Tangible Tidbits 2011 #16: From Japanese "Noodle Westerns" to Chinese Chopsticks...

Hi, gang! I hope everyone is doing well. :)

I've had a busy week! During class on Tuesday, we watched a Japanese "noodle western" -- a spoof of the old "spaghetti westerns" -- with subtitles called "Tampopo," the Japanese word for "dandelion" and the main character's name. Our teacher loves this film and he wanted to convey to us that we should put our all into whatever food we plan to make for our last class, when we use our "Out to Lunch" projects in our final critique. I've watched films with subtitles before, and even a very good one in Japanese ("Shall We Dance"), but this one was way too over-the-top for me. It gave me a headache! Needless to say, we didn't get much work done in that class, but I did manage to show my teacher the aluminum template for my Chinese takeout box. He seemed very pleased with it, and said "it showed" that I put a lot of time and effort into filing and sanding the edges! He gave me some suggestions regarding the hinges for the top flaps, so I will be working on those this week. I also cut up the remaining piece of aluminum sheet into two squares and one rectangle, which I will use to make a serving platter and condiment dishes...for sweet & sour sauce and hot mustard, for example. I still have a lot to do, and we're nearing the end of the semester, with two or three classes left at the most! He hasn't given us a date yet for the final critique. Wish me luck! ;)

On Thursday, we had our monthly BSNJ meeting. The program was revamped at the 11th hour to provide interactive demonstrations of various wire and metalwork tools, as well as a bead loom. I knew about a lot of them -- not all -- and waited for the crowds to die down at the stations before checking them out. I used my time wisely, though, and finished the embellishment on my chopsticks. I used half hard nickel wire (much more difficult to work with than dead soft wire, but it was what I had in the 18-gauge size I wanted to use) and coiled it around the top end of each chopstick. I added a pewter oval bead to the end of each stick...one side says "love" and the other side has Chinese characters on it; I presume they also say "love." I had them in my stash to be used as weighted charms for the clasp end on bracelets, but I liked the idea of using Chinese character charms for the chopsticks. :) So, that part of the project is finished! :D

I also added turquoise Greek leather to one of the resin pendants I made a few weeks ago. The pendant has two Turquoise chips in it, along with a couple of Cowrie Shells and Freshwater Pearls. The turquoise color of the leather picks up the color of the gemstone beads perfectly! :D

Today was spent with my older niece for her 10th birthday outing. We went to lunch at the Bagel Chateau -- both of my nieces LOVE bagels -- then to a local bead shop, and finally to Carvel for ice cream, which this niece LOVES. :) We made necklaces at the bead shop, something I had done with my younger niece last year. Jamie chose two puzzle piece "Best Friends" companion charms, and made a necklace for herself while I made one for her sister. Both girls love their necklaces, so it was a successful day overall. ;)

I'm still very behind on updating my photo files. There are only so many hours in a day, and I have to fit some downtime in there or I will go crazy. :p I should probably take a week off from the office job for a "staycation" at home to get my other stuff done. Maybe after school ends next month. :)

Have a great week! :D

Tangible Tidbits 2011 #15: Minutes Turning Into Hours!

Hey, folks! I can't believe how quickly this month is flying by. Easter is only two weeks away! I thought it was further away for some reason. :o

I just finished typing up the minutes from the Bead Society's two-hour Board meeting this past Wednesday. It was my first Board meeting, although the President thinks I've "been around forever...that's a good thing" as she put it. :) It took me almost as long to type up the minutes as it took to have the meeting! Actually, I think it took a bit longer. :o I've sent them to the President for her input...I don't know if I reported more than was necessary or we just covered a lot of material that night. :p Our next general meeting is this coming Thursday instead of the third Thursday this month, due to Easter festivities at the Church where we hold our meetings. So, next weekend I'll be typing up minutes again! :\ Luckily, the Board is made up of a nice group of people. That makes the time pass more pleasurably. ;)

I spent three hours yesterday afternoon sitting in my backyard in the sunshine, filing and sanding the metal shape for my Chinese food container. One of my classmates probably saved me a month of sawing by showing me the electric jeweler's saw in the studio, a recent acquisition. It was like operating a sewing machine, only to saw metal! I broke half a dozen blades on my project, but it would have been 10 times that much if I had done it by hand. :p I'm really pleased with how the piece is shaping up. I just have to find a way to clean up the scratches left behind by the sandpaper and files. I don't really have the patience to sand the entire piece with multiple grades of sandpaper until the scratches all disappear. I did go over the entire piece twice each with four or five grades of sandpaper, but I wasn't thorough enough to make all of the scratches disappear. I'm hoping there's an electric tool I can use to cheat a bit on that. LOL

