Inspiration: Freezing Fog

A few weeks back, my birthday week to be exact, I received the best gift ever. Mother Nature gave me her finest. Taking my regular route mid-morning, I headed out to Dundee to meet with my hairstylist for a cut and color and some fun girl chat. A few blocks from home everything seemed to look quite different than is usual for this time of year. I pulled my Jeep off road to get a closer look of the white bark birch trees that line the property where I had stopped. The bare branches and trunks were covered in frost; not glistening ice, but soft shimmery frost. The sky was white and soft. It was magical – I felt as if I was standing in the middle of the best snow globe ever.

All Things Good & Happy for You in 2014!

Just a few of your favorite designs this year!

It's a simple wish really -- one for all things good and happy in the New Year. I can't thank you enough for all of your support and encouragement over this past year. Life is always full of change and 2013 was no exception to the rule. We all have weathered this storm called life and have grown stronger and more powerful than ever. That being said, I am greeting 2014 with open arms and a wide-open heart. I hope you'll stay around and enjoy my adventure right along with me and let me be a little part of your journey. We are sharing this life together and that gives me great joy! Happy New Year!

And, it’s Officially Fall!

Earlier this week I actually felt a chill in the air and as I pulled clothes from my closet for the day I automatically reached for my Donna Karan cashmere sweater. Over the years, this sweater has become the clothes equivalent of comfort food for me. There is nothing special about it really, just easy to wear, comfy, soft and over-sized – a deep charcoal gray. Last night I realized that I have had this sweater for about 17 years!

It's so Easy Being Green!

Green Aventurine, Prehnite & Freshwater Pearl Bracelet

Maybe it’s because it’s St. Patrick’s Day, maybe it’s because Pantone has named Emerald the color of the year for 2013 or just maybe it’s because I gaze out the studio window and I see little touches of green here and there. I am so happy to see spring…so very happy. The winters in this part of the country are really tough – at least for this born and raised SoCal girl.

Seen on the Most Famous Women -- Yes, That Would Be You!

Part of me wants to shout “I don’t care what celebrity has worn what in any movie or video” – but then I know full well that saying that could come back and bite me in the butt thus quenching any spark of interest from stylists and wardrobe gurus around the world. (But, didn’t I just put it all out there? Yes, I did so I doubt that “coming to a screen near you” will be in my vernacular anytime soon!)

Open Arms & 2013

This morning I joyfully welcomed a new year with wide open arms. The New Year greeted me in return with glorious sunshine and blue skies – an unusual sight in this part of the world. But, I’ll take it. For me, the sunshine feeds my soul and reenergizes my body – I love it for that! Although it is only 28 degrees this morning, I’m sitting on my patio, bundled in one of my favorite toasty cabled afghans, letting the sun shine on my back, sipping fresh Peet’s coffee and enjoying the gifts of Mother Nature. It’s a lovely picture, isn’t it?

Under the Tucson Sky

Yes, I said Tucson, as in Arizona not Tuscan as in Italy! I'm still here at the big Gem Show and enjoying every minute of it. Yes, I love all the rocks and gemstones that I see; but one of the things I think I might enjoy the most is the wide range of people that I meet. For many of the vendors in Tucson, this is the only gem show they participate in throughout the year. People come from around the globe to sell and to buy rocks, minerals and gemstones in all forms, shapes and sizes. Today I talked with people from Madagascar, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Hong Kong, Australia, Afghanistan and Oregon. Yes, a gem cutter who lives just four hours from my home, but I had to come to Tucson to meet him! That's the wonder of this place -- the unexpected is the norm.

Opulent Gemstones or Rocks in my Head?

Honestly, sometimes when I am working in the jewelry studio I think I am nuts. Why you ask? Well, let's see: is it normal for a person to actual gasp when she sees a piece of pietersite? Does a sane person swoon over kyanite or labradorite? Does a woman with even a modicum of commonsense get giddy over a pile of rocks? To tell the truth...I'm not sure. But I do know this - what other people might see as just rocks, I see as opulent opaque gemstones in so many varieties that no one person has counted or seen them all!

A Design Fit for Shirley

The other day I caught a rerun of Boston Legal. One of my all time favs, no doubt about it. Full of interesting characters, timely topics and good humor as only David E. Kelley can do. Well, maybe that is not a fair statement, since I watch so little TV that perhaps I am not qualified to judge what other writers have or have not done. But, I do know this -- I loved the characters In Ally McBeal as well as Boston Legal.

