Ornamental

summer solace

i'm not really sure what's going on with me these days, but i've been feeling more peace and quiet bliss than i have felt in a long, long time.  yesterday evening as i worked here on the computer by my front expanse of windows, i was touched by the way that the lingering last light of the day seemed to seep into the old blue mason jar and gather there, captured twilight resting in blue upon my table top.  perfect, says the glass.  perfect.  and that's how it felt, sitting there with the day finally cooling down, with the breeze brushing my shoulders and saying here.  here you go - a little something to soothe the end of your long day.  
this morning i woke earlier than usual, as i seem to be doing more and more each passing day, and stumbled in here to sit and read my mail with a cup of hot tea.  i'd been working yesterday, on up to the end of daylight, photographing the trinkets and ornamental jewels that i'd assembled for the past few days.  something about the way that the new light crept in over them struck a chord in my heart; something made me stop and get the camera out all over again.  the light was magical, in the early morning cool; it was gentle and soft, as soothing as had been the breeze from the end of yesterday. this will most likely be the last batch of jewelry i list (eight pieces, i think?) in my etsy shop before i head off to ecuador on The Grand Adventure; as much as i'd love to sit and create in the midst of this huge blast of inspiration that i'm experiencing, there are incredible worlds to explore that beckon to me from beyond, way beyond, the studio.  what you see here, i've quietly created after walking through cool morning forests, under the protective canopy of beautiful trees.  these woods, these forests, these trees treat me ever so kindly, can you see?  xo

self portrait friday - reflected

 

this week i thought it might be a bit interesting for you to see me as i see myself - right eye looking like my left, left eye looking like my right.  i've never understood that when i part my hair off centered to right, it is actually to the left.  53 years old, and i still can't get my mind around that one.   i have to laugh when i look at this photograph; it looks like i am naked, but believe me, i'm not.  another funny thing about this shot is the little fake tattoo on my right (left) arm, what's left of the one my friend stuck to me last evening while we sat out at the local tea house in the early evening with a glass of wine.  one more thing -  you can see the total mayhem in which i live.  always, a mayhem.  always, a mess.  but always a life.  have a glorious weekend, everyone. ps.  and yes, i do have a real tattoo, and am extremely proud of it:  a silver fern, the national emblem of new zealand, and also that of the awesome All Blacks new zealand rugby team.  i visited a wonderful kiwi tattoo parlor while visiting my dear friend wendy two years ago (please be sure to visit her really, really lovely new blog, layers of memory, here), and had the fern tattooed across the back of my neck;  if you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll remember the photos i shared with you at that time.  and finally, for your pleasure, i share with you the All Blacks' incredible maori haka dance- something they perform before the opponents at the opening of every game.  you'd better believe they are the very meaning of cool!!!  xo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMCAV6Yd0Y&NR=1

