request

Anyone out there interrested in steampunk. 'm trying to find inspiration for a steampunk piece, send me a link to your favorite steampunk gear.

I need help solving an argument.

What color are these eyes?

Wire wrap butterfly bracelet

Butterfly Bracelet

Copper Bracelets

Here are some pics of a copper bracelets I have been working on, in preparation for a craft fair coming up at the civic center in Laramie on Dec. 5th. Let me know what you think of them.

Misery makes sense

I bought a book today at the Tattered Cover in Denver. The book is 11,002 things to be miserable about. The book pleases me greatly. I think I will share a few of my favorites with you here.

People who find Sex and the City profound

Large families in matching tacky shirts

Optimism

Airplane pilots with drinking problems

Paraplegic dogs

There are so many reasons to be miserable, it feels better knowing that.

I plan on attending a craft fair with my friend Sparkly Lady in early December. In an effort to prepare for the event I'm working towards completing a new piece every day. My first step will be to finish some dozen or so partially completed projects. I can probably pound out four or five of those every day, since most just need a strand to be hung from or ear wires or a clasp. I will try to post pics when possible.

I do have two mostly completed pieces I worked on today and last night to show off though.

This first one is just a little dragonfly in copper and hematite.


This is a pendant in Egyptian coils.

A question for my mood.

Why is Hate an emotional response that parents try to teach their children is wrong? What is wrong with Hate?

Vikings like it cold.

Many hours my past weeks have been spent on viking knit pieces. I posted one recently. In addition to that piece I've made two others. The first was a 3 stitch double knit out of 32gauge wire. You can see it at the center of the photo. The second was a 6 stitch double knit out of 27 gauge wire, it's at the left of the photo. I put the piece I made last week up for comparison.

craftwerk continued

I originally tried to make this ring from too fine a wire, but eventually found a more suitable gauge.
The design of the thing reminds me of lacing my fingers and then trying to wrap them around each other.

craftwerk part 3

My crafting week continued with this piece, which is a pretty simple adaptation of something I saw on a craft tutorial site. It's a pretty standard wire wrapping piece with haring bone around the beads.

Craftwerk part 2

As promised I am bringing you another of my latest craft exploits. These pieces are merely remakes of a previous piece, but none the less here they are.

These little dream catchers have adventurite stones and recycled electrical wire of various gauges.

Craftwerk

I've been working on a new project lately. I've been going through my idea archive and trying to accomplish one new piece every other night.The project has been mostly successful so far.

The first piece I wanted to work was a strand of viking knit. I used a much smaller gauge wire (~32) than my previous viking knit pieces (~27) here and here. I used six stitches as opposed to three for the previous pieces and it is still much smaller in diameter. In fact it is nearly too small for my computer's camera to photograph much detail. I will upload more of this weeks craftwerk later.

Every Friday I get to repeatedly shove a needle in someones face.

Apadravya now 6g = ouch

My Little Hill

I sit atop a little hill of half finished projects, all of which must be done by tomorrow night.

Craft Update: Recycled Aluminum Spiral Necklace

Recently I acquired a large amount of salvaged wire from my Dad. Most of it was copper, but some of it was aluminum wire from an old lightning rod system. The first piece I've made using this wire is a chainmaille spiral necklace.

I've got a new project in mind.

I plan to make a simple system flute.

After having looked over my wife's flute and realizing that the keys are completely unlike my penny whistle, I knew I could never play the thing. However, a simple system flute uses the same fingering system as a penny whistle.

I've found several sets of instructions for these flutes, on the interwebs. Tomorrow I will procure the materials and begin the design process.

Craft project finished

I've been working on a crochet choker for Sparkly lady and I just finished it. Here it is.

Today I went to Laramie and worked with my Dad. My Dad is the foreman for Laramie Telephone Exchange. What he does is wire and set up phones, networks, low voltage electric, satellite, speakers, and all sorts of things. Today we were "fishing wire" through an elementary school. I imagine many of you have some idea of what fishing wire entails, but you have probably never experienced it like we did today. You see, for phone networks, you have to use CAT5 or CAT6 wire for pretty much every phone on the network. If you don't know what one of these wires looks like, take a look at your internet cable. Now, lets say you have 45 phones in a building, you need 45 of those cables. Obviously you don't want to have all that cable cluttering up the place so where do you put it, above the ceiling. That's where fishing comes in. You get a couple of people up on ladders and you give them this fishing tool.

They run the tool across the space where the wires are intended to go and drag a heavy strength ribbon behind. The ribbon is connected to the bundle of wires pulling from the source spools. Today we ran 3 sets of 15 wires, so we had 15 spools going at one time. Our set up was a little different, but it pretty much looked like this.


So, that was my day today. Tomorrow I will go to Laramie and do it again.

Happy 100th

According to blogger, this is my 100th post. I'm not going to have anything fancy, just a little crafty update.

This is just a prototype of an X-ray necklace I'm trying to cobble together for my schools fund raising efforts.














This is a Byzantine weave bracelet I was inspired to make after visiting a friend (Ducky) working with the same weave. I didn't have the right size mandrel for the wire gauge I wanted to use so I ended up using a size 10 knitting needle to make my coils on. I think it turned out ok.

Lately, school has been rough. We have certain requirements, we have to see a certain number of patients with certain conditions. As the end of the term looms I don't feel I'll be able to find get through all of these patients before the end of the term.

Starting a health blog. http://tehdoktorfitness.blogspot.com

Slow Start.

