Darwintine Fundraiser: Get your Shinies

As you all know, we’re doing another round of fundraiser to get that albatross off PZ’s and other people’s necks. I know, it’s getting boring and annoying, and right now nobody is made of money anyway, but the good people caught up in Carrier’s bullshit (may he step on all the Legos) don’t deserve having to deal with this either.

And, as you also know, I’ve been crafting my evenings away, so let’s combine the pleasant with the useful, as the German saying goes (das Angenehme mit dem Nützlichen verbinden) and sell off some jewellery. While it may be too late for a Valentine’s gift, any lover of jewellery will tell you that it’s never a bad moment for a pretty gift.

Rules:

  • I’m not doing an auction but sell them off at fixed prices. First come, first served, though I can always try to make something similar for you.
  • I’ll pay for economy shipping. If you want an upgrade, you chip in.
  • All items shown in this post or my previous posts are up for sale. You can find them here, here, here and here. And here. And here. Man, I have been busy…
  • The prices are fixed: a set of earrings 15$, a pendant 10$, a set of them 20 $. Unless I say otherwise, but you’ll see that in the post.
  • All pendants come with a waxed cotton necklace, so you can wear them immediately. If you want a chain, please inquire.
  • Payment: Just send the money directly to the fundraiser linked above. If I don’t know you well, I will ask you to send a confirmation to me.

All set? Here’s some nice stuff. You’ll know most of it already, I just tried to get some nicer pics. Yeah, still not great. I’m more of an outdoors photographer than a studio artist.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

The colours are a bit off here. They are much redder. I could also work them into pendants, you know?

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Inspired by Central American jewellery. the golden droplet is attached to the stopper, so if you want to tone them down a bit, just use a different stopper.

©Giliell, all rights reserved A Moonlit Night

©Giliell, all rights reserved

These did not quite turn out the way I wanted. Actually they were meant to be the central piece in the ones above. they are a bit less than 2 cm in diameter and go for a tenner. Of course I would also clean them up for you.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

These are quite light and elegant. Gold foil and abalone shell

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

I’ll colour in the numbers for you. I realised I hadn’t quite finished when I took the pic.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

The last two are the same sphere. I really tried, but if there is a way to get a nice pic of these, I haven’t found it yet…

So, who will be your Valentine?

In Which Yours Truly Almost got Caught Up in the Bystander Effect

The Bystander Effect is an interesting phenomenon, in which people become less likely to do the right thing if there are more people present*. In short, everybody thinks that if there was something that should be done, somebody else would already have done it, resulting in nobody doing anything. This is why in an emergency you never say “somebody should call the emergency hotline”, but “You there in the red jacket, call the emergency hotline”.

Today we went for our usual walk at our usual lake. The weather was lovely. Temperatures had risen to 4-5° above zero, sun was shining, no wind.

©Giliell, all rights reserved           The picture is from January, I didn’t take the camera today

Before the current cold spell (and we got off lucky here with -10° C at the lowest) we had lots of warm (+10°C) rain, so when I went to the lake on Wednesday it was still completely open. It froze over since, but of course not completely, and I will not speculate on the thickness of the ice. But when we arrived there, there were people on the ice. Mostly young men (who else…) but a few people with small children as well. Everybody around exclaimed “are they mad???”, but nobody did anything. And… neither did I at first. Because there are so many emotions at once. Disbelief, worry, anger (how stupid can you be, how dare you take the children), but also fear about what will happen if I do something (Including the fear of being accused of wasting emergency service time) and of course the idea that you don’t tattle to the cops. Mr was exactly the same. When I said “I should call the emergency hotline” he was “yes, you should”. Not calling it himself.

Well, I did. It took some time until I got to the person who was responsible, who apparently hadn’t left his office in a while, because he asked me “how many people were there” and I said “about 10” and he said “not at the lake, but on the ice” as if you could find a nice quiet place right now with only 10 people in sight. We walked away after we informed the emergency hotline, because there was nothing left to do. If they’d fallen in, we couldn’t have done anything, so we went to the woods where there are less people.

At least when we returned, the Office of Public Order was there and yelled at people who still thought it was funny to step on the ice but on the other side of the lake. Dudes, when 100 people around say that you’re a fucking idiot, you’re probably not some edgy rebel fighting against the forces of evil. Chances are that you’re just a fucking idiot. Mr said I’d probably saved a life today, but I’m pretty sure the person whose life I possibly saved is pretty angry with the asshole who called the cops. As they say, there’s no glory in prevention.

 

*Though, as numbers increase so does the likelihood of somebody finally doing something

 

Resin Art: More bling

No, I haven’t forgotten you, I just didn’t get around to taking pics last week. But to make up for it you’ll get lots of them this week.

