Candles & Cumberland Gal -T Shirts

 Besides hiking, riding, and outdoor stuff I am a very artsy, creative person.  

One very cold, rainy day I took time to paint myself and my bestie a set of Cumberland Gal t shirts.  I like to use prehistoric pictographs or glyphs whenever I get the chance on these designs. I hadn't run onto any especially good ones myself of late so I went searching for some on line that Alan Cressler had photographed over the years.  I selected some of the more interesting ones.  I found so many good ones I made up two entirely different shirts. One for me. One for Sharon.

I do these by purchasing a brand new  t shirt, in this case long sleeved.  I wash and dry them and  iron them.  Then I paint the design on with fabric paint. I insert a sheet of paper inside the shirt to prevent the paint from coming through onto the back. 

Above: C.G. -- stands for Cumberland Gal.. and this one is the front of mine... and has a tomahawk painted on there. 

Above: front left of Sharon's. An arrowhead of a type found in the plateau from the late Paleo Indian period. 

above is the back of the shirt I painted for myself.  The glyphs are from the plateau area for the most part.   The very bottom one is from Dunbar cave which is not the plateau, but further north west Tennessee.  It represents the four elements, earth, air, fire and water.  At the top -- the comet looking thing was also found in Dunbar cave and represents the cosmic forces at work in the universe including gravity!  There is a man, and a turtle, and the animal I believe is either a fox or a feline of some type.  

Above is the back of Sharon's shirt. I think I almost like it better.  These were glyphs from the plateau in Kentucky.  An eagle, the sun, and a sitting Indian. 

    I've also knocked out a bunch of candle making I had to do.  I taught myself to make wooden candle wicks.  I love wood wick candles, but they are pricey.  I treated the wooden wicks by soaking them first in a borax and salt solution. This is supposed to make them burn cleaner, higher and brighter.  I dried the wicks after that and soaked them in olive oil. then I dipped them in wax.   They turned out real well.  They crackle like a campfire just as the commerically made ones do.  

   I have a photo here of the first one I made.  I've made a couple others since.

Above is the candle when it has just been poured.  Pumpkin espresso scent!

Above is a photo of the finished product.  The borax solution really does improve the burn of the wick.   

The candle holder is one I had from where my daughter bought me a battery powered , scented candle.   I used it when Gabe was a baby at home and we worried about leaving these where he could get to them.   It finally quit on me and I was able to save the pretty container and toss out the no longer working battery powered candle.   A good way to recycle and keep stuff out of the landfill!