The reason I was working outside yesterday is because my Vitamin D level is low, and my psychiatrist mentioned this week that the supplements given to me by two other doctors are useless unless I take something to help my body process them or get exposure to sunshine. You'd think Vitamin D would come with the "processing agent" if that is the case, wouldn't you? So, I took advantage of the sunshine and worked on my back steps. :)

The Spike channel ran a "Star Wars" (IV, V, & VI) marathon last night, so I had it on. I know most of the first one (now called "A New Hope") by heart, so I didn't pay too close attention to that one. I watched "The Empire Strikes Back" more intently, although it is my least favorite of the three. I fell asleep within the last hour of "Return of the Jedi," since it was over at 3:00 a.m. I didn't like the newer three films (I, II, & III) nearly as much, although I liked the third of those the best because it seemed closer to the original series. I presume that's because Anakin finally became an adult. The first one seemed really boring to me, but I think that's because he was so young and I was impatient for him to grow up! LOL

I will be filing my income taxes this week. According to the accountant, I will be getting refunds from both the IRS and State of New Jersey, which is mind-boggling. I used to always owe New Jersey, even if the IRS owed me. Believe it or not, there is almost a $13,000 difference between what my annual income was last year on my Federal income tax form and what the State's form records. Naturally, the State amount is higher. I wonder what my State income taxes would be if I moved to San Diego? ;) Plus, there's more sunshine there...better for my Vitamin D level! :D

BTW, my coworker liked both pairs of white hoop earrings! She purchased one and may take the other at a later date. :) I also delivered a triple-strand Freshwater Pearl bracelet that I made for the owner of the salon where I get my nails manicured. She was really happy with it after I made it longer and changed the slide clasp to a toggle. :D

I received an upgrade for Bead Manager Pro last week and a second upgrade a few days ago, since people reported a few bugs in the first upgrade. I had already done the first upgrade, but it took me almost a half hour to make the second one today. It really should have taken about 10 minutes. I definitely find that when Mercury is in retrograde (as it is has been since March 30 and will continue to be until April 23), technology goes haywire. Mercury is the planet of technology and communication, so the internet, cell phones, email, and the like all become very unreliable during the three-week Mercury retrograde periods, which occur three or four times a year. I've noticed this for myself over the past couple of years. I also tend to get moody during certain aspects of the moon (I often learn about them after the period has past, so it's not a self-fulfilling prophecy), since the moon was in Pisces - a water sign - when I was born. I really find astrology fascinating. :)

I have to find some time to straighten out my office/studio soon. It's become a major disaster area, with notes to myself, tools, unfinished projects, new materials not yet recorded in the database, and items to be fixed all over the place. It's getting to the point where I can barely find anything! I used to be so neat and orderly in here. I wonder when that went out the window? :o

Have a great week! :D

Tangible Tidbits 2011 #14: NAET, Social Media & My Latest Video!

Hi, everyone! What's new?

On the personal side of things, I've been undergoing allergy treatments to help stop my reaction to calcium oxalates. Yesterday, I had my second session of Nambudripad Allergy Elimination Techniques (NAET), which incorporate acupuncture and avoidance of certain "food energies" for 25 hours following the treatment. Two weeks ago, I had the treatment for calcium and eggs. The egg one worked, but the calcium only relieved 50 percent of the problem. I'd inadvertently put my hand under tap water that afternoon, and tap water contains a certain amount of calcium in it. I will have to repeat that one at a later time. This week, we did grains, yeast, and sugar. Let me tell you...it is REALLY HARD to avoid these items for 25 hours! I spent most of the day in bed with a major headache. I also had to avoid tap water again, since it was not listed on the "okay to consume" list for sugar or yeast (I forget which one). The last time was just as bad because I had to avoid anything related to eggs, including fowl and anything with feathers in it such as down comforters and pillows. Calcium is in many vegetables, toothpaste, and a lot of other things you wouldn't necessarily associate with calcium. I also spent most of that weekend in bed with a headache. The doctor is inquiring about getting a calcium oxalate sample, so we can treat me directly for that. The way we are going about it now, we're not entirely sure what will alleviate the itching and what won't. :\ Hopefully, I will get through these soon, as I can't take too many more "fasting" weekends! :p

