Stringing Beads

Multi strand necklace with my hand finished cones. 

Today I spent the morning in the studio making a few things for the shop, trying to fill up spaces emptied by holiday shoppers. Before I leave for the Tucson shows, I am trying to get the shop all readied and filled in. No empty spaces when I leave town!

After all the Christmas gifts were opened....

..... Jacob had me cover my eyes and Phil brought in my final package from the garage work bench. He and Jacob had made a shadow box with pictures of my beloved Regina dog along with her collar, tags and leash. As they placed it in my hands and I opened my eyes, I could not help but crying. I loved that girl so much! Honestly, with all the love they placed in the making of it and the box containing pictures of Regina so close in my heart, it was the best Christmas gift ever. I do not think the two of them have ever made anything for me before. I feel so loved and embraced by my family.

Jesse spent the morning with us watching us open gifts and sharing breakfast. She is so old now and even as I cried over Regina's shadow box, I know that Jesse will probably not make it to next Christmas. That knowledge made the day even more bittersweet.

With some of the highest tides of the year today and with the wind blowing in a westerly direction, we thought a drive to the beach would be fun. All of us love the sound of the waves crashing on the shore and hearing the wind in the trees. North Beach is Phil's favorite beach and Jake was especially excited because I let him wear his new pajama pants into town.

Clowning around early in the day in the living room, I took photos of Jacob to send to Michael so that he could see just how tall his little brother has become. Before we know it, he will be driving, then off to college.

As for me, I spent part of the day nursing my bruised foot. Jacob in all his excitement to present me with Regina's shadowbox, stomped on my foot and left a sizable bruise if not a broken bone. Here it is just beginning its' color change. I could not get upset though, he was that excited and that full of love!

Finally, I will leave for the evening and close with a picture of the Olympic Mountains and how they looked this morning around 8:30, partially clear with thick clouds hovering in the valleys and foothills.

I am truly grateful for everything tonight. For my friends and family, for my shops and for work  that lets me do what I love. I feel blessed to be loved and to give love. As December wraps up for a close, and 2011 is nearing an end, I say thank you, thank you, thank you and may you enjoy all the blessings of the season and look forward to a spectacular new year.

I tried to add snow to this blog with a widget but somewhere; like much of the snow not happening in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains, it is lost. I want snow. I miss snow. I love feeling snuggled into the house as snow falls all around. I work on projects in the studio and a strong desire to bake and make soup comes over me. Maybe before winter is over, I will figure out the snow on this blog but in the meantime, I am just going to dream of all that white stuff!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is all around me. The stockings are hung, the tree decorated, gifts have mysteriously shown up on the tree skirt in the last few days and I am relaxing in the living room. The shopping is done both for my family and customers, as we closed up shop today around three. I am astounded by how comfortable everything feels right now and how very contented I am. In a few days things will change and once again I will be busy making things and getting ready for the big Tucson show. But for this moment, this space in time, this quiet Christmas Eve, I just want to say how much everyone has come to mean to me and how blessed I feel in your friendship, my family, my community, my career, my shop. May this season of peace bring you a season of love and comfort. Much love.

Christmas Eve Sky.

The tree. Mmm, the house smells great! 

Daisy and tree. 

Jake and dad in a quiet moment of companionship

Solstice!

Today is the winter solstice and we celebrated with a little party at my home. Did I manage to take any pictures? Of course not. I was having too much fun! Laughing, talking, telling stories and eating. Sometimes it is just nice to gather and have time to sit and talk. Thank you Yvonne for the sparkling wine, even though you were not here and thank you Phil, for my favorite white zin. What great company everyone was. I am grateful for the light we brought into the solstice evening. 

A customer walked into the shop the other Saturday evening carrying this little silver tree and I almost jumped on her; I loved it at first sight. She had just purchased it down the street in a consignment shop and offered to trade it to me for beads. That sounded like a great idea to me so now the little tree rests in my living room all ready for the holiday! When Michelle came into the house this evening the first thing she said was how she always wanted a silver tree. Great minds think alike.

I also spent some time working for Gina in her candy shop this week, too. A nice but dangerous change of pace from the bead store. Dangerous, you say? Yes, I say because candy and chocolate are my downfall. I am powerless in its wake. I surrender to it constantly even when I shouldn't. But it IS the holidays I tell myself. So while I wait for Christmas to arrive on this solstice evening, I will look at my little sparkly silver tree and think of chocolate kisses. 

