Brittany Rae Benson aka Okie-Trønder

Waiting for glue to dry. #art #iusedtohaveatable #spinning #yarn

And tonight I have some bits on the block for two other sculptures. Yay! #knitting #art #sculpture

I also have an embroidered piece in the exhibit. Unfortunately the nails they used didn't have much of a head so it hangs awkwardly... oh, well. It's a distance from my rock but if you stand just right you can see them both at once. #art #embroidery

Done and installed! Opening day was yesterday. Installation seemed simple and straightforward but it still took us about an hour. #art #sculpture #installationart #felting #crochet #embroidery #holycrapitsfinallydone

Today I deliver my rock to an exhibit so yesterday evening I was adding final touches. My kiddo and dude both snuck pictures of the process. A friend was kind enough to cut the table top for me. It gets pretty warm inside the rock. #art #textileart #crochet #felting #kunst #quilting #sculpture

So two of my Mecynorrhina torquatus ugandensis have pupated (not pictured). This morning I did a check-up on the remaining grubs, and this particular big ol' grubber weighed in at just over 35g! I suspect somebody's been hitting up the shrimps. #beetles #bugs #ilovemybeetlegrubs

Aaand another old project finally finished! For years I've wondered how I could apply my style of saccadism to film. I think I figured out a workable solution. I had never used a synthesizer or DAW before, so, yay new stuff! #art #film #trondheim #kunst www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdHG...

Yay! Spiders again!! I had to rehome my Hildegard when we moved to Norway. She had been at my side for 10 years by then. These two are my dream species, Brachypelma emilia. Since they are a CITES species they came with paperwork showing they're captive bred. My first time with such babies. So small!

I forgot to show off my big fat beetle grub! This adorable chonker weighed in at just shy of 33g a few weeks ago. One of my 6 has already pupated so I'm looking forward to the fancy adults! Mecynorrhina torquata ugandensis. #bugs #beetles #coleoptera

My workspace this morning. I've spent the past days editing a film. If I was sane I would take breaks to spin but instead I'll work for 7-10 hours before "taking a break" for that. Oh, well. #editing #art

I've had this footage on my table for a few years now.... FINALLY bothered to record the soundtrack today. Anyway, here's my amazing first shot at a gingerbread house. #art #film #surelyitiskunst #dontcallmeshirley m.youtube.com/watch?v=pJnT...

Just realized I never did share that my kabutomushi were successful with becoming adults! One perfect male, one little guy, and two ladies. The little guy and the ladies ended up with some wing problems but were otherwise fine. Mating was successful and now I'm just waiting on babies. #beetles

Well we got super lucky and had absolutely perfect weather! So nice. We (almost) got through 2 cycles of all the marches. This being my first time with the Malm group, it was hard not to be distracted by the spring scenery. Finished with some coffee and cake at the local hotel. #17mai #TUBA #band

READY FOR THAT BANDWAGON!!! For realzies, though. Playing with the Malm Korps for 17 mai today, and instead of marching we'll be riding a wagon. #17mai #TUBA #band

The guys sounding great on Arbeiderssangen! We had some intense rehearsals this weekend and streamlined scene changes. Premiering on Friday! #theater #art

Oops came home with a Helicon. #tuba

Hanging out with the Titans a bit this morning. Things aren't normally this humid... this species prefers it dry. Once in a blue moon I give a light misting, then let that mostly dry off before closing house again. Otherwise they always have access to a humid corner for water. #isopods #bugs

Ugh!! Finally bothered to finish this lichen piece I started last summer. I had put it in a random cabinet and nearly forgot it existed. Now to attach it to the giant rock. Fourth photo is the back. #art #lichen #embroidery #sculpture

HAPPY PUPATION DAY!!! Guys I'm so unreasonably excited. Last week I accidentally broke the pupal chamber of my biggest grub. I've been so worried - made a damp paper towel cover for the chamber and check on him every few days. WELL TODAY HE'S A PUPA!! My heart is racing. #kabutomushi #beetles #bugs

Just got back from another day of subbing. Usually I'm working alongside another teacher for the big groups, but today I got a call 10 minutes before start that the other teacher was sick so I'd be on my own. We managed it, and at the end of the day I found a student had left me a flower. #music

So I've reached a point in my life where I could make this as my thank you slide at the end of a talk and it makes total sense to everyone in the room. The talk covered my soil mite extraction method I'm working on. #science #tuba #music #mites #bugs

Last week I helped Nord with a recruitment day for high schoolers. It was hosted at the Levanger campus so we had to pile all my guys and my stuff into a colleague's big van. It went super well, and one group even came back after lunch to look at the millipedes some more. #science #outreach #bugs

