btw

nascent:
coming into being; evolving


after a full day of trial and error- mind mushy, eyes bleary - i have a piece i am satisfied with... it is now in the sealing stage...


we all contain boundless potential, awe inspiring wonder within us... 


it must be nurtured... 


meant to evoke the ripened/fecund belly of the earth mama... a spiral navel referencing the connection to the universe... 

btw - build trapeze (with) wire

or by the end of the day 'brain totally wiped'... actually i am not even yet at the end of it... 


it was a day of having difficulty focusing paired with an intense desire to focus ... i am the 'host' of the october art spark on the love my art jewelry blog... and i have an idea for it that i think might be educational and fun... 

(believe it or not, the tools were being put back in the rack occasionally, but it began to seem a moot point... )


i was wondering what was going to come of the day - i know a day working is never wasted - something always gets done... but exactly what was it going to be?


two pieces are one step further along the way of completion... and i got some things ready for  the art spark... so it's all good... but then again, it's always good...  

~~

and for that i am grateful... 

btw - grandparents

'nobody can do for little children what grandparents do.

grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust

over the lives of little children.'

~ alex haley

and that dusting lasts a lifetime... 

this btw is not about what is on a table, but rather my getting a 'new' old table... 

there is much, ever so much change afoot in our lives right now... change that keeps me up at night, change that infuses me with both fear and excitement... 

change that will give me the chance to work here, at my grandfather's workbench... but this time, as an adult... this time, with my own projects... 

i adored my grandparents and think of them every day... i also miss them painfully... they lived 3 blocks from me - i was lucky... and their house was my house too... 

the basement was a wonderland that was rivaled only by the kitchen... 

there my grandfather had his workbench, replete with all kinds of tools, gadgets, and things he had made himself... an incredibly self-sufficient, 'can do' type of person... an MIT grad who was an engineer that served his country as a civilian and helped to develop radar... a man who always found a way to let me help and taught me something along the way... 

this space will become my own to dream in... to experiment... to hopefully facilitate my accomplishing what i hope to... and it will be so meaningful to do it here... to have them with me... 

i didn't take a picture of it, but the other side of the basement has my grandmother's sewing table... i spent time going back and forth... she taught me how to thread a bobbin, read a pattern... and helped me to make a prom dress and a prairie skirt... he taught me about soldering... 

and that sewing table will be where i hope to work on finished jewelry... we will see... there is much to be done... 

but i cannot thank my family enough for giving me the opportunity to work here - where two of my most favorite people in the universe expressed themselves in their own special ways....

btw with my eye on saturday

'slow but steady wins the race.'

~ aesop

this girl would be happy with finishing on time - forget winning (not that winning applies here except as a personal victory)... 

the goal? to finish a necklace by saturday for receiving to a juried show... which means i need to be on my final step of sealing by say, thursday... throw in 2 trips to philly on thursday and friday... i have been working on this since last week... 

i assembled the chain links yesterday - just need to connect them and patina the chain, seal, blah blah blah... 

this is the first complex project i have undertaken in a long while - it's been in my journal in a different form for months... lately i feel content if i finish anything, which usually means the items are rings or earrings... and, oh, yes, there is a ring a week project to do for the week... 


sometimes, what you are working on can feel like the last vestige of self... demands and needs of children - especially sick ones - are the obvious priority... but as it goes on for years, it is with tools and metal in hand that i get lost and at the same time found, adrift in the zone with fierce concentration, going with the flow and focusing on solutions, using left brain and right brain that i am reminded that i am indeed still here - the nurturer and the bliss follower... 

day late btw

take a look at our table!

this is the lovely lena - i met her at our jury appoint for an arts festival... and it turned out she was signed up for my class! she teaches as well...

the very sweet and talented mary who works at the bead shop where it was hosted... 

and super fun suze weinberg - who has her own line at ranger... 

my biggest fear was that i wouldn't be teaching these super knowledgeable women anything...  it turns out that i did - and learned a lot as well - 

i was walking on air when i left there - thank you ladies for such a wonderful afternoon!

beautiful and btw

an image that moved me

a book i fell asleep with in my arms after finishing the last page

and, remembering that it is wednesday, btw -

'we are star-stuff.'

~ dr. carl sagan

by the way

i love how btw means more to me now than that - it is also bead table wednesday thanks to heather powers... 

with the metalwork done, the final choices (the at-times-agonizing ones) need to be made... and while there is a picasso quote i keep close at these times i had another one in mind... then i got swept away by leann weih with her thoughts and her incredible talent - i confess that it was the first time i interrupted my reading of a post (and this one is dear to me) to go and make a purchase... 

this synchronicity is so meaningful... i just finished deepak chopra's 'buddha' and have been contemplating this::

'the Buddhas do but tell the way;

it is for you to swelter at the task.'

~ buddha

thank you leann - for sharing your depth, beauty and talent... 
and to heather for allowing us to touch base each week...