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Ouch. I woke up with a pounding headache, but it seems to be dissipating. I was very productive, yesterday. I made a new and improved T-clasp for my bracelet, nearly obliterated my brooch, made a sizeable sheet of mokume gane, patinated copper with cupric nitrate, made a huge pectoral with the coloured copper, and salvaged and completed my brooch. Today, I need to do a rendering of a pendant in watercolours, then finish my research for the tulle-bi-telli slide show I'll be giving. I also want to get to the gym for a good, solid workout.
In other news, it looks like I finally found a place to teach my dance classes! It's not perfect. There are no mirrors, it costs me a bit more than the last place, and it has a carpetted floor, but I think it will do. I just want to check in on a couple of other places, first, to see if they're any better. Also, I will be teaching dance at the university again starting this Thursday. No, that's not me in the picture. Neither is it an accurate description of my classes, but I'm not responsible for their page content. I've had quite a few men ask if I'll teach them, and the answer is yes! I gladly teach guys.
And in somewhat related news, I have plunked a bunch of new images in the Belly Dancers and Harem Girls Cheesecake/Historical Gallery. Go see! And, my dance costuming books have made it back from the printers. Hoorah!
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Ah yes! This is the shanmonster whom we have come to know and admire!
Date: 2004-02-22 10:26 am (UTC)From:It sounds as if you've been up to a little bit of everything. What is "mokume gane"? I also am curious about "tulle-bi-telli" -- sounds like a children's television show, heh heh. It's good to hear about your book as well. I like the picture on your web site, heh heh, very hot. That blue and white really works for you. It's very sharp. You also need a couple of pictures from the inside of your book though, so people can get a feel for how it's going to read.
As for the dancers/cheesecake gallery, I noticed the Gor book cover in there. Oh my goodness, you're going to read them, eh? Those are "interesting" books, to say the least, although they're a bit juvenile in the writing, and philosophy. John Norman is a very kinky guy, who actually believes in the theme and philosophy behind his BDSM-chauvinism-with-a-twist writings. They're pretty funny. Shockingly enough, the majority of his customers are women. For a long time, the femminist-sympathies of bookstore owners kept his stuff off the shelves, but I think he's come back recently, with a re-issue of the entire series. Don't read the first five books or so with an expectation that you've got a handle on what's going on in the series. He doesn't go "overboard" until the later books.
Re: Ah yes! This is the shanmonster whom we have come to know and admire!
Date: 2004-02-22 11:12 am (UTC)From:Mokume gane is a Japanese goldsmithing technique marrying two or more kinds of metal. I used silver and copper. I solder a sheet of silver to a sheet of copper, run it through a press, cut it in half, and solder a silver side to a copper side. Then I repeat the process a whole wack of times, until I'm left with a very thin, striated metal. Next, I hammer/dent the metal so there are bumps sticking up. I sand the bumps off, and am left with swirls. I run the metal through the press another time to make it flat. Then I have some very pretty metal I can use for jewellery or whatever.
It's a time-consuming process, and sometimes the solder doesn't go as well as I'd like, and the metal buckles and warps.
I'm not entirely happy with the piece I made. I think I'll hammer and sand it some more to bring out more detail. Then, I may use it for an upcoming project. A ring competition is coming up, and I'd like to do something really unusual.
What blue and white are you talking about? Is it the sculpture of me? Or are you talking about something entirely different?
Ahh... Never mind. I see you're talking about the blue and white bedlah I made. I was a lot scrawnier, then. I've put on about fifteen pounds of muscle since that picture was taken.
The pictures in my book are similar to the pictures on my costuming webpage.
I've yet to read a Gor book, but I'm well aware of the Gorean subculture. There are plenty of people out there who base their lives on the philosophies in those novels. Some of the "dancer slaves" link to my costuming page, which they've used to please their masters. Urk.
Thanks for enlightening me!
Date: 2004-02-22 11:36 am (UTC)From:Yes, the blue and white I was talking about refer to that really nifty cosutume on your book page. You know, you told me once, but I forgot: is the whole thing a bedlah or does that term refer only to a piece of the costume? It's a nice picture of you, even if the lighting could stand to be a little better and the background could've used some doctoring. Fifteen pounds less muscle mass or not, you certainly look great in that picture. You like what you're doing and it shows.
Gor sub-culture...Auuugggghhh!!! What a delicious double-entendre! Oh, my ribs, my ribs! Oh Ms. Monster, you have to read one of those books -- they can be funny, and the writing is amusing at the least. Seriously, you'll be tempted to quote passages on your web site (that is, if you aren't worried about alienating and pissing off your "Gorean" customers). Yeah, the "Goreans" are really and disturbingly funny. You have to wonder how tight their grip on reality is and how much of the stories they take as "truth." Obviously, it's a spectrum, but outside of bedroom fantasies you have to wonder about these people!
Re: Thanks for enlightening me!
Date: 2004-02-22 11:49 am (UTC)From:I know my mokume gane buckled and warped, but it is very thin, so I think it would be ok applied to some other metal. I'll ask my instructor if it can be made without the warping.
Someday I'll read a Gor novel. In the meantime, I have seen one of the movies. "Cabot! CABOT!!!!!"
Gor MOVIES? Plural?
Date: 2004-02-22 12:06 pm (UTC)From:Re: Gor MOVIES? Plural?
Date: 2004-02-22 12:23 pm (UTC)From:I just realized, I forgot to answer your question about tulle-bi-telli. It's a textile from Egypt commonly known as Assuit (it's made in the city of Assuit). It's basically a heavy cotton mesh with tiny strips of metal meticulously tied into place and hammered. It's gorgeous stuff. You can see a couple of nice examples and a brief synopses on the creation here.
I need to give an hour-long presentation on the stuff, and I'm still working on collating my images.
no subject
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