Molly the Metalsmith

New Chap Books of my Poetry!

2009-08-27T20:56:00.001-07:00

Last night I published my first ever chap books of my poems!! I had a reading at the library that was well attended, and sold & autographed my books. I will have them up for sale on my web site in the next few days. They are $8 each. I designed the knots on the covers, and each book has colored end papers. Lots of poems! On my web site you can see what the titles of the poems are in each book. Yay!!! I'm so glad to have done this.

Great Sock Trade Offer of 2009!

2009-07-09T18:22:00.000-07:00

Oh I am such a Wretched Slacker in the blog department. But I have good news. The sock trade offer is now up and running! I am looking for people to knit me a pair of socks in trade for a set of my double pointed hand wrought bronze knitting needles. Go to my web site to http://celticswan.com/dp.htm to see the needles I make. I am wanting socks in natural fibers, preferably all wool. My feet are a great gallumphing size 10. I love solid colors of yarn, and want socks in purple or green or blue. Write to me at molly@celticswan.com and we will decide between us what pattern you will be knitting, what yarn, and which size needles you'd like in trade.
Meanwhile, back at the farm, the cherries are getting ripe. We are expecting some HelpX volunteers, and have had one here who leaves in the morning. She is Jane from New Zealand, and she has been a great help and a great guest.
We are looking at some lambs tomorrow! I am excited about that. We hope to do a mutually happy trade for them. They are to add to our spinning flock. We plan to have some of our hand spun yarn from Petunia and Lillibette up for sale on the web site very soon. As soon as the new carding cloth for our drum carder comes from Village Spinning & Weaving (great resource & really terrific people!).
I got the most yummy shawl made for me for my birthday! It just arrived this past week and my birthday was in February. My friend the Spin Diva designed and knit it just for me from wonderful green cotton yarn. She put beads in the ends. Its just the best gift ever!
We've gotten our own scythe and are glad we will not have to keep borrowing one. It needs some serious hot metal work to it, but its a nice one otherwise. We are trading kelp pickles and rowan berry syrup for it! How wonderful is that?
Other news: I have announced publicly that I will have at least one chapbook of my poetry done and printed and out there for sale this summer. And summer is quickly slipping away! My primary writers group is leaning on me big-time on this. They are class #1 encouragers. I have lots of work to do!
And I am working on 2 custom sleying hooks that are specifically for rigid heddle looms. I have never made these specifically for those, so am pleased at the challenge of them. I'll photo them when done. I promise! I am often in such a screeching hurry to get to the post office before it closes at 3:00 that I neglect to photo things I have custom made for people. But this time...for sure!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

2009-03-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

I cut this knot out of scrap paper this morning. Top o'the morning to you! You can download my book that tells you my original method for really easy Celtic knot design. Its on my web site www.celticswan.com. Or you can copy this knot! I made it so it matches end to end. I think it needs some photo shop touch up, maybe needs to be a more intense green!
I am wearing my shamrock pin that has a wee light in it that flashes off & on. Is that silly or what?
I have tons of metal work to do, and am preheating the smithy. John planted cabbages in the garden today. And he fixed the headlights on the 59 Chevy so I can go to my fiction writers group tonight! Hooray! I am going to get stronger driving that truck as it takes loads of muscle to turn. Its so huge after my sweet lamented Toyota.
Off to pound on metal. Must order more silver and some moonstones.

Molly's Mitts

2009-02-20T11:14:00.000-08:00

These fabulous and cozy mitts were hand spun, dyed, and knitted by my most excellent friend Bridgett. She has her designs in Vogue Knitting, among other places, and she is a brilliant designer. She designs the most exciting shawl patterns. Bridgett is from Bavaria and has the coolest accent!
You can buy the pattern for these mitts to make them yourself for $6. OR you can have Bridgett make you a pair of your very own, handspun, dyed your favorite color, for only $40. Lucky you! And lucky me to have my own pair in green. Contact her through her web site which I have a link to on the right, RamblingDesigns.

If you live in the Pacific NorthWest you may get a chance to take one of her classes. I will be posting about that as soon as she has a new one coming up!

The Big Six-Oh

2009-02-16T10:13:00.000-08:00

I am going to have my 60th birthday soon!

I plan to have a tiara, fan, and lorgnette. All covered with rhinestones.

Was Blind but Now I See

2009-02-16T09:50:00.000-08:00

I have gotten cataract surgery over the past several months. I have gone from very cloudy vision with multiple images to 20 20 vision in both eyes. This is so wonderful!!! I can see the trumpeter swans in the wetlands. I can see the birds in the trees. I can see the branches on the trees! I can see my metalsmithing so much better. It is such a gift. Thank you Dr Ellis!

Meanwhile our car died. The transmission went when we were in Bellingham to get some supplies for work & see some friends prior to my second surgery. We got the car halfway home at 20mph & turning it off to cool down. So it goes! We are now fixing up our 59 Chevy Apache. It will be a farm truck, but we need something to find a car or van with. We have a loaner beater island-car from friends. For now.

I am getting stronger. I have been able to go down the ravine to the beach and back several times recently. I even took a hot tub there once! Its great to soak in deep hot spring water on the beautiful beach. I have found more rocks there: agates, red jasper, jadeite, unakite, and a chunk of serpentine that looks very good to cut. We need to set up the lapidary stuff!

I am going to announce my next sock trade soon. No fair getting in line for that until the special date for it!

I know I have not written in here in awhile. I have recently gotten to meet my wonderful on line friend Bridgett, the fabulous knitter and knitting pattern designer! She now lives in Bellingham so is within reach! She made me some beautiful fingerless mitts which she did the dying & spinning on, plus the original design.

Interweave News & Reviews

2008-11-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

I hear that there is a review of my work in Interweave Knits. I don't know what it says yet, but hope someone lets me know. It must be good as business has perked up!

I am just back from getting my first cataract surgery. It went well, and I am looking forward to getting my other eye done very soon. I can see so much! It is an amazing blessing.

The Thanksgiving storms are rolling through. The wind has been very wild. I hope our roof stays intact this year. I am tempted to go outside and jump up in the air and be blown away to Oz.

I have not written in here lately much, but have new poems to post. I have been smithing a bunch.

The trumpeter swans have returned to the wetlands! And I can see them!

We have some couchsurfers coming this weekend. We always enjoy them. We got to couchsurf ourselves over on Guemes Island the other night & had a fine time. They were our landlords when we rented a studio space out on Stuart Island years ago. Lovely people!

This new vision I have is tremendous! We are going out now for a walk, my first one since I had it done.

Summer Ending, Sea Cave, and Nettle Lasagna

2008-09-17T13:16:00.001-07:00

This is inside the sea cave looking out. The cave is at Iceberg Point, and is 125 feet deep into the sea cliff.

John and a friend found it some years ago. No one seemed to know it was there! It cannot be seen from the water because a few large boulders obscure the entrance. You can only get in at a minus tide. There is a pond inside, and the cave forks at the back. The accoustics are amazing.

We took our last HelpX volunteer to the ferry yesterday morning. Her name is Emily and she was wonderful company. She painted the trim on the house. She gathered salal berries, rowan berries, blackberries, mussels, clams, oysters, and nettles. We had some great nettle lasagna. We made it with home made pasta. By making three big pieces of pasta the size of the baking pan and putting them in without precooking them, it came out perfect. We really miss Emily. She 'got' all our jokes!! She is very smart & funny.

