Ah, babies.

I now have each of the babies set up in its own little nursery--a plastic shoebox with holes drilled through the sides for ventilation, lined with paper towels, and with a water dish and a mound of damp sphagnum moss to hide in. (Baby Brazilian rainbow boas dehydrate very easily, so high humidity is essential.) They are utterly adorable.

Now comes the question of what to do with Astarte. I can't keep "her". Isis is his mother, which means that the four babies are first-generation inbred. This isn't as big a problem in reptiles as it is in mammals, but it's still not good, and I wouldn't feel good about breeding mother to son. I don't have enough room for two cages. So, one of them has to go, and I'm much fonder of Isis, having had her for 12 years now, so Astarte has got to go. (Sorry, Astarte.)

Whether to get another male to replace Astarte is an interesting question. I LOVE baby boas--they are adorable--and they are also quite valuable at about $150 apiece (retail), but I also don't feel Isis needs to be a baby factory for the rest of her life, and I don't really have room to cage them separately. So I'll have to think about it. I may just keep only Isis.

But damn, those babies are CUTE!!

Today I selected eighteen photos as candidates to go with my sample chapter, and heard back from my friend the fashion designer--I'm going over there this weekend to see about getting that basic pattern drafted.

BABY SNAKES!!!!!

So, Mike and I got back from a dinner party tonight, and were staggering off towards bed when I flipped on the light, glanced into the snake cage, and saw...BABY BOAS!!!

I had no inkling that Isis was even pregnant. Except that she was resolutely refusing to eat, but I was chalking that up to her being fussy. But no...!

So either the little minx has been storing sperm for the last couple years (they've been known to do that), or Astarte is not as female as she purports to be...!

So anyway, I now have four happy, healthy, bouncing baby boas (it could have been eighteen; Isis laid fourteen slugs (unfertilized eggs) in addition to the four live babies), and I'm spending tomorrow morning setting up a baby-snake nursery.

Here's a photo of two of the little bundles of joy:


Aren't they ADORABLE?

a thoroughly astonished, happy snake-gramma

Tien

Book proposal and stamping

Finished 3 sections of my proposal yesterday and today...easy ones, so don't be too impressed! I did "Complementary Books", "Markets for the Book", and the promotion plan...that leaves me with just a couple more sections to go before the proposal is ready! I will probably send it off to my writing coach for review, tomorrow or the day after.

Also dyed 2 yards of the heavier silk charmeuse a deep teal blue...pleased with myself because I managed to mix exactly the right shade I wanted (that's the advantage of having done all those dye samples a couple years ago!), although it did come out a trifle darker than I had planned. I'm going to try stamping it in gold and silver metallic colors, using some of the rubber stamps I bought a few weeks ago.

I'm actually terrified of ruining it--it's such a pretty fabric, and I've never tried stamping before--but am firmly reminding myself that (a) there's more where that came from, and (b) one never progresses without making mistakes, and it's never perfect the first time. If I can't use it for costuming, I'm sure someone else would be happy to get it. At worst I can donate it to some quilter friends of mine.

But I may practice my stamping techniques on some cheap muslin, first.

I don't expect to get much more accomplished this week--I have dinner engagements tonight, tomorrow, and Friday--but I'll be working on the book tomorrow morning, so maybe I will get something done. I'll try stamping over the weekend.

Ostrich feathers

Red ostrich feathers.

No, really.

I had been wondering what to do for Day Five, aka Red Dress Day. It's problematic. What's a girl to do in the face of a thousand hot guys in red dresses? There's no way a woman can out-fabulous a guy in a slinky cocktail dress. Especially if he has better legs than I do!

I had thought about a red leather bikini top and matching red leather tutu, but I don't really have the upper body to pull that off--would need to drop about 10% bodyfat first.

Then someone on the AIDS Lifecycle discussion forum said, "I LOVED your feather outfit...was it ostrich feathers?"

Well, no. They were PEACOCK feathers, and I'm not quite sure how one mistakes a peacock for an ostrich even at 100 yards away on a moving bicycle, but...hmm...did you mention OSTRICH feathers??

So now I'm envisioning a three-layered ostrich-feather tutu, with alternating red and white layers of feathers. (The white is important to give contrast...if I only had red ostrich feathers you wouldn't be able to appreciate their *ahem* feather-ness.) I've put in a bid for a few ostrich feathers on eBay. We'll see if I win.

I have also ordered 5 yards of a cheap silk plaid from Angus International in Hong Kong (they win my award for the most amusing catalog I have ever read...well worth shelling out $15 for, along with their swatches). I'm not sure if I'm going to do that tutu-kilt, but if I can only find a set of bagpipes I think I will. I like the idea of bagpipes and bikes. Beware of the bicycling bagpiper!

