9.18.2012

Weekend Fruits From the Studio


I had a LONG, rewarding, fun, marathon, sweaty, adventure in the studio on Saturday.  It was a hot weekend, but the breezes are feeling cooler, and that is the first sign of the small seasonal change we get here...Finishing up bits and pieces of a few projects, working out the design, and final steps of a couple of custom works, as well as playing with a beautiful piece of turquoise I picked up at an antique store while in Seattle this summer.  I've been staring at if for about two months now.  It had a place of honor along the ledge of the molding in my studio, along with a few other treasured rocks, stones, shells, and other found bits...It's color is pure love in my eyes, and its "imperfections" are what make it so perfectly wonderful.  Sometimes I have a plan, in this case, the plan was for it to be a ring, I had already decided I wanted it to go horizontally across my finger rather than north to south.  I had dreamed up a heavily textured band, and a simple setting.  I kind of knew all along that's what I wanted to do with it, but as sometimes happens, it came out as a completely different creature.





Sometimes working on a piece is total meditative bliss...I'm probably rocking out to some random tunes, singing to myself, or perhaps nerding out on a podcast of Fresh Air with Terry Gross, or maybe laughing along with Car Talk...or sitting in total silence listing to the birds, and Max's jingly collar as he plays in the yard.  Whatever I'm doing, moments like these are a case of my hands working faster than the plans in my head.  It' so FUN...which is the best part!  It's the same pure happiness of playtime with my leggos when I was a kid.  Building neighborhoods, layering shapes and sizes of the blocks until whatever I was making was "just right"...really there is usually no right and wrong, it's more a feeling of knowing when it's working.

I took a hand full of shots of a few other pieces, and they were all really, really bad...One survived, I'll have to give it a go later in the week.  Try and try again, seems to be the theme with pictures lately.


This baby is LONG!!!!  She doubles around your neck and hangs in different ways throughout the day as you go about your business...The links have some heft to them so they tend to hand down lower, and  that little leaf dangle just does as she pleases, hanging out on the side.  I mixed a bunch of different favorites together in this piece.  There are round turquoise beads in two different sizes and ranging in color from true turquoise, to light green, grassy green, and mottled with earthy dark veins of texture...I love the way all the colors of green and blue look with the royal blue thread, and the opaque gray beads.  I threw in a few of my favorite chartreuse matte glass beads, just because I can't seem not to, the color is just so GOOD!  Once I get a handful more pictures, I'll be putting it in the shop...please, please let the camera and sunlight gods smile down on me, I've been struggling with the camera since last week.

Also:

I finished up this custom beauty for a lovely lady far, far away...



 
I've got a zillion ideas ready to be sawed, hammered, and forged into existence, however I came home sick from work this morning and am thinking that a good session of couch time is in order.  I've got my little table of beads and colorful thread by my side, and I think I'll be spending the better part of the day knotting, beading, and resting...Turning off my brain, and let my hands do the work, while I sip some chamomile to keep my stomach settled.  Days like this, at home, not feeling too well, really make me miss the cooler weather, the changing of the seasons...I want my sick day with blankets, hoodies, and socks by the fire, not tank tops and ceiling fans, (don't get me wrong, I love the tropical weather, but I'm still a Seattleite at heart).





































4 comments:

  1. gorgeous goods from your lovely hands and creative soul....

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    1. :) Thanks for being here...I feel so lucky when I have successful days like this in the studio!

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