Craft Beer Project

First the latest development with my landlady. If you are tired of my whining please scroll straight down to the beer part!

This exercise is destroying my nerves. Then I am up and next thing Im down! Yesterday afternoon it rained so the earth leakage tripped. Lightly were still working but all the plugs were dead. Appears that the new outside lights must have gotten water in them. I send my landlady an sms about the electricity (clearly thats how one should communicate) and in that message I added that I have videos from the weekend to show her. No responce. I see her in the driveway after our walk (in the rain) she scurries away from me as fast as she can. I am maniacally unhappy by this point.

Later I get a call from her about the electricity (she only got my message then). She was back to the happy, concerned, reasonable person I had first met. I again tell her that I have videos to show her "that will put your mind at rest". She says no. She hasnt heard him on the weekend, she is happy that he is not crying. I am overjoyed. I sleep like an absolutely baby that night - seriously I dont think I moved. This morning I see there is a new sms from her. Its a bit problematical this house is old with very thick walls so the reception is dodgy so messages and phone calls often dont get through, so I am generally unsure what time messages were actally sent. But the new sms states: "Please dont get a camera I am convinced hero is lonely no need for animal behaviourist either I feel a dog daycare may be necessary". 

Okay can someone please explain this to me? If she is happy that he is not crying then what is she still complaining about? As long as the dog is not disturbing anyone then how is he's emotional state or well being any of her concern?
She is also cutting down my options severely. On one hand she might just be trying to save me the money for these expensive "treatments" on the other hand its means I have less ammunition to fight my side. I really dont know what to do now - except go house shopping. I have called a local day care but (as per my recent luck) the daycare people were not available for me to talk to them. And thats not exactly gonna come cheap.

Anyway time for a beer (or several)

The Craft Beer Project is something like a club or fan base for craft beer brewers and drinkers.

 Craft beer has in more recent years become much more popular and new microbreweries have been steadily poping up all over the show. I was introduced to craft style beers during my jaunt in the UK after I finished school and its great to be able to get more of these beers and at better prices (since its not all imported). 

Mitchell's is one of the oldest microbreweries in the country.

On Saturday afternoon (when I should have been purchasing a camera) I went along with a friend to the Constantia Craft Beer Project where many local and few international microbreweries were showing off their wares and Damn it was good.

Great beer and some surprisingly good locking guys serving it!

This is a mobile bar! You can hire them to do the bar at events!

 There were a few breweries there that I had heard about and many more that I had never heard of, but they were all good and passionate about their subject. We tasted everything from light beers to dark, German, Belgium, American and English style beers. Even gluten-free beers and coriander beers (these were amazingly good).

You could buy tickets online before and your entry came with a free glass. You then needed to buy a pack of beer tokens that were used as currency during the event. There was also great food and even some hot rods to admire and bands to dance along to. There were even 2 token wine stalls for the wives that had been dragged there by their husbands.

Hot Rods

 I found many new beers that I want to try out some more in the future. In fact I trundled along to the bottle store the next day having forgotten that it was Sunday and that the bottle store would be closed. I cant seems to remember anything or think clearly at the moment. I hope its just all the stress and that it will pass - eventually - someday.

Karoo Summer Cuff

I have to make a confession. I have had a project to show you for a long while now and for a number of reasons have not posted it. The project is a bracelet that I have named: My Karoo Summer Cuff.

Karoo Summer Cuff

The primary materials of this cuff; ostrich eggshell beads, brown picture-stone and pale green ultrasued, inspired the name. In the summer, after the rain the arid brown Karoo comes alive with sprinklings of green. I know you are supposed to be inspired by nature and then make something but that has never worked for me!

Choosing materials for a new project is always fun!
I started out with the ostrich eggshell beads and the
green ultrasuede and went from there

Made with ostrich egg-shell beads, seed beads (mostly size 15), pictures stone chips, rounds and others all embroidered onto pale green Ultrasuede. 

The final selection. Its about choosing complementary
 colours and textures. I got the patterned ultrasuede
 from Beads East. Ironically its finish is called ostrich skin!

The actual inspiration behind this design? Ostrich eggshell beads.

I love ostrich egg-shell beads (OEB). They have the most beautiful, delicate texture on their surfaces and every bead is handmade and unique. And I thought to myself what a pity it was that those surfaces often got covered up in the way they were utilised. For more examples of OEB jewellery check out my Bushman Beading post. 

I wanted to find a way to display the front of the beads where all the delicate detail could be seen.

A chain-mail network of size 15 beads
holds the eggshell beads in place.

The difficulty was finding an interesting way to attach the flat beads without obscuring the front too much. Then I had the idea of doing something like a chain-mail effect, using seed beads to "tie" the OEB into place. I think it actually worked quite nicely. 

My pieces tend to grow quite organically. I will have a concept for a surface embellishment or focal section and will just create the remaining parts as I create the piece, they are never fully thought out first and never sketched.

Creating a quick markup of the design elements. This is the
 place to test colours and design. Its also a chance to play
 around with finishing ideas like fringing. And to see
 how focal beads will compare to the detailing.

The result I think was quite effective. Sorry I dont have any pictures of the making process, I was having too much fun to stop and take pictures!

Closeup of the focal

A few picturestone rounds break the monotomy

Backview

The final design

"Thing" modelling the cuff

Backview showing the closure.

I sent in pics of the bracelet to Bead and button magazine, but they were unfortunately not interested in publishing it. I contemplated trying another magazine but just did not get around to doing so. One of the reasons I have only now posted this to the blog.

There are more exciting things coming up soon (I have been busy), so stay tuned...

Love Jet