It's gorgeous out this morning

And I'm stuck inside typing. Poopie. I'd turn my desk around so I could look out the window, except that would put the glare directly in my eyes and make it difficult to type all day.

This is from an email I sent this morning to my buddy Judy in Vancouver:

I spent an hour this morning downloading jewellery pictures off the Internet to use as inspiration. I used to print them out, spent hours sorting them and putting them into plastic protectors, and it cost me hundreds of dollars in ink -- and I never looked at them, just put them all in a binder and closed the cover. Now I've made desktop folders so they're all thematically together -- lapis, turquoise, African, Tibetan -- plus photos of flea and indigenous market displays from around the world, costumes, general photographs, stuff like that.

What I do with these folders is I scan the images in the whole folder to get an impression of some colour combination and proportion. Then I use that inspiration when I go off to the bead stores, or I dig out some beads in the same colours I already have and fiddle with them. Mostly what happens is I end up off on a completely different tangent, so I don't feel guilty about "copying" someone else's work (nor can I be accused of it. I mean, good grief, we all buy beads ultimately from the same few places, and look at the endless variety of designs we end up with).


My own little jumbledy market display
What's in here? Hubei, Kingman & anonymous Arizona turquoise, Bali silver beads, African copper and horn, pure copper rounds, pewter, el cheapo red glass, jet heishi, hammered argentium sterling clasps and findings



Pure copper rounds, Bali daisy spacers, 3mm lapis lazuli heishi,
hammered argentium sterling clasps and earwires


I've also got into the habit now of NOT FINISHING A PIECE before I photograph it. When I photograph it, or hold the piece up against me in a mirror, I can see immediately where there are holes, where some combination isn't working, where it needs something else. I've had to take apart so many things, ending up tossing a dollar's worth of silver crimp beads, which isn't a lot but do it 20 times before you get the brilliant flash of "Duh..." above.

I have a zillion ideas for coffee table books/paintings I'd like to do in the next ten years. And taking photos of markets is a big one. I think they're going to disappear within another generation. -- in fact I know they are already disappearing in many places, being replaced by mass marketed dollar store crap -- and I mean the markets where the vendors themselves have made the items themselves, grown or collected them.

All you have to do is look at Queen Street West in Toronto. An area that is so beautiful and cool, and what happens? The whitewashers move in, followed by the big corporate stores with clothes made in third world sweatshops and plastic cookie cutter "restaurants" (I mean, c'mon -- KFC and its ilk is not food, it's a heart attack, stroke and diabetes, all shmushed together on a bun), they knock down the old buildings so full of character, and yes, rotten plumbing, creepy crawlies, a century-plus worth of dirt and grime, and what do we end up with? Nothing but a goddamned strip mall that looks like everywhere else, but, "Oooooh, I'm living in the Fashion District." What Fashion District? The Fashion District is long gone, relocated to a strip mall up north on Dufferin somewhere in suburban hell.

Well, that's my rant for today.

I need to start travelling again before I'm completely permaparked. Wanna come with?

B

Riffing and raffing...

I do love the combination of copper and silver together, with lapis and turquoise and... etc. I made a pile of components of copper and Bali silver...

...and then I started riffing...



Lapis lazuli heishi, copper, pewter and sterling silver



 

...and riffing...


Hubei turquoise pendants



If I could only put these pictures where

I want them, that would be so cool. Why do they keep

jumping around no matter what I do? Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

 

                                                                               Pure copper rounds, crimps and crimp covers are all from Magpie Gemstones, as are the jasper bear fetishes. 



 

Facetted lapis earrings

 

I made the "goldfish tail" maple keys from PMC3 silver last year. I'm in the midst of coating gingko biloba leaves, not many as I waited too long and they'd grown too large, and I managed to coat about 30 lilies of the valley before they all rotted in the big heat and humidity wave we had two weeks ago.

  



PMC3 Silver "Goldfish Tail" maple keys



These silver goldfish earrings don't look so big, but they weigh a ton. This size might make better pendants.

I got a lot of typing done today. Packed it in around 3:00 and spent four hours making this stuff. The bracelet came together nicely, but of course I made it too big again to fit me. I'm still very pleased with the shape of these clasps, how they don't seem to come apart the way the rounder-curved ones do. The trick is to make the bracelet itself exactly the size of your wrist, then the clasp hooking into the loop provides the extra half inch or so of slack. You have to squeeze the bracelet closed to get the clasp undone, yet it's still easy to do, much easier than anything else I've tried. 