i love my life

this is my absolute favorite time of the year - favorite month, favorite place, favorite way to spend my days at home.  there are so many things that bring me simple pleasure; it's easy this morning to take the time to list some of them here, before the oppressive afternoon heat settles in and i haven't the energy for anything but sitting quietly at my studio table to work in the coolest room of the house.
i love my pup, i really do.  he is a wild thing, full of energy and character, and he loves to push my buttons, left and right.  walter came into my life a year ago this past sunday, when the temperature was just as hot, if not hotter, as it is this week.  he was a tiny thing, limp from the heat, quiet against my chest for the whole three hour drive home.  i had no idea what lay before me, the life that living with a puppy brings; had i known, i may not have felt i was up to the task.  and i wasn't.  but i learned very quickly how to adapt to life with walter, and i haven't looked back since.  nor has he. after surviving the insanity of the charm locket orders, something that took over my life (awake and asleep) for two solid weeks, i've welcomed the slower pace this week is affording before my plans for The Big Trip begin in earnest.  it is a wonderful thing to sit quietly at my studio table, to once again crochet as my sister instructed me on those long winter nights last year when we sat side by side in living room chairs, crocheting, knitting, talking when we wanted, being comfortably quiet otherwise.  right after ellen taught me the basics of the good old fashioned chain stitch, i worked some of my new found skills into necklaces, then moved on to knotting the gemstones that grace my studio.  last week while roy's lovely girlfriend alex was here visiting for a night, i sat and crocheted myself a necklace to wear in the cloud forest of ecuador.  and i have to say that wearing this necklace in the river woods of western north carolina mountains has its charms as well.  and i also have found great pleasure and peace in sitting as still as a slumbering mouse, nothing moving except for my hands, holding crochet hook and silk cord and glittering gemstones and pearls in place. i'm enjoying my early morning walks with walter along the river, through the woods, when the air is still cool and smells of loamy black soil, of rain, of early sunshine, when it smells of freshness and pine.  i'm walking every single day now, walking at a fast clip while walter stays in formation right beside me (we're learning, we are), i'm continuing to gather treasures like acorn caps and river stones in the shapes of hearts or hens' eggs.  it is a beautiful pleasure to come home sweaty and rewarded from our hour in the beautiful woods, to empty my pockets, to settle in to the studio and marry words with nature. i'm fond of my long, hot afternoons, when nothing is stirring, when the fan is whirring in the studio window, along with the fan on the floor i've placed down there for sir walter; i'm fond of the way that afternoon blends into early evening, quietly.
i love these days when the welcome scented cool of twilight finally falls, when the sky is painted all the colors of wonder, when i can sit out on the deck and watch the clouds dance into pink and orange to lavender, when the call of the wood thrush is the last birdsong of the day that i hear, floating through the trees and into the twilight that is sparkling with the golden lamps of fireflies illuminating the night.

i love crawling into crisp, clean rose-dotted cotton sheets when bedtime comes, i love a wonderful book that makes it hard to turn out the light.  and this is such a beautiful, authentic book, full of achingly exquisite sentences like "I thought of him smiling also, a fair angel's smile, his features transmitting a regard so strong as to defy the inconvenience of his factual absence.",  and this, "In her voice was the gravest echo.  In her voice I could hear the place her soul could see.".  i read page after page after page of beautiful writing, words that make me pause for a moment, words i read over a second time again.  i finally turn out the light long after midnight, knowing the alarm will go off early again the next morning before the summer morning fog has lifted.

goodness, how i love my life. xo

 

fledging flight

art imitates life.  yes?  i've never felt the empty nest as acutely as i do this morning, even though the babies flew over four years ago.  robin has loaded the little rented trailer with a mattress and boxsprings, a dresser, a tv; he and his beloved pup nualla are by this point today on the road, heading west.  the twinges in my heart are proud and bittersweet.  best and safest of flights to you, my older fledging bird; happy horizons.  i am so very very very proud of you.
oh, goodness, how my tender emotions flow through to my work....xo
necklace is listed in my little etsy shop.  go see. 

make of yourselves a light

summer solstice, 2010:  a favorite time of mine, in the middle of my favorite month of the year.  i wake up on this morning amazed at the way that my life continues to unfold, incredulous that magic and grace continue to surround me as i walk through the months and the years.
on this long day of drawn out, lingering light, i think of so many beautiful, tender, intricate things, and picture the way that light presents itself to us in all its many ways.  imagine this with me:  ponder the way that raindrops fall into an upturned acorn cap, deep in the quiet heart of the woods.  picture the way that daylight reflects on that minuscule amount of liquid, the way that it lingers there until evaporated or absorbed. 
close your eyes and picture the leaves and flowers lacing the edges of a winding path that leads you through the shaded woods, next to the river; imagine the sounds as you stop to take a closer look, as you watch the dappled sunlight dancing, beckoning the swollen buds to blossom. imagine standing very still.  imagine seeing magic, seeing light, within that rosy blossom. and just like that, so beautiful, so perfect a light - opening, reflecting, radiant.  such grace, like the water in a tiny natural drinking cup turned upwards on the forest floor. 

we can make of ourselves, as mary oliver's buddha says, a light.  we can teach and listen and beckon and grow, we can love and comfort and yes, between darkness and light, we can surely learn to shine. and so i wish for you, on this lovely longest day, so many many things, but mostly for you i wish the healing balms of beautiful, radiant light. xo 

