January sunset . . .

Skinny gold orange sliver of the barely-set sun, darkening evening grey January sky, striped bands of layering clouds and jet contrails.

All at once in this banded agate.

I'm committed to getting back to what I love working on most of all : lapidary and setting the stones I cut and polish.  I have so many delicious cabs on my bench and I have spent the weeks leading up to Christmas working on the 'quick work'.  Not particularly satisfying for me but results oriented work.
With this new year : new work
Simple
Direct
Clean
Fresh
Oh, and my New Year's Resolution every year is to make contact with at least one old friend who has dropped off my radar screen.  This has been my Resolution every year for at least a decade and it has been so rewarding.
Completely doable.  
So if you've dropped off my radar, expect a call.

Corn crib gazebo . . .

I have large plans for Spring.  Seriously large.  I've been on the lookout for an old corn crib since, oh, forever and I've had a hard time describing what I envision.  Lo and behold!  I came across this picture on a website - The Mustard Seed - and here is my vision in the flesh!

We have two pads here on the farmette that both held old silos for many years.  I removed the old auger from one and it will hold my Purple Martin house later this Spring.  The dryer and blower portion is still covered with a vented steel cover that is about 6' square and my plan is for that to become a firepit.  Ed still cocks his head and raises one eyebrow when I talk about these plans so let's just keep it to ourselves, shall we?

I picture the corn crib with a couple of adirondack chairs and maybe a table for my ever-present Diet Coke, vertical garden panels, Passion Flower and tangerine colored Trumpetvine, surrounded by my ever-growing collection of daylilies.  From here I can see for miles and miles and miles - maybe just watch the storms blossoming on the horizon.  Dream.  Draw.  Nap.

Be honest, isn't this the sweetest thing ever?

Loose ends . . .

The Cricket Cage

I'll admit it - a lot of stuff (a LOT) has gotten pushed to the back of my bench for far too long and getting caught up in the rush of the Christmas with the looooong to-do list is just claustrophobic for me.  Now that things are getting back to some semblance of normal, I'm trying to take each project that got set aside and give the attention to those things that really satisfy my creative itch and not simply fill a spot on my show display.

Last Fall, my friend Linda gave me a little silk bag with old rings and pieces that held jade beads and cabs and she gave me free reign to create whatever I saw in them.  Removing them from their settings really freed them up and these are the pieces I'm sending her.

These little beads of jade were post-drilled and needed to be free yet somehow constrained so I created a Cricket Cage for them from wire and a hand-forged half-dome cap.  Now they can move freely inside their little cage pendant.

Lily Pads

The two jade cabochons are just a millimeter or two different in size so they really couldn't be matching earrings, I thought.  Earlier in the season, I had created a Peace Jade necklace for her to give her 11 year old granddaughter and I thought that perhaps down the road a ways, she might like to have matching charms.  So here you have two Lily Pad charms with watery, reflective, textured and curled edges.  What is wonderful about charms is that they don't necessarily belong on a necklace or a bracelet.  They are sweet accents on a watch, a little bag or anywhere that some color and flash is needed.  Love these.

I'm so satisfied.  Why again don't I do this more often?

Weekend recovery . . .

Four solid days of holiday shows.  Four straight.  I am totally zapped of energy and it's taken until Tuesday morning for me to feel halfway lucid.

Great fun, beautiful location, wonderful friends and a totally super way to start the Holidays.

The first one Wednesday was a one night Patron's Party Holiday Open House at The Sheldon Gallery on the campus of the University of Nebraska and it was elegant and low key.  Such fun to see the people who are responsible for the Gallery's existence and the Sheldon was beautiful.  Huge arching windows and travertine floors in the entry hall - it was lovely.

The three-day show is the one I organize along with my friend Jan, that is a fundraiser for The People's Health Center of Lincoln and we had a cool yule location for our artists this year - atrium space where the old Russell Stover Candy Factory used to be with exposed brick walls and open to the fourth floor and skylights.  We had a good crowd for the Patron's Party Thursday and Friday's Gallery Walk in the middle of the Haymarket area was crowded!  We are happy to have raised substantial monies for the People's Health Center in spite of the nasty weather that descended on us Saturday morning.  

