The Good and the Bad

Well, it's all about balance.

Bringing the year to a close is always hard - you have to say good-bye to the old, knowing that what has passed will never pass this way again, not in the same way.

But then, you also get to welcome in the new, and that can be pretty good.

Let's start with that, then.



The Good: The 2011 Midwest Witches' Ball 

OK... I'm late. The Ball was actually back in October. That I'm only just writing about it now should give you some sense of the chaotic condition of my life lately.

But it was a blast! In fact, it was so much fun that, in my memory, it looks like this -




In my clearer memories (which mostly come from early in the evening), I see things like this:

 

This is Amanda and Nathan. Amanda and Nathan are the people who won the boxed athame set which I donated and blogged about earlier.

These are some great people - I got to talk with them for a while, and I'm very glad that they won! I hope they enjoy it for a long time to come.

And they have the absolute coolest costumes! Aren't they great? The theme of this year's ball was Through the Looking Glass. 

This is my friend, Monk the White Rabbit, and his royal wife, the Red Queen. 

 I was a white rabbit too - but I was a bad bunny. Here's me as the White Rabbit Bunny Warrior of Death putting the smooth moves on my wife in the hotel lobby: 

This year, there was a vending event prior to the ball where sponsors could put up their wares for show and tell. 

Here's the fabulous Splendid Fish Studio display, manned by my wife: 

The vending was fantastic - here, like at the Goblin Market, you can get things you didn't even know exist. The big sellers for me were female springbok horns. I could barely keep these on the table long enough to sell them! I do have more now, though, so if you couldn't get one then, you might be able to get one now along with a lot of other unusual items at (www.magistercrow.etsy.com),

The Bad: Old Mr. Jenkins

 

Old Mr. Jenkins, the studio cat, passed away this month.

We're going to miss him a lot, although four of his daughters still live with us.

He was doing pretty well, right up until the end. When he got to the point where he could no longer eat or drink, we knew it was time.

I have no idea how old this cat was. We had him for eight years, and he was already old when we got him - we ended up taking him in because we knew he couldn't survive another Michigan winter outdoors, and so he ended up his life living in a luxury that he would have never been able to imagine while living on the streets.

He paid us back with the pleasure of his purr, and the touch of his fur.

We consider the debt paid in full.

Where have I been? Where am I going?

Oh my, looky there!

It's been a hellaciously long time since I've had a chance to update this blog!

I don't know how you all do it - you blog, tweet, Facebook, squidly, bla, bla, bla. Don't you ever take time out to goof off, do something stupid, get drunk, snuggle with somebody cute, take a bath?

Well, neither do I. That's why I find it so amazing that you all can spend so much more time with this kind of thing than I do.

Seriously (I actually do many stupid things), I really want to get back to work on this blog. All nine of my subscribers have been clamoring for more ("clamoring" may be too harsh a word. Maybe "have completely forgotten about the existence of this blog" would be more accurate).

I guess that an explanation is in order.

Being of a philosophical temperament I will present my explanation in the form of a syllogistic argument:

A. Given the existence of excrement,
and
B. Given the existence of ventilation devices,
and
C. Given a long enough time period
-------------------------------------------------------
It is inevitable that, sooner or later, the shit will hit the fan.

So the shit hit the fan... But things are better now. Once more I have used my powers to pull my buns out of the fire before they charred. Currently, there is less pulverized poop misting the atmosphere, and I can actually get back to the work I love - which I have missed terribly.

So here's a quick rundown of the bits I've currently got in process, and which I will be showing in the near future -



1. The door prize for the 2011 Midwest Witches' Ball.
This is a HUGE PARTY, and huge fun. As a sponsor, I get to donate a door prize. I really like doing this because it's a time for me to pull out all stops and do something really extraordinary, without worrying about making it affordable.

I'll have pictures up soon - this is the kind of stuff I would do all the time, if I only had some very wealthy customers... But as it is, somebody is going to be very, very happy...

Here's a teaser pic... more to follow...

To find out more about The 2011 Midwest Witches' Ball, follow this link: http://midwestwitchesball.com/
Look for my add on the sponsor's page!



2. A brass bra.

I've laughed about making one of these for a long time, and now I think it's finally time to produce one.

I've been filling my idle hours studying the anatomy and form of female breasts, my sketch book is full of boob sketches, and I think I understand them well enough now. I believe I can adequately and attractively encase them in a firm support of metal. I have some rough ideas sketched out, and, of course, my research continues, with the grateful assistance of my wife and some friendly friends.

I've also been studying up on leather work. I haven't done any of that in a long time, so I need to brush up on it in order to make all the associated straps and harnessing needed to support such a complicated bit of engineering.

My intention is to line it with rabbit fur in order to provide tickley comfort and reduce the famous "colder than.." factor.

Who says a witches' tit in a brass bra has to be cold, anyway?

Here's a sketch of the current design for one of the breastplates. The pattern will be pierced out to show the rabbit fur lining. The rabbit skin will be removable for those really naughty occasions when flesh is more fun...

I can't decide if I should cut a nipple hole in the center, or if I should mount a nice bullet cut garnet cabochon there so it will look nice under a sweater.


3. And, finally, my recycled animal parts projects.

This is kind of funny...

I was looking around  for some odd bits of bone, horn, and shell to make projects like this little bottle made out of a warthog tusk:

Or this little bottle made out of a piece of deer bone:

Or this wand made with a turkey leg (it features a concealed compartment in the other end):

So I found what I was looking for, but I also found that when I buy individual pieces (of bone or whatever), the price is much, much higher than it is if I buy a bunch of them at once.

And, to make a long story short, I figured that, as weird as some of this stuff is, if I can use it to make unique and interesting items, then so can others. Hence, the birth of a new business enterprise, http://www.magistercrow.etsy.com/ .

I now buy and sell peculiar items that are nearly impossible to find anywhere else.

While I'm wheeling and dealing I pick out the bits that I like best. I have quite an assortment of stuff which would like to be made into things both elegant and lovely... Not to say unique...

Starting at the top and traveling clockwise, you have a couple of ram's horns, some enormous steer horns, male springbok horns with a red fox skull sitting on top, sea urchin shells, water buffalo horns, a huge warthog tusk, a coyote skull, a pile of female springbok horns, a stack of toad skins, and, right in the center, a very nice warthog skull. All this will be going up for sale on my Magister Crow site in the beginning of November.