Tangible Tidbits 2012 #37: Having A Seriously Social Week

Hi, folks! I am happy to report that I am feeling much better this week after taking the day off work last Tuesday and a visit to the allergist on Friday. He thinks I actually had a cold, but that by the end of the week it kicked in my cough-variant asthma. He renewed a few subscriptions and gave me one for an antibiotic, but he wanted me to wait until after the weekend to see if I really needed it. I’ve pretty much decided I won’t take it. :)

Our Facebook page hit 1,200 Likes this week! :-bd

I did not yet enter the opal beaded ring I made last week in the Beadaholique contest as I said I would, but I did fix up both drawings for the Stones and Findings contest and entered them. The Angel in Flight component – I changed it into a connector link for the contest – has been accepted and was posted here. The Battered Heart drawing – now a pendant – is being reviewed, as their artist has to decide if they can do it as a wax cast, which was how I created the original. The drawing turned out really well, so I’m hoping it’s accepted. :)

This is going to be a crazy week! I am assisting with a class at the Madison, Chatham, & Florham Park Adult School on Tuesday evening. The school is celebrating its 75th anniversary with classes from when it was founded with 1937 prices, and my former wirework teacher has 24 students registered for her one-time class. She asked for assistance, and I offered to help. In exchange, I basically get to take the class and pick up one of the project kits for free. It’s a simple earring project...should be fun! Then, we have our first Bead Society meeting of the new year (we meet September through June) on Thursday. We have a guest speaker coming with a hands-on project for holiday decorations, so that should get us into the fall spirit in a hurry! O:-) Finally, on Friday evening one of my coworkers is getting married. I want to go to the ceremony, although I haven’t decided whether or not to attend the reception at her house afterward. She emailed the whole department with the Save the Date information last week...I didn’t even know she was getting married until after the email went out! :))

Somewhere in there, I want to apply for 1978 Arts Center’s B.A.N.G. (Buy Art Now Guys!) VII, which will be held December 1 & 2 and 8 & 9 from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. I've been lucky enough to sell items both years I’ve participated, so I don’t want to miss it! ;)

I'm contemplating taking five vacation/personal days from the office, one a week in October. This will leave me with two vacation days in case something comes up before the end of the year. I may take Wednesdays off, but I have to check with TPTB (The Powers That Be) first. I back up a supervisor who has 13 days left, and she's thinking about taking some Mondays and Fridays. I figured that me taking Wednesdays would create the least amount of conflict. If I do this, I am hoping I will take advantage of the time to really get my act together in the computer room/studio, but we'll have to see. Being out regularly will require me to work extra hours on Thursday and Friday to keep up with the workload, since I don’t have much help. That will mean extra money that I can put toward school next semester, so this may be the best solution all around. ;)

I almost forgot...here's the link to this week's social media poster.

That's all for today. Take care and have a great week! B-)

Tangible Tidbits 2011 #41: Focal Piece Flashback

Hey, everyone! I had a busy weekend -- socially, not work ;) -- and I'm still playing catch-up. As a result, I am taking the "easy way out" this week and reposting the Focal Piece of the Month from February-March 2010 instead of my usual blog post. I will update you all next week on what's been going on. Take care and have a great week! :D

You will rarely see me feature an item that was designed by someone else as a Focal Piece of the Month, simply because the purpose of this section is to highlight projects that support Something Tangible's overall mission and that showcase the work we do here. That being said, this month I am breaking that rule, and putting the spotlight on one of kits by sb designs I purchased and assembled during my Advanced Wire Jewelry class at the Madison, Chatham & Florham Park Adult School last fall.

It is the Time Is Precious Necklace, which features the inside mechanism of a vintage watch in a claw setting as the focal piece of the necklace. It is an example of Steampunk jewelry, the subject of an oral presentation I am researching for my Metalwork & Jewelry class at Montclair State University this semester. I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone and cover the subject here, too. I am a master at multi-tasking, you know. ;)

According to a brief description I found at Beading Daily:

"The steampunk culture takes its cues from the Victorian era, and speculates on how our world would be different if steam power had become the driving force behind our culture. Gears and watch hands are used to decorate larger pieces. Old-fashioned keys are also very popular, as are bits of antique cast-offs, such as pill cases, thread cutters and tiny knives."