Five inches of freezing rain and snow.

The way it ended Saturday.

Looking for Elvis, or elves, or any help at all, please . . .

True.  I've been away from the blogosphere for months now but trying to juggle so much just gives me fits.  My muse has wandered through occasionally; however, not with any constancy so I have to wrestle her to the ground whenever she strolls casually through.  So much has been on my bench.  So much.

Project: a ring of jade given to me by a friend last summer who wanted a necklace for her tweenage granddaughter.  It was to be my choice of design and when I took one look at the ring, it spoke to me.  (Well, my muse but dammit, she's been so busy lately.)  It needed to be youthful so I gave it a scalloped bezel and it needed to be current so I gave it a peace sign and it needed some texture for contrast so I hammered it.  (Okay I melted it once.  Just once.  Things don't always go as I want.)

My dear friend also gave me a little bag of rings and old earrings to play with and I found these moonstone cabs to be so lovely and a great size for a pair of dark and swingy earrings.  I set the moonstone in scalloped bezel and built a scalloped wall around the circle of silver.  Darkened a bit with silverblack and buffed on the edges to give it some life, I drilled out the backside of the stone's bezel so the light shone through.  I think I may work this design a few more times.  (Please love it!)

Special orders went out late last week for aquamarine sets and I used up all of the chunky aquamarine I had left for this hefty necklace, save for a few pieces that turned into earrings.

Next week : one big three day charity show that I am the organizer for along with a friend who I feel does even more than I do to prepare for the artists and the benefit evening.  It will be a wonderful Thursday, Friday and Saturday but I'm seriously looking forward to Sunday the 4th.  Also to go out in one week is work for an Omaha Gallery and there is a two day show at The Sheldon Gallery on the University of Nebraska campus Wednesday and Thursday just prior to the three day event.  Oh, did I mention that there is a four hour show at a local business on the 8th?  No?  Oh yes.

Help me Elves.  Or help me Elvis, either one.

Dragonfly wings . . .

Montana Agate - Dragonfly Wing

Since my first post last week mentioning Rachel's real dragonfly pendant, I've been itching to get another necklace made from the beautiful Montana Agate on my bench.  I have a handful of little palm-sized slabs that I saved from the 'dollar bin' at a gem and mineral show and I've been cutting and polishing whenever I get an hour to play - not often enough.

Lately, I've been in the midst of working a batch of things for the local galleries and have felt rather 'production-ish' from time to time so I took a couple of hours last night to set this slice of 'dragonfly wing'.

Set with an open back, this is yet another stone and pendant that just glows.  

I'm so pleased with it.  Delicate and substantial at once - nothing showy or ostentatious but simple and clean-lined.  Not only is it a divine stone and setting, I've scratched the itch to create a thing of beauty.

Zinnia Zen.spiration . . .

Now that the weather is cooling a bit and things aren't struggling to survive - yes, even the heat loving zinnia struggled to catch a breath in August - the buds are prolific on the zinnia and marigold and even the daylilies are sending up a scape or two.  In fact, there are a few daylilies that are sprouting new growth on the scapes and I couldn't be more tickled!  Quick and easy new plants without coaxing seedlings!

The buds on the zinnias are things I'd never contemplated but as I was deadheading and saving seed heads for next year (yikes!  I'm already thinking 'next year'!?!), these buds reminded me of eyeliner (I know, my brain goes in funny directions) and how precise the edges are.  Nature doesn't get terribly sloppy but seems to have a sense of purpose and direction and a reason for doing what it does.  There's a protection in the tightness of the bud and a slow unfolding in a uniform manner.

Nature unfolding as it should

The rhythm of the scallops inspire me to move my metalwork in a softer, more rhythmic direction - somehow in metalwork, we anticipate a hard edge and softening the edges is the unexpected.  

Softening, protecting and unfolding.  Words for the day.