Necklace washed away

Since I leave most of my found necklaces in place, I've always wanted to stretch the idea a bit further by photographing a piece being carried away by the tide. I tried it once before and learned the lesson to never look away because I did indeed turn my head - just once - to talk to my husband and missed the shot I had been kneeling in the sand waiting over half and hour for.

This sequence found me standing in the cold ocean water, fearing the fading daylight, fighting off mosquitoes. (A very wet spring has made for a bad bug situation in Maine this year.)

Here I actually condensed the number of photos from a total of 51 to just 16. (It just occurred to me though that a flip book with all of them would be interesting.)

The waiting and watching the tide was meditative and the whole experience a good lesson in 

letting go.

Headed to Maine

We're headed to Maine for some much needed time away and messing about on the beach, sketching, kayaking and what have you.

I'll sneak just a bit of "work" in with a delivery to KoT Contemporary Craft in Ellsworth. I'm quite please they've chosen to include me as their jewelry selection is always top notch! Please do stop there if you're in that part of Maine (Ellsworth is the town on the mainland where you get off Rt. 1 to go out to Mount Desert Island). Highly recommended.

These are images from our 2016 trip staying at the same cottage in Friendship, Maine. That was the year I started my "found" jewelry pieces.

And to state the obvious perhaps, since I won't be here, I won't be able to ship anything.  If you happen make a purchase next week though, please know it will ship just as soon as I can June 24 or 25.

Weekend inspiration

Enjoy some mostly grey weekend inspiration...like the grey, hazy, humid summer we're having here. 

Airbnb/artist's retreat

I've had several people ask about the Airbnb/artist's retreat we stayed at while in Maine and I enjoyed it so much I feel it deserves more than just a link.

The owner (truly a SuperHost) was ahead of her time, renting out this amazing space before Airbnb even came on the scene I believe. This is one room living (plus bath) at its best, atop a large two car garage that the renter is welcome to use. The cathedral ceiling currently holds a (I think) mylar sculpture that sways every so slightly, and silently, when the ceiling fan is running and artwork adorns most walls.

 

Every need is considered and questions are answered before they are even asked by signs placed strategically around the studio (at the stove, washing machine, tv...). Skylights and windows allow for plenty of natural light even on a foggy day and well into the evening. Because the space is on the second floor and surround by woods, it feels a lot like a tree house. Although not directly on the water, a 2 min. walk on a charming woodland path takes you to a double adirondack chair with a view of the Damariscotta River.

 The studio area blends right into the main living space and is stocked with well organized tools, drawing, painting and collage supplies. There is a utility tub for cleaning up and two six foot, well lit work tables. I spent one evening playing with water soluble chalks until 10:30 pm.  The whole place is completely conducive to creativity and my husband and I both found ourselves saying "I could live here. I could live here".

Hey, look who that is! 

Joy, the owner lives in a house through the trees behind the studio and while she's available, she also allowed us all the privacy we wanted.

She has some open dates at the end of September (hint, hint) and Maine should be glorious then with comfortable days and chilly nights. Businesses and restaurants will still be open but the bulk of the tourist crowd will have left. Put it this way, if our lives did not revolve around the public school year, I would be renting that last week in September for sure.

Ah Maine...

One week is never enough in Maine but I'm grateful for the time we did have to get away, relax and do some day dreaming, without which artists would surely be sunk. Maybe all those dreams won't  come to fruition fully formed as we see them in our heads but they are a necessary fuel that pushes us forward. 

As seen from Shaw's Wharf in New Harbor.

This was a low budget trip as the college bills for our older two oldest kids are rolling in now but I will tell you, Maine can be done quite nicely on a tight budget if you have some basic camping equipment and do your homework on Airbnb. Beyond that there are many free to low cost adventures to be had. I googled "free things to do in Maine" and came up with more than we could possibly have done in a week. 

One of our favorite things to do (possibly my favorite thing in the world to do) is muck about on beaches like above at Owl's Head Lighthouse . There's a charge for admittance into the lighthouse but parking, the beach and walking around outside  the lighthouse is free. I gathered rocks and Kyle did a very nice painting and talked to a charming family from Quebec (he has a gift for starting conversations with strangers - a plus while traveling) .

Iconic image - looking up from the rocks at Pemaquid Point.