A quick update on the projects I told you about last week: I received the aluminum sheet metal for the Chinese box project for school. I also went to Staples and made 11" x 17" copies of the template I found on the internet, so I'm ready to rock on that this coming week in class. I made the chopsticks last week...I even broke the second one while trying to whittle it down to a tapered end! Luckily, super glue and a vice worked a minor miracle, and I can't even tell which one was split! I had already sanded them both down to make them smooth, and I applied one coat of Tung Oil yesterday. I'll probably apply at least one more coat, maybe two. A classmate also suggested I reinforce the ends with metal...it will not only help make the broken one stronger, but also embellish the chopsticks and make them totally unique! I will try to get to that this week or next. :) I also finished the enamel-covered metal white hoop earrings I mentioned. In fact, I made two pairs...one with large filigree hoops and a second smaller pair with wire donut spacers that have spokes going around them like bicycle wheels. Both turned out really nice! Hopefully, my coworker will like at least one pair. :)

In social media news, the Twitter page for the Virtual Mall seems to be drawing attention from somewhere, but I'm not quite sure where. I've been adding followers pretty regularly without much effort on my part. I think the page added 15 today alone! :o Between that page and the Facebook Page, we have close to 800 followers now! :D I also added a Company page for Something Tangible on LinkedIn. I was doing something over there and the option popped up, so I took it! :)

Lastly, I finally finished my fourth San Diego video and posted it to YouTube. I think it turned out pretty well! ;)



Have a great week! :D

Tangible Tidbits 2011 #13: Factoidz, Ferido™, and "Forum"

Good evening, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the first full weekend of Spring...not that you could tell it's Spring around here. It's been bright and sunny for the past few days, but colder than it was before the seasons officially changed. :\

It's been a while, but I posted a new Factoid article today: Six Basic Publicity Tips To Help Promote Your Fundraiser or Special Event. It was a quickie I developed yesterday after posting a response to a request for help in a private Ning forum group to which I belong. After posting my reply, I realized that it would make a good Factoid with only a few minor tweaks and elaborations. :D I've also got another one "in development," but I'm not quite comfortable with it yet, so I posted this one first. I'll probably post the other one in April, since Factoidz calculates a monthly activity bonus based on the number of articles posted. Rather than double up in March, I may as well wait a few days and publish it in April, so I can build up next month's activity early. :)

I purchased a hardwood dowl and Tung Oil (a non-toxic finish) from Home Depot this week. I need them to make chopsticks for my school project. I found instructions on eHow.com for the chopsticks and the Chinese food carton, along with a template for the carton. I made one out of paper the other day and it turned out really nice! I also ordered aluminum sheet metal from a jewelry supplier in Manhattan, so I will hopefully get it in time for Tuesday night's class. The professor suggested I also make some kind of serving plate to go with the other pieces. I'll see how much time and materials I have left after the chopsticks and the carton...hopefully, I will have enough of both to come up with something suitable. :)

While I was at Home Depot, I also purchased some white spray paint. I have some lightweight metal hoops that I wanted to paint white for a pair of earrings. I think I mentioned last week that a coworker asked for white plastic hoops. The resin ones I made a couple of weeks ago are too stiff for earrings, I think. They will probably become pendants eventually. :) Anyway, I coated one side of the metal hoops with the white paint yesterday and they look pretty good. I have to wait 48 hours before I can flip them over and spray paint the back side. Once that dries, I will figure out what to use above the hoops as the attachment piece for clip earrings. I'm hoping I have something appropriate in my stash. Keeping my fingers crossed it all works out! :)

Since I didn't have the materials for my school project yet last week, I brought some rose Ferido™ Formula x1 epoxy adhesive with me to use up, since it is best used within two years and it was coming close to that time since I bought it. It comes in two parts that get blended together to make a clay-like substance, and one part was already a bit crunchy. I think I got in just under the wire on that one! LOL I created three pendants using the epoxy and some miscellaneous items such as broken beads and a button from an old winter coat...you never know what can be recycled, eh? ;) When I got home from class, they were solid enough to add wire bails to them, as well as some texture to one. I really like two out of the three. The third one is the textured one with the button. I may have to figure out a way to jazz that one up a bit. :\

I saw the fourth production of the Paper Mill Playhouse's season today -- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Even though I'd never seen the play, I recognized the opening song ("Comedy Tonight!"), but I'm not sure where I've heard it before. It may have been on a recent birthday tribute to Stephen Sondheim I saw on PBS. It was an amusing show, although I think I've seen funnier ones. The final play of the season for me will be on Mother's Day...and yes, I'm taking my mother! LOL It's Curtains, another one I heard about but never saw. I believe David Hyde Pierce performed it on Broadway. This production will star Robert Newman and Kim Zimmer of CBS-TV's Guiding Light soap opera. I've never watched CBS soaps, but I do know the actress and the actor looks familiar from his picture. He may have been on another soap at one point....I have seen all of the NBC and ABC soaps at one time or another. :)

