Busy Week

Last weekend was a busy week, this week has been busy as well and today we are expecting company for this weekend.  Here are a few photos from what has been happening but not much commentary.

We headed north on August 4 to attend a cousin's birthday party. We arrived in  northern Ohio early enough to take a quick driving tour of our three favorite birding areas beside Lake Erie.

At Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, I made a bathroom stop and noted a flyer on the receptionist's desk describing the American Lotus. I had been calling all the flowers with the big leaves growing in the water waterlilies. But now I know American Lotus grows on stems that extends well above the water.

Tom took this photo from the van at Metzger Marsh.

We had a good time at the potluck birthday party but were chased back to our van by an approaching storm since we were sitting outside.

The next day we went to the annual Smith family reunion. I have a photo of me attending it when I was six years old. The reunion has been held at a variety of places...the farm of Lena and Charles Smith, and then the farms and homes of their children. For the last ten or twenty years it has been held at what most of us call "the Ratner cabin".

There is always a potluck dinner at noon. I didn't take a photo until most people had had dessert but you can see there is some left for the nibblers.

We old folks talk and talk and talk and look at photos from reunions of the past.

 

The children have fun, too.

The reunion was lightly attended this year, probably because there was rain all morning. Some years there are close to two hundred attending. This year there were more than fifty but less than a hundred. But as Helen pointed out, "When there aren't so many people here, we get to talk with each one more. When there are a lot of people here, we get to see and say "Hi" to a lot of people."

She also told me about this beautiful fungus on one of the trees. The fungi is close to the size of a soccer ball.

When we returned home I immediately started gathering supplies for a Children's Drawing session on Tuesday. Other artists in the area teach on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. There were seventeen or eighteen young students, ages almost six through nine. Here is one drawing from the drawing session. I'll put all of them up this coming Tuesday.

Painting with Marsha...August 2

Marsha invited me to paint with her at Night Sky, a coffee house in Troy. The ceiling is painted in a style reminiscent of Van Gogh's swirling night skies. For coffee lovers, there is a wide variety of speciality coffees all ground on the site. There are also delicious freshly made salads and soups. And of course there are the generously sized mouth-watering desserts. Marsha chose coffee and I chose their raspberry decaf tea.

 Marsha often paints from a a photo on her iPad. The photo of the day was of a Persian cat. You can see the completed painting at either of the two sites where you can also buy reproductions of it.

 Her blog sites are

http//marsha-elliott.artistwebsites.com/

or

http//www.redbubble.com/people/melliott

I brought my plein air backpack but no photo or readied drawing so I elected to do a sketch of Marsha painting.

Schmidt's Restaurant und Sausage Haus

A couple weeks ago we met friends at Schmidt's in Columbus. The place mat shows the view that visitors see of Schmidt's as they drive up Kossuth Street in German Village, an old section of Columbus. Much of Ohio was settled by Germans and this area is a well-preserved example of their villages.

Here is a photo showing most of what is in the drawing. Parking is to the left of the sidewalk. The sidewalk is typical pale gray concrete. The street and parking lot are paved with old worn brick.

Here is a closer look at the main entrance.

And here is the door which features a a large wooden paddle from the original meat packing haus. The hinges are from the old cooler door.

On the place mat is a replica of the original trademark of the Packing House.

As a person would expect, this is the place to find beer, various sausage concoctions, cabbage cooked in various ways and German potato salad. The restaurant is noted for its huge cream puffs. The pastry is wonderfully light but I have a feeling the calorie content is enormous. There are other tasty German pastries as well.

This week Tom and I traveled  to Columbus again, this time to the Ohio State Fair. The day was warm and early in the afternoon I sat down on a bench to rest my feet while Tom fetched me a freshly made lemonade from a nearby food concession. And what did I see in front of me as I waited?

Off to the right you can see the first of the three-tent pavilion Schmidt's had set up at the fair.

Lilian Nichols, Polymer Clay Artist...Mokume Gane Techniques

There are four pendants in this photo showing what can be done with Mokume Gane techniques in polymer clay. Makume Gane techniques involve thin layers of clay that are manipulated in some way, then shaved off to reveal the pattern. These are the thin sheets of clay that Mary Ann started with. After she had her thinly rolled sheets, she sprinkled some with glitter and added gold leaf foil to others.

Lilian demonstrates how to add a gold leaf foil layer after which she added more layers of polymer clay.

After layering many thin sheets we embossed them using blunt tools which would not cut the clay. Karen is using a hair pick.

Here is Barbara's stack after she has finished embossing it.

Next, Lilian showed us how to cut the thin layers using a tissue blade.

Here are the very thin slices.

She layered some on a white clay background...

and others on a teal background.

Here is Sally's thin stack after she has begun slicing off tissue-thin layers...

and here are the layers she sliced off.

And here are my thin layers on a green-blue background.

We will use our new sheets to create finished projects. If we are ambitious, we will have them finished by our next monthly meeting. If not, we will work on them at the next meeting. Next month I expect this blog to be a display of our finished projects.