View of the Damariscotta River at our Airbnb.

Below are some of the interesting pieces found at the small beach at Pemaquid Settlement. From top to bottom: wood, shell, wire, rock and unidentified rubber thing. I'm happy to say in all our beach wanderings we found very little trash. More on that and "found jewelry" in my next post. 

Kayaking in South Bristol.

Visiting spindleworks

I made a flying trip to one of my favorite places in the world at the beginning of the month. Maine never disappoints. We were fortunate to catch the leaves just starting to change color.

It was fortuitous that the most recent addition of ACC magazine with an article highlighting spindleworks - a progressive art center for disable adults in Brunswick arrived just a few weeks before the trip and I put it on the "places to stop" list.

spindle works shop

Although we got there too late in the day to meet with any artists,  the director was kind enough to give me a tour. I was so inspired but the quality and the volume of the work being produced. The have painting, sculpture, ceramic and weaving studios. They have a dark room, have started film/multi media production and even had their first fashion show this year. Its a truly impressive place.

paint studio

I hope to make an adventurous winter trip (winter in Maine?) in the next couple of months so my husband and I can spend a full day or two at spindleworks.  I feel certain there is a lot we can learn here to take with us on our next trip to volunteer with SHAPE in Saint Helena and I'm looking forward to meeting artists while they're working.

To learn more about how spindle works started (surprisingly it was with weaving) and how they work today, be sure to read this article on Disparate Minds.

weaving studio

"I met her on the internet."

That's what I had to say when someone asked me how I know Barb Fernald because that was the truth. I didn't in fact know her; my family and I were traveling 3 mi. across the water to meet her for the first time.

Backstory: Barb read on my blog that I was coming to Maine and suggested that we visit her home, Little Cranberry Island. I mapped the trip and  realized we could manage it as a day trip from Martin Point as my husband encouraged me past the anxiety and there you have it.  Island adventure! Thanks to Barb's planning we were able to catch the 10am mailboat out of Northeast Harbor and spend a beautiful day seeing the sights and lunching with lobsterman (her husband :-)

harbor at Ilesford, Little Cranberry

There is an amazing number of things to do on this 1mi. x 1mi. island. A long, grey, shingle building on the dock houses a great restaurant, art gallery, and gift shop (Winter's Work - a very nice shop with handmade goods from the state of Maine). There is also a decent sized pottery with excellent work from at least three potters.  (And they wrap what you buy quite nicely for the journey back across the water.) 

My husband found the gorgeous green ones.

Looking back to Mt. Desert Island

Barb, as it turns out, is a wonderful person and we clicked. I mean, how can you not just love someone who's suggested afternoon activity is going to pick up rocks?! 

Her work is featured on island at Winter's Work of course and includes polymer, metal clay and beach stones. We were so fortunate to have time to visit her studio. Its wonderful how visiting another person's workspace can make you feel excited about getting back into your own!  

You can also find her jewelry in Archipelago (Rockland, ME) and online. Check her out! She has wonderful craftsmanship and I feel like her work, even the more abstract pieces, "speak" about the natural beauty of her island home.

Now to the part of the day's visit  was completely unexpected. 

Did you know award winning illustrator/artist, Ashley Bryan, is a Little Cranberry resident? I must admit that I didn't, but he is and how very blessed we were to spend some time visiting his studio. Puppets, paintings, lots of work in progress and papier mache stained glass windows! You don't meet too many people who are such a perfect combination of funny and smart and encouraging - but Ashely is all of these and more. Meet him and you feel like you've had your soul massaged. Its as if  you walked right into a children's book.  My oldest son Ben turned to me and said "I'm staying. I'm staying here with Ashley. Forever." 

photo : Barb Fernald

from Simon and Shuster

Island's have long been safe harbors for artists. The natural beauty, the quiet and the retreat from the fast pace of mainland life leaves space in the brain for imagination to happen.  Little Cranberry even has a lobsterman poet and lobsterman painter. So much art is such a tiny space. 

A very big thank you to Barb Fernald for inviting perfect strangers to visit, gutsy former sternman that she is! We've been told twice in the past week how fortunate we are to have friends on Little Cranberry and I know that to be absolutely true. 

Good bye tiny island - see you again sooner rather than later I hope!