9 Moons Ago

Well, it’s about bloody time! Anyway, here’s the post I’ve been dragging my feet on for different reasons, but rather than dwell on that, here’s my rundown of the Ken Stringfellow guitar project:

In late 2000, a group of 6 people from three countries got together in an online forum and decided to make a guitar for Ken Stringfellow, a guitarist, keyboard player and singer of the Seattle based band, the Posies, and a backing musician for several groups, including R.E.M.. Each person on the forum had specific roles in the construction of the guitar, but everyone voted on the main elements of it’s design. My husband (a friend at the time), Cameron, was the Luthier and has written about the process here. My contribution to the project was designing the inlays for the neck of the guitar. I chose a few songs that easily suggested recognizable symbols and drew some designs for posies. The selection included an sunburst for the song “Flood of Sunshine”, a couple of broken records for the song “Broken Record” (surprise, surprise), a bow and arrow which refer to the origins of Ken’s last name, and the number “23″ which has been a “mythical” number to the group. We also decided to have 23 frets for this reason when the usual number is 22. The group voted on their favourite designs and this group of sketches were the final approved batch:

Here’s a picture of what they looked like completed:

Pictures of the construction and more details are included in Cameron’s rundown, so I’ll just jump right to the pictures of the final product in use at a show we attended last year:

The guitar was a blast to work on, it sounds and looks great in concert, and we’re so glad that Ken loves it so much. And another exciting thing about this, is that the guitar is featured in a cool and funny video, which you can watch here. (Ken’s the one wearing the white tie.)

Now we’ve just got to get busy on one for the other frontman of the Posies, Jon Auer!!

My drawing for the night:

Gus in the background and my Snoopy from Kathy in the foreground. I titled it “buddies”. He he.

Started the Artist’s Way today! Read the first chapter this morning. Did my morning pages (three handwritten pages each morning) and some affirmations. Was going to walk for 20 minutes too, but the day seemed to slip away from me. So, later tonight I’ll do one of the written tasks for this week. I think it’s so great that people are stopping by my site to say hi and good luck! I’m planning to visit some sites to offer encouragement and say hi as well. There are quite a few people on the list, but the course runs for twelve weeks, so I should be able to visit most, if not all of the sites at least once! It’s great to be able to share the experience with others.

As for my house-beautiful mission of 2006, I cleared another big patch of overgrown ivy and weeds, and cleared away a couple of old mops and bucket that were junking up the place. Now, the ivy does soften the wall, and looks romantic, but this patch was just too thick and threatening to destroy a tree and some windows, so I cut it right down to the ground. It’ll grow back again, but for now I’m really glad it’s gone. When we have a bit of spending money, I’d like to get some potted flowers or something bright to put in the empty area beside the fuschia bush. Right now I’ll just enjoy the cleaner look of it.
Before:

After:

Well, it’s time to go do my writing task! Seeya later, alligator!

Drew this in the tub, till my pen ran out.

Today’s agenda is preparing the house for company. Time to put on some good music, work clothes, and get busy! It’s a nice day outside, so it looks like a walk is in order too. Cam’s out in the front room making a frame for a mirror we found in the shed, and the dogs are walking around excitedly. It’s all happening in Wonga-Wonga!

Here’s my stash!:

Two tubes of paint to replenish my oil paint supply, 3 soft lead pencils, one square sketchbook and a smaller 8 x 5 sketchbook and 6 canvases! Got everything on my list. Whee!

For my first drawings in my square sketchbook, I drew Mum and Dad’s cat, sleeping in front of the fireplace:

Had a nice dinner and funny conversations (from everything to Kay Kyser to the Clash) at Mum and Dad’s. Decided we’ll have Thanksgiving over there and Mum and I planned our grocery lists. Dad also gave us some tomato plant seedlings, so before summer hits we’re going to make raised beds with rabbit proof fencing in a corner of our yard.

Later, Cam and I swung round Adrian’s and had good conversation with him and a couple of his roommates. Had organic dark chocolate and Gloria Jean’s choc. coffee..Can you say yum?! Despite the caffeine late at night, I managed to get to sleep rather quickly.

Today Daniel called up and we invited him to the Thanksgiving dinner, forgetting that he’s vegetarian. But he accepted since there’ll be lots of veggies and stuffing, which we’ll make with vegetable broth. Going to invite Adrian as well. Ebony will be there that night too, so it should be lots of fun!

Tonight I’ll be preparing the filling for the pumpkin pie, since here in Melbourne there is no such thing as canned pumpkin! It really isn’t as much work as you might think. The fact that we have a food processor helps. Basically it’s three steps: chop, steam and blend. And I think the end result tastes amazing. Can’t wait!

After all the shopping I did at the art store I managed to leave with enough money for a dinner of fish and chips! So that’s another thing to look forward to tonight. Another day of good things in this Thanksgiving week.