Other branches are cut to go into the wood stove.  Some of the branches are tossed over a ravine, the rest are taken to a burn pile.  It is a never ending process to keep the area looking civilized.  I cannot say that it is ever immaculate.  As soon as you finish cleaning the area the process begins again.

Because the weather was cool, we used the wood stove all day.  The stove is another thing up there that needs constant attention.  Our wood stove is a wood burning cook stove.  It burns wood very quickly.  I have to add wood to it about every twenty minutes to keep it from going out.  We keep a wood box in the house that holds about twenty-five pieces of wood.  It is not unusual to go through the entire wood box in a day.  It usually needs to be refilled each evening.

I am glad that we have matches and lighters to make starting the fire easier.  I think back to earlier times when people had only a flint and steel,  a bow fire starter, or had to rub a stick between two hands to light a fire.  At best, those tools are a nuisance.  At worst, getting a fire started again is a matter of survival in cold weather.  All in all, I am glad that we don't have to use a wood stove at home.  It is not bad for a few days at a time, but after a short period of time it becomes just one more chore.

The cabin is shut down for the year now.  After Thanksgiving, the main line of the water system is drained for the winter.  We actually start draining the house in October.  You never know exactly when it is going to start freezing up there.  This year we have had snow up there since our trip in October.  We don't want to be faced with having to make it up there at the spur of the moment if a sudden freeze comes.  With temperatures that go below zero, you don't want water in the pipes of an unheated cabin.

We probably won't see the cabin again until spring.  Every time we go to the cabin we hope that we will return to find everything all right.  You never know what happens there while you are away.  There are a number of people close by that check on the cabin from time to time.  If something is damaged they will get word to us.  Still, you always wonder whether everything will be all right when you come up the drive.

Update on the Star and Leaf Quilt November 2018

I thought I'd post an update on my Star and Leaf quilt today.  It seems as if I have been working on this quilt forever.  The quilt is a king size quilt.  Piecing the quilt went fairly quickly.  Quilting the quilt is another story entirely.

I found the pattern for this quilt in a quilting magazine.  I think it was actually listed as a quick quilt.  It probably was if you machine pieced it and machine quilted it.  Or as many people do these days, send the quilt out to be quilted.  I hand quilt.  That takes a lot longer.  I prefer the look of hand work to machine work.

I also feel that hand quilting gives me more bang for my buck.  Material used to be fairly inexpensive, but that is no longer the case.  The price of cotton has risen considerably over the years and that has affected the cost of fabric.  Purchasing cotton fabric for quilting is now a much more expensive proposition.  If I hand quilt, the project takes longer, thereby stretching the entertainment and engagement value I get from a quilt.  I know that this is a seems perverse to many quilters who can't wait to get onto the next project, but I enjoy spending the time on each one rather than always thinking about what's next.  The next project will come around soon enough.

The project is not quilted as the project in the magazine was.  I wanted to make my quilt unique rather than looking like something that is already out there.  I thought that I would continue the leaf motif in the quilting.  Each square that has a large leaf is quilted with small leaves all around the large leaf.  I wanted it to have a background effect of there being more leaves on the ground.  Along with the leaves, I also quilted in some spirals.  I always enjoy watching the swirling of the leaves as they spiral to the ground.  It would not have been hard to quilt the seed shape, but it had been that way in the magazine, and I wanted something different.  Unfortunately, it is very hard to see the quilting in this picture.  Perhaps if you click on it to enlarge it the quilting will be more visible.

The back of the quilt.

The stars are quilted quilted with lines to look like rays of light coming from them.  I wanted the stars to be fairly energetic.  They were not that hard to quilt, but I went through four air erase marking pens in the course of the project. I wanted the lines to be straight so I used a ruler to mark them.

The inner border has been embroidered in spiky lines that mimic the shape of the triangles in the sun.    I started out with a more elaborate pattern in this border, but marking it proved too difficult.   My pattern for the border was so small that even the fine line erasable marking pen was too tight to use.  Rather than enlarging and hand cutting the pattern (I don't have one of those die cut machines.), I decided that it was time to keep it simple and go with something I could easily mark on the border.

The outer border is the last thing that needs to be embroidered before I bind the quilt and call it finished.  I am thinking about quilting it with some sort of double helix pattern.  Other times I think about getting ambitious and making a star pattern to echo the start in the quilt.  I guess it depends on how much trouble it will be to disperse the stars evenly across the quilt. 

