Month: September 2020

Posted in Beads, Fiber, Photography, Quilts

Beads. Photos. Tooth. Quilt Idea.

Posted on by debthumanblog

We took a tiny trip to Albuquerque on Friday. We stayed overnight and came back Saturday morning. Travel is interesting. No more breakfast buffet at the hotel. They offer a breakfast grab and go bag containing yogurt, a granola bar, and some juice. No bedspread on the bed. If you want a blanket, you have to ask for one to be brought to your room. All the dishes, including the coffee pot, are in the dishwasher rather than in the cupboards and drawers. No more hot coffee and hot tea all day and night. We bought teabags at Sprouts. No honey. No sugar. No creamer. The pool is closed but the exercise room is open. Only two people or one family in the elevator at a time. One of our favorite restaurants appears to be permanently closed. Limited hours at other restaurants. I had to contact the Department of Transportation to ask if restrooms along I-25 are open. They are. I asked because restrooms at parks have been closed since mid-March.

The point of this trip was to buy beads at my favorite gem store. I checked before we left home to be sure the gem store was open. This trip, I decided to splurge and buy some of the more expensive beads. Expensive is a relative term. Although I loved the 10mm round larimar beads, I couldn’t afford to pay $750 for them. The most expensive beads I bought were $45 a strand. It’s a balancing act. I wanted to have higher end beads, but I need to have high end beads that turn into earrings and necklaces my customers can afford. Few people are willing to pay $1,000+ for a necklace from an on-line store. At that price, people need to see the jewelry and feel the stones before buying. 

Bumble bee jasper. These are beads the clerk recommended, and I’m fascinated by the colors.

Larimar which is found only in the Dominican Republic. I love the stone, but at the moment, the beads are pricy. Gem prices are driven by scarcity, politics, and how much is being mined at the moment.

Phosphosiderite. The name is from the components of the stone, phosphorous and iron. I was surprised to discover it’s rare because the price for these was reasonable.

Peruvian opal. Although these opals don’t have the light play of the more famous opals, a couple of the stones are clearly trying to sparkle.

Rhodochrosite, one of my favorite stones. It’s the national stone of Argentina. While the price here is reasonable, the price is outrageously expensive in Argentina.

Turquoise. The reasonable price was a surprise because turquoise jewelry is expensive in New Mexico.

Vericite. I love the delicate green color of the stones. The color isn’t absolutely accurate in these photos.

Here in New Mexico, we’re getting smoke from California and Arizona. I don’t remember the last time smoke didn’t hide the mountains in haze. I took these photos from the hotel window and had a time and a half editing the shots. 

My broken tooth was extracted this past Tuesday. I opted for anesthetic because I detest getting a shot of anything in my mouth. The oral surgeon explained that the tooth had three roots and the roots would have to be drilled out. After the tooth was removed, a titanium post was implanted in my jaw. I watched a Youtube video to see how the post was implanted, and I was glad I wasn’t awake. While the process is fascinating, some things I’d rather not know about while they are happening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k6pFGwUHVs if you’d like to see the process. I stopped taking the painkillers on Wednesday. I hated being stoned and when I wasn’t having pain. I’m still taking the antibiotics four times a day. I still have to eat on only one side, but I’m starting to eat semi-solid food. Pasta. Enchiladas. Refried beans. Rice. 

I was reading in my human physiology text book, and my brain took a little trip. I thought about chocolate chip cookies and how everything in a body is interconnected. That transition made sense at the time. Then, an idea for a physiology quilt started to form. The design needs more work, but I may end up with something fun. Fun would be nice. For the past couple years, my quilts have been about mass shootings, suicide and isolation. 

I’m linking with Nina Maria here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

My on-line store, Deb Thuman Art is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in Law

When I appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States…..

Posted on by debthumanblog

It’s amazing how childhood hurts last a lifetime. When I got accepted into law school, I decided getting into law school wasn’t such a big deal. They let me in, so it can’t be a big deal. 

“When I appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States….” When I say that, people’s jaws drop. People are amazed. Stunned. They let me in so it can’t be a big deal. Why is everyone so impressed? When I took an adult religious education class and mentioned I was going to appear before the Supreme Court of the United States, the rabbi was astounded. I remember thinking that a rabbi who didn’t know me was impressed and my siblings and my mother wouldn’t have thought it was a big deal. If I did it, it couldn’t be a big deal. If I did it, it wasn’t worth noticing. 

It was a big deal. I got accepted in to a law school that rejects 90% of the people who apply. Appearing before the Supreme Court of the United States is a big deal. I appeared to be admitted to practice before the Supreme Court. For the rest of my legal life, I can go into the Supreme Court any time I want and listen to arguments. I never have arrive before dawn to stand in a line and be allowed to spend three minutes in the courtroom. For the rest of my legal life, I can use the law library at the Supreme Court. The library is an ode to wood. Raised panels everywhere. Rows and rows and rows of raised panels and books. Any time I want, I can go in the library, sit down and do research. I can eat in the cafeteria whenever I’m at the Supreme Court. 

It’s a big deal. 

When I appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States, I learned that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the heart of the court. As long as she was on the bench, I knew my voice would be heard. Who will hear us now? The loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg hurts more than the loss of Thurgood Marshall and that hurt more than the loss of JFK. 

It took 244 years before a woman lay in state in this country. Let’s make a big deal out of Ruth Bader Ginsburg being a Jewish American because being a Presbyterian American is no big deal. Let’s replace the heart of the court with a Religious Bigot American. 

It’s a big deal.

