Whittled a spindle from a birch stick I found at a park earlier. First time getting to work with birch--it's really nice although I think this piece was a little old and had dried slightly too much for whittling, as it chipped a lot. But it spins in the palm well and I'm pretty happy with how it looks. Obviously the spalting is really nice although largely that's not something I have a hand in, other than trying to preserve it rather than cut it away. Every random stick I pick up to whittle has its own thing going on that I have to figure out how to work with if I can to make into a spindle. This one was hard, that's why I'm happy with it even though it's quite a strange and crooked spindle.
The reason I'm holding it in these angles is because it can't rest at these angles, it would roll or fall. This is often the case with my spindles because they are whittled, not lathed. Lathed spindles are uniform on all sides, whereas whittled spindles can be totally different shapes from each angle. So, the cross section of this one is an oval instead of a circle. It also twists at the midsection. I'm fairly certain I got the tip and point aligned, which is what's absolutely key. It will never spin balanced if they aren't aligned, the rest of it is of varying importance as far as I can tell xD. I've been spinning a little on it--it only tolerates very fine yarn (not something I have noticed with my other spindles) but spins incredibly fast and isn't particularly wobbly. I'll try to remember to update whether it becomes unstable with a significant cop on it--if so, that would make this more of a decorative piece. That's okay though, random sticks are free and I enjoy whittling, so occasionally making a spindle that I think is beautiful but not very functional isn't a problem.
The holes in it are from fire ants. Or at least, fire ants were living in them. I'm glad I didn't leave this in the car very long, they don't seem to have started leaving the stick before I disturbed them with my knife and then started knocking them out. I feel kind of bad for relocating them like that. I usually knock stuff out before I leave with it, I guess these ones were very deep, or I forgot.
Anyway, I hardly ever name my spindles but this one is the Crooked Steeple of The Fire Ants
Steeple for short.
Here is what it looked like initially, and much earlier in the day:
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Ryan’s Sisters (OCs) as Human PT 1: Amy
Full Legal Name: Amy Fabienne Mei Willis
Cantonese Name: Sūn Mei-Min
Common Name: Amy Willis
Nickname(s): Ames, Amy-Samy, Superstar
Pronouns: She/Her
Age: 6 years old
Amy loves soccer and dinosaurs and wants to either be a paleontologist or a professional soccer player when she gets older. She’s very athletic unlike her sister and loves to be outside. However, she does play with Bella a fair bit, mainly letting her play doctor on her and covering her with band-aids.
Amy is also very protective of both Bella and Ryan, “interrogating” Ryan’s friends whenever they come over and never letting Bella be alone. She also acts as a translator for Bella when people aren’t using sign. And she gives all of Ryan’s friends food related nicknames (Ryan=Toast, Johnny=Jam, etc).
Out of the entire family, her personality is the most like Ryan’s in terms of outgoing-ness. Because of this, as well as spending the most time with Ryan when he was still at home out of the two girls, she’s the closest to him and calls him pretty much everyday on one of her moms’ phones. Her current favourite talking points are getting a trampoline for their apartment or Ryan getting a boyfriend because she wants another big brother to play with her.
Amy is overall a very sweet, outgoing, and energetic kid who adores her family and her hobbies!
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been at work for five hours now and a solid 50% of the songs that have played since 9.30am have been subpar covers of songs from the early aughts. it’s like the saddest fucking thing because like i love a good cover but people legit do not know how to make new songs anymore. there’s one beat that’s obviously difficult to translate into a text medium but legitimately every club song (which is most songs because people … aren’t making new songs that aren’t manufactured solely to be played in a nightclub by any bratty rich kid with a turntable among 14 other near-identical songs all also manufactured solely to be played in a nightclub by any bratty rich kid with a turntable) has it because they are quite literally all the same song
and oh my god it’s so fucking depressing. like i really and truly kept an open mind because i didn’t want to be like “back in my day blah blah blah” but like i’m a professional musician and it’s … literally the same song with slight variations and that’s the only song that exists now. that and covers on top of covers on top of covers
(i have to make it clear i am NOT talking about lizzo, she is beautiful and perfect and original and everything she does is magic. i love you lizzo)
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