The holidays are rapidly approaching.  I need to start working on some gifts.  I will blog about them next Sunday.

Life Size Doll Painted and Wigged

I have been working on this life size doll nearly all year.  It is not that the project took so long to do, it is that this year I have just had little time to work on it.  I only work on the doll when time allows.  I am not the type of person who stays up all night trying to get things done.  Actually, I am pretty much ready to hit the hay once it gets dark.  I am definitely a morning person.  If I did not get something done on the doll in the morning, it did not get done at all.

From a distance she almost looks real.

When I first started the doll, I had visions of entering it into a competition.  Then the project hit a number of hard stops.  The competition deadline came and went.  One of the hard stops is that I totally lost interest in the project.  I began avoiding my studio because the project was barely started and I no longer cared about it.  Every time I would walk in there the project was in the way, making me feel guilty.  Maybe I should have just thrown the whole thing out then, but I made a rule for myself a long time ago.  The rule Part A:  no more unfinished objects (UFOs).  Part B of the rule was that I could not have more than three projects going at any one time.  The reasoning behind the three projects is that some of my projects take time to dry before going on to the next step.  By having more than one project available I could keep working even if a project was at a stopping point.

I used to start a project, get tired of it, and just stash it away out of sight.  Pretty soon I had a lot of UFOs and nothing completed to show for all my work.  So, once this project was started, it had to be completed before I could begin another project.  I already had two other projects going on.  The first was a king size quilt that I have been hand quilting.  That project is almost finished but it has taken a year.  I will never hand quilt a quilt that size again.  The other project was a quilting guild project, actually projects, as I have participated in two challenge quilts this year.  Since the other two projects were already accounted for, the doll had to be finished before I could go on to something else.

Another of the hard stops was that I hurt my shoulder early this year.  I was going to physical therapy three times a week and had exercises to do at home twice a day on the other days.  That ate up nearly all my free time.  My shoulder is still painful, though not nearly as painful as it was months ago.  Working on this project has not been very pleasurable because it hurt so much to use my arm.

The other hard stop was our schedule this year.  We are spending more time at the cabin than we did in the past.  It is not just the time spent at the cabin that was a hindrance to the project.  Getting ready to go requires grocery shopping and packing.  Returning from the cabin means lots of laundry and trying to catch up on every chore and errand that was not attended to while we were away.  So maybe a week out of each month I had a few hours to work on this project.  No wonder it took so long to finish the doll.

I learned a lot from this project.  Mainly I learned that I did not care much for working in this scale.  I am much happier working on smaller projects.  However, there were many lessons learned along the way that can be helpful in other projects.  I enjoyed the process of sculpting the head.  I like the challenge of making something take shape and form.

Once the doll was covered in papier mâché I painted her with a coat of Gesso.  Then I painted on a ballet leotard.  My intention was to costume her for Halloween, but I worked on painting her right up until the evening of Halloween.  At least she has some clothes on now.

With time running out on Halloween I had thought that I would make a quick costume out of white trash bags and position her a few feet from the door so that she had a ghostly appearance.  If there was a breeze the bags would rustle and flutter in the wind.  However, at dark on Halloween night the coat of outdoor sealer was still drying.  If I had costumed her I might have plastic permanently embedded in the sealer.  I decided that I would wait for next year to put her outside.  That was disappointing, but I would rather do it right than wreck the project. Who knows, maybe someone will want this piece to put on a parade float or something.

I purchased a Cosplay wig for her hair.  Then the Halloween costumes came on sale at Walmart and I purchased a cheaper wig thinking I would use the inexpensive wig on the doll and save the expensive wig for my own Halloween costume.  However, the Walmart wig has big chunks of hair cut off it here and there.  (My take on this is that the wig makers did not want people using cheap wigs for Cosplay.  Cosplay is big business.)  It looks like someone went mad and started hacking off hanks of hair.  Maybe that was okay for a Halloween, but it was not okay for the doll.  If you look at the first picture you can see some of the short strands sticking out on the side.  I was a bit miffed at the hacked up wig  The picture on the bag did not show that this was what the wig was going to look like.  At the moment, the wig is only tacked with a dab of hot glue so I could take some pictures.  After I add a couple more coats of exterior sealer to the doll I will glue on the better wig. 

Anyway, now that she is painted, she is ready to be costumed.  Maybe she will be the flamenco dancer I had originally envisioned holding a fan in her outstretched hand.  Or a bejeweled belly dancer stepping into a hip lift.   Maybe she is holding a glass ready to make a toast.  She could be a costumed as a winged archangel holding a flaming sword.  Or Lady MacBeth holding a dagger.  The possibilities are endless.  Now that the doll is finished, the costuming can begin.

