Linnea 'Ea' quilts...

How on Earth am I going to cook things and bake a cake with my hand cut to shreds? At least I got to experience the effect that EtOH has on raw nerve endings. Not to mention adrenaline rush. And I got to do some first aid. Yay... Yup, oxygenated blood is crimson red. Not lilac or dark red. Check. Keeping your hand slightly elevated will slow down blood flow to the hand. And then you can admire the plasters. Check. Oh, and incidentally, I suck at writing with my left hand. Check.

Okay, first things first with this technique. You'll need a fridge, something to form it with (clay tools or thing you happen to have in your kitchen, like cocktail sticks and your rollling pin), and an oven. The mass needs to be heated up in order to become hard. You can use many types of acrylic masses for this technique, since there seems to be quite a lot of brands around. The ones that seem easiest to find around stores here in Turku are Cernit and Fimo. However, there seems to be a difference between brands, regarding the plasticity of the mass itself. Fimo, at least, is much more temperature stable than Cernit. This means that the mass doesn't "smear" as much and doesn't get too sticky and get stuck to things (read: you, the tools, the sheet of baking paper you use to protect your table...). It also means that you can use it for longer without it becoming too "droopey" and ruin the thing you're creating. It helps if you can put it in the f...

So, only three "lessons" left in the course I'm taking. Weird to think it's soon going to be over. It feels like it just begun. Today, I got to varnish most of my 'beads', and some buttons I had made at home last week while I was ill. Trying to stay still enough - I was shivering like a crazy person! - while painting small details on a surface that drank it like *snap* Needless to say, you got some interesting "splashy" areas on some of the buttons... But, the artwork aside, I think it's been fun trying to design something usable with the clay. Even though I'm clearly not a "clay person". I can understand the fuss, because you get to see very clearly how good you actually are at designing something with your own hands, but I don't think it's for me. Painted, dry and ready to get varnished. If you look really closely at the photo, you'll notice that the teapot leans slightly to one side. The bottom isn't ...

I spent yet another busy weekend in Kirkkonummi with my parents and Emma. Got to experience - yet again - how knitting on a train can make you tune out a lot. Like the screams of small children wanting to ride the mini train in the "childrens car". Yes, once again I just had to get tickets for a seat there. Thank you, VR. Those are times when my mantra is playing overtime in my head. "this will teach me patience...this will teach me patience..." I had the same mantra playing sing along today at the police station, too. Oh, yes, some jerk or another nicked my wallet last Friday, and I've been having somewhat of a Monday riding my bike around town to "fix" this. Hence the headline if today. When I lost the wallet, it had a total of 7 euros in it. That might get you a cheap lunch somewhere, but not much else. So that wasn't so bad. What was, though, was getting replacement cards for all the lost ones. Kid you not, I've spent the last 6 ho...

Pumpkins, nectarines and oranges. So much orange :) My autumn is different shades of orange - sienna, burnt, golden, bronze and pumpkin. Coupled with gray skies and yellowing leaves, it's not a bad color scheme. What's your autumn colors?

The saddest thing you can see, in my dad's face when he realised that I couldn't eat anything on the lunch menue. After he had already paid for it. But the kitchen chef here at the lunch restaurant, called "Lounas mania", was super nice and made food for me that didn't have paprika in it. Here's a photo of Mom eating dessert.

Today, I'm traveling by train to Kirkkonummi. The Finnish railway company VR has launched a new ticketing system, and so far a lot has been chaotic about it. Look, you even get HUGE tickets! Apparently, they're only made for the interim period, but still.

For those who don't know it yet, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London is one of the worlds museums devoted to design. In 2007, they held an exhibition titled The Golden Age of Couture -  Paris and London -  1947 - 1957 The name makes it quite obvious what the exhibition was about, but what relevant here for us is the fact that V&A Museum keeps the sites devoted to past exhibitions open after the event itself is over. Thus, you can enjoy  the free pattern  of a vintage couture dress - written by the museum's designer. [later edit: the link above is broken, but you can find the pattern for the skirt  here  and the pattern for the body here  - than ks Chelsea Ridenour  for posting it in the comments!   I put it up on my G Drive, but all the credit and copyright goes to brilliant designer Juliana Sissons who made the pattern for V&A in 2006] Using the pattern made me able to create the following dress (see the photos)...

 ...and it's called " Modelling Jewellery ". It's held by the Turku Työväenopisto, and is going to be held on every Monday until the 17th of October. In the course description, it says that it's about " The basics of three-dimensional plasticity, modelling unique ornaments and jewellery from different modelling clays and learning to combine multicolour clays. " This means I have 15 minutes to get by bike from this course to the one in Argentine Tango. Mondays are gonna be busy days for the following weeks. I noticed that it only takes me about 5 min (by bike) to get to tango practice from the house that this course is being held in, so it wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been. I mean, stressful. Why did I want to take this course? Because I wrote on my "Non-faves of 2011"-list  that cernit-clay sculpting is a non-fave of mine. This way, I get to try out different types of clay/polymer modelling, and get to use more borrowed to...

My first blog award - thank you so much Garnhamstern , this made my day so much brighter :) And, since you've gotten it from Linda (who I also considered worthy of the award), and I really wanted to give it to folks who hadn't already got it, I thus choose the following bloggers as recipients: Ikomi // Inari because she just knows how to uses colors as she writes, and takes the loveliest photos. It's a pleasure to read her texts. Plus, I like the layout of her new site. (envy ++) miiamaria // Maria because she proves to me time and time again that even though life is at times tough, you have to focus on the good it still brings. If there was a bittersweet award, she'd be the queen recipient of it. And I so enjoy reading the (oh so rare!) texts she writes about different handicrafts. (awe ++) Waenthoronien // Tove because she writes like I would want to write. Fast, furiously, just pouring it all out, so that not every little detail is analyzed in the tex...

today at our breakfast table -"Did I tell you Ida said we [girls] should get together for an arts and crafts party?" -"No, you didn't." -"Oh, well, I was thinking of hosting it, and let folks use whatever they want from my stashes. That way, I'll get rid of some materials I haven't used up yet. Is that okay by you? I'll get more room for stashing stuff in the book case that way." -"Only thing I mind is the mess you'll all create as you do it - there'll be needles, yarn, glue and paper clippings all over the place. I don't mind you guys doing stuff, but I just don't like the mess you leave in the living room afterwards..." -"... but I'll clean it all up afterwards....!"

Early morning adventure in our kitchen. Mikael is going to be away with the boys for the entire weekend. They went to the Aland Islands, to Mariehamn. There, they're going to hold a product demonstration for the thing they've been coding on the whole summer. I hope it goes well for them. * holding my thumbs * Meanwhile, I'm going to take the advantage of being able to hog his computer. I want to have use of his big screen, because then I don't have to stress my eyes so much while I'm writing. Since I have a ton (actually just 21) of non-written blog posts I want written, I'm guessing it might take all day. Maybe all weekend. But that's okay, I'm going to take it slow, and otherwise just enjoy the weekend. Hope you too can take advantage of something at home (like an unoccupied couch, or being able to knit in peace, or finally getting to hog the TV remote) , and treat yourself to some laziness! You've earned it too, I'm sure. I kno...