Saturday, October 24, 2009

A Matrix of Illusion and Disillusion

UNBELIEVABLE~ Yes, those are indeed my magnets sticking to my wall. I put several coats of white back on the wall over the black magnetized paint last night and today it was dry and pretty much opaque. And the magnets stuck! Granted, they slide off, but if I get them just in the right place they stay put. Of course they won't hold anything bigger or heavier than Chinese fortune cookie strips, so that's their job. Guess I will be saving more fortunes. Hope they are as helpful as my favorite, "Don't Panic".

I'm getting ready for my Open Studio so have been hanging everything I unroll in any available space. This exercise is something like a 500 piece puzzle of Ukranian eggs because nothing works anywhere but all for different reasons: size, color, distance, whatever. But I feel it necessary to have as much up as possible- this isn't a gallery, I just want to show people I have been working!

Another wall. I've decided to just thumbtack all this stuff up, the hell with the walls.

The styrofoam panels over the garage. By the way, this stuff is working amazingly well at keeping the heat from the dark brown metal from radiating in on me. Before I had the panels I couldn't even walk into that end of the studio, now it doesn't feel any different in temperature than the rest of the place. Plus I can stick stuff on it. I do have to say though that is is far inferior to homosote board as a design wall. We couldn't find any homosote in South Florida earlier this month so my carpenter substituted some sound board for one panel and I don't like that either- it won't hold push pins because it's too soft. If you're looking for a design wall, the only choice is homosote, believe me. Thirty years of design wall experience can't be all wrong.

Today I went to Wal-Mart again, speaking of troubling experiences. I had bought a vacuum the other day for the house and got a great deal at $46. I have had very expensive vacuums in my past, medium priced vacuums recently, and *at my age* (now in the 'Don't Buy Any Green Bananas' age group) decided not to invest in anything other than cheap since I seem to go through all price points at the same rate. Anyway, I liked this cheap Bissel so much that I decided to buy one for the studio to keep there to chase bugs. I picked it up today and it was on sale (!) for $39. My god, I can't buy dinner for that! So now I have 2 and I don't have to haul anything back and forth. Also had to buy a new drill since my old one won't charge any more and it seems you can't buy new batteries in that size. So, my tool arsenal is happily growing. Also bought a set of hex wenches and was able to tighten up a set of drawers that I was planning on tossing out. Now I can use it.

And I indulged myself in the auto supply dept with a new red funnel in case I ever need to put Pennzoil in anything, or perhaps make a funnel cake! I dunno, I seem to just really like funnels. I also like glass eye cups.

And finally I hung my string of wicker tomato lights around the bathroom mirror. I carried them around looking for the perfect place but they were too long or too short or one thing or another until I tried them here. See me taking the picture? See my old (read 'vintage') crappy quilts all folded up nicely? They get no light in here, looks like the perfect place to me.

And I am off to the showers~

2 comments :

Wen Redmond said...

soooo... How does the vac measure up?
I hate vacuming but love it when I'm DONE!
Nice studio

Max said...

Sandy,
get the small super magnets with no stuff on them . . . we have a similar wall in the AMill entry and that is what we use and they work fine.