Today did not start off good, it did not start off bad. It had trouble starting off at all.

I woke up later than I had planned, due to the weeks lack of sleep. I left for Laramie and soon after I got there found out that I couldn't hang out with the Black Pope, since he was under the weather and sorely in need of a nap. I found out my parents were also taking the afternoon to nap, and I couldn't really get a hold of anyone else. So, I ended up meandering around Laramie for about 2-3 hours trying to occupy my time. I stopped by the good ol' Hastings and the Bead Shop downtown. I also checked out the new UW library building, it looks snazzy. After a few hours HSPB says he is feeling refreshed so I head on over and hang out at his place for most of the afternoon. It was great to shoot the breeze and just spend time with him, Les Fleur, Gina, and their sister. As an added bonus I got to share some of HSBP's workout material and Fleur fed us yummy rice puddings.

After dinner at the Flock Hall I went to visit my parents real quick. They were having dinner next door with my Grandpa. We chatted for just a little bit and then I went to JJ's bar to see my friend Will DJ. It was great fun, he did a whole bunch of 80's mixes and I even convinced my Bunny to come and dance a little. I found out that Will and his wife Tanya are having a baby and that it's due very soon, yay me for being out of the loop. After the show we four went to Shari's and had some food and talked for a while to wind down the evening.

Finally Bunny and I came home to Cheyenne and my story ends. Slow start, happy ending.

Takes Forever

I am to the point in learning clinic, where all my patients are on either their second or their second or third visit. this is how things work during our first term. Right around this time everyone will be finishing their first few patients. Even though we are starting to finish patients, we still realize it takes us forever to get through their checkup, x-rays, and cleanings, and that really drives us nuts.

I got up today, with the intention of hemming a friend's skirt, heading off to Laramie, seeing that friend's research presentation, and coming back to Cheyenne. It started off as planned. I got out of bed and began to hem the skirt. After the skirt was done I showered and got ready to go to Laramie. I fueled up my car at a gas station right by the exit and then headed off. About half of the way there I realized I had left the skirt by the door at home, but did not have time to go back and get it. I arrived in Laramie and watched my friend Rose give a nice presentation on her memoir project. After that I went to a late lunch/early dinner with Rose and my friend Brittanny(who was also at the presentation), and our friend Anna. We had loads of fun and I was so happy to see all of them. Afterwards Anna and Rose went to make some roommate arrangements and Britt and I went to hang out and prepare for Dram Prom. I went with Britt to the Dram Prom for a little while and then made my way back to Cheyenne. I forgot to mention that both the drive to Laramie and the drive back were through some wonderfuly shitty weather, such as fog, rain, snow and wind. At the end of it all I made it home to my lovely wife, and reflected here about my day's adventure.

heavy week

This last week was heavy on learning experiences. In clinic, I saw many more patients than the previous week, I even began a debridement(cleaning) on one of them. I learned how to use several new devices including an air powder polisher, which is like a sandblaster that uses water air and baking soda to remove stain and debris from tooth surfaces. I also learned how to perform pit and fissure sealants, which involves polishing the tooth to remove debris, etching the enamel to prep it for a sealant, and then applying a polymer with silicate particles embedded in it, followed by a UV light to make it set. The process is tricky at best because it must be done on a totally dry surface. Let me tell you, making and maintaining a totally dry surface anywhere in the mouth requires some work.

:) First Patient

Today I had my first patient appointment. All in all things went well, considering my inexperience. I may be able to finish my care for that patient on their next visit, which is pretty standard for our first couple of weeks.

I would have had my first patients yesterday, but I had a positive skin PPD test for tuberculosis and I had to wait on chest radiographs to confirm that I do not have TB, before I could see any patients. Luckily there were two of my fellow students with empty chairs yesterday so they took the patients I could not see while waiting for my test results.

I just gotta say it. I love that pretty lady I'm married to.

Dental Hygiene worries

A year from now I will be taking national boards, finals and getting ready to perform as a dental hygienist. A year may seem like a long time, but for us it seems like too short a span to learn all that we must to be hygienists. We are constantly comparing ourselves to a standard in our minds that we feel we may never reach.

Next Monday, some of us see our first patients. We will review their health history, perform an extra and intra oral exam and perhaps start probing the depths of their subgingiva. We have been doing this for months on each other and on mannequins, but the thought of doing this on real clients frightens us deeply. I think that is because we are so focused on doing good and making everything perfect for our clients. We must remember that although we are seeing these patients, this is a learning experience for us and the clients know it too. We are not expeced to be perfect and ready for boards after only a few months, so we should not expect ourselves to be either.

The Many Colors of Copper

I Would like to present examples of the finishes I've been able to put on copper.

In the upper left are a variety of verdigris patinas. Each square represents a slightly different technique and the results can range from statue of liberty green to deep sea blue.
The upper right has some representations of the dark oxidizing colors of liver of sulfur treatment. The colors range from deep woody brown to black to deep gray.

The lower right pieces have been etched with acid and then cleaned with vinegar and salt. They have a matte orange appearance.

The lower left pieces were heated in the oven to high temperatures and depending on the pretreatment the copper comes out with anything up to rainbow colors.

The center piece is just clean smooth copper.

Copper can be manipulated to be almost any color and can even be enameled.

More on the chemical etching experiment.

Chemical etching is the newest technique I've learned in the realm of jewelry making, and I've got to say it has potential.


It even works on aluminum.