Microwaving an oyster for 4 minutes cooks it just right.

I am in the depths of making silver double pointed knitting needles for The Loopy Ewe. Sheri Berger has a great on line shop and is really so nice I like doing work for her. I think John & I will have them all done and out to her before the end of the month. I am really needing John's help with this order. I am working on doing all the hammered and twisted patterns on the size #2's today. The size #1's are all twisted and marked. They need to be straightened with a wooden mallet next. Then pointed. Lots of work!
The stock market problems have impacted our little crafts business. You wouldn't think it would, but it surely does.

The lilac leaves are turning maroon. The moon was fullish and caught in a sea of fish-scale clouds last night.

I am reading Charled deLint now and wishing I could live in one of his stories. Tonight is my fiction writers group and I do not have anything written. I am going to rewrite Selkie. It needs all sorts of tinkering & tuning done to it! P'raps I will post a link on here when I am happy with it again.

Wonderful Company

2008-08-09T19:49:00.000-07:00

We have had wonderful company of all sorts since the last week of May, but are now on our own again. The guests have been HelpX volunteers, CouchSurfers, WOOFers from years past, and some people in no category at all. Its been tremendous fun. The photo is in our kitchen & I'm baking pie with lots of help. From left to right is: Me, Alexis Morgan, Collin Cavote, and our dear Louise Hanavan. Louise has been a welcome visitor in summers past, and she plays guitar & banjo and sings wonderfully well. Collin is living aboard the sloop Grace now, out in a nearbye harbor. Alexis, who is a terrific artist, is soon back to school on the east coast. We have a few more guests from HelpX and CouchSurfing coming soon. More new friends! Yay!!

Meanwhile we are printing my book again, Design Your Own Celtic Knots. John is running the printer and refilling the ink. Soon I will do a how-to on YouTube.

We have both been smithing a bunch. I have gotten a commission making three silver & abalone clasps for a button-blanket garment. That will be fun! I plan to make them look a little like bull kelp. All sinuous.

I am gearing up to make downloadable PDF chapbooks of my poetry. I will be putting it in to groups of 10 to 12 poems per book. I think I will print some too. We shall see.

Six Years Since the Wreck

2008-08-04T22:03:00.001-07:00

Its six years today since the wreck. My parents were driving to see the wild yellow orchids that were blooming in a Revolutionary War cemetary. They had been instrumental in saving this stand of rare orchids. It was 7:45 on a Sunday morning, and they were hit by a drunk driver. The drunk had been celebrating his 18th birthday & was blind drunk, coming out of the woods to the right of my parents car. My father was killed. My mother nearly was. Just before the moment of impact she pulled her legs up in front of her to protect her internal organs. And so she survived, but broke nearly everything else.
I was very close to my father & miss him terribly. We had to wait a year to have a memorial that my mother could attend. It was at the cemetary with the wild yellow orchids, and we scatterred my father's ashes. Well, everyone else scattered them. I hid under a big fir tree and drew a heart with his ashes. At the memorial I recited Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle in to That Good Night". He liked that poem, and I had memorized it in case he ever wanted to hear it.
My father wrote wonderful letters full of wry humor and awful handwriting & spelling. I have never thrown out a letter from him. There weren't many. After he died I saw a file of letters and cards I'd sent him over the years.
My father was the president of the Connecticut Botanical Society for 10 years. They loved him. Then he was the president of the local chapter of the historical society at the Hart House. He was the town botanist in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. People enjoyed his talks. He was a good looking man in his 80's. I did a Google search for him and there was no mention of him. How could that be? Maybe me writing this in my blog will begin to redress that lack. A teensy bit. Lord, I miss him.
Donald M. Swan July 11th, 1919--August 4th 2002

Lost in Space

2008-08-03T22:56:00.000-07:00

I have not posted in here because I was daunted by losing my password. Yes, that is no excuse. How about that we have had guests continually since the end of May? We are down to one guest right now, a very nice HelpX volunteer name of Collin. He likes to bake! The cherry harvest is over, alas. The apples are scarce on the bough this year. Such a dark springtime we had. Soon the salal berries and the blackberries will be ripe. We have more company coming this week, and then more the week after.

I have been smithing slowly along. It is hard sometimes with my bad back and my weakness from being laid up in the autumn. But I like smithing.
My first brand new ShopVac died entirely. Whats with that? I have lost faith, and will replace it with a used one from the free store.

John & Collin rowed out to the sad sloop Grace today & began the huge task of cleaning her out. She is such a sweet boat, but needs so many repairs. Still, she floats happily. The otters have used the decks as a party spot. Oh, those messy otters! Plus seagulls pooping like mad. But it can all get scrubbed off. One day we will sail her again. After we replace the bent boom, the dinged mast, the torn off spreader, the ripped mainsail, and, oh yeah, the motor. She needs a long shaft 10 horse outboard. Some day we will sail her again, wing on wing, out in Rosario Strait.

For now I am land bound. I have been working on a set of cabinet handles in hot wrought bronze. (among other things!) I got them nearly all done & then went to drill the holes in them. I managed to drill them off center & ruined the whole shebang. I have started from scratch with heavier stock. The person who ordered them is being very patient.

Soon I will post more photos & poems. Oh, we decided it was not the right time to get the ram. But I sent her the needles anyway. So I have half-credit for a ram!

I am to receive the nice floor loom that my sheep-to-shawl team out on Stuart Island bought years ago with the shawl raffle money. I guess I am the only weaver left. Of course, there were only 35 people on the whole island then, so there were only two weavers to begin with. I am happily spinning the warp threads for a project using Petunia's fleece. Oh! We finally got them sheared a few weeks ago. They are happy to be out of their heavy hot coats, and have been galloping around. They are very fast! And their fleeces are very nice this year! Thick & healthy. One of our HelpX guests is a knitter & dyer of yarn. She & I are going to have fun!

Junuary in the Pacific Northwest

2008-06-10T13:07:00.000-07:00

It is ostensibly June here, but it sure is acting like winter. In the mid 50's and lots of rain and wind. While the rest of the country gets mid-90's, tornadoes & floods!

However, the cherries are getting fatter on the bough, and just a few days ago the baby swallows on the back porch hatched! They look like they are grinning, and are so cute.

The next news is that I have found a handsome Shetland ram for our ewes! His name is Monty.

I have to go fetch him from the mainland in two weeks. He is partially a trade. I am making a pair of bronze and silver knitting needles set with paua shell to trade for him. Hooray! The woman who owns him already has one of the spinnings hooks I make from bronze.

So we are going to get serious about building some fences around here.

Meanwhile we have a HelpX person coming in by floatplane to Fish Bay tomorrow. We are looking forward to his arrival as he sounds very nice! We also have two women coming in the same day. They are WWOOFer volunteers we met because they volunteered on a nearbye farm several years ago, and we became good friends. The two women have wonderful singing voices! We hope to record some MP3's while they are here.

I have been working on an order that has lots of triskele-carved bone cabochons in it! And John is doing the carving this time. He is very good at it & likes doing it.

I have been spinning Petunia's fleece to make yarn. And also spinning some alpaca from a farm over on San Juan Island that some friends live at.

John made a gold 14 Karat yarn needle with a bent end. Its for someone in Washington State and should arrive at her door tomorrow. Or maybe even today! The US mail is wonderful. I am a big fan of it.