"Make of yourself a light"
said the Buddha, 
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal-a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down 
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire-
clearly I'm not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches, 
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd. 
      - Mary Oliver

self portrait friday - gratitude and a pink shrouded moon

i'll keep this simple and sweet this beautiful friday.  life continues to unfold.  my adventure plans continue to grow, all - ALL - thanks to you, and you, and you.  i continue to receive letters and emails thanking me for allowing you to be a part of my trip.  this blows me away.  you, thanking me?!  my friends, i feel the need to thank you all one hundred times over again. i continue to be disgusted and frustrated by my exceedingly, worsening computer connection.  do you remember the slowness of dial-up?  mine's worse.  i do not exaggerate.  this house sits nestled in a little holler, and the broadband connection wavers from barely there to nothing at all.  this, while my landlord and my friends up the hill get full blown coverage.  imagine someone - this one writing here - trying to conduct a business online.  imagine me trying to upload larger photos into etsy (in vain, most of the time, from here), picture me walking out onto the deck last evening at twiilight with laptop in hand, hoping for a faster speed.  frustration reigned.  and then at one fine point, something told me to stop and look up, and i saw what i share with you here...  a thumbnail moon, shrouded softly in pink.  have you ever?  now you have.  right here.
now, imagine me sitting here late into the evening, picking up my laptop and actually holding it at a tilted forty five degree angle to get better reception, while working on my etsy things (a bit like wrapping tin foil onto bunny ear antennas).  i felt awfully foolish, i did.  but the moon and its pink mantel were worth the wasted hour of my precious time. this morning i am elated, if tired (see the eyes):  after walter and i went for our now daily walk, i spotted some very local people by the side of the road with old tools for sale.  i snared this old case of lovely soft green mason jars, and can picture them holding so many wonderful things:  lightning bugs, pink light of the moon, tiny round buttons of mother of pearl.  blue topaz beads, round brown tags, smooth river stones.  thoughts.  memories.  love.  xo

outline of a journey - part four

before (and during): and now, after:

can't tell a difference, can you?  well, i can; there is a little cleared space atop the (deeply dipping) church-sale studio table, i can actually see the cutting pad upon which i do all of my work.  there is some order there, even if it is my order, even if it is only visible to the eye of the one who sits there and tinkers and creates.  and this, my friends, feels good.

for the past two weeks, i've kept my head tucked down far below the radar, printing and cutting and pasting and pouring resin, sanding and buffing and painting and painting some more, wiring and stringing and assembling charms on ribbon that are now winging their way, all 100+ packages, to far flung places like australia and belgium and germany, iceland and england and canada, and all over these united states.  who knew?!!  i did not have the foggiest idea how successful these little word lockets would be.  i've remembered to make one for myself, the little "cloud forest" that you see above as it waits for the sanding and painting stage (a profound and heartfelt thank you here to the amazing mr. tim holtz, who quickly and kindly and generously comes to my rescue the minute i frantically ask!!!). lovely, aren't they?  they make a magical little twinkly sound when gathered together and held in my hand, like little bells ringing their way across the world.  and that is how i like to think of them:  harbingers of grace and healing and hope, reminding those who hold them in their hand that we are all connected by the most elemental (and enormous) of things - our tender hearts. i'm a little sad to see them all disperse, to separate from the collection and make their way out into the wide, far corners of this world.  but then again, i'm mighty glad to have the enormity of this task and project finally behind me.  my goodness, i hadn't any clues about the intensity of organization and packing this would require.  those of you to whom i sent an invoice more than once, i do apologize.  paypal is not always the best at filing money the minute or even the day that it is sent; i've learned this now.  i've learned a lot of things; you can only begin to imagine. i read the words on the charms in this photo, i remember what it was like to send "grace" and "mend" out to so many on the other end.  i loved with all of my heart painting the words (again, thank you tim!!), i loved knowing they were going where they were meant to be.  i want to take this moment to thank most of all my trusted friend laura, who dropped her own life activities to drive out here every afternoon and early evening for the past four days to check and double check my lists, to wrap the trinkets in little waxed paper envelopes, to fold boxes and fill them, to stamp and address them, to cart them to the post office on her way back into town.  it takes a special friend, one who is real and true, to rise to an occasion like this, to remain cheerful throughout.  i love you, laura.  and i thank you for this, for everything.  the years have only added to a friendship that continues to grow as we make our cautious way through middle age.
i also want to thank, again, those of you who placed your orders with me; because of your overwhelming and enthusiastic response, i've changed my plane ticket and will now be staying an additional four days in ecuador.  roy has waved the words "cloud forest" in front of me, and i have said yes.  because of you, i am able and willing to say yes. 

