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Going to Scotland! But first, making things!

Click here to go straight to the shopping and skip all of the storytelling 😁

Neil and I have been married for 29 years, and we’ve had kids for 24 of those years. In the last quarter century our vacations have largely fallen into one of two buckets:

  1. The “long weekend getaway to Ocean City” bucket
  2. The “Neil goes to a science fiction convention and the kids and I road trip there separately and do our own thing” bucket

Bucket number one continues to happen annually, but bucket number two has been fairly empty since I went back to work full time and the kids became adults. I miss it sometimes. Those summer days, just me and the boys, zipping down the highway listening to mix CDs we made together and playing the License Plate Game. Good times.

Over the years there have been a lot of cons that Neil has attended alone, mostly because they required air travel, and I didn’t want to be bothered with the headache (or expense) of flying with two young kids, and renting a car. So, we have never gone with Neil to cons that involved flying, with one notable exception: We went to Ireland five years ago. That was an epic trip. A first flight for one of our kids, a first time out of the country for both of our kids, and my first time on an airplane in 20 years.

This year, we’re doing it again: we’re headed to Scotland!

Scotland

Neil is going to the World Science Fiction Convention, and we are tagging along with him to wander around Glasgow, see the sights, buy some yarn…

I’ve been preparing for this trip in the most Lisa Clarke of ways: making jewelry and a shawl to coordinate with the convention colors. Oh, I’m such a nerd really, but I can’t stop myself!

I’m not attending the con itself, but will be going to the Hugo Awards with Neil (he’s nominated again), and I’ll be wearing my usual black dress (aka my trusty blank canvas) along with a shawl that I have yet to finish. There will be a shawl pin, and some combination of earrings, bracelets, rings and a barrette, all made to coordinate with the con colors.

So let’s talk a little bit more about those con colors. It’s extremely possible that I just haven’t been paying attention to other conventions, but this particular one seems more conscious of branding and colors than I’ve ever seen before. There’s a tartan. There’s a yarn colorway. There’s fabric. There’s even a bespoke gin. (You can see the lot here.) And naturally all of that color coordination got my creative juices flowing.

Polymer clay jewelry

I am exceptionally picky when it comes to color matching, and I wasn’t content to eyeball it across a computer screen. So, I ordered a sample of the tartan. I waited a few weeks for it to get here from Scotland, and then I mixed up six custom colors that matched each of the stripes in the plaid. I made a bunch of designs from those colors, and they were OK, but they weren’t perfect. I felt that the darker colors were too dark.

So I mixed those two colors again from scratch, and started over, building another five millefiori canes. These (shown above) were much better 😁 Sometimes I feel like I go a bit overboard trying to match colors, but honestly, it’s always worth the time and mounds of extra scrap clay that it takes to get it right.

Once the collection of designs was sorted, I went to work making bracelets and earrings, and rings, and barrettes, and shawl pins, and whathaveyou.

Naturally I cannot wear all of these things that I’ve created, but I’m hoping that if you are attending the convention, too – or you are just a fan of these colors – that you would like some pieces to wear with your own Glasgow 2024 ensemble. I see these things going equally as well with a t-shirt as they do with a blank canvas black dress.


I’ve made a few samples of each design, but I will be keeping backorders open for all of them until mid July. So if you will be in Glasgow in August, and you want something that I have run out of, I will happily make another one for you.

Also, I am going to make some space in my suitcase to bring some pieces with me. If you will be at the convention, and you want to save on shipping costs, get in touch with me. If I have room for you (first come first served) I’ll give you a coupon code for free shipping and bring your order over with me.

For more information and to place an order see Worldcon 2024.

My shawl

Remember I mentioned the con yarn back there? Well I ordered a hank of it. And then I got two coordinating colors of Berroco Vintage, and I am working on one of my usual squishy garter stripe shawls to wear.

I realize it will be August and that August weather (at least in New Jersey) is not worsted-weight shawl weather. But I’m hoping for a chilly night while I’m outdoors, and just enough air conditioning inside the venue that I don’t have to overheat for the sake of my art 😁

As of last night, I am nearly halfway through with the knitting. It’s probably the easiest pattern ever. It’s just a matter of actually sitting down and doing it. I really love the way the shawl pin looks, even with the shawl unfinished!

I’ll keep you posted with my shawl progress, and I will of course post some Scotland pictures when we return, but until then if you’ve got any must-see things in Glasgow to tell me about, I hope you’ll leave a comment. Aside from wanting to find a nice yarn shop, I’m pretty much going to wing it while I’m there, but it doesn’t hurt to have some recommendations, too!

And if you want some handcrafted jewelry for the convention, don’t wait too long! Especially if there will be international shipping involved to get your goodies to you.

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