An Addition to the 18th Century Skill Set

I have a new offering in Jolis Chevaux:

 Sleeve buttons. 

They were a precursor to cufflinks. Screenshot from At the Eastern Door.

The sleeves on chemises were closed either by ribbon ties (which I have always used) or sleeve buttons. (Never used - they are very expensive to buy.)

Research is a nice, quiet, recovering-from-surgery activity, so last week I spent some time looking for information and documentation about them. And while doing so, I realized that I could probably figure out how to make them and then sell those sleeve buttons with my own chemises.

And so it began. 

I was pretty happy with my first pair, but as with anything else you are learning to do, I knew it could be improved.

A better front

but I wasn't happy with the back.

The third try was exactly what I was hoping for.

and I was on my way. Soon I could connect two buttons in under a minute! It was not hard once I got the hang of it. (The buttons are so close on the jump ring, the difficulty is manipulating two pairs of needle nose pliers together without the buttons popping off.)

Within an hour I had used up all the buttons I'd bought for the project and had made ten sets.

In my documentation are lots of pictures like this one with photos of extant 18th century sleeve buttons (left) and a few with suggestions of modern day buttons that could be used (right.)

Today's project? Button shopping - I'm on a roll!

Stay 'tooned!

Busy as a Bee(swax)

Making blackened beeswax ornaments is not a difficult process, but it is complicated and takes time.  

Time to heat the beeswax (using pelleted beeswax instead of block beeswax speeds up the melting process),

time to measure, cut, and tie the strings for the hangers,

 and time to prepare the molds for the hot beeswax. 

Once that's all done, the actual process proceeds quickly.

I pour a batch, replenish the pellets in the double boiler and begin melting those, prep some new molds, and then pop the just-poured batch of ornaments out of their molds and dust them with cinnamon.

I set them onto paper plates for cooling, and by the time all that is done, the next batch of beeswax is fully melted and ready to be poured. I repeat this process over and over until I am satisfied I have made enough for the next event.

Once in a while I do run into a problem. Long molds can be tricky - the ornaments sometimes break when I am removing them from their molds.

And since I unmold the ornaments over a pan of cinnamon, then their wax is contaminated and cannot be reused. (I often pour ornaments and things that I do not plan to blacken, so my wax has to remain pure and not have cinnamon or other impurities in it.)

These beeswax hearts are an example of something that I do not blacken. Used for waxing thread by sewists, you sure don't want cinnamon on them.

I got some new molds for Christmas that I had been looking forward to using.

The Madonna and Child is beautiful! 

And this unusual design is really nice, too. (I'm not sure what it is, but I like it!)

Soon the plates of cooling ornaments begin stacking up on my counters.

Plates one and two.

Plates three and four.

Plates five and six.

Plates seven and eight.

The unmolded sewing cakes.

After four hours, I stopped. My body was reminding me that I am still healing and enough was enough. I'd made fifty ornaments and with what I still had in my inventory, that should be enough for Kalamazoo.

I turned off the hot plate, laid down on the couch (Pepper cuddled against my legs), and fell asleep for an hour!

The ornaments aren't done yet, though. Today I will put several coats of sealer on them, let that dry overnight tonight, and then I will pack them up tomorrow in preparation for KZoo.

I also have to put the kitchen to rights - wiping down all the counters as the cinnamon often drifts when I dust the ornaments, washing and air drying the molds, and cleaning out the double boiler pot. (Always a messy job.) 

Tired as I was, we never did get to Dog N Suds. We ate leftovers and then I fell into bed early.

Still, I am pleased that, despite not even being two weeks post op from a very major surgery, I got so much done, more than I thought I would, and the next morning (now) I am feeling good. Clearly my body is healing and I am grateful.

 

What's Doin'?

"What's doin'?" I have fond memories of that phrase. It was a favorite of my dad's and always used when he'd get together with my kids. (Along with, "Good to see you! When you goin' home??" which would make them scream with laughter.) 

There's a lot of what's doin' going on - both here and with my kids and their families.

First, my Prague finally arrived! 

It still shows as unfulfilled in my Breyer account and I am keeping an eye on that - as many issues as CCG shipping is having, I don't want to receive a second and then go through the rigamarole of trying to return something I did not order or pay for. (The seventh blanket incident comes to mind. That blanket is still here.)

Prague is not staying with me - I'm passing him on to a friend who really wanted him and did not get him.  (I was actually drawn from the waitlist - a first for me.)

Switching gears to news from Cambria and Titan, there is no word yet on when the Easter video and song they recorded with The Tabernacle Choir and The Orchestra at Temple Square will drop. Easter is late this year (April 20) so my guess is that it won't be until early to mid April. Stay 'tooned!

But, they have been in the recording studio again and Jessica made a behind the scenes video that she just sent me. 

Believe it or not, this was filmed in a small factory that makes carmels. The song, One Tiny Seed, will be released at a future date.