And an even bigger fan of libraries! I have volunteered to help be part of the library's web site advisory crew. Our library here on Lopez Island is really terrifically nice. Here is it.

Happy Spring

2008-03-24T22:30:00.001-07:00

Happy Spring!
Happy Easter!

I had fun dying eggs and then hunting them. John hides then for me. What a pal!

We have found some sheep on San Juan Island which are close to ours in looks & breed. We will take the ferry over soon and have a look at them. How will Petunia & Lillibette like having more sheep here? A ram?? Lambs??? We shall see.

We put a new page on our web site. It is of fan mail, and can be accessed by going to our newsletter page. Those kind of letters keep me going! Many thanks to those who write them.

Trading Knitting Needles for Socks

2008-03-06T20:44:00.000-08:00

Fabulous Socks!
We have begun posting photos of the socks I traded for in 2007. I traded my sets of hand wrought bronze double pointed needles for them. These socks were knit by a woman in Halifax. You can read about them on my web site news page.
Meanwhile, I am about to make a silver Celtic brooch with amethyst faceted trilliants. I am also about to make a pair of custom knitting needles set with faceted sapphires. It amazes me that this is what I get to do for a living! What fun! Plus I get to trade for these great socks. Check my web site for more. http://www.celticswan.com/photo.htm
The daffodils are starting to bloom all over the place in front of the house. Petunia has been eating them as they bloom! Bad sheep! But undeniably cute.

Psychic Sheep Warns of Earthquake!

2008-02-18T13:44:00.000-08:00

On Friday Petunia was bahhing like mad at the front door. Then suddenly everything began to shake! The bells we hang on the doorknobs all rang. We ran out the front door, but it stopped. We thanked Petunia for her timely warniing!
On Saturday some dogs were running loose on the farm. The sheep were very upset & John went out with a 22 and fired some shots to scare the dogs off. Then he stood and watched to make sure they did not come back on the farm. We called the other sheep farm in the valley to warn them.
That night the sheep slept right near the house instead of under shelter us usual. In the morning they had thick frost on their fleece!
Petunia is showing her age. She has white below her nose and above her eyes. John is out behind the house now in the sunshine feeding Petunia sweet feed and patting her head.
I am going to teach John how to spin! He wants to spin our sheep's fleece and crochet thick warm hats like the one I made for him years ago with fleece from the Mill's farm out on Stuart Island. (We lived out at Stuart for 5 years aboard the sloop Grace, and helped Norman with the shearing on his farm.)

The photo of Petunia shows her in her full 'psychic mode' in which she bahs for you to 'cross her palm with sweet feed'!

Snow, Sheep, Life in the Slowwww Lane

2008-01-28T18:36:00.000-08:00

It snowed about 4 inches here. Those of you in snowy climates will be unimpressed, but on Lopez Island life grinds to a frozen halt! We have no snow plows here. Here are Lillibette (white, or perhaps ecru?) and Petunia (dark brown) under their apple tree where they go to groom their fleece. And a bicycle which is quite ancient.
It snowed more. I think I have the flu. I got a bit of carbon monoxide poisoning yesterday from a leaky stove pipe on the woodstove. (a cautionary tale!) and have not felt quite right since. I got out to the smithy today & did some hammering & twisting and marking & sanding, but ran out of energy entirely & went to bed. Now it is time to mix up & roll out the flour tortillas for dinner. I got as far as posting this entry to my blog. Ungh! Right now my life is totally Mollitropic. I had a cup of home made chicken broth.
Hey, my friend Louise in Halifax has three fine chickens and the city is making her get rid of them. The 'reason' is that they draw rats. I ask you? Do three chickens & their feed draw rats any more than the average bird feeder in someone's yard? Lets urge them to outlaw bird feeders in Halifax!! Ha! And get rid of the pigeons too. People are always throwing food to them. Rant rant, rave rave. I feel so bad for Louise. She wanted those chickens for a long time.
Tortillas? Or not tortillas? We made a pot of chili from scratch yesterday. That will be the main filling.
I am so glad John got in a quantity of firewood before this snow & arctic outflow came. Its so nice to have a warm house on a cold day! And a cold night even more so. It was bright & sunny this afternoon. We hiked down to the mailbox by the road. A woman came skiing through the farm. Only a very few tire tracks on the road.
I wonder if I have a fever? I sure am blithering on........ Its supposed to keep snowing & freezing until Thurday.

A Poem for Winter Misery...

2008-01-08T11:13:00.000-08:00

Yes, it is the time for winter misery, and so here is a poem I just wrote about that. I may change the ending if my mood gets better.

Winter

What a cruel caul is winter,
dark charcoal clouds
clustering over the long view
of the wetlands.
The trumpeter swans dip and slurp,
moving like dreams of Avalon
on the hemetite water.
Though trees and shrubs
make optimistic buds,
you and I, with our tea cups
steaming in our talons,
look over our shoulders
at the rush and gnash
of the ghost wind.
Our calendars tell us
that time will cure, with the
lift of daffodils and the swoop
of nesting swallows.
Our chillblained hearts
tell us this winter day
will be forever.

Molly Swan-Sheeran copyright 2008

I bet you can tell we are not into winter sports? Ha.
I ordered more alexandrite and peridot. And more heavy silver wire.

Celtic Brooch with Alexandrite

2007-12-19T20:11:00.001-08:00

Here is a Celtic brooch, a penannular brooch, which I just finished making. John helped me set it with

10 mm alexandrite, lab created gem stones. These stones change color according to what light
they are in. In full dalight they are a royal blue. Indoors, under electric lights, they are purple.
Sometimes they seem to be both colors at once! I think its really amazing.

Below is a photo showing it pinned to a hand woven silk scarf.
To fasten, you push the straight pin in
and out of the fabric, swivel the circle so that one end goes under the exposed point of the pin, and
the pressure of the fabric on the pin is what holds it fast.
Very clever, those ancient Celts!
This pin is about 2 inches across. I made it for a woman who weaves, but is entirely blind. She is giving it as a gift, with something she has woven, for a very special friend.

Ewes Not Fat, Ewes Fuzzy

2007-12-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

Here is Petunia, in all her splendor! She has on

a year and a half worth of fleece, and glad of it.

She is so cozy in the miserable north-wet weather. She is a Sennybridge Welsh sheep, as is her pal Lillibette. They have gotten two apples each this morning when they came bahhhhing at the back door. When they hear John's voice they know its time for a morning treat. If the apple has a worm in it they will not eat it. They are strict vegetarians!

Look how nicely groomed her fleece is! She & Lillibette use the apple tree to rub against for grooming and back-scratching.

And we have noticed that they have begun to chew on the bottom branches of the Christmas tree! We'd better bring it in the house!

I am working on the very-fancy sterling silver Celtic brooches today. One has given me trouble with the settings, but I have one setting done. And am hoping it all going easier today. I cannot wait to see how it comes to look when it is all formed and polished and set! Making magic things is ever so fun. I will surely post photos when they are done.

Views in the Smithy

2007-12-04T13:38:00.000-08:00

Here is a huge old fir stump. We got this stump on Stuart Island when we lived out there at anchor in the sloop Grace. A huge storm had brought down some big trees, and a park ranger in Prevost Harbor cut the trees up. When the ground began to thaw, one stump got rolling down the hill and chased John down, on to the ramp, and all the way out to the dock! He decided we should bring it to the smithy which was then on the far end of that harbor. We loaded it in the 6 foot dinghy (!!) and rowed it to the smithy. Its a good solid thing to work on!