First: dice. I haven’t played a pen and paper RPG since long before the pandemic, but I swear I’ll do so again. I ordered a die mould to see if that would work. The results are mixed.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Well, the first one was flat out unusable, because silly me put the lid on the wrong way round. The mould works with a little lid you put on top where the #1 is with just a tiny hole to allow for resin to escape or be added. And I put it in the wrong way round, so the sides came up short and there’s no #1. The only way to save it was to put in a hook and call it a pendant. the other one is actually really pretty, but the top side still isn’t what it should be. I decided to only show you the pretty sides.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Next, the unhpotographable galaxy spheres. Sorry. Too many curves and shiny for the damn camera to get a focus on. I’ll see if I can get a better one with the real camera.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

These ones turned out really nice. Dyed baby’s breath and small brass hoops make them really light and elegant

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Chocolates anybody? I worked with a matte topcoat here, making them look like sea glass.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

These go nicely with the necklace from two weeks ago.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Black and white. Baby’s breath in clear resin combined with black semi circles in brass.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

“Garnets”. Same technique as the Mermaid Tears, this time in red. I made these shorter, but with at least as many droplets.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Galaxy tears with Bohemian glass beads. The blue is just amazing.

And last but not least, elegant circles:

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

The rings have baby’s breath, caviar beads and gold foil. The Bohemian glass beads in the centre are an amazing dark purple the camera refuses to catch.

IMPORTANT: If you have your eyes set on any of these pieces, I’ll put some up for sale for the upcoming fundraiser.

And finally here’s some pics from the “workbench”:

©Giliell, all rights reserved

This is the small assortment of things I currently have upstairs. Yes, It’s the small assortments. BTW, one of the sensible additions to the pile was a small hand drill. While you can see the Dremel in the pic, the hand drill is useful for pre-drilling, especially on round surfaces, where the Dremel is prone to slip (it will drill your finger nicely). Just drill a mm with the hand drill, do the rest with the nice tool.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

This is how the kitchen table looks at the end of the night. Thanks to Rüdügür the vacuum robot I need to clean it up every night because the chairs need to go on the table.

What do you mean, poor people should have tasty food?

Pretty regularly you get not poor people all over (social) media being upset at the idea that poor people might eat something other than oats. Like buying a birthday cake on food stamps or the whole rule where you cannot buy hot food on food stamps which is only good for punishing people who may not even have cooking facilities. Or the recent scandal in the UK where the families that qualify for free school lunch got food hampers instead of a voucher, because they might buy something the Tories don’t approve of. Basically the same people who will tell you that all Cubans receiving staples of rice and beans is a horrible sign of socialism will demand that poor people in capitalism never eat anything but staples.

 

But sometimes “the left” isn’t any better and all signs of people enjoying food is seen as decadence. Last summer somebody dared to post a picture of her lunch, doing basically the thing social media was invented for, and received hate and harsh criticism for, checks note, basically having an unconstructed sandwich for lunch. Now, the ultimate irony is of course that in France a charcuterie board is probably the most “paysanne”  (rural and down to earth) lunch ever and nobody in the country of foi gras would think it bourgeois, but I guess for some people anybody having food that is not shitty (and has been that shitty for at least three generations) must be condemned as a sign of being a member of the elites.

You think that’s funny? Here’s one even funnier: You take an item that used to be present in every kitchen like the good old cast iron skillet, but got often thrown away as “new” things like teflon coated frying pans came up (making their descendants have to buy them again, thank you, grandma…) and declare them to be bourgeois. I mean, unless you decide you need Le Creuset in your life, they are not even expensive new and you can get them second hand because they are practically indestructible (unlike the silly teflon coated ones).

Which gets me to a hypothesis: The people attacking others for enjoying food are simply bad cooks. They themselves have no idea about how to prepare a tasty meal, regardless of whether the ingredients are cheap or expensive (tonight’s dinner: griddle cakes. Most expensive item: an avocado as a side dish. Cost per person: 1.50, including the avocado). And because they can only get good food when eating out, they equate good food with luxury. They would totally buy a cast iron skillet just to let it rust  (and put it in the dishwasher occasionally because it looks icky), but then they get angry at not being able to use it, so they have to declare it a “hallmark of bourgeois life”.

 

So, what’s the food or cooking item you’ve been shamed for because it was deemed “too bourgeois” (for a commoner like you)?