Next, Lukie! Lukie is a boy who is confident in himself and doesn't worry if something is a little outside the box.

Like wearing 18th century clothing to church.  (I had to laugh - sashes are hand woven and pricey, and I thought I'd collected his and put it away after the Feast. Apparently I missed it! Hah!) He likes it, it's comfortable, so why not?

Sitting on the bench during your team's basketball game?

Why not teach other teammates how to do one-handed push ups? That's our Lukie!

We got together for Sunday dinner at Curt and Vanessa's home last Sunday and after we eat, we often play games together.

The family unanimously felt that this game card was missing a hobby so Vanessa added it to the game card!

Vanessa had baked a bunch of mini cakes for a luncheon this week and let the kids each have one to decorate and eat. Someone sure likes sprinkles...

Curt made his grandmother's apple crisp and the adults made short work of that.

As for what's doin' with me - lots. Post op appointment went well. I'm still healing but the pain is gone; all that's left is some discomfort and some healing incisions. Grateful to have that surgery behind me. I was dreading it which is why I put it off for  several years.

Cutting out a bunch of 18th century items before I had surgery has turned out to have been a really good idea. With that post-op pain I'd had, I don't think I'd be ready yet for the bending and twisting that that entails.

But because I did cut things out ahead of time, I am getting a lot of sewing completed now despite having had surgery so recently. A finished chemise is on the sewist's mannequin, and three others in various stages of completion are on hangers.

A finished size Medium

and a completed size XL.

Nashie and Mama are coming today and since she is still too ouchy to go up and down the stairs, I plan to stay downstairs and make blackened beeswax ornaments. I was doing inventory for KZoo yesterday and was shocked to find I only had a few of them in stock and desperately needed to make more. Thank goodness I checked.

Finally, I will end with a harbinger of spring, at least, it is if you live in the Lafayette area. I am so glad to see this!

There are two locations, one here in West Lafayette and another across the river in Lafayette. Because they are a drive-in with no indoor seating, they always close at the end of October  and then re-open late in February.

The food is nothing special - just hotdogs with chili and cheese of average taste. Their own brand of root beer is served in icy mugs to go with the dogs and that's good, especially on hot summer days. But despite the average food and simple menu, this place is so popular and such a beloved community fixture that police are needed to direct traffic when they re-open.

Craig has mentioned going there for dinner tonight. It's February, it's cold, and we will be sitting in our car, windows up and heater blowing, but we will be at Dog N Suds.

Spring is coming!

At Last, I Can Share!

Yesterday Breyer announced a few of the virtual workshops that will be offered this July at BreyerFest.

One of those was mine.

Last week I'd gotten an email from Breyer saying that people had been asking about the virtual seminars and so they were going to announce some of them earlier than planned. I was asked if I could send some info about mine for that BreyerFest blog post.

Normally we don't send those blurbs until later in the spring, but I was actually glad that Breyer was going to be sharing some of them early. It's good to know that folks wanted to know and that the demand for the virtual seminars is there.

A show drape that I made for The FAMulous Collectibility Show in 2019.

It's nice that I can now talk about my seminar publicly. I was asked last September to do it and there have been times when I would've liked to share about it.

So, the cat's out of the bag (the pony's out of the stall? The model's off the shelf? LOL) and now ya'll know. 

 

Vintage Club Inferno

Take a look at this new shipping box! Normally I don't save the outer shippers but this one is just too cool to recycle. 

I also really wanted to call Breyer and ask if they'd turn this into fabric so all the hobby sewists could have some, but I think that market is pretty small. Hah! Still, a girl can dream, right?

Inside that fabulous shipper was my Vintage Club Inferno.

packed in another nice box. A very heavy box, much heavier than the usual Breyer box.

I'd forgotten that a book was also part of this Vintage Club offering. This will be passed onto a Pony Pal.

Inferno is really, really nice.

The dapples are subtle and remind me of the dapples the horses at the barn get during high summer.

The Black Stallion mold is not a favorite of mine - I sold all of mine except for the two Hyksos.

My first one was gotten in 1991, the year it was produced, and it turned out to be a variation that is now mentioned in Nancy Young's book. I got the second one a few years ago because I wanted an example of the regular run Hyksos, too.

The book wasn't the only extra that Breyer tucked into the box.

A retro blanket that harks back to Breyer's very first attempt at tack!

Mine is staying in its plastic wrapper - I'm not risking having that color transfer onto Inferno. (Always be cautious around red fabrics. Some will bleed onto other things.)

Photo of Inferno and blanket from Breyer's web site.

As always, there was an informative double-sided insert included, too.

I know Andrea Gurdon used to write these for Breyer; anyone know who is doing it now? 

The 2025 Vintage Club is off to a great start and there is a lot to look forward to - a stallion and foal pair, Pioneer, and more.  

Can't wait!