On the stump you can see our light cross-peen hammer, a T-stake, and my graver and jig for holding bone cabochons to incise them.

This is a tray of sterling silver crochet hooks John is making. They are all different sizes and designs. And not spoken for yet, if you would like to to order some.

Here is our lovely anvil. It weighs 170 pounds, and we bought it back east from a man whose father was a smith from Sweden. Since we are living on an old Swedish homestead here on Lopez Island I think the anvil approves. Our favorite hammer is on top.

Here is my system for making sets of double pointed knitting needles and not confusing them.

Yes, those are popsicle making molds. They work great! You can see a nearly done set of sterling silver dp needles , and some bronze I cut up to make size #1 dps needels. I also have a shawl pin and a sleying hook in there, waiting for the final polishing.

The Ring of the Anvil

2007-11-18T13:33:00.000-08:00

I guess my neighbors can hear the anvil ringing again! (Well, John has beeen smithing all along, but not both if us.) I have been able to get some good time in at the smithy again. What a long hard haul its been.
Monday's mail should have a load of late orders sent out in it, hooray. I forgot how much strength it takes to buff metal. You really have to lean in to the wheel to get the bronze all shiny & smooth. I am working on penannular brooches and shawl pins and a pair of knitting needles set with malachite today. The needles just need cleaning & rouging & setting. Each thing I send out is a customer who has written saying "where is my stuff?" So it is very enjoyable both to do it all, and to let them know it is on its way.
The Easter lily is blooming on our kitchen table. It has a very tall curved stem and three white blossoms in a cluster. Heavenly! Plus the cactus...I guess its a Halloween cactus? is still blooming bright red right next to it. The flowers look like nudibranchs.
Back to the smithy with me now.

Triskeles, topology, and Celtic knots

2007-09-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. I have so much missed being in the smithy doing all that metal magic stuff. I really feel amazed by metalsmithing, even after , ohhh, 25 years! The things it does!!!
John and I have been playing with Celtic knot ideas. He is so brilliant..always coming up with new ideas to try out!

Today we are musing on triskeles, topology, and Celtic knots. A triskele is a Celtic design of a triple spiral. Which means three spirals. The spirals must all go in the same direction. Clockwise or counter clockwise. (Or sun-wise and counter sun-wise.) I feel intuitively that these spirals have to do with time and the progression of things, but thats just me musing.

My 'magic method' of Celtic knot construction uses paper folding & cutting to create symetries of interlocking pattern. I invented this method in '86 while playing with kirigami, a Japanese paper folding & cutting method.

Since a triskele is a-symetrical in that it goes around only in one direction on its spirals, it cannot be made by folding & cutting. However, one can take a circle of paper, slit it, and fold that piece into equal thirds. If you draw a spiral on that and cut it out then one of the three resulting spirals will face the wrong direction.

OK. Here is that design.

See how the two right sprials face

other. Not good.

Next thing I did was do the same sort of slit & fold circle BUT then I cut the folds away so they are, in essence, just three stacked fan-shaped pieces of paper. These I drew a spiral on & cut out carefully. When I had done that I laid them out. One still faced the same way as another, but now I just was able to flip that one over to make them all go in tha same direction. I hear you saying "So what?" Well so you can use this method to design very pleasing triskeles. Like this one I just did

Yes, I cut off a wee bit on one side.

But it is a nice symetry, eh?

I have been doing other knots too. I cut a trilaterally (three sided) symetrical one a few days ago. Traced it on to paper, scanned it in, and then bucket-filled the backround blue behind it. Doing this one needs to only make sure that all the 'cells' of the design are closed so the color does not run over. Go ahead and take it to your photo-art program and play with it! Color, distort, have fun.

I am going to do a tutorial on the basic knot method on youtube and/or google soon. Keep your eyes open & google me!

OK, I also did a quick pentalateral (star shaped) knot this morning, and hand drew five separate triskeles in to it after I was done making the design. Here is that. Its hard to see the triskeles on the five end things, but they are there. I like the star formed in the middle...

As you can tell by the uneven nature of the paths of this knot, I cut it out of paper. I drew the little 'over and under' lines which make it a Celtic interlacing pattern, in fact a two dimensional representation of a three demensional design. OK? Then when done I hand drew the triskeles in. But they do not look nearly as nice as the ones above that I cut out! Cutting stuff out gives you a crisp sort of symetry. Plus its sort of magic, you know?
I have nattered enough for the nonce. My brain is going in spirals.

Errant Sheep

2007-09-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

Our two sheep, Lillibette and Petunia, keep running off in the night. Only to be reported by strangers who see them in the road and drive in to the farm to awaken us and get us scurrying to fetch them back. WHY are they out in the road? Do they have a clandestine rondesvous with some handsome rams? Are they looking to score some wild veterinery medicine for kicks? Are they just sleepless and bored? They have taken to hanging out under the ripening apple tree and munching down the half-red apples. We watch them for signs of indigestion, but so far they are their usual sheep-in-paradise selves. They need shearing!!
Meanwhile I have loads of metalsmithing to do, and plan to go to the smithy and work no matter what today. In an hour.
Socks are arriving at my PO box at a cheerful rate! I am the envy of the women in the post office, plus any friends or aquaintences who happen to be there when the package arrives. The last pair I am calling Mermaid Socks. If a mermaid had feet she would choose these socks. They are bamboo and merino and some stretchy stuff. They shimmer! As ever, I am not 'allowed' to wear them until John takes their formal portrait for the web site. Lest I stretch them out and get them gooped up with salal berries.
We picked what are likely the last salal berries of the season, out at Shark Reef. Other than picking them off the little group-berry stems at home, we have not done anything with them except add them in with barbequed smoked pink salmon. The indiginous people liked that combination, and so do we! They would make fruit leather with the berries in long strips and then roll it into a huge wheel to last the winter. Brilliant, eh? There were a few different people selling whole pink salmon off their truck for $4 a fish for a very short time. Is that great or what?? And we had company then so got to share some of it. Then ate salmon for lunch & dinner for days. John is a man who knows how to cook or barbeque or smoke salmon most wonderfully. But we seldom get to have it, especially in such splendid quantity.
The new Lehmans Hardware catalog came, and I have been circling items like mad. Its also encouraging to see how many of the old-time non-electric things I already have, & use all the time. I guess we are functionally living in the 18oo's, except we have a computer & DSL.
On that questionable musing I will sign off.

This Dappled Morning

2007-08-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

The far field

dazzles with the hawkweed,

yellow, festive,

and the sheep

has eaten all the

tasty blossoms around her.

Shadows of swallows

slide over the long grass

golden beneath the rowan

whose berries swell in

crimson clusters on the bough.

I feel as solitary

and prickly as a thistle,

this dappled morning,

as I lean on the cold iron of the anvil.

The bronze knitting needles I have made

are golden bright from the rouge,

and lie on the work bench

waiting to be sent

all over the planet.

I can see them go

like the many shadows of birds

flying out, away,

to land in a pair of hands.

Hands that will draw to them yarn,

like the wool of my sheep,

distilled from a field of yellow flowers.

Hands that will draw to them patterns,

like the rowan now growing,

its grey branches knitted to the blue of the sky,

its berries, red within green,

celebrating magic, utility, motion, and beauty.

