Saturday Morning Tea

Jan5

When I opened the pouch to inhale the dry leaf aroma of this morning’s tea, I felt like I had just opened a bag of semi-sweet chocolate bits. You know the kind you use to make toll house cookies. I have many wonderful memories of mixing up batches of cookie battah (said in my Mom’s Brooklyn accent) on rainy afternoons and then eating the cookies warm and gooey right out of the oven. It isn’t raining today, in fact, we are having a “January thaw” here in New England with temps climbing into the mid 50s by Tuesday. As with all weather experiences here, it won’t last for long so we will savor the moments of mild springlike temps while we can.

Dumbara estate Green Curls, this green tea is from the Kandy district of Sri Lanka, known by its old world name of Ceylon in tea company. The dry leaf is a dark green which lightens up to its true color after the leaves are steeped for 3 minutes in 180 degree F water. This would be the perfect green tea for someone wanting to try green tea but unfamiliar with its vegetal notes and light body.

The liquor looks like a Darjeeling with its gorgeous amber color. The flavor is strong with interesting fruity notes. The vegetal quality is very subtle, unlike a Chinese or Japanese green tea. I wish I had known about this tea the other day when I was talking with a customer who gave her candid opinion of green tea as tasting like “dirty dish water”. Well, I’ve never sampled dirty dish water myself but I think she was probably saying that she thinks green tea is too light for her. As I recall, she was an Assam lover.

So, if you are strictly a black tea lover, this would be a good first choice to start your journey into the green tea category.

Art Journals for my Mom

Jan2

I love to create gifts and my Mom loves to tell stories. So, inspired by my kindred mixed media art friends, Amy and Judy, I made 2 art journals for my Mom so she could write down her stories. This was a bit scary for me since I’ve never done anything like this before. Well, not in a very long time anyway.

I didn’t have any type of a plan other than I wanted to embellish the covers, outside and inside, of a blank notebook. I brought out acrylic paints, rubber stamps, scrapbook papers, gel medium, my “O” magazines and family photos. And I played. As I freely glued and painted, I felt joy swell inside of my heart, like something was being set free. I remembered painting as a child and felt like I was coming home to a place I really loved.

I hope my Mom enjoys writing in these journals as much as I enjoyed creating them.

Blue Chalcedony Bracelet

Jan1

When I visited Michigan back in September, my SIL asked me to bring some beads along because she wanted me to create a bracelet for her. She was drawn to the idea of silver with either stone or crystal. After getting some ideas about what she likes, I created this bracelet for her as a gift. I wanted to experiment with a different technique in my wirework, one I hadn’t done before. So, in my internet research, I came across the work of Eni Oken. And, lo and behold, she offered some tutorials. Her work is exquisite and very inspirational. With the herringbone weave tutorial and some thin 26-gauge silver wire, I had a lot of fun learning and practicing. I chose these faceted blue chalcedony beads because I think they go very well with the wire. The color reminds me of shadows on snow drifts. Wire wrapping around their square shape was a little challenging at first but I soon got into a nice rhythm. After I created the individual wire wrapped links, I choose some small Bali silver beads to use for spacer links.

I made a simple S-clasp from 18 gauge silver wire, hammering it slightly to give it some texture. Once the bracelet was constructed, it got a dunk in a liver of sulfur solution to give it a nice antique patina. I’m happy to say that she loved her gift, especially when she saw that it matched the sweater she was wearing perfectly! She’s on the right and my daughter is on the left.

Chalcedony is a form of silica and comes in many colors, the most common in the white to grayish blue to brown range. According to my book entitled Healing Crystals and Gemstones, it is named after the city of Chalcedon (Turkey) where it was first discovered. It was a popular carving stone in antiquity for motifs of gods and goddesses. According to its magical properties, it encourages calmness, purity and focus on what is essential.