yes!  i said yes, i will, yes!  (James Joyce)

i'm headed back into the studio to create some necklaces that have been on the back burner since this charmed frenzy began, since the labor of the task took on a life of its own.  there are lovelies already in the making, i can assure you this, and i'll let you know as soon as they are ready to purchase.  this time, i'm relieved to say, i'll be listing them in my little etsy shop (perhaps, just perhaps, as early as tomorrow).  UPDATE - the necklaces below are now listed in etsy; all but the blue one second from left have sold.  the blue is LOVELY!  a couple of previews for you:

xo

off they go, those babies of mine, of yours... into the wind.  like dreams, they shine. and off they go.  the nest is empty, but i know the job i've done is a beautiful one.  off they go.  the nest is quiet, and their lives are their own, no longer mine.  oh, life!  oh, this.  goodness, yes. xo

self portrait friday - turn around

it is with a bittersweet beat and skip in my heart that i write this post today:  my robin flew through for two short nights on his way to visit his alabama relatives for the weekend, the last time i see him before he makes his move out to colorado (ten days from now).  he is in the midst of making final arrangements - so many last minute details!   i watched him handle contacting potential housemates with grace and dignity while here, i listened as he made phone calls and asked all the right questions, as he spoke to them with the respect and politeness of the southern gentleman i raised.  my goodness, where did that chubby little curly headed toddler go?!   i drank in his presence, every minute that he was here; i cooked favorite dishes, we worked side by side in the yard doing chores, we sat out on the deck as twilight fell and the multitudes of june lightning bugs rose from the forest and flickered around us into the night.  it was a lovely thing to see him bring upstairs the vintage edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass i'd given him for christmas years ago, to witness him reading it as i prepared dinner, it was with pride i heard him say that he planned to carry the book with him out to colorado.       i love my boys, so much... too much, it seems, sometimes.  no such thing, this measurement of love; there is no such thing as too much.  i love my boys ferociously.  i love my boys as much, if not more, as i love my own sweet life. 
so today, for you, i share the beauty of his gentle smile; i share the story of my maternal love, i share its passion, this wonderful love.  i share with you my love.  xo

a tender song comes right to mind, written long ago by harry belafonte for a daughter but so very fitting here (best to have a hankie in hand, i'm heading off to get one now):  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBWVWjdNWC0

xoxo

thanks, everyone.  thank you for showing me such grace.  funny thing, that word:  it was by far the most requested, along with "mend".  grace and mend, the two do seem to go hand in hand.  you've all been wonderful to support my adventure in this way - such compassion and enthusiasm you all have - my ornamental friends.  you all are so dear, i wish i could throw a party and light the sky with your names in twinkling stars.

i've had to stop taking orders at 112; my hands and eyes and mind are tired but richly rewarded by how beautifully this unfolded.
thank you, 112 times a thousand. xoxo

outline of a journey - part three

editor's note, late tuesday evening:
OKAY, FOLKS - I'M UP TO #112, AND I'M AFRAID I HAVE TO QUIT!!  thanks again, so so SO much, for your enthusiasm and support with this project/endeavor of mine.  i can't thank you all enough!  now, just pray that these fingers and eyes and back will see me through the next week making alllll these wonderful little word charms! xo

there is something really really screwy with my typepad post page, this morning.  i can't add photos, can't add links, can't italicize, or underline.  i want to throw typepad out the window today, with relish and with verve. 