Read more of my poems? http://celticswan.com/poems.htm

Summertime

2007-08-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

Day after day of sunshine! I'm about to get Northwest Sunshine Panic Syndrome!
We have been picking salal berries and baking tarts. Salal berries were a big thing for the native people here. They made fruit leather out of it, and then rolled the sheets of it up into a huge wheel to last the winter. It has no thorns! They taste like blueberries.
Eating great quantities of it makes you poop green. (Too much information?)

The sock trade is rolling along & picking up speed. I have over a dozen avid knitters casting on stitches and beginning to knit me a pair of lovely socks. I cannot tell you how exciting this is! I think I better buy more bronze! Since I love smithing out the knitting needles, and whimper & sob when I try to knit socks, this is a match made in heaven.
Meanwhile we have had house guests, and more coming at regular intervals this whole month. But we really like guests, so that is fine. John & I love to cook for people, and to take them hiking around here.

Great Sock Trade of 2007

2007-07-12T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hey knitters of the world! I have begun the sock trade again.
I am willing to trade a set of my hand wrought bronze double pointed needles for a pair of socks. The socks need to be in natural fibers, a women's size 10, and in a color or colors I like. Don't start knitting until I say OK to the trade! I really like the colors green, blue, or purple. I am pining for a pair of all emerald green socks!
Look at my web site to see what the needles look like. http://celticswan.com/dp.htm
Please write to me if you are interested in trading.
More on this later!

Paul Revere Was Right

2007-06-14T13:48:00.000-07:00

Most people remember Paul Revere as the guy who went riding hollering "The red coats are coming!" Metalsmiths remember him as the guy who had a rolling mill for metal in the colonies. The only rolling mill. Which meant he could melt down metals, make ingots, and hammer it out into rod, then roll it through the rolling mill to make wire in specific sizes. Instead of having to send the metal back to England to have it done there at great cost, as England wanted. In fact he was legally supposed to.
A rolling mill looks sort of like a gizmo to roll out pasta.
But thats not what I came here to talk about. I came here to talk about drawing rod through a metal plate, a 'draw plate', which makes it a tiny bit smaller. One keeps annealing the wire and drawing it through smaller size holes in the plate until one gets the size one wants. And I have wanted the size silver to make a specific size of knitting needles. Size #1. Its a specialty size. And I finally have got it all set up right to draw my own wire. And am feeling, like Paul Revere, that I am empowered in the smithy.
Enough about that, you say? OK. The dark brown sheep, Petunia, has decided that the fragrant purple petunias I planted in pots on the front porch are for her. So far I have kept her at bay using netting and sharp glances her way.

Celtic Knots by Maria

2007-06-05T10:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some first knots made by Maria using the instructions in my book, Design Your Own Celtic Knots. They are terrific! Thanks for sending these, Maria.

Celtic Knots in Seattle

2007-06-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here I am teaching my original Celtic knot design method at the Seattle Folklife Festival.

I got to teach hundreds of people of all ages, kids to seniors!
Below is a first knot someone made.

And to the right below is a child with her first knot.

It was great fun, and I sold my how-to books, plus the books on CD and I have it on an on line download. So wherever you are you can learn it too.
Getting back to smithing has been difficult after all the energy of the Folklife Festival, but I will be able to ship a few sets of knitting needles out tomorrow.

Folklife Festival Celtic Knot Class

2007-05-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

Boy, I have not written a post in awhile! When I finally got over the bug I was so far behind on all my metalwork that I had to 'put my nose to the anvil'! I am nearly timely now.
Meanwhile, I am going to be teaching Molly's Magic Method of Celtic knot design at the Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center May 25th through the 28th. I will be in the Folklife Commons in the center tent with the purple top, and will be teaching from 11 to 6 every day. It costs $1 to come in the tent and learn. And its really fun to do. Kids & adults. Everybody!
I will also be selling my book Design Your Own Celtic Knots, plus I now have it in a pdf file on a CD for sale. Also I will be able to send people a link for downloading the whole book on line. Its the book I hand lettered and illustrated while I was living aboard the sloop Grace. It tells you about my original method for designing Celtic knots, which is way easier than anything else around.
If you cannot make it to the Folklife Festival, and I think you ought to go there because it has the most folk and world music all over the place (7000 performers?!): stages & buskers and everyone making music & dancing! Oh, but if you cannot go & want to know about my book you can find it on my web site at celticswan.com Now I can send the book by e mail all over the world! Hooray!
I have to get back to binding the last of the books.. Printing them here has been a wretched chore for John. He's been covered with black ink smears.
We leave on the 'red eye' ferry in the morning, and are hopeful that the traffic over on the mainland is not too bad. We so seldom leave our little island!
Hope to see you at the Festival!!!!

The Dreaded Raw Garlic Cure

2007-04-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Well I have had the stomach bug that is going around. I did the mint tea. I did the grape juice.
I did the goldenseal, which usually works great with me. Finally I did the dreaded raw garlic cure. The way this works is, first you chop up about a tablespoon of fresh ginger and boil it with a few cups of water. Set that aside to cool. Then you mince up a big clove of garlic. You mix this with a few spoonfulls of peanut butter. Sometimes I put in a drop of soy sauce. You eat the peanut butter garlic mix and wash it down with the ginger tea. The tea is to keep you from tossing the whole thing, as you already feel nauseated & its pretty strong stuff.
One's breath is helacious after this, of course, but what care I?
So, sick since Wednesday, did the D.R.G.C. on Friday. Performed a wedding ceremony on Saturday & carried on normallly (or as normal as I ever get) and then back to the outhouse with the trots. Or the sprints, as it were. But then felt well on Monday. Until later on. Then at 1 am I did the garlic.
I am telling you this in case you are suffering from this same bug. So you may have a chance to vanquish it. (I feel like Marley's Ghost telling you this)
Meanwhile, the cherry trees are in full voluptuous bloom. I'm glad the winds did not tear off too many flowers. No hummingbirds this morning. They must have done with these for now.
John is lying in the grass out back, dressed all in green complete with green velvet pants. He is coming down with the bug, I fear.
I have been cutting pages of my book in half as they are printed two pages to a sheet. They still need to have the holes punched in, and to be collated, and to have the covers printed, and to be bound with the comb binders. Such a lot of work. I'm so glad John is doing the actual printing.
And what about all the metalsmithing waiting to be done?????? As soon as I feel a little strength. I am so weak now. But I miss the metal.

Fierce Attack Sheep

2007-04-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

Twice lately the wild turkeys have come by the house, and both times the sheep have chased them away! Yesterday Petunia ran around & around the pear tree with her head down and the turkey running away from her as fast as it could go. These are wild timid sheep! So its very surprising. Turkeys, though, are so obviously descended from dinosaurs, its no wonder that the sheep do not want them around.

I have been out hot twisting silver rod. It took about a year after John came up with this unorthodox method of silversmithing for me to try it out. And it took longer yet for me to start using it regularly. My rate of 'fried' pieces is about what it was for me with bronze about 24 years ago. And if I get the least bit distracted while I am doing it its sure I will mess it up. But the ease and fluidity of working it this way is a treat. I get tighter twists, and greater range of design. I've got a bunch sitting in the 'pickle bath' now, a mild acid that takes off the black fire scale that inevitably happens when one heats silver up that high.