If you are interested in seeing more pictures of the construction of the doll you can go to folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com and scroll back through some of my earlier posts.  The doll posts are intermingled with posts from my travels this year.  Many of the photos showing the construction of the torso are on a blog post dated October 28th, 2018 if you want to see most of the construction in one place.  If you want detailed information about the process, you should read the posts on the life size doll that took place throughout the year.

I will be blogging next Sunday.  I will show the quilting progress on the king size quilt.  

The Latest on the Life Size Doll

Doll body covered with papier mâché.

It has been so long since I blogged about the doll that I can hardly remember the last post.  Life has been very busy for me lately.  Despite a lack of time, I have made progress on the doll.  Believe it or not she is almost finished.  Since it has been a while, I will recap the process for newer readers. 

This is my first attempt at a life size doll.  I wanted to do an experimental doll before attempting make a life size Santa or Father Christmas figure.  I thought that I would learn some lessons along the way before I started in on a doll using the additional materials and really expensive fabrics needed to make a high end Christmas figure.  I have learned some valuable lessons that I hope will help other readers that might want to attempt a large doll.

I began by making the doll head.  I used a foam head as a base.  I put plastic over the mold and then covered the head with  papier mâché using the strip method.   Once the layers were dry, I removed the head from the mold.  I had to cut it apart to get it out and then use more strip layers to put the head back together.

I began the doll by making an armature out of PVC pipe.  Because we had some scrap 1/2 inch diameter PVC pipe lying around, I used that rather than purchase a larger diameter pipe.  I would say that was mistake number one.   The doll tends to sway and some of the pipes started to bow under the weight of padding used to fill out the figure.  Also, one of the shoulder joints kept coming off.  I think that the weight of the padding was too much for it.  I re-glued it three times.  I finally had to brace the shoulder with bits of dowel and duct tape to keep it intact.  I think the larger gluing area of a bigger pipe might have been helpful there.

I used a piece of 12 inch by 24 inch board as a base.  The legs of the figure were placed into a rectangular frame.  The frame was attached to the base using clamps that screwed into the base.  The base needed to be larger.  The height of the figure (which somehow managed to keep getting taller) was top heavy for this base.  It is somewhat unstable.  It stands up, but it is unbalanced and easy to knock over.

Creating the shape.

To fill out the figure I used aluminum foil, cardboard and bubble wrap.  The bubble wrap is relatively light weight and waterproof.  I had no idea how much bubble wrap it would take, so I was buying the smaller size rolls.  As it turns out, the larger 300 foot roll might have been the way to go.  I used just slightly over 300 feet of bubble wrap.  I wrapped sheets and taped them on with masking tape.  After the figure was padded to my satisfaction, I covered the entire body with a layer of masking tape.  I was uncertain how the papier mâché would stick to the bubble wrap, and I wanted to make sure that the weight of the papier mâché did not cause the bubble wrap to shift.

Since the figure was now just slightly taller than I am, I was able to use my hands as models for the hands of the figure.  Since what I had at the house were vinyl gloves, I used those.  I put on a glove and then covered the glove with bits of masking tape.  I thought that I would have more flexibility if I used small bits of tape rather than wrapping the tape around and around.  Since I did not try the other method, I cannot say if it was better or not.  If I were to make the hands over again I would use nitrile gloves .  They tend to fit more tightly to the skin.  I think it would have made the hands look a little neater.

Padding the figure.

I added the head to the body.  That was a near disaster at one point.  I had to place a PVC pipe in the head so it could be attached to the shoulders.  The rounded head did not lend itself to having a piece of pipe glued to it.  Since the glue was not working, I braced the pipe in place and sprayed in some expanding spray foam.  It seemed to set up and I walked away from the piece.  When I came back later, the spray foam had expanded beyond the head and dripped down on the head in a few places.  It was a mess.  Fortunately the foam peeled off the painted head easily.  If I do another doll like this, I will not use as much foam.  Filling it half way up was too much.  However, the pipe is firmly embedded in the head.

The head was attached to the body by adding dowels to a joint in the shoulder assembly up through the pipe in the head.  Then it was glued and taped into place.  The attachment will be reinforced by layers of papier mâché.  The head looks a little small now.  The shoulders grew wider when I had to brace the shoulder.  It may look more normal once the hair is added.  If necessary I will tease up the hair to give it more volume.  Or perhaps add accessories to fill in the area.

