Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Giving up is unforgivable. ~Joe Biden

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Bark louder, little dog.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

When we show up, we win.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Readership Capture / Artists In Our Midst

Artists In Our Midst

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It’s been a super long time since we have had one of these, and I was looking for a niche item or two, and thought I would see if any of you do these things or have any recommendations.

At any rate, I am looking for a new 8″ chef knife since I broke the tip of my Viking and they do not make the model any more. Do any of you make custom knives? I only want one.

Second, I would like a nice stained glass piece to hang in the window in my office to reflect the light and bring in some color. Do any of you do this?

Finally, like all Artists in Our Midst, feel free to ply your wares, share your etsy store, or just highlight you singing, music, art, writing, or whatever you do that makes you you.

Reader Interactions

113Comments

  2. 2.

    Adam L Silverman

    Do any of you make custom knives? I only want one.

    This isn’t going to end well, but the live blogging from the emergency room is going to be hysterical. Sad, but hysterical.//

  6. 6.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    I don’t make stained glass but I wish I did. It seems to be a disappearing art.

    I do, however, make custom handmade journals, clay jewelry, jewelry boxes, small sculptures and other home decorating items. If you visit my sites you will notice a lot of Game of Thrones themed stuff but I’m definitely not limited to that and I have plenty on other stuff in the works that is not GOT related. So if you are looking for something unique or custom made just let me know!

    my website

    my youtube

    my Instagram

  7. 7.

    Yarrow

    For stained glass, try Mountain Art Glass in Fayetteville, WV. Stephanie is good people. Here’s the Facebook page. Pretty sure you can custom design what you want with her.

  8. 8.

    Gemina13

    Second, I would like a nice stained glass piece to hang in the window in my office to reflect the light and bring in some color. Do any of you do this?

    One of my oldest friends does stained glass. May I give her your contact information?

  11. 11.

    A Ghost To Most

    I just finished a couple of leather and brass utilitarian sculptures. I have no web presence, but would like to email a couple of pictures in the AM if you don’t mind, JC.

  12. 12.

    Tom Levenson

    John, years ago I think I mentioned here my friend Adam Simcha, who makes exceptional knives. Here’s his website.

    I have two of his ready made knives, a 10” chef’s knife and a boning knife. They’re spectacular.

    Someday, if I’m a very good boy, I’ll get a custom blade.

    Truly: I can’t recommend these too highly. Plus Adam’s a great guy.

  13. 13.

    RandomMonster

    Good on you for doing this, Cole. I’ve suffered for my art but have no intention of making our happy readership here suffer my art too…yet. Maybe next time though!

  21. 21.

    Richard Fox

    Long time lurker here, though avid fan of balloon juice and its multitude of upstanding jackals. I moved to California last year, transplanted New Yorker.. and well I’ve been painting Napa and Sonoma and northern and Southern California. Feel free to peruse my watercolors and oils. And thanks for allowing us poor painters a moment to shine. :-) in these idiot times art is the best panacea. Cheers!

  36. 36.

    Genine

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Oh, so it’s a quick beach read. Good to know! lol

    Seriously, I may not get to it any time soon. I have a backlog of reading to do for both critique and pleasure, and I am determined to finish writing my own book in the next couple of months. And did I mention I have a full-time job with a daily commute of 3.5 hours? But I will get to it! :-)

  38. 38.

    ScottS

    Hullo, my sister makes glass art, including Christmas ornaments, plates, dishes, bowls, cabinet knobs, beer bottle plates, and much more. She also takes commissions, if you don’t see something there you like! Go buy her stuff so she can be rich and buy me excellent presents.

  41. 41.

    Cathie from Canada

    This was years ago so it may not apply anymore in the age of Etsy, but when my sister was looking for some stained glass of her Sheltie dogs, she went to several crafts shows and also local dog shows where there are usually vendors of various kinds and she found a stained glass maker for animals at one of these shows. She said she wanted to be able to see the quality and accuracy of their stained glass work before she bought any. In the end, she had several pieces from this maker — not cheap, but they were beautiful

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne

    I didn’t come close to winning NaNoWriMo, but I have 17,679 new words, including a detailed synopsis to use as a roadmap for my revisions, so NaNo still worked for me. I ended up having some health issues in the middle of the month (asthma and carpal tunnel), so that really killed my word count.

  46. 46.

    Kattails

    Thanks for doing this. I don’t do stained glass, sounds like you have some good recommendations nearby. I paint oil landscapes and just had photos taken of the latest, but have not loaded them into my computer yet. I need to get a website up and should be researching that, developing Instagram etc. instead of checking up on the latest BJ news (facetious emoji here). Perhaps I could send some jpegs via Alain at On the Road, since the paintings are of my very lovely “backyard”, if that would be allowable?