When I was in my 20's I never thought I'd live to this age. Back then, we all thought the atomic bomb was looking over our shoulders just waiting to pounce on us and send us to smithereens. Never mind that bogus stuff in school when they had us crouched down under our desks! Anyway, now I am nearly 60, and in the thick of being a self-employed crafts person. This is what we have both been doing since '81. I'm still amazed at the world politics, and how such a huge number of humans keep on living on this fragile planet of ours.

I'm several years past the age when my father, a professor of botany, retired. As an artist and writer, I will never get to retire. I was talking to a stone mason at the grocery store the other day, and we both agreed that we expected to die while we were still working. This is probably how everyone always thought of themselves before the American dream of retirement came along. I don't know. My husband & I live very simply, without many things that our contemporaries consider essential. But we do have unheard of freedom and flexibility.

When we first started being crafts people we drove a '61 hump-back 544 Volvo. Back and forth across country. We knew some inopportune time it would die a final death, probably in the winter in Montana on the interstate. So we decided to be prepared to cut our losses and walk away with all our metalsmithing inventory on our backs in one small bag. It was such a good car we never had to, though.

I have nattered on enough for now. more later.
OH! A hummingbird came to the open door of the smithy today. Ruby throated & humming.

Death & Taxes

2007-03-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Hey, I have not posted in a bit. Working on the dreaded taxes. Just about ready to sign the check!
John & I rigged up a tool to draw out wire. Its an oak plank with a big vice at one end and a come-along winch at the other end. We anneal the metal rod/wire, and grind one end to a point. This we push through a draw plate, which is a special callibrated steel plate with holes of descending diameter. So. We put the point through the hole closest in size to the rod, and fasten on the drawing tongs. Then we use two C-clamps to hold the tongs securely on to the point of the rod. Then one of us holds the draw tongs while the other one uses a big piece of pipe as a lever to make the winch slowly pull the rod through the hole. This makes the rod a teensy bit smaller. Then we anneal the rod again and draw it through the next smallest hole. Its tedious! But it allows us to make rod in more sizes. For crochet hooks, and for knitting needles.
Next item! I have been accepted to the Folklife Festival at the Seattle Center the end of May to teach my Celtic knot making method!! The entire time of 4 days. It will be in the hands-on learning area by the Space Needle. I just bought a big bunch of little sharp scissors on eBay. Tomorrow the world.
An old friend in upstate NY died. John Culver. I hadn't seen him in a very long time. I meant to get in touch, but he didn't do e mail. I know, thats a rotten excuse not to get in touch with somebody. And now its too late. The funeral was this past weekend.
There are baby lambs at all the sheep farms on the island, but not ours. We are thinking we ought to buy another ewe and a ram. But which kind????

The Sound of a Hammer and Anvil

2007-02-09T16:13:00.000-08:00

I have been doing lots of smithing. I love the sound of the hammer hitting hot metal on the big old anvil, that nice bright ringing sound. I ought to be using ear protcetion, and I do on heavier things. But I'm doing double pointed knitting needles now, in both silver and bronze. All size #1. I've got other sizes in the works too, but today its size #1's. Which are slender.
Heating and pounding on metal is fun. It becomes as ductile as, say, modeling clay. I hammer on the rod...make, lets see, a squared off design in cross-section. Then when I heat up one little spot with the oxy-propane torch I can twist the metal in just that spot. And it makes such wonderful patterns. I can stop and spot heat and twist the other way. I can do layers of patterning, one over the other, to get more complex and interesting designs. Or I can keep it simple. The twists in the middle of the needle shafts keep the yarn from sliding off too easily. Since what I do is just like jewelry work, the final shine I put on, with jeweler's rouge, is really shiny.
While I'm on a flagrant 'brag' here, my poetry is on my web site, and John has recorded me reading a number of them. You might like Interisland Ferry. http://www.celticswan.com/poems.htm is where you can find them.
Back to the smithy! Ding, ding, ding!!!

Imbolc/Brigid's Day/Candlemas at the Druid Chamber

2007-02-03T13:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Imbolc! Here are some photos of the Druid Chamber. To the left you can see the central chimney-niche. Below, you can see the left wall. The stone work is very nice.

You can see on the left how the chamber has been built below the roots of a huge old tree. And above, how the roots are incorporated in the structure. There are also boulders which are left in place as part of the walls.
It is a very sweet place, up on the side of a hill. And no one around here seems to know about it! It looks like its been here awhile. John found it one day a few years ago. He tends to find magical places.
Meanwhile, I am slowly smithing my way through a long list of people who have ordered double pointed knitting needles. I seem so slow! Well, my back has not been good lately.
Brigid and Evan came for the weekend, and we had a lovely time. We hiked to Watmough Head in the rain. But we never made it to the Druid Chamber!
John has recorded a number of my poems being read aloud. Thats on our web site.
I got an order for a shawl pin last night. They are so much fun to make. Metalsmithing is fun.

Design Your Own Celtic Knots

2007-01-12T14:44:00.000-08:00

Hey! My book, Design Your Own Celtic Knots, is available on Amazon! I invented a method using paper folding and cutting, like a paper snowflake, to easily & quickly design Celtic interlacing designs. I'll post a knot here soon that you can use in your photo editor program to bucket fill and play with. Or get the book and design your own original ones. I teach kids to do it, its so easy.
Go to Amazon.com to see it , or my web site at celticswan.com
Hours of fun, and lots of extra confetti as a side bonus!
We are still snowed in. Maybe I'll go design another knot......

I Hate Snow

2007-01-10T17:18:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I do. We are functionally snowed in here. Its really comin down. I managed to get some supplies in. Hay for the sheep.
Petunia, the black sheep, can't see the white sheep in all the driving snow. So she has been bahing.
I keep thinking of those lucky people in Hawaii....groan.
I got a request for needles set with sheen obsidian. I can't find 10 mm cabs of it anywhere! All my suppliers have stopped carrying it. Go figure. I am thinking I will do some needles set with facetted stones. Won't those be glorious?
I wonder how long it will be before we can drive out? Its a safe bet I will have more time to blog!

Dorothy Swan's Miniature Rugs

2007-01-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year all!
Here are some photos of my mother's display of her miniature carpets. They are all one inch to the foot...dollhouse size! She did not use any kits. They are quite perfect, as she is a fiend for detail. She has had them in the Acton Library in Old Saybrook, Ct.

She has put some furniture and dolls in the display.
If you would like to see larger photos to see detail, please contact me and I will send them to you.
My mother is a volunteer at her local historical society. She is pretty amazing!
She is a fabulous knitter, too.

Almost Solstice

2006-12-20T19:16:00.000-08:00

Its almost Solstice. It will be so good to have the days begin to get more daylight, though it takes a bit for it to get some momentum going. The wind keeps blowing. That big wind storm (see last post) was clocked in as 100 mph here! We drove some back roads (what else have we got here?) today and got to see all the huge downed trees. We still have not gotten any more patches on the roof. And have not gone to the mainland to buy gifts. We will just have a few small gifts for each other, and consider ourselves blessed. We have had Christmases in past years that would've made Dickens weep, so this is a year of plenitude. Tomorrow we will set up the tree! It will be glorious, as ever.

