First, a big Valentine to all of you who read my blog. My life is so good now, and a big part of the joy in my life is not just from those I’ve met, but also from folks I’ve never met in person. You really make my life better, all of you. Thank you.

Now, on to the subject of the day:
My friend Vince, is the most interesting and best sort of friend. I met him on the Internet, believe it or not, when we each had a Polymer Clay web page (see Vince’s polymer nightlight page and my Polymer Art page, still out there from perhaps 7-8 years ago). This was a time when there were definitely fewer than 20 polymer sites out there at all.

I had heard from Mike Buesseler (polymer artist whose site has since disappeared from the ‘net) that Vince had taken apart some small cars, applied polymer to the metal parts, baked the polymer and reassembled them. In fact, I never did see these cars if they did exist (very possible knowing Vince) but it started our dialog online. Now I’ve seen Vince at least 5 times in real life (New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and twice in Michigan), had a number of phone calls with him and a zillion emails. His family has stayed here at our house in Lansing twice… Lucky me!

Well, Vince and his family lived in Shanghai, China for two years. They got back to the USA last summer. Vince documented some visually interesting things when they were there. One of them has turned into a sort of web slideshow of Chinese Sidewalks which I find very interesting. Perhaps you would like a peek, as well.

I’m knitting like a madwoman, up till past 3am and still not done with the second Watercolor Bag (though I am on the decreases for the bottom of the bag now, and still need to knit I-cord for the handle after that). No pictures today, please see Vince’s site instead.