Shrinky Dinks for Earrings

Back in 2012 I worked with shrinky dinks laser print pages to make charms and earrings.  Those Downton Abby and Frieda Kahlo earrings are long gone, having been given away to family members in Texas and a new friend in Colorado who wrote of Kahlo in one of her poems.

After the writing retreat when our talented author Sandy Dorr expressed appreciation for Ursula Le Guin, it made sense to make her some earrings of an image of Le Guin, along with one of her quotes.

Steps for making shrinky dink earrings:

• Find an image you like and tone down the colors (I used 30% on the gamma scale in Photoscape).

• Select a second image (optional) for the back of the shrinky dink paper.

• Select 10 per page of the image and print on a laser ink jet printer, using the special paper available at hobby stores

• Cut off all white edges on the image.

• Use a hole punch and punch a hole in the top of the image about 1/8 from the top.  Make sure you cut the hole twice the size of the cutter because both the image and the hole will shrink to about 1/4 of its original size.

• Line a cookie sheet with foil and place the images on it.Bake in a preheated 275 degree oven for four minutes, until the image has both shrunken and flattered.

• Either paint on varnish or polyurethane, several coats will do, allowing the objects to dry between coats of finish.

• Remove from oven and cover with paper or foil and put a heavy book on it for 30 seconds.

• Make earrings or knitting markers using beads and findings.

A New Venture

Over the past ten days, I have committed to try learn to write in a more conscious manner.  This new desire has been spurred on by meeting eight women who write in a manner that makes me think in different directions, expanding my spirit, exercising my mind in styles that I embrace.  I want to do that, too!  This new venture came about from participating in the women's writing retreat held in Redstone, Colorado last weekend, directed by Sandy Dorr.  Then I signed up for her writing class "Path to Writing," eight sessions extending through April.

Homework for the pathway to writing has consisted of reading and discussing other writers and their work.  So far, we have read from Ursala Le Guin, Jane Hirshfield, Sara Teasdale, Rebecca Lee, Claire Keegan, Jamaica Kincaid, Robert Pinsky, Sharon Doubaski and Ellen Bass.  Many more authors were discussed but I was so full of words and pages of writing that I cannot hold them all together in one hand right now.

If you are interested in my pathway to writing, hop on over to my new blog, Path of Writing.  Please comment and give constructive criticism.  I value your thoughts.

I leave you with this image and verse shared by Katie who also attended the women's writing retreat.

Needlepoint: A First

Sitting on the floor by my mother back in the early 50's, I remember her separating strands from a skein of dark grey wool yarn into single threads.  The single thread was then slipped through a large needle for her project.  It was a rose she stitched around, and I recall that I did not think it was very "pretty" in my child's eye, but neither was it ever questioned that it would not be beautiful simply because she needle pointed it.  The back was full of threads and tangles, and I have since learned that a true needlepoint artist does not leave a thread unattached on the back of a piece.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I started needle pointing my first piece, simple, small, but I knew I had to accomplish this task of a 5" x 5" piece to place on an address book.  Yes, while working on it, I was reminded of my mother doing this same type of needle art while living in that simple dry land farming ranch house all those years before. It also pulled me back to consciousness that I was also performing the same craft, now more than twice my mother's age when I was on that wooden floor at her feet.

Needle point has certainly changed over the years.  Mother performed one stitch, endlessly, the continental stitch.  Now my current book shows over 250 different stitches that can be used to create beautiful canvases.  If you are so inclined, go here to see some of my favorites that others have stitched.

My first finished piece from a simple kit provided by Dimensions. This was the kit picture.

The koi piece was worked and then attached to an address book, embellished with findings, gold cording and magnetic poetry words.  All objects were adhered to the address book with a hot glue gun and only a few fingers were burned in the process.

It was fun to sew this little piece and now I am starting a more ambitious project, a Klimt painting, The Serpent, on canvas 15" x 20", that will be sewn onto the front of a shoulder bag when completed.

SEG de Paris Needlepoint - Medium Needlepoint Canvases - Le Serpent (d'apres Klimt) Canvas

Have you tried needle pointing?  Where do you find your materials?  What is your inspiration?