Sunday, March 3, 2024

A Cold and Windy first Sunday in March

 Today feels like winter but it could be the beginning of spring; and the afternoon finds me in the studio creating some multi dangle earrings to place in the front display window. Green is a color that calls to me when little bulbs start rising from the ground and buds appear on the trees. Anyhow, today I finished making three pairs of spring earrings in colors that say hello to this change of seasons. 

I used my own sterling silver earring tops and added a collection of teeny beads and charms for the dangles. These are light and flirty earrings, perfect for anyone. I think Easter is early this year so of course these would be a pretty edition to any Easter or spring basket. Chocolates, earrings and maybe a flowering little plant - I will check in with the bunny and ask for just those things! 

I love making multi dangle earrings and have collected beads for decades to use in making them. I like combining small things in a variety of color and texture. I even occasionally use tiny beads from 1930's Germany. I have a special fondness for old beads. 

Hope to see you soon around town and in the shop plus hop on in and visit me on line. Facebook, Instagram or wynwoods.com. XO, Lois





Saturday, February 3, 2024

New Month, New Beads

 It is a gray and wet Saturday afternoon and although I am very grateful for this much needed rain, which makes snow in the mountains; I am stuck indoors with weather and a virus. Yuck. Not my ideal  way to spend the day!

Anyhow, new beads and inventory has been arriving like crazy and I am gradually pricing and getting it out into the shop. I like this time of year, when the holidays of the previous year are tucked away and we are thinking forward, at this mid point between winter's dark days and the spring solstice, to spring! Longer days, a bit of the sun's warmth and the feeling of rebirth and newness. 

With that in mind, here are some of the new beads I popped into the bead shop's inventory yesterday:





New beads make me so happy and inspire me too. I love color and these colorful birds and that brilliant orange make me feel very creative and like new earrings and stitch markers are coming on!

You can always order these beads by emailing me at lois@wynwoods.com, calling the shop at 360-385-6131 ( PST on the west coast ) or posting a message to my FB or Instagram pages all under my business name of Wynwoods Gallery and Studio.

Next up I am unpacking a beautiful shipment of baskets and more bells and chimes. Hope to see you soon in the shop ( yes, an old fashioned brick and mortar store in an actual down town. ) Or see you on line or on the phone or.... Love, Lois

www.wynwoods.com

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Can you Believe it is 2024?!

 I am thunderstruck that time has moved so fast, so forward, that it is now 2024 and this year finds the shop entering its 34th year. An amazing blessing and a fun, creative journey. I have spent half my life in the shop and I could not be happier. Have I made any resolutions? Not really. I do want to display my jewelry and silver work differently, more prominently. I would like to remind everyone that I do silver work and also that I am a painter, an artist with a fine arts background. I resolve to be kind all the time. To appreciate every single one of my customers and potential customers. Come summer, I want to sit out on the Tyler Street Plaza and visit with friends, customers and the customers who have become or might  become friends. I resolve to encourage creativity in as many people as I can. I want to use creativity and making things as a solution or shield for what ails society and bring us back to each other in a positive, caring light. I resolve to enjoy every single day that I get to be on this earth. I resolve to love more, create more, play more. I am also thankful for the customers, friends and family who have supported me in the past 33 years. I still recall friends saying, " You are going to sell what? My accountant at the time saying, " You spent how much on what?"  I can smile at the memories and want to continue to make more memories that bring me smiles. So all, thank you from the bottom of my heart!

This is the jewelry I have made in the last day or so on the desk in my studio. A collection of hand drawn vintage glass beads, gemstones, Czech glass, seed beads, metal, horn, shell, and more. These were made specifically for the front display window. The idea for using the old hand drawn Pakistani glass beads has been floating in my mind for a few weeks now. The beads are circa 1960's. A mat cobalt glass.