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    If you were seeing stuff on Twitter or Goodreads about debut YA author Tomi Adeyemi accusing Nora Roberts (aka JD Robb) of “plagiarizing” her book’s title to capitalize on Adeyemi’s success, here is Roberts’ public response.

    Basically, Adeyemi made a really dumb accusation (titles are not subject to copyright, and Roberts’ title was announced two years prior to her book being published) and is now trying to pretend she didn’t do anything wrong while her flying monkeys run around claiming Roberts plagiarized Adeyemi’s actual book. It’s a really, really ugly look for a new author and I think this is going to hurt Adeyemi way more than she realizes.

  52. 52.

    JoyceH

    Here’s my author page on Amazon:

    Joyce Harmon

    My latest is a Regency romance series. If you check back in the spring, I hope to be releasing a new series of historical fantasy

  54. 54.

    Mike in NC

    We have a neighbor who makes these lovely stained glass lamps. Wife has bought three of them. The newest she set on top of the refrigerator, on top of a wooden block to make it more visible. Evidently opening the doors on the fridge slowly caused the lamp to move, to the point where it tipped over and knocked a full wine bottle onto the glass stove top (under a year old). Now the top of the stove is badly broken and unusable. Getting it replaced will take several weeks and cost $400+. A real freak accident!

  56. 56.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Anyone do fun dragons? I’m always looking for more dragons. There’s a guy down the street from me who does metal sculpture and he has this beautiful 3 foot dragon lawn sculpture in his front yard – I’m terrified to stop by and ask him how much it costs, because I love it so much and I’m sure it’s more than I could ever afford.

  60. 60.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Joey Maloney: Do you do a lot of Judaica or just that one piece where you’ve juxtaposed the Israeli and Palestinian flags? My Mom runs the gift shop at her synagogue and is always looking for good stuff to stock.

  61. 61.

    Jack Canuck

    Always happy to throw a few links on one of these threads.

    My photography here.

    My own music (all me on all instruments and singing).

    The Lost Jackets, a dreampop/shoegaze band for whom I currently play bass and (in the studio) guitar. (The most recent three songs have my playing on them).

  66. 66.

    Ivan X

    After nearly an entire lifetime of being blocked about writing music, which is kind of the only thing I have ever wanted to actually do, I’m finally writing some. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but then again, what music is. If you listen, please keep in mind it’s homemade.

    https://soundcloud.com/ivan_x/

    Thanks, John, for the thread.

  75. 75.

    Joey Maloney

    @Adam L Silverman: Hi Adam, I do a lot of Judaica considering my local market. :-) Plus I like the challenge of mezuzah cases, making something interesting in a small size and fixed format.

    Would you like me to email you pics of some more pieces with explicily Jewish iconography?

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    @dmsilev et al.

    More saccharine than at a Sweet ‘n’ Low factory now on the TV. 1000 points of yuck.

    Where’s that fershlugginer remote?

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Joey Maloney: Shoot me an email and I’ll pass it along to my Mom and see what she thinks. I can’t promise anything, as trying to figure out what a bunch of American Jews want to buy in a synagogue gift shop is not my area of expertise. But I will have her take a look.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Can they really disinvite the sitting president from the state funeral of a former president? A US Senator and a former First Lady are not the same thing as a former president, and the protocol is different.

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: The family always has the final say. If the family doesn’t want him there, it’ll be conveyed to him that he is not welcome. Would they physically try to stop him if he shows up anyway? I have no idea, but my guess is that as was the case with Barbara Bush and Senator McCain someone in the White House will make sure he gets the message, they’ll shuttle him off to Mar a Lago, and schedule him to play golf.

  85. 85.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    It would be awesome if he got treated like Caroline of Brunswick trying to be crowned alongside George IV:

    http://royalcentral.co.uk/blogs/history/onthisday-in-1821-caroline-of-brunswick-was-denied-entry-to-her-husbands-coronation-62441

    Still, I don’t think the Bushes should be allowed to have a full state funeral without the US head of state in attendance. If they want to have their own smaller shindig, that’s fine, but they shouldn’t get the full honors without the head of state there.

  88. 88.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You’re welcome.

    But, hey, the Republicans and their allies have been allowed to break every single other precedent without a whisper from the press, so why change that now?

  89. 89.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    It’s a secret, but I take pictures and sell them. They make wonderful Christmas presents. A couple of things…

    The pictures that you see on my site have a watermark, anything you purchase does not.
    If you have seen anything that I’ve posted here, either On The Road or the occasional links I’ve tossed into conversation, I can make those available for you to purchase.

    My Store: https://www.billinglendaleca.com/
    (also conveniently available by clicking on my nym.)

