Frogsong Studio Blog

I have nothing very exciting to talk about tonight so maybe I’ll just ponder a few things out loud here.

Human Behavior!

What makes people do the things that they do?

Why do some people choose to turn a blind eye to the truth? Is it because it’s easier to deal with? No thinking involved?

Why do some people talk out of both sides of their mouths? Why do they say one thing, but do the opposite?

More importantly…. What is their purpose? Seriously….what is important?

Have a great night and even better tomorrow.

No, I’m not growing Lasagna…haha!

Lasagna gardening is a way of gardening using, well, trash, among other things. Here’s what we did.

First we laid out some old railroad ties in a square. Then we started filling it up with all our compostible trash. Paper, cardboard, and whatever else we had that could go into the compost pile. Over that we threw horse poop, goat poop, chicken poop, old straw, wood shaving, and dirt. Then we started all over again and layered everything just like you would if you were making lasagna. Hence, the name Lasagna Gardening.

So, in our first one we planted two varieties of radishes, mustard greens, and lettuce. Today, I picked 2 bags full of mustard greens which I will have to blanch and freeze. And I picked three bags full of radishes which I plan to make into radish relish and preserve.

We also planted some new things today. We planted two varieties of Okra, some red onion, some red potatoes and some sugar snaps peas. Yum! Needless to say. I’m plum beat.

Tomorrow I will try to get some pictures of the harvest. I’m soooooo glad we are finally starting to warm up a bit.

Okay, so yesterday I made what I will call a Fragon, and got to take him out of the kiln today.  What is a Fragon, you ask? Well, a Fragon is a cross between a Dragon and a Frog. 

He’s a cute little thing, though I am still trying to get the hang of getting nice color from my Terra. He was made on a base of CIM Ginger with Terra kind of swirled over it. I did get some color, though not exactly as much as I was hoping for. Still, I think he’s pretty darned cute with his pink little toenails and fingernails. What say you?

Fragon

I also made a couple of goddesses yesterday following the very nice and funny CD Tutorial recently put out by Kevan Aponte and her husband Antonio. It’s an excellent Tutorial and I highly recommend it even if you already have the Goddess Tutorial by Lavendar Creek. Both are excellent tutorials but two very different techniques for making goddeses. You can find both tutorials, and many more by visiting us at http://www.torchbugs.com and checking out the tutorials section.

Now back to my goddesses. Well, unfortunately only one survived. The other one got stuck to the mandrel for some reason and wouldn’t come off without breaking. But, the other one did survive.  She is made with CIM Ginger which gives you the most perfect flesh color. Her, ahem, nipples are done with Terra which ended up darker than I was expecting, but oh well. Here she is, front and back.

 

Well my fiance, Ken, decided he wanted it so he could show it to all the guys at work (construction workers) so I threw together a little keychain for him with the goddess bead and a couple of beads I had in the Orphan box. And here is the result.

Well that’s it for now.

Okay, I finally decided to get a Blog going. What took me so long? Well, I’m lazy for one thing. I’ve been quite busy for another.

Why is it that I seem to be going constantly but never get anything done? It’s driving me crazy!

But, here’s what I did get done, and why I haven’t had any beads up for sale lately. I decided to create a brand spankin’ new online forum for Lampwork Artists and Jewelry Designers. If you haven’t found us yet, we are www.torchbugs.com.

We’ve been going for just over 5 weeks now and I am happy to say we are a success! We now have over 1100 members and growing. Yaaay!! But that’s not all! We have some big plans for Torchbugs in the future that we believe everyone will enjoy. Check us out and drop in and say hi!

On another note, I did get a dragon made and just pulled it out of the kiln this morning. Thanks goes to Plum Loco Designs for sharing her Dragon sculpting technique so that this dragon could be born. 

So, what do you think? He was made with Vetrofond Petrified Wood, and with Double Helix Psyche toenails and fingernails. Today I made another one out of Color Is Messy Ginger with Double Helix Terra toenails and fingernails, and also a couple of Goddesses. They are all still in the kiln annealing but I will show them to you tomorrow and you can tell me what you think.

 

Meanwhile, have a great night, and don’t forget to Spring forward!!!