No More Furniture...

Another one of my early heroes in miniature has retired.

Some of you may have heard of Jack Chasteen.  He is a furniture maker in mini. 

He and his wife did lots of shows on the west coast...I am not sure about elsewhere.  They had done the show here in Tucson as long as I have been in minis.

They live in Prescott.  Northern part of AZ.  My friend Barb used to live up there and just went back last week.

She came to Wednesday  group yesterday.  The Chasteens are not going to be doing minis. 

At the same time, she brought a lot of his samples of wood.  He used woods from all over the world.

The ones on the string were samples that he used to carry to shows.  The other ones were just spares. 

I took them thinking, lots of small table tops...Some of the larger ones would be OK, but the smaller ones weren't even big enough for candle stands.  What to do?

Last night I got the idea of turning them into jewelry...I don't know if it will work, but I am going to try.  The wood is too beautiful to hid away in a drawer somewhere.

Meanwhile, Tessie found out that I had basket making supplies that I took to the Witches meeting...
Unhappy witch?  You bet!

Zar wouldn't let her throw the baskets out.  He threw her out instead...Now we know where Tessie stands on Zar's list of useful items...

She is hanging on by the skin of her teeth ...

I also started another one.  Of course, that didn't set well with her either.

Here is a close up of the basket that I finished at the meeting.  The stones on it are real turquoise.

It is a Tennessee Spinner gourd base, with two strands of over dyed floss. 

In the close up it looks coarse.  In real life, it is fine.  Sorry about that.

I am going now to rescue Tessie.  Maybe she will mind her manners the rest of the day.

See you tomorrow.

Another Curtain Call....

This morning, my friend Joan came over for a few hours of minis...A good time was had by all.

She found a new doll mold at Michael's for a dollhouse sized lady.  You push the poly clay in the mold parts and then you are responsible for the back sculpting....That's the hard part.

Between the two of us, with her doing the work and me making silly suggestions, she got two parts finished.  At one point, she said it looked like a character from "Planet of the Apes".  Shortly after that I suggested that she turn it into Gargamel from the Smurfs, so she wouldn't have to put hair on the head.....That should give you some idea of how it was going...I guess you had to be there to understand what fun we were having...

Anyway, I got another curtain pinned, sprayed and fitted.  Hey!  That's progress!

I now have only one curtain to go!

Tessie was standing by and when I said that she could try it out, she couldn't wait.  She brought in a ringer.  The gypsy that has been telling fortunes in the Witches Warehouse since day one.

 Since the gypsy has never had a name, Tessie has been calling her "Junior".  The explanation? 

Tessie explained with, "If we call her junior, it will be easier to change the name of the place...It's much easier just to add "Jr." than to print a whole new name.

Personally, I think Tessie just wants to keep her name on the booth, even though someone else is doing all the fortunetelling.

Junior is in trouble already.  She flounced in.  Turned her back on Tessie and announced, "Hi Zar.  My name is Tessie Junior and I will be reading your palm today."  She totally ignored Tessie...Zar grinned a lot. 

I walked away.  I didn't want to see any of the bloodshed when things erupted.  I am now going to work on the last curtain, with the door closed.

See you tomorrow.