Drying Pains and Jump Ropes

Sorry for not posting last Sunday. I didn't honestly have much for artwork to discuss or showcase for this week, unless it was on the backlog of projects that I'm trying to clear off.  For last week, I was assembling together a set of beaded jump ropes.  Having saved aside several beads from one of those wooden beaded car seat covers when its' plastic strings broke, I had finally decided on what to use those beads for.

As if counting the number of beads, natural and dark brown, wasn't a pain (there were 1,028 altogether by the way), I also had to drill-funnel each one of them to make their holes consistently the same size. That took a few days, along with a couple of power drill's battery recharges and several breaks for my sore hands (this was a while ago before I was working on the Halloween Decor; OK, ok, last time I'll talk about it until next year or when I make any progress on the scarecrow dolls).  Luckily I didn't need to coat any of them with polyurethane.

As you can see, I needed to keep count aside from memory.

After that prep-work, I've done a bit of division math to figure out a pattern for the beads. A ratio of 1:4 for all the beads and 1:5 for the main body of beads (e.g.-@00000-) excluding the pattern for the end sections. Since I don't know where I could get some cheap plastic cord/string, I decided on using jute crafting rope. The cut ends would be a pain to string all those beads so some clear scotch tape was wrapped around them like aglets, plus it kept them from unravelling. I didn't know how long the rope would need to be for stringing on all the beads; it surprisingly took over 70 feet of rope, providing I had to split up some of twine strands to make the rope fit thru the beads' holes and sewn & weave the connecting ends with sewing machine thread. With both the weight of all the beads and the exceeded length, it was decided to make 2 long jump ropes (both about 25 feet) and 1 single-user jump rope.

The pattern plan for the ends and main sections

Now what was left was the handles.  The best I had around were a couple of green painted natural bamboo poles. Natural bamboo grows like hallow column blocks, plus very resilient against bending/snapping so it was a good choice to use.  I needed to saw 6 pieces (fixed any peel-off splinters with glue later) and drill out the inner knot "walls" to make it possible for the rope to go thru. After doing that was painting polyurethane on them. I had some leftover Minmax Polyshades (Wood Stain + Polyurethane) from a past project with art stand displays, applying it onto the bamboo handles after sanding off the old paint and any other rough spots.
I goofed on one important step with it; even if the polyurethane had dried to the touch, it isn't solidly harden yet and I kept getting fingerprints and rope fibres imprinted on the handles' finish.  Polyurethane, depending on its thickness of the coating, usually takes hours for each coat (this time, about 8 hours) to fully dry and harden with little tackiness. Painstakingly annoying but that's the price for a good quality work. I fixed those goofs by sanding down the first coatings and repainted them, allowing them to fully dry this time.

My drying setup for the bamboo handles

So after the handles have been finished, I've just threaded the rope ends thru them and knotted both ends.  This was one of those projects to use up old materials though I did had to buy the ropes at Dollarama, not much more than $7. I'm thinking on what to do with them now, either gift them to someone or donate them; I already have my own jump ropes. With Christmas coming, that's one opportunity to do that.

Some Future Planning and Seasonal Planning

Hey Everyone! Sorry for the late update; I wasn't back home until this evening and wasn't aware that my images weren't on here. How are you faring for the coming winter?  Toronto had already got its first snowfall for the season. Not much had stayed around for long but it’s only the start of dealing with the snow for the next 5 months.  I’ll least have more chances to sip hot drinks from cafes around now.

I had wanted to get more of my Halloween decor plans done back before the end of October but my time-management to balance prep time with work was fluctuated at least. Plus the scarecrow angel had taken the most time to finish. If given the infinite desired time, I would’ve got these made as well.

Wanting to use my excess pile of fabrics, I had the thought of making other smaller scarecrows. Supposedly a bunch of old fabric scraps including some new materials to expand my seasonal decor.  I might’ve already said this but I would like to create/buy a new decoration piece for each year; just like to upkeep the same love for Halloween as my Dad did. As for these thumbnails, I’ll probably be working on them on & off thru the upcoming year so not to be pressed for time for next Halloween.