So now I have a couple of tutu ideas:

champagne/gold silk with velvet collar
red/orange/yellow crazy-quilt
blue/purple/green crazy-quilt
red ostrich feather
Scottish tartan

Still only five days' worth, which gives me leeway to create two more outfits at least...or, of course, to change my mind and do something else entirely.

At least this year's outfits seem likely to be considerably more creative than last year's.

Ostrich feathers. Remember, you heard it here first!!

Various stuff

Skills Clinic

Well, the Skills Clinic was mildly helpful, but didn't produce any major revelations (not that I expected it to). I did learn some interesting things about steering and countersteering, as well as some ascending and descending skills, but most of it I'd been doing instinctively already. Put in 8000 miles on a bike and you learn a *few* things...although, I still want to improve my skills on a bike. I may do some one-on-one work either with my coach or with the woman who taught the clinic.

We did have a crash at the end of the clinic, though--one of the women slid out on a turn and nearly ended up in a ravine. We waited for the ambulance to arrive, then went home--turns out she's fine except for some road rash and some nasty bruises. I'm relieved.

Unfortunately, this didn't do much to build my confidence in going around turns at high speed...the main reason I signed up for the clinic. So I guess I'll continue being conservative until I've had a chance to practice the skills I've learned. Not a bad plan, I guess.

I did find out that Velo Girls (the local women's cycling club) is having a Markleeville Death Ride training program! It starts in December (another starts in March), and I'm considering training with them instead of on my own.

Book

Heard back from my writing coach, who made some suggestions for the marketing section of my proposal. I did some preliminary market research yesterday night and this morning, and discovered the astonishing fact that 200,000+ people participate in AIDS Walks every year! The number participating in cycling fundraisers, though, appears to be considerably smaller--AIDS Lifecycle seems to be as big as all the others put together.

Tutus

Prewashed my 18 yards of silk today, and will start working with it tonight. I've decided that for stamping, it's better to start with a single color fabric, so will pick a color and dye it tonight. I'm thinking a deep hunter green or a teal blue; haven't decided yet. I'm reading through more of my dye books for inspiration.

make your own rubber stamps

Turns out you can make your own rubber stamps!

http://www.makeyourownrubberstamps.com

I'm not "biting", at least not for now, but dang, that's cool.

A few status updates

The book: I heard back from the publisher of River Walk Journal, who feels that the sample chapter is pretty much in publishable condition as it stands (she only had one or two minor edits). Big relief. Now that two experienced writers/publishers have told me that, I can leave it alone and stop poking at it. She did say that the outline was rather repetitive--I agree with her, but am not sure how to improve it. I may ask my coach for some guidance there.

I finished off the "About the Author" section of the proposal and sent it, along with the overview, to my writing coach for review. I also asked him for help with the "Markets For the Book" section, because I'm unsure how to elicit numbers and specify target markets for the book. Hopefully he'll get back to me shortly, but I plan to continue cranking through the rest of the proposal regardless. There are many other sections that I don't know how to write (yet), but I figure I'll get through them the same way I got through the other sections: sit down and write the damn thing.

One of the things I've discovered with writer's block is that much of it is simply being afraid to write something, or having no idea what to write. It can be gotten around either by simply sitting there long enough to let the fear wear off (rather than letting the fear divert me into doing other things) or by sitting down and typing. Both work better early in the morning when I'm not quite fully awake and my resistance to new stuff is lower than usual. But it's worked to get me unstuck at least twice now.

The other big key is just to get into the habit of writing, so it doesn't feel as bad when you start up again. It's sort of like going to the gym. If you haven't been in awhile, the first workout or two feel awful, and I find I can only do half-workouts for the first couple workouts. After that, the body gets used to them, and then after that, the body comes to expect them. The mind, in my experience, works the same way w/r/t writing. So it's a good thing that I'm continuing to write.

The fiber arts: I got 18 yards of various weights of silk fabric in the mail today, from Rupert, Gibbon, and Spider. All white, of course; I plan to dye them using various fabric techniques and then turn them into tops and tutus.

18 yards sounds like a lot. It's not. Not when you're doing 2-yard batches at a time--that's only 9 batches. Mess up once or twice and, well, it comes out to less than you think. I anticipate donating a bunch of my errors to my local quilters. Fortunately, RG&S have REALLY cheap silk--19.5 mm silk charmeuse for $6-7/yard (normally it retails at $20/yard) so mistakes won't be too expensive.

