All posts by Sylvia

Crafting

So here we are.

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My taxes for this year are going to be fun. The year is not over yet but I’ve supplemented my income with an assortment of classes at the maker space which means an extra 1099 tax form this year and a bit of additional tax. I haven’t participated in any sales or sold anything this year so I don’t have sales tax to pay. I will probably still have to file a form.

But the teaching is fun. I mostly teach members at the maker-space and charge a sum that covers my gas and extra supplies. I say “extra” because I have a lot of supplies and equipment for many different crafts, but occasionally need to buy extra tools.

This year, I have put together bins of supplies for teaching four to six people. For soap making, I have gathered my molds, bases, additives, and tools into a bin that I can just bring up from the basement and take to class. I did the same with the paper-making and book binding supplies.

I’m planning on teaching other book binding classes featuring different types of bindings such as binding single pages and making decorative covers for paperbacks that need repair, and making junk journals, and pop-up books.

Future soap classes will include making hot or cold process soaps, and making utility bars out of the grated and melted bits and scraps of used soap that can be used for cleaning such as the bars I use in the basement and garage for cleaning messy hands and paint brushes. In a pinch, the grated soap can be mixed with borax and washing soda to create laundry detergent.

One of my summer classes will be making paper from plants. It will be a multi-day class with the first day dedicated to making pulp by cooking the plant matter. Maybe I can find a way to get some use out of the unkillable mulberry tree. It’s basically a weed.

It can’t get properly removed because it’s in the narrow wilderness zone between my fence and the neighbor’s fence. Both fences were there when I moved in. They are both are properly within our lot lines which leaves a space between them that is not even large enough for a weed whacker.

I call the mulberry unkillable because the utility company contacts me every other year to say they’re coming over to trim the tree because it’s in the utility lines again, and they come and trim it down and it just grows back. One year, they tried to burn it. I came home from work, and the mulberry was cut back and the stump was black with char. The next spring, new branches and leaves grew. Next spring, I’m going to drill some holes with my larger spade bits and fill them with stump killer. Maybe that will work.

My side of the street has weird fencing. The property directly behind me has a six foot chainlink fence that extends across three back yards to the east. My yard is the only yard with double fencing. My fence is three feet tall and as I mentioned above, the space between the fences if so narrow that I can’t just hang over the fence to try cut the mulberry shorter.

The fence next door on the north starts a foot from the end of my fence because during installation, they discovered a buried stump of an old utility pole which probably extended too far down in the ground to be easily removed. So I attached a 12” piece of chicken wire to prevent my dog from escaping. The neighbors installed a gate at the back fence so the kids could retrieve their balls when they went over the fence. Without the fence, the kids would have had to walk past four houses to the corner and go around the corner and between two houses, and then trudge all the way up to the ball and go back around the way they came.

The four houses around the corner have very long, narrow yards. I figured that the kids’ round trip to get a ball that went over the fence would mean walking a bit under 800 feet so the gate was a good thing. Those kids are all grown up now and there is a new family next door. Periodically, I find a basketball in my yard, but the kids don’t come over to retrieve it. They wait until I notice and toss it back over the fence even though they have my permission to come into the yard to get it.

At any rate, if I can harvest enough bark from the tree, I will attempt mulberry paper. It will probably be a lot of work for a tiny number of sheets. I’ll let you know.

Crafting

Friday Tours and Making

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It’s Tour Night at the maker-space. We get most of our members from tours. The problem is not a lot of members want to do tours, not even most of the 33 persons on our Tour Volunteers Slack channel. There are a couple that I understand have occasional Friday night conflicts, but we hold tours every month on a regular schedule. From my point of view, some of the others could step up once in a while.

I get excuses like “I don’t know what to say.” “What if I forget something?” I know they went on an orientation tour which means they walked through the entire space at least once. We have a script that gives the high points and membership information such as how to sign up and what membership costs – stuff they should know from joining.

