Yeah, so I threw my back out.  Which means I don’t get to move very much stuff around.

But I can definitely burn and stain.  So here’s the mermaid I’ve been working on.  She’s going to be part of my Goddess collection, I think.  I have a lovely idea for an Earth Goddess I want to do, kind of whimsical and cute and geeky…but right now I’m working on Water.

The Hair has to flow just right, or it won’t work.  So I’m working on those pencils.  Also, I want to give her some Lionfish type striping, so there’ll be a little more work on that.  I like the shading on her, though.  I think I got the bony/webby feeling in the tail and hands.

Here’s the Treasure Chest I’ve been working on.

So I’m working along.  I’ve had another treasure chest idea which is really cool, and Lori’s 2 boxes are on hold until she gives me some more images.  I’ve got a mermaid on one of her internal boxes, so I have to get to work on that one, but I wanted to test my skills on the Goddess first.

So yeah….work cut out for me.  Let me get to that.  

My husband has gone off to a Vampire Con in Atlanta, GA, which gives me plenty of time to burn.  I’m pretty excited about that.  My plans include cleaning off an area of one of my shelves to house my STUFF which is currently in a box I’ve stolen from somewhere that will eventually be cannibalized for lining.  So I better do something about that.

I do my burning on the kitchen table, and the staining and lining too.  But my husband spends most of his time in our computer room, and if I could clean off my computer desk enough I could burn and line in the computer room too.  I’d still stain in the kitchen because the ventilation is better, and I wouldn’t want to subject him to the smell.  So I’m going to try to make that happen while he’s gone too.

Meanwhile, I purchased some inks to play with, and also some metallic sharpies.  I wanted to see how they would stain the wood (if at all) and how I could get a metallic look.  The sugar-skull pirate chest really needs some brass fittings on all the sides and maybe some metal rivets as well.  Or maybe I’ll burn the fittings black, I dunno.  I had a steamer trunk when I was younger, and the supports on all the corners was black with brass rivets.  That might look pretty good.  I’ll have to try it and see.

There’s also the paint or nail polish option, but I want to avoid that, if I can.  I like having the wood show through.

It’s interesting though….I’m learning by the color of the wood to set my burner temperature at different levels for different effects.  I practice with the things I know I’m going to be burning darker, because I know that if I make a mistake it won’t matter, because I’m going to burn it black anyway.  I’m actually getting pretty good at it.  I’ll post a picture of my friend Lori’s box a little later.  I’m amazed that the tone is so light and smokey and even.  Go me.

OH YEAH….I also bought a satin-gloss varnish.  Looking forward to testing that out too.

Damn.  People better start buying stuff if I want to break even, LOL!  It’s my fault for not starting an Etsy account yet.  I have to start a sole-prop first, and I’ve been waiting until after tax day to talk to my accountant.  I’ll message her today.  After seeing some of the work on Etsy, I can see my work is on the higher end of “average,” or the lower end of “high quality” with a promise to raise in skill level as I keep going.  So I think this will work itself out in the long run.