I have some chores to finish up, since I was out most of the day. Have a great week! :D

Tangible Tidbits 2011 #12: "The Way We Were" and Taking Action

Hey, everyone! I just finished watching The Way We Were. I saw it once a long time ago, and all I could really remember was that I didn't like the ending. It's a good movie, but I still don't like the ending. Call me a sap, but I think if two people really love each other that much, they should be able to find a way to work things out. Sadly, that's not the case in real life, so I'll give the film points for being realistic. On the other hand, we watch movies to escape reality, so a "happily ever after" ending would have been nice. I know...I know...it would have been an entirely different film if the ending were different. Still, who wants to experience someone else's heartbreak? Someone who hasn't experienced the real thing, I guess. :p

I've been working on my final wrap-up video from San Diego. It's about 75 percent finished. I'm lacking footage that will fill in some of the gaps, so I have to check around and see if I can scrounge some up in order to finish it. :)

Also, I added links to the appropriate sections of the website store in the photo albums on Something Tangible LLC's Facebook page this week, as well as ten new product photos. I still have a dozen or so to fix, and I will update the photo gallery and store pages on the website once I have them all completed. ;)

BSNJ's St. Patrick's Day Party was fun. I got a nice pair of earrings in the Swarovski® Earring Exchange, as well as the materials for a pair of green beaded earrings as the party favor. I made mine right at the table while I was waiting for the food line to get shorter. ;) I also won some recycled paper beads in the silent auction and our table's centerpiece -- a candle decorated with leprechauns. All in all, I'd say I did pretty well! LOL

One of the blog's regular readers sent me a really nice email this week. She said one of my posts helped her decide to get a medical test she would have otherwise put off. While the results weren't serious, there was an issue to be addressed. She was grateful for my message. It's gratifying to know my words touched someone and resulted in her taking action. :D

I've been hearing a lot about "taking action" lately...it's being encouraged by many life coaches and business mentors these days. Taking action isn't always easy. Sometimes, it's pretty d@mned hard. And it doesn't always turn out the way you'd anticipated in my experience. I will admit that I've been doubting the wisdom of some of my actions over the past year. People forget that every single thing we do affects someone else in one way or another -- directly, indirectly, purposely, or incidentally. Too often, we don't realize the effect our actions have on others, good or bad, until some time has passed...if we ever learn about it at all. In the end, we just have to trust our own judgement, go with our instincts, and hope for the best. I do that more often than not, but I have been burned a few times in the process...sometimes, painfully so. Still, I suppose taking a risk that failed is better than not taking a risk that would have succeeded. The only way to learn the outcome is to make the effort. :\

Off to finish my Sunday night. Have a great week, folks! :)

Tangible Tidbits 2011 #11: All Work And No Play...

Hello, everybody! I got a late start today, but I was on kind of a creative roll, so I decided to keep going with it rather than stop to write my blog post earlier. Unfortunately, my "creativity muse" isn't always around, so I try to pay attention when she is. ;) I finished my Swarovski earrings for the Bead Society's exchange coming up at the St. Patrick's Day party this week, three other pairs of earrings, two bracelet repairs, one earring replacement, and three new elastic rings this weekend. :)

I was playing around with the Virtual Mall Facebook Page earlier this week. I added some photos with links to the various sections on the Virtual Mall web page. I'd thought about adding the photos a while ago, since the blank spots at the top of the page were not aesthetically pleasing. ;) I got the idea to add the links from a webinar I attended a few days ago offering tips to enhance your FB pages. I also added "Welcome" and "Handcrafted Gifts" pages...the Welcome page is supposed to appear if someone doesn't already "Like" the page, but I tested it earlier and it doesn't work for me...possibly because I created the page. I'm not entirely happy with the Welcome page anyway...it needs a little more work. The Handcrafted Gifts page turned out pretty well. I may add that to the Something Tangible Facebook page, but I haven't given that much thought yet. The reason I started with the VM page is because I had already come up with visuals for that one when I created it, but the dimensions were wrong -- too wide for the space -- and I couldn't use them. I basically used those as a starting point, which is why the Welcome page needs work. It has too much text and not enough "white space" to be effective, I think. Plus, the image itself is not as clear as it should be. :\