And tomorrow I am back to the smithy. I have silver cable needles to make, plus some double pointed knitting needles as well. Someone asked me to make a very heavy big silver Celtic Brooch with stones, and then they had other things come up. But my mind is percolating ideas on brooches, and I am tempted to just go ahead and make a few really exciting ones, sort of like the Selkie Brooch, but totally their own selves. Because each one does have its own self! The metal has 'spirit' in it.....and it leans toward one way and another, guiding me in the design, moving the hot ductile metal. Its lots of fun!
Speaking of what fun metalsmithing is, I welcome people coming to the smithy to make a bronze bracelet for themselves. When you hammer the bronze so that in cross-section it is a square or a six-sided figure, or any of the other many forms, then you twist that shape...it makes all the twists and turns and spirals that you see in our work. It is sort of Celtic Revival! (Which was happening a century ago.) John has been the 'brains' behind all the explorations we have done in our metalsmithing techniques. Besides being inspired by the wonderful gold and bronze smithing of the Celts and the Norse, he is inspired by the dictum "it can't be done". And so he has gone ahead and worked the metal in seemingly impossible ways. They are difficult ways to get the knack of. But that is true of any real hand craft work. We can walk you through it!
Heavens, I am nattering on! But I love metal work. After doing it for 25 years I still find it to be magic.
I ordered some rose cut garnets today. They are like a cabochon stone, but have a faceted surface. Really nice. I search in vain for rose cut stones other than garnets.

High Winds Blow Away Small Island

2006-12-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

Here I am reading my poems the other night. I figure 25% of Lopez Islanders were there, which would explain how people say "Hi Molly" to me all the time, and I don't know their names. Given that I am nearsighted, maybe I do know them, but can't see them.

The riotous winds came through last night. I stayed in the smithy until nearly 11 pm buffing everything. The wind kept shaking the smithy. The electric & the phone went off in the night. Winds were about 80 mph, and we lost some more shingles off the roof. It was scary. But we were lucky. Lots of people had huge trees down. When the electric came back on in the morning we drove up-island to the post office and there were wires hanging down and trees fallen all over the place. Crews of workers were clearing it away. We had to drive slowly to get through it all. Lots of people are without electric on the mainland & in Canada too. Traffic lights are not working over there, and gas stations are closed alot. We have no traffic lights here! The early ferry that brings the mail couldn't land, but a later one did. And I got a whole bunch of knitting needles shipped out! Hooray!!! I even have some leftover ones, size #1's. I always make extra because with smithing one never knows when one will accidently fry something to a puddle. Ha.

Another weather front is coming in. More high winds, maybe snow. We shall see. We are tarping the computers every night in case the leaks upstairs make it downstairs! They look interesting with a big camo tarp over all.

My fingers are freezing in here. The temperature is dropping outside & the woodstove is in the parlor, so it is not heated in here as one might want. I hope the electric is on in the morning. I need to haul water from across the valley, and I think it won't run if his water pump is off. Heigh-ho.

Knitting Needles with Sapphires

2006-12-14T17:07:00.000-08:00

Here is the pair of knitting needles set with sapphires. I am so glad they are done and sent out! John and I made them together. We went ahead and bought a pair of rubys to make another pair. Which we will offer on the web site. John cast the Sterling Silver lozenges that I soldered the settings on to. I think they came out well.

There is another fierce weather front coming in. We are worrying about our boats. And about our roof, which already took a beating in the last big blow. Its supposed to be 70 mph winds until some time Saturday. We stocked up on food & supplies, have the candles handy, and the heat we have is from the woodstove so that is OK. Right now we are rising the dough to make calzone. John made a big pot of 'ricotta' cheese, so we are good to go. He is making tomato sauce from scratch, too, which is a specialty of his.

Back out to the smithy with me to work on more needles, double pointed ones.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel is Twinkley

2006-12-12T19:34:00.000-08:00

I have been too much in the thick of "elf work", making things for people to give as gifts, that my own life is a mess. But I got all except one pair of knitting needles-set-with-stones sent out today. The last pair is to be set with sapphires, and the soldering on the second bezel is just being a pain in the butt.
The silver double pointed needles are nearly done. Half still need points ground on them. And the bronze double pointed needles are started. I am going back out to the smithy to work on them all some more once dinner settles.

Once its all done and sent out, we can clean house (what a concept!) and then do laundry, and then we get to go to the mainland and shop. And get glasses! The ones I'm wearing now to drive are a joke. They might as well have a fake nose and mustache attached.

The ferry is landing at our island again, after several months of very iffy ferry service. If the wind was up to 30 knots they just passed us by. And that is how the mail gets to & fro. But everyone seems to have managed. We have not been to the mainland since June, when we flew back east to visit my mother.
Meanwhile, the wind is supposed to go up to 50 knots by morning. Our dinghy in McArdle Bay is OK, and our dinghy in Mud Bay is still afloat. I have decided to sell my very-beat-up houseboat, or trade it for a long-shaft outboard. The hull is very sound. I always meant to rebuild the house on it so it had a cambered roof, low windage, and not as much decking. Hi ho.

We finished printing the inside pages of the book! Now to print the covers, & comb bind them. I only have printed 20 this time, enough to cover orders on hand plus a few more. Its awful how much ink costs, and how fast we go through it! I want to have a regular book printer print me up 1000 copies! Ack.
John has gotten the wild wooly sheep to eat out of his hand. Given that Lillibette runs full tilt in the opposite direction if anyone walks toward her, this is an admirable accomplishment!

My reading of my poetry at the Lopez Center on Sunday went very well. I got lots of compliments. The other writers who read were very good. There was a sizable turn-out for the event. Over 100 people, I betcha. What percentage is that on an island of 2500 people? My math skills are laughable.

I bought a glass ornament for my sister. I think its supposed to be an almond, but might be a peach pit. Last year I sent her a glass brocoli for her tree. This could be a tradition! The sort of tradition-lunacy that would happen in my family. All my favorite people are silly.

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Freight Train

2006-11-23T10:22:00.000-08:00

It is November, and the traditional storms are coming through one after another. We got 70 mph winds a week ago that tore a bunch of our roofing off. Off and on all month they have not been able to land the ferry on Lopez Island. I guess we are fortunate we never leave the island!
I am in the heart of sterling silver knitting needles for Loopy Ewe. I have many exciting orders to fill. I will be making more Knitting needles set with incised bone triskeles (Celtic triple spirals) and a pair of needles set with sapphires. for people, plus ones that will be available.

I am also working on two heavy weight Celtic brooches in bronze, which I am going to set a stone on each at the top of the straight pin. What stones??? Have not decided yet. They will go on the web site. I am going to be making some lucious needles set with facetted blue topaz soon. I already got the stones for that. I also sent for some ruby cabachons for a pair of needles.

Meanwhile I have back-burnered my circular needles, sterling silver joined with mesh chain. They will be beautiful and tactile. John & I disagree about how they should be made. Hi ho.

John cleaned the kitchen wood stove, using the long-handled stove scraper, a trowel, and a shop vac. I helped. It was a very dirty job, but is done, and now the stove is getting hot. We got a fresh turkey, and I went up to the attic and found the turkey roasting pan. We have tarps strung all over the attic to catch the leaks from the storm. It looks sort of surreal up there!

Yams are not really yams. They are sweet potatos, but look like the African root vegetable called "yam", so got called that. I love the deep orange of them, so stocked up.

The sheep are right close behind the house, so they can look in the kitchen window. Lillibette looks like she has been bred because of the pinkish paint on he side & butt. Her reputation is ruined!