This Time

This time of the year, I give myself free time. The few days before Christmas and the week after, I do not rush around the studio making things or writing orders or doing paperwork. I let myself have time to linger with customers at the shop, having conversations and remarking about holiday plans. I also take the time to finish up little things that during the normal course of days, I do not have the time to do. So today, I worked on Christmas cards and finished them!

Christmas greetings.

Then, after the red and green note writing in the cards, I worked on my journals. I have been keeping a combination of journal- scrapbooks since high school. Too many years and books to count. So today I collected up everything I had saved to put in them, clippings of obituaries, birthday cards, horoscopes, pretty postcards and pasted them all in the journals along with little comments and memories. I don't think I have allowed myself the sheer luxury of doing this since at least March. My fist posting was the sympathy card Marlene sent me when my beloved Regina dog died. It is amazing to me the things I have saved since then that documented my days and therefore my life.

Journals on my desk top.

Now, this evening I feel accomplished and contented that this things are done. The holiday cards written and mailed, the journals all up to date. Next we will see about finishing some of the things I began in the last few months that are fun. No other purpose than just for me because it was and is fun.

I have a " thing " for birds. I love to watch them. Feed them. Like the young seagull I fed my lunch crackers to this morning in the parking lot downtown by the drycleaners. He waits there every morning for his ( or her ) usual round of people that come by offering treats. He is so big, that I think of him as a beach turkey. He is so easily pleased and as I walk away I smile to myself over this secret tryst we have had so early in the day.

Anyhow, I think of birds like they are little beads that decorate the beach. Live beads. Pretty, moving beads. At the big chain pet stores, I watch the birds in the cages and wonder if they are happy. It seems like they are well cared for but do they dream of their days flying high in jungle trees, jungle skies? What are their eyes saying? What do their hearts long for?

These are pictures I took this week in that big, cold, impersonal pet store where this little guy called to me as he stood in the colors of his make believe world.

New Artwork

Loving the texture of the canvas paper.

It isn't always easy to find the time to pursue my passion of painting. These are little square paintings that I began this past summer and am finally moving towards finishing now. The months have flown by as these paintings sat on my ancient wooden drawing table. Working on small is not easy. They must have all the elements of a successful painting like composition, color, pattern, perspective in a very contained area. I get frustrated and feel like my arms are shortened and can not reach out and spread into my painting. I have to content myself with thinking that someday - someday - I will make the paintings BIG. Six foot square paintings on canvas, I will need a step stool to reach all their edges, I will stretch my arms out and layer color upon color, texture upon texture until even the painting absorbs my body, my person, my soul.

Things change so fast. Children grow, pets come and go, life passes on by and friendships change. This time of the year always gives me pause for reflection. I look at where I have been, what I have accomplished, how my family is and where I stand in my community, my life and my career. I mentally begin the list for the coming year of the changes I want to make and see in my life. I alter my mind set and tell myself to embrace change, that it is good and will make me a stronger, happier, better person. As I have grown up and become the woman I am today, I have to say that I like me. I am not perfect but I am honest and loving, caring and devoted, generous and kind. These things I do not want to change. My life is an open book, a journal that I write in daily and share with others willingly. I have always felt that knowing people and speaking with them, broadens my horizons and allows me an inner peace as I strive for growth in my relationships. Friend deserve 100% of my devotion for they are an extension of my family, the chocolate sprinkles on the ice cream of my day.  I like to think that family extends to everyone I regularly spend time with.

Today found me running around like a disheveled mad woman as I raced to make appointments, pick up Jake from school, run errands, do the housework and laundry and finish up the day with a nice dinner. All of it was accomplished and I am looking forward to the next hour or so of sitting in front of the television and turning off my mind and settling into the " zone ".

The Christmas tree.

What a beauty, tree and dog.

She is trying so hard to sit still for this picture.

The holidays add so much to my to do list and although I love the lights and trees, gifts and gatherings, I am feeling sorely pressed for quality me time. My studio calls to me to create and organize. Daisy nuzzles under my elbow as I work at my bench all the while she is saying, " come play with me, throw that ball, rub my belly... ". Jake says I am out of touch and as I stare off into space simply because there is too much in my head, I think of warm, sunny days lying on the beach near a grass shack as the ocean waves play along the edges of the shore. Fantasy and daydreaming becomes my refuge! How about you?

