Sunday, December 9, 2012

Status Update On the New Tutorial

I had hoped to have the new Controlled Marbling Tutorial in the shop by midnight tonight, but I'm afraid it is not going to happen.  I have shot all the photos and edited them for size.

I got up at 4:30 this morning to start writing it in my Word program.  I meticulously saved it every few sentences on my laptop and on a flash drive.

When I was about five paragraphs into the text part of the tutorial, I tried to insert an image, and my Word program froze.  I watched that filmy screen and the little circle going round and round for an hour, hoping it would resolve itself; but I had to turn the computer off to get out of the program.  I turned the laptop back on and tried to open the file, but could not.  All I saw was one of those "file corrupt" error messages.  I plugged in the flash drive and the same thing happened.

I switched to my desktop and could not open there, either.  I started typing the tutorial from scratch again, only to have the Word program freeze on my desktop at the same point.  As soon as I tried to upload the photo, it froze up and I could not save it.  Now, these are different versions of Word, and the pc runs on windows 98 and the laptop on Windows 7.

I was so frustrated, I threw up my hands and walked away for a little while.  An hour later, I decided to go looking for my Word program disc.  Unfortunately, there isn't one.  My laptop came programmed with the free trial version, which I later converted to the full length program, complete with key number.  I tried everything I could think of, even called a computer-savvy friend, who said it should be compatible due to some program built into Windows 7 that makes all things previous versions of programs compatible.  Right, researched that and found out I don't have that program and it would cost $200 for one that would do that.

I decided to purchase another Word program, and $130 later, I got a new key code and thought that would fix the problem.  Halfway through installation, installation stopped and I received another error message, this one something about a conflict between 32 bit and 64 bit.  I have no idea what that means, and at this point, I don't know what to do.  I ordered a backup cd with the new Word program, but it will be 3-4 weeks until it arrives.  Is it going to work if the digital version didn't?  With my luck, it won't.  I can't wait that long on this tutorial anyway.  My customers are waiting patiently for it, and I want to get it finished and in the shop.

I have Word Perfect on the old desktop.  I think I'm going to try typing the tutorial again in it and then saving it to Word, but I'm not at all sure I can get it from WP to Word to CuteWriter, which is the PDF conversion program I use.  My brain is just too frazzled at this point to think about doing any more tonight.

I am open to suggestions if anyone has any they think will help.  To my loyal customer friends waiting for the new tutorial, I am so sorry for the delay.  Hopefully, someone can help me figure out something soon and it won't be too much longer.  

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Monet

Reflections Earrings
These pieces are all from Round 3 of the controlled marbling technique tutorial, which resulted in these beauties (if I do say so myself.)

he color palette this time around was inspired by Monet's series of Water Lilies paintings:  Plum, violet, orchid, lavender, purple, iolite, aqua, teal, turquoise, cerulean blue, Prussian blue, sapphire blue and little swirls of silver running throughout.

I can't wait for you all to see how little clay it takes to produce all these pieces.  You will be amazed.  A dab'll do ya, for sure. 

Reflections II Earrings
My Momma also wanted to let everyone know that I wasn't picking on her when I posted about her recent Christmas sweater fetish.  In fact, she was standing over my shoulder laughing while I wrote the post.

I tease her relentlessly about the Red Hat Society she belongs to, and she promises that when my time comes for induction (never gonna happen) she intends to gag me, kidnap me, and take me by force to the meeting.  Don't worry, she'd never catch me, not with her spindly little legs.  Hee Hee  

Reflections I Pendant
Lily Pond Pendant

Skinner Blend from the Monet Scraps

One or two more color combinations and I think I'll be ready to start putting the written text together!  Yay!