what i want to say, without being able to decorate with any images, is this:

there is enormous power with the simple word.  i write, and you read, and you respond.  i make jewelry with stories, with emotions, and the miracle that happened yesterday is one that has me reeling still, a day later, with its vast magnitude.  many, many, many of you have written to say how much the little charms appeal to you.  they are so very simple, these charms.  they are vintage, yes, and they are brass.  they open to contain a tiny something you place within, be it a note, a blade of grass, a miniscule photograph, a tiny lock of hair from someone, or some four legged creature, that you have loved.  simple words, no longer than five letters - so many!  i've sat here and read letter after letter describing to me an emotion that was triggered by one single word - mend, for example - several of you wrote to me about that little four letter word, "mend".  i had hesitated to use that one - would anyone get it?  would it speak to anyone?  and yes, it did.  mend, and true, and soul, and hope - sky and bird and sea - all of these things have triggered for you a long, long ribbon of memory, a flowing strand of anticipation.  i just cannot fathom how deep and how wide our emotions all run, but these tiny little charms are a good, strong indicator that we all have sentiment we would like to honor, to hold tight in our beating hearts.

so here's the thing.  yes, i have deadlines, yes i have long, long overdue jewelry promised to people, a couple of pieces to repair for one gal who has been waiting for a very long time.  i'm awful, that way.  there are jewelry requests, and people to address, packages to send.  but while i am able right now to take care of an immediate matter that is of utmost importance to me - yes, to me - i want to be able to raise the funds needed to transport me to the high mountains of ecuador, where my younger son walks along ancient trails that lead through rain forests, to the aqua sea. 

i've received more than a few requests to feature the little word charms again.  folks have written to me, unhappy that they missed the post until it was too late and the charms were all gone (within a matter of a few hours, i'm shocked at this still).  listing and selling them demanded a lot of organizational skills on my end, selling them through Ornamental as i did; i am NOT an organized person by nature, as hard as i try, and it took every ounce of togetherness i had to read through the emails from earliest to latest, to add up financial amounts, to send invoices to each who ordered their pieces as requested in the comments section.  i spent an entire day answering emails, sending out paypal invoices, going back and forth to my numbered word list and marking them off as sold or not.  i tried in all fairness to take care of everyone - to please them, to make sure they got the ones they requested, in proper order.  unfortunately, there were multiple requests for the same items, and those who wrote first got first dibs.  but, this morning i woke with this notion:

i'm going to list another group of the charms, as soon as i can get them made again this week.  i have tweaked the list of words, according to demand and what will fit in the tiny little square.  the list is below; if any of you see one or more that you would like to purchase, please write me and i'll reserve and make them for you.  don't worry if someone else has chosen the same word you want; i am taking orders as you request them, for a couple of days and will make multiples of whichever words you each choose. i'll post the cut-off date sometime this week.  after this listing, there will be no more of these charms.  i had a box of a few less than 144 (a number called a "gross", for anyone who didn't know); they are vintage, i purchased them through ebay a good 12 years ago, and now i'm down to 40 less than that (minus the few that i had used in my artwork so many many years ago - one for roy's book, several for art book pages, including a page in someone's journal for the True Colors collaboration).  i want to keep a few for myself, perhaps to make for the children of robin and roy one day.   so i'm going to limit the next batch to 100 or less.  after that, no more.  period.

I'VE REACHED WELL OVER 100 - sorry, i have to stop now - THANK YOU......

if you see a word on the list below that you want, please leave a comment requesting that word and the number beside it.  make sure, damned sure, that your comment has your email address, and your name.... NOT a website address, not a blog address, but your name and your email address.  please use the email that you'll want me to use for paypal.  and i ask that you do this within the next day or so; i want and need to move on to the next jewelry items that i've designed and will be featuring in the coming days.  once these are gone, that's it - no more locket charms. 

the price, as stated before, is $40.00 for each charm; it will be my choice for pearls or gemstones to place on them, as well as the color of ribbon.  these things are limited in supply as well, and i don't want or need to get bogged down in worrying about color or stones for each and every one; trust that i will make them all lovely.  the charm itself measures just over 1/2" square (9/16").  they are functioning lockets, and do open.  shipping will be $5.00 (priority box) for addresses within the united states; others will be mailed in a padded envelope for $6.00.

