Song For Change

My friend Tom just put this out on YouTube and so I have to share. I like to spend Wednesday nights listening to him play his guitar and sing his songs with a glass of good red wine and the good company of friends. Watching this little video made me feel a little teary, just thankful for having good friends to hang out with.

Dark Side of the Moon

Moon and stars, sun and distant worlds, that is celestial bodies, have always had a powerful draw on me, but I have tended to avoided them in my adult art as I try to find expressions less used. However no matter how many times I gaze at the moon it never fails to fascinate or draw my gaze from crescent to pink and fat.

I felt free to call this series of necklaces after the moon because I feel they are abstracted rather than direct representations. This latest piece, Dark Side of the Moon, is created with black onyx and with a beautiful floral coconut button stained black. I kept it very simple and celestial with orbiting silver planets. If the button should turn in its orbit a silver line appears reminiscent of the rings of Saturn.

The other symbolism of the name of this necklace, of course, corresponds with Pink Floyd’s seminal concept album Dark Side of the Moon that was first released in 1973. I would have been only ten years old, but I’m pretty sure I was listening to it by eleven or twelve so the incredible evocative sound texture of that album has been with me a long time and is appropriate as inspiration to my art of adornment. When I was on the Searchlight on the Thames in England I remember wearing ‘cans’ over my ears to fall asleep to the sounds of footsteps running from ear to ear over the top of my head or the clinking of coins in a ceramic bowl. I believe there is some connection between the fact that my necklace can show more than one face and the textures of that album. It’s perhaps tenuous, possibly indescribable, ineffable, but it’s not non-existent in the landscape of my inspiration.

Ramblings on a Dark Morning...

Yesterday was exciting at Etsy in that my latest treasury, the one I mentioned in the previous posting, made it to the front page for about half an hour. I garnered some hearts which was nice - means that people do visit the curator of a treasury, and I noticed that three of the items I featured sold, which makes me feel all puffed up with pride for being a good Etsian. I can only hope such good fortune is contagious. So last night, with an another packet of new beads in hand, I fashioned four pairs of earrings - or was it three and a half as one had been begun previously but abandoned when I ran out of jump rings. Anyway they are all sweet and attractive but all derivative of earlier designs so no new inspiration hit, but I was productive.

I have to play domestic goddess today, but hope to get some time to work on some writing. I particpate in a writing/roleplay community site called Panhistoria and tomorrow when I have time to log in there, I will need to be posting as there are big happenings in one of the stories I write in. It's a fun site, quite addictive (if you like to write or you used to love to play dress up or pretend as a kid) once you get the hang of it, and I have always had to learn to restrict myself timewise there, or I would never get my work done, or my jewelry made, or my paintings painted!

You know I had some big thoughts about what my next blog would be about, like the environment or music or some incredible inspirational insights I had, but I've just rambled. If you have read this far, I salute you. Oh! Breaking news, my work is featured in another treasury this morning, yah! I must be doing something right because that's the third in a row.

And just to be sure I have some substance here is a little video for you to watch:

All the Birds Are Leaving...

Let's just get it out of the way straight away: yes, I managed to snag yet another treasury at Etsy today. This one was inspired both by my own recent swallow themed chandelier earrings and by the falling leaves. The name of the treasury is "Where Does the Time Go?" and was inspired by the wonderful soung "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" by the late great Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention, a folk singer extraodinaire. Swallows arrive with the summer and leave with it - and so it's perhaps very apt that I have been inspired to memorialize them in my jewelry this autumn. Now it would be quite something to see Sandy wearing those while singing, but that is, alas, never to be. She's largely forgotten I think by the fact that she died so very young but her voice is quite remarkable and pure.


I also received some lovely new beads from one of my favorite Etsy sellers Carrodar and once again I'm excited to start creating something. I have made three orders now from Carrodar and each time been very happy with the gemstones and with the wonderful service. My latest purchase begs for a necklace and earring set, this time far more rugged and chunky than my more recent creations. You know I do actually sit around and think I should stick with one style or unifying theme but it just can't happen, not to a Gemini on the cusp. I just keep thinking of new ideas and inspiration comes from so many different places. One thing I do want to do is start an ideas journal/sketch pad (just like I have encouraged past students to do! I'm so bad at taking my own advice).

New Age Cynicism

Please understand from the outset of this essay that I am totally in support of organic, local, and fair trade. I even work in the sector and have helped advanced the cause in my area. But, and I have a big but here, but how is it that I have a choice between an organic cucumber for $3.99 from Mexico or .89 cents each from Mexico or California or Florida. That means that my organic cuke would cost from 3 to 4 times the conventional one. Now I get that the price of a conventionally grown cuke is held down by mass production, cheap migrant labor, and government subsidies but the disparity is crippling. I can’t afford a $4 cuke no matter what my values are. Now I would be prepared to pay twice as much to ensure I didn’t consume toxic chemicals, pollute the groundwater, pump more greenhouse gases into the ozone, or further the exploitation of poor migrant works, but FOUR TIMES as much is out of my reach.

