Reno March For Our Lives

Today we marched...again...getting tired of marching for basically the same shit we did in the 60's and 70's, trying to get people to do the right thing and be decent human beings. Which you'd think people would naturally want to do. Just when you think you've got it fixed...

I knew when Sandy Hook happened and nothing got done when a bunch of kindergarteners were murdered, that the government wasn't going to get off it's butt any time soon.

Today's march was in Reno, we made some signs, dressed warm (the kid in her white wolf costume to help draw attention to the issue at hand) and got some coffee!

We gathered outside the federal courthouse in Reno where the kid posed with my sign.

The mask is articulated so the lower jaw moves when she speaks...I just love how she wears her glasses on the outside of the mask so she's a studious-looking little wolf.

Although this little one wasn't thrilled with it and hid behind her sign.

The building and it's intimidating surrounding fence...

Pretty quickly a crowd of at least 1000 (some sources say as many as 10,000) had gathered. We were in the middle and the crowd stretched in both directions as far as we could see.

A lovely mixed group--parents, kids, veterans, grandparents, college kids, teachers...and a lot of dogs! The crowd was friendly and relaxed. Typical of our area, one guy was going for coffee and asked if anyone else wanted anything. It was so cold and windy that coffee was as important as your sign.

And yeah, that's a kid in a T-Rex costume in the background in the middle right.

The organizers had passed out some 'March For Our Lives' signs but pretty much everyone had brought their own homemade sign, too.

And we're off!  We started at the federal courthouse and marched down Virginia Street to the 'Believe' Plaza just across the Truckee river.

'I go to school to get As NOT PTSD'

Appropriately the name of the cross-street is 'Liberty St'.

And yeah, partway there it started to snow! People just groaned and laughed. Lots of people commented to the kid that she was probably the warmest one there.

Hey, I see my pink brain hat down in the corner! I made one for each of us, my version of the 'pussy hat'.

Love the signs...

Snow getting thicker...

But no one quit!

Guy with a truly GIANT gun.

And the T Rex kid with his sign, his mom was along as his handler/protector.

Finally we got to the plaza, where everyone stopped to pet the cute doggy before going in.  First things first, man.

 

The stage on the left. We couldn't get near it to hear anyone so we hung out on the outskirts. There were several tables set up where you could register to vote, and a couple of nice people circulating with petitions they were asking people to sign. Nobody was pushy or rude.

'I've Seen Smarter Cabinets At IKEA'.

The sculpture on the left is a giant mother and baby pair of stained glass whales, a very intricate and beautiful sculpture.

When your message gets lost in your too-busy sign.

I'd taken along some origami doves to hand out to random folks. Most people were charmed and accepted them readily.

But there was one guy (he and his buddy had come up to us and introduced themselves as political science students at UNR), who when I held one out to him drew back his hand like it was a snake about to bite him and asked fearfully, 'What's that mean?' 

Poor soul. I said gently, 'It's a just paper dove. It has no agenda.'

He finally relaxed, smiled and accepted it.

The kid turned out to be quite popular and a bunch of people wanted their picture taken with her. I was glad for her sake that she'd had another positive experience with exercising her rights and standing up for what she believes in.

 

Even this dog, who at first had done a marvelously incredulous double-take and started barking at her.

But all in all, as we were leaving I thought these guys who drove by had the best sign of the day.

'Fuck guns, let's dance!'

I'm with you, baby. And that's how we do it in Reno.

Origami On The Sly...

Welp, off to the dentist...they have their Christmas tree up, every year they have their patients who are scheduled take an ornament off their tree as a gift.

Today I'm going to sneak these two guys on to their tree and see if they notice. Heh...

I did the same thing at our local library last year, gotta get over there and add something else this year!

I've got a slew of other little doves that I hide in plastic Easter eggs to protect them against the weather and leave at the park and at other odd little places we stop by...loads of fun!

And just 'cause I like him so much and ran across him sitting on a table today, here is a very fancy turkey fellow I folded about two years ago.

So dapper--!

Etsy, I Am Here!

Finally got my origami shop opened on Etsy!  Now to see how it goes...

Here it is!

Gonna sell stuff like this...

and these...

these...

New Origami Models!

I was inspired by the Stewart Indian Pow Wow we attended lately to make some new models.  I also got out my white paint to add little pointillist accents, just for fun. First, feathers!

There were actually more of these using various kinds of paper, but I neglected to get picks of them.  This model needs more practice as the little fussy folds are tough for my crappy hands, but I'll work on it. I'm also going to try other feather models.

Next, some dreamcatcher-ish modular models I came up with. I fiddled with this one when creating it, the fun part of modular unit models like this is that if you change the individual unit a bit, you get a different look.  In addition to the white paint I also hauled out some of my little doily hole punches. 

So here is the double layer 'Flower' version...

...and the single layer 'Starfish' version, both front & back sides.

 These will all be finished with ornamentation to become hanging models.

Then there's this slightly bigger one, with the cut-outs on a different edge.

 Still having fun mixing & matching different models to come up with new things...I've got an idea flitting around in my head for a peacock using a few units of these models along with another model!

Flowers And Dresses...

More origami!

Lately it's been more of the cute little doily dresses...

And some flowers...not sure what to call these.  The spikes are vintage wrapping paper.  The purple paper I decorated with some gold foil designs, then gave a light mist of gold.  The flowers started out as another witch ball kusudama, but after putting them together I decided that the purple & gold paper was too pretty to hide inside a kusudama ball, so they kinda morphed into Victorian-looking flowers.

I strung them on monofilament so they'll be hanging flowers, at that.  Not sure where they are going from here, I have to stand back and look at them a while and think about it.  I'm thinking they'll be another mobile of some sort, but what I'll eventually put with them I don't know yet, maybe some of the doily dresses. Gotta wait till the flowers tell me what the Hell to do next.

They'll let me know when they're ready, I guess!

New Origami Models!

Been working on some kusudamas, compass stars and other models lately.

Witch balls! These are from a diagram created by Tomoko Fuse, they are constructed by being sewn together in the traditional way.

On this one I overdyed the black paper with a pink glitter wash.

This one includes the heavy, gold-accented paper from India I overdyed the other day with shades of purple and blue.

A closer look...I love this paper.  The almost fabric-like quality of it takes up the color really well.  The black & white paper has been overdyed with a gold glitter wash.

This one includes some beautiful vintage wrapping paper with shades of rich creme and several blues.

Another kusudama model, this one in a compass star pattern.

More vintage wrapping paper, paired with the gold-washed black & white paper.

 The compass star again, made with a very fragile pink and gold vintage wrapping paper from the 1950's.

The blue paper is made in Florence, Italy by Rossi and has heavy gold accents, the color is brilliant and saturated. The design dates from The Renaissance.

A four-pointed star folded from a doily, with a second layer of gold.

More of the overdyed with gold, black & white paper for the smaller star.

A variant of the compass star model, this one folded with some gorgeous paper that my sister gifted to me.

This paper is overpainted with pink, white and purple glitter accents, the pictures truly don't do it justice.

And lastly another star folded from the same pattern, this one made from a heavy gold-accented paper from India, it also has a fabric-like quality to it and deep, rich colors that are dyed into it and painted on.

I like to mix my papers up in unexpected ways, it's surprising how well something like wrapping paper and specialty paper work together!

Now to get to folding with those 1970's waterproof fishing maps I found at the church rummage sale a couple of months ago...

...nothing is too weird to use!