What on earth did you do to your hands?

Folks have been asking me this in the last few weeks when I'm sporting my ever so stylish "flesh" colored wrist braces. It's somewhat humiliating to admit that I did something stupid, and did it intentionally, in aid of getting my artwork out to shows again. I first gave myself carpal tunnel injury years ago, also by being stupid and hoeing my raised bed in abject anger for about 8 hours straight. (I'd rented out the house while in grad school, and my tennants trashed my lovingly tended bed that was then rife with weeds).

This was almost 20 years ago, and in the interim, I've managed to cope with the carpal tunnel problems by task shifting and not stressing my wrists much. All caution flew out the window while trying to get a large piece of my beadwork done for a show. Mounting the work by stretching it over shaped wood is tough work on the hands, and embroidering beads on the edges after stretching is even tougher: it requires pliers to place the needle and tug it through with hefty yanks.

The piece had been ready for mounting for months, though getting the wood cut requires a trip to a friend's woodshop, and getting that scheduled around illness, travel, holidays and other obligations pushed it to the last VAGUELY possible day.

- So of a Saturday we cut the wood & I start varnishing it.
- On Sunday the last coat of varnish went on early in the morn, and by evening I'd spent 8 hours tugging the embroidery into place on the wood.
- Monday I got the edges embroidered enough so the piece can be photographed as if finished. My hands ache, fingertips are shredded and I KNOW I've messed up my wrists again.
- Tuesday I get up at the crack of before dawn to photograph the piece, go in to work where a friend helps me format the (first ever for me) digital entry for the show. Then the digital files have to be postmarked that day. I take myself out in the 2° snowy windy weather for a trek to the post office a few blocks away.

The piece that was worth all of this insanity?

Meet Stella Maris:
Stella Maris, "Our Lady, Star of the Sea" is one of the personifications of the Virgin Mary in Catholic iconography. This particular Stella Maris is more of a Pago-Christian personification, showing the Pre-Christian seagoddes sort of body, with the Christian iconography of the star-halo. The idea of "sea" is even interpreted broadly, with the side paddle wheel boat depicted being a version of the first Goodtime boat in Cleveland's harbor.As my work goes, this is a quite large piece- 13.5 inches high, with the surface being solidy stitched with seed beads (about 1.5 mm in size) but for the swirling lightening bolts/hand section that leaves it void to the underlying gold lamé fabric.

Today, I'm drinking Constant Comment because a grey day needs some spice.