UPDATE... At our September class, Mary Ann brought in her finished Mokume Gane project, a metal box, its lid covered using her Makume Gane.

My First Completed Polymer Clay Necklace

I did it. I finally spent the time required to put together my first polymer clay necklace. As is usually the case with me, it took much more time than I had anticipated and I ran into problems.

Lilian showed us how to make the leaf-like objects in October. If they are stretched and adjusted  they can look more like "real" leaves than mine do.  I think of mine as being the result of "artistic license".  I also made some small round beads, some using the stacked cane I used for making the leaves and some using a rusty brown mixture of several colors.

I didn't know anything about stringing the beads or what to use.  I could see that I hadn't made enough small beads so I bought a box of glass beads of mixed shapes and colors.

I chose a few glass beads and threaded them intermittentaly with the polymer beads on jute cord from my craft box.  I posted this necklace in October.

 

It wasn't long enough for the necklace I was visualizing.   I needed more beads and I wasn't pleased with the burnt sienna beads.

The next time I experimented with polymer clay I made more beads using the remaining stack of colored layers  from which I had made the leaves.

I was still mulling around possibilities until a few days ago. By then Lilian had given us a demonstration of how she attached a clasp to tigertail, a special wire that she likes to use for stringing  necklaces.

I had also bought this book on beading basics. It contains a step-by-step explanation attaching a clasp using a technique close to what Lilian had shown us.  

                                                               


I restrung the necklace adding more polymer beads and more glass beads.  I strung them on beading wire this time.

Attaching the crimp bead and the clasp took the most time. That was partly because doing something like this for the first time always is time consuming for me but being me, I also put some of the blame on my old eyes. They just don't see as well as they did ten years ago.

 But I can still SEE. Three cheers for my eyes!

Here is the finished necklace.

Children's Musical Theater, July 2012...Annie

On Tuesday morning, I attended the third and last children's theater production of the summer at the Troy Civic Theatre. Tuesday's play was much more informal than the major productions some summer children's theater groups offer. It was also much less expensive and took only a few weeks of summer vacation.

The students learn basics of acting and dancing and singing and have an opportunity to perform before an audience. They and their parents are responsible for finding their costumes. The actresses and actors change the sets as well as do the acting.

The Troy Recreation Department sponsors the activity. The Troy Civic Theatre group donates their theater and sometimes their costumes and props.


Since the total time involved is less than thirty hours, longer parts are divided among two or three students so none of them will have an excessive number of lines to memorize in a short time span. The story line is abridged which further cuts the number of lines.  If a student is cast in a small part, he or she is cast in one or two other parts, so there is plenty of opportunity to act on stage.

Here is a selection of photos from "Annie".

Annie No. 1 and the other orphans discuss their fate.

Miss Hannigan No.1 berates Annie for her behavior. The hamper beside them is Annie's eventually escape vehicle.

Out on the street after escaping, Annie meets the apple seller and the dog catcher who has captured Courtney, the corgi.

Annie No. 2 finds Sandy played by Presto, a 4-H trained dog, and is questioned by a policeman.

The homeless, jobless people of Hooverville give Annie food.

Miss Hannigan, No. 2, wants to know where Annie has gone. Later a policeman brings her back.

Miss Hannigan is angry that Grace, No.1, who is Daddy Warbucks' secretary, decides to have Annie spend the holidays at the mansion.

Daddy Warbucks, No. 1, and one of his servants, meet Annie.

Annie meets the other servants and enjoys her new coat.

Rooster, Miss Hannigan's ex-con relative, and his girl friend discuss how they would like to live on Easy Street and live in a mansion.

Lily, the girl friend, files her nails while Miss Hannigan and Rooster continue their discussion.

Daddy Warbucks, No.2 and Annie, No. 3 talk.

The servants are pleased that Annie will spend the holidays at the mansion.

Daddy Warbucks arranges to make a radio announcement hoping to find Annie's parents. In the foreground is the Sound Effects Man.

The radio personality, accompanied by his back up chorus and dancers, sings "Never Dressed Without a Smile".

The orphans hear the announcement about the search for Annie's parents and sing the smile song to entertain themselves.

Rooster hears the announcement also and comes up with a scheme to get the money being offered to Annie's parents.

Annie No.2 cheers up President Roosevelt's Cabinet by reminding them that tomorrow is only a day away.

Roosevelt, in center of the photo, has some ideas for the cabinet to consider.

Back at the mansion, Daddy Warbucks and Annie  No.3 dance.

The schemers pretend they are Annie's parents.

When the schemers and Miss Hannigan return the next day to pick up the check and Annie No. 1, they discover that Daddy Warbucks' agents have learned who they really are. Miss Hannigan insists she didn't know that Rooster and Lily were not Annie's parents.

Daddy Warbuck, No. 3 doesn't believe her. Grace No. 2 is beside him, ready to help him in any way she can.

Daddy Warbucks grabs Miss Hannigan and calls for the police to take her away.

The celebration begins.

The guests talk between dances.

The grand finale. Everyone except the schemers are happy.