Fantasy in Histology 2 and the First Rule of Middle Class American Economics

Above is my embroidered fantasy of a neutrophil, the white blood cell notable for its tri-lobed nucleus, engulfing a bacterium.

I'm sure you are aware of the first rule of middle class economics, even if not by that name. It regards the phenomenon that always occurs when a family saves a few dollars for a worthy project. Like major dental work. Immediately upon obtaining some success, a major appliance breaks.

Happily, in our case today, it's an appliance I can and intend to do without. The clothes dryer died. It was the very first clothes dryer I ever had. Once, when asked if I wanted my house wired for 220, so I could get a dryer, I replied, "Not while the Sun shines."

You don't need to know how it was that I ended up with one seven years ago. Well, our clothes are happily hanging on a rope in the garage today. It's a three walled garage, so even though they are not under the Sunshine, they have a little breeze.

Life is good.

Fantasies in Microbiology (2) Strange Strain of Escherichia coli

Fantasies in Microbiology (1) Candida albicans in All Her Mycelial Glory

Fantasy in Histology Number One Initially Inspired by a Wright-Giemsa Stain of a Bone Marrow Smear, Showing a Megakaryocyte Giving Rise to Platelet

Creativity

I really enjoyed doing my three Fantasies in Microbiology. Pics soon. I just can't find the time(?) to put them in the frames.

So then I started a Fantasy in Histology (study of tissue, for those of you who are far from your Greek and Latin dictionaries.)

All this has been in embroidery. I'm coming to the limits of my floss stash. I have a lot more floss, just not in the colors I want and floss isn't available in this town anymore. So, does one invest in a DMC color chart, to be able to order online? I guess so, if the embroidery will continue.

However, I've been looking at Art in America again, and have become wild about color. I don't think DMC, good as they are, make floss in all the colors I want, and mixing in floss only works if you look from far off. So, maybe I need to think about another medium, one in which I can mix my own colors. Hmmmmm

The fabric above has some of the colors I looked for in my floss stash tonight. I believe the fabric is a silk screen, which explains a lot.

MSOE Team Challenges,etc.

I'm happily working on a set of items for the August challenge, which is microbiology, my favorite science. It's meant to hang on the wall. Or maybe ACEOs. Those are little trading card size pieces of art. As Andy Warhol said,"Art is anything you can get away with."

A couple of weeks ago, I looked at some issues of Art in America. People are getting away with a lot.

A different endeavor, an idea I think I'll discard, was an embroidered wall hanging:

This is a test.
Explain Life.
Be complete.
Be concise.

It was my nightmare in graduate school. I tried it out on fellow students, and they didn't seem to think it was funny. It tickled me.

So I tried it out on Mr. P. He gave a negative response. So I said to go ahead and try it. He said, "The Holy Bible." I said that's just the owner's manual. He agreed. He still didn't see the humor.

The funny part is the BE COMPLETE, BE CONCISE part. Sigh

Mad Scientists of Etsy

I'm a member of both Christian Artists Street Team (CAST) and the Mad Scientists of Etsy team. (MSOE) I'm just getting acquainted with the latter and they all seem so very talented,both scientifically and artistically.

Subsequently, I found a very interesting blog of scientists' tattoos at http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/science-tattoo-emporium/

Some of these are fascinating. Then there are others.

I particularly liked the serotonin molecule(the natural high).

If you tattooed an equation or formula you needed for an academic test, would you have to cover it with a bandaid for the test?

When I started brainstorming about an ETSY shop, I jotted an idea about embroidering the Krebs cycle.(The basic way we get energy). Recently,I looked around the web to see how others have depicted it.

Wow! Thirty years ago we got black and white handouts. Now they have animated colorful cartoons. It's like Science as Art has BEEN DONE.

This video of an abbreviated Krebs Cycle tickles me silly.