it's a birthday party hangover day

it started with a campfire. there was loud electric guitar playing. lotsa tacos. screaming wii competitions. 2 broken picture frames. 2 movies. consumption of ALL of maia's halloween candy by people other than maia. a 4:30 am scolding. and this is where i found them at 8am.

it's exhausting to turn 10.

this is what i got accomplished while watching them out of the corner of my eye all evening. those are size 4 needles. 240 stitches per row. 4.5 inches.
my hands hurt this morning.

hope rising necklace

interesting, in an annoying way

these photos are poorly lit, and strangely colored (that's me reflected in a tumbled surface). but never mind that...

look at the size difference. they were exactly the same size before firing (at 1110 for 45 minutes). the difference was that one of each pair (the small ones) has my little logo in silver on the back. i fired those on vermiculite so the earring wouldn't drape over the thickness of the logo. the other(plain) ones i fired flat on the kiln shelf. apparently, the drag on the kiln shelf keeps them from shrinking as much. since this picture was taken, i have since fired the larger ones to 1650 for 10 minutes (not much change) and to 1110 for 45 minutes, resting on the vermiculite. they're quite a bit closer in size now. you can be sure i will choose 1 common surface to fire on in the future....
this pair is even worse. after all the extra firing, i'm going to have to SAW some of the top edge off.

that brushed surface is so much nicer....
this is my "hope rising" series of earrings. there is a necklace (pic to follow) in the series, too. it was made to donate to an auction to benefit a friend with cancer.

my beautiful little ghoul

her brother spiked a 102 fever on the afternoon of halloween. missed the party AND the trick-or-treating. poor kid.
on the subject of poor kids...some little stinker at my daughter's after-school program has started calling her a bu-girl. say it fast. it's half boy, half girl. it hurts her feelings. it's all i can do to NOT tell her to take him DOWN (because i know she can). it's very difficult for me to gather the energy to say "hmmmm...let's think of a way we can get little bobby to stop calling you that..."

election day results

disappointed by virginia and new jersey.
truly saddened by SOME mainers decision to repeal same-sex marriage legislation.

it's a sad day in maine.

arrangements

there's this HUGE rock balanced on 6 or 7 smaller stones in north salem, ny. the lovely arrangement was left by a receding glacier, i believe. quite a long time ago.
i drive by it every day on my way to work. i love this darn thing. someday i will make a piece/pieces of jewelry with this as an inspiration.

i also love the work of andy goldsworthy. really love.



arranged by nature/nature arranged by man

projects for the near future

this piece will be entitled "Homage to Fernald".
i've been collecting stones on the beach my whole life. i love the shape, the texture and the subtle coloring of these stones. the first SERIOUS still life drawing i did in high school was of a stack of cape cod sea stones. i have PILES, STACKS and ziploc bags full of stones. it never occurred to me that i could actually use them as a precious item in a piece of jewelry till i met my friend barbara fernald (check out the gallery section of her blog...it's in my blog list over there to the right). my plan for this stone is to set that sunstone with a bezel of silver INTO the surface of the beach stone...drill a hole in the stone (yikes-that's the hard part!), so it can be strung. i made a silicone mold of the stone so i can duplicate it in silver...2 of the 4 are shown here. it might be lovely.

this is my RIVETING project for the winter. i've watched robert dancik's presentation about cold connections at least 3 times...he's truly inspirational, but i'm still scared of riveting. that silver and green cz element will act as a bail and i will probably rivet in a faux bone something(maybe, maybe not...oooooo-maybe if i get great at drilling stones i will rivet a skinny little beach stone in there!!!!) .
i see now that i have to add more drill holes than 1, if i don't want the stone/faux bone to rotate on the rivet....