the making of things

greetings,

the past few days have been full of things. full of doing nothing, of getting crafty, of getting back to work.

tonight we are going to go to jeff and rhett mcgahee's house for new year's. i went and bought a new dress for a wee $25 to wear. fun! rhett was the lead singer for Custard Pie. jeff is a landscape architect.

these are the jeans i patched for jamie. i think it will give them about 5 more wears. they are ready to bust. i had my sewing machine fixed by a guy out on weaverville hwy. i got it back and spent $117 for the repair. wow! it still doesn't work. i am pissed. so i went over to The House of Fabrics to see if they did repair and told them about my previous repair guy and they just shook their heads and said he is NOT the man. so don't go out to weaverville hwy to get your sewing machine fixed, people.



my MOO cards came today! i love love love them! they are super cool and small and fun and just killer! i should have shown you what is on the back, but i forgot. basically just my name and my phone number and my website.


so, i cannot do a zigzag stitch, but i can do a straight stitch on my machine. i went and got some more wool sweaters to felt (or technically"full") and also washed some that debby got me at goodwill as well. when you intentionally wash wool sweaters, the fibers stick together and get closer and make a denser fabric. you can cut it without it unravelling. i went to barnes and noble and used it like a library to peruse some ideas for making things, and decided i should make some purses! i am super excited about it! here i have some purses ready to be sewn and a hat i made about 2 years ago the same way. this will be my winter project, and i can't wait!



i gave jamie a rocket for christmas that he and john asbury are going to go shoot off. it should go about 1200 feet in the air! they were going to shoot it off tomorrow, but it seems the weather is not amenable. perhaps the next day or saturday? we'll let you know if you want to come watch it!


ttfn!

some things i've seen

greetings.

i saw in debby's Vanity Fair magazine a brief review of Walton Ford's recent book. i was lucky enough to get into an "art" discussion with this man back when i lived in NYC. Walton is a close friend of my friend David McManus. I remember embarrassing myself in the conversation. incredible work. You can read about him from PBS here or see more of his work for sale here.


i like this measuring jigger. see it and other cool things here.


some of this is really neat. i found this artist in Dwell magazine, but her website is neater than Dwell let on.

and this purse is super cool. wish i could remember where i found it. dern it.


i now have a link to my site on the Design Directory. Excellent.

it's been a busy week socializing with family. fun, food, wine...now i am pretty exhausted! and i am looking forward to getting back in the gym for the 1st time in a year or more. ugh. something must be done!

we are looking at more of this kind of behavior soon, but fortunately our houseguests have been fabulous and there is not much to do. i just really wanted to post this fun pic of jamie "hoovering".


i'll leave you with this last one. interesting. not sure who is holding baby krisna, but it rings a christian bell to me.


sometime in the future i will be able to translate this for you after studying my new Rosetta Stone for Hindi. and in the meantime, here is a last bit of transliteration for you of "see you later" in the devanagari script.

फेर्मेलेंगे!

hi there...just checking something

the times

we finally hung up our candle holders we got for our wedding from CB2. they are looking awesome! we put themin the corner of the dining room, and tonight we had dinner with jamie's mom debby, his brother matt, and debby's S.O. Larry. it was our 1st time with the candles and it felt great.



this is my pot o' metal i am planning on sending to the refiners. my sale went great, but this is where the leftovers ended up. i have to wait probably about another year before i have enough to send off to make it worth my money. when you refine material such as this, you do not get full price for the metal because of the labor involved in refining it. in addition, i will pay about $100 in fees.



i went and got some acupuncture yesterday. my friend kristin query is my doc and i highly recommend her to you guys in the area. if you are having some troubles, call her up and see what she can do. 828-712-7789



jamie and i had an early christmas with my folks the other night. we had a great time being with them and getting to chat it up. this will be my 1st christmas not being with them. though in a way i am sad, i am super excited to be with jamie's family!



i just finished a book today that all of you should read if you are looking for a fun quick delightful book. it is called "twilight" by stephenie meyer. man o man, go out and get it people!

excellent

i must give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who came out to my studio sale yesterday. it was a fabulous day! not only did i make somegreat money, but i also got to see LOTS of people i hadn't seen in a while.

here are some interesting items i found on this website called generate.concrete rings. for the couple. comes from the same mold.


candleholders. each one becomes individual with the wax "hair" that develops.

gold pills. so you can be quality on the inside.


light jewelry. love the idea.

check out this blog i found as well. design mind. i stole the link the gnr8 from this interesting blog.

fermelenge

dream

i took a nap yesterday and dreampt i was a pine cone. i didn't sleep very heavily. in my dream, the only part of my body that was asleep was the tips of my little wooden branches which were touching the sheets. it was a fun dream.

holiday preparations

not much going on this weekend. we've gone to several holiday parties and drank way too much red wine. wished clair a happy birthday last night. had a lovely day here at home cleaning and wrapping presents. jamie donned his annual christmas wrapping tape beard. what a delight!