Resin Art: Just Tell me to Stop and I’ll Simply Ignore You

A girl can never have too many earrings…

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Mermaid tears. The little droplets are perfect for using up leftover resin. For one thing every resin set with moulds contains a packet of those small screw eyes. Because a 10 ct article suddenly turns three moulds into a 53 pieces craft set, so I have more than I’ll ever need. And then there’s always going to be some resin left over and I can turn it into droplets. One isn’t much, but put them together and you get this.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Geometrical lines are another thing I dig right now. OK, I dig everything right now.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

I poured some blanks with epoxy resin because after I’m done neither the bubbles nor the matte surface matter, and it’s a good way to save up on the expensive UV resin. Art is never a cheap substitute for therapy. It’s a damn expensive one. But hey, right now I have no other way to spend my fun money but buying craft supplies on Etsy and it does me so much good. Three hours a night where everything is nice and pretty and I don’t eat my body weight in chocolate.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

I like how these turned out, I don’t like how some dyes completely change their hue when hardened under the UV light. The blue was much more pronounced before hardening. That’s probably the next trip to the virtual art supplies store.

Resin Art: A Cornflower for Jazzlet

This one’s an older piece. I share Jazzlet’s love for cornflowers. Not only are they one of the rare blue flowers, they are also very undemanding flowers. Just throw a handful of seeds and you have flowers for years to come. I really need to dry more flowers in summer so I can have fun in winter…

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Again, huge problems in getting the camera to focus…

Jazzlet, if you want it, just send me your address.

And here’s some more UV resin fun. I’m still very much into making matching necklaces and earrings.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

The shape is pretty irregular, but in this case I like it, as it matches the marble/pebble design.

And I made a necklace to match the cherry blossom earrings:

©Giliell, all rights reserved

As you can see, I changed the way I made the petals. They are more regular this way and much easier to work. I’m not sure which ones I like better, I just know that I would have lost patience making all the petals the other way.

Resin Art: In the Midnight Hour, She Cried More, More, More

I hope you aren’t tired of my jewellery yet, because I’m once again firmly stuck in the crafting phase of the pandemic and I have no interest of getting out of it soon. For one thing, there are worse coping mechanisms (just don’t ask my bank account. OTOH there’s little else to spend my fun money on right now). For another, I end up with cool jewellery. I can start something and then before I notice or have time to worry, it’s midnight and I go to bed happy.

As I mentioned before, I’m currently working with UV resin, which also means I watch a lot of UV resin tutorials on Youtube. Here’s an interesting divide: Tutorials for epoxy resin, especially lamps and such are often by American guys with huge tool shops that make me constantly unhappy, because I lack the space and probably 20k to blow on the machines.

See for example this guy, who does make cool stuff:

UV resin artists OTOH tend to be female and Japanese. You can watch their videos for inspiration or pure relaxation, like this lady’s videos:

I’m wondering if it has something to do with culture, but also space, of which Americans outside the big cities seem to have more.

Anyway, I wanted to show you what I came up with:

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

These two pairs are made with nail art transfer foil. They’re not perfect yet as the transfer foil is tricky and needs some practise, but I do like them. I’m currently wearing the gold ones, which look really classy.

The next two pairs also belong together, one being trial and error the other being what I actually intended.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Don’t get me wrong, these are perfectly lovely earrings (though the right one is a bit bubbly from the flowers). They are just not what I had planned- I first made a smaller square with the gold foil, which was then embedded in the larger square… Of course the small clear square vanished completely in the clear resin, making that extra step pretty much redundant.

Back to square one (haha). This time I mixed golden pigment in with the small square and now I get those crisp geometrical lines.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

I need to remember to dip the flowers in resin before I embed them. Too many bubbles, but I still really like the simple elegance here.

Than goodness they came out fine, because the third project for that night surely didn’t.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

I was using up some UV resin that I still had, and I still had it for a good reason: it’s horrible. I have no idea how something can be that thick and runny at the same time. As a result there are tons of irremovable bubbles but it also kept flowing over the sides, making the whole piece clunky. I was looking for some delicate elegance, I got this. I tried again yesterday and this time the results are much more what I was looking for:

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Pendant with matching earrings. The colour is a bit dark in the pic, they’re the same midnight blue as above, a pigment that I absofuckinglutely love. These pieces also show one of the great advantages of using UV resin: precise control. I can add the wire and the pearls and the beads and place them exactly where I want them.

And last but not least, a completely different technique: Cherry blossom earrings

©Giliell, all rights reserved

I like earrings where it#s clearly a pair, but two different designs. These are made by forming the wire into petals and then adding a thin layer of resin. Here you really have to get the consistence right. I first tried with the above mentioned blue pigment, but adding pigment made the resin too thick, so I had to try again with clear ink for resin. I’m not completely happy with how the flowers are dangling on the chain and might try to change that again. I also think I need a matching necklace.

