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!

 

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! 🧡🍁

Sweet dreamy knitty dreams! 

 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.

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

Summer Greetings

 It is here in all its bright, hot glory... summer! I love summer for cool evening breezes and warm days. I do not like at all the heat of our new to this area, heat domes. The good thing about them is I can park myself in front of a fan and do some serious beadwork. I like to string multiple strand necklaces and bracelets as a way to unwind and think and feel the calmness of bead meditation. Stay cool, stay hydrated and stay creative. My summer plan!

What my little bundle of work looks like at the end of a studio day. A day " off  " from the shop. 

These are 24KT gold foil encased by hand in Czech glass bead hearts. I made them into pendants and have them on satin gold chains in the shop. $ 14.95.  I used to make them a couple of decades back but thought this is the summer to bring them back. Gold, glassy and sparkly! 

Earrings made with what I call summer Caribbean colors. Hot, tropical, swingy. These are my moon & sun earring tops and are on my website. Sterling Silver. You can make your own with my earring tops, your beads and some sterling head pins. Every summer needs a special pair of earrings!

This is it for me tonight. It has been a long day of studio work and watching a very big, chubby garter snake in my herb bed. I am going to post his or her picture on my FB page tonight. I saw her last summer and this is my first visit with her this summer. Snakes do not bother me but don't even talk to me about a spider!

Stay cool! Have fun! Get creative and crafty!! xo Lois

lois@wynwoods.com. 

Sunday, a perfect crafting afternoon.

 It began a bit sunny but is now cool, gray and breezy. Not even 60 degrees which is totally fine with me! I like cool and gray. 

I have made a few things for the shop today which is my typical Sunday. This day began with a mad dash into the building my shop is in to check on an upstairs plumbing leak. Argh. I really do not like days that begin with a crisis. I think all is well now and maybe I can concentrate on other things. Favorite things like drawing, painting and making jewelry! 

This week will find me in the shop on Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I like seeing all my customers and enjoy being there. New beads have come so there is always the excitement of showing them off and putting them out into inventory. 

This is my little altar that is on the tiny bookcase shelf behind my desk. It reminds me to keep the faith and to trust my instincts and to be kind, thoughtful and express gratitude. Do you have anything similar? 

This is my little spice turn table that I have my hand tools on. They are in cups and jam jars and are the tools I reach for as soon as I sit down too work. I have other tools scattered in various areas about the studio in different work stations. 

Finally a finished drawing. I have all these new sketchbooks that Jacob & Phil have given me that I might never get them filled with images. I am so longing for a time I can work bigger. 

Summer is nearly here and the solstice is in two weeks. That's when more knitting and fiber work comes out and I retreat too the front porch to work outside, in a warm breeze.

Time to stir up some trouble in the kitchen. Until next time, be well and keep crafting. Lois