The near disaster with the head.

I have two layers of papier mâché on at this point and would like to add another before I begin painting and sealing the figure.  It should probably have a total of six layers, but I won't have time to add that many before Halloween.  This project is not going to be hanging around after that.  It just takes up too much room.  Perhaps I will be able to find it a good home.  Having a life size doll around is not that much fun.  Sometimes I will walk into the room or catch the figure out of the corner of my eye and for a second will think that someone is in there.  It is kind of creepy.

 Anyway, that is the state of the project at this point.  I hope to have the doll in some shape to go outside on Halloween night.  I should have some pictures for next Sunday's blog.

Cabin Trip - October 2018

The new paint job.

I can't believe that it has been so long since I posted.  Time flies when you are having fun (or going so hard that you can't figure out which way is up.)  Some of the time since I blogged last I have spent in the mountains.  I thought I'd share some photos from the trip.

Not that this was a bad trip, but it was a somewhat difficult trip.  It sorely tried our patience at times.  I guess things actually started to go awry the night before we left.  About 8:30 in the evening we lost electricity when the remnants of Hurricane Michael came through.  It was late enough that we just decided to go on to bed.  Usually we get up early on the morning of our trip up to the cabin so we can get an early start.  However, we could not set an alarm because the electricity was out.  We were hoping that sooner or later the power would come back up and we would set the alarm then.  Well, the power never came back on.  We woke up when it was light, but since the light comes up later this time of year, it was much later than we had planned to get started.

Then we had our first dilemma.  The power was still not on, and we had a refrigerator and freezer full of food.  We started the generator and discussed whether we should postpone the trip and run the generator to save the food or just take everything with us.  The problem being that taking everything with us was easier said than done.  We only have so much room in the coolers. 

Our decision was to pack as much food as we could, run the generator until time to leave to cool down the refrigerator, leave the items that we could not make room for and hope for the best.  Sometimes we are without power for as long as a week or ten days.  There is no telling when the power might come back on.  It could be that we were going to have to throw out some food when we returned.  I packed and packed, using every cooler we had.  It took a long time.  We have a method for loading the van for the trip.  The coolers have to go in fairly early in the process.  Waiting on the coolers made us even later leaving.

We did not know whether the cabin would have power.  This was a huge storm with a lot of flooding statewide.  We had no way of knowing what might be going on in the mountains.  It was so early after the storm that reports were just coming in about the severity of the damage.  Our hope was that since the power company had just been clearing brush in our area that we might not have lost power up there.  Our guess was correct, we had electricity when we arrived.

To our dismay, the refrigerator was not working.  We plugged it in.  The light came on, but the compressor did not.  The refrigerator was not cooling.  This is a big problem.  We had coolers full of food, most of it frozen, but only a  few ice packs in with it to keep things cool.    All the rest of the unpacking was put on hold until my husband work on the refrigerator.  If the refrigerator was not repairable we would have had to make a 45 minutes trip each way to buy ice.  That would hold for a day or so, but the next day we would have to go buy another refrigerator.  That would mean driving an hour and a half, purchasing a refrigerator, renting a truck to get the refrigerator up to the cabin, driving the truck back, and returning to the cabin in our van.  In other words, wasting about six hours of our vacation time on a refrigerator. We were not in very good moods at that point.

My husband took the switch apart and poked around the back of the refrigerator, plugged it back in and the compressor came on.  Crisis averted! For how long?  We don't know.  One thing is for certain. Sooner or later we will have to make that trek.  We know that the refrigerator is not going to last forever.  We are just dreading the day.  There is no time that this is going to be convenient.

The bright spot of the trip was our trip down the mountain to the wine and garlic festival.  We have attended this festival every year for at least the last seven years.  Maybe longer.  It is fun to try the wine and garlic foods.  They have several stages, and a lot of good music.  It is always an enjoyable time. 

This year I packed one hat, the hat I had been wearing while painting while on the last trip.  I did not want to have to wear a hat spattered with paint, so I wore one of the other hats that were up at the cabin.  My choices were to wear a bright orange hat that I wear during hunting season or a hat with the University of Virginia Cavaliers logo on it.  I chose to wear the UVA hat rather than the dorky blaze orange hat. 

