Polymer Clay Lessons

Ali was nice enough to spend most of her Saturday teaching Nicole and me how to work with polymer clay. We set up two manual pasta machines and lined the table with wax paper. Then we grabbed some clay and started working.

First you condition the clay. That means either kneading it by hand until it's the right consistency or running it through the pasta machine. Usually a little of both. And we blended colors. And rolled beads. And talked. And ate. And baked the beads. And played with Sherman. It was a great time.

What was funny was how some of the lessons of working with polymer relate to life in general and writing in particular. I want to use them in the Bennie books. The one I'll share here is:

It's always important to chill a while.

Nicole made some beautiful dark beads with spots of royal blue. Some had flecks of silver leaf. She'll have a knock-out set when she's done. Ali made all kinds of wonderful things while we worked. She even gifted me with some pinkish marbled beads that go with the green and pink beads I made. I also made green and fuschia for a different set.

Of course, I don't have pictures yet. But I will when they're put together. Promise.

Thanks to Ali and Nicole for on of the best Saturdays I've had in a while.

Goal-less

It is hard for me to start a month without any goals. But I think that's what I'm going to have to do. Just let things keep simmering. Keep reading. Only write if I can't stand not writing. And do a little more research.

And complete the UGWP critiques. Almost forgot about those.

Ali is hosting a polymer class later in the month which should be a lot of fun. Other then that, I have no plans.

Scary.

July Goals

Last week got away from me. There were the end of month/beginning of month duties I normally have plus extra coverage for time off here and there. We all love our extra long holiday weekends, but there is a price to pay for them.

I didn't do well on my goals last month. That is probably an understatement. I did manage to write 20 more pages of D&D and do a lot of research. I also joined the new Sunday group (UGWP) so that I can get better at giving and receiving critiques. It's a bit more work for me, but I think it will be worth it. I also cleaned out the blue room so I can finally organize it as a writing room. That should help, too. There's something about having a signal that says, "It's time to work now."

So, since I didn't make my wimpy goals last month, I'm setting harder ones this month. It seems to work for Jenny, Ali and Deb when they do it.

For July:

--Outline changes for HM. There are a lot and I need to know how I'm going to weave them into what is already there.
--Revise first 3 chapters of HM. My chapters are fairly short so this isn't that much of a stretch.
--Write 25 pages of D&D rough. I am dropping my expectations here. My focus seems to be turning back to HM right now.
--Complete UGWP critiques. I have read all the submissions. I just need to write up summaries for all of them.
--Research 6 yoga positions. I want to be more specific about the research I am doing.
--Research 2 massage techniques. Ditto.

That should keep me busy.

Not Slacking

I haven't updated in a while because there hasn't been much to report on my progress with D&D. There are new pages, but not a lot. A scene here or there in between tasks at work. Not like with the beginning of HM when I generated page after page. Of course, that was during NaNoWriMo. Maybe I should pretend it's November. Might help.

Using Ali's idea of listing what I have accomplished, I see that I haven't exactly been idle. Research seems to be at the top of the list right now. That's not a bad thing. A lot of different things happen at spas that I don't know much about. I need to find out the way those things work so I don't sound like an idiot when I write about them. I have even more research to do about migrant workers for the jewelry series.

The blue bedroom seems to have collected a lot of junk since last year. Saturday was a clearing out day. One step closer to being a lilac writing room. I moved the Spooky's food dish out to the kitchen, but she doesn't like the relocation. I'm giving her a week to get used to it. If she doesn't, I will have to find a Plan B.

Even though it feels like May is just about over, I have almost two weeks to accomplish more. I may get to my page count goal yet.

Almost May

I'm looking at how I've done vis-a-vis my goals. I may have 15 pages of D&D when I get it typed up if I'm lucky. Not even close to meeting that one. Research, however, has been great.

I guess I need to use Ali's method of looking at what I've accomplished and not just what I haven't. Look for a new section in May with a list of tasks completed. And, I hope, part of it will be more pages.

A Little Help From My Friends

Mary's hosting a beading party in a week or so. She'll be teaching a basic bead weaving technique. Should be a lot of fun. Not only will I get a new set of jewelry, but I'll be learning something I can use in the Bennie books. And spending time with friends. Triple threat.

Ali's also offered to do a polymer bead class. That should be lots of fun, too. I love the stuff she does with polymer.

