Juggling Many Things at WillOaks Studio

I had forgotten how athletic kittens can be and how they are either all "on" or out like a light. Purrmeister turns anything into a sport, including the adult cats who are relatively patient about getting their tails chased or being gently bopped in the nose. Mariah isn't too keen on these games yet (she's coming around) but Red Kitty is acting like a patient uncle.


Yes, there's snow on the ground and it's been cold enough that it sticks and lingers awhile. The corn hasn't been harvested yet and when I spoke to the farmer's wife earlier this week, she again mentioned that they hoped to pick "maybe by Christmas", the hoped for schedule. If we're lucky, the ground will be frozen before they bring in the combines because we have "no till" fields here, so compacting the soil, especially when it's been this wet, is to be avoided at all costs. But it's just never gone this late before so it does seem strange.




And finally, a quick peek as a custom order I finished this week. The design challenge was to recycle this sentimental, broken strand of lovely pale blue glass beads into the structure I've been using for the "super long knotted" necklaces. By mixing in both a dyed blue quartz and a liberal mixture of opalized glass beads, I came up with 72 lovely inches that close with a sterling toggle. When the length is this long, a quadruple wrap is still a bit under 18", which doesn't really show up on the display busts as well as it does on a "real body" but the general idea is on display here. Opalized glass is kind of amazing in the right light, such as I caught in these photos. It changes from a kind of transluscent, milky white to showing internal color, depending on the light conditions. I just love the material...and now, I wait to see if the customer is pleased with the results....