you are helping me realize a very grand dream, one that i've unconsciously wanted for a long, long time.  being self employed, i don't have the money to spend on vacation, with or without my boys; their dad, employed by their grandfather, seems at this point in life to have unlimited funds, and has carried them on business trips to peru, turkey, even china.  and that is wonderful, that is fine.  but i've often longed for the opportunity to experience another country with my boys, to walk ancient trails, to touch old stone walls with them standing at my side.  in a perfect world, i'd be there with both robin and roy; as it is, robin is scurrying to make his move to colorado in the next couple of weeks, and roy is studying in ecuador for two months.  and the time, this time, is right; there was one small little window in time in which i could go, between his school schedule and a visit from his dad.  and go, thanks to you, i shall.  this continues to blow my mind, it really does.  yet, i've now been able to purchase my $900 plane ticket, i've secured hotel reservations, i've renewed my expired passport, and all systems are go.  i cannot thank you all enough; perhaps my words and images upon my return will convey the gratitude i feel for all of you. xo

The Charm Locket List:

1.       home

2.       nest

3.       fly

4.       bird

5.       bloom

6.       here

7.       fairy

8.       story

9.       tale

10.   grace

11.   dare

12.   soul

13.   sea

14.   hope

15.   mend

16.   leap

17.   sky

18.   water

19.   love

20.   open

21.   path

22.   true

23.   poem

24.   joy

25.   now

26.   this

27. magic

astounded

folks, i don't know what to say, other than a very deep and humble and grateful THANK YOU.  i listed the post at midnight, was up until 2am documenting orders flying in, and by 10:30 or 11am every single one of those 40 charms was taken.  the response has been overwhelming; you can imagine the confusion of checking two different lists, marking them as requested, noting who has already paid.  i took a break just now with walter to walk outside, and look what was gazing up at me from the ground at my feet.

as my beloved friend joyce, with whom i brainstormed over this in california, said to me this morning:  "you have captured your dream. I absolutely knew you could pull this off.  Now all these people own pieces of your work and feel a connection to your adventure with your son.  Playing it forward. I cannot tell you how proud I am to be your friend. Your positive energy is contagious. Your trip will be AUTHENTIC, all made possible by YOU!".

needless to say, i've had enough requests for more of the charms that i'll be making and listing more this week.  too, i've got some mighty special necklaces - called "affirmations" - that i'll be listing later in the week as well.  my plane ticket is paid for, as well as a good portion of my hotel bill.  you are all incredible, my friends.  you really are.  thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!   xoxo

if any of you who placed an order have not received a paypal invoice from me this morning, please email and let me know - it was an oversight on my part. thanks!

outline of a journey - part two

so where was i?

ah, yes.  the little vintage lockets that i had purchased so many, many years ago.  there is a little square cardboard box of them that usually rests atop a tiny soft green and yellow antique doll cupboard, and the cupboard sits high atop a shelf within my studio.  the box had been forgotten for all these years; it was not until i was talking on the phone with a friend of mine when i suddenly remembered the pretty little squares that i had years ago labeled "roy's lockets", because i had used one on the house book i made for him all the way back in 2001.  and remembering the lockets led me to pull the dusty little brass and silver house book down from its quiet resting spot on the shelf; and holding that little book open in my hand brought back a flood of memories.  and i had a little moment of inspiration for funding my trip to ecuador to be with roy in july.  just like that.  see?  (and as an aside:  i received a beautiful email from roy this evening, telling me how excited he is, how wonderful this time together will be, that "i love you lots".  oh, boy.  the love of a son! and he traveled with his school group to the beach this weekend, exploring cliffs, hanging out "in a hut along the coast in the middle of nowhere.  on the way back today, we explored a little of the cloud forest in mindo and it was like nothing i've ever seen".  imagine that.  a forest, in the clouds.  imagine!)

surely you all have things that are so special to you that you hoard and hoard and never use, deeming them too precious to actually put into your work?  silly, really.  so many things.  so little time.  why ever not?

why ever not.