Tonight I sewed crazy-quilt, tomorrow I plan to do some dyeing, but haven't figured out what technique yet. I may try some pour-dye techniques, as those produce a softer gradation in color than the really low-water type dyeing, and I want a relatively soft color effect, because I plan to stamp on top of it in metallic gold paint. Mmm, that sounds yummy. :-)

I also bought a basic silkscreening kit, but I can't do much with it before I get my order of Fiber Etch from Dharma Trading Co.

Cycling: Tomorrow is the skills clinic! I have to be down in Woodside by 9am. Which means I had better get to sleep now...

Some photos

Now that I'm caught up on the hedgehog-washing side of things, a few photos!

First, I finished a second panel of my crazy-quilt flame top. I took a photo, and here it is:


It's just the bare fabric right now--I plan to add embroidery, silk flowers, sequins, etc. along the edges, making it even gaudier than it currently is.

And here are some nice photos of chameleons, that I shot when Mike and I went up to help rescue the zillions of chameleons.

This is a Jackson's chameleon (I think):

And this I know is a Parson's chameleon (very rare):

Finally, here's a shot of the Getty, and a shot of the Getty + Mike, from our trip to LA:



I love Mike. And not just because he looks good with architecture. :-)

How to wash a hedgehog

I am pleased to announce that, at long last, the True Story can be told...

http://www.travelingtiger.com/pix/hedgehog.htm

Oh devore, devore...

The most dangerous thing about the brain is where it can go if you're not careful. Why, today I picked up a yard of white silk-rayon velvet in the remnant bin at Thai Silks, and my mind immediately leapt off into thoughts about devore (burnout) velvet. You put a chemical called Fiber Etch on the back of the velvet, and it eats through the rayon pile, leaving a raised pattern of velvet against silk gauze. Apply it with a silkscreen, and you can create your own repeating pattern.

"And then," the mind thinks, "I could do repeats of the AIDS Lifecycle logo, and dye it in rainbow colors, and..."

So now I am researching devore velvet and silk printing tools. I don't know WHERE I'll find the time for this, without sacrificing quality time with the book, but like I said--it's dangerous what the brain can get up to if you're inattentive, even for a moment.

I have not, however, forgotten about The Book. I finished the Overview section today and am ready to move on to the section on marketing--this one's gonna be tough since I have no idea what to write. I will probably email my coach for suggestions.

Meanwhile, I have finished another chapter in the book on Flash, and can now create my own handy-dandy buttons with frame anchors. It's achievements like this that made this nation great. Really. :-)

patterns and plaids

Talked with my friend who does fashion design, and he's going to design a pattern for me! We're going to get together and do a sloper (basic, form-fitting pattern) weekend after next, and then go from there. I'm bringing my wedding dress (which I designed and sewed myself--gorgeous, 100% sandwashed silk, decorated with white-and-gold lace, gold beads, and freshwater pearls) because I like the pattern.

He's also loaned me a book on draping, which I will read through in my copious (ha!) free time.

He suggested using a plaid fabric for one of the tutus, and doing a tutu-kilt! So I have ordered swatches from one or two places that carry plaid silk and am seriously contemplating it. What the hell, I can be a Chinese-Scottish Tutugirl if I feel like it. Just call me "McChiu". (Bless you!)

I have ordered several yards of silk charmeuse (in two weights, one for tops and one for tutus) and a few yards of lightweight silk taffeta, all in white for dyeing. It's probably more than I need, but I'd like to have it on hand to work with. I look forward to dyeing, stamping, and whatnot. All in my copious (nonexistent) free time, of course.

Meanwhile, I have written the subject hook for my book, and am moving on to the next piece, describing the market for the book. This is more complicated since I have no facts and figures to quote--I may have to ask my writing coach for help.

Looking forward to the cycling skills clinic this weekend!

You can dye polyester!

While I was at the Asian Art Museum, I flipped through a book titled Memory on Cloth: Shibori Now. It had a number of techniques involving silk, but what was really interesting was the section on polyester! It turns out that you can steam-set polyester into permanent creases, and you can also dye it with disperse dyes. Mind you, disperse dyes are a pain to work with and generally come with some rather noxious carriers (one more outdoor project for that camp stove I don't yet own), but I've seen some beautiful scarves done that way. I just didn't know how to do them before. Now, of course, I'm regarding polyester fabrics with a new eye--I had despised them previously as being unfit for most fiber arts, but...hmm.

