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.