Favorite Tikis (so far)

This is one of the "Boners" I've been talking about. What did you THINK I was talking about?
Now, this "nose-ringer"....well, first of all, he's GREEN and PURPLE, my favorite color combination.
Not sure WHAT to call this type. Sorta looks "alien-esque"...and sorta like a carrot. ....and looks like he had some bad acne back in high school. I dunno...."pock-face alien carrot-boy"? PAC for short?
This is one of those shapes I like. And again, the purple / green combo. Although, these are the light green eyes. The camera flash really makes 'em glow! Like he's putting a HEX on you!!!

You are getting SLEEEEEEPPPPPPYYYYY!This one is my favorite, so far. I LOVE the shape. And I like the color....not pure red, but I'm not exactly sure what I added to it. Maybe gold? Red Sculpey Clay is the hardest one to knead, for some reason....or maybe the brick of clay I had was old or got too warm (sorta half-baked)? The pearlized colors are really soft (almost TOO soft), so they're nice to add to the Red...makes it easier to work with and it gives it that iridescent look. I also like the little holes poked in it around the edges. It reminds me of a (rich, corinthian) leather chair with those fancy tacks around the edges... Well........back to work!

Time for ART!

So, anyway. It's getting cold and time to hang up the yaks and maybe even the bikes for the year. It's TIME FOR ART!

And I've been on a roll! After I made that first Tiki head, that was it....I've been at it for the last few weeks. I did have a bad start though. Seems my oven is off by about 15 degrees. When I set it to 275, it's actually more like 300....doesn't seem like much, right? Well, it's just enough that the first batch I made (about 10 of them)....the eyes sorta boiled out of their heads! About 8 hours of work down the drain! (Dang! Shoulda saved one so I could post a picture of it....if I find one, I will.)

Since then, I've got an oven thermometer hanging off the rack and they've been coming out great! I've been trying my hand at making "boners" again. They're hard to make for some reason, but have a few nice ones.

Well, it stopped RAINING out, so maybe I should bring a batch of them to The Flying Pig.

Kayaking!

Well, this summer I've certainly gotten out there to see everything I can WHILE I can. And it seems this summer kayaking has even overtaken biking....hard to believe!

In early summer I joined this MeetUp.com club, the Fox Valley Yakkers. It's a site where kayakers can post kayaking ideas and then host a paddle, and everybody in the club is invited to join. I started out slow, but eventually, met more and more people. It's a great bunch of folks....I mean, we're Kayakers....what else would you expect? I've learned of some new great places to go: The Wolf River, WI River, Caldron Falls Flowage, Oconto River....all beautiful places, and this fall, to see the colors of the trees from the perspective of a river...soooo pretty!

I still want to get out when there's snow on the banks. I want to have a picture of that. There's a little place in Waupaca that I go to and have pictures of the same spot in Spring, Summer and Fall.....I really want that Winter picture!

Kayak season is coming to an end, and I guess that's good in a way. I haven't gotten ANY art work done this summer at all....every nice day off was spent out on the water or on my bike. Or catching up on sleep and housework. Hopefully, I'll get some art work done now that it's getting colder outside! I actually made a Tiki head for a necklace last night.....first one in a long, LONG time! The Flying Pig is running low on them so I've got to get in production mode. Now's the time. Maybe some sewing, too, since that'll be something I won't be able to do at all when/if my vision goes.

yak yak here and a yak yak there

I've not updated this for such a long time. I've been out kayaking. A LOT! 14 times this year, which is more than I've kayaked in probably 3 years put together in the past. I joined this Meetup club....Fox Valley Yakkers, and have met lots of new people to go kayaking with, AND now know of lots of new lakes and rivers to kayak on that I might never have tried on my own. It's hard to find someone who is a kayaker that isn't a good person, and is out there for the same reasons I am. My last kayaking trips have been on the Wolf River. Beautiful river!

As for my eyes, I JUST went in for my first checkup after my series of three injections. They put antibiotics in my eye (JUST IN CASE I would hafta get another injection), dialated my eyes and checked 'em out. NO INJECTION!!!!! YAY! Looks like the leak has gone down enough or has disappeared (you know....I didn't even ask!), but if there would've been some leak left underneath my retina I would've had to have another one, so it must be gone. Now I hafta go in in 5 weeks and see how it is. If there's no leak, I can start to stretch my appointments out to maybe 3 months apart, and then at the next appointment, if there's STILL no leak, can stretch them out even further, 6 months, then a year apart.

They still had to dialate that eye though, so in the picture, the eye with the HUGE pupil is my "bad" eye, the other one is my good eye. I sorta like the looks of my BAD eye with the big pupil better.

So, today I got my third injection! Last time it was too painful to even talk about. This time, not so bad. I had them put EXTRA numbing drops in my eye 'cause the last time HURT LIKE A MOTHER! I told the doctor that I almost cancelled; I couldn't go through that again... Anyway, they put extra "candycaine" in my eye, and when he injected it, I DIDN'T EVEN FEEL IT!!! Right now, 5 hrs later, it stings everytime I blink....that's because of the betadyne....so I think I'll lay down and close my eyes.

Blind artist, Allan Eddy....

So much for the "pic o' the Day", eh? That's the way I am....I have some ideas, but never really put them to use.

So, last night I was sitting around, feeling sorry for myself, and decided to check the internet for other blind artists. I KNOW I read somewhere about some famous (dead) artist who went blind before he died, and still painted, but all his paintings in that era were dark brown/blue....(if anyone knows who this was, please tell me! It's driving me nuts!)

Anyway, I searched for blind artists, and found an amazing artist...Allan Eddy. Here's his link. http://www.allaneddy.com/index.html I LOVE his paintings....especially the pointillism! There's even a video where it shows what exactly he can see out of his eye....sort of an upside down "U" shape of vision....when he paints, he can't even see his hand. Amazing! And what's even more amazing is his attitude. No pity-parties for him!

This gives me some hope although it doesn't totally clear up my fear of what's to come. Next week I will get my second injection, but this time with a different doctor....one with an EXCELLENT bedside manner. I'm looking forward to meeting him and asking questions. (I felt uncomfortable asking the first doctor anything after a few questions....he was very short with me...never smiled...never even introduced himself or shook my hand)

More to come...

the Amsler Grid

This is a pretty LAME pic o' the day. It's the Amsler Grid....something I'm supposed to look at every day, with one eye covered, from a distance of about 14 inches away. I'm supposed to stare at the dot in the middle, and peripherally, the lines should be straight up and down, and horizontal. If they look all bent, like a fun-house mirror might make them look, I'm supposed to call the retinologist immediately. If they're all curvy looking, it would most likely mean that I "sprung a leak"....and those abnormal blood vessels under my retina are leaking, causing the retina to bulge....causing the vision distortion. EVERYTHING you always wanted to know....