Social Nail-solation

I’m not especially clumsy—in the sense that I don’t think that’d be one of the things people would say when describe me to someone they think had met me but had then also forgotten my name—but I’m not especially non-clumsy either. Some people never drop anything. I drop my phone, walk into the occasional door jam, etc. Pretty medium on the clumsy scale.

When it comes to my nails though I’m pretty bad. Even when I played classical guitar and was really trying to have one hand of good nails I could maybe manage to keep two intact. I keep them trim for that reason. Aside from the fact that I’d crack or rip them if I let them get long I’m also afraid I’ll scratch myself or poke my eye out by accident. Don’t want to medium clumsy around with one’s eyes…

Anyway, apparently I’m less of a nail destroyer at home because they got long without me noticing while we’ve been here social distancing. In the scope of the nail length that many people rock all the time they weren’t that long, but for me this is super long and I felt quite fancy once I noticed what’d happened. And like with the classical guitar I found them actually pretty useful for art reasons.

I was painting some tiny air dry clay pieces, and I could hold them in my nails without risking mucking the paint up. And fixing some of the permanent warp/warp starter threads in my loom was way easier with the nails… I had to pick apart multiple knots in little threads and they came apart super quickly.

But I just can’t do it. The sensation when I scratch myself is just too creepy, and once I noticed how long they were I became too aware of them and conscious that I might break one which is unpleasant. Despite the art gains of having long nails there are also drawbacks… I got a bunch of paint in them yesterday for instance, and I can only imagine the mess I’d make when I get back into the clay.

So goodbye quarantine non-manicure. Thanks for the help with the picky weaving task. Scratch ya later.

Shelf Tour #8: Lace!

Today is my birthday and it’s almost Mother’s Day, so this is already a celebratory time, but during non-pandemic times another very significant event occurs around now—the CBC Booksale. I feel like annual events are very popular in Calgary… Seedy Saturday, the bike sale, and this book sale. I just felt a real pang thinking about how it’s been cancelled this year. It’s an amazing event where you get to paw your way through a seemingly endless mound of books in a curling rink, often while listening to local bands play, the books are very reasonably priced, and all the proceeds go to charity. Definitely one of the cancelled things I am missing this year.

So anyway, this book is from the CBC book sale, as many of my books are. I suspect my mom grabbed this one out of the pile for me, though I’m not 100% sure. Side note—when I started these blog posts I assumed I knew the provenance of each and every one of my books but my memory is murkier in some cases than I thought. Hmm. Anyway… my mom would have known I’d love this because when I was little we went to Heritage Park, and in the upstairs room of the Wainwright Hotel there was someone making lace. I just thought it was the coolest thing and still do. Aside from the magical quality of making, the tools themselves are so beautiful and ornate and medieval looking—the pillow and the fancy bobbins and the delicate threads. This book actually doesn’t show how to make pillow/bobbin lace, but it does show a number of other methods, all of which look horrifyingly difficult to me. I can crochet and weave but reading patterns of either is something I find scary… I just look at the pages and go “Ah! No! I just wanted to do something by feel while watching TV!” So anyway… this book contains both frightening patterns and a history of lace beginning with Ancient Egypt. It’s in black and white but nevertheless the photos are quite beautiful, and the paper and single ink of the book are very harmonious and enticing. Going over this book today did make me interested in bobbin lace again. I’m still on my “No new art supplies!” resolution, but I wonder if I might either use something from around the house or maybe make a birthday exception and order a kit if safe to do so. Hmm… I do have a handful of wooden dowels in my art bin that I might be able to repurpose…

But I digress again. Here are some photos of the book itself. I keep it not because I’m definitely going to make lace using it’s instructions, but because it makes me think of multiple nice times in my life and time spent with my mom. Hoping it will be safe sooner rather than later for us once again to share our old books with each other and congregate around them. Maybe by the time that happens I’ll be making lace bookmarks (or maybe not… ha!). Happy birthday to me.