The Art of Skipping Stones on Sand

 I wrote this piece several years ago. I hope you enjoy it.

The Art of Skipping Stones on Sand

 My favorite beach in Oregon is Whaleshead. Just 5 miles north of Brookings, Oregon. On a trip when our boys were young we went to Whaleshead beach. To get to the beach one has to follow a path down a hardened sandy hill, then cross a small creek that feeds into a pool that gets swallowed up by the ocean during high tide. There were amazing tidal pools with 1- 2” rounded rocks being rolled in a hole in the boulders by the force of the ocean. We explored for hours.

As we walked along the beach we started finding flat perfectly shaped rocks for skipping rocks like on water. We started skipping them on the waves as they rolled in but as usual you could never use the same rock twice. While exploring the sand and looking for shells we started picking up these stones and skipping them across the sand. The sand there was perfect and there was an endless supply of skipping stones. We kept skipping stones across the sand. The stones would glide and skip, skip, skip, skip………... We were enthrauled. We couldn’t get enough of this new found activity: Sand skipping. You could track your stone and retrieve it! When you found the perfect skipping rock you could retrieve it. You didn’t  lose it like when you are skipping on water. You could get it back and keep trying for that perfect skip! WOW!! What a revelation! This wasn’t just an activity, this was a sport. The sport of stone skipping on sand!

The stones would skip evenly. We tried making specific curves, straight lines, patterns. It was great! With some practice and effort you could do just about anything. You had to judge the sand and find the “lie” of it. Find the path that would take the stone on the skip you had planned.

 We tried to give the throw a point value: 3-5-8-10, ten being perfect. Well, then we got to thinking……… This should be an Olympic sport. We started grading the sand: fine, medium, course. Wetness: dry, damp and wet-hard. Then there is the stone weight. Technique. Style. AAAAhhhhhh!!!!! We had created a monster!

We soon decided to forget organizing into a sport and just enjoy our family activity at Whaleshead beach, the art of Sand Skipping. We have tried other beaches, but the sand is not as perfect as the sand at Whaleshead. I kept a few of those stones. They reside in my curio cabinet where I can visit them from time to time and remember that day and others that followed during our frequent visits to Whaleshead Beach.

 For  Memorial Day weekend 2009 Dew and I planned a family outing to Brookings. Tyler, our oldest son, wife and two kids went with us. Our youngest, Gabe was able to come along, too. We went to Whaleshead Beach. Tyler and I started skipping rocks on the sand. It all came back to us. He and I had so much fun skipping rocks and again judging the quality of the sand. His son, Jesse, joined in and started learning the fine art of Sand Skipping. We each had chosen “the best skipper:” Tyler made the team. I qualified as the Coach. His wife, Limarie, lovingly thought we were nuts!

I plan to go up to Whaleshead this afternoon and try out my stone skipping skills. It has been too long since I last skipped stones on Whaleshead beach. I did try. Not the same without my team of sons.

Beading done on the Bee

 I am done with the beading. Soon I will be adding a fabric border and stretch this to a stretcher frame. I may go pick a frame first so I dont have to have a custom one made.

It has been too long....

 HI! 

It has been too long since I have written anything in my blog. Currently I am working on a Bead Cross Stitch piece using a purchased pattern from PatternsCrossstitch.etsy.com

I like it so far. I had been wanting to do a BCS piece and decided on a bee subject.

I hope to focus on this blog instead of FB, although I will share these updates there.

Bees and Love,

Cindy

Making a Peek-a-Boo box
This just shows how a glass dome can be added to a tin box to create a box you can see in to.

Start with any kind of tin box.

Bee Cane Challenge

My friend of 47 yrs, Leslie B. Bohm, and I challenged each other to make a Bee Cane. No specifications other than that. Any kind of bee, realistic, cartoony...anything. No size limits on the original cane either or the ending size.
We both had the months of Jan. and Feb. to complete our canes. The deadline being March 1st.

Here is my progress:
The first is the photograph of Leslie's I used under the 6" plexiglass/acrylic plate.
I build up from the plate.

 I made some skinner blends to use in the body.

 

 Then I started building.

 I used lots of extruded ropes in white, pearl, black and yellow.

 I made a blend I forgot to photograph using some red and orange with gold metallic.

 



 I also made a Black Gold Metallic and a Black/white Pearl mix.
I used all the colors I blended in other colors I used. I had almost no scrap from constructing the Bee.
I just kept mixing the colors together and using them in the Bee.

 

 I made wings using transparent and white mixed, lined with a dark gold metallic with some black.

 

 I think he looks pretty good at this stage. I started adding the white/trans mix to fill in and get it round and ready to reduce.

At this point the Bee weighted in at 3.9 lbs!! Dimensions were: almost 6" wide X 3" high.





 

I started reducing.

 



 

Most of the white background squished out. I kept cutting it off to avoid having a bunch of polluted white/trans. The scrap weighed about 2 lbs. leaving about 1.5 lbs of cane.

 



The cane is about 3" in diameter and starting to get distorted. The head distorted badly and he lost his antenae. I will try to take more pics of the reduced canes.

 

If I were to make this again, I would make a 3" cane instead of 6". I think I could still get the detail I want with less distortion.

I played with some of the scrap. I made some sheets and covered a few tins. One I sent to Leslie with her birthday box. She will get to open it until March 1st.

This first lizard tail.  Love Julie Picarello's Lizard Tails. I think this one looks very "I dream of Jeanie".  I kept making them and putting them around a cocoa can. I had covered the can with "mud" at least a year ago. It had been waiting to be decorated for too long. I still have not baked it. I will soon.

 

I will post more pics after the "unveiling" when Leslie gets to see pictures of the cane. This will not be posted until she and I exchange photos of our Bees. This was fun!  I encourage you to challenge your friends and see what happens.

 

Bee Challenge Con't

I made a tissue box cover. My first box of this size. Hard to get it to hold together during construction. I had to patch it at the corners and seams. Not sure what I learned but I am going to try another one.

 

                                                     

We have tissue boxes in each bathroom, bedroom, living room and my studio. So, I will get lots of practice! I want to get better at boxes.

 

 

Puzzle piece pendant

 

 

My first pendant made using my CZExtruder from LCTools. Love it!!