Surprises and Geodes

This afternoon I will be on the hunt for gemstones. Kyanite is at the top of the list followed by carnelian, onyx, chrysoprase, calcedony, amethyst, crystal and smoky quartz, green quartz -- so okay, maybe I should just say "I am on the hunt for anything that catches my eye."

If It's Good Enough for Mother Nature

People are always asking me where I get the inspiration for my jewelry designs. I know it sounds vague but I am inspired by all things around me. I feel like a giant sponge (no cruel jokes please) in that I seem to absorb the energy of what's going on in my world. Much of that energy is passed on to my jewelry.

Watermelon?

Yes, I said watermelon. I bought this little watermelon earlier in the week at Bauman's Farm here in town. While I knew it was going to be yellow on the inside, I was still surprised that it was really YELLOW. Not hints of yellow, or yellow to pink -- just yellow, through and through -- wonderful contrast to the big black seeds.

Choose Me! Choose Me! Choose Me!

I had a bunch o'bracelets all lined up on a work tray and they looked like so much fun, I had to snap a pix and post it here. I love making this particular style. Something about the repetitive nature of creating the "rope" is very Zen for me. That is the reason I so enjoy knitting -- it's not so much the finished product, in that case, it is the very nature of the knitting technique. However, it is both the technique and the finished product when it comes to these bracelets. Picking just the right gemstones or glass beads for the "charms" makes me happy. Interesting, I am so easily entertained.

Mermaid Dreams

This hotter than hot weather, yes, it is 104 in this part of the country, is making me long for my long-ago-life at the beach. I'm telling you, if I was anywhere near the ocean, a river, or a pool of water of any type, I would jump in, clothes and all. Of course, this longing for cool shores was boosted when my brother-in-law sent me a video of a surfer in Huntington Beach catching the perfect ride at the U.S. Open (surfing not tennis) a few days ago.

A Rare Moment in Time

Since I had just finished nine new necklaces, I figured it was a good time to step away from the studio for a break. When I came back to it -- I took one look and tried to remember when the tornado had run through the place. As I work, the area gets loaded down with "stuff." While I like a clean work area -- I have never been one of those designers who spends more time cleaning than creating.

Surprise in Purple

I walked around the house today on a side that isn't my normal path -- wow! Look what was there waiting for me. And, no...it wasn't a spider, although I am quite sure there are many living just beyond my line of sight in that exact spot. Thank goodness I wasn't wearing my glasses. The surprise was a good one -- this glorious clematis (would the plural of that be clematii?) in full bloom, climbing up a trellis and spilling over the roof. Of course, I had to run inside and get my Blackberry so I could capture their beauty. It is just too hot out there to get shots with the "good" camera and since my BB camera seems to do a good job, I just went with it. Then I thought it would be cool to crawl around on the ground and get a pix of the tiniest little fuchsias in the world -- I think they call these Tinkerbell fuchsias. The entire blossom is only about one inch long; and since my uncle and dad have always called me Tinker, I like anything that reminds me of that. If you look closely, the inside petals look like deep purple velvet.

Okay, I admit, I am a bit of a purple freak but in a quiet kind of way. I never thought about it much before, but I am drawn to things purple -- like flowers and gemstones and glass beads. I don't think I have any purple clothes, at least that I can think of now; but I do have a Rebecca Moss purple business card holder that I got in NYC many moons ago. Oh, and I do have a pair of purple reading glasses. And, I do have a dogtooth amethyst bracelet similar to the one shown here. When I found these gemstones in Tucson I had to grab all the vendor had left. I don't see this gem that often and when I do I get giddy! And, I hear that purple is a BIG fashion color for the fall-winter seasons. Giddy?

Making Hay While the Sun Shines!