I mean, not everyone can talk off the top of their head, and I get that. I never had a tour when I first started. I never even got an orientation. That was due to the fact that I showed up every open shop night for two years before I joined. They accepted me as one of them before I paid for membership. The guy who issued my key-fob just typed the number into the database and said, “here you go.” But I can talk up the space without a script and so long as I remember the fees and contact information, I don’t worry about it. I’ve walked through and pointed out equipment saying, “I don’t what it does because I don’t use it, but we have it for those who need to use it.”

We were a lot smaller in numbers then, and our space was a quarter of the size of the space we occupy now. We moved into our new space in 2019. When I joined we had about 75 members in 3400 square feet. By the end of 2019, we had 300 members in 13800 sq. ft.

Covid cost us some members and even though the space was technically closed for part of the pandemic and we lost a few paying members, we managed to pay the rent. Now we have well over 600 members and add a few more every other week. Since we don’t have to sign membership contracts, many of our members join to work on a specific project for a month or more and then drop out.

In 2021, we added an additional 7,800 sq ft. to add some craft areas we hadn’t had room for, such as Ceramics, a CNC router capable of handling full sheets of plywood, screen printing, and a bike repair area. We were able to triple the number of studio spaces we offer, plus maintain a large open area for events such as member art shows, large scale assembly projects, and the occasional Craft sale. We also added a woodworking classroom and project assembly areas.

We’re currently in the planning stages for buying our own space. We have regular planning meetings and have looked at a number of places that are vacant or soon to be vacant. We’re also looking at funding opportunities. We have a bit less than two years left on our lease. The building is for sale, but the upkeep and maintenance of the entire building might be more that we want to pay, plus we would be responsible for finding renters for the vacant half of the building and the problems that would bring.

We’re are volunteer-run and classed as a non-profit education facility since we do teach the use of our equipment and provide opportunities for the members of the community come in to use the facility and take classes. We also have partnerships with a couple of schools to teach students how to make things. We also started a summer makers camp for 6th through 8th grade students who live in the area.

If you’re interested in joining a space like this, search makerspace, maker-space, or even cooperative workshop. You may find one in your area that you can join. There are at least 4 in my area, some of which are specialized for one thing like photography or a group of related interests such as an art workshop for various art forms, or an incubator for the technical minded.

About me, Mostly me

Have you ever looked up and seen your face on someone else?

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I don’t mean did you meet a sibling or a cousin on the street or someplace that you didn’t know was in town. What I mean is have you ever looked into the face of someone and said, “you’re the person people tell me I look like.”

It’s happened to me twice. Once when I was still in high school, I was on the bus, which was unusual for me as I normally walked to save money to buy books. i was on the bus and happened to look up and across from me was a face so similar to mine, I could only stare. She stared back and we both said to each other that people kept saying they knew someone that looked like me.

We went to separate high schools that were down the street from each other. She went to the Catholic school and I attended the public high school. She was a grade behind. The second strange thing was, when we talked about our siblings, one of her brothers knew my youngest brother, but they didn’t look alike.

The third weird thing was she lived around the corner. The street I lived on backed onto the neighbors’ yards, which in turn edged a nature area. The side of the street my parent’s house was on, spanned the length of three blocks because of that undeveloped land. So around the corner wasn’t in close proximity, but her parents’ property also edged up to part of that land around the corner.

We never became friends, but we did talk when we’d meet on the bus which wasn’t often. The only time I rode was when there was heavy rain or snow. We’d talk about classes we had – I had French and German; she had Italian. I was active in Theater and she did other things. I can’t even remember her name.

The second time I saw my face was today. I was on YouTube and a video was in my feed from someone I didn’t follow. When the video loaded, it was like looking in a mirror. I took a screenshot and sent to two friends with the caption “I just saw my face.” They agreed the woman looks a lot like me. I wonder if she’s the girl from the bus from 60 years ago.

Crafting

Introduction to Melt & Pour Soap Making 

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That was the title of a class I gave at the maker space on November 2nd. I had three students attend. Two others had to cancel due to work schedule changes. I plan to offer another introductory class sometime after the holidays. I also had requests for showing how to make soaps with layers, swirls, and embeds.