i worked on a warm handful of charms while the rain and the thunder and the grey, grey clouds hung low across the mountains; i worked throughout the end of the week, and worked straight on through the weekend, staining paper with tea, printing words onto paper, precisely cutting perfect little squares and carefully, slowly gluing them in and then gluing another layer on top again, watching the paper change colors and blossom as the resin, so perfectly poured, began to soak into the paper below.  the resin hardened and cured, i covered the brass with masking tape and i scratched and buffed and sanded some more, i painted and brushed and wiped and painted and brushed and sanded and wiped, until there was a layer of color that reminded me finally of the play of light on the eggshells of birds, that seemed a little to me like the play of light on water running over rocks and through these beautiful green mountains of mine.  maybe it's just me.  maybe you won't see these things at all, maybe all you'll see are words under a sheen of resin, with a bit of color hit and miss; but the effort is there, the emotion of a trip that is waiting for me is there, the love and the pride and the joy is all there, wrapped up into little thumbnail sized squares of brass that open to hold something, anything, nothing but a puff of memory within. (click on any of these images for an up-close, detailed view).

so here you are, then:  a choice of little words, to be hung with a silk ribbon around your neck, between pages of a book, from a nail on the wall, from a knob on your door, the neck of your kitty, or an angel standing quietly in the garden.  tuck within the locket a tuft of hair, a crumpled rose petal, a bit of a poem, a promise.  a dream - always a dream.  and ever a memory. charms 1-14, with lovely faceted nuggets of blue peruvian topaz.  peru, neighbor to ecuador.  the ribbon is antique french milliner's silk that i dyed the color of the sky two junes ago.  click on the photo for a closer look.

charms 15-25, accented with my favorite stone of moss aquamarine - the color of my eyes, the color of the sea.  click on the photo for detail, and you will see an errant little loose thread of aqua blue dancing across #25.  it is already gone.  life is full of pleasant surprises, yes?

charms #26-32 are paired with lovely velvety brown freshwater pearls, strung on soft sari silk ribbon that is a shade of brown overdyed with a bit of blushy peach.

charms 33-40, paired with beautiful faceted nuggets of green peridot.  the color of summer, of envy, of life.  the color of go.  the ribbon is a vibrant emerald overdyed sari silk.  emerald, the color of oz.

i'm going to try to skip the arduous details of listing on etsy this time around, to simplify things and to save myself some time.  if you see a charm you would like to purchase, please remember to first leave a comment stating which number you'd like, leaving your email address with your comment.  also - please be sure to check all of the previous comments, to make sure that that one you want is not already taken!  i'll then send you a paypal invoice as soon as i've read your comment, and will try my best to mark each piece here as sold in the list below, once i've received your payment.  each charm comes with a  length of hand dyed torn silk ribbon (some from saris, some from ribbon my sister and i dyed last year in the color of the sea); the price for each is $40.00; packing/shipping/handling within the united states is $5.00, for a small priority box.  if you live outside the u.s., shipping is $6.00 (for one charm or for ten, it matters not). do note that several words are repeated.  i'm not taking special requests at this time, and hope you'll understand.  i will mail all orders later this week, and if you've purchased other upcoming pieces, i can certainly combine everything into one box for the same shipping charge.  (boy, how much i don't like writing about all of these dull technical details...).

and the story continues, yes it does.  i'm feverishly working on necklaces, pieces of magic and affirmation.  you'll see.  stay tuned. xo

1.       love - SOLD

2.       water - SOLD

3.       fly - SOLD

4.       story - SOLD

5.       fly - SOLD

6.       grace - SOLD

7.       hope - SOLD

8.       nest - SOLD

9.       true - SOLD

10.   sky - SOLD

11.   bird - SOLD

12.   love - SOLD

13.   fairy - SOLD

14.   sky - SOLD

15.   fly - SOLD

16.   soul - SOLD

17.   tale - SOLD

18.   here - SOLD

19.   home - SOLD

20.   mend - SOLD

21.   sea - SOLD

22.   nest - SOLD

23.   hope - SOLD

24.   tale - SOLD

25.   sea - SOLD

26.   home - SOLD

27.   love - SOLD

28.   story - SOLD

29.   grace - SOLD

30.   dare - SOLD

31.   story - SOLD

32.   soul - SOLD

33.   hope -SOLD

34.   leap - SOLD

35.   mend - SOLD

36.   home - SOLD

37.   path - SOLD

38.   here - SOLD

39.   mend - SOLD

40.   fairy - SOLD

if any of you who placed an order have not received a paypal invoice from me this morning, please email and let me know - it was an oversight on my part. thanks!