Yesterday evening was the raking, baling and stacking event for the grass seed acreage that surrounds the Beck Farm, the name I have given my friends' place just on the other side of town. I get such a kick out of watching the different equipment used to get the various jobs done. Clever engineers out there somewhere. I'm geeky enough to enjoy those "How It's Made" shows on Discovery and watching it first hand is nifty. Did I just say "nifty?" Yesterday's process followed the cutting, the threshing, the loading and hauling of full trailers of grass seed (yes, large trailers that hook on to a truck) that took place a few days earlier. It's amazing, the equipment arrives like a swarm of bees and in a few hours they have about 60 acres complete and then the team moves on to the next field on the the long list. And, yes, they travel to the next job on the street, so pity the fool that gets stuck driving behind them at two miles an hour. Now that the baling is complete another team will come in and cut the grass very low and the whole process starts again for next year. It's a busy (and dusty) time here for anyone involved with farming.

That includes the dogs who went wild all evening -- running up and down the fences of the property making sure that those "monsters" stayed on their side of the fence. Needless to say, little Beatrix has been zonked all day -- but I think by providing the "back-up" all week for Missy, her sister at the farm, little Bea is finding her girlish-figure again. Maybe I should take a page from her book...tomorrow!

A Peek at Things to Come

I had a ball on Thursday at the offices of a fairly new publication, Willamette Woman. Marion, the editor of the magazine, invited me to be the focus of a really fun feature they do in every issue called "In the Bag: Peek in a Purse." Of course, I was thrilled to be asked. I showed up and was taken down to the basement of the Statesman Journal offices in Salem where they have a little photo studio set up. Little did I know they were going to take my bag from me and unload it on the tabletop! YIKES. Luckily, I have a fairly organized messenger bag since one of my pet peeves is to see a woman pawing through her bag looking for something. My way of avoiding that is to have everything inside placed in a variety of smaller bags -- from my Lisa Jenks wallet I bought at Barney's way back when to celebrate a new job, to a Walker bag I bought when I lived in Mill Valley to a beaded frog bag I got off a street vendor in NYC. "Two dollar, two dollar, two dollar. Three for five." So, it really wasn't all that bad. It is interesting, though, to look at your personality through the things you carry in your bag/purse/backpack and how you organize or don't organize them. Anyhow, I also have a little pouch of "lucky" gems, rocks and beads that I carry with me -- they got photographed so will see where the editor goes with that. The issue doesn't come out until September -- and when it does, I will post an image here...at least, I think I will. Guess I have to see the end product before I make that commitment!

The Flip Side of the Coin

Yesterday when I went to get a new passport photo (poop, I look like a convict in the pix -- the photog tells me the rules have changed and you can no longer smile for your passport pix) I was again reminded of the rich and diverse history in this little community. This house sits in the middle of a short block of four magnificent old beauties (and I am not talking about the owners of the homes). I stopped to chat with one owner who was taking care of biz on the front huge wraparound porch. While I didn't ask when the house was built, my guess would be early 1890s -- it is a splendid work of art and a beautiful example of a renovation that I am sure took tons of blood, sweat and tears. One day I'll get the nerve to ask her for a tour. I discovered that the photog heads up the historical group here in town. So once I apologize for my grim behavior upon seeing my passport photo, I'll see if he can arrange a tour for me of the houses on the block, including the house that is now his photo studio.

I have long been fascinated by the jewelry worn by women during the Victorian era -- well, women of "means" that is. It was so intricate and most likely the design depicted some hidden message -- specific flowers had specific messages, for example. So romantic. Remember these were the days long before it was okay to shout "I love you" to your

beau standing on the

other side of the street! I wonder if the women who settled out west and lived in houses such as this brought their jewelry with them when they made the long journey out. The historical society here has some info but sadly many things aren't documented so I have no idea. If they did have it, I want to think it would be a scaled-down version of the "Victorian-inspired" necklaces and bracelet in these pix.

Fields of Green

Seems to be a lot of sod-growing in this part of the country. You know, sod...the stuff you lay out in your yard to have an instant lawn. I pass several of these fields on the way to get berries. Just a few weeks ago the fields were brown and dry. I'm always a bit amazed at how quickly the grass grows and everything turns green. They are especially lovely when the high sprinklers are throwing sprays of water in the sunshine -- I tried to capture the rainbows here, but with the camera on my cell phone, some detail is lost. Janice, a friend of mine, always thought it would be neat to live next to a sod farm. All you would see for acres and acres and acres would be fields of green. Lucky her, she lives on a little farm on the other side of town -- surrounded by grass seed fields, so she kind of has the same effect, just a bit scruffier.