I"m slowly recovering from week 2 of the Wisconsin Renaissance Faire up in Chippewa Falls, WI. Took Monday off to mostly sleep, supervise the dishwasher repair guy, run a load of dishes and clothing, clean a bit, and mostly just sit about in a daze. It was an incredibly fun weekend, but it done did wore me out. We took a few more pictures, and eventually we'll manage to get them up in a nice slideshow, but first, I believe I mentioned our early morning visitor from last week, and promised pictures, well, here he is. This is the only picture that really turned out, mostly because Chris took it -- the ones I took are about as blurry as I felt. Ain't he cute?


Second weekend was as packed as first weekend. I was up relatively late on Friday night, noodling with glass, tweaking the setup, walking around hugging people, sharing out truffles, the usual. Chris took a beautiful nighttime picture of the construction that was happening on the far side of the jousting pit, I believe using a 60 second exposure. I just really like the way that the light streamed across the field:



 Saturday morning, Ken from Iron Wolf Forge stopped by to drop off the hairsticks he'd made during the week, while I was still unconscious (but Chris was up). It was pretty much a redux of last weekend, with Chris booting me gently in the ribs and saying the hair sticks had arrived. So I staggered up off the air mattress, turned on the kiln, checked the pressure in the torch, and then found my glasses and shoes and staggered off to the privy. A girl's gotta have her priorities, right? So... shinies!!! This is just a few of them. Ken and I are splitting them down the middle, since we each put about the same amount of work into them. I apologize though, for not getting any pictures of the fishstix (it was late, I was hungry, my brain went off on a tangent while I was playing with molten glass, what can I say?).


Sunday evening, right around the close of gate, we were visited by Captain Jack Sparrow. I managed not to squeal like a little girl, but it was a close call.


It was fabulously wonderful. He's from Minnesota, by way of the Caribbean, I'm sure. Then we got to talking shop, which led to talking glass, which led to talks of custom work (he needs the right size beads that aren't plastic), which led to a demo. He tried to stay in character for the camera...


...but as is the case with watching fire and molten glass, fascination soon set in...
 

The two very nice ladies in the first picture are Jack's family, and the fourth person to join our party (in the hoodie) was the turtle lady, who came by to receive (and admire) a turtle bead I made for her. I hadn't made turtles in a while, and when I saw hers walking about the faire, it inspired me to try again. I don't have any close up shots, sorry. I was distracted by being fascinated by Jack, who was fascinated by me. Where ARE my priorities? Hee.

It really blew me away, though. To me, beads are just 'what I do', and I accept that most people find it fascinating, and I love the ego stroking that comes when someone tells me they're beautiful, but they're just beads. Me, now, I'm totally blown away by performers. Doesn't matter what kind. Musicians, actors, jousters, comedians, doesn't matter, people who get out there and perform, who entertain people with what they do and who they are... I'm in awe. So when Cap'n Jack came by and actually talked with me, and then dropped out of persona to stay and talk for a half hour because he found what _I_ did fascinating, it just made my brain go 'squee!' It's like when Bounding Main stopped by my booth at Janesville and the six of them sang a song just for me, or when the Queen and her court stopped in my booth on Sunday and gave me a scroll of welcome while staying in character the whole time (which we also don't have pictures of)... performers performing just for ME, Just Because... it makes me grin and bounce and go 'squee' inside.

Also, Cap'n Jack says he may be commissioning me to make a couple of beads for him, to which I replied 'yah, your red polka dot one is way too small'. He pointed out two other ones that he might like me to make, and now I need to see how close I can come to the look of aged amber. :) I'm pondering trying a strip of Youghiogheny caramel, it's the right color and translucency, but being stained glass, it might not be happy if I thrust it into a torch. Hee. I gets to play with fire. Darn.

Anyhoo, one more picture. Right after the close of gate, we got a bit of rain, but it passed fairly quickly, and left a beautiful rainbow behind.

Only three more weekends to go. It passes too darn quickly.