In which Biden disappears 157 million women (give or take)

With great mourning I must inform all of you that president Biden has disappeared about 157 million women. I am very sorry. This has come as a surprise to many, probably especially my formerly female cis American friends who woke up this morning to a terrible wasteland in which ALL their rights have been destroyed and they themselves ceased to exist, going on a a loosely connected set of uterus and ovaries.

What has happened?

Evil trans cabal cultist Joe Biden has issued an Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation. The horrors! Protecting queer people, no matter them being gay or bi or trans or any combination from discrimination must be the end of all civilisation. The religious extremists are very shocked and upset, and by “religious extremists” I mean our dear “gender critical” friends, especially over on Terven Island.

Here’s the LGB alliance who tells you that an executive order forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation is actually bad for gays and lesbians:

We are appalled by @potus’s executive order erasing the sex-based rights of women and girls. It deals a severe blow to women and girls in sport, prisons, rape shelters, hospitals etc and bans lesbians and gays from having our own spaces. We will help our US friends to oppose it.

 

Because we all know that’s exactly what happened in all those countries with similar regulations. The Irish Camogie teams are now just all the cis boys who didn’t make it in the Hurling team and are now allowed to beat all the cis girls up with the hurley. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s just because the international all powerful trans cabal suppresses the truth.

 

BTW, this is from an actual US right wing religious extremist. Do you spot the difference? Me neither.

..Normalizing transgenderism and pursuing public health policy of gender reassignment surgery in minors under 18 must not be allowed. Hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery’s are extremely dangerous to long term physical and mental health of children…

.As a former competitive athlete and a mother to a daughter who is a D1 collegiate athlete, I staunchly oppose biological males in girls/women’s sports, locker rooms, and bathrooms. This completely violates women’s rights in every way…

…I by no means judge others for their sexual choices and dearly love my friends who are gay. I love people but stand firmly in God’s truth, which is this. Whether you believe in Him or not, God loves ALL of us and created us in His image, male and female…

…This is why the left’s pursuit to cancel gender and erase who’s image they were created in, is completely evil.

 

Not to mention that by her own tweet god’s image is female AND male, but there’s hardly any difference now between the religious right and “gender critical” people. Oh, sure, many of them condemmed the worst of Trumps actions, but they also think that Biden doing the least thing to protect trans people from discrimination is kind of worse than  Trump raping women and having women thrown into concentration camps where non necessary hysterectomies were done to immigrant women. “Gender critical” people seem to think that the religious extremists are wrong on every single issue except trans people, yet they are also willing to sacrifice every single right if only they can hurt trans people.

It’s time they owned that shit, packed their bags and went to Mar a Lago.

 

P.S.

Please, if there are any women left in the USA, give us a sign. We’ll send cookies.

Winter Wonderland 5: Miscellaneous

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Well, it’s not the Arctic sea, but for a frozen puddle it looks dramatic enough.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

A little chaffinch used the open ground under the trees to look for food.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

The Nile Goose knows how to pose with a frame of tree branches.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Aaaand, save the best for last. It’s my absolute favourite. Taking pics of crows is damn hard, because the pitch black will just throw off your auto focus and they rarely keep still for long enough to adjust it manually. But in the bright sunlight, the auto focus caught on and the blue and green frame it perfectly.

Winter Wonderland 3: More Swans

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

The two juveniles must be about the same age. They are still smaller than their parents, although they have grown a lot since they first arrived, but they have always been about the same size and started out the same cygnet grey. Yet one of them keeps clinging to its baby colours, only reluctantly letting go of the grey and slowly turning white.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Winter Wonderland 2: Swanlake meets Frozen

The swans are the mascots of the whole village. The old pair divorced and moved out some time in 2019, so last autumn they got a new breeding pair with two juveniles. They have shelter on a little island and get fed and I must say, they are remarkably relaxed for swans, especially since the pond has been busier than I’ve ever seen it. Can’t wait for Covid to be over and people going elsewhere again.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Still more Resin Fun

Two more pendants.

I also finished some more shakers, but I didn’t take pics. I really hope that this year the little Christmas market in my friends’ village can take place so we can put up a craft stall again, or my house will burst with finished trinkets.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

I got myself a small set with “everything for UV resin jewellery projects” (except a lamp, I have one already), because I wanted to have some inspiration/ a challenge to work with (and needed new UV resin) and I was not disappointed. Sadly those monthly subscription boxes you can get in the US haven’t caught on here. I’d really enjoy those.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

The pic doesn’t show the snowflake background, which makes it a true winter accessory.