So Christmas is coming and I usually do a Christmas Card Illustration to mail out to friends & family.  I’ll be doing that again, along with working on other DIYs.  Eventually when a lot of my DIYs done (about 5 or 6 big ones left) and I've mostly purged out anything else that I don't want to be routinely dealing with, I’m going to have to start planning my career path for freelancing my Illustrator skills soon enough.  I have some general idea of direction but I really need to work out the business half of it, plus can't hurt to build up a buffer of savings should when I choose to go full-time again or stop having my part-time job for any reason.

Well, that's enough for now.  Got to get back to trimming away my perpetual To-Do List.

Dental Hassles and Belated Halloween Photos

Sorry for not posting up anything last week; I've gotten a bad problem with my mouth that took over my available time during last weekend that kept me from it (including back to back 8-hour shifts).

It started with just not being able to bite down on one of my molars (bottom-right-middle). I've had that tooth to be a sensitive one for years since I've got it last filled in replacement of an older one. It was so close to the dentin (the soft tissue of the tooth past the enamel, before the nerve roots) that it may have been beyond the nerves to heal.  It got extra sensitive whenever I had ate too much sugar or citrus-acid or bit down on dense foods like a steak but I usually could treat it myself or the dentist would disinfect it for me.

Well, it finally got to where it couldn't just be disinfected anymore; the nerves had rotten out from within the root canals and my gum line swelled up painfully from the infection that it throbbed constantly.  Before knowing that, I was at first seeing if it would pass the sensitivity, by last weekend at least but the throbbing was too much. Had you tried to work on a grocery superstore cash during one of the busiest times of the week, constantly moving your sore mouth for 8 hours? I had to cancel my remaining shifts for the week to see the dentist to confirm my condition and to get a root canal treatment done.  That was how bad it was.

I had an "interesting" side-adventure to that dilemma while waiting for my root canal treatment on Thursday.  On Tuesday morning, I was taking my medication prescribed by the dentist. I'm to take these Amoxicillin pills for the disinfection in my nerves. However, Mom informed me that I had when as a child that I had taken Amoxicillin before to the point of developing an immunity to it.  I was told to also take some painkillers like Advil for the throbbing.  There was another painkiller pill by Life Brand I was taking before, being composed of acetaminophen, caffeine and codeine which was working well despite being a bit old. Well, I took one Amoxicillin pill, one Advil pill and two Life Brand pills all together that morning with water. About half-hour later, I took a big sip of my coffee and a few seconds after, my mouth, throat and part of my chest started to swell up.  It may had been a bad combo of medicine with the coffee drink that triggered it or I had an allergic reaction to it all; Mom helped me to the hospital emergency to help clear out the medicine/swelling from my system. Got strapped with chest sensors while they put some IV and Benadryl in me, monitoring me until I felt back to normal.  It wasn't easy waiting for about 5 to 6 hours on a hospital bed in a bright hallway with only your pants and a hospital gown on, including trying to nap to pass time with hunger cramps.  When I left the hospital, I got a new prescription to take instead. They recommend that I avoid taking Amoxicillin or Codeine for medicine in the future.  The good thing I'll say that happened for it was that it got rid of the painful swelling I had (the abscess bursted out from the gums from the overdose swelling apparently), not that I would try that again.

So, now I have my molar cleaned out and refilled without the rotten nerves and taking the new meds to clear up the remaining infection in my gums. Doing okay with everything this week except for having a lesser paycheque for next payday.

It's late and past the holiday now but better late than never.

So I got the jack o'lantern carved out before the big night. Bought some interesting pumpkin carvings tools that made the work easy. Like cookie-cutting hole punches and mini-carver.

I decided to carve the face similar to my scarecrow angel with a catty look.

And this is how it looked all lit up!

So this is how my Halloween Setup looked like. A bit minimal but I can remedy that in coming years with new decorations.

And despite all the rain, it didn't dampen my scarecrow angel's debut. Got some people commenting  nicely on it.

Well, not much artwork due to my molar but I'm getting back to routine of clearing off extra things.  I'll have to be a penny pincher for a while until I get my dental bill paid.  I should also something better for artwork next week too, as long as I don't get any more sudden health problems popping up.