I swear, this was not my intention of what to do with my unhatched chickens from the guvmint. But I couldn’t help myself. I was sucked in by forces way beyond my control. I am hypnotised. My jaw has dropped, and I am drooling. I feel quite faint.

This is the danger of the combination of the Internet, a paid off credit card, and a long period of denial.

I’ve been bopping around some fantastic web sites lately. Quite frankly, the only reason I haven’t spent more time on the art internet is because I find it completely overwhelming, as if I am looking into infinity. One of my earliest toddler memories is a cup with a picture of a cow drinking from the same cup with a picture of a cow drinking from the same cup with a picture of a cow drinking from the same cup… This has brought that feeling back to me.

Yesterday, I was farting around with my Sitemeter referrals when I found a blog called Joyce Makes Art by way of a Google search page in Russian for images of “Squirt.” Turns out that Joyce also has a cat named Squirt, and it turns out that she is a multimedia collage and fiber artist. So I was looking through her site when I clicked on this button and fell down the rabbit hole:

It didn’t take much to convince me to register for Keith Lo Bue’s Precious Little: the Poetics of Found Object Jewelry two-day workshop. Then I meandered my way to his virtual gallery and web site.

Holy crap. I feel like a stray dog and someone has offered me a cheeseburger and a warm place to stay.

So that I don’t follow Keith home wagging my tail, I am taking Sandy with me and he’ll explore the nearby museums while I am in class all day Saturday and Sunday. We’ll stay in a very nice hotel and enjoy Friday and our two evenings together.

I’m going to learn how to use tools and make art out of all the junk I have trash-picked, picked up off the pavement, cut out of magazines, and stored in little jars and bowls all over the house, all in the anticipation that one day, this time would come.

Not only that, it’s already February 1 in Australia, and so the February Take It Further Challenge has begun. Next post.

A 90% chance of snow tomorrow and tomorrow night, 1-3 inches expected, the last I read. That would be nice. I’d kind of like to make a snow sculpture. It’s been so long since we’ve had the right kind of snow to do that. Guess who I’ll make the sculpture of?

Perfect timing to run to the grocery store too, because everybody would have wiped out the bread and milk on Wednesday night in preparation for the ice on Thursday. This is a Southern cultural tradition. So when we made our beer run to the Teeter tonight for my 3-day weekend, there were no long lines and I was able to score a loaf of bread. And munchies. Wheeee!

I hope that it won’t stop my milk delivery tomorrow though. They have to drive a long way to the rendezvous point. Oh, it’s so mysterious and exciting - the life of a raw milk consumer!

I really do hope that I will manage to get at least one tapestry project started tomorrow. A recent article in the Jan/Feb 08 edition of Handwoven by the amazing Sarah Swett has very clear instructions for making a tapestry bag using a cardboard box for a loom. The bag is shaped as you weave it. She first covered this territory in Spin-Off several years ago and I always meant to do it. It is the PERFECT use for all this coarse wool yarn I have been given over the years by other weavers, back when I was doing a lot of tapestry and my back had not given out.

The little pin loom tapestries actually grew out of that back blow-out. I couldn’t do anything but lie down or walk for a while and a foam core pin loom was something I could manage lying down. I had this big tapestry project on a weighted warp loom (Navaho style) for years because I could never finish it because of back pain. I finally cut it off and most of this yarn is part of the leftovers that I never used for it. It was an abstract of a sandstone slit canyon.

My chiropractor and yoga finally repaired my back. I can definitely weave around a box, I think!

I’d like to hang out in the studio this weekend, but I’ll probably cozy up to the wood stove in the house. That’s another plus for this tapestry bag project - portability. The studio is too cold for comfort when it is not sunny because the little heater just can’t handle it. The electrical system has been acting very funky so I don’t want to overload it with another heater, although that’s what Sandy says that they used to do when he used it as his war gaming room with the boys.

(Seriously, don’t leave without checking out the Sarah Swett link.)

I also ordered some supplies from Eclectic Etc. Beads to make some earrings, since I assume that I’ll be hearing from Focal Point Gallery soon once they get ready to open, and it would be nice to have some new work. I don’t really care much for making earrings. What I love to make is intricate beadwoven bracelets and little bags. But I’ve got a pile of those already. The earrings sell. The bracelets, some, but not so much. The bags, not at all. That’s probably just as well until I get some bifocals!

Another project would be to photograph these bracelets and load them into my Etsy store, which currently boasts NOTHING for sale. In a way, that is appropriate for me, eh?