TGIF

In all honesty, I have had a rough week, replete with hurdles and failings, problems to be solved, mistakes to be amended. The comfort lies in knowing I am not the only person who has times that they feel like this. Bring the weekend!

Observation

An artist's job is to observe and I've noticed that all of these grey and white textures/patterns have found me over the past month.

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

Jewelry Found in Nature

Saint Helena is inspiration at every turn for me and I'd love to have more time for jewelry in situ, as I call it.

Rocks and lichen on the way back from a rocky coastal walk.

I can't plan it, I can only “expect”. In some situations it has to happen quickly (like today when I was making the banana leaf necklace it had started to rain). For some ridiculous reason I enjoy that sense of urgency. The immediacy feels more like play to me - no fumbling with clasps or worrying about weight - just design in the moment.

Banana leaf trimmings from our garden.

Woodland finds from High Hill

Tumbled rocks from Sandy Bay Beach

They say inspiration is everywhere. While I'm sure that is true I seem to find it more some places than others.

Reef Collection 2.0

I'm finding that one of the best places to find new ideas is by re-thinking my old ideas. (Recycling at its best!) The pieces from my Reef collection are still selling but I knew the designs could be pushed further. Apparently customers weren't getting bored (which is good of course!) but I was and I think eventually that feeling is going to show, right?

Three new necklaces and new drop earrings will post to my main shop site on Tuesday at noon.

In other news...I was so honored to write for the fall edition of The Polymer Arts Magazine out this month. You can find me all the way at the back, in the Muse's Corner, where I talk about how my Graves disease diagnosis affects my work and process.

Its amazing to me the number of people I've met in the past year and a half who also have some sort of autoimmune disease  - people from all walks of life and very notably, quite a few artists. Camaraderie is a powerful thing, you know, because disease of any sort can feel very lonely. (Art History side note: Not that this is one of the artists that I've met obviously but Pierre-Auguste Renoir was diagnosed with painful rheumatoid arthritis in 1892 and suffered with the disease for the last 20 years of his life but...he continued to paint.)

This is a self portrait of Renoir from 1909.

As I am learning, autoimmune diseases can be very personal and the same disease can produce differing symptoms for different people. (Which I suspect must be one of the problems in treating them.) But I'm hoping that other people with any kind of disease or physical limitation will be encouraged to take care of themselves and to look for their own adaptations in work and life.
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Self-portrait, 1910 Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Renoir au XXe siècle : catalogue de l'exposition à Paris, Galeries Nationales (Grand Palais, Champs-Élysées), 23 septembre 2009 - 4 janvier 2010 , à Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 14 février - 9 mai 2010 et à Philadelphie, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 17 juin - 6 septembre 2010, p. 275. ISBN 9782711855872 Public DomainFile:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Autoportrait 5.JPG Created: 31 December 1909 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir#/media/File:Pierre-Auguste_Renoir_-_Autoportrait_5.JPG

The Longest Line

This line has been a long time in the making. I'm kind of amazed that it's come to fruition not in spite of but because of my autoimmune disease diagnosis last March.

I introduced a couple pieces not long before I was taken to the ER and didn't find my way back to them up again until later in the spring. In the midst of my ensuing brain fog the repeated shapes became a kind of meditation for me, soothing and steady. And I've just let myself flesh out the line further. It was a "if life gives you lemons make lemonade" sort of epiphany.

The necklace has four different strands - one black, one very pale grey and two translucent and you chose how to wear it, with the black section at the back (as shown) or with the longest translucent section at the back. Who doesn't like flexibility?  Either way its a mid-length necklace with no clasps.  The pieces are flat and so very lightweight and connected with heavily oxidized sterling silver.

In addition to the couple pairs of earrings that dripped into my shop in the past couple of months, The Longest Year line will include short, mid-length and long necklaces, several styles of earrings, a pin and a bracelet and will be ready for purchase on March 7th.  Watch this space for more details!