Golden Elixir

print by John W Golden



Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt a marvelous error;
That I had a beehive here inside my heart.
And the golden bees were making white combs
And sweet honey from my past mistakes.


-Antonio Machado

Found this while searching for more on Simon Buxton's book "Shamanic Way of the Bee: Ancient Wisdom and Healing Practices of the Bee Masters."

Melissae

In researching "wild woman" as the latest art entry for "The 12" (my Women's Archetype collage art group) I found out more about my own name!!!I always nknew my name meant honeybee in Greek and was the begininng of the latin name for Bee balm, but that was all.

From The Blue Roebuck:"Bees are prevalent in the myths of many cultures worldwide. As pollinators they are essential to all life, and seen spiritually as faithful servants of the Goddess, and exemplified in individual colonies by dedication to their queen. They are virtually icons of androgyny, and along with their delicious, healing, and preserving honey are symbolic of eroticism and sensuality, love, death, and lastly, immortality.

At the temple of Aphrodite, priestesses were called "