reverselent - Tumblr blog

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The Tradewinds / Steve Monite / Okay Temiz / Tonic / Yukihiro Takahashi / Cortex / The Raincoats / Toulouse / Jim O’Rourke / Gil Scott Heron / Holger Czukay / Blood Sisters / Klaus Nomi / Ned Doheny / Helado Negro / Dee Dee Warwick / John Grant / Grace Jones / Pearl Sisters / Mary Lattimore / Janko Nilovic / Bill Nelson / Ali Farka Toure / Leonard Cohen / Patrick Cowley

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It’s 2024 and Reverselent is a thing again.

I kinda had a revelation a few weeks ago while doing some breathwork and dancing. And I decided I was going to learn how to dance.

I remember what Sky used to say : to become an expert at one thing, you just need to do that thing for 10 000 hours.

While it’s impossible do dance for 10 000 hours until the end of reverselent, I’m going to aim at 36 hours of dance classes.

Today was 3.

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EZ 2016

I’m presenting at a conference in May. I want to spend Lent preparing what people are going to look at and what I’m going to say so I have enough time to present it to my company before the conference. Exciting stuff!

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The last step in the gift box project was to fix up the product photos by making the backgrounds white and adding other tweaks.  I then uploaded them to my website (www.llmetalworks.com) and posted them on facebook.  I think they turned out nicely and I got a bunch of supportive responses through social media.

Lisa

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First attempt at drafting a pattern with my measurements. Summer shorts!

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Vegan Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies

1/2 tablespoon ground flaxseeds 2 tablespoons water 1/4 cup vegan butter 1/4 cup natural cane sugar 2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1 & 1/4 cups flour

Nothing special or new about this! I have a ton of blackstrap molasses and I need to use it. Baking continues to be super easy, and Lord knows I love cookies.

I've been listening to music while cooking/baking recently, which is not something I've ever done before but it makes the whole experience more fun. I finally landed myself a copy of Slade's Slayed? (1972) at Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene today and was listening to it while mixing. If you don't know it:

- Bryan

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How to de-scandalize a dress: Step 1 Rip out old hem (which held lots of hidden excess fabric). Step 2 Rehem with a much smaller seam allowance. Step 3 Sew dimes into the bottom of the skirt to keep it down in the wind. Step 4 Iced coffee and donuts in the park.

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The 20th wedding anniversary project is complete!  The metal box goes to the celebrated couple and stand alone bows will be gifts to the couple’s parents.

These photos are taken using a white seamless paper background.  It’s the first time I’ve used it but love how it isolates the objects to completely. 

Lisa

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Since I wasn’t convinced the square knots would work quite right for the napkin rings, I decided to used them to make handles for the box.  I think they are kind of cool and feel neat in your hand.  The debate now is whether to leave the box with a plain top with these cool handles as the only ornamentation, or to add the bow and “K” to the top as originally planned.  Is it sleek and cool enough as is?  Would adding the ornamentation make it too busy and fussy? 

Lisa

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The box project nears completion!  I have now a relatively square box onto which the top fits!  This was the third attempt at a box.  On the first, as I posted about earlier, I learned not to bend the creases too many times back and forth or else the metal will break.  On the second box, I learned the VERY valuable lesson that once you have riveted the corners of the box together, do not, I repeat, do not, put it back into the forge in an attempt to straighten something out.  A previous decent looking box will turn into a warped mess.

Box 3 however, looks pretty good and I am glad that in each iteration I improved and put the lessons of the earlier less than successful attempts to use. 

I plan to put some sort of handles on the side of the box and fix a bow and the letter “K” on the top for decoration (as the last photos demonstrates)

Lisa

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rough day at the office… a little mournful pseudo-reggae seems in order.

this is a great song. classic reggae, but in an acoustic setting it has overtones of gospel. the lyrics are intensely personal, directed right at the listener, and are by turns plaintive, accusatory, and intimate.

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I made my first wearable thing

Yes. It’s true. I now have a tank top that I made all by myself. Of course, the first time I wore it proved to be a little… disastrous. Low neckline and good morning, sir. Thanks for the coffee. But I altered it today. Because you know, I can (sort of) do that now.

I learned many things.

Like how to make pockets.

And how to sew curved hems:

And how to add in neck binding.

I also learned that sewing to music and sunlight is clutch. I had the house to myself this weekend, so I set up a little sewing studio in the sun room.

And here’s the finished product, wrinkled ’cause I already wore it.

There’s something funny about that pocket, but ah, well. Summer, can you hear me?

Onward.

-RSK

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I’ve had in my head for awhile that one ought to be able to forge letters that look swoopy and cool.  Here are a couple of Ws — the last in several attempts today, the earlier of which were pretty disastrous.  Like the forged box, the thing that takes practice and planning is the order in which you do the forging/bending.  If you do the wrong bend first, it is then hard to get a clear angle to hit and or bend the next portion.  Or, if you forge out the slender parts first, then they are relatively weak and want to disfigure and/or break off when you are trying to bend something larger nearby.  For these, I made the bend in the middle first (the part that points up in the photos), then flattened out the ends that would bend into the swoops at the ends, then bent up the Us on either side.  

Lisa

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I still need to put a band around the middle, but here is a forged bow!  I think they turned our rather nicely.

Lisa

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To make the metal bows I first made a template out of cardboard then cut sheet metal pieces in the shape of the template.  Since it was snowing on Friday, I wasn’t able to forge the bends, but I now have a number of blanks to try out on Monday. 

Lisa

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The other day I tried to forge some knots - which went pretty well but left me thinking (a) I need more practice and (b) I’m not sure they are the right decorative element for my project.  So, I’m going to keep practicing knots to get better at them and try some other variation, but I think I’ll try to forge some  bows!  A quick perusal of pinterest gave me some ideas and I think the simple elements for a paper bow I drew in this photo would be pretty easy to produce in steel.

Lisa