Posted in Beads, bipolar disorder, Cognitive problems, Photography

Making My Way Back

Posted on by debthumanblog

I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t bipolar. I could have been diagnosed 35 years earlier. I should have been diagnosed 24 years earlier. There’s no excuse for not being diagnosed 10 years earlier. That’s what happens when you get packed off to a psychiatrist and the psychiatrist wants to prescribe meds but doesn’t want to listen. During the time I was undiagnosed, I put myself through college earning degrees in journalism and biology even though I had no high school math or science, put myself through law school, took and passed two bar exams, ran my own law practice, appeared before the US Supreme Court, moved 2000 miles across the country, argued before the New Mexico Supreme Court three times, did about a hundred trials and a couple dozen appeals. Bipolar disorder never kept me from doing what I wanted to be doing.

I have a mental illness. I’m not disabled. Except, I am. Thursday, my brain didn’t work. I’m taking a biology class and although I find the class fascinating, I can’t remember things, can’t figure out answers to problems, can’t concentrate. For the first time in my life, bipolar disorder is a disability. Knowing that many other people who are bipolar have similar experiences doesn’t help. My brain is broken and cannot be fixed. I’m not able to accept that. 

My severe lack of ambition seems to be a function of a pandemic. So many people let me know after my last blog post that they share my malaise. Because my extreme lack of endurance, I need to set exercise goals. Right now I can only handle small goals. My current small goal is 10 minutes on the elliptical machine every day. I’ve done that five days in a row. I think the exercise, pitifully small though it is, helps. 

I’ve been doing some macro work lately. Some of my work involves taking photos of interesting patterns and manipulating the photos.

I’ve also been doing some product photography. I’ll be listing these in my store, Deb Thuman Art, in the next couple days.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My store, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Posted in Uncategorized

I Just Don’t Feel Like It

Posted on by debthumanblog

I am suffering from a severe lack of ambition. I need to clean the bathroom, vacuum the rugs, read my physiology textbook, and get around to cooking something. I need to do meal planning and eat a balanced diet. I need to work on the novel. I need to make quilt basting spray. I need to quilt the suicide quilt now that I’ve figured out how I want to quilt it. I need to make the isolation quilt now that I’ve got a firm design worked out. I need to get back to exercising. I need to unload the dishwasher. I need to put ingredients in the bread machine and make bread before Jim does something horrible like buying bread at the grocery store. I need to select fabric designs and have Spoonflower proof them so I can sell my designs. I need to take my vitamins.

I’m not doing a damn thing. 

Almost not a damn thing. I did a load of laundry this morning and sprayed mold killer in the shower. Now, I need to put clean sheets on the bed. I’m not doing that, either. 

I don’t know how to get myself out of this funk. I’d love to go back to the gym, but it’s too dangerous because the county I live in is a hotspot. My severely decreased endurance is scaring me. Many days, I go outside and take photos. It doesn’t help. I’m making some progress on the insomnia. Even getting 6 hours sleep a night doesn’t help. I was getting 4 hours sleep. 

The broken tooth has limited my food choices. I still have lots of food options and I don’t feel like making any one of those options. Yesterday, I soaked some dried cherries in water and intend, someday, to use the cherries in cookies. I should probably take my anti-anxiety med, but that requires I walk into the kitchen where the meds are kept. I don’t feel like doing that.

I have always had problems concentrating, but it’s worse now. I know a good part of that is lack of sleep. That doesn’t comfort me. I’ve had extreme anxiety for so long that extreme anxiety feels normal. 

Bleah. 

Manipulated grass photo. Eventually, I’ll find the ambition to pick out designs to have proofed. Once proofed, I can sell the designs on Spoonflower. My Spoonflower shop is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a creosote bush seedpod.

Tunas. Those red things are prickly pear seed pods. They’re edible. People eat them, turn them into jam, or turn them into wine.

Just to prove I really can take the stick out of my butt…..

Normally, I try hard to get accurate colors. This time, something interesting happened while editing this shot. The flower really is this shade of yellow. The background, in real life, is desert brown. I like what happened here.

I frequently take shots of patterns. Can you figure out what this is a shot of? Hint: it’s not wood.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My store, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

Posted in Emotions, Fiber, Photography

Working My Way Back To Center

Posted on by debthumanblog

I’ve been working out a design for a quilt about how I feel isolated. Frequently, I don’t understand what’s going on inside of me until the feelings come out my hands. Sometimes, art is the only way I can communicate.

I bought a copy of Step-by-Step Texture Quilting by Christina Cameli and it arrived on Saturday. I’ve been doing some skimming and I now have some ideas about how to quilt the suicide quilt and how to quilt the isolation quilt after I finish working out the design and turn it into fabric.

This is the original photo. I was working with my macro lens and saw a feather on the ground. I thought it would be an interesting subject for manipulation.

Here’s one of the manipulations:

And here’s the one I used for a fabric design:

I haven’t proofed the design so it’s not for sale in my Spoonflower store yet. I’ve got a coupon for 25% off, and I’m working on getting together a huge order.

Fall in the desert is…..interesting. Several years ago, I decided I wanted to make a quilt using fall colors. I’m from western New York where fall is wildly colorful. When I finished the quilt, it didn’t look right. I had yellow and purple, but I thought I had too much green. How we design quilts and the colors we choose is strongly influenced by what we see around us.

In the desert, we get most of the annual rainfall in July and August. In the fall, the brown desert turns …

These are Dona Ana Mountains behind my home. One of these days, I want to hike these mountains. Alas, the pandemic has caused restrooms in the parks an on trails to be closed. I’m not adverse to relieving myself al fresco, but I don’t want half the town watching me while I do so.

I’m linking with Nina Marie here: http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

My store, Deb Thuman Art, is here: http://www.DebThumanArt.com

My Spoonflower store is here: https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/deb_thuman