Working On My Atlatl Darts

My friend has river cane growing by his house. He helped me gather it and then I had to let it dry.

Now I'm trying to straighten the shafts so I can make atlatl darts.

Heating them over flame makes them pliable enough to bend but they scorch easily.

Straightening river cane to make atlatl darts. It's challenging, that's for sure.

Making Atlatl Darts

My new friend Kate trying out the atlatl.

Tom Mills is our atlatl guru

Our campground at the Conejo Shoot a few weeks ago.

I spent the better part of the day working on my atlatl darts. I had straightened them initially and put the project on hold for too long. Now they are bent again or I didn't do that great of a job in the first place. I noticed the reeds had dried a lot more and all the ties were loose. So I did my best to restraighten them over a can of Sterno with disappointing results. I cut off some of the ends that had cracked and tied them all in a bundle again so they could keep each other straight. I had hoped to add feathers today, but I'm mentally done for now.

I'm also cleaning some feathers for earrings. I am refreshing them with a hit of Fabreeze. I laid them on a drop cloth, spritzed them, then put a piece of plastic needlepoint canvas on top to keep the breeze from stealing them away while they dry.

I just signed up for Tagfoot. http://ping.fm/lfV6m Come see all my links and comments and my wishlist.

Want to join ping.fm too? Go to http://www.ping.fm.Use the code 'legendofping' and you could have the luxury of posting to all your blogs in one fell swoop like I do. Way more efficient than doing it one by one.

I'm not sure what 'ping my default' means but I guess I'll find out when I hit send.

The week sure went by quick. I had a lot more planned but didn't have the energy to do it. My hands are still sore from woodcarving, and so I've had to lay off the knitting and crocheting. I'm looking forward to the weekend. My daughter may visit. We'll see.

Come view my Flickr photo stream. Over 3000 photos I've taken are waiting there for your pleasure. http://ping.fm/3TTAi

I just signed up for Ping.fm to make social networking more effiecient.

Bowmaking Workshop in Pasedena yesterday

I taught 2 women to knit at yesterday's bowmaking gathering. Is knitting a survival skill? It is if you are freezing to death and need to know how to make sweaters, mittens and hats.
Then there are some photos of me with my new bow made by Richard Saffold and the last set of arrows I made.

Then there are some photos of the other archers at the event.

Walking Stick

Tomorrow at the bowmaking workshop I'll be working on my walking stick. I got the stave in Quartzsite for $10. I want to strip the bark off and then carve a face into the top part of it.

Update: I got so busy teaching knitting I never even got to work on my walking stick. All I did was take it out of the truck, then put it back in and bring it home.

Tapo Campground bow making workshop. 

Tapo Campground

I just attended another bowmaking workshop at Tapo Campground (Simi Valley). I was hoping to make an oak bow on Sunday, but all the archers went to compete in the 3D shoot and so we packed up and left, not wanting to wait 2 or 3 hours for everyone to return. It was beautiful out there though.

My Daily Meandering

My Daily Meandering
One of my new blogs featuring photography.

Bowmaking working cont.

There were only 2 women archers there (counting me), but 2 other women happened by to ask questions. Here's a photo of one of them. I hope this post will encourage more women to give archery a try.

bowmaking workshop in Pasedena,CA

I went to a bowmaking workshop today. I'll have to get a good night's sleep before posting anymore photos.

New archery photos

I just got the photos uploaded from the Chamberlain Ranch Rendezvous in Los Olivos CA. Here they are: http://spiralcharms.com/archery.htm

So fast the ends blurred out. 

Overhead spin 

front spin 

Working with staff spinning.