Monday, August 15, 2011

Dock Sitting



I am fortunate to have many quiet places to listen to my inner voice and process ideas and information. Summer offers nature as a help with this, and the dock on Slim is truly the best for me.

As I read or write or just sit quietly, my Dad is often sitting right there with me. He has been a guiding force over the years - during his life and afterward. He was a perfectionist, a task master, a lover of detail and realism in art, and a caretaker of antiques and artifacts. He loved the artist as technician and master of technique and skill. He was a fan of things that were right and fair. His generosity was contagious.

Many good memories with my Dad bubble up... standing with him at his work bench, having me form a ring out of a quarter as a break from his work, watching him re-lead an old stained glass window, carve a piece of wood to fit into the broken corner of an old frame...many quiet times with him. I appreciate those times.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Potentiality

Inherent capacity for growth and development. It's in every moment, every greeting... mistake, sketch, thought, session at the bench. Sometimes there is conscious recognition of this, but not always. It's imperative to be wide open, ready for possibilities. Today I am wide open!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Full Circles...even though I'm all about the square.

Now that I'm writing my three pages every morning (well, almost every morning), ideas are springing all over the place. Ideas about life stuff, about jewelry, about drawing...nature, family, dog. Ideas keep coming. My excuse for not writing some mornings is that I already have too many ideas and not enough time to act on them. However since they are written down, there is no harm in storing them up - like nuts for the winter.

Today I thought about full circles. Full circles are the amazing tying up of strands - strands that end up where they began. In terms of people/relationships/life continuum, I thought of so many instances. Lessons learned for all of us moving through our lives. There are reasons why we have the mothers we do, why we meet the friends we do, and these reasons end up being tied up at the end. Perhaps at the end of life, if not sooner.

Silver, leaves, botanicals. When I was in grade school, I used to draw special, shaded flowers with stems and leaves on peoples arms and backs of hands. If you asked me and if there was time, I would plant one on you. I called them "metallic flowers" because of the dramatic dark-to-light shading. I had a grasp of composing and shading. If you asked me now, I'd plant one on you!

I'm working with metal now, designing botanical and other jewelry compositions. And even though circles are complete and amazing, I'm sticking with the square.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

March Madness - scattered and varied!

Development time! New ways of setting stones into newly designed earrings for summer sales. New ways of cutting water designs into silver making an optical delight. Acid etching coming down the line with additional detail using stones. More interest on backs of pieces a must. Inventory, inventory. New ideas blowing in!