Yvonne's Book Signing

Last night during Gallery Walk at my shop ( Wynwoods Gallery ) my friend, Yvonne came and signed copies of her new book, A Suitcase Filled with Nails. It was a fun evening with Yvonne in the shop and my paintings on display upstairs in the classroom. I loved all the activity happening in the building and all the bustle that came into Port Townsend with the arrival of Santa and the tree lighting. Whew! Christmas is under way. Here are some pictures taken of Yvonne, she is very photogenic and I loved shouting to her, " work it baby, work it! "

Arabic writing is read right to left.

Showing off the necklace I made that has even been worn while standing next to Jane Fonda!

I just turned this laptop on and suddenly, fifteen minutes are gone. Being on line is like a time activating sucking machine. Slurp! and hours are gone. I can not even say where I have been while time passes me by. I wander from this site to that and still accomplish very little and then, in a daze, I glance at the clock on the wall and I realize that other activities are calling my name and my lover, my cold, slick, can't be without you lover of a computer is still holding me captivated to it's icy heart. Must break free...think I am getting sleepy so ..... I'll post a few pictures from around my shop and call it a night at the end of a long day.

Jades

Brass pieces.

Dichroic glass daggers.

Divine Protection

At work, which is what I call my shops, is a little altar that I have created. It is mounted against the wall behind the counter I stand at and wait on my customers. I build these little altars wherever I am because I need the reminder all the little figurines offer me.

Mother Mary, Buddha and Ganesh along with a fine feathered chicken.

The reminder that I have divine protection and to keep the faith. Times are difficult, no make that hard for so many right now and every day my heart breaks a little more when I hear of the troubles people are having. Children living in cars, people homeless and foreclosed on, pets being abandoned, jobs lost, hopes trampled on.

Somehow, in midst of all this chaos my little altar reminds me of the divine in my life, the divine in other people and to never forget to pray for hope and peace, love and healing.

Wherever we get our sense of religion, however it may be presented to us, it serves to remind me that there is a higher purpose in all that I do.

Buddhas, Confucius, Guadalupe and another chicken. *

The altar also starts so many conversations with customers and friends. People ask to see the figurines, hold them, turn them over in their hands and often remark on what a piece means to them or how they should begin their own altar. Almost everyone has a piece they have collected through the years and I hear the stories of what their figurines mean to them. Conversations that allow me to form a deeper relationship with a person and the divine light that lives within them.

And somehow, this has all become an extension of the beads. It is the beads that brought to me  joy and  prayer in my daily life and it is the beads that bring people in.

There you have it, the divine side of life according to the charms of Lois.


p.s. Someday, I will tell you the stories of my chickens and why they also are on my altar.

Just a Drop By Note....

This little mixer was given to me as a wedding gift in 1976. I still use it every time a mixer is called for. Phil has his big Kitchen Aid mixer ( is that what it is called ? ) and he drags that huge thing out when he needs to mix away but I like this little two speed mixer. This Thanksgiving weekend, I am celebrating my old friend here, my faithful mixer. All appliances should last so long and perform so well. It even outlasted that marriage!

This is the end of Thanksgiving day tired cook all collapsed and dozing in his arm chair last night. What a fine job he did, too. Two pumpkin pies and a turkey dinner plus for the two days previously, he helped me with the shops' Christmas window displays. He deserves his nap and I need to get to bed tonight!

We are in the midst of a big windstorm tonight blowing in a week's worth of rainy days. There are strange, squeaky noises coming from the sliding glass door in the living room and flashlights stand at the ready in case the power goes out. We are blowing steadily at 35 mph and are expecting gusts to nearly 70! Blustery is such a humorous word to describe this evenings' blow. From all my years of living on the beach in this area where I worried continually about the house blowing away or the bulkhead washing out, the wind still unnerves me and I am agitated and pacing most of the night.

 Somedays success is a figment of my imagination and I end up feeling like I could chase it for a 100 years and never attain it. Today feels like one of those days. In my head, even though I might be physically making jewelry, I am painting. Big, colorful pictures in clear crisp layered paints. I am lusting for paint. I feel like I will not be breathing until the brush is in my hand and paint is smeared on a palette
ready to be splashed across a canvas or paper. Inspiration is in my every waking thought and soon, I will need to put medium to paper and paint or fairly explode with the want of it. I guess that is the setting on fire I need.

