in which I get excited about bookmarks and curious about lightning

So I am very excited on the jewellery front as my mini bookmarks have arrived! Oh yeah!I know I know that many people before me have used moo.com minicards to make bookmarks. I'm not claiming originality in my idea. However I am claiming excitement in having them.

Look how pretty they are!

I have left them in a few placed in town and everyone I have shown them too are fairly enamoured with them. Basically they are like business cards but smaller and have a different photo of my jewellery on each back and my details on the other side.

More nice things! I decided to Google 'moo bookmarks' and see what other people had done with them. I found one lovely image and from there a brand new fantastic blog. It is a craft blog. Now it may sound odd (as someone writing a half craft blog) but I don't generally like them. Or I haven't found good ones. The ones I have come across often seem a little boring and overly marketing focused. The blog called Scientific Culture, looks amazing for a start with a really colourful background. They have also done articles on crochet covers for rocks and make cuddly Chlamydia plushies. I am sold. That was a nice happenstance with Google!

As regards the tale of the scientist which I promised I would tell you, there have been some strange goings on. There is nothing more specific I can give you on who it is. However lately there has been a lot of lightning. I know it is winter but I mean a LOT of lightening. Generally in my direction. Also this lighting is pretty thin. Proper lighting from the sky is fairly thick but these are little bolts. I have been fending them off so far fairly easily by making shields to block them which is one of the easiest folds to master. I have a feeling I am being tested here rather than any serious attempt being made. I think it is the same person behind this because once again there is no face to the attacks, rather sending something/someone on behalf of them. We will see what happens next.

In which I ramble about prawns, graveyards and photography.

You may remember last week I was feeling so proud of my photography? This week it all seems to have fallen apart. I have tried so hard and yet my camera is refusing to focus properly. It keeps putting the focus on the wrong things. Its so frustrating when I'm trying to put things up on Etsy.

The photography standard is so high there it's intimidating. I spent hours this weekend trying to photograph one necklace!

Finally did it! Sometimes trying to own an Etsy shop feels like too much hard work I have to say. However Christmas soon so hopefully some sales of shiny things.

In other news I went to see a play this week based on The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (oh yes its him again) and it was fantastic! I was so impressed, especially as the theatre was almost built for the performance. It was next to a graveyard and they did a couple of scenes outside and a few in the attic of the theatre. It made me feel all in love with good theatre again. I know I talked about how much I love theatre before as I reviewed my fringe experience. The thing is that with all the student protests there seems to be a backlash against the arts and some people seem to think they are useless. Well. Seeing a brilliant play of a brilliant book where everyone came away impressed made me just want to stick my tongue out at them all, or turn their science and law degree certificates into paper finger puppets.

Also going to have a brief Art Nerd moment. I suddenly feel that Dave McKean's drawings (above) look a lot like John Piper work (below).

This picture is massive and totally irrelevant to my blog post but I just love his work. So there.

I haven't mentioned it much before but I am also massively into cooking. I used to be fairly bad I believe but in the past few years living away from parentals I have got a lot better. I say this today because I made a meal I was so proud of.

Onions, mushrooms and garlic cooked with some basil. Then a little bit of chopped tomatoes thrown in (not the whole can) and stirred round. Wait a bit and then added double cream and red wine.

While all that was cooking I also had some spaghetti on. Poured the spaghetti into a wok full of sauce and stirred that round. The put it on a plate. THEN add a box of pre-cooked king prawns and some spinach leaves to the top of the meal. It was so amazing. For some reason the photo is terrible, (I said Im having a photography fail) and doesn't show how pink the whole meal looked and the shinyness of the prawns. But there was no way I was going to set up a light box and tripod when I could eat it all up. Nom nom nom.

I promise you this is not going to turn into a cookery blog. I just wanted to share this beauty with you. My blog entry is a little all over the place this week, even a little bit of politics in there. However Origami Girl does have to eat and have a bit of fun. Besides it's good to talk about other things than my superpowers occasionally.

Next week though I'm going to update you on the pyromaniac-creating local scientist.

In which I make a 16 pointed cosmos destroying paper star

So today I have some beautiful photographs to show you. I'm being very subjective here as these are photos I have taken it's true. I'm just feeling especially proud of them. I spent two hours today making this 16 pointed modular star. I know you are thinking 'but you are Origami Girl, you can make anything' Well. That's kind of true. However I do have to learn how to make new folds occasionally you know. Once I have got this down I think it will be fantastic.
Anyway this is how it looked


You see how I made it out of cosmos printed paper? I had a pause for a while and consider what would happen if I made it real. You know how I can make anything I make become solid. What if I made a star? John got a little bit worried that I was about to bring the universe to its knees by making a massive star the size of the sun enter out solar system and destroy everything. I think I could try making a miniature star but then you start considering how that would actually work with the molecules and things. I have always found it best with super powers to not be too interested in science or you can't believe in yourself.

On another note I ordered some more buttons from eBay.
I love buttons. As much as I love beautifully patterned paper. I get so excited about buttons I want to roll around in them. Maybe not go that far... or do I?

Here is my joy and light of my heart.

Oh I love my beautiful button box with its beautiful colour co-ordinated buttons.

And I also put up these earrings made of clay and thread on my Etsy shop here. You may remember them from a blog post a long time ago. I put them on eBay where they failed to sell, before I even owned Etsy. I just wanted to make a point about how much I have learnt in the last few months, photography wise.
Obviously I still have a long way to go. Don't think all these shots are being dancing around singing 'I'm amazing,' but I am rather proud.
Also you may have noted the recurring background of the musical score. This is actually photographed on an antique leather bound copy of Beethoven's Sonatas that me and John found in a wonderful second hand bookshop.

In which I stop a forest fire

I will tell you adventures from last week today. I will also shut up about Halloween shortly but I just want to show a picture of my friend dressed as an elf from the dead marshes.
How awesome is this?
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We went outside an had a little photo taking exchange, including a much better one of my Princess Mononoke costume, but I don't think I can let you see it. It reveals my face and I just don't have time to faff with Photoshop and draw on a mask. Sorry guys.

I also finally put some new jewellery up with this Christmas necklace, I am so very proud of the photo. It's taken on the fur I used for my Princess Mononoke costume. -->I also used a little playmobil Father Christmas in the background. I have decided for this Christmas display I am going to mix my winter sets and my zombies and have all the playmobil zombies opening presents. When December comes I will create this and photograph it!

So a while ago now there was a small forest fire in my area. I say small because this is Britain, our forests don't get very big. I went along to deal with it and found 5 guys all standing around gazing at the fire in awe, a bit like zombies.

Turns out they had all been infected with 'pyromania.' Yup some typical evil doctor has found away to give people crazy obsessions. However he clearly planned on them getting further with the fire lighting than staring at it and saying 'preeeetty.'
Fire is a bit of an issue for me in some ways. Paper doesn't take kindly to being burnt. Once my creations are made and transformed they are fine, I just have to ensure my satchel of washi paper doesn't get harmed first. -->

I'm still searching for the ideal solution to this so suggestions are welcome. I also simply don't like fire very much.

I took them down by doing a beautiful origami model of a duck on a pond. I made it take form in the air above the fire and so the duck could fly away and the pond water fell flat over the burning trees and soaked the infected guys.

I may have to look further into what caused that situation. When I interviewed the pyromaniacs afterwards they have no memories of the last 48 hours. I'm not sure I want anyone getting up to sneaky science shenanigans.

P.S. This is fantastic! Made by a guy after my own heart! He sells paper crafted creations on Etsy.