This is Onyx, my son's precious 7 month old puppy. All 15 pounds of her.
She is curled tightly into a yarn basket, snoozing away on her blue rubber bone. My new assistant.

So ends my posting tonight and begins the pursuit of my 2024 almost resolutions. I leave you with love and peace and wishes for all the best for you in this new year!

 

Friday, November 3, 2023

Fall, finally!

 I love fall! The change in the seasons brings new energy and insight along with great bursts of creativity! The changing leaf colors draw me to colors of rusts and ambers in wool yarns. My needles itch to create hats and fingerless gloves. My knitting plans turn to crafting Christmas and holiday gifts. I ordered Turkey yesterday for Thanksgiving and pulled a favorite scarf from my winter clothes box. 


Tonight, as the first of November’s drenching rains and winds begins; I am thinking if the Malabrigo yarn on its way and the Superwash wools I will be ordering on Monday.

Come visit us in Diva and share a little if you’re knitting dreams with us! ๐Ÿงก๐Ÿ



Sweet dreamy knitty dreams! 

Sunday, July 2, 2023

 Months and months have gone by since I last wrote on this blog. A creative journey indeed. The shop, Wynwoods Gallery & Studio in Port Townsend, Washington is now in its 32nd year and I love my shop as much as the day that the idea for it popped into my head.

The two men that helped me along the way to begin this journey have passed away. Jack Hirsch and Gary Lindheimer. Partners in life and the business, Great Expectations, that I shared retail space with. A little 12 x 12 or was it 14 x 14 back room on the left behind their big store that was filled with wondrous things. I think of them often. Of their kindness, their creativity, their hosts plant business, their amazing home, and Gary's ribald humor. Oh, but he enjoyed making me blush right up to the day that he said something and my comeback left him speechless. Something about a seagull and its mating practices. Although I don't remember the actual words I said, I am still smiling at the memory. I laughed myself silly that day and many days after.

The journey to today has been fun, full of decisions and adventure, friendship and making things. Conversations  with customers, several of whom have become some of my closest friends. Sharing how to info with fellow business owners and the best part? Meeting my husband in my tiny shop and beginning a new life with him. It has been an astounding, broadening journey.

Mostly I feel satisfied but still pursuing creativity and making a living from my craft and art. Ever since I was just a little girl, on boring long summer days out of school; I would turn to my mother and say, " I just want to make something. What should I make?" She would look at me and answer, " anything you want. " 

That was the answer I needed and it has guided my life all these days and years. Thank you to my mom. What this has also taught me is that when you speak or say something, you never truly realize how your words will live on, an inspiration or encouragement to others. I have always tried to do the same with the people I meet. I encourage people to be creative, a you can do it talk when they say in my shop, " Oh, I couldn't. " Yes, you can. When a parent leans down to a child and says you can not make that, you can not have the bead or charm they have been drawn to, I remind that parent that creativity should never be squashed or shut down. Let the kid be inspired and excited! Endless mid summer afternoons can inspire hearty creative energy in a bored or lonely child or teenager.

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Complications and a Simpler Life

 The more I work in my office and on line, the more I long for a simpler return to the fine craft of making things. The computerized world can leave me ever so cold especially the I can not figure out how to do something on line. Right now I am stuck with a weird FB post on my website's home page and my Instagram post have disappeared into the ethers. Please bear with me as I try to figure this out with my web guy, Chuck. I am as always open to suggestion. Help. 

In the meantime, I sent most of the day in my studio making stretch bracelets and earrings. I am content to sit all day and do these things, if my body allows for it. Today being all cold and very damp, it was just plain delightful to sit in the warm studio and create. 


An image of the divine mother, the woman within us from a Ukrainian 
Artist. I am sorry I do not know the artist's name but the image with her beads about her, speaks to me. 

Now this evening is turning into a quick trip out to the studio again to make crystal Christmas earrings to take into the bead shop tomorrow. Come see me and say hello in the bead shop tomorrow. XO lois