Must close out on this night and snuggle for a while deep into the covers of my bed because soon the wind will be taking the power with it.

DZI and Delight

Two wonderful things happened today. First of all I had my birthday lunch with Marlene, a fellow November girl. We had a fabulous Parisian style lunch at Sweet Laurette's in uptown Port Townsend. We enjoyed a late morning breakfast followed by a dessert that was a torte for two called " chocolate
oblivion ". Rich, small and dark, the torte was heaven on a fork. I say again, " Damn you, Marlene! "
"  Damn you for introducing me to such sin! "

Marlene and what is left of our dessert.

The second wonderful thing that happened today needs a background story. I have a customer that has been using beads from her lifetime collection and making necklaces. She has been donating the necklaces and brings them to me for advice, pricing help and the names of the beads. Last week she showed me a necklace made of beads that she purchased in Asia in 1970. I told her that I thought she had some real D'ZI beads from Tibet. These are precious beads and can be hundreds of years old. They are inscribed with special markings that have spiritual meanings to Tibetans. I have never been lucky enough to see a real one let alone hold one. I referred my customer to Robert Liu of Ornament magazine, who referred her on to a dealer in Bellevue who viewed her beads and said they were worth
$ 2000.00 each! When my customer came in this afternoon to tell me this, I was so excited for her! I also felt special just to have been able to identify the beads for her and then be correct about them. Is that a bead story come true or what?
All in all as I sit here in my comfy living room leather chair on this snowy, rainy and hailing evening; I can reflect back on the day and say it was good. It was fun. It was companionship and history and chocolate all rolled into one birthday celebration day.
 pronounced Zee) is a Tibetan 
AAl in allword to describe a patterned agate bead of mainly cylindrical or tabular shape called "Heaven's Bead" in Chinese. Such beads were etched black-and-white or brown-and-white, with symbols comprised of circles, ovals, square, waves stripes, lines and various other symbolic patterns. To the Tibetans, each of these symbols represents a specific meaning. They are precious possession to the Tibetan, with so many fascinating stories of its mystical power attributed to it.

It is the stormy evening before my 55th birthday. Time has gone by so fast and even now, with the days being shorter and shorter, time seems to rush by even faster. I still am marveling at the age I have attained. My mother in law was right ( do you hear that mom Morello ? ), my body says 55 and my mind says 20. Every waking day feels new to me, not new as in here is a new day but new as in this life is so dang fun! Seriously, fun. I am full of a tickling energy that is just delighted to be turning 55, to be gathering experiences and wisdom to warm me in my later years. I am filling a basket with memories to treasure on cold dark winter nights. I am lighting a bright fire inside to cheer me on rain soaked evenings like this one. Summer is not so far off that I can not wish for more winter. I love the winter holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. I love that I have a husband and children. I love my friends and the loving loyalty they give to me in return for the loving loyalty I give them. I particularly treasure the customers from my shop that have become friends over the 19 years that I have had Wynwoods. Blessings on this, my near 55th year, blessings to me, to you and yours and as always I am so grateful for this life.

Port Townsend in the Wind

Just soak in the beauty! We are so blessed to be living in this awesome place. Wind and rain forecast tonight for this Veteran's Day evening. I am feeling grateful for friends, family and all the people in my life who have honorably served their country.

11.11.11

So is this a lucky day? Would you get married with numbers like this? Buy a lotto ticket? I have been told that we humans look for patterns in things and that makes us feel like we have some control over the future or our lives. I have always been rather attached to the number eleven and it shows up in my life in numerous ways, from my birth month to the hour I was born to the second half of my birthweight. I look for the number eleven in every thing that I do. I don't NEED the number 11 to be there, I just feel comforted if it IS there. When I head out  ( of the fog my brain is in from painkillers and too much sleep yesterday ) to the studio, I am going to look for the 11s in my work. Eleven beads, findings, crystals, charms. Whatever. I won't need the number 11 but I will see if I can heed it. Whatever that means on this wacky 11.11.11 !