MY GOODNESS.......i am blown away - before 11am, all GONE.

i will make more this week....thank you all SO MUCH!  xoxo

outline of a journey - part one

i've made a lot of art - both jewelry and mixed media - in the past twenty five years.  some of it i've passed along as gifts, most of the jewelry i've made and sold, except for the few pieces i made expressly as a gift to myself, in commemoration of a special day or place.  all of the artist books i've made rest quietly on shelves, gathering dust, holding their stories, waiting patiently for me to pull them out and turn through the layered pages once again; all of them are with me still because i cannot bear to sell a single one.  i've been asked throughout the years which piece i favor most, which one stands out in my mind above the rest.  i never hesitate:  it is the one i made for my younger son roy in june of 2002 - june 3, in fact, i had no clue until i opened the tiny locket to read the words within; i made this book to hold the many emotional words i wrote in august of 2001, in the days following a horrific bicycle accident that nearly cost him his life.  (make your children wear their sports helmets; roy was "saved by the Bell"!).

 

when i take out this little brass and mica book and blow off the dust, i'm taken by the roughness in style, the rawness of the words i wrote that are held within pockets of thick mica slabs.  colors are muted; there is much aging of metals, and some of the words i hammered across the tiny roofline have become obscured by time and weather and age.  that's life, i think, and then i finger the jagged edges of mica, the folded copper mesh, i pick up the little antique lock to examine the silver knots and recognize a thread of continuity in style that speaks of who i still am, eight years later... a lifetime later, it seems. the words i wrote to roy after the accident are typed, single spaced, onto three coffee stained sheets of letter sized paper, words that are emotionally difficult for me to read even now.  but they are beautiful in their raw passion, i think:  they are words straight from a mother's heart, poured out to a son she nearly lost.  those boys were still so very young, back then:  robin was not quite 16, and roy, getting ready to turn 14.  i was a single mother, and i thought i knew just about everything there was to know about motherhood, by then;  i thought i knew, just as every young mother hopes to know, what was right and what was wrong, and they were the very pivotal center of my tiny universe.  they still are, in quieter ways; but i'm wiser now, and older too, and realize how very little i've truly known each step of the winding way. oh, the things that i've learned along that path... the things i've yet to know!  how much i realize now that every milestone of this life long journey is another glorious chance to broaden, to grow.

this post is a very round about, all-over-the-place way to tell you about some big things that are unfolding for me this summer; that's how my mind works, in roundabout ways, and you'll just have to bear with me as i map out what it is i'm trying to say.  i just learned last night that robin, my older son, did indeed get the job that he sought out and snagged all the way out in distant colorado; he'll be moving there as soon as he can gather his things and pack a trailer and hitch it out west, far far far from here, here, here.  i'm a mix of emotions about this move of his; i want him to be happy, oh i do in the wildest way, but i wish that his happiness didn't have to be so far from here.  but robin, oh my robin:  he has to fly.  that's what birds do.  i suppose he's living up to the legacy of his name we gave him nearly a quarter of a century ago.

and roy?  well, he is off in ecuador for two months of school, studying spanish and photography and who knows what else.  he flew this country when i was on the beach in california, and i cried, oh i cried, because it is all i knew to do.  now that i'm back home again, i've set an impossible journey in motion:  i've purchased a very expensive flight to quito, ecuador, will fly this country myself in july, and roy and i will be hiking the sky high mountains of a foreign country, will be staying in a lovely eco lodge out in the middle of nowhere, together for a few days.  i have absolutely NO business investing in a trip of this scale - there are bills to be paid, a home to maintain.  but as my treasured friend lynne perrella once said, "all is possible, all is well" (and i hammered her sage words into a piece of silver the morning of roy's accident; ten months later, i attached it to his little house book).  i wrote last week to tell her about my wild idea to go, and she promptly wrote back, "why ever not?!"  this is a wild, wild dream of mine; it isn't cheap, nothing ever is when our dreams are high, but i'm making this happen, as best i possibly can.  

on monday, i'll be happily and excitedly debuting a new line of ornamental jewels, made expressly for the funding of my south american trip.  and so it is:  another journey begins.  stay tuned. xo