January 04, 2002
boats and beads
I'm running a bit late today, because Rudder and I tried some tag-team rowing. The boys had wanted to row singles instead of their double today and Egret was rowing in a quad with Hardcore and some other women, so I was boatless. T2 and Rudder said they'd take out a double if I wanted, but since my time is my own, and since our boat is now stored low enough that I don't need help getting it off the rack, I decided to just show up a little later and row after they were done. It worked perfectly; I had the lake almost to myself (the quad and another single were there, but I hardly saw them) and I only had to carry the boat back up, not down to the water.
I don't think I've mentioned that Rudder and I named this boat RowedRunner. (Our previous singles were Rowver and Rowedster, and I think the double is SunStroke.) She, and she is definitely a she, is very sensitive, and really rewards proper technique. I had a strokecoach (sort of like a bike computer for boats) so could see just how much faster I went when I concentrated on balance and snapping my hands in to my body.
After I got back home, I spent some time fooling with the digital camera, trying to photograph some of my bead projects. I wasn't totally successful, but I think these pictures will at least give some idea.
These winecharms are for a friend of mine. I made him six, of clear beads, and he asked for another dozen, six red and six blue, offering to pay whatever I was charging at craft fairs. I'm not selling commercially, because I suspect it would be a huge amount of trouble, so I'm just charging him for materials and shipping -- a nice way to subsidize my hobby. These are made of memory wire, so if you pull one open, it snaps back into shape. Each charm is different, and they're meant to be placed around the stems of wineglasses, so you can tell which glass is yours. I don't think you can see what a pretty color these red beads are, but they glow like little pomegranate seeds. These charms are a bottle, a corkscrew, and a glass; I've also got other types of glasses, a fancier corkscrew, a soft pretzel (the friend they're for lives in Philadelphia), a wedge of cheese, a bunch of grapes, and so on.
The necklace is for myself. It's been through about three iterations so far, and now I've got it about where I want it. The only problem now is that the slender loops of the chain keep slipping out of all those jump-rings. I either need to get
sturdier jump rings or just be careful while wearing it. I think as long as I don't fool with it while it's on I'll be OK.