Finished soaps.
Top to bottom: chocolate mint, oatmeal lavender, cedar & saffron, and lavender dreams

I brought several items for melting the soap base – a crockpot with high-low and warm settings, a single heat setting crockpot, and a wax melter with a digital temperature control. I’ve also used an electric water-filled kettle with a can as an insert to melt soap, but the easiest and fastest to use is the microwave. 30 seconds, stir, another 30 seconds, stir, and repeat until the soap base is melted.

I made a single sample bar of each to show the finished products so my students would know what the bars would look and smell like. I’ve decided that 4 to 6 students make an easy group to teach.

By now, everyone knows the outcome of the election. I’m not going to say anything more than I did my civic duty and voted. Take care, now.

Crafting

Book binding class – a late report

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The class went well. Seven students of the eight who paid showed up and were able to go home with 4-signature hard-bound books. The books were small, but they should last for a while.

Finished books.

I provided pre-cut mat board to use as the covers. The boards were covered in scrapbook paper and the spines were book cloth. Sketch paper was used for the signatures and everyone was checked off on the industrial paper cutter in order to trim the signatures to a uniform size to fit in the binding.

The group went home with a kit containing a large-eye needle, a cutting mat, a knife, and a couple of paper piercers. Most of the kit was bought a Dollar Tree so not a lot of money was spent. I spent around $6 per student. I charged them $35 for the class.

Mostly me, Stuff

Where have I been?

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Wednesday evening, my youngest granddaughter and her father joined me on a road trip to Pennsylvania for the wedding of my oldest granddaughter. We left in the evening on a 14 hour journey to the wilderness of Pennsylvania. Just kidding about the wilderness, but it is a small town.

We left in the evening because I wanted the youngest to only miss two days of school as the wedding was Friday. When she was little, I used to write about her as “Babycakes.” As she got older, I called her “Tilly the Toddler.” I haven’t written about her in years. Once she started school, I would get her on the occasional Saturday and in posts, she would be referred to by her initials.

Now AJ is a Senior in high school and a licensed driver with her own set of wheels, paid for out of her savings. She planned her life years ago and she is on track. She’s worked since she was 14, first working as a clerk for a clothing reseller. Now she works in the deli department of a food co-op.

AJ doing her first cross-country drive

We spent a few hours sleeping in an old motel off the highway in Ohio. The room was okay. We had to wake the clerk up at 2:30 am to rent the room. AJ and I shared a bed which meant I didn’t sleep well. She’s still a restless sleeper, but at least I didn’t have to hang on to an arm or leg to keep her from falling out of bed like I did when she was a toddler. I probably didn’t sleep well because I was half-remembering the toddler and not the poised young woman.

After we left the motel, the day went downhill. First, we had to drive 25 miles back to the motel because my son forget his shoulder bag. He called the motel and they told him to just get the key back from the deposit box so he could retrieve the bag since no one was there. On my personal ratings scale of 1 to 10, I was able to bump them up to a 7 from a 5.

The 5 was because, while the room was apparently clean, there was some mold in the bathroom and I didn’t feel like I wanted to shower or even wash in the bathroom. They earned the two extra points for letting us wake them a second time.

We slept for about 4 hours and left and as I said above, had to backtrack to get my son’s bag. At this point, I was already fidgety. When I used to drive alone, I usually made the trip straight through and could say exactly when I would be at my daughter’s house.

With the two extra drivers, it actually took longer because every time we switched drivers, my son had to set up his music to play through the car speakers with bluetooth before we could drive off. And he had to do Google Maps, even though I knew the way, having driven solo for many years and had given him verbal directions to the hotel which was right off the exit ramp into the town.

This is an on-going problem between us —he has to double-check any directions or suggestions I give him. I’m not certain if he has some type of learning disability where he has to check spoken instructions against written ones to be able to complete tasks, or what the problem is.

But if there are too many items on a list, he has trouble. He used to complain my lists had too many steps if I broke a task down so he wouldn’t forget to do some of the steps. I’m totally confused about this and have been for most of his 44 years.

