Holiday Trunk Show and Sale

I'm very excited about my upcoming trunk show and sale.

Five amazing artist friends, some sweet eats and lots of cool creations to make your season merry and bright and not make your wallet too light! ;)

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Little Birdie

I can't help but hear Woodstock's theme song from the various Charlie Brown cartoons that I still watch with my kids. In fact, it's time to watch "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown".

This is one of my newest creations. A sterling silver pendant that makes me feel like I could hear it chirp if I just listen long enough.

Somethings Gotta Give...

Summer, three kids, taking a class, trying to create and build my business... what "gave" was my blog.

Today was the first day of school and although still warm, the summer is definitely waning. The kitchen was bathed in a gorgeous golden light; the morning held the edge of a chill and in the air was that lovely acrid smell of smoldering piles of leaves or maybe someone's cozy fire. Fall is my favorite season - can you tell?

Below is a picture of triumph!

I actually baked that gorgeous, glutenous, glob of goodness myself, in my dutch oven, with America's Best Recipe for "Almost No Knead Bread". It is crusty where it needs to be and soft where it needs to be and very tasty. NO ONE is more surprised than me!

Forging Ahead

I'm taking a metals class on forging and fusing. The process of annealing (heating) a piece of metal, cooling it and then forging it (working with it by hand forming, twisting and hammering on an anvil or other hard metal until it becomes hard again.) This process can be repeated on the same piece of metal many times. Up to this point, I've only cold forged my pieces. This is the next logical step in my jewelry journey and it feels right!

Pictured is my first attempt on a piece of 10 gauge wire. There is still work to be done - hammering out some of the rough spots and polishing it - but I think it wants to be a hair ornament... we'll see.

Retreat

more like respite... from all the demands of parenting and partnering and shuttling and shuffling that make up my life. I took the train to Seattle to meet my dear friend Amy for a lovely day of sight seeing, dining, shopping, and talking. Mostly talking. We have an easy banter that I treasure. Our conversations roam effortlessly from politics to parenting, from living consciously to hedonistic food finds.


After a fabulous dinner at Palace Kitchen, the setting sun turned granite to gold.




Featured above are pictures of my mmmMojito and an amazing spin on deviled eggs - we'd almost eaten the whole plate before I grabbed my camera to take the picture ;)

Opal Creek

This is my kind of place! Gemstones in the name - yeah baby!

I spent three days chaperoning my son's class in the Opal Creek Ancient Forest. Pristine, never-been-logged, old-growth forest in the Central Oregon Cascades near Detroit Lake. Absolutely gorgeous - such diversity of life in this place - it feels sacred.

Avalanche lilies grow in carpets of moss clinging to steep hillsides above the raging water

Audacity

Poppies are audacious! Loud! Unabashed! Having only been in our house since November - well into the rainy, cold, dormant season - we have been on a prolonged journey of discovery in and amongst the rock gardens and multiple levels of our hilly yard. These poppies just appeared last weekend... on a sunny and unseasonably hot Friday, I glanced out a window and was stunned - blinded, in fact - by their garish debut. Sigh..

Fields of Blue

I went for a lovely Mother's Day hike in the Camassia Natural Area - 26 acres adjacent to West Linn High School owned and maintained by The Nature Conservancy. The trail takes you through meadows covered in wildflowers and strewn with blocks and boulders of timeworn basalt. The 15 million year old rock was uncovered a mere 15,000 years ago by the Missoula Floods - So beautiful.

Rapunzel

My view out the kitchen window is of a camellia bush in my neighbor's yard. If you'd asked me two months ago how I felt about this common plant, I'd have answered with a somewhat ambivalent "they're o.k.". Now, however, after watching bloom after exquisitely perfect bloom open, I've become the mother in the fairy tale who wastes away from longing for some lettuce in her witchy neighbor's garden. I finally had to tiptoe over and take... a picture. You thought I was going to pick one didn't you? No way! Frighteningly, the woman who lives next door might be a distant relative of the, shall we say, 'lettuce grower' in the story...enough said.

blue below

focus refined...i've been doing more wire/metal work lately - some blackened, some not. sold a few things and sent them across the country and across the atlantic ocean. surreal

still with the sparkly though...

the most common mineral on the earth

quartz... in all it's many forms and varieties, accounts for about 12% of the earth's crust by volume. this necklace features three types: smoky quartz, rutilated quartz (threads of gold are suspended in the stone) and citrine. so sparkly... so pretty...

art and commerce

...or should i say craft and commerce? i can only think that the ongoing and inane debate about what qualifies as "art" and what is relegated to "craft" is primarily about ego and pretense.

i've been at my work table quite a lot lately. the buckman art show and sell (you know - like "show and tell") was a success! perhaps it's pathetic, but i'm often a little sad to see a piece go. most of my creations are one-of-a-kind and all are things i would and do wear. basically, i just make things i like. the fact that other people feel the same and want to buy them is a surreal bonus.

my Etsy website is filling up. check it out.

that was then...this is now

last week - spring break - snowing, hailing, sleeting, raining. see pic 1

this week - not spring break - gorgeous, sunny, warm. see pic 2

hope

spring is coming. there's no denying it. it's a sunny, warm (59 degrees)late february day and our daphne bush is heavy with blooms - their heady scent transports me immediately. i'm 17 and in love - and he's just given me a slightly homely (sorry daphne but your beauty is inner) bouquet of the most intoxicating blooms i'd ever encountered. he's long gone but my love for daphne is eternal.

a window into...

the right side of my brain...



a picture of some beads and bits and bobs that inspire me. i marry them together into something pleasing (hopefully) sell them and send them on their way. many of my treasures are vintage - found at estate sales and all over. they've already lived one life - boy do i wish they could tell me of their travels - and are on to a new one. pretty cool huh?



i'm a blog neophyte so i'll be feeling my way along the gravelly shoulder of the digital highway. bear with me.