Into the Blue

out of the chaos

a silk and pearl chain in the fresh, raw state before finish work

but hark! do I spy an inspiring distraction??

So I'm toiling away at a pretty big order here--7 sets of earrings and necklaces in coral. It's going to look wonderful and I'm pretty close now.....but one can only do such things for a certain stretch of time, then, being the antsy pants I am (true blue Gemini--I can't help it!)....gotta' switch gears.

I've been staring at these polka dot beads of lampworked glass for a couple of weeks now, not sure where I'm going with them but dots just make me smile....and blue just makes me happy. so here you go! I did a medium green version, too as I've been thinking about one last mini-series here as I segway into autumn....Summer Shades: Blue and Green. Quite a few pieces have gathered into a bowl here, a basket there over the past month or so, coming together with free abandon when on breaks from the orders. The challenge now is to make decent photos so I can post this new work in my shop...preferably before the end of summer, lol!

So happy Friday to all and have a wonderful fun-filled weekend!!

Genesis of an Idea

I discovered this row of crab apple trees a couple of winters ago. I was fascinated by the contrast between the shiny, round red fruit and the dark, kinky branches. The sight of fruit hanging from otherwise bare branches seemed like the essence of winter. These images and impressions stayed with me, inspired me, and through a little trial and error, evolved into an interpretation of this natural occurrence as several neck pieces.

I finally had the opportunity to photograph this original "source material" the other day. The apples are quite bright and fiery right now as they haven't "weathered" very much yet, haven't been snowed upon or cooked under bright sunshine...but the character of this natural construction is exactly what inspired the first versions of my original pearl neck pieces, and that I continue to create AND re-interpret to this day.

I'm fascinated by the simple, but profound, question "where did that idea come from?" Sometimes, I can pinpoint it and other times, it's much more subtle and elusive. When I can't express it with words, I generally must remind myself that this "lack of words" is why I turned to creating things, instead of writing, quite a long time ago...