A post from the Past: June 12, 2008 - Still knitting

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009.

June 12, 2008 - Still Knitting

I haven't posted in a while. This week has been busy because it is the last week of school for my kindergartner.
I took some pics of Sally our new kitten. She is a busy little kitty.
Here she is on the couch ready to jump.



This is Sally under the table attacking a crunchy ball.



As for my knitting. I was distracted for a week or so with the scarf on the beautiful new needles. It is the scarf done in Kanui wool. I had started it and decided it was too narrow. So I cast off, and then cast on with more stitches. I had to set it aside to get the Socks done.



I have only 2 weeks left to finish the socks and a felted hat for my daughter in law's birthday. I know I will have the socks done in a couple days. I can crochet the hat pretty fast but the felting takes a few days. I let it air dry after the machine washing so it just takes time to dry out. 

Other than that I did get a call from my boss yesterday. I use to work in a dental lab making porcelain teeth. It was so much fun. I went to school to be a dental technician after my husband died. So I had worked in this lab for 3 years but in March 08 I had to quit because my granddaughter needs me to be home. We are still grieving my daughters death. I got custody of my granddaughter late last year. I worked when I had her for a few months but I was killing myself. I can't be mom, employee, cook, cleaner, gardener, etc. I'm not married since my husband died of cancer in Aug. 2000. It's tough being a single mom again. My kids were all grown. I had the empty nest.

So I was flattered that my boss would call and ask me to return. I know I could have asked for a huge raise. I am still thinking about it. He is even willing to wait for the fall when school gets back in. 
I loved what I did. I loved working with the tools and baking porcelain, grinding the teeth with tiny tiny high speed drills. I was also doing digital design with the Cad/Cam program with scanning models and designing bridges and crowns on the computer then sending those files to be milled out in zirconia. I was in the High Tech department. I loved it.
I hated the drive from my home to the lab. I had to go on 4 different freeways (only 22 miles) and the traffic was horrible. I do not miss that drive at all. It could take 30 min. on a good day or 2 hours on a bad day. Average time was 45 min. I was ok with the drive before I had Peanut. When I lived alone. I would just listen to the radio and kick back. But when you have a little one waiting for you at after school care it is horrible. I just missed her so bad. She needed to be with me or with family after loosing her mommy. 
So now I am home with her and I have more free time for my knitting and hobbies, also for errands and house work. 
We go to church several times a week. Our life is full.

Converting my Palette Challenge

I'm a sucker for color. Over time I had ended up with 2- thirty-two well watercolor palettes.  I had to hunt down a 32 well palette because usually you find palettes with 8-20 wells. I was lucky when I found the 32 wells. BUT after time I needed more wells.
I had seen how some artist use plastic and glue to divide palette wells. But I am a Dental Technician experienced with WAX. And I have a supply of wax.  So I thought why not use wax that I already have and my dental waxing tools that I have? Yes, I said and it's free. Well at one time I had to buy the wax but if I went the glue and plastic route I would have to make a shopping trip.  I am so in the mode lately to recycle and use what is in my home.
I was also tired of trying to position 2 large palettes by my side when I would paint. It was awkward and didn't leave much room for my water and brushes.
So here is how I began.


I had to clear out the paint in my current palette.  I picked my newest palette to be the converted palette. So I popped out the paint with a table knife, put them in lunch bags and wrote their names on the bag. Some of the lighter color paints I wrote on the bottom side of the paint itself.  I left paint in my old palette. No reason to pop it out till ready to put them in the new palette.


Here is the set up for the project.  I laid out my supplies. On the far right you can see my waxer. It is a tool like a pen with a very hot tip. (more later). Then you see I have the palette. I did use finger nail polish remover to get the old paint names off the outside edges of the palette. I have here also a cutting board and the pink wax is denture wax. It is rather brittle. The little tins are filled with carving wax. I will use that in place of glue.


I cut the wax to shape


I began to wax the divider into place with the green carving wax. At this point I am not sure about this pink denture wax.


Here is the waxing pen. It is amazing. I love it.  It has several tips. I had set the temperature to 400 but eventually went to 418 F.  If you have it too cool the wax won't flow, if it is too hot then it drips off the pen too fast in unwanted places and it starts to melt the pink denture wax. This waxer unit is more than $400. Love it.


Close up of waxing pen.
After a good nights sleep I decided that I didn't like the pink denture wax dividers. So I pulled out my red boxing wax.


Here I am finished waxing all of the dividers.  Some of the wells have 2 dividers to make 3 spaces. Some have 1 divider to make 2 spaces.


Ok, yes the green wax looks messy. I did clean that up. It was from the first attempt with the pink wax.


Here is a Bird's Eye View of the waxing part finished. I really am pleased with this.  This idea had swam in my head for months. I was slow in doing it because I knew it was a big project. But it is so worth it. Now I can carry just one palette to class with most of my colors.


Here we have the colors in their places.  I wanted to group the colors in families, like greens, reds, browns. Years ago they were placed as I bought the watercolor.  99% of these colors are Daniel Smith Fine Watercolors.  I did have to trim down the side of the paint I had popped out of the old palette because they were too big to fit in their new wells.  I put the remainder back in their ziplock bag to save.  After I put the colors in their new homes I wet them down.  I let that soak for a few hours and then went back with a toothpick and smoothed out the paint into the length of the new well.  Some paint is soft and rubbery and some is grainy.




Here I have labeled the names of the paints.  I think it is important to know the names. After using this palette I will memorize what position each color is but I do like to know their official names.  It is so easy to forget and if you have a teacher who says to try Quinacridone Coral, then I want to know which one that is.


Another view of the labels. Yes I did eliminate quite a few colors because they were just old and a cheap brand.



And there you have the finished palette of new wells for watercolor.  Can you guess how many wells I have now?  hmmm?
I have a total of 75, yes 75 wells.  And one is empty.  I thought just in case I buy a new color. Hahahahahahahaa

I did use the new palette in class on Monday 3/28  My Birthday,(yeah) but I don't like the painting.  It is not my style.  I have an issue with my class. ugh.
Here is the unfinished painting.


 I can't tell you how much I hate this painting. I hate the colors, the composition and I would like to go start the fire in the fireplace with it. I thought if I ink in the daises I would like it more but I did a few and I still hate the painting.

I want to do some paintings of magnified views of rocks or flowers or cut glass vases.
The teacher is older and I think she is stuck in old fashioned ideas. The other students eat this stuff up. But then again they are older.  The one thing I just can't stand is that she has us painting from her painting.  I want to paint from something real, real flowers, a real animal, real rocks or a photo of them.  Then it is my interpretation.  I have a different eye and will pick out colors that maybe someone else doesn't see. But how can you do that when you are told to paint from her painting?
Any thoughts?

Well have a great April Fools Day.
Happy Painting.
Carol