Tuesday 19 December 2017

Resolutions and Maker boxes

This year I set a resolution to make every day. It occurred to me earlier today that I'm just over a week away from keeping that resolution for a full year. To be honest, there may be a couple days in the year where I forgot to make, but no days stick out in my mind as days where I knew I didn't make. I do know that I remembered late a couple days and ended up knitting or crocheting (my easy go-to projects) late at night. Most importantly, there were no days where I didn't craft because I didn't feel like crafting.

In general, I feel proud that I was able to keep a resolution for the year and, again more importantly, I feel like I was in a better place mentally on average over the course of the year. I knew going into the year that I was happier when I was crafting and that I wasn't doing well mentally if I didn't feel like crafting. I had many fewer days this year where I didn't feel like crafting. I think that just shows how I was in a better mental state this year than I was last year.

I will, of course, finish out this year with making every day. For next year, I want to renew this resolution. I want to add one or two more for 2018.

This first one might be somewhat difficult to keep, but I'm going to try. Something I want to do is document better what I make during the year. I've been jotting notes in my planner about the project that I work on most days (when I remember), but it lacks any kind of detail or thoughts or purpose behind what I'm doing. Many days, my making time will consist of working a bit on a project that I don't have to think about much, but I want to reduce those days. If I'm able to plan my making better, I can make more progress on things I want to do.

I want to improve my sculpting next year. This is something I've been wanting to do for over a year now, but life has kept me busy with other things and I've not prioritized it as much as I should have. Neither of the resolutions deal directly with this goal as I don't want to say that I will sculpt every day because I doubt that's feasible.

A related resolution is that I want to draw every day.  Randomly, over the course of the day, I'll see something that will make me think "an X version of that that kind of looks like Y" will run through my head and I think "I should sculpt that." Of course, I don't get to sculpting right away, or even that day or the next. I need to be able to get my ideas down so later, when I'm wondering what to make, I can flip through my sketch book.

I don't draw well. The picture below may seem to give lie to that statement, but let me explain. I can do a little OK when it comes to sketching something relatively simple when it's right in front of me. When it comes to drawing something out of my imagination with no examples in front of me, it's a different story.

The little figurine at the top is a Tsum Tsum version of Jafar. You can see from the upper left drawing that he has a very simple oval body and tiny legs.  This drawing is practice for a couple reasons. First, I'm planning a project that I'm not ready to talk about yet, but figuring out the basics of something like this will help.


The second reason has to do with Maker boxes. I've been somewhat skeptical of these subscription pages where you get sent a box every month or three and don't know exactly what you're going to get until you open it.
For those of you who know me, I am a huge fan of Adam Savage. I love his enthusiasm for all the projects he does. He is a talented maker and supports other makers. I found out he was curating a maker box for Quarterly.com and I was curious.

It arrived a couple days ago. Reading reviews, many people were disappointed because many of the things it contained would be easily attainable at local shops and for less than what the box cost. I was lucky in the respect that I didn't have much of the stuff in the box. I've never owned a hot glue gun, for instance.
Here is a picture (not mine) of what was in the first box. What was most interesting to me wasn't most of the individual items, but the stack of papers and the book on the left. The book is a collection of sketches by Mr. Savage. It shows over 100 sketching ranging from recent back to the '80s, I think he said. The important part to someone just starting out (like me) is that he includes early, bad, sketches. It isn't all beautiful work. Seeing where he, untrained in drawing, started out and has come is inspiration for the rest of us. It also has a first couple lessons in drawing and encouragement  to do it even if it doesn't turn out pretty.


There is a puzzle to solve to access a few videos about the box, Adam's thoughts in curating it and his hopes for it. It was fun and cute and fit in with the drawing theme:


The making project in this box is fairly simple. The second is to take what you learn from this simple project and use it to make your own version of the project. I'm sure I'll post when I get the chance to work on those projects.

Meanwhile, go off and make!

Sunday 3 December 2017

Jam season!

This past week was the week that straddled the end of November and beginning of December so, of course,  that means it's jam making season here in Michigan!
OK, so maybe I'm a bit behind, but I made 6 batches of jam this week.

I had picked some mulberries from the neighbor's yard this summer and then promptly left town for several days, so they were stuck in the freezer to make jam when I returned (later in July).

Heh.
Monday I hoped that I had enough for two batches. After pureeing the berries and measuring them out, I had about 2 T more than I needed. Whew!
I follow the recipe at The Dirty Radish: http://thedirtyradish.blogspot.com/2011/06/recipe-mulberry-jam.html, but I don't take the stems off of the mulberries. The friend who shared the link with me doesn't either. That would take way too much time and energy. I've yet to find a stem in my jam and I've heard no complaints from all those that I've introduced to mulberry jam either. I just throw them all in my food processor and measure out the 3 cups when they're all broken down. So far I've had good luck with this recipe. It's the husband's favorite that I make.
I didn't manage to get any pictures of it before squirreling it away into the pantry.

The other "jam" I made this week was an experiment with a bit of a back story. When my parents come to visit, we often go out for breakfast at a local restaurant. Just about every time we go, they lament on how you can get mixed berry jelly in the little packets at restaurants, but you can't go to the store and buy a jar. I did manage to find a website that had the same lament but she had done something about it.
Thank you to Ms. Butler and her post at: https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/sauce-spread/jam/mixed-fruit-jelly.html
This is the easiest jelly ever...because it's made with fruit juices bought at the store. No picking berries, no straining out seeds.

Is it tasty? Yes. Is it like Smuckers? Don't know. I tend to go for strawberry jam when I go out for breakfast. I just need to get my jam tasters (husband and daughters) to try it out and see if it passes muster. I don't think it will be my favorite (strawberry freezer jam for ever!), but I'm looking forward to trying it on some toast.
My main complaint, if you can call it that, is that I found all the juices in rather large containers. The daughters don't drink that much juice. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I may have made a bit more than we could ever use in a year. Good thing the holidays are coming up.