and time passes still

namaste!

i read this interesting article about the indian vogue today. check it. below is a pic of the photo shoot.




i ran across this most colorful picture on somebody's blog one night. i find it interesting because i, too, have been learning how to place colors next to each other. there are many ways to approach this, and it is fascinating and fun!




here's a fun shot, too...stolen from myspace. cuteness!




things in the jewelry world are moving along at a snail's pace. this is my year of rejection. i got rejected monday from an online exhibition. sigh. it makes me nervous to apply to other things and even get my hopes a little bit up. but if i stop trying, then i have no chance at all. i think my new work is really great, but i need it to DO things for me. like...get me into the smithsonian craft show again! like...make me money! compliments are great, but they sure don't pay the bills. if i could get into the smithsonian show, then i wouldn't have to do any other shows for the rest of the 2009 year and i could chill making jewelry and staying home with the baby. keep your fingers crossed for me. here's a pic of my new work, taken by stuart o'shields.




on the other side of things, i have signed another contract with lark books. this will be my 4th book with lark, and i am excited for the opportunity. the tentative title is "the jeweler's bench reference". it always changes, and i don't have much control over it. i do, however, have more control over how this book looks and how the content is presented than i have before. i am super excited to be working with my editor, marthe levan again...as well as the best art director at lark (in my opinion!!) kathy holmes. i am very, very lucky to get to work with these two women, as together we three are going to make a fabulous book! and perhaps after much time passes, we can use the royalties for a college fund for little stirling.

today we are at 19.5 weeks. almost halfway there!

that's about it for now.
fermelenge

deaths and birth

i've been devouring a most excellent book called "animal's people" by indra sinha. it is a fictional account of modern day survivors of the bhopal disaster from 1984. for those of you who are unfamiliar with this disaster, it occurred in central india, in the town of bhopal, where Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical) had a pesticide manufacturing plant. The people of bhopal ironically were led to believe the factory made medicines. one night in 1984, the plant malfunctioned (rumor has it that a disgruntled employee possibly began the disaster) and poisonous gas filled the city of bhopal, killing 22,000 people in their sleep. the gas burned people's eyes, lungs, throats, skin. many people simply dropped dead immediately, while others suffered months & years of painful dying. the employees simply abandoned the plant, no clean up has ever been performed, and the chemicals to this day sit in piles in the decaying factory, filling the ground water with poison and maintaining generations of physical disorders and malformities for the people of bhopal. Dow Chemical AKA Union Carbide has avoided court for over 20 years and has not been required to pay for medical care or retribution in any way, except for a measly $500 for some of the survivors.


currently, there is a fast in Delhi to protest this, hopefully to call the indian gov't to action to hold accountable the executives of dow/union carbide. the people who are protesting walked on foot over 800 miles from Bhopal to Delhi for the protest. many people have been beaten and jailed during this time.

you can sign a petition and send a fax to the indian gov't here. it only takes a sec, and why not? you can also make a donation to the survivors here.

in lighter news, i finished my cufflinks for the cufflink show at Heidi Lowe Gallery in rehoboth beach, de. these are my lime candy cufflinks.last but not least, yesterday began the 1st day of my 13th week of pregnancy! the baby is due january 24th. so far all is going great, except i feel like crap most of the time. it is getting better, but not totally better just yet. jamie and i are excited for this next new part of our lives!

fermelenge, mera dosti!

yes, it's been awhile

jamie has been after me to post a blog. i don't know what the problem is, but i have just not been in the mood! but, here goes!

we went to virginia beach to do a craft show a few weeks ago. in the past i have done well and even won awards at this show. this year, it was so miserable that i will not go back again. although it is a nice venue, the people ( as you can see below) are not my customers. this year i truly felt the judges were not qualified as well. i was shocked at some of the items they picked for the substantial cash awards. i am a craft fair craft snob, but i feel this would make me an excellent juror!


i have been making some new things that go with my stone jewelry. super fun! i chopped up a bunch of quartz crystal recently and made 3 brooches from them. i also am in a bracelet show in milwaukee at 3rd Ward Jewelry...here are some bracelets for that.



this is the bracelet i made to donate to Penland School of Craft's annual auction. hope it sells!



we went camping again last weekend and again it was great. nice to be able to get in the water from your campsite. we ran into our friend brenda while we weer boating out to the campsite. she was in her kayak! what a surprise! i had fun swimming over to her promontory and chatting with her. claire and julian came out as well, and it was fun to hang with them.

jamie has been playing his guitar and learning songs. he's doing great. he's out on the porch as we speak, singing his sweet heart out.

i thought i might start adding a new feature to the blog. an intermittent toilet discussion! so, here is my 1st one. this is a hybrid toilet from india. it was in my guesthouse in Bhuj. i say hybrid, because it is designed basically like a western toilet, but with no seat. however, it has the footrests like indian squatty toilets. is a person supposed to climb up on the toilet to stand on the foot rests? or does one sit on the footrests, western style? i hovered. furthermore, to flush this toilet, you filled the little cup with water from the spigot, and threw it down the toilet. this is the typical indian way to flush. i am not sure what the large bucket is for, i used it to wash my clothes. often it would be full of water, and you could just dip your smaller bucket into it for flushing/wiping. this was a nice bathroom; i especially liked the green color of the toilet.

well, that's it for today.
hope everyone is doing great!
fermelenge!

mostly about some aminals, but also about some jewelry.

we saw this across the street a few weeks ago. it was a very exciting, yet friendly chase!