Some other small tidbits:

• Tonight I'm going to the East Bay poly potluck, where I will hopefully have a chance to talk to my friend who does fashion design. (And meet other poly folk, of course.)
• It looks like Lena (my friend the translator for the Tibetan lama) is not coming to stay with me after all--she's going to stay in the East Bay. I'm disappointed, but I will get to have dinner with her from time to time (while she's visiting), so that's something.
• I'm shocked by the military coup in Thailand. While I won't pretend to a deep knowledge of Thailand, I did spend two months there while traveling (see my travel photos if you don't believe me :-) ), and the idea of martial law and military coups just seems...wrong. Granted that this appears to have been a bloodless one, still, I had thought of Thailand as a more stable country. I hope things remain (relatively) calm there. I liked the country and hate to think of it in turmoil.
• I've discovered that looms are available on Craigslist! (Okay, *everything* is available on Craigslist, but still.) I'm keeping my eye out for a cheap 8-harness Baby Wolf, that being the only loom small enough to fit into my apartment without having to evict something else. I doubt I'll find one (thankfully), but you never know.

Cycling Skills clinic this weekend

(This is a duplicate of the post on my Markleeville Death Ride training diary...so if you read both blogs, you might want to skip this one.)

Just got the agenda for the Girls Got Skills clinic this weekend! Looks like it's going to be a pretty serious two days of cycling...the clinics run 9am to 5pm. Admittedly, much of that is not going to be on the bike (thankfully), but there will be enough cycling to count as a workout in my book.

A brief overview of what's in the class:

Day One

Bike handling skills

• Mounting/dismounting
• Starts & emergency stops
• Looking behind you
• Riding without hands
• Bumping
• Bike handling
• Bunny hopping

Heart Rate based training

• Determining HR zones
• Background information on time trialing
• HR monitor review

Cornering and counter-steering drills

Introduction to Pacelines (single, double, echelons, packs)

Time trial to determine HR training zones

Day 2

Climbing technique review/demonstration

• Body/hand position
• Pedal stroke and Cadence
• Technical tips - how to read a hill - choosing your line

Climbing and descending drills

Sample workouts - Climbing accelerations and Strength Endurance Intervals

Technical climbing & descending

• Training Plan design
• Training vs. riding
• Determining HR training zones
• Developing a periodized program

Nutrition for Cyclists

So, about marbling...

First,a great set of instructions on how to marble fabric can be found here:

http://quilting.about.com/od/fabricdyeing/ss/marble_fabric.htm

Essentially, marbling is floating paint on the surface of a size (viscous liquid), manipulating the paints so they flow into interesting designs, then laying down a sheet of fabric or paper on the surface to pick up the paint. It's a lot of fun but does involve a lot of prep work:

The fabric:

• use silk or cotton.
• wash in synthrapol
• soak in alum (so the fabric holds the paint)
• let dry at room temperature
• iron with a cool iron.

The size:

• put together a box to hold the size (I used a cardboard box lined with plastic)
• mix the size (I used methocel, but had to run out and get some ammonia at the last moment so it would dissolve properly)

The paints:

• mix fabric paint with water and a little acrylic dispersant (to help the colors flow better)
• use baby food jars to get cheap glass jars

The tools:

• bundles of broomstraw--cut bristles off a straw broom and tie together into small bundles, for applying paint
• rakes and combs--I made mine by cutting strips of corrugated cardboard, then gluing toothpicks into the cut end of the corrugations at a regular spacing - 3 inches, 2 inches, 1 inch, 1/2 inch, 1/4 inch

You use the bundles of broomstraw to apply paint--dip in thinned-down paint, and tap the straws to shake off small droplets of paint onto the size. The paint spreads out as you apply it.

Then you take the rakes and combs and draw them through the size, which pulls the spots of color into interesting patterns (see the URL at the top of this blog entry for some examples). Then--the magical part--you take the fabric and lay it on top of the pretty swirls, and it takes up the paint immediately! Pull it off and swish it around in a bucket of water, hang to dry. Fix paints by ironing on the back for 30 seconds, rinse out completely, and you're done!

That said, it took my mom and me all day (minus five hours for a trip to the Asian Art Museum and Britex Fabrics) to marble 18 pieces of fabric. I'll post photos of the best ones once I finish the process. We mostly did orange/red/yellow patterns (for the flame top), blue-green ones (for the blue/green/purple top), and yellow/purple ones (because my mom liked the colors). It's definitely time-consuming.

I'm tempted to take a "real" course in marbling, just so I can get some more experience in it. I'm not too tempted to marble on my own--it's fun, but it's also a LOT of work and is best done with two people, IMO. I'm glad I did those pieces, though.

Next on the hit parade: dye some silk in flame colors (mostly red) and stamp with gold and orange metallic colors. I may do some dyeing with the silk/rayon velvet, too. It all depends how much free time and how much energy I have for dyeing.

I'll post photos when I get a chance.