Now if we can just convince Nicole to share what she's learning in metalworking.

Artist's Way Check In - Week 6

The spontaneous decorating of a notebook last week was fun. And I have to chalk it up to The Artist's Way. I just don't see myself doing it before the program.

I thought about skipping the Artist's Date last week, because I didn't have a lot of spare time over the weekend. But I decided I could spare an hour and a half. I've wanted to learn how to crochet for years. Then at the last Pirate meeting, Ali pointed out that you can use crocheting with beads to make jewelry. Even more reason to learn. I bought a skein of inexpensive acrylic yarn and a kit with five different crochet hooks and book on basic crochet. During my Artist's date, I started the process of learning. The chain was fairly easy, but the single crochet stitch took some fiddling. I'm very slow at it, and feel like I have ten thumbs, but by the end of the date I produced something that did resemble the picture in the book. I will keep practicing. Maybe I can reduce the number of thumbs I have by the end of the month.

Goals

Last months my goals were to write 25 pages of HM, finish the 1st Christie book and 2 more. And stay in the better place.

I have stayed in a better place and finished the first Christie book. I also started reading the 2nd one. And I came up with a couple cool subplots to enrich HM so I've been marking up the start to incorporate them before I go on.

Using Ali's weekly goal plan, this week I'd like to finish marking up the first bit and get it typed up. Doable, as Deb says.

Scary Things

Ali's challenge for September is to do something that scares us, do something risky. What am I afraid of? A quick list is: looking foolish, mice, possessed dolls/mannequins/ventriloquist's dummies. None of those seem to relate very well to writing mysteries.

Writing a mystery about a mouse-shaped ventriloquist's dummy that seems possessed seems really silly. Three birds with one silly stone.

But I'm not sure I'm going to go there.

First Effort

Here is the result of meeting Ali's deadline. I had to have at least earrings done by last Saturday. I'm pretty happy with the result. The yellow is all from the background as the beads used were black, clear or some combination of the two.

I did notice, though, that Ali didn't stop anyone else at the door to check for newly made jewelry.

Unstuck In Time

"Just remember that the best bits come up and surprise you from behind. " A comment by Whittaker Luckless on a post by John about being stuck that was a follow-up to a post by Ali about also being stuck.

I have been stuck with HM. Nothing that usually works has helped with the unsticking. I even considered the booze suggestion made by a couple people over on Ali's blog. I went to see Stardust last night with a friend (you were right, Ali & Deb), and while negotiating the traffic cones on Austin Bluffs Parkway on the way home I had a flash for a great subplot. That led to an idea of how to proceed.

Maybe the movie sparked something. Or it could have been the conversation at dinner before the movie. Or it was just that I wasn't worrying about being stuck. In any case, it worked.

Jewelry Post

Ali very gently reminded me yesterday that I haven't made a jewelry-related post in a long time. That's probably because I haven't actually made any jewelry yet. I started to on Friday but felt like I still didn't know enough to accomplish anything. Yesterday I bought Jewelry Making & Beading for Dummies. It explains all those terms and techniques I couldn't quite figure out from the magazines I had. So I should be able to have a new pair of earrings done by Saturday. That's the deadline Ali gave me for completing my first project.

I also picked up a copy of Stardust while I was at the bookstore yesterday. I've been reading all the posts and comments by Ali, Deb and Jenny about Neil Gaiman. It may be time to check him out. Deb's offered to lend me Neverwhere and American Gods if I like Stardust. I'm not a big fantasy fan (except for Butcher, who really writes mysteries), but we'll see.

Research or Distraction?

I like to do research. It's learning new things. I was one of those kids who looked forward to the new school year. Doing research is one of the joys of writing for me.

But there are times when I think I overdo it. In HM, the protagonist has a job that I know only a little about. So I need to research it. No problem there. Buy a magazine that caters to the person who does this job. Except it isn't one magazine. It's all 4 titles on the shelf. For several months in a row. Do I really need that much information?

The same with D&D. They own a particular type of business. This one doesn't have a lot of magazines on the shelf, but I buy what I can find. Then I decided that someone they know should make jewelry. Ali and Mary are both wonderful jewelry makers. Great sources. But I also bought 5 jewelry magazines the other day.

Maybe it's not a research problem, but a magazine addiction.

To emulate Ali, I'll pose a question: How much research is too much?