I really almost decided to go without a hat.  First of all, Virginia Tech fans up there by far outnumbered UVA fans.  I had to remember which team logo I was wearing so I could respond appropriately to comments and waves from others who were fans of that team.  Fans from both teams are very ardent about their football.  I was waved at by a number of people wearing similar team colors.   I was stopped by a woman who just had to tell me that after the festival she was heading out to the game.    However, it all worked for the best.  We were standing in line waiting for a wine tasting.  When it came our turn to come up to the counter a party of four or five people cut in front of us.  The person serving the tasting was wearing a Cavaliers jacket.  He insisted that the people move over and let us up to the counter.  I am sure it was because he had seen my hat. 

The next day we had to rake leaves.  The yard was ankle deep in leaves even though all the trees were still in full leaf.  It has been so warm that the trees have barely began to turn colors.  We could see a small amount of yellow or red here and there.  Most of the trees are still green, or their leaves just turned brown and fell off.  We started to rake.  It started to rain.  We went inside.  The rain quit.  We went back out and started to rake.  It started to rain again.  We went back inside.  It quit raining.  We went back out.  It started to rain.  By this time we were wet and cold.  We decided that the leaves were coming up no matter what so we kept raking.  I lost count of how many tarps of leaves we dragged off the lawn.  I think it was about twenty.  That is somewhat disheartening when you consider that the bulk of the leaves have not fallen yet.  But at least the leaves are done for now.  Our clothes were soaked.  It was so damp up there that it took them a day or two to dry completely.

The reason we needed to get the leaves finished was because we needed to start painting.  Our last trip up we had painted two of the exterior walls of the cabin.  We wanted to get the rest of the cabin painted on this trip.  It did not rain, but the weather was cloudy, about fifty degrees (F) and the wind was blowing with forty mile per hour gusts.  It was cold work to be out there painting for the most part.

We had purchased what we thought was enough paint to finish the first coat and then do a second coat.  Dream on.  The two cinder block walls soaked up seven of the eight gallons of paint we brought with us.  If the cabin gets a second coat, it will most likely go on in the spring.  At this point, I'm thinking it the cabin looks fine as it is.

Other than that, my husband split wood.  I hauled the wood down to the shed and stacked it.  Last year?  Or the year before?  We had a tree cut down on the property.  We are still working on getting all those big logs split and stacked.  There is never enough time to get everything done that needs to be done there. 

Anyway, that was our trip.  Next blog post I will blog about the latest on the life sized doll that I have been working on.  Progress has been made.

Halloween Darkness

Tomorrow is going to be October 1st.  I am excited!  October 1st is the day that I pull out all of my Halloween decorations.  Starting tomorrow, every nook and cranny will be covered with Halloween figures of one sort or another.  Thankfully, my husband is a good sport about it, because the stuff is everywhere.

When my husband and I were younger, we used to dress up for Halloween night and spend the evening handing our candy.  Sadly, Halloween has changed.  Where we lived then, Halloween was a big deal.  Dozens of kids were out trick or treating.  It was a non-stop parade of costumed children all evening.  We enjoyed it as much as the children.


The neighborhood we live in now does not have many trick or treaters.  Many of the homes are occupied by the original homeowners, who are now senior citizens.  Families are smaller and do not necessarily live close by.  Our neighborhood has fairly large lots, and is not very well lit with street lights.  Children would rather trick or treat in a newer neighborhood where the houses are closer together so they can get more candy quicker.  Parents are happier with the newer neighborhoods because they are better lit, which makes it safer. 

I still light a pumpkin and put it on the porch light every year.  As long as even one child comes by, it is worth it.  I feel that the child that has actually braved the dark of the neighborhood to come to the door has had a better learning experience.  It teaches them not to fear the dark. 

I find that as a society, we have becomes too dependent on artificial light to feel safe.  Being in the dark does not necessarily mean that something bad is going to happen, but that is how people perceive it.  I have been in people with power outages in public places and seen how many people experienced anxiety symptoms.  They do not trust themselves to be able to function in the dark at all. 

The point of Halloween is to be out in the dark and confront your fears.  Being out in the dark gives you an understanding of which of your fears are real, and which fears are figments of your imagination.  Some fears are true such as the fear of tripping in the dark.  Other fears are only true sometimes; such as the occasional mugger.  But for the most part, our fear of the dark is irrational.  The majority of the time we are in the dark and perfectly safe. 