my friend natasha wozniak has a new line of jewelry. some of it is posted in her blog. check it out, people, as it is wonderful stuff. www.studiojeweler.blogspot.com



i'm planning on having a studio sale Wednesday December 19. from 1-8pm. drop on by anytime during the day or evening for a snack, a drink, a chat, or some jewelry. i'm selling some of my older work at great prices. call for directions if you don't know: 828.216.8369

i've also been working on my jewelry images. learning and loving photoshop. here are a few new images of my new work.


i discovered a website today that makes personalized postcards and tiny business cards and stickers. i love it! i ordered a variety of business cards and stickers for Joanna Gollberg Jewelry Inc today. can't wait til they come!!! the cool thing is that you can upload your pics right from the internet and also do some neat and fun cropping on them. It's cheap, too! www.moo.com


ttfn

NYC

we are home from our trip to nyc. we loved being in the city. my favorite thing about it was sitting on 2nd ave with the most delicious hot chocolate i have ever had in my life, on a bench with jamie, with the snow coming down. even though it wasn't snowing that much, it made things very quiet, and we had a nice city moment there.

we hung out with uncle victor and had a lovely evening chatting it up with him and checking out all his fabulous christmas decorations. i know we are missing out on the total decorative house, but what we saw was gorgeous! i can't believe i didn't take a picture; i guess i just forgot.

we had a great time shopping for christmas! jamie's mom, her boyfriend larry, and his brother matt are coming for the holiday and we are excited to have them here for our 1st christmas as married people together. so we have been doing some fun and thoughtful shopping! yay! we already have some presents wrapped under the tree, which feels really homey and good.

we went bowling with katy browning at a new bowling alley in williamsburg, my old neigborhood when i lived in brooklyn. it was great fun! here is jamie bowling a spare!


the show we went for was not a success. i lost a lot of money and the time during the show was long. the good thing was that we had some very nice other jewelers near us and it was lovely to chat with them and get to know them better. i will not apply for that show next year.

our flights there were fine. we did not have many long delays on the runway or anything. i did cheap out a bit on the tickets so we flew from asheville to atlanta, from atlanta to dc, from dc to jfk. we lost one bag on the way there. then when we got the bag, my make up bag was not in it. we called and called and they put us off on one person or another until i got really pissed and the person on the other end agreed to make a claim for me without me going out to jfk in person like they had previously demanded. then when we got back to asheville, the same bag was lost again. it was awful, people, awful. and the worst part was that no one involved gave a flying fuck. but we have the bag. i had to go out and buy a new toothbrush, hairbrush, deoderant, shampoo, floss, nail clippers, and make up bag, but at least the main bag was returned. i must reiterate, though, that it SUCKED.

i've been having fun making presents the past few days and also wrapping presents. i enjoy taunting jamie with the thought of what he might get for christmas. i am very excited about a few of the presents i have for him! i look forward to posting pics of the presents i have made once everyone has opened them!

we also went today to see "the golden compass", a movie made from a book series i love, written by phillip pullman. it was fabulous; it even made me cry at parts! i highly recommend this movie! it is fantasy...kind of harry potter, kind of narnia. but better than both!

here is a pic of a new necklace i showed in NYC. love it! i got the green moss balls at target and i made the silver ball. it really is fantastic looking on, though a bit scratchy.

ttfn

a big one

well, this one might be a little long as there is lots to cover.

thanksgiving was a good holiday.
we had a great time at dinner with john, vanessa, and joe byrd, stephanie wood, and chris yountz. afterwards scooter latimore and kathryn salisbury came over. oh! old friends...new friends... it was a bit of a late night, and since then i am proud to report that i have only smoked one cigarette. it was just too much for me that late night, and i think i am moving ON.

we both have been home working and piddling around since turkey day. my studio electricity is off due to the arsonist that ruined the electrical panel on our building down in Carolina Lane. $40,000 worth of damage and many people out of work for a week. Hopefully, i will be back at work tomorrow because i have some jewelry to MAKE...and most importantly, Scully's, the restaraunt in our building....has some money to make! we hope they catch the firestarter.

Today i went shopping at Big Lots where i got some fabulous deals on craft supplies


and christmas presents. I am very excited about these plastic and felt flowers, as i am toying with the idea of making some less expensive jewelry to put up on the internet for sale on an ETSY account. I love the plastic red rocks, too...think i'll work on something with them for my NYC show....why not?

Jamie would love to know what presents i bought for him and others today at BL...but he was satisfied with returning to BL later to buy us a tree. we are very pleased and excited with the results of our 1st tree decorating.We are very much looking forward to having Debby, Larry, and Matt at our home with us for our 1st christmas! Fun stuff!

sadie and trudy now belong to a new clan...the Garlands. check them out in their initiation outfits.




