UFO's - Un Finished Objects

This is a reliquary of objects found on the nearby migrant trails close to my house. We're quite close to the Mexican border.

I think I'm going to capture this colibri in a frame

I got this bread box at the thrift store and I'm decoupaging images from an old social studies and a physics book. Needs a special knob I think.

I had been reading Altered Bits blog about her huge list of unfinished projects and had to analyze my own pile of unfinished projects.

As a lampworker/beadmaker I'm accustomed to quite short projects of under 30 minutes each although I usually dedicate an afternoon to the torch up to four hour stretches, max. I find I need to take a 10 to 30 minute break every hour as it is quite a focused sort of craft when actually torching. These breaks are the perfect time to have some ice tea on the patio or check in on my internet goings on.

Lately though it seems since my retirement and my snowbird seasons in Arizona I am incredibly drawn to the altered art and collage and working with found objects since there's such a wealth of resources for cool stuff either in thrift stores or on the ground as I rummage about. It was harder in Alaska as far as the easy fabulous finds go. People tend to hang on to their stuff and there just isn't the population base that you have in the States.

Since my retirement I have come to look upon my bead and jewelry designing business as my "real job" and my hobby is the assemblage/collecting/ altered art. In reality they are all melding together in a wonderful flow of expression for me.

The collage and decoupage projects are the ones that are tending to be in a state of evolving.....OK, OK, they're just not finished! Some I started last winter when we were here.

We were so inundated with visitors from the northland that wanted to taste our Arizona sunshine that my creativity took a back seat to entertaining. Oh, and then the little matter of my folks coming to visit and my father's heart attack and ensuing quadruple bypass on the last day of their visit. Actually one of the reasons I took an early retirement was to have more flexibility in caring for my aging parents. How convenient of them to have the crisis at my warm sunny Arizona abode rather than cold and wintry New England.

My friend PJ that's a member of the Bisbee Fiber Arts Guild says that they call the unfinished projects UFO's for Un-Finished-Objects.

Here are a few of my own UFO's-

Busy in Bisbee Beads

I've been back at my southern studio for a week now and since my husband took off for a road trip I have had free rein to structure my days completely. Or un-structure as the case may be.

It's nice to be able to enjoy the sunshine again and take walks as I was finding that my last month or so in Alaska I was making use of my time largely indoors. And while that allowed me to get quite a lot done in the creative realm I was finding my self getting less and less exercise. The wood fire was so cozy and everything I needed was at my fingertips right in the house or the Garaj Mahal.

So yes, sunshine and walks and a ride on my bike plus a re-entry to "Pure Torcher Studio" South. The oxygen tanks are quite affordable here and they even deliver them for FREE so I'm not using an oxygen concentrator as I do in Alaska. I've been putting in a couple of hours a day nearly every day since I've been back. I don't guess I'll ever be the type of lampworker that can put in more than a 4 hour stretch in a day. I find that my hands rebel and make funny clicking noises and then there's pain as well. That's my signal to go do something else for awhile or even take a few days off.

Being close to the Mexican border as we are I'm finding relics on the migrant trails nearby. While most of it consists of sunwashed and flattened backpacks and clothing and water bottles there are some interesting items as well. Colorful toothbrushes, rusted cans and Bibles are among the pieces I have been picking up. I'd like to do a reliquary with the more interesting objects. The pieces are starting to take a form on my table. I'm just at the beginning stages of this idea.

The best thing happened today. I already got the new scanner that I ordered on Friday. The scanner printer combination I picked up here last winter didn't hold a candle to my CanoScan back in Alaska. (HP) There was no way I could scan any 3D objects and the quality of the 2D was less than desirable as well. I've got a newer version now CanoScan 8800F and the two photos of beads here are my first scans with it.