The movement not only encompasses jewelry, but also clothing, goggles, and other fashion accessories such as boots and hats. This, I found out by conducting a search for "Steampunk" on Google.

Looking at Steampunkopedia's (Yes, there was such a site! Unfortunately, the link I had no longer works) Steampunk Chronology, the earliest images of the Steampunk culture can be traced back as early as 1962. One item on the list surprised me, but the more I thought about it, the more it made perfect sense to be included: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" in 1968. It was a blending of Victorian-era and modern technology for the time, was it not?

Although its roots are much older, the actual term "Steampunk" wasn't created until the late 1980s. According to Wikipedia,

"Although many works now considered seminal to the genre were published in the 1960s and 1970s, the term steampunk originated in the late 1980s as a tongue in cheek variant of cyberpunk. It seems to have been coined by the science fiction author K. W. Jeter, who was trying to find a general term for works by Tim Powers (author of The Anubis Gates, 1983), James Blaylock (Homunculus, 1986) and himself (Morlock Night, 1979 and Infernal Devices, 1987) which took place in a 19th-century (usually Victorian) setting and imitated conventions of actual Victorian speculative fiction such as H. G. Wells's The Time Machine. In a letter to the science fiction magazine Locus, printed in the April 1987 issue, Jeter wrote:

Dear Locus,
Enclosed is a copy of my 1979 novel Morlock Night; I'd appreciate your being so good as to route it Faren Miller, as it's a prime piece of evidence in the great debate as to who in 'the Powers/Blaylock/Jeter fantasy triumvirate' was writing in the 'gonzo-historical manner' first. Though of course, I did find her review in the March Locus to be quite flattering.

Personally, I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term for Powers, Blaylock and myself. Something based on the appropriate technology of the era; like 'steampunks', perhaps...

—K.W. Jeter[1]"

^ Sheidlower, Jesse (March 9, 2005). "Science Fiction Citations". Retrieved May 10, 2008.


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Tangible Tidbits 2011 # 28: Wireworking, Girls' Softball, & A New Car

Hey, folks! Boy, am I glad this week is over...but next week looks to be just as hectic!

As I mentioned last week, I attended a five-hour workshop yesterday. It was taught by Suzanne Banfield (sb designs), one of the teachers of the Madison, Chatham & Florham Park Adult School classes I took last year. I learned how to make a wire knit chain and to wire wrap a cabochon pendant. I'm so excited! These two skills will help me immensely, as they will open up a lot of new options for me in creating pieces. :D

Sales are picking up again with the help of a couple of ladies in my office. They both like their accessories to match their outfits, so they are always adding to their collections! ;)

I joined the CraftEdu Community this week, a Ning-style group for crafty people. One of the BSNJ members is teaching a class through them and sent the link to the Society's Yahoo group, so I checked it out. I wasn't really planning to be an active participant, but one of the instructors asked me to post pictures of my work, so I may as well get that exposure. ;) I also asked to be put on the outreach list for the South Amboy Arts Festival in September, after another BSNJ member passed on that information to the Society.

As expected, I ended up working really late at the office Thursday and Friday, and I will probably end up working late at least four out of five days this week, since we are short-staffed in our department. I didn't get online at all after Wednesday night, since I had the BSNJ Board meeting on Thursday and I was totally fried on Friday night. I ended up staying up until 3:30 a.m. last night going through 155+ emails after my all-day workshop! Needless to say, I hope to keep up better this week to avoid that situation again. :p

Did I mention I got a new car? I leased a 2011 Nissan Sentra (6-speed manual) after being told that my 1997 Nissan Sentra GLE could not pass inspection the week before. It was really time, even though the car had less than 75,000 miles on it. The visors didn't stay up without Velcro and duct tape, the rubber pad was affixed to my clutch with electrical tape, and the "check engine" light had been on for three years -- ultimately the reason I failed inspection. There was also a slow leak in one of the tires, so I was monitoring it regularly to fill it with air every few weeks. Needless to say, I am thrilled to leave those issues behind me, even if the car cost more than I was originally led to believe (not surprisingly, of course!).

