picked a handful of violets in my name

... was on Saturday. Posting this on Tuesday. I have done worse.

Ellie and I left the house late and picked up shadesong late as a result, but traffic was very light and we still made it to Wyrding Studios a bit early.

The morning activity was spinning, first from combed top and then from a batt. I seem to spin faster from combed top (easier to manage the fiber) but more consistently from batts (I find drafting easier). Although, as you can probably tell, I'm not very good at it yet. But between how satisfying it was and how many of Kythryne's art batts I've purchased already, I will continue spinning and, I hope, improving.

After lunch, we went up to the studio and picked out things for either a pendant or a pair of earrings. I made these earrings. We also got to pick out things for a take-home project, although I wound up with some spare time and made this before and after the fused glass portion of the day.

Fused glass! No photos of that yet. But now I have learned how to cut glass, and that dichroic glass looks different before and after it's fused. I did wind up with a small scrap of silver dichroic glass that had gone through the kiln all by its lonesome, so I made this pendant for fun.

The last portion of the day was a demonstration of making jewelry from found objects. I brought a set of dice, a silk flower that fell off Cameryn's set for Phone Whore, a shower curtain clip, and some blobs of solder. The blobs turned out to be too fragile for wire-wrapping, but Kythryne got everything else in there. And the d20 pops out the back of the pendant.

Here's all the photos from the art retreat. And there is another one in October, for those of you who can make it to Concord, NH.

I'm back. I really kind of want to do it all again.

I'm not sure I can explain what it was like. Not just the shows, the entire adventure. I never thought I could do it - too many strangers, not enough creature comforts, too much effort.

I don't know if I can muster any kind of "report." I got all the !!!!!!! out with the people around me. I saw some great shows and met some amazing people. The end.

♥

Originally published at The Love Letter Sessions. You can comment here or there.

Um, I fail at LJ, sorry. I slept and slept and slept when I got back from MCR, and then I saw TAI... in Providence yesterday. So here's my Wednesday and Thursday - Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to follow in a separate post to avoid teal deer.

If you're wondering about the subject line, it's a result of a conversation I had with Kitty and Ness at one in the morning in a cafe in New York City.

I'm sorry I didn't make any phone posts from MCR. For about half the show, I couldn't even reach my cell phone, and then I was sure it would get knocked out of my hands if I tried to do anything.

The basics of this post were originally written in my journal at about 2:30 in a subway station in New York City, as was the cut text.

( I lost my tiara and very nearly my glasses, my feet have moved past agony into the throbbing that means they can't process the pain, I am sweaty and smelly and Frank Iero spit on me. I haven't slept since 6:30 AM Tuesday and I won't sleep for hours and hours yet. I am fucked up. And I am happy. )

I am now in possession of one wristband for the signing. *glee* (Pictures of my outfit likely to come later, because it is awesome. I have three sartorial modes: jeans and a t-shirt, wishing I was a pin-up, and generalized anachronism. I default to the first, but I can look really cool if I put some effort into getting dressed in the morning.)

I haven't met blacksambuca and chopsticknoodle face-to-face yet because we were kind of far from each other in line, but we have talked on the phone, and I'll probably meet them later this afternoon.

Today has felt really rushed. chopsticknoodle called me a few minutes before I would have left anyway, telling me to get my ass over there because people were queuing up like mad. So I walked as fast as I could whilst wearing a really long and full skirt and a pair of docs, got fairly lucky with the T, and made it in under half an hour. Something like that will really color the rest of your day unless you make a major conscious effort to avoid it.

I'm now killing time in the library. I didn't bring my laptop to campus today because it weighs a ton and I'll be doing a lot of standing, so I'm using one of the iMacs in the computer lab.

Also, my allergies are freaking the fuck out. I've taken my Singulair and a benadryl and I'm still sniffly and spraying snot every time I sneeze (which is kind of often). Gah. I've still got two benadryl tablets in my purse, along with a few benadryl+decongestant, so I'm definitely going to take more so I don't snot all over everyone in line.