Once I'm happy with the VM page, I will start revamping the Something Tangible Page. I did change the profile picture there from the logo -- I've heard that's a big no-no, but I'm keeping it on the VM page because I don't know what else to use there -- to the pendant from the header on the website. I had the picture in my files from creating the YouTube channel. Anyway, I like the way it looks, and it depicts the idea of what Something Tangible is more than the logo does. :)

As for the class project due this past week, I ended up making a wire-wrapped representation of a jeweler's saw using wire instead of an actual blade to avoid cutting clothing. I put it on a silver-plated chain with a copper toggle clasp, since the saw was silver-plated wire with a copper accent on the handle. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and my teacher seemed to like it well enough. :) We have Spring Break this week (YAY!), but our final project will take up the last four weeks of class. The theme (this teacher seem to like those) is "Out to Lunch"...we have to create something that carries food -- hinges, a handle, and a latch must be incorporated into it -- along with the appropriate corresponding utensils. We will apparently be having a picnic for our final critique using these items! :o I'm thinking about making a metal Chinese food container and chopsticks. The top of the container will have to have hinges to fold over and close, and the latch will be the closure. I haven't decided how to close it yet, but I don't think the tabs on a traditional Chinese food box will work because cardboard has more flexibility than metal. I will line the container with aluminum foil to protect the food. I think the chopsticks will be made of wood, although I have seen them in plastic also. I have a lot of research to do, as I don't know if this project is too ambitious for me or not. I really enjoy these classes...they make me stretch my imagination and also broaden my skills. Unfortunately, it looks like I will have to skip taking a class next semester, as it will not fit in my budget. :( Hopefully, I will be able to go back after a semester or two.

It's late, so I will close now. I still haven't worked on the final San Diego video, but I will try to get to that this week. :) Take care, one and all! :D

Tangible Tidbits 2011 #10: Emails and Videos and Sculpting, Oh My!

Hey, gang! Today was very gray and rainy here...hope some of you saw sunshine! :)

As those of you who receive this message via email already know, I started using the Madmimi auto responder last week. Unfortunately, it wasn't as smooth a transition as I would have liked. :o First off, the system would not let us use the existing format for my email messages. It's close, except the header is no longer above the banner, but below it. In addition, we can't put the issue number and date on the same line, as we had before. I don't like that they are one above the other, but I have little control over that. :\ We also can't customize the footer on the message, which bugs me. And no more smileys! :( The other major problem was that my links didn't work. I received an email from Madmimi afterward, with a tip to use a screen capture from the video that links to the video itself. I may try that in the future...but if that becomes too time-consuming, I will revert back to using text links. I did find a link at the bottom of the email that asks if you want to read the message on the web, including a clickable link. That takes you to a web version of the same message, complete with working links. Of course, you can always visit the blog on our website or our YouTube channel directly to view any links or videos mentioned. ;)

In other news, our Video Sales Page is finally up and running! Check it out and let me know what you think. This is the PowerPoint presentation I developed in San Diego last month. The template they gave us had a lot of coding problems in it -- my web designer's browser kept shutting down -- so we modified it to fit in with the overall look of the website. I'm breaking some network marketing guidelines by doing this...apparently, it has been proven that a white background with black and red block lettering generate the most conversions. Still, I think that people visiting a jewelry designer/artisan expect more aesthetics in a web page. Personally, I don't think I would by jewelry or other artistic items from a white, black and red page. It lacks imagination, in my humble opinion. Time will tell if I've made a mistake or not. ;) I do want to make a second one for the Virtual Mall down the line, so I will have to see how well this one works before I make any decisions regarding that one.

My nieces slept over this weekend, so they helped me make some new pieces yesterday. I'll try to post photos over the next week or so. I have a bunch that I've taken already, but I haven't cleaned them up yet. :)

No video this week. I still have some raw material left from San Diego, but I have to go through it and decide how I want to cut it together. The videos I've posted to date were pretty simple. This one will be more of a "production." I will hopefully have it for next weekend, but I can't make any promises. Sadly, I have another family funeral to attend this week. :(

I played with Apoxie® Scuplt sculptural epoxy today. What a mess! LOL I was trying to make white hoops for a coworker. I won't know until tomorrow if they turned out all right. It takes 24 hours for the epoxy to fully dry. I also added some to my sterling silver guardian angel pendant from last semester. If the white turns out okay, I will try to make flesh color for the head and feet. Crossing my fingers!

Well, I'm outta here. Have a great week! :D