Saturday Morning Tea

Sep1

This holiday weekend I am in Michigan visiting my parents for a nice relaxing mini-vacation. Today I am enjoying a China Black tea, a full-bodied, earthy brew with hints of smoke and red wine. I like to first sample the reddish liquor plain but then add milk later on with the second cup to richen its flavor.

A China black tea, with its earthy comfort, is a perfect cup for the first day of September in Michigan where the morning temperature reads a cool 59 degrees. As I sip my tea, my eyes take in my cache of treasures from The Bead Haven bead store I visited yesterday. Stay tuned for the full eye candy report when I return home!

Stone Cairns

Aug15

My friend Amy recently wrote a post on building stone cairns in her garden. She finds joy and balance in creating them. Her post reminded me of this photo I took in Volcano National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii. We were walking through one of the craters there and found this stone cairn along the trail. There were quite a few just like this marking the trail. As you can see, I took the photo in black and white. I felt it was appropriate to convey the feeling of the stark landscape of the crater and the lava rocks all around us. Native Hawaiians believe that the spirit of Pele, Goddess of Fire and Volcanoes, lives in the lava rock. I could feel her spirit guiding us that day.

After we hiked through the crater, we drove down to the ocean to see if we could get a glimpse of any flowing lava. There wasn’t much to see beyond a couple of glowing red pinpricks in the distance. But, as we were leaving just after sunset, I glanced up at the sky and was treated to one of the most spectacular sites I have ever seen in my life. A sea of stars so thick that they appeared to be a mist. I wish I could have taken a picture that evening but it was too dark. It was one of those moments in my life where I could truly feel that everything was connected just like that sea of stars.

Have you ever seen the stars like that?

Klay Karma 2007

Jul28

The weekend before last I had the immense pleasure of attending Klay Karma 2007, a polymer clay artist’s retreat sponsored and organized by the Massachusetts and New Hampshire polymer clay guilds. To say that these ladies came together and organized a fantastic event would be such an understatement. The retreat was held at Rivier College in Nashua, NH, about an hour drive from my home. I arrived in the early afternoon on Friday and went in to register and get set up. I was greeted by a bunch of welcoming faces ready to direct me to where the fun would begin. Here’s Amy and Bette, both committee members.

I received a key to my dorm room and an enormous bag filled with all sorts of art goodies. I then moved on into the workroom where I got set up and then had a lot of fun greeting old and new friends. All of our meals were in the cafeteria in the same building and the selection of food was mind boggling, especially the array of delectable desserts. I especially enjoyed the chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake. The weekend was filled with creating and sharing, laughing and hugging, demos and learning new techniques. What I especially loved doing was walking around periodically to see what everyone was working on. Some ladies brought beautiful jewelry to sell and it was an eye candy feast!

I attended Klay Karma 2005 a couple of years ago and it was my first ever artist’s retreat. At that time, I found it very challenging to stay focused and work on anything because there was so much to see and do. This time I had a better focus on creating and I think it was because of the wonderful idea of the 1 inch swap. Before the retreat, participants were asked to make two 1 inch squares to bring in. You could make the squares any way you’d like, with any technique you liked. The only criteria was that the squares be 1 inch and no more than 1/8 inch thick. We dropped our squares into a glass container when we arrived and I was very curious about what would be done with them. My curiosity was satisfied when I visited my friend Amy’s table on Saturday and saw the gorgeous mirror frame she was making with all of the donated squares. The frame was later raffled off and Diane from the Connecticut guild won it amongst a lot of excited cheers and oh-ing and ah-ing. You can see a picture of it here.

During the weekend, everyone was walking around exchanging squares. Here is my collection.

Another thing I really enjoyed about going to Klay Karma is that it gave me the opportunity to spend more time with fellow members of my Rhode Island guild, Rita (top left), Dora (top right), and Toine (bottom). We meet once a month and it always seems like the meeting time flies by. Thanks for a great time, ladies!