make all my Christmas gifts this year

...or two hours, depending on how you look at it. The are done (except for 5 or so out of towners) before the end of ‘this year.’

Another 16 shirts have been washed, waxed with a pattern slightly off center(crap!), dyed various colors I hadn’t intended(double crap!), washed twice, boiled at least once, and then washed again.

I’ll start a flikr folder sometime in the next few days for anyone who wants to see them.

Some, I must say, are actually really nice. To be passed out tomorrow at my Bruncheon, with Chili! Of Justice!

Next year will be different! I swear! Nothing last minute!

I am actually liking my idea for next years gift, and what makes it even better is that it’s something that the wife and i can do together, over the course of the whole year…

...is this one for my other Brother-In-Law. This is part of the set that was meant to be a deep red. Ah, well. Meant to be a Celtic knot too, but ended up looking a bit, tribal?

And tonight I have waxed about another seven shirts or-so, for the New Year’s Day Bruncheon I’m having for my friends. Still another seven or so to go for waxing, then dye them all various colors, wash them all, then boil them all, and maybe wash again. I may sneak a double color or two in there as well, time permitting…not going as bad as I thought, though I may not finish them all in time…

...I did this Celtic interpretation.

Love the pattern, and it’s a nice wide, easy one, but I still flubbed it up in spots, and not the ‘pretty flub.’

I did this ‘interpretation’ of a kayak and paddle for my brother who very much loves them. He has built several himself and even built some sort of hitch so that he could recumbent bike to the lake with his kayak in tow. I’ve only heard about that and not seen it, but doesn’t that sound like a sight?

He’s a pretty cool guy for all the shit I caught as a kid. He’s also a metal sculptor. He’s build several forges over the years, and now is doing wind sculptures that are around twelve feet tall. No shit. They’re pretty amazing.

I did a rework of the paw prints as larger for doggie paws, and had it walking up the front of a grey-ish shirt and down the back…

I made a set of red-ish pillow cases with kitty track across them…

...or so I’m told.

So I did this shirt for her, which had, uh, ‘impressions’ of frogs on each sleeve and then dyed it green. I relearned again that something cannot be ‘fixed’ with their rather odd back legs.

I like how one on top is sorta flipping the bird.

...One to go.

Went to the inlaw’s/mom’s houses Christmas Eve/Day and passed out the batiked work to all the relatives.

Now I must haul to get all the others done for my friends by my gift-away brunch New Year’s Day.

The attached picture is the one I gave to my Mom, little kitties walking around the neck, final color being a soft pink-red(meant to be a deep hearty red). The cat head on the right is superior proof that you can’t go back and fix.

I’ll post more off and on this week, as I continue to work on this, noticing now, that the goal states ‘this year.’ Let’s hope.

...which would explain how awful I feel.

Never really handled ‘wonderful’ very well.

Spent the last several hours hunched over three plastic garbage bins in the bathroom tub, trying to run three different dye baths at the same time, and mucking it up properly.

Playing with chemicals that cause cancer in California? Check.

Bathroom rug destroyed? Check.

Wrong shirt dyed green? Check.

Left hand somehow dyed red from the split second I didn’t have a glove on? Check.

Body feeling bruised and abused, legs wobbly? Check.

Well.

Must be Christmas time…

I have the bulk of the supplies needed to get going on this, they arrived yesterday, but still no art finalized, and the dining room is a haven for destruction and debris.

But I bought some time as I did last year with the delay till New Year’s Day, and invited all my friends over for what I call a New Year’s Day BRUNCHEON, where I will serve some mean chili.

So I have until Christmas Day for family and in-laws, and until a week later for everyone else. If I can get a serious start in the next few days this feels pretty do-able.