State of the many projects
Aug. 31st, 2009 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
In the realm of "Augh!":
I finally in the last couple of weeks got around to doing the china-painting on the fancy plates I made at the end of the last school year (So the black rims would have as much colour as the white centre area, and also so I could fix some things in the centre.) This... turned out to be an interesting experience.
First, I've mentioned that china paints are weird. They paint like watercolours but dry like oils, which means, if you are, like me, trying to paint on relief, they run off the main surfaces if they're given even a little too much water. Which leads to some messy looking edges (they do eventually dry enough to tweak this - a bit). But after a while, i got the hang of the basic work, and got some results I liked. But I ended up having to call on two different friends to fire for me, as I am without kiln. Both ended up with problems that are ABSOLUTELY NOT the friends' faults; these are the sort of things that just happen inside kilns, adn why, even with electric kilns, which are the most reliable and predictable of kilns, there must be a zen-like letting-go-of-expectations effect.
Firing One (The first four of the nine plates): The kiln overfired. Badly. As in, all the cones used to gauge a firing slumped over, and the one that should ahve slumped melted a bit. Fortunately, china paints fire at a very low temperature, so this didn't involve, say, melting the plates. It did mean I lost some colour I might not have otherwise lost. Still, better than they were, and pretty. Acceptable as far as I'm concerned, but this was the reason the other plates got fired elsewhere; the friend wasn't quite ready to risk a second firing
Firing Two: The colour remained a little more strongly, but not so much that I can't count it all a set and be done. Which is good.
Three plates cracked. Two of those three cracked *right through*. Evidence suggests it was in the first part of the firing. None of then cracked along prior crack lines, or anything useful like that which might explain why the clay reacted so badly. It was a *much* faster firing than the first, and that's probably the cause, but... from all my pruior experience with firings, this is seriously excessive. Fortunately, they cracked clean enough and in a single line, such that, while there's not hiding the damage, they could be put back together for display.
Epoxy is my friend.
ARGH!
________________
Finished sewing up the first of my three pieces for the coming event. The second, which goes under it, requires some stitch-ripping first, and of course it's in a place where I used Leetle Teeny stitches.
For the third, i need to look at my buttons. I don't think I have any small enough.
I also have two scrolls to paint for the same event. Well, one and a half; the St. George is mroe than half done. Albeit from years ago. Eep.
________________
Just finished Holly Black's Ironside. As well as being a really darn good book in its own right (no surprise...) it was inspiring me to try and trim down Bird of Dusk; not at the scene level, yet, but at the word level. Getting out about 400 words per chapter seems quite doable, even if it only cuts a novelette's worth to date, and I should lose at least a nvoella. The scene-by-scene "Justify yourself" comes later - ideally after the full draft is concluded - because it ends up involving a complete breakdown of each scene, colour-coded plot, subplot, character and theme notations, and a lot of mental gymnastics. but right now, I need ro reread to get all the details of the draft clear in my head anyhow, and hacking out a few thousand words simultaneously seems more efficient than doing that separately.
Of course, this looks like the wrong week for writing. Of course, it's the one nagging most at my brain.
I finally in the last couple of weeks got around to doing the china-painting on the fancy plates I made at the end of the last school year (So the black rims would have as much colour as the white centre area, and also so I could fix some things in the centre.) This... turned out to be an interesting experience.
First, I've mentioned that china paints are weird. They paint like watercolours but dry like oils, which means, if you are, like me, trying to paint on relief, they run off the main surfaces if they're given even a little too much water. Which leads to some messy looking edges (they do eventually dry enough to tweak this - a bit). But after a while, i got the hang of the basic work, and got some results I liked. But I ended up having to call on two different friends to fire for me, as I am without kiln. Both ended up with problems that are ABSOLUTELY NOT the friends' faults; these are the sort of things that just happen inside kilns, adn why, even with electric kilns, which are the most reliable and predictable of kilns, there must be a zen-like letting-go-of-expectations effect.
Firing One (The first four of the nine plates): The kiln overfired. Badly. As in, all the cones used to gauge a firing slumped over, and the one that should ahve slumped melted a bit. Fortunately, china paints fire at a very low temperature, so this didn't involve, say, melting the plates. It did mean I lost some colour I might not have otherwise lost. Still, better than they were, and pretty. Acceptable as far as I'm concerned, but this was the reason the other plates got fired elsewhere; the friend wasn't quite ready to risk a second firing
Firing Two: The colour remained a little more strongly, but not so much that I can't count it all a set and be done. Which is good.
Three plates cracked. Two of those three cracked *right through*. Evidence suggests it was in the first part of the firing. None of then cracked along prior crack lines, or anything useful like that which might explain why the clay reacted so badly. It was a *much* faster firing than the first, and that's probably the cause, but... from all my pruior experience with firings, this is seriously excessive. Fortunately, they cracked clean enough and in a single line, such that, while there's not hiding the damage, they could be put back together for display.
Epoxy is my friend.
ARGH!
________________
Finished sewing up the first of my three pieces for the coming event. The second, which goes under it, requires some stitch-ripping first, and of course it's in a place where I used Leetle Teeny stitches.
For the third, i need to look at my buttons. I don't think I have any small enough.
I also have two scrolls to paint for the same event. Well, one and a half; the St. George is mroe than half done. Albeit from years ago. Eep.
________________
Just finished Holly Black's Ironside. As well as being a really darn good book in its own right (no surprise...) it was inspiring me to try and trim down Bird of Dusk; not at the scene level, yet, but at the word level. Getting out about 400 words per chapter seems quite doable, even if it only cuts a novelette's worth to date, and I should lose at least a nvoella. The scene-by-scene "Justify yourself" comes later - ideally after the full draft is concluded - because it ends up involving a complete breakdown of each scene, colour-coded plot, subplot, character and theme notations, and a lot of mental gymnastics. but right now, I need ro reread to get all the details of the draft clear in my head anyhow, and hacking out a few thousand words simultaneously seems more efficient than doing that separately.
Of course, this looks like the wrong week for writing. Of course, it's the one nagging most at my brain.