I’m a ardent believer in eating my food fresh and local rather than shipped from New Zealand – unless of course it’s a banana in which case I would prefer fair trade and organic – but what is with $5.99 for local organic tomatoes from a guy that farms up the road from me and still uses migrant labor? I know - I have been on his farm. Why are organic tomatoes from further away $3.99 or $2.99 a pound in comparison? I personally believe, if I were to pay $6 a pound, someone is ripping me off. And since I know for a fact the mark up at the store I shop at that means Mr. Farmer up the road is actually exploiting my desire to eat locally.

Of course one bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bushel basket, but it seems to me, particularly after visiting Expo East this year (natural products exposition) that more and more profit-only minded people are muscling into the natural foods market and taking advantage of people who are genuinely concerned for the environment and eating right. It’s becoming big business with the major corporations snapping organic natural labels and even the smaller vendors becoming jaded and greedy. I do understand the rising cost of oil increasing the cost of agricultural and transportation all around but should organic and local be almost immune from the issue of oil costs? After all they aren’t shipping long distances or using petroleum based fertilizers. At a time like this I would have expected organic local foods to drop in price relative to the conventional. It sickens me that it’s going to continue the reverse with everyone wanting the bigger price tag of ‘trendy organic, natural, and local’ labels.

Meanwhile people like me with a limited or low income and no access to my own garden find themselves filling their baskets with conventional foods when their heart belongs to organic.

This That and the Other

Yesterday was sort of weird and screwed up so I ended up not doing anything in the evening like I wanted to. I still have to create the second of a pair of shimmering swallow chandelier earrings (see previous blogging for the first pair I made) but this time in sterling silver and it's more like a jellyfish with a swallow. I'm using moonstones and aquamarine as well as the vintage iridescent swallow focal. I think they are really lovely but quite time consuming. I'm making this pair in silver because some people felt that the copper wire ones didn't lend the ears enough real value in materials to justify the cost. I'm not sure about that as I think that the combination of elements is pretty interesting actually. I love the whole magpie thing of grabbing from different sources materials that might not always be deemed to go with each other. It's perhaps a little art college of me, but I think that I need to go with my gut. However I love silver so I have no problem creating some shimmering dangles in silver.

On a happy note here is the latest treasury I created. This time I just picked out items from my favorites without regard to theme, color scheme, etc, though I did try and produce something harmonious. My previous treasuries had an eye on the Etsy front page, but neither were picked, which is hardly surprising considering the numbers vying for attention, so this time I just wanted to honor some great items from Etsy artists. And if any of those items sell because of the treasury that is one less thing I have to worry about tempting me into spending! I also, for the second time in a row, was featured in a very colorful treasury with the pictured earrings. These are getting some attention! I'll have to make some more. I like doing them and they are simple and effective.

In December I do a few Christmas craft shows and that's when I'll really get an idea which of my jewelry ideas are most successful. I'm very excited, but I sure wish I had something a little earlier as money has been tight - just as it is for everyone these days.

Thoughts on Old Office Chairs

Walking to work this morning I noticed a couple office chairs parked up on the curb. I was contemplating nabbing one or two (great for the studio!) but I was going the wrong direction and had no place to stash them all day. I gazed longingly at the chairs as I reluctantly moved past without snatching. I was wondering what was wrong with them they needed to be thrown out. The answer was blindingly obvious: the fabric had worn under the knees and was now showing off the foam padding. This is the normal place for such chairs to wear and in every other way they looked entirely serviceable.

It occurred to me that nothing in the world would be easier than for the manufacturer to add some reinforcement to that part of the seat. Then, just as quickly, it occurred to me that no modern manufacturer would do that. Why not? Because they want stuff to wear out and be thrown away so you’ll buy a new one. I would bet you good money that they even research the exact length of time it’s acceptable to the consumer that a product wears out within so that they still buy the manufacturer’s crappy-built-to-be-redundant-quickly products.

Remember when ever town had a machine shop where you could take things like the toaster for repair? Can you even imagine doing so today? And of course there were cobblers. I loved the cobblers. You didn’t just throw away your shoes when you got a hole in the heel – you had them repaired! These days it just costs more to have something repaired than the thing is worth… BECAUSE they are made to be cheap and disposable. We, as consumers, are programmed to prefer the low price points and assume we’re getting better value and stretching our dollar. But once you bought something ONCE in your life, not every three years or less. Count up the amount of times you had to fork out for a toaster, total up the cost. Bet you one in good materials guaranteed to last would have cost you less in the long run.

I won’t even go into the cost to the environment and landfill we are paying so that we can buy cheap disposable goods.

Anyone reading this I’m probably preaching to the choir – particularly to those who are proponents of HANDMADE excellence like all my Etsy friends, but I just want to add that I’m as guilty as everyone else. I’m trying to change my ways and buy good quality stuff that will last and last, even if I have to start with the small ticket items and do without for other things. It’s not easy being green as beloved Kermit told us so many years ago (how psychic was that?).