    My Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/billinglendaleca

  90. 90.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @Genine: Oh, thank you! I had done a lovely Nights Watch book but someone bought it at a GOT conference this summer. I should post pics of it so people can see more variety. Making the handmade books is my favorite craft.

  93. 93.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @TaMara (HFG): I do clay dragons. Did a couple of bookends with baby dragons coming out of their eggs. You can see them in this image, on the left of the table.. I have better close up photos if you would like to see those in more detail. The bookends are sold but I would be happy to make you something like it if you want. I’m also working on a new piece, a small jewelry box with a small dragon face sculpture on the lid. No decent photos of that one yet though.

  95. 95.

    Chef Hiking

    mostly just lurk around but love taking pick around my neighborhood in beautiful downtown Portland Maine.

  96. 96.

    Amber

    Does anyone know someone who does sculptures of corvids, like for a bookend or even larger? My roommate has been searching for the right one for months…

  98. 98.

    Quiltingfool

    I make quilts. Lots of ‘em. I need to get them out of my house! Not a big market for quilts in my area, because everyone has tons of quilts from Grandma. My quilts are not expensive, I am certainly not making even minimum wage, but I just love to make quilts. I love cats, too, so many of my quilts are made of kitty material, or blocks that feature cats. I need to open an Etsy store, but I don’t feel confident re my ability to navigate in the on line sales ocean. Just gotta do it, though. I have a board on Pinterest that has pictures of all my quilts. If anyone is interested in looking, or, hey, buying(!) I guess you can email me, yes? I read BJ everyday, the frontpagers and commenters are the best! I don’t comment much, because other commenters say what I’m thinking, and usually much better!

  108. 108.

    Carol Van Natta

    I’m not trained in the metallurgic arts; nor should I be allowed near shards of glass, no matter how pretty.

    @Mnemosyne: Adeyemi has torched her reputation for the next 5 years. She will always be remembered for years as the cray-cray wannabe author who tried to accuse Nora Freakin’ Roberts of riding Adeyemi’s coattails to success.

    I will now shamelessly promote my award-winning space opera series and my new paranormal romance series. Look at all the pretty books on my website’s gallery page.

  109. 109.

    Chas

    Ok Cole I’m going to answer your knife question because I’ve been doing a lot of looking to replace my Wusthof 8″ Classic Chef’s knife and it’s important.

    The big thing you need to know is the difference between Japanese and European or German steel. Japanese steel is super duper sharp, and holds it’s edge longer, but is much more difficult to sharpen correctly so you’ll either have to take it to a professional or invest in sharpening stones and then spend a lot of time learning how to work it properly. Also it chips easier if you accidentally hit bone, or drop it.

    German steel is a bit softer, so doesn’t hold it’s edge as long, but it’s much easier to sharpen yourself with a kit like the Spiderco Sharpmaker, which I highly recommend for home chefs.

    Japanese knives I looked at included the Miyabi Fusion Morimoto Edition, the Misono UX10 (Favored by pros, but has single sided edge), the Enzo HD Series Nikiri, the Shun 8″ Classic, and the Miyabi 34073. In order to pick among these amazing knives, I’d have to hold each one first.

    Although I have not yet made my final purchase, and I really appreciate nice knives… I will probably replace my Wusthof with another Wusthof, this time the Icon for the simple reason that I don’t want to spend another $200 or sharpening equipment and the learn how to do it right. I mean, I do want to do those things because I love learning shit like that, but I’d rather spend that time cooking and learning how to cook better. The Wushof and Zwilling German forged steel knives are among the best in the world. Maybe not up to the best of the Japanese knives, but as a home cook… they’re all one needs.

  110. 110.

    AAAndrew

    If you can drill holes in a piece of wood, then Lee Valley Tools (a very good Canadian company) has a kit they sell with the ceramic rods every bit as good as the Spyderco but half the price.

    No connection, just a very long-time customer. http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=46363&cat=1,43072,43079

    And while there, take a look at this knife. I don’t have one, but a couple of people I know who are VERY serious about both knives and steel, praise it highly. It’s not as stainless as the German knives but the high-carbon steel takes an edge so much easier and gets very sharp.
    http://www.leevalley.com/us/Garden/page.aspx?p=52770&cat=2,75357,75438&ap=1

    As for art, I don’t make any, I just do history as a hobby.

    You could just head down to Tamarack and see what stained glass is going on there and contact the artist. Support local WV artists, and all that.

  112. 112.

    Susan Kedzie

    For an artistic and meaningful gift I recommend my children’s book entitled A THOUSAND PURRING CATS. Beautiful text and playful illustrations send a message of hope with a surprise tug at your heart. A feel-good book the whole family can enjoy, even the dog-lovers.
    For pictures and reviews please visit my website: http://www.susankedzie.com
    Available on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com
    Thanks for supporting my art!

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