Marbling

Well, my mom and I just spent the better part of today marbling. It's extremely complicated to set up and requires quite a bit of equipment--most of which can thankfully be made at little to no cost. Once you get through the elaborate setup, though, it's magical watching the designs appear. A few shakes with a bit of broomstraw, a pass-through with a cardboard-and-toothpick rake, and lo! incredibly complex and beautiful patterns appear. Only it takes you four hours to get set up to that point, first.

I'll post more about marbling and how-to tomorrow; way too tired to do it tonight. If I find the time (ha!) I'll try to put up something on my website about marbling. Too bad we didn't take more photos of the process, but we were so preoccupied with playing with colors that we didn't get around to it. I do have a nice shot of me lifting the fabric out of the marbling tray.

I have now written most of the subject hook for my book proposal, and am grinding my merry way along to getting the rest of the proposal written. Having done the outline and the sample chapter, though, and having had plenty of time to think about the proposal, I think I'll be up to the task.

Didn't make it out for a ride this weekend, since mom was around. Next weekend is the Velo Girls Skills Clinic, which runs both days, so it's quite likely I won't get a long ride in next weekend either (although, if the clinic ends early in the day, I'll try to sneak one in).

Too tired to write, and I have to get to the gym at 6:30am tomorrow so I can work on putting on a little more muscle/endurance. I'm not going to be able to do everything at once, but I can at least work on not losing too much muscle tone between now and December, when I start training again...

Oh yeah, almost forgot. My mom and I went to Britex Fabrics in SF and found the perfect red velvet to go with the champagne-and-gold striped silk; it's a rich, dark red and sets off the silk perfectly. It was a remnant, so (given Britex) was merely expensive rather than astronomically priced. I'm not sure if it's a silk/rayon or a polyester velvet, though I'm suspecting the latter.

Strengths

I'm going through a course at work called "Discover Your Strengths," which starts off with a strengths evaluation test. (You can learn more about it at http://www.strengthsfinder.com .) It came up with the following five top strengths for me:

Input

"You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information - words, facts, books, and quotations - or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting..."

Intellection

You like to think. You like mental activity. You like exercising the "muscles" of your brain, stretching them in multiple directions...the exact focus will depend on your other strengths. You are the kind of person who enjoys your time alone because it is your time for musing and reflection...

Maximizer.

Excellence, not average, is your measure. Taking something from below average to slightly above average takes a great deal of effort and in your opinion is not very rewarding. Transforming something strong into something superb takes just as much effort but is much more thrilling...Like a diver after pearls, you search them out, watching for the telltale signs of strength...And having found a strength, you feel compelled to nurture it, refine it, and stretch it towards excellence. You polish the pearl until it shines. You choose to spend time with people who appreciate your particular strengths. Likewise, you are attracted to others who seem to have found and cultivated their own strengths. You don't want to spend your life bemoaning what you lack. Rather, you want to capitalize on the gifts with which you are blessed. It's more fun. It's more productive. And, counterintuitively, it's more demanding.

Focus

"Where am I headed?" you ask yourself. You ask this question every day. You need a clear destination, or your life and your work can quickly become frustrating. And so each year, each month, and even each week you set goals. These goals then serve as your compass, helping you determine priorities and make the necessary corrections to get back on course. You instinctively evaluate whether or not a particular action will help you move toward your goal. Those that don't are ignored. This forces you to be efficient.

Futuristic

You are the kind of person who loves to peer over the horizon. The future fascinates you. As if it were projected onto the wall, you see in detail what the future might hold, and this detailed picture keeps fulling you forward, into tomorrow. While the exact content of the picture will depend on your other strengths and interests - a better product, a better team, a better life, or a better world - it will always be inspirational to you. You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes these visions. Often people look to you to describe your visions of the future. They want a picture that can raise their sights and thereby their spirits. You can paint it for them.

* * * * *

In general I view these things as the touchy-feely equivalent of horoscopes, but this seems to be pretty spot-on. I'm looking forward the class that's supposed to tell me what to do about it.

Finished the outline last night (it required more rewriting than I expected), and got back in touch with the publisher of River Walk Journal today. she's going to review my outline and sample chapter and get back to me tonight or tomorrow. Tonight I'm going off for dinner with an old family friend, but tomorrow I plan to start work on the proposal.

I have been reading books on marbling and am really quite interested in it. I don't think the results will necessarily be appropriate for my crazy quilt (though one never knows), but there appear to be quite a few (and often extremely complex) patterns for the making. I think on Sunday I may try talking my mom into marbling anyway. (The trouble is, during the week I'm spending all my energy writing, and half my weekend is taken up with cycling, so I only have so much time for fiber arts right now.)

