Recovery and Projects

Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2003
8:30 PM

I am finally starting to feel somewhat normal again - my mouth, that is. The swelling is almost completely gone, bruises are fading. Yay! I'm also down to one extra-strength Tylenol a day, just in the morning, which for some reason is the only time I feel much pain. But it's getting better every day and I'm even starting to eat food that is not as squishy as before. The main thing now is that I can feel the stitches and they are driving me bonkers! They're supposed to dissolve but I don't know how long it's supposed to take and in the meantime I can't quit poking at them with my tongue.

I haven't gotten much done this week but I have a zillion ideas buzzing around in my head. I'm gathering materials for a couple of mosaic projects, trying to get motivated to fix that damn backsplash, plus trying to get some housework done. I have some plans for some sewing projects, a couple of things I really need to work on and a couple I want to make for me.

It's two mosaic projects I can't get out of my head though, and I really want to dive into them. One is a glass pitcher, with a very classical shape, wide at the bottom, tapering to a thin neck before flaring out slightly at the rim. I want to tile it in black, white and turquoise glass tiles with pieces of Turkish plates as accents. I haven't quite worked out the whole design, but I think it will be beautiful when done.

The other project is a box, Pandora's Box, specifically. I have another rectangular box with ball feet and a separate lid, like the one I used for the sun and moon box on my website. I'm going to do the outside of the box in gold metallic tile (mirror or Venetian glass, I haven't decided yet - it won't be gold smalti), fake jewels and glass pearls. Very opulent looking but fake. The lid of the box will have a scorpion, a snake and a black widow spider on it - representative of the evils loosed on mankind, poisonous stinging things. Here's the tough part - I'm going to mosaic the inside of the box, all black tiles except for the word "Hope" on the bottom in gold. I'm afraid the end result won't match the vision in my head, but I'm going to try. The outside shouldn't be a problem. The critters on the lid could be tough since they'll have to be small, but I think I can handle that. It's the work inside the box that is probably going to be a pain in the ass. I'll let y'all know how it goes and post pics when it's done, of course!

Oh.. I suppose I should explain briefly the myth about Pandora's Box, in case someone out there isn't familiar with it. It's a classical Greek myth and I'm sure there are bunches of versions out there on the internet. Basically, mankind had screwed up and the gods decided to punish them. They made a beautiful woman, named her Pandora and gave her many gifts. They made her beautiful, graceful, charming and insatiably curious. Then they gave her a jeweled casket and told her never to open it. Then they gave her to Epimethius as a wife. She lived happily with him for a long time but could never get past wanting to know what was in the box. One night she finally couldn't stand it anymore and peeked in the box. Out flew all these horrible creatures: War, Famine, Disease, Hatred. There were many smaller but just as nasty things: Gossip, Envy, Jealousy... your basic mortal sin type stuff. They flew out in the world to plague mankind for the rest of time. Pandora realized what she'd done and slammed the lid back on the casket, trapping the last thing still in the box: Hope. I think it's a neat story with very powerful images.

Oh, for those of you wondering about the new household thing, the lovely Mistress Thjora has agreed to take me as a foster apprentice. My Laurel, Dame Aislynn, has had a fairly serious case of life for a while and is not that active in the SCA right now. So Thjora has graciously agreed to take me under her wing and give me advice and guidance. I am now an adopted member of the de la Flamme household and I couldn't be happier about it. Kev and I are going down to the Niemann-Dawson sweat shop this weekend to get cracking on Pennsic projects. I am really looking forward to it!

I hear some Ben & Jerry's calling my name, so...

Ciao!