It's my Blogoversary! Another year has passed in the mere blink of an eye. I am older, the blog is older and I am still in love with the things I do. I was at a downtown merchant meeting the other day and the subject being discussed was passion. Do you still have a passion for your business and what you do? Was it a passion that first got you involved in your business? I said out loud with total self confidence at this meeting that I still love what I do, that I opened my shop because I like to make things and sell the things I make, that every single day, I am happy to get up and go to work.  My heart still flutters a beat when someone purchases a piece that I have made and says that they like it. Like it enough to own it, wear it. I have never tired of hearing someone say how much they like my work, my shop, my creativity.

And yesterday, sweet yesterday, a customer told me how much she enjoys reading my blog and seeing the pictures I post and oh, by the way, she likes my drawings. I am thrilled! I am delighted! I could have celebrated all afternoon long.

So as this blogoversary commences, I say THANK YOU! To all who have read or are reading this blog, thank you, from the bottom of my painter's heart to the tips of my bejeweled fingers. A journey of the creative spirit that I am happy, ever so happy to have company on.

Secrets

There is a secret world that lives in my garden. My poor, much neglected garden. Summer was first too wet and cold and then quickly turned to a heated oven and things passed away, faded from life. I had all but given up on my front flower beds. Jacob and his friend Ben did some aggressive weeding and pulled even plants that I liked that they saw no purpose for. Jacob figures, much like my father who he never met or knew, that if you can not eat it; it shouldn't grow. Out went color and ornamental grasses. Tossed to the compost pile were purple vinca, pink heathers, iris bulbs, and carnations. I am left with what I thought was a dead waste land of what once was.

I have made mental plans for next years' garden. The shame of being an artist without a pretty garden is too much to bear but on one recent rainy afternoon, hidden amongst the remains of a few plants, I found this -

a secret world all nestled  safely within. I think there could be fairies or little people living under here. Don't you?

White bronze.

Yellow bronze.

As silver prices rocketed to the stratosphere these last few years ( and really with no end in sight ) I found myself making charm designs bigger and bigger. I wasn't sure where that journey was taking me but I continued on creating large pieces. Finally, I have decided the time has come to cast them in alternative metals and I am making these pieces available for the first time! I am casting them in bronzes, red, yellow or white and I really like the results. They look almost like silver in the white yet at the same time have the patina of much older pieces. Now I can see that maybe the large pieces were not such a bad idea.

Saturday Evening

Last evening my friend, David came over and had dinner with us. He has been a friend and best buddy since the mid 1970's. I can always count on him to make me laugh. He doesn't even know what triggers my laugh but he gives me this little sideways look and a twinkle appears in his eyes and I know he is there for me now and in the future. I gave him last year's Christmas present finally, after dinner, too. I am a terrible person who just can not manage to celebrate a holiday or birthday on the date that is given to that celebration. I gave David one of his favorite stories, The Wind in the Willows. So quietly, with a sort of family reverence we gathered around as David began to read. We were mesmerized and reveling in the simple joy of an evenings' story read. David is also an artist and soon, I will post some of his paintings. He is my gentle, misunderstood friend that I can offer shelter, friendship and a good meal to warm all our hearts. 

Even Jacob put down his ever present cell phone to listen to the story. 

I love being read to. 

How is it...

.... that I have not written here in so long? I can blame it on many things: I am busy, the days are short and the evenings shorter, I work more in the shop now but really, the older I get, the more time just flies by. It must happen to all of us. I hear customers and friends alike repeat the same thing over and over to each other. I want to lasso the days and keep them here. I want them to slow down so that I can embrace the goodness and renewal that comes with each sunrise. I am hungering for connection with my days and in that connection I want to, no, need to find time to be creative. 

Creativity is something that I can not turn on with a light switch. It happens when it happens, a frenzy of work and color and jewels and silver. It sneaks up on me in the ways I arrange a display case. It pops up its little fireworks show of " making things " in the early morning or late evening or after a multi hour bout of watching TV. You see, I am never just watching TV. In my mind, the wheels are spinning and I am using my mental hands to craft or paint incredible things that may or may not come to fruition in no time.

This one piece, now in its second incarnation as britanium or pewter, is the result of one afternoon of free time when absolutely nothing had to be created. The image could have been in my head from days ago when something I saw sparked a memory of the texture that would later appear on this piece. It is a journey in the studio, in the shop, from thought processes and memories in the head to creation by the hands. A blessing to be able to make something with one's hands and heart and soul.