Got my final package of goodies from Dharma Trading Co. I'm now ready for just about anything in silk-painting, dyeing, etc. Whee!

Heard back from my writing coach again...

He basically likes my outline--he suggested several ways to clean it up, which I will probably implement. I'm going to take his edits home and think about them some, but I think the outline is basically done. I'll try to polish it off tonight and then start looking at the rest of the proposal. I've been dreading starting in on the rest of it since it's all stuff I'm unfamiliar with and feel inadequate to writing, but with the outline nearly done I have no excuse for not working on it. :-)

Searched through my fabric-paint stash this morning and discovered that I have basically everything needed for marbling except some orange paint, which I have ordered from Dharma Trading Co. I'm not sure whether I'll do marbling with my mom, though, as she says she's not thrilled with the designs that marbling produces, so I imagine she isn't thrilled with the idea of marbling, either. We may go shopping at Britex Fabrics instead, looking for a trim that matches the champagne/gold silk I've been trying to figure out what to do with.

Tuesday I go to a potluck in the East Bay, where I'll meet up with the acquaintance who's into fashion design.

Whee!

so many possibilities!

I have been looking through the Dharma Trading Co catalog and am a little overwhelmed. So far the options for playing with fabric include:

• marbling
• silk-screening
• inkjet photo transfers/fabric
• stamping
• batik
• silk painting
• tie-dyeing
• shibori (a subset of tie-dyeing)

and that's just the start of it! Handspinning and knitting (with which I was getting emphatically bored) are just the tip of the iceberg.

I think this weekend, with my mom, I'll tackle marbling, dyeing, and stamping, plus some flat pattern drafting and crazy-quilting. I think she'd enjoy any and all of that, and it is kind of magical watching the patterns appear. I have the materials for everything except stamping, and I think I can pick those up pretty cheaply at Jo-Ann's Fabrics on the way home tonight.

There are moments when life is so shiningly brilliant that I want to roll in it like an overenthusiastic dog...I go through phases of being relatively uncreative, and then there are times when life just explodes with possibility.

I'm still not sure if this goes with being bipolar--mood swings are the hallmark of the disorder--but I don't show any of the usual signs of mania during these phases, so I think it's just the life of a creative artist.

Created my first cool Flash animation!

Here it is: http://www.travelingtiger.com/tiensblog/uploaded_images/animation.swf

Okay, it's nothing too fancy, mostly basic timeline motion tweens with a bit of easing and one line of Actionscript (plus a motion guide that accounts for the wavy path of the "8"), but I'm thrilled. And it plays on my cell phone!! Is that wild or what??

(Background: I'm the program manager for Adobe's Flash Lite, aka Flash for cell phones. We take Flash and make it small enough and fast enough to run on a cell phone...which isn't easy, considering how small the file sizes and memory usage have to be. So I'm learning Flash so I can demo our product and understand what we're building.)

I have another, even more basic one with a bit of Actionscript in it--press one button and it turns a circle black, press another button and it turns the circle red. Total beginner stuff, but you got to start somewhere. And it is SO cool to be able to watch it play on my cell phone.

Btw, I'm using Flash 8: Projects for Learning and Interactivity, by Rich Shupe and Robert Hoekman. I like the book--it's an introduction to Flash animations and to basic Actionscript, both at once. I have a book on Actionscript as well, but it's more object-oriented programming and less about how to handle Flash. Nothing wrong with that, but I need to be able to do both in order to use Flash properly.

Mom comes into town tonight...hoping to get her to help me take measurements for flat pattern drafting.

More on pattern drafting/fiber arts

Two things from today:

First, I spent a little time fiddling on my lunch break and have worked out more or less how to use Adobe Illustrator for drafting patterns--it's not *that* different from Visio, Flash, or other drawing programs, thankfully. I could have gotten pattern drafting software, but I already have Illustrator, so why spend $200+ on patternmaking software?

Second, I found someone who can help me with flat pattern drafting--I had forgotten that an acquaintance of mine does fashion design! So we've been chatting about pattern drafting and he's offered to let me look through his library and/or help out with specific problems. I may try hiring him to help me design costumes for this year's ride.

The three yards of burnout/regular silk velvets have arrived, as have the marbling supplies. Which means it's just about time to start a dyeing frenzy...I plan to cut the velvets into fat eighths (because this is crazy quilting, I only need very small pieces) and dye it using an assortment of methods, mostly either dye painting or low-water immersion dyeing. Because the pile is rayon, I can dye "cold" using Procion MX dyes, which means dyeing will take longer (the dye needs time to react with the fiber) but it's less fussy than having to steam/boil in acid dye.