Camp Frio turquoise

My messy work space.

I give up. Buona notte, ragazzi.



Regrets and moving on...

  

First show in Rome, Italy, 1996

Last show in Rome in 1998 with the gallerista, me, gf of art teacher, Natasha, my favourite model



4-person art show at the apartment in Rome, 1996. I think the wall was holding me up -- I'd had quite a bit of wine by this point.



Last show, 1998. Monsieur Poisson, my art teacher, Natasha, me, Sigfrido Oliva, painter


I wrote this post originally in response to something Rae Crothers wrote to me today on her blog Travels With Miranda. I've added a bit more to it here.

My 40s is when I finally got going on my dreams of travel. Travel-travel, not the zigzagging back and forth and up and down Canada I'd done for 25 years since leaving high school in 1970.

I started McGill (living in Montreal was always one of my life dreams) in January 1993 and got my BA in 2.5 years at 43, took a 2-week ESL course, went to Italy in September of '95 for 2 weeks, found two jobs and stayed 3 years. Dontcha just love a black market economy. I was illegal and but managed to get a codice fiscale and paid taxes the entire time I was there. The EU sucks 'cuz you can't get away with things like that anymore... at least I don't think you can. Hmm...

Unfortunately, my dad died in April 1998 which really threw me for a loop and I ended up coming back to Canada for "a year". B-I-I-I-I-I-G mistake. Yes, I do know that people die. Duh. And I have read all about the stages of grieving, but until you go through it, you can't begin to understand how profoundly the death of a parent, one of the two primary relationships in your life, will affect you. It's a major shakeup of one's interior landscape in ways you can't even begin to imagine, and loopy is the operative word until the figurative dust settles, and time passes.

When I wrecked my knee, scraping the former tenant's paint crud off a hardwood floor of all things, I was trapped here. When it finally got better after four years (idiot, idiot GP sending me to the wrong specialists) (did I say idiot?) (IDIOT), surgery (the surgeon was great) and endless physio that permanently wrecked my knee (more IDIOTS), I got front-ended by a moron who professed to not know that she had to have her brakes regularly serviced. She lost them coming down a hill, had to be doing 90 through a green light and ploughed into me while I was waiting for the guy in front of me to make a left turn. Her truck destroyed my precious Beretta, drove the engine into the dash which drove into my knees and spun my car around, so now I had whiplash on top of not being able to walk for another two years. Plus she almost killed her three kids and herself.

Long story short, I can walk without pain now, but not quickly, nor can I run or dance or bend my knees or kneel down (I'm missing half my kneecap, it's eggshell thin now) -- or fall down. I can't stand in one place for more than 10 minutes at a time. And I canNOT do stairs. So no subways and most living accommodation is out. And it exacerbated the old back damage incurred when a hit-and-run driver in a stolen car hit me on my bike and I went flying through the air, landing on my tailbone. I live most days feeling like I have shards of glass in my lower spine. Robax Platinum is my friend.

Travel is the best thing in the world as far as I'm concerned, and I am so frickin' sorry I didn't do more of it. Moral of the story is do what you want to do NOW. Don't wait for later, because later may never arrive. "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans" may be trite, but it's also very, very true. I still dream of going back to Italy, of going to Nepal, Tibet, South America, Siberia... Mountains and wilderness being the common denominator. Ha, ha and ha.

Eh, well... I have transcriptions to proof now, then it's off to the lab in Paris for my quarterly blood tests, then a meeting in Woodstock with Rene of Let's Eat Cake this afternoon to discuss our cake jewellery collaboration -- we have a bridal show scheduled for September 8th, with a photographer, caterer, Rene, me, and maybe we can find other bridal type suppliers as well. I have to drop off my art gallery gift shop application which is only a month and a half overdue and take stuff to the consignment store -- Rae has really inspired me, with getting rid of all my crap (even as I make more stuff!) being the first step.

Finished my typing, and now I'm playing...

Moving right along...

