We have arrived at Day 6 of the 100-day project, and this time forward motion has been interrupted by one of our stormy winter days.
Alas, we live in a location where wind of around 40 MPH (that's about 65 km/h for the metric folks) means close to a 100% chance that the power will go out. Lots of tall trees overhanging the lines and soaked ground from heavy rains + high wind = outage.
Stone made for a friend, a couple of years back
And so, the power went out, around 6:00 PM.
Thankfully, I had already painted and photographed my stone for the day and started a post with the process... so I am finishing it from my phone.
Day 6 Stone Painting
(previously written)
Today, I decided to start with blue and silver. It is a particularly wintry and stormy day outside and the whole "winter theme" just translated into the colors I chose for this stone.
It begins at the center, as always
The way I design these stones and the colors I choose are often somewhat dependent on both my mood and on my surroundings of the moment. Right now it is spitting rain outside, the wind is holding steady at around 40 miles an hour (65 km an hour) with regular gusts to 50 and the temperature is just a couple of degrees above freezing.
This is a slightly larger but very flat stone, compared to the previous ones I have made for the challenge, and I'd like to eventually get up to working on some of my very large "signature stones."
This particular one will probably take me a couple of hours to complete. I suppose I'm trying to make up for my relative unavailability of time for the last few days and I'm also reminding myself that part of this gig is about doing something I really enjoy so it's OK that I take some time when I have it!
The circles start to build...
Decided to add some radial spokes to the design, using white. It's a design element/style that I often forget about but it can create some really interesting and eye-catching finished pieces.
So I added a little bit more to the design, and then I reached the point at which I get to decide whether I'm going to just stick with the consistent blue/silver/white color scheme, or should I add a sharply contrasting accent in something like orange or yellow to add a bright point of interest.
And a little bit more...
Although it probably sounds very woo-woo to some people, I often tell visitors at shows that many of these designs are essentially "dictated by Spirit." Or the universe, or whatever it is that represents something outside myself with a consciousness or awareness of some sort.
At this point, I'm not really "hearing" anything, so I'm going to continue with the original plan which was sort of a Nordic Blue group of colors.
Getting closer to done... a little over an hour in
Of course, I realize that the whole idea of "inspired by the universe," or "messages from source" is open to all kinds of interpretation. I'm not attached to any one of them.
Anyway, as I mentioned, there is a very stormy evening happening outside, with driving rain and a 40 mile an hour wind and heavy leaden gray clouds. But suddenly there was an opening in the sky and the sun came through very briefly shedding a bright orange and yellow light on the clouds across the bay, and on a little bit of the mountains we can see in the distance.
I looked at that for a moment, and thought to myself: "unexpected sunburst!"
The finished stone! As always, now the paint has to dry and cure for about a week
That felt like it added precisely the right "bit" to make it interesting... although I almost immediately regretted it, because... yellow, meaning I had to retrace every single one of those tiny lines two more times in order to get full coverage over the dark stone.
But I think it was worthy, in the end... and if the lines stay crisp after the finish coat, this will be a nice $50-$60 piece.
Day 6 Summary:
One new stone painted; and it turned out to be a good quality somewhat larger piece; quite happy with the outcome. Very glad to have gotten it done before we lost electricity.
Daily Twitter/X post: Check. Posted from my phone, but at least it was something!
Daily Facebook Page post: Check. Still trying to dial in Etsy's algorithm for counting visitors to my stuff.
Daily Instagram post: Nope. Lack of electricity stopped play.
Other Stuff: This Hive post; tough to do this from my phone. Daily shoutout to @gillianpearce!
So, made it through Day 6. Of course, hadn't counted on being "powerless," but even though I hate working from my phone, it was actually nice to make a post with ZERO external distractions.
That's one of the very small benefits of a power outage.
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2024.02.25 AS-TXT-205/173
I love how you incorporated the unexpected sunburst onto your stone.
It's very windy and grey here today too. I'm no looking forward to getting up into the attic since it will be very chilly up there. It has to be one though. I'm not even sure what day I'm on now. 😂
Thanks! Hard to believe we are already getting into the second week!
Yep. Day 8 for me. 💪 I'm currently covered in ink and gesso which is a good feeling. 🙃