Back to the subject, we arrived at the hotel much later than expected and had to rush to get to the rehearsal dinner, such as it was. When we arrived, most of the group were almost done eating, even though we arrived only 5 minutes after the time given to me by my daughter. She had given the same time to the bride’s dad so he was late as well.

Mother of the Bride

We were all glad he could make it, as he has an incurable cancer that will take him much too soon. He did look good for someone we didn’t expect to have live this long. I expect to hear soon that he has passed, but his wish was to be able to walk his daughter down the aisle. And so he did. He was on one side of her and her step-father was on her other side most of the way down the aisle. Her step-father stepped away so her Dad could walk her the rest of the way.

The dads walk the bride in. The man on her right is her father; the one on her left is her step-father.

The ceremony and the reception went well. There are now pictures/videos out there of me dancing like a crazy person. Sorry – not. The DJ was playing lively dance music from the “olden days” — the eighties. My dancing music. Yes, I love any music with a fast dance beat. The funny part is I need to use a cane for ordinary walking or I’ll fall down, but can dance non-stop with no balance problems.

The bride and groom doing a ceremony at the end with colored sand to signify the joining of their lives.

The next morning, we gathered for brunch at my daughter’s house and watched the newlyweds open gifts. They received mostly monetary gifts as they would like to save up for a house. I had had a camping tent from their registry sent to my daughter’s house, but I also contributed to the house fund with money in a card, as well as a plaque with their initials and last name and the phrase “Est. 2024.” They liked that.

We drove straight back home by switching off drivers every 4 hours. When we got to my house, I set my my son up on the couch with bedding and sent AJ up to her bed and we all slept. I woke up first, after about 4 hours sleep, and have been up ever since. After we were all up, we unloaded my car and loaded up AJ’s car so she could drive her dad home and then get herself back home on the other side of town.

Crafting

Mind your own business

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What makes a good neighbor?

When I first moved into my current house there was an elderly woman who lived next door. She asked if she could put her trash in my bin because she was waiting for the city to issue her a smaller one as she lived alone. That started a big mess. Every trash day, even after she got her new bin, her trash wound up in mine.

She didn’t like the bins at the street all day so she would bring mine up. She would have a fit because my bin would stink – I was disposing of dog waste as instructed by the city – so I should hose it out after every pickup. Mostly I ignored her.

Then she tried to have a lawn care company spray my yard for weeds. They refused because it wasn’t her property. So this crazy woman would sit in my yard that bordered hers across the driveway when I was at work and pull “weeds” some of which were wildflowers I had planted to discourage her from wandering over.

She reported me to the city because I didn’t mow my lawn often enough for her. It was mostly white clover which doesn’t grow that tall. It was lush and green and not over the height the city cares about. The side across the driveway was literally scalped by her. She would pluck out the plants and either toss them on the driveway or pile them on top of the trash bin.

I had some workers come by to fill in an old well. We found that what I thought was a patio was the roof of a room built out from the basement that used to house the well. Prior owners/tenants had used the room to dump all kinds of trash and paint cans in there. The doorway at some point had been bricked up. I’m not certain how the home inspector missed that.

Before we discovered this, I used to wonder about the horrible stench in my basement when the sun heated up what was the concrete roof. My basement also flooded six inches deep before we found the source of the leak. The contractor had to make the opening larger where an outside pump had been in order to access that room. The guys very nicely filled at least 10 large trash bags with the junk they pulled out of there.

Mrs. Nosy Neighbor called the city because I had too many trash bags at the side of my garage. They must have told her that it wasn’t a problem if I was regularly putting them in the trash bin. She told me she got a quote for me from Waste Management for a dumpster so I could get rid of the bags. By this time, most of the bags were gone because the city had given me one of the larger sized bins.

I came home from work one day and there were 4 vinyl fence panels in her yard. She was having them installed because I spoiled her view, which by the way, was the side of my garage and part of the driveway. By the time the fence was installed, all of the extra bags were gone.

