Stinking Water Plume Agate . . .

Weird name

And a new leaf is turned - I'm finally getting my etsy shop back up and running.  I've ignored it for a long time and now that Summer is drawing down, I am bound and determined to get my new work listed.  

Gorgeous stone

I also will be listing the stones I've cut and polished and generally just thinning the herd.  Why?  Well, I attended the auction for my friend, Roger Pabian, who passed away this Spring.  A world-class published author and authority on agates, Captain Agate's house was full to the brim with agates in all shapes and sizes, in slabs, rough and polished stones.  

Roger taught me lapidary and I believe that's why I'm so picky about my cabs and how they are finished.  One scratch and it's all the way back to the beginning wheels for me.

His auction showed me just how much a person can accumulate - and I mean that in a nice way - and how little a person can actually use on their own no matter their intent.  Now that I've polished and loved on these little stones, it's time for someone to create something of beauty with each one.  I'll never get to them all.

I'll look at them this way : I don't own any of these stones.  I'm only the caretaker and when I've enjoyed them and taken pride in their beauty, it will be time for them to move on to the next caretaker.  Just promise me that if you buy one, you'll send me pictures of your finished product.  And then you'll be the new caretaker.

Weekend inspiration . . .

Montana Agate : can you see the circling hawk as she is being dive-bombed by the sparrow?

I've said this before but it keeps coming up in my day-to-day - I am easily distracted and working on it should truly be Priority One.  As if I've been forced, I've spent the last few days at my lapidary bench, dusting and cleaning cobwebs and finally finishing a big project (at least big for me) since I have had a few slabs on my 'promise list' for almost a year now.  I cleaned up the workspace, turned on the radio and hunkered down for trimmin' and cabbin' and I didn't come up until it was over.  And now I find myself renewed and inspired once again to get back to what I truly love - lapidary and metalwork.

Here are the pieces of Montana Agate that have been staring at me for months on end, taunting me to start/finish them for Christine.  Plugged in to the Genie, I saw them through yesterday morning and off they went Priority Mail to Michigan.  I do hope she loves them but it's more important personally that they really did inspire me to stay at the bench just a little longer and I turned out four more gorgeous cabs that have me itching to get back into the metalshop tomorrow.  Sunday - an entire day at my metalwork.  Itching.

For the last several months I've been distracted by enamels and don't get me wrong here, I've thoroughly enjoyed learning and experimenting with them but I think I've been focusing too much on enamels alone and not how I might incorporate that into my 'true' work.  The work that gives me satisfaction and huge pride.  As I progress through the stone and metalwork, I hope to find a way to blend all of this newness into beautiful pieces of adornment.

Nebraska through and through

Take a look at these two lovely pieces of unnamed jasper that I cut and trimmed yesterday and tell me you don't see lovely scenes in both.  The shield shaped one clearly has a tornado reaching for the prairie and you can see the horizon spread out ahead of you - the Nebraska Sandhills.

Praire cloudburst

The smaller lozenge of a jasper cab is another prairie landscape, this time a summer rainshower as the sunshine on the right gives way to the isolated cloudburst.  (I do wish the picture was better but I'm trying to not be distracted by learning photography, I guess.  *wistful smile*)

Maybe another time I'll figure out why I'm so distracted by other projects and things and stuff ('Oh look . . . a kitty . . . ') but for now, I'm feeling more at ease with my direction once again.  Lord, keep my nose pointed forward.