Amazing what you can do with a dollar's worth of frosted red glass beads, eh? ...and some anonymous Arizona turquoise, Kingman turquoise, a pewter dangle, a couple of horn beads and a hammered argentium silver clasp.

Of course, now that I've finished it off and photographed it I'm thinking I should have used a few more horn beads in the middle of at least four of the red bits, and used antiqued Bali daisy spacers... gahhhhhhhhhh.

This has taken me 3 hours to put together. However, I have a feeling this will be another one that gets remade after a few days of stewing over it.

Rough Hubei turquoise choker

Despite how heavy this is (8 grams of silver, and these are pure copper beads, not plated crap) this is surprisingly light to wear. I played quite a bit to get the length right.

I had an interesting day at the Woodstock Farmer's Market yesterday. It started out super slow for everyone. And then all of a sudden, we were inundated with people -- guess people decided it wasn't going to rain after all (monsoons were in the forecast, and I think all it did was spit a few times). There were many new faces, too, something which is also puzzling a lot of the vendors. I didn't sell any big ticket items but there were queries about the turquoise. I did sell a lot of earrings yesterday, two, three pair at a time. Funny that that's what's been selling lately: mostly designs from two or three years ago. Means I have put down the murder mysteries and get busy replenishing the earring carrousel.

I also sold two long strings of pearls, one black and one white. Pearls sell very well. Maybe I should ditch the turquoise and silver and just sell pearl jewellery. Now there's a thought.

More transcription came in, due Tuesday, so I should get on top of that today. I have a pile of things to go through to take to Rekindled (the consignment store in Woodstock) either Tuesday or Wednesday, as well as drop off my long-overdue application to the new Woodstock Art Gallery gift shop which will open when they complete the move to the new premises on Dundas Street. Question: do I have any CDs to burn to and do I even remember how to do it? Do people really still use them? Gahhh.

Got more items listed on Magpie Gemstones

This is cool -- two more of my necklaces were listed on Magpie Gemstones' site the other day. There are so many beautiful designs there and I'm proud to be included.

I also got some transcription in so I'd best get at that. The bills never stop coming in, and they sure never decrease. Funny how that works, innit? The more we're told to conserve energy/water, the more the utilities companies find ways to ding us for even more money, to pay for their own fiscal mismanagement and lunatic executive decisions. Why are these people never held accountable? I use $15 worth of electricity a month in the summer, but my bill is over $90. How is that possible, or even fair???

In absolute terms, my wages have decreased; in fact I'm earning less now than I was back in the '70s when I first started working. So much for competing with India, where North America's transcription sector has gone. It's loooooong past time to find something else to do!

I found these cool wrought iron earring racks to sell at the market. I'm forever being asked to bring in jewellery racks, and I hope people will buy them. In any event, I will be using several of them on my table for my own stuff, as well as offering them for use where my stuff is sold in stores and galleries. I think it will be easier to separate out designs/materials thematically on smaller racks. The next trick is to get them up high enough so people can see them. I haven't tried the PVC pipe riser trick yet -- they're kind of funny at the market I go to, wanting every vendor's tables to be in a line and all the same height.

Sold a bridal set -- and I have my truck back on the road... yay!

Yesterday at the market I was almost packed up when a lady came by and asked if I had anything pink. The earring carousels were still out and I showed her some pink ones, but she wanted a necklace for a gift. All I had was the set I'd made with a wedding in mind, so I dug that out. Of course it was in the last box I opened at the bottom of the bin.

The price for the set was $140. Much dickering ensued, but her budget was $100 and she was sticking to it. On the other hand, I figured it had been sitting on my table for months and $100 of something was better than $140 of nothing. Long story short, I sold it. Meant I had to eat the hours and hours it took to design the flowers and string and restring all the components until I finally found something that pleased me to. Not to mention all the silver headpins I used. Those little glass flowers are expensive suckers, too.


Seed pearls, tanzanite Swarovskis, vintage glass, sterling silver heart clasp & findings SOLD

Better yet, my truck is finally back on the road. Still some repairs to come -- if I don't sell it beforehand -- which means I'll be going nowhere without a jug of water to periodically glug into the radiator overflow. I'm mulling over buying a Ford van to camperise/workshopise with the idea of being able to travel from day market to day market through the summer (and maybe even do some travelling in the winter). Rather than drive back and forth for hours each day to get to a market, which begins to sound more and more like a full time job with concomitant horrendous gas costs and the prospect of zero sales, I could drive to the next venue and, because I'd also have a laptop with an Internet stick, be able to park somewhere and either type or work at jewellery-making while I waited for the next market to start. Bonus is Max could come with me. However, there will be mucho logistics to work out before that ever happens.