I spent this afternoon out in the hot sun watching my younger niece play softball at the Bridgewater, NJ stadium where the Somerset Patriots (Atlantic League of Professional Baseball) play in a fundraiser for the Patriots Children's Fund and local softball programs around the New Jersey. Her team won 15 to 6! The coaches pitch in the tournament league, so she wasn't on the pitcher's mound today. She did make a few really impressive plays and batted at least one double! :D It's a nice stadium...I hadn't been there before.

That's about all I have for now. Have a great week, everyone! :D

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Tangible Tidbits 2010 #3: Keeping Busy!

I apologize for the delay in sending out this week's message, but I've had my hands full with taking classes, keeping up with the website, taking and fulfilling orders, plus working an unrelated full-time job to help keep this all going! Who needs sleep, right?

I attended my first meeting of the Bead Society of New Jersey (BSNJ) this past Thursday. I found out about the group at the Innovative Bead Expo last October. They meet monthly about 40-45 minutes south of here, which isn't bad as long as the Parkway isn't backed up. This meeting featured a challenge to create a piece of jewelry in 45 minutes given some chain, connectors, a focal piece and large piece of filigree. I didn't finish mine in time to be judged, but the winners received free merchandise from Kabela Design, hosts of the challenge and the guest vendor for the evening. They specialize in vintage materials -- antiqued gold, copper, etc. I bought some really nice things from them! :D BSNJ has some pretty fun and interesting things planned for the next few meetings from what I can tell, so I think it will be a good activity/organization for me to become involved with, and I met some nice people there.

I've got my final class at the Adult School coming up this Tuesday...and I'm FINALLY going to learn how to make RINGS! I'm pretty excited about that! I've really gotten a lot out of these classes and met some great people. I'm already looking forward to the one-day summer camp hosted by one of the teachers in July or August.

I also attended my first MSU Metalwork & Jewelry class on Friday night. This class is no joke! We have to do an oral presentation for the mid-term critique and submit 10 drawings a week in our sketch books. Luckily, I got a head start on those after I attended one class last fall, so I have 17 already done! :D

I've uploaded all of the sample photos to the GALLERY section of the Store, so the NOT FOR SALE section will be taken down soon. I'll wait until we update the site in the next week or so -- keep an eye out for the new Focal Piece of the Month -- so the intro to the Store will reflect the change and not confuse people. :)

Take care and thanks for your continued interest!

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #1: A Belated Happy New Year!

Well, we've finally got the website up and running, as you can see. The store was the last section to get squared away, and that seems to be functioning reasonably well. Please let me or the Webmaster know either here, through any of the links throughout the site or on the Contact Us page if you come across anything that doesn't seem quite right. We've been pretty thorough in checking everything out, but nobody's perfect.

I've gotten a lot of positive feedback on the site so far, so thank you to everyone who has contacted me about it. It's always good to have positive reinforcement. ;)

The next few weeks and months should be pretty exciting, so anyone who is impressed with what you've seen so far, hold on to your seat belts because we've only just started this ride! LOL Next week, I start a three-week course in Advanced Wire Jewelry at the Chatham, Madison & Florham Park Adult School, so expect the Kits from sb designs section of the store to expand quite a bit in the next month or so! Toward the end of the month, I start my Metalwork and Jewelry class at Montclair State University, which will include working with jewelry saws and solder...so, we're talking heavy duty stuff! That class will go until May, so I expect to have some pretty interesting projects to share and topics to discuss this spring as a result.

I'm also starting to do a bit more work "by special request," so you'll be seeing some unique items going straight into the NOT FOR SALE -- Photo Gallery of Samples for Design Purposes Only area. Feel free to contact me if you have a specific idea in mind and I'll let you know if I can make it work, given the limitations of my current abilities, your budget and the materials available. If I can't do exactly what you want, I'll try to propose something as close to it as I can possibly come within those pre-determined parameters. :)

I hope everyone had a safe and Happy New Year! May we all have a joyful, healthy, and prosperous 2010. :)