She had complained that the sight of my trash cans had also spoiled her view. At that time, the cans were at the side of my garage. I moved them past the edge of the fence. Two weeks later, there were new fence panels installed which gave me more privacy from her snooping. A little devil whispered in my ear that I should keep moving the cans down the side of my driveway to see how many fence panels I could get her to install. Alas, she had a horrible fall and her son packed her off to assisted living.

The house was sold and I now have much nicer neighbors who don’t need a perfect lawn and who cut their grass whenever. We all mind our own business except the few times in the summer when we used to watch for strangers just sitting in idling cars. Because of our location and the fact that most of us at the time worked, drug dealers would do business on our block.

When I retired, I made a point of being out in the yard and weeding or just sitting on the porch. If the cars parked and no one got out, I would hold up my phone. They would usually take off. Funny story – my neighbor across the street was home one day and saw a black suv with tinted windows sitting in front of my house and came over and banged on the window. It was an undercover officer waiting to see if any dealers were going to cruise over.

There hasn’t been too much of that sort of traffic in the past couple of years. I guess the word got out that there’s a lot more people who are home now. Several of my neighbors work from home and some of us are retired. I have the dubious honor of now being the oldest person on the block. I was one of the younger ones when I moved in.

About me, Stuff

I fell down again

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There’s definitely something wrong. Unfortunately, my appointment to the fall clinic isn’t for another three months. This time, I was walking up the driveway after taking the trash to the street for the morning pickup. I had a thought about checking for mail, when bam – down I went. At least I was able to get back on my feet without too much trouble.

I’ve been practicing getting up. It might not seem like a big thing, but I’ve been practicing different ways to get myself off chairs, and the couch, and how to get up off the floor/ground without flailing like a turtle that’s been turned on to its shell. It’s tricky with two bad knees and a bad shoulder. But I’ve been managing. At least this time, I didn’t bang my head on the pavement.

I suppose I should keep a fall log that gives the time, what I was doing and if I was distracted, or tripped over something. I think there’s a glitch in my brain, but I don’t know if it’s related to my eyes or ears. I do have bouts of vertigo, but they’re like lightning flashes rather than the hours long brain circles I used to have. They may be the cause of the falls.

I don’t bother to inform the kids when I fall. So long as I don’t need medical assistance, I’m fine. They don’t need to know. They’ll want me in an apartment, or my son will want to move in, or worse yet, my daughter will want me to put a trailer on her other lot in the wilds of Pennsylvania.

There’s no amenities in that town. No bus service. I guess there’s a transport service you can call if you can’t drive. The mall is 26 miles away, there’s expensive imported food – Wisconsin cheese and bratwurst – in the “Gourmet” section. If I remember correctly, there’s a Dunkin Donuts about 6 miles away and the fast food places are two towns away.

So I’ll stay living in my house, where I’m two blocks from a bus stop and my annual pass is less than $50. My house payments, even with the property taxes and utilities, is still cheaper than rent. I still have my car, but I’m perfectly fine traveling by bus if I can’t drive. I have a cane for when I leave the house. Actually, I have a house cane and a car cane. The house cane isn’t used in the house and rarely in the yard, but I use it when I take the dog for a walk or walk over to a friend’s or neighbor’s house.

As long as I’m not falling daily, or down the steps with the laundry, or when crossing a street, I’m good.

Mostly me, My own damned opinion., Stuff

Dog sitting, plants, and ceramic cats

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My dog watching days may come to an end soon. Sir Farts-a-Lot seems to be losing steam. He barely wants to go out in the yard. His last walk was to the end if the driveway. His owner picked him up for a vet appointment but she doesn’t have the results yet.

He didn’t eat most of his breakfast. I even tried sticking some cat food in the dish, but that didn’t work. I did get him to take his pills by making a ball of peanut butter and cat food. I wasn’t certain that he wouldn’t somehow manage to spit out the pills. But apparently, they made it to his stomach.

Sir Farts-a-lot, dangerously near his nemesis, the deadly Gingersnap.