After the market, I drove to Brantford to Alexandra's Beads to buy another wire brush so I can continue cleaning fired silver leaves and flowers. I literally wore the bristles down to the wooden handle in about two weeks.

Rene's plans to host(ess) a bridal event some time in August are coming together, with more participants committed, too.

I have to get busy making more wedding jewellery samples. Luckily I bought several strings of different diameter pearls at the wholesaler's a couple of weeks ago. I find it odd how much I love pearls given my taste overall for "tribal" design, rough cut stones and turquoise.

Max update, and new turquoise jewellery

Hard to believe it's been a month since Max was attacked. He's fine now, if still a little, uh... scabby. He never needed a cone of silence, either. I think the few times he tried to reach around for a good chew he popped a stitch and that was enough to change his mind. One of the things that broke my heart was the day he was finally able to wag his tail.

I couldn't stand it and finally restrung that turquoise and lapis choker. I also made another version with citrine. The tiny turquoise beads are from Magpie Gemstones. The lush colours and variety of shapes gives the illusion of greater substance than you'd think, yet both necklaces are very lightweight and comfortable to wear. I just received more strings of this turquoise and will be making a raw ruby version... soon!



Tiny turquoise nuggets, lapis lazuli, amethyst, citrine, copper daisy spacers and beads, hammered copper clasp

 

Tiny turquoise nuggets, lapis lazuli, amethyst, copper daisy spacers and beads, hammered copper clasp

  I love Magpie Gemstones and I neeeeeed turquoooooooooooise. I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed more copper. I neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed more pewter raven skulls... I neeeeeeeeeeeed to generate more sales!

But reality prevails: there is less and less transcription work every week; not to mention the Japanese tsunami is still hitting hard in southern Ontario, radically curtailing operations at the local Toyota plant, which means equally radically curtailed spending everywhere else, not to mention my truck is back in the shop yet again -- this has been going on for two months now, one thing after another after another -- and I am permaparked all week until the work is finished. In fact, I will probably have to rely on a loaner to get to the market on Saturday. Looking for a new vehicle, in fact, which will definitely be better on gas.

Gaahhhhhhh... the power just went off -- again. It's super windy here today and this is the second time in a few hours that it's gone off.... Whew. It's back on again. I don't have to retype this post again. Yesterday there was a huge power surge and our local Internet provider was down for a couple of hours. Talk about panic city, as I had a huge transcription job to finish and send to the client without fail yesterday.

This is my new favourite bracelet:


Minimally-processed Hubei turquoise nuggets, lapis lazuli, raw carnelian, bone & horn & copper beads, hammered copper clasp

I'm so in love with this raw-looking turquoise that I got from Happy Mango Beads. I only got one string each of three sizes, and I would really like to get more.

I am in the midst of putting together a large order for cake jewellery so I'd better get off this colossal timesucker here and get back to work.

New stuff

Max update: except for flaking debris, Max has made an unbelievable recovery. I am so amazed and relieved. My thanks go out to the wonderful vets and staff at the Paris Veterinary Clinic.

Max is doing a lot better today, but still not a happy camper

We went back to the vet this morning. I was afraid that his adenoma incision had become infected. It's almost artificially bright red, swollen and you can feel heat half an inch away. But the vet says he's okay, and certainly the dog bite gouges are healing beautifully. They're still painful enough that it prevents him from bending enough to start licking or chewing on the adenoma incisions, thus he doesn't (so far) require the doggy humiliation of all doggy humiliations: the cone of silence.

I took a picture yesterday of my clean new table to show how messy it can get in just a few days.


Took two days to get covered in stuff.


How do people manage to keep their places tidy? It's an eternal mystery to me. Have less stuff, I guess. I have all the good intentions in the world, but... blork. There it all lies, crap and corruption barfed up all over every flat surface -- including the floor.

Still waiting for my truck to get fixed. In the meantime, I have a little bit of typing that just arrived, so I'm outta here for now.