Being out in the dark teaches us to engage our other senses.   In the light we use our sight more than anything else.  In the dark, we have to depend on our senses of hearing, touch, and smell.  It is a very different experience.  Suppose you were to be trick or treating on a dark street on Halloween.  Instead of a brightly lit space, you just see a pumpkin glowing in the distance.  It will stand out much more in the dark.  As you come up to it with all your senses engaged, you might get a more intense pumpkin smell from the candle heating the pumpkin.  Or, you might be more sensitive to the heat from the candle as you pass by it.  Although it is dark you might be more sensitive to motion.  If someone jumps out and yells BOO! you will get a bigger scare than if you see your friend standing there waiting to jump out at you.  Try Halloween in the dark sometime.  You might find the experience stimulating.

How we perceive something affects how we react to it.  It seems that right now, many people are reacting out of fear.  It affects how we react to situations, to strangers, or to trying something new.  Fear is paralyzing us as a society.  We have to learn to accept our fears, understand them, and be able to act in a positive, life-affirming way.  Halloween is a perfect place to start when teaching how to embrace our fears.  After all, our fears start when we are young.  What better time to learn to deal with them.

Cabin Trip September 2018

First coat of paint is on this wall.

We were in the mountains again earlier this month.  This trip we were busy painting the outside of the cabin.  The wood trim has been painted from time to time, but it has been twenty years since the cinder block was painted.  The paint is beginning to show some wear, so it was time to get busy and get things painted again.  The winter's are very harsh up there, and we don't want water infiltrating the cinder block.

Stone steps from the yard to the stream.

Cinder block is not the easiest thing to paint.  It has a lot of pits and holes in it.  You have to add on a thick layer of paint and then push it into the little holes.  It will look like it is covered, but as soon as you move on, air bubbles will come out of the holes and leave little openings.  They need to be sealed shut.  Minute bits of water can get in there and freeze.  Over time, it can damage the block.  We noticed some areas on the inside where the block froze, and a chunk fell out and left a divot.  Therefore, we will be paining a second coat, trying to seal up as many of those little holes as possible.

The weather was very warm and humid up there.  During the day is was sometimes uncomfortable.  It took us a few days to acclimate.  The nights were in the sixties.  It was still pretty humid even at night. 

We don't have an air conditioner up there any more.  There used to be one, but after many years the plastic that held it in the window started to disintegrate.  One day I was looking at the air conditioner and realized that I was seeing the outdoors through holes in the panels.  Insects were getting into the house through the holes.  We decided that it was time for it to go.  That was probably a good thing.  Once we took it out of the window, we realized that the filter and vents were all filled with mildew.  I am glad we did not turn it on.  I have really bad mold allergies. 

We have not figured out what to do about air conditioning.  We might have to purchase a portable room air conditioner and haul it back and forth with us.  Since the cabin is not constantly conditioned space, we are always going to have a problem with mildew forming on an air conditioner.  I guess there is a reason that we travel up there in a cargo van.  So far, we just haven't decided to make that purchase.  Many times in June and July it is still cool enough to be wearing a flannel shirt in the evening.  We usually avoid the cabin in August because the gnats are so bad.  So we would really be only using air conditioning once or twice a year.  I suppose if worst comes to worst and it is so hot we can't stand it we will come down off the mountain and buy an air conditioner. 

Anyway, it was a nice trip even though we worked hard.  There is always something that needs doing up there.  I expect that next trip up we will also be getting up leaves.

Next week I will be back to blogging about the life size doll I am making.  Check back on Sunday for the latest on that project.

Life Size Doll Armature - Making the Hands

I wrote the post before I went to the mountains.  I am still learning to use my new computer with a different operating system on it.  Apparently it did not like the way I added pictures to the blog.  It would not load the post.  I am trying a new way of adding the pictures.  I hope it will post this time.  I am sorry for it being so long between posts.

I have been working on this project for a while.  It is finally getting to the stage of making the details.  Today I will be blogging about making the hands.   As always, there is more than one way to do something, so the first choice I had to make was what method to use.  I have tried different means of making doll hands over the years.  Some hands have been sewn and stuffed fabric.  I have sculpted hands from bake in the oven clay.  I have made mittens so that I did not have to show the hands for winter dolls such as Father Christmas figures.  For this doll I wanted to try a new method, tape and gloves with an internal wire armature so that the fingers could be posed as needed.

