older

 In 50 minutes, I will be a year older, supposedly wiser and certainly a more experienced woman. It is my birthday and as we move forward into this new year and the beginning of another trip around the sun; my mind wanders to the future. Like many of you, I am worried and hopeful.

Pessimistic and optimistic about the coming years all at once. Trusting the universe, I will move forward with the joy I feel in creating my artwork and my jewelry. You will find me most days in the shop except Tuesdays where we are closed for our weekly " gotta live a regular life and do ordinary things like make grocery lists, do housework, attend to appointments happen., etc." 

Find what I am up to by checking into my Facebook and Instagram pages. My website is under construction after 30 years and I hope to have it back up and running soon. It is unbelievable to me how fast time is moving. Maybe it is part of being older and knowing that there are more days behind me than ahead of me. Maybe it is just enjoying the sweetness of time and allowing myself to just be. Maybe it is feeling myself bloom and want to move in a thousand directions and into more creative time. Maybe it is just wanting to love my family and friends and customers and life. 

We are all strong and wonderful and creative and leaning into these challenging times with love, courage and friendship. I look forward to connecting with you and seeing you in the shop. xo

Website

 It is kaput. My website is down. I can not figure out how to fix it and my web guy that has been with me for decades has decided to retire and that is that. Anyhow, I met a nice guy last week that can do a website for me and now I need to decide how much of a site I want. I am thinking of scaling down all that on line ordering and shopping carts and .... and....

Maybe just a meet and greet page where you get the basics of my shop for now. You know, hours of operation, days open, forms of payment taken and so on. Maybe after the first of the year I can do a bigger site. I am asking myself how much time I want to devote to all the on line things. I love FB and Instagram and like keeping things posted there. Of course, you can always contact me on these sites and ask me to mail you anything you find interesting. You can email me or call the shop. If you leave a voice mail, I will call you back. You can even email me a technical how to question or several.

What I like best about my shops is being with people. Talking, sharing, laughing. Being out and about, not in front of a computer screen. I like encouraging your creativity face to face. I get inspiration from you and I hope you get the same form me. It saddens me to think of how isolated we have become especially since the pandemic shutdown in 2020.  I like being asked questions. I like that I have known some of my customers since they were little kids. I like that your families have grown up with my shop. When you come in and say, " I am so happy you are still here..." my heart grows bigger. My soul soars. 

Until I figure this all out without a huge amount of stress, I hope you will continue to visit me on FB and Instagram and best of all, in person. I like knowing you. 

As we move forward on life's creative journey; I want you to know that with the deepest gratitude, I am glad you have been here with me, in the shop, on our joint journeys through life and craft. 

September

 In just a few days, on the 22nd to be exact, fall arrives! My favorite time of the year. The days are a little cooler, crisper and here in the northwest, we begin to see the return of our gray days and light rains. I love the rain and find it a great time to nestle into the studio when I am not at the shop, and create. jewelry, silver work, knitting, painting, needlepoint, and whatever else my monkey mind can think of. 

I plan on adding some pictures later but this crazy day has run away with me and I am finding I am on the phone entirely too much! Talk to you soon, Lois

Days have swept by me...

 Hello, It's me! I've been wondering if after all these months....haha, I did not realize so much time has passed since I last wrote. These have been busy days as I work in the studio on my days off, which are far too few, and work the shop the rest of the time. Days can be hot with the full sun shining and with the beach just across the street from me, I am raring to go outdoors at the drop of a bead!

Anyhow, a large box of Czech glass fire polished beads has just arrived from overseas and we will be working on getting pieces out as soon as humanly possible. Fire polish means faceted so I am looking forward to lots of color and light to move forward in these remaining weeks of summer. 

I am heading out to the studio at this very minute to begin making sea glass earrings and pricing more new inventory. a video may be coming up soon on FB showing the chaos in the studio with new inventory hovering about. Did I mention baskets? We just received a bunch in there too! For now I will sign off and get to it. Enjoy the summer days as they drift slowly into the last days of August! 

                                                      The little altar behind my shop counter.

                                                             Reminding on even the busiest of days to keep the faith.

                                                             

                                                  Then, there is this! HAHA!Love you all! 

Anxiously Awaiting Warmer but not Hot days!

 This weekend marks the unofficial beginning of summer and I know I am anxiously, more than anxiously, waiting for some warmer summer days to sit outside without 4 layers of clothes on and time to just be out of the house. Winter has seemed kind of long and with all this rain of lately ( which I am totally grateful for, by the way ) everything is big, lush and green and calling out for some attention from me. I tell these beautiful trees and plants to just wait my lovelies, I am heading your way soon with clippers, a wheelbarrow and more! 

In the meantime, just to remind you that summer even comes to beads; here are a few new arrivals. 

I hear birdies calling me! Glass bead birds are here!

A customer's selection of summer colors for her new beadwork. Size 11.

I am patiently waiting for new beads set to arrive from the Czech Republic in the next couple of weeks. Waiting is not my specialty and I want all the beads now. Oh well, I will just have to dream of them and the new projects my customers and myself will think up. 

Irish Catholic Rosary with green shamrocks.

In the meantime I have kept myself busy by making rosaries for the shop. We have not had a hearty selection of late and I am remedying that these days. This particular rosary will be the last of its kind. I usually cast my own rosary centers and crucifixes but this one I purchased probably 20 years ago from a US family on the east coast. They had a wonderful business but retired during the pandemic. So this is it. I am sad. The gold rosary like this sold a few weeks back. Perhaps some day I will find a stash of these rosary parts. I just know I will keep looking!

Until then, I hope to see you in the shop or online. Did you know that warmer weather allows us to once again make warehouse appointments? Just let us know at the shop. We have the sweetest warehouse with a big, not in the shop, selection.

HAPPY BEADING! xo, Lois

How can it possibly be May?

 It’s crazy how time just flies. Everybody says that as the days quickly move into the next. I see time move away from me much too fast. I have my four days a week in the shop and two days in the studio and one day for all the appointments and stuff that make up a life but I want more. More studio time. More shop time. More personal time. Ever find your older self wondering how you accomplished so much I your youth? Days and time seemed luxuriously long then. I will continue to seek that proverbial balance in my life between all its facets and gulp my days down as if they were the finest wines and chocolates.

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

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

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!