I also got some thiourea dioxide (used for discharging (removing) color from dyes) but am not quite sure what to do with it...I had forgotten that it creates irritating fumes. Since my kitchen is totally unventilated, I can't work with the thiourea dioxide indoors. I'm debating whether it's worth buying a camp stove just so I can do a few dye experiments. I may price some of them out at REI or something.

I'm also pleased because I just got a nice bonus at work (for completion of my latest project), which will pay for the worst of my stitching excesses.

A triumph of sorts

Got up this morning and was going to work on the quilt, but something didn't feel quite right...it just wasn't a Sunday morning without sitting down and working on the book! So I sat down and wrote about a page worth of Day One...I've gotten in the HABIT of writing! Quite a difference from having to force myself to sit down and try typing. I'm thrilled. Definitely in the swing of things.

I have altered a pattern slightly to sit further down the hips than usual--I'm hoping adding 2" to the back will be enough to keep skin from showing--and have gotten to work on the crazy-quilt top. So far I've done the center panel, and I think it will be FANTASTIC. I'm using all kinds of fabrics, from plain-Jane quilting cottons to elaborate metallic brocades, in shades from yellow to orange to red, in pieces about 3"x4". I plan to decorate the seams either with fancy stitching or with strings of sequins, ribbon, etc. I bought 50 yards of silk ribbon from Dharma Trading Co and will try dyeing it in fantastic orange colors.

I've also bought a bunch of smallish silk flowers and will probably embellish the top with them. I was down at Jo-Ann's Fabrics in search of orange quilting fabrics and noticed that they were having an 80% off (!) sale on one brand of silk flowers, so I immediately went through and grabbed all the orange and purple ones. At 40 cents a bundle, that was quite affordable. I plan to strip off the flowers from the foliage (I really dont' have houseroom for full bundles of flowers) and store them in a bag somewhere.

That's all for today...I'm headed down to the Peninsula to do a longish ride (for variety, I think I'm going to go down and do Congress Springs Road up to Skyline and then down Page Mill) and then have a dinner engagement, so I don't expect to get much else done today.

Flat pattern drafting

I have gotten interested in flat pattern drafting, being unable to find the pattern I'm looking for (off-the-shoulder dress with a V-neck and draped collar). I'm not sure it'll be any faster than simply altering a pattern--and I may go with a premade pattern for the sake of simplicity--but it's something I find interesting. I have a book on it already, and have been experimenting a bit with CAD programs in an effort to find something with which to draw patterns. (There are pattern drafting software packages available but I don't want to pay $200+ for them.) I'm thinking I may just wind up going with Adobe Illustrator, which is not a CAD program but which I happen to have sitting around on my computer. (Another fine alternative is Visio, which I have on my work laptop.) I may mess with it in my spare time, a little.

Short-term, however, I plan to alter an existing pattern so I can get to work on my crazy-quilt top. It shouldn't take a lot of doing--I just need to add two inches on the bottom and maybe alter the top collar. That way I can get started on the crazy-quilt bit today.

Plans for this weekend: write for 2-3 hours on the book, go to the farmer's market, do a 4-hour bike ride, and spend the rest of the time working on this top!

Plans for the weekend

I'm really looking forward to a weekend of playing with fiber arts. I've ordered some marbling supplies from Dharma Trading Co, including some metallic fabric paints, and am going to experiment with adding metallic powders to some textile medium I have sitting around. I've been reading through my books on fabric surface design (painting, marbling, dyeing, etc.), too. I won't be able to marble this weekend since the supplies won't arrive until Monday, but I plan to do some pattern alteration at least, and start laying out fabrics for the crazy-quilting. I think I will also do a few dye experiments, but I haven't decided which yet.

I'm amazed by this shibori (Japanese tied-resist) book I have. Julie gave it to me awhile back, but I didn't do much more than glance through it at the time, being concentrated on other projects. It's amazing! It's an extremely thorough treatise on shibori techniques, complete with photos and instructions for a dizzying array of different effects. It makes it pretty clear that I could spend a lifetime exploring just shibori without running out of discoveries. It's really, really cool. I'm not sure I'll have time to do extensive experimentation with shibori, but I do want to do at least some basic stuff. Must buy some PVC pipe this weekend for wrapping fabric.

I am considering what to do about pattern alteration. I really need these tops to be longer in the back than in the front (because for cycling you hunch forward) and to be longer overall than most patterns are. I think I may look for a strapless, straight-line (i.e. not big floofy skirt-type) design and simply cut it short a few inches below the waist; if I can't find such a design, I might have to get creative. I have thought about taking a class in flat pattern drafting, but (a) that wouldn't solve my immediate need, and (b) all the courses offered at nearby community colleges are offered during the day, as part of a for-credit fashion program. (What, they think people actually want to do this as a *career*?) I've also considered hiring someone to do the pattern design--I found someone in San Francisco who might suit--but before I drop a couple hundred bucks on that, I figure I'd try home-grown solutions first.