I should be repotting my geraniums while the dog naps. The squirrels nearly killed both plants this summer by digging in the pots. I’m going to put the surviving remnants into smaller pots and they and the other potted plants I’m saving from the weather are going in the basement on top of the washer with a grow light on a timer.

I’ll bring in my outdoor ceramic cats for the winter and give them touch-ups with paint and new ribbons for their necks. They sit on the porches to guard my plants from everything except the squirrels and chipmunks. I guess the green and yellow Packer cat wasn’t scary enough for the little buggers. So maybe the pink one and the white one will join him out front next spring.

What a fall! I keep expecting an early snow, but the weather is still ridiculously warm. I know a freeze warning is coming up in the next week or so. By that time the plants should be in the basement, my filters will be down by the furnace and I’ll be good for the winter.

I sincerely hope we don’t become the new Nazi nation. I don’t know why a convicted felon is allowed to run for president. I don’t understand how his followers don’t see what a con man and grifter the guy is. The polls fluctuate so much, I try not to pay much attention to them. My philosophy has always been if I can’t find someone to vote for, find someone to vote against. There are definitely a lot to vote against.

Crafting

Book binding.

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I have a basic book binding class coming up on the 19th of this month. The class is fully booked and I have been making up kits for my students. They will learn how to bind a simple multi-signature hard cover book. I’ve added more supplies to my kit so I can teach 8 students at a time. I don’t know if there will be any youngsters in the class, but it would be great if there were. Perhaps in the future, I will offer a “Bookbinding For Kids” class.

Two views of a book made a few years ago by my youngest granddaughter on her own after a Saturday book making session with Nana.

I’m using sketch paper as the pages. Normally, I use whatever copy paper I have for classes, but it’s flimsy, and while the book is usable, it’s not all that nice. The sketch paper is more durable than copy paper and will hold up better for writing and drawing.

Once they master the basics, I hope they will be inspired to create their own books to use as journals or sketchbooks. For this project, I have cut mat board to 4-1/2 by 5-1/2 in size. I cut the 9 by 12 inch sketch paper in half and they will get the equivalent of six full size papers which they will learn to trim. The maker space currently has an electric industrial paper cutter we can use.

I’m making prototypes to show the various stages of binding from how to determine the grain for folding, covering the boards, and assembling a completed book.

I could have two half-sheets folded as a single signature for six signatures, or up to six half sheets for larger signatures. The problem with larger signatures is a phenomenon called “creep”. When more than two sheets are in a signature, the edges become noticeably uneven, giving a signature a pyramidal edge as each inner paper adds a sliver to the outer edge, with the centermost folded sheets projecting out a distance equal from the edge of the outmost folded sheet like this sideways v >. That gives an uneven edge to the text block.

That’s not a bad thing as many older bound books have signatures arrayed like this. Most book binders trim the edges of the entire text block so they are even before binding the block into the cover. It’s a matter of preference. It’s harder to trim the signatures evenly by hand without an industrial paper cutter that can handle a thick text block.

Depending on the look a binder is trying for, creep could be esthetic. I personally don’t care. Some of the bound item have uneven edges, some are trimmed. I’ve spent a bit on inexpensive binding supplies this round so that I have enough of the basics for each student to take home. They’ll get to keep a bone folder, a couple of piercing tools, a needle, and a good length of waxed thread.

I don’t have waxed linen thread, so we’ll be using waxed cotton tatting thread. I use a beeswax thread conditioner that can be found in the notions area of any fabric shop and run the length of thread across from end to end. I used to use a candle stub before raiding my sewing box for the beeswax.

Trying to work out an arrangement of some items to be set up for a sale with only 1 table allowed. Not everything shown here was taken to the sale.

For my junk journals, I’ve used embroidery thread, dental floss, rattan ribbon, perle cotton, and satin ribbon to stitch signatures and attach bindings. The stitching for the junk journal signatures is mostly done on the outside of the spine and can be done very decoratively. I also like perle cotton for doing Japanese Stab Binding. This technique will be a different class offering.

A cloth-bound sketchbook I made for my youngest Granddaughter’s 13th birthday.

I’ll let you know how the class goes.