Category Archives: Books

Studio Wednesday

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It felt good to be back for a full day in my studio today! My last full studio day was 3 weeks ago because of busyness with my jewelry show preparations and the holiday last week.

I’m thrilled to have recently received a commission to create a freeform peyote bracelet in a green, brown, gold, russet and salmon palette. Here are the seed beads and pearls I’ve chosen so far. This bracelet will be smaller in width than the last one.

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I have some other projects in the works, like finishing my beaded turquoise cab necklace and creating a fringey bracelet with my citrus cane slices. I’m also working on some crocheted and knitted holiday gifts. I can post photos closer to Christmas so I don’t give any secrets away right now.

I’ve been thinking about what kinds of new projects I’d like to play with after the holidays. I find myself captivated by the book, “Wrap, Stitch, Fold and Rivet” by Mary Hettmansperger. Mary’s approach to manipulating metal and wire to create stunning pieces of jewelry resonates with my preference for creating in a freeform way. Her background in weaving and basketry brings a unique voice to these materials. I would like to try some of the projects in the book and see what I can create. Also calling to me are crocheting with wire, arashi shibori and making my own polymer clay beads for bead crocheting. I have many ideas floating around in my head and I’m looking forward to manifesting them in the New Year. Oh yes, I just got the book, “Masters: Art Quilts” out of the library and I am absolutely in love with the work of Cher Cartwright and her fabulous dyed fabric quilts. Grab a cup of tea and visit her website for an eye candy feast. Very inspiring!

Tagged again

I’ve been tagged again for a meme, this time by Arline. So, I’ll try to think of 7 more random things about myself.  Let’s see…

1.  I am a voracious reader, reading about 2-3 books a week. When I moved 5 years ago, I discovered just how many books I actually owned so I gave a lot of them away and vowed to visit my public library more. I add books to my queue online and the library e-mails me when they arrive. I love this relationship!

2.  I love stories about Goddesses. Some of my favorite books when I was a child were about Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses. Years later as an adult, I delved deeper into Goddess lore and ancient Goddess centered cultures. This led me to express this intense interest in my artwork by creating fabric Goddess doll pins embellished with beaded hair, charms and symbols.

3.  In the summertime during thunderstorm season, I am a doppler radar nut. I love anything weather related, especially lightning, thunder, wind and cloud formations. I think that I was a metereologist or a storm chaser in a former life.

4.  I am a devoted Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots fan.

5.  4 1/2 years ago, I had a frozen left shoulder. My physical therapist said that it was so bad that I would never have full range of motion in that shoulder ever again. I never injured the shoulder so no one could explain why that happened. After 6-8 months of intense physical therapy and reiki treatments and the most painful moments of my life, my shoulder healed completely.

6.  I love sweet and salty things together, like pretzels and M&Ms. I rarely eat them but I love them.

7.  I have lived in 5 states – New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Kansas and Massachusetts.

I am supposed to tag 7 more people but instead, I invite anyone who would like to play along to join!

Saturday Morning Tea

The air is completely still this morning with hardly a whisper of a breeze. Temperatures are supposed to soar well into the 90s this weekend with the humidity level just as high. It’s a good day to be inside with the AC or next to a fan, relaxing with a good book and a cup of tea.

This morning’s tea is a unique white Assam from the Mothola estate. Usually when one thinks of an Assam tea, it is of a hearty, rich black tea. That is what most Assam teas are. This tea, however, is a unique production, entirely handcrafted which shows in the gorgeous full leaf covered in tiny white hairs.

The tea plant is called camellia sinensis, named by the father of modern taxonomy, Carl Linneaus, a Swedish botanist from the 1700s. There are several different variations of the tea plant. Assam teas, grown in the lowland district of Assam in northeastern India, are harvested from the Camellia Sinensis assamica variation. I have read that this particular variation has a higher caffeine level than the Camellia Sinensis sinensis or Chinese varietal. Perhaps this is why many folks enjoy Assams for breakfast . The name Sinensis actually means Chinese in Latin.

I know that it is such an artist cliche to say “I love color” but I truly, truly do, ever since I was very young. In fact, my favorite childhood book called “The Color Kittens” by Margaret Wise Brown, was all about colors and mixing them to create other colors. The words and images of this book filled my little person world well before I learned to read. From that time on, color spoke directly to my soul on a very deep level. I talk about that here. Anyway, I was captivated by the color of the liquor of this tea. A gorgeous dark honey, its aroma is sweet and malty. The flavor is also sweet and light but full of flavor that fills your mouth with a hint of nuttiness.

This is definitely one of my favorite teas!

March Beaded Journal Page

Well, after 3 months, my March page is finally finished. I’ve gone through a lot of changes since my original idea and beading start, the biggest change being a physical move to a new home.

I’ve named this page “Looking Out from my Healing Place”. The tree represents a journey of healing that I took after my divorce 4 years ago. There were a lot of twists and turns in this journey but I was always reaching for the sky and growing. My tree has grown in strength and wisdom and now it is time to look out upon the world with awakened eyes and find out where this person that I have become will fit. I don’t have one face because there are 3 aspects of me, who I was, who I am now and who I will be. My past, my present and my future self. Which face is which? The tree roots are not yet firmly in the ground but I have hope that they will find their place, too.

Many thanks to Robin for her inspiration with this twisted tree branch stitch. The timing of receiving her new book, “Heart to Hands Bead Embroidery” was perfect for what I needed to express with this piece. I wrote about that here.

I have just begun my April page. The colors are much more vibrant than my March piece. Right now the title that has come to me is “Home is Where my Heart Grows”. Stay tuned for photos of this work in progress. I started this piece watching “Ethics and the World Crisis – a Dialogue with the Dalai Lama”. What an amazing human being he is.

March Beaded Journal Page in progress

As I have been slowly but surely unpacking my art supplies from my move a couple of weeks ago, I found my March page neatly wrapped up in one of my moving boxes. I had gotten as far as placing the polymer clay glazed face cabochons created at my January guild meeting on the fabric and then had stopped around mid-March so I could pack everything up. I was so delighted to finally find my page and sat down almost immediately to give each face a beaded bezel. I used the “barnacle” technique as explained on page 50 in Robin Atkins wonderful new book called “Heart to Hands Bead Embroidery”.

Back in March when I was so looking forward to Spring’s arrival after a long cold winter, I found myself studying trees very closely to see any signs of Spring. In one of my meditations, an image popped into my mind of each knot in a tree having a face in it that was waking up from a long winter’s sleep. Shortly after that I was purging some old magazines and found this image.

It reminded me so much of my image of the faces in the tree. The feeling I want to convey with this piece is one of an organic awakening. Robin has another bead technique on making twisted tree trunks (page 67). I think this beading technique will be perfect for the look I want. Stay tuned for more progress!