I ran across this necklace on a vegan site.
Why would a vegan site offer a necklace that has a jump ring through the eye of a bunny? Because the bunny is stamped with the words Cruelty Free???
Bunnies have been blinded or worse over the years? Why would anyone want to wear a reminder of that?
When I use hardware cloth for embroidery, I make my designs based on the spaces not the threads (wire). I am currently working on a piece consisting of three panels. Two of the panels will mirror each other. I needed to make sure that I followed my design without mistakes.
I number my grid paper designs, so it occurred to me that numbering the hardware cloth spaces would make for an easier go.
It worked great and saved loads of time. No more counting before making a stitch.
Why the double numbers? So the numbers can be easily read however I am holding the hardware cloth.
First bloom on a two year old Brug cutting.
Detail of Brug double white flower.
I love Brugs. I became aware of them when we were living at the beach. We often would take walks to the beach in the evening. I kept noticing a lovely fragrance and found that it was Brugs. The plants were cut like trees and had large white bell flowers.
When we moved to SLO I decided to have a Brug garden. I bought one plant. I loved it so much, I started buying seeds of different varieties. At one point I had over 100 plants. And my gardens smelled great!
The Brug flowers are white, yellow, peach, white with a blush. Some are double flowers. They all are beautiful.
Then I realized I wasn’t the only one who loved Brugs. Everyone loves them. No matter how much I fertilize the Brugs and give them systemic, damage occurs.
This is damage typical of cucumber beetles. The beetle looks a bit like a green ladybug.
Today I found this wormy guy on one of my variegated potted plants.
You may not think he can eat much until you see this–
I think that Spider Mites are the worst of all bugs. They are difficult to see and an infestation can occur rather quickly.
Spider Mites on a Double White Brug.
This is an image of a Brug that was a cutting from a Brug that I grew from seed. It likes to grow tall, about 20 feet. We try to keep it pruned to about half that height, to allow for an easier removal of spent flowers.
When I prune my Brugs I always take cuttings. It is a superstition thing for me. I tend to be rather aggressive when pruning. The cuttings will be my back up plants just in case the parent dies. These are a few current cuttings that are ready to be planted–3 Brug varieties and Solandra Maxima.
The Solandra Maxima has large flowers with a lovely fragrance. I bought a plant from a fellow at the Saturday Farmers’ Market. He told me that it is a vine. Actually it does not behave so much like a vine. I have found that it is somewhat shrub-like. I took cuttings and have it growing in four different locations in my gardens.
This is the result of a cutting from my original Solandra Maxima plant. The plant is filling in a corner niche quite nicely.
Soon there should be flowers that look like this–
I was researching embroidery techniques and ran across reference to a Trolley Needle. Appeared quite useful, so I ordered one.
The tool is used for keeping thread flat and in order when doing needlework. I will not be able to use it for a few weeks because I sustained a repetitive stress injury of my hand and wrist.
Another item that I keep in my tool chest is gaffer tape. I wrap it around the edge of hardware cloth to prevent snags and frays of fiber and my hands. I like that it sticks nicely but does not leave a sticky residue.
These are a few panels in progress that may be part of a triptych.
Mayo Clinic Repetitive Stress Injury
Baylor Health Repetitive Stress Injury
My niece (who will be staring 6th grade) taught me how to make a pie crust. I do not know if it is all of the years wedging clay, but every time I attempted to make a pie the crust was a huge disappointment. This is the result of the lesson.
The plums were from the tree in our orchard. My niece used the snowflake cookie cutters I impulsively bought last Christmas in Maryland.
We decided to share the pie with our friends who recently relocated from Washington. While we were there I saw this amazing trivet.
I love white on white–embroidered shirts and linens, knot work, woven work… The trivet is thick and the knots while not physically connected appear as diagonals. Simple, yet effective way to make a pattern.
Planning to give the technique a go and if it feels right, the pattern may show up in some of my work.
June 7
July 7
August 8
I think that it is time to clear out the moldy and buggy peaches.
While grooming Bailey, my house bunny I found a tick. It was dead, but it was a tick. This is the third tick that I have recently found on him.
Here’s the thing—Bailey never spends time outside, so the tick had to have been brought into the house by one of his human friends.
Our vet has stated that there isn’t a tick treatment for bunnies. Preventive measures is the only solution.
In the future any time that we spend outside working in the garden or hiking, all clothing worn must be changed before coming in contact with Bailey.
A couple of sites with good information about ticks.
TickEncounter Resource Center University of Rhode Island
Larisa Vredevoe, Ph.D, Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis
Ticks Commonly Encountered In California
This is the tick in a sink full of water. They totally creep me out.
While cleaning and clearing out stuff in my studio I ran across a small bag of vintage wavers. They were a gift from my grandmother in the late 70s. I had always thought that she had naturally wavey hair.
I can’t remember the number of times that I packed and unpacked that little bag of wavers. Always saving them because they were a gift. Rather than taking a photo and discarding them, I decided to use them in my work.
Here’s what happened—had just read a blog post about making rope vessels on The Red Thread. Then I was looking through my stash of fiber and there was some beautiful nettle.
Wavers, Rope Vessels, Nettle.
Made loops on either end of the first batch of wavers and attached them loop into loop and a twist. Started binding and stitching the wavers together leaving the frayed ends exposed.
There were enough wavers to make three small pieces, one with gray wavers and two with brown.
The wavers were wrapped and bound with nettle fiber, while leaving the ends for interest. The technique is similar to looping.
A box will be built for the two similar pieces and the third which is more cup-like will most likely be attached to a base to become a goblet.
Hemp was substituted for nettle in the cup piece. The hemp has been unused in my stash for several years because it always seemed too stiff to use in previous pieces. It was softened a bit by running a length a couple of times over the edge of my work table.