(I did, however, find an interesting "take" on making your own basic pattern out of Saran Wrap.)

A third option is to wait until my mom shows up next week, and ask her to help me. She's an expert seamstress, though she hasn't done much sewing recently.

I'm considering ordering some peacock body feathers for embellishment, but think I'll wait until I finish the flame-colored top, first. Blue-green-purple can wait until later.

Finished my outline

I've finished my outline and sent it off to my writing coach to see what he thinks. I am personally inclined to hate it, but after rereading it at the dentist's today, am willing to admit that it's not half bad. It's just not knock-your-socks-off good, either. I wish I had a better idea of what to do with it.

Now I have to write a cover letter and some additional material (promotion plans, etc.), choose which photos I'll be including, package it all up together, and send it off to a publisher. Probably another two weeks to a month's work, all told.

I am, however, going to celebrate finishing the outline by putting some work in on the silk tops this weekend. Plans for this weekend include altering the basic top pattern to allow for a longer back and sides, and beginning the crazy-quilt for the flame-colored top. I have also bought eleven yards of silk organza, and am contemplating a shibori (Japanese tied-resist) tutu...wouldn't that be a hoot? But I'm going to test-market the idea on some silk habotai I have lying around before I go whole hog with the organza.

All in all, I plan to spend a good chunk of Saturday and Sunday playing around with fabric and dyes. I've finished my outline, after all!

tutu tops

Gave in to temptation today and went through my bags of scraps looking for tutu-top wherewithal. It turns out I have enough red/orange/yellow scraps to make a pretty nice flame-colored top, and enough purple/blue/green scraps to make a nice peacock-iridescent top. (I also still have some peacock tail feathers, and some sword feathers as well.) I've also given in to temptation and ordered some silk/rayon velvet (some burnout velvet and some regular), which I plan to dye in interesting colors and incorporate into the tops. I already have a large collection of white silk remnants that would be perfect for dyeing, so I think I have all the materials needed for quite a few pieced/crazy-quilt tops. I'm rather looking forward to playing with dyes again. Time to dig out the books on surface design for fabric...stamping, dyeing, marbling, resist, silk-painting...the sky's the limit, really.

I am, however, honest-to-goodness going to try to work on the book at the same time. Really.

I have now rewritten the outline through Day Six, and expect to finish it in another day or two. Lena isn't coming over until next week, though she and I are meeting up tomorrow so I can give her some stuff, so I'll have some time on my own to play with stuff.

I really like the idea of crazy-quilting this. I'm going to start with the red/orange/yellow top and see how that goes--I expect I'll make some mistakes and it won't look as good as it potentially could with more experience, but the beauty of the AIDS Ride is that nobody really takes anything seriously. So it doesn't need to be perfect.

A gorgeous piece of champagne/gold striped silk also arrived in the mail today. I think I'm going to use it for a top and decorate with silver and black fabric roses, but I'm not sure.

Aargh.

Well, the last few days have been working more and more desperately on my outline, and trying to get it from a synopsis (which was difficult enough to write) into an outline I could send to publishers. I was getting stuck.

So I fired an email off to my writing coach, who made a bunch of really good suggestions, but now I have to go back and completely rewrite the piece I just finished writing.

(Not that writing the synopsis was wasted effort--I needed to finish it in order to be able to write the outline--but I had sort of hoped to get it done sooner, with a little less effort.)

Well, least said, soonest edited, I suppose. Back to work I go.

Meanwhile, I had a break in self-control today and ran down to a quilting shop to get a book on crazy quilting, and some fat eighths of fabric that I could use in putting together a crazy-quilt tutu top! The plan is to use a heavy silk habotai (which is a lightweight fabric) as a foundation, then crazy-quilt various colors of cotton/silk fabric to it, and embellish the heck out of it with ribbon, buttons, embroidery thread, sequins, and whatnot. (Lots of whatnot.) I'll probably use a princess-seamed garment and piece together each pattern piece separately, before uniting the whole. Then I'll do the embroidery, etc. Combine that with a standard lining and lo! a tutu top the gods would envy. (If gods wear tutus, that is.)

Tomorrow I do a longish bike ride (I'm hoping for about four hours) and then I go back to work on the outline. If I get really stuck I'll try working on the crazy-quilt.

Tuesday night my friend Lena, the translator for the Tibetan lama, shows up. She'll be staying with me for six weeks--really looking forward to it, she's one of the most interesting people I know.