Blocking this piece of lichen today. This is from that first batch of dyed yarn I made a few weeks ago. It's supposed to be a bit of Lobaria buuuut.... I don't know. Close enough I guess. I just eyeballed everything this time. #Lobariaiguess #lichen #spinning #dyeing #yarn #art

Simandoa conserfariam enjoying some orange. They have been doing really well so I need to move them to a bigger box soon. #roaches #bugs #insects

For any Okies still residing in the state of Oklahoma... #standupforscience #oklahoma

Oooh the tie-dye came out amazing!!! This method seems to fit more what I had in my head. #yarn #spinning #dyeing

These were supposed to be yellow and blue but I had too much liquid in the pan. Still an awesome green, and there are spots that are more blue-green and yellow-green so it isn't completely uniform. #art #yarn #dyeing

Finally bothered to tackle learning to chain ply, and boy was that a downright rodeo! So I did a full jumbo spool's worth to get some sense of control. Feeling pretty okay about it now, I guess. #art #spinning #yarn

Yesterday I made snail food. Usually I use a pestle & mortar which takes a million years. Then I thought, "wait why am I not using my corn grinder?" However, still no learning with the bowl size required for the grinder. I guess learning for me is proceeding at a snail's pace. #snails

I'm finally feeling comfortable enough with the mechanics of this knitting business to start constructing actual sculptural elements! So here is Carabodes reticulatus saccade #1, representing part of the notogaster. I also have a colony of live ones for reference. #art #knitting #science #sculpting

In other exciting news, my jumbo flyer arrived this week! I made somw big chunky stuff but then decided to do something a bit smaller with some pink fiber I dyed last week. #Kromski #spinning #art

My wonderful cicada exuvia defeated Mr. Regigigas! The one time he would have taken damage to his massive 1 HP he toughed it out so I wouldn't feel sad because we’re the best of buds. @sockynoob.bsky.social I thought you might appreciate this. #Pokémon #lovelyexuvia

Saturday I had my first experience with dyeing! Our spin group met at a friend's farm in Namdalseid and spent the day with yarn and fiber. Lunch was oxtail soup, sheep head, and a dessert of whey. Then, back to dyeing. I think half had done it before, the rest of us were new. #art #spinning #dyeing

Yesterday I got a bag of Arcadia's custodian food. I gave everyone some this morning and it has been super popular! I wish it wasn't so expensive... but at least it will be a big help for the isopod colonies. Also, I'm seeing so many babies with the Pink Lambos lately! Yay!! #isopods #bugs

Friday I gave a 25 minute intro-to-mites guest lecture to the bachelor students. A miracle happened where I actually ended a couple minutes ahead of schedule! Anyway, it was very well received, and Mr. Oedipus Tex the lone star tick was particularly popular. #science #mites #acari #yaymites #art

Oh and last week we had some nifty fog. I was also finally able to make the yearly punk association meeting, which was of course followed by a concert. My only problem is the meeting didn't even start until after my usual bedtime.

Last week I cut Michael's hair and saved the clippings. Today he gave me weird looks as I mixed those clippings with wool and spun it. It's extremely itchy so it is definitely a yarn-for-sculpting only, but the visual effect is pretty neato. #art #yarn #spinning

The Old Lady and Mr. Beauford were looking fancy by the light of the flames at the end of the day. We finally got a big ol' pile of snow all of a sudden - and now that skies are clear, temps have plummeted. It's a right proper winter now!

So I just did my first supercoil with the spindle technique and holy crap is it neato and fun!! Unfortunately it is definitely a fiber muncher... I only managed a few wraps around the niddy noddy. I used a commercial cotton core and a Shetland slub singles as the wrap. #art #spinning #yarn

Made some beehives the other day. They're boring and white right now but I'll be dyeing them later. #art #yarn #spinning

Also yesterday was Beetle Day. These guys needed new food so I had to bug them for a couple of minutes. Look at this adorable perfection! #bugs #beetles

My dude is super awesome and got me a Kromski Fantasia for Christmas. I took it for a spin with a pigtail yarn on Christmas Day. It is such a smooth machine! Looking forward to the arrival of the jumbo flyer attachment for my bulky yarns. #art #yarn #spinning #kromski

Once I had the how-to figured out, I did another bouclé. It went a little smoother but there is clearly no getting around needing to help bobbles around the slots and tiny hook of the flyer. #art #spinning #yarn

I wanted to see if I could get away with a bouclé on the old wheel. I definitely had to stop and help bobbles along a number of times, but it worked! #spinning #art #yarn

I maybe got the red too thick, but I’ll pretend that was intentional. #art #yarn #spinning

More for the same piece. I love how stripey it looks on thr niddy noddy. #art #spinning #yarn