at the same time, we had our neighbor's cat, peaches, on our porch, as usual. we have had some very strong winds recently, very windy. the wind came and blew the cushion over onto peaches. oh well, we just left her that way. she gets our dogs too excited and we do not encourage her presence at our house anyway. i like to spray her with the hose.

we went to chapel hill last weekend because i had a class to teach for the NC Society of Goldsmiths. It was a super fun class, and my students were great! we stayed with jamie's mom and jamie got to fish all weekend in the lake behind her house. lots of catfish! i caught one too.

jamie's mom, debby, has 4 cats. she got 2 of them at the same time and named them waylon and willie. both are orange. waylon is slim with a nice long tail, and willie...well, willie is fat as shit. debby says it is because he has some disorder, that he eats the same amount as everyone else in the house. i loved his fat self, i wanted to hug him and pet him all the time we were there. watching him run was one of the most genuinely funny things i have seen in a long time. apparently this happens to orange cats the most. interesting.

these are from the work i am sending to the Shaw Gallery for the Pop Culture show. i am so excited about this work. i really spent some time making this, thinking things through, and working in a way differently than normal because i was following a theme.

"I Want To Be Just Like Her!" (look closely) "Gotta Love the Gossip!" (britney spears musical box, it plays a song when you press a button! ) "Exchangeable Husband & Wife Pendant" (you can exchange boxes in the carriage to trade out.)

i will be sending these off to sam shaw on monday! hope he likes them!

i also realized that i have a craft show coming right up. i will be in virginia beach the 2nd weekend of june, and i have been making things bigger and more expensive than i imagine people will want at the craft show, so i need to get my arse in gear and make some craft show jewelry. here is my 1st one...i tried to mix some of the stone stuff i have been doing with some production design. turned out well, i think.


that's about it for today. i'm trying to get back in the blogging mood. it comes, and it goes.

blue one

i just wanted to get this up, the blue and white necklace...modeled by ms molly dingledine.



we are off to vote. i will leave you guessing who we are voting for. *sigh* i frankly am embarrassed for both of them. but the worst thing i have heard so far is the idea of repealing the gas tax for the summer. which is a MOOT ISSUE, seeing as neither of them will be president this summer. so stupid. and shouldn't we be focusing on driving less, coming up with alternative mass transportation methods instead of just saving a small amount of money?

have a great day!!!

randoms

well, this weekend was spent in a large part on the computer. i've been re-doing my website....again! i am liking it. i still have a long way to go...as usual, but i think it is streamlined. i can't seem to pare down on the images, though. have a look and tell me if i am just giving too much information, or tell me if you like to see all the pics. it would be helpful to get some feedback. thanks! here is a pic of a brooch you might not have seen, but one i like very much.



in the last issue of american craft magazine, there were some handmade dresses that i loved! i thought i would repost the pics for you. these are RISD students' work...RISD turns out some creative and talented people! see more from RISD online here. (that would be Rhode Island School of Design...)

(love the zipper dress, love it, love it!)

i found this kick ass website, that gives you the color palette of different outfits, one per day. it is really neat to see how different colors look together, and just might possibly be helpful to me in mixing up the colored stones i have been using. although i must say i am pretty good at trusting my own sense of design and color, but i thought this was fun!


i also found this kinda neat japanese website that has lots of interesting ideas and pics and how-to's about craft and design. they had pics of fancy nails you can wear for your wedding or for just a fancy party. i thought they were very special. you know how i can be obsessed with fingernails...or my lack thereof.


i worked a bunch in the yard today, hauling rocks and doing more digging. i banged my finger up pretty good, and it hurts right now while i am typing. i rubbed it right away to prevent serious swelling and bruising, and it seemed to help. i heard a little "pop!" when i banged it and i was afraid i had broken something!! but i think it is ok, just a little sore. the rocks look great if i may say so myself. a lot different than before...and hopefully better. i'll post a pic later on.

i hope everyone had a fabulous weekend, and is ready for the week ahead! i know i am; my hands are itching to get back in the studio....had some more ideas for more prong jewelry this week, can't wait!

ttfn

what's doing

jamie went to the rock yard today and loaded half of our new rocks and brought them home to me today. he unloaded them too! sweet. this weekend we will work on placing them in the backyard where they belong. this involves more digging. and carrying. awesome. tomorrow he will get the other half! yahoo!


i finished my red brooch. this pic isn't the best, but it is better than nothing. i love it!!! it is sterling with a large variety of stones. i am really excited about this prong stuff.


so my next prong piece is going to be a "lacy" necklace. in clears, whites, and blues with some green, too. i am gonna work on that tomorrow.


the flowers around here are still going strong. this azalea is from right next door. gorgeous!!


trudy escaped the fence tonight for the 1st time, and the woman down the street called and had her. so i just spent about 15 minutes sealing up the hole from which she escaped. no big deal, but i hope she doesn't get it in her mind to start digging.

i dreamt last night that i had a pair of testicles that someone gave me, out of the sack, to be cooked. they were rolling around on a plate in some juice and i was supposed to take care of them and take them home and cook them up to eat. nasty dream. these are sheep's testicles, all skewered for roasting, but the ones in my dream were smaller.


in niche magazine they had an article about several jewelers to watch. i really like melissa tolar's work! she does nice work on the backs of the pieces as well, which is something i really appreciate. have a look for yourself!

fermelenge!
हवे अन एक्स्सल्लेंट फ्रिदय!