Since this doll is life size, I could use my own hands to make the structure for the hands.  I made one hand at a time.  I started by slipping on a vinyl glove.   I used vinyl because that is what I happened to have on hand at the moment.  A nitril (spelling ?) glove might have been a better choice because they tend to be a tighter fit.  However, I decided to go with what I had in the studio. Some methods of making hand shapes with tape suggest just wrapping the tape around the hand and fingers until everything is covered.  I chose not to use this method because I felt it would make the fingers too rigid for what I wanted to do with them.  I tore bits of masking tape into small manageable sized pieces and beginning with the fingers started covering the glove with the tape, overlapping the pieces of tape.  The tape was pressed tightly around the fingers and hand.  I covered the glove up to the wrist.

Once the glove was covered it was time to cut it off my hand.  I used a pair of scissors with rounded tips to avoid injuring myself.  I am right handed, but I was still able to cut the glove off by myself.  I started the cut at the center of the wrist and cut up almost to the tip of the middle finger.  From there I was able to pull my hand out without cutting any of the other fingers.  After removing the glove, I taped the cut pieces back together.  Then I made the other hand.

I wish I had stopped to take a photo of the hands at that point so I could have one for the blog.  However, I was on a roll and just kept on working.  The only photos of the hands were taken after I placed them on the doll.

To be able to pose the fingers I made an internal armature from wire.  I used 16 gauge wire, but if I were to do it over again I would use an 18 gauge wire.  The 16 gauge was a little stiff.  I cut 22 inch (55.88 cm) lengths of wire for each finger and the thumbs.  I bent the wire in half so that there would be a rounded piece of wire at the end of each finger rather than a sharp piece of wire.  Once the wire was folded, I taped the wire to hold the to pieces close together.  The wire was inserted into the finger and then stuffed with polyester fiber fill until the finger was firm, but not bulging.

As I added each wire, I also taped the next finger to the previous finger at about the center of the palm of the hand.  It helped keep the finger wires from slipping.  It also provided a platform for the stuffing that would fill out the hand.  Once all the fingers and the thumb had been stuffed, it was time to stuff the palm and back of the hand.  I used pieces of cotton batting to stuff the palm and back of the hand, adding a little polyester fiber fill at the base of each finger to form knuckles.

Because I had used my own hands to create the doll hands, I could easily mark the joints of the fingers.  That helped to determine where to create folds in the wire to make the hand hold the pose I wanted.  Once again, this was a bit more difficult than it needed to be because I had used a stiffer wire.  The fingers are not going to be moving out of that shape easily, so maybe it was not such a problem after all.

I already had a plan for the hands decided when I planned to make this doll into a dancer.  She was supposed to be holding a fan in her raised hand and the hem of her dress in the lower hand.  Now that I am going to do something else with this doll I am not sure what she will be holding in the raised hand.  I will figure it out as I go along.  Who knows it could be a glass of wine or it could be a dagger or something.  I am sure that it will all come together sooner or later.

The long wires protruded well past the wrist.  This  was by design.  The wires were slipped up into the PVC pipe of the armature.  This helped hold the hand in place.  The hand was also taped onto the PVC pipe.  I added a little stuffing here and there and some bubble wrap to integrate the hand into the arm.

So that is about where I am with the doll right now.  With just a little more tweaking to the armature I will be ready to start on the papier   mâché.  I will be blogging on this in the next blog post.

Life Size Doll - Armature Completed

Unfortunately, I am still learning how to use my new computer.  I took the torso photos with the camera turned sideways.   Although the photo shows upright in my pictures file, it shows up sideways when I tried to post it on the blog.  Rotating it with my edit program did not solve the problem.  I will have new pictures of it to post next week.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  Now, on with the post I had written.

After much procrastination, I have the armature completed.  At least, it is at a point that I can live with it and get on to the next phase of the doll, covering it in papier mâché.  When I thought about making this doll, I was at thinking that I would do a much better job of sculpting the musculature.  However, I did not imagine how busy I would be this year and how little time I would have to work on this project.  Nor, for that matter, did I really expect that this doll was going to end up being taller than I am.  So after much longer than I expected, the doll is ready for the next phase.

Although the progress has been agonizingly slow, it has had some humorous moments.  One such moment came in the final step before attaching the head.  The plan was that the head would have a PVC pipe in it so that it could attach to the neck at the shoulder area.   I used a straight piece of pipe with a Tee connector at the top.  The plan was to glue the pipe into the head.  Well, the joke was on me.  The head was so rounded that I could not get the Tee connector to sit flat enough against the head for the glue to hold. I used a lot of glue, but it was just not going to stay where I wanted it to stay.  I had to come up with a Plan B.