The native tribes called November "Winter Dance Month" because at this time of year all the helper-spirits would come back here from their counter clockwise journey around the world. Their closeness would make the people, who they usually helped, get crazy. You may have noticed this yourself if you live in the north west! Anyway, the cure is to have freinds and family come and dance and sing around the crazy person to encourage the helper-spirit to hit the road again. December is "Winter Song Month", probably for the same reason, only everyone is tired of dancing and wants to sit close to the fire. I learned this from Erna Gunther's book, written in the 30's when there were still elders alive to be interviewed who would remember. I think now that there are fewer natives for them to help and harry they latch on to non-natives. Who knows?

Chocolate chip pumpkin pie. I better get a-baking. No metal work today. I was smithing until 9 pm yesterday. I guess I can coast today, huh?

Free as a Sheep

2006-11-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

More fun & hijinks. What are hijinks, anyway?
The dinghy in Mud Bay sank and we had to wait until the tide was out late last night to rescue it. And the houseboat looks about to founder.
But meanwhile the sheep have escaped. These are not sweet docile pet sheep. These are wild Welsh mountain sheep, skittish as hell. We have had them on tethers and moved them daily to fresh grass. But Lillibette got away. Then John caught her, & Petunia got away. Then we tried to lure Petunia into the pen by putting Lilli in there. They are very fond of each other! But Petunia was wise (we could hear Lilli grunting instructions to her!) and soon they were both free and running for the road. Where there is heavy equipment doing some road upgrading. They went over to another field beyond the barn. John herded them back this way. I am hiding in the computer room for now so as not to scare them into running off again. When two people are there they know something is up! The sun is sliding around the sky too fast, and we still need to row on out to the houseboat to rescue it from sinking. That would be just awful! At least it is sunny and mild and not even windy today.
I baked another cheese cake for the continuing celebration of Birthday Month for John. We went to Doe Bay Resort over on Orcas Island for his actual birthday, and soaked in the hot tub there all day. T'was glorious. We plan to go back soon. It was the first time we have been off Lopez Island since June, when we went to Connecticut to see my mother.
The sheep are caught!! Hooray hoorah!! Captive wild sheep from Mars!

Pennanular Celtic Brooches

2006-11-07T21:03:00.000-08:00

I finished making this sterling silver Celtic pennanualar brooch today.
It is just over 3" wide, and I set it with two amethysts, two lapis lazuli, and one malachite.
I also finished a light weight silver Celtic brooch set with two lapis.
Hooray. And I am still plugging away at the knitting needle 'forest'. Which is mostly silver, with some bronze too.
I'm also printing books. The cost of the ink cartridges has me in a state of continual denial. "Just keep printing them! There are people waiting." I tell myself. Hi ho. The brooches are lots of fun. I solder the settings on after the initital smithing, and then I twirlique the split parts around to create that part of the design. So I don't know where the settings will be until that point. Very exciting, organic-looking, and dynamic. Its like I get to see what the metal wants to do, and I say "looks good to me!". Though sometimes do say "uh uh, no you don't! git back there!" When the metal is hot it has the maleability of clay. Only you can't touch it because it will burn your little fingers off.
I smithed out some sets of cable needles today too. The hammering & twisting went well.
I've been using a small vice and a big magnet to mount the torch on the anvil. Then I sit at the anvil and hammer on the metal right in front of my nose wearing magnifying glasses so I can see all the tiny hammered facets I'm making on those tiny needles, and can see what is happening when I spot-heat and then twist the metal to make those undulating designs. Plus its easier on my rotten old back.
I got some nice azurite-malachite cabs in, and also some good turquoise. I should make some knitting needles set with stones & put them on the web site.
Some day I'll get back to that silver spoon I'm slowly working on. Will it have a handle like one of my shawl pins? Or will it have stones? Enamel? I would love to do some enameling.
The rain stopped! We have gotten so much RAIN. On the mainland they were having all sorts of flooding, worst in 10 years. They had to close some schools!
Now its starry and the wind even quit raging through. Tonight its a minus 2.7 tide at about 10:30. And are we going out to the sea cave? or going to dig clams? No, we are going to bed early. Some years back I climbed down the cliff to the sea cave in the dark in a dress, carrying a cake, and holding a flashlight in my mouth. How did I do that? How did I not fall to my death? One never knows, do one? It was for my birthday party.
Lots of rain water caught. Maybe I'll wash some fleece!

I Refuse to Say "I'm so busy."

2006-11-06T18:44:00.000-08:00

I forgot my user name so could not post here for awhile. Yes, I have been happily metalsmithing like mad. But I hate that people think "I'm busy" is a good mantra to have, so refuse to say that.
John has dinner ready. I will come back & post more soon.

A Forest of Knitting Needles

2006-10-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today I got a whole bunch of knitting needles marked and straightened. Got a whole lots of point grinding to do tomorrow. I will also be forming some cable needles around into an R shape.
I went to the Free Store today. It is like a free rummage sale in which people continually bring stuff in while people continually take stuff out. I got a radio-tape-player-cd-player. It seemed to work OK. I got a swell thing for the top of a chimney. One of those whirley things that keeps out downdrafts & helps the stove draw. And I got a small weber grill. Some nice candles for a friend. Oh, I got a lamp that the base is a miniature cast iron woodstove. I will take the lamp stuff off it & save the stove in my miniature furniture stash. I got a dollhouse size park bench. I got books. Some beads. I'm sure I got lots more stuff, but I left it all in the car because it was raining. The freestore is also called The Take It Or Leave It. Also Neil's Mall. After Neil Hansen who founded it at the transfer station. We should have a bronze statue of Neil in the village! I wrote a comic book about the free store and Lopez and Oz (as in Wizard of, not as in Australia) but have yet to print copies to sell.
I got some really good letters today from people with whom I did trades. I traded my knitting needles for their hand knit socks in natural fibers. Boy, do I have the best collection of gorgeous socks!!! I am the Imelda Marcos of socks! I had to stop doing the trade because I got overwhelmed. So the Great Sock Trade of '06 is over, but who knows about next year? Meanwhile people are really happy with the trade. We put photos of the socks on our web site.
I'm going to put a paperdoll I designed up on the web site soon, too. Its of Susanna Swan, my sister, with 29 imaginative outfits. Soooooon.

A Day in the Smithy

2006-10-17T16:42:00.000-07:00

This is my first personal blog. It is to babble on about what is happening at the smithy here at Celtic Swan Forge.
Today I managed to incise triskeles in some bone cabochons. I only stabbed myself once with the graver. I made a jig to hold the cab. It works well, so I am going to order more bone cabs. I will be setting them in the tops of knitting needles I have forged out of bronze rod. If you have any interest in what I'm doing you can see various photos at celticswan.com. I will post stuff on here as I get that together. My husband is also a metalsmith, and is out in the smithy now doing some yarn needles and crochet hooks.
Today I got a special order for a silver two-pronged hair pin. And a silver Celtic brooch set with lapis. That should be fun. I do lots of Celtic broochs, penannular ones, but not many with stones set on them. Am thinking of setting the straight pins of some with the carved triskeles. Hi ho.

We tried out a draw plate for the first time today. Brought bronze rod down to the size to make #0 needles. But do I want to? Much more trouble, and they are already plenty of work.

Meanwhile.....I am 57, happily married, and live on a 40 acre farm on a little island in the Pacific Northwest, Washington State. It is very beautiful here. Most of the farm is in hay that someone else cuts. We have lots of cherry trees, some apple trees, and 2 sheep who are Sennybridge Welsh. They are Lillibette and Petunia, and I am smitten with them.