Steve, on the other hand, is on my shit list. today while i was working on my new quickbooks account on my computer here in the living room(HELP!!!), steve began making biscuits on the blanket beside me. this gets on my nerves because of the repetitive, incessant small noise he makes, so i shooed him away. when he jumped off the couch, i saw something red in his hind quarter, so i went to check. he had a BONER! i realized that all these times i thought he was simply making biscuits for comfort, he was masturbating. now, i am very upset that he would do such a thing right in front of me. and to think, i let him lick my fingers yesterday! ew!

i spent Monday working on my website. i think i have all the glitches taken care of for now...until i re-organize it in january. but check out the new front page with susannah wejbro's photography and the gorgeous model kristen welch. i am super psyched about the pics! i think it makes for a great front page too. if you feel like it, please send me any comments you have about how to make my website better... www.joannagollberg.com
i would appreciate it!


ttfn,
have a good one!
jo

ebony and ivory

happy monday!

today was non-eventful. good, though.




i ran across this photo shoot on my favorite gossip website, www.pinkisthenewblog.com you guys might be as shocked as i was when i found out the age of this pretty young lady. this is lindsay lohan's younger sister, who, my friends, is THIRTEEN years old. i find this very disturbing and sorrowful. i hope you do, as well. you can click on the pic to make it larger for a closer look. whoa!








i thought i would post a few pics of our own beasts...sadie, steve, and trudy, AKA"Porker". for those of you who have know trudy for awhile, you might be surprised at her porky self. she is having some trouble fitting through the dog door recently, but she manages to shove herself through after awhile. notice please how nicely sadie (in black) and steve (in white) complement each other. we are lucky today that so one slept on our bed while we were gone and no one ate the cat food either! woot!









this is part of a new necklace i am thinking of making. it is made out of mica and fine silver. the necklace would most likely be a row of these boxes. i'm still thinking on it, though...

tomorrow is a busy day with vet, banking, acupuncture, and grocery store...errand day. bleh.

hope ya'll are feeling well...

fermelenge!

hunting island

oh! we had a lovely time as always down at hunting island. it is a state park, so there are no houses on the beach at all, and the stars shine brighter than the mirrors on the king's palace in bangkok!

claire, kate, brenda, stephanie, julian, and i all enjoyed ourselves. we walked on the beach, watched the dogs play, ate some good food, napped, drank beer, sat by the fire...what a fun time!

i woke up in the middle of the night to a racoon on our table opening our cooler...he also went through the recyclables. it kind of creeped me out, watching this fairly large animal, the size of a small dog, on our table. the ranger, "chief", told us he can open a jar of peanut butter! those damn fingers! this is the best picture i could get before he ran off.

then i came home to a lovely chicken being smoked for our dinner. jamie is an excellent grill man and the chicken was delicious. very sweet of him to make a special dinner for my return! (i missed him, too....absence can indeed make the heart grow finder, even if it is only for a couple of days...)

ciao!

outta here again

today i am leaving to go camping at hunting island state park in sc. jamie can't go because he has to work! sniff, we have been together so much recently it is going to be like losing an arm or something. but i am really looking forward to getting in some quality time with my girlfriends whom i haven't seen much at all recently with all the traveling and transitions i have had going on.

this week has been pretty uneventful. i have been having a good time at work, making new things. one of my newest ideas is to make things that are pretty from both the front and the back. i have done this in the past, but i am focusing a little bit more on it this week, as i think it makes jewelry more special. also it is a challenge and fun for me to do. i'll get some pics next week when i get home.

i also sent some work off to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Store. i'm super excited to have them as a new gallery. www.philamuseumstore.org
I hope my work sell well there! and i hope they add some pics ofmy work to their website, we'll see.

here's a pic of me and jamie after the implosion. there was a lot of dust in the air, so we had to cover our faces. we have quite a nice collection of self portraits like this one.

see ya later! have a great weekend!

philadelphia

we have had a very good trip here to philadelphia. we began by visiting the Eastern State Penitentiary. This is a very old prison here built in the late 1800's. It was a model prison for several reasons: it provided the 1st architectural example of a prison that was built with a center hub, and originally 5 spokes of cell blocks coming out of the center. Furthermore, it was a true "penitentiary", meaning that it was a prison designed to inspire penitence, or true regret, in the prisoners. they attempted to achieve this through isolation,no contact with other prisoners, so that the inmates could think over their crimes and regret them, and then never do such things again. it was very fun to see this old crumbling prison. apparently they had a real kick ass haunted house there for halloween and we were sorry we missed it.







the craft show has been going ok. i have made several good gallery contacts and have had a chance to see some friends. the money is not the best but it is better than nothing. the hours are long and grueling, but having jamie in the booth definitely makes things more fun! we've been playing 20 questions and the name game which has been quite enjoyable.








this morning we were lucky enough to see our first building implosion. it was very exciting. they took the building down in order to make room for the expansion of the convention center.








the show is over tonight, and then we pack up and chill out for the evening. we have been eating some excellent food here, ao perhaps we will go out to eat again. last night we had delicious vietnamese food with a group of artist friends. Sadie Wang, Debra Adelson, Douglas Wunder...very good company and talks!

Fermelenge!