Plan B nearly caused a disaster.  I decided that I would wedge the pipe into place long enough for me to partially fill the head with expanding foam.  The foam would fill in the open Tee connector.  Once the foam hardened, it would hold the pipe in place.   I sprayed in some foam, making sure that the pipe stayed upright by checking it with a level and correcting the position when needed.

I have had experience with expanding foam before.  I knew that it expands much more than you think it does.  I only filled the head about half way.  I actually stayed with the piece for an hour.  Everything seemed okay when I walked away from it.  The foam was no longer expanding.  A dry coat over the top.  The instructions said that it was hard enough to trim after an hour.  I walked away thinking that everything was going to work out just fine.  There was plenty of pipe exposed for making the connection to the body.

Imagine my horror when I walked back into my studio a few hours later.  The foam had continued to expand and had overflowed above the head and continued to expand along the entire length of the pipe.  It had even pushed its way into the opening at the end of the pipe.  A small amount of it had fallen off onto the back of the head.  Fortunately, it came off easily from the varnish.  The little bit of residue that remained scratched off with a finger nail.  That area will be covered with a wig, no it was not going to ruin the piece if it had not come off well.  It was just that first shock of seeing the head like this that made me think that the project was close to ruined.

I used a utility knife to cut away the excess foam and excavated down far enough to find the end of the pipe.  I was able to pull out the plug of foam that had filled the end of the pipe.  I was ready to add the head to the body when I ran into another difficulty.  Although I had dry fitted all the pieces when I started, the pipe in the head no longer fitted into the connector on the body.  I tried sanding down the sides of the pipe, thinking that the rough residue left by the foam was causing it not to fit.  That did not work.  I never could get it to fit, but not for lack of trying.  I am thinking that the pressure of the foam may have deformed the thin pipe slightly.  So, it was on to Plan C.

Plan C actually worked.  I put a dowel into the connector and wedged it into place with small bits of a skewer.  The dowel then went into the pipe in the head and wedged with more bits of skewer.  Everything was glued then taped into place.  The head was on at last.  A few more layers of tape and things were good to go.

The hands went on next.  However, the post is already getting long, so I will blog about creating the hands next week.  Check back next Sunday for details.

Fixing the Armature

When I blogged last, I had said that the armature had developed a problem.  One of the joints had come undone and the arm was hanging loose.  This was pretty discouraging since most of the armature had been padded already.  Fortunately, most of the work on padding the shoulders had not been completed.   The only correction to the problem was surgery.

I used a utility knife to cut down through what padding was in place to reach the PVC joint that had come loose.  The padding was peeled back from the section so that it could be pushed back down and taped once the repair was made.  The joint was re-glued, then taped with duct tape to make sure it stayed in place.  Once the doll is finished, you will never even know it happened.

 I think the real problem is that the PVC cement/glue whatever it is was old and starting to dry up.  I don't think it was tacky enough to be able to form a bond between the two pieces.  I hate to say it, but I am going to have to open a brand new jar of the stuff in order to get this arm to stay in place.  I did not want to do that because once you open the jar, that is pretty much it.  The glue dries up fast once opened.  Most likely the rest of it will just go to waste.

A lot of progress has been made this week on the doll.  I have finished padding most of the armature.  The initial work has been done on the hands and put on the head (more about that next post).   Imagine my dismay when I walked back into my studio yesterday morning and saw that same arm hanging down again, loose and swinging.  At this point I am guessing that the other end of that same joint has come loose.  More surgery will be required.



I took the doll outside to re-glue the arm.  The glue has a very strong odor and should only be used in a well ventilated area.  One of my big challenges in working on the armature is that it has been cloudy and raining for days.  That day it was cloudy and I thought I could get it glued back together  it rained.  I was wrong.  No sooner than I had the tape on the joint the rain started.  I had to drag it back inside and leave all the doors and windows open to air the place out.

I guess while I am working on the repair I will reconsider the pose of that arm.  Part of the problem may be that the angle of the arm is putting too much stress on the joint.  Sometimes the materials don't want to do what you want them to do.  The arm may be angled differently in future pictures.  When I originally made a sketch for the doll, she was a dancer and the left hand was holding out her skirt.  At this late date, I don't think I am going to finish that doll in time for the competition, so I may be turning her into a Halloween doll.  Who knows, maybe she will be holding a trick or treat bag.

Next blog post I will be showing the head and hands.  The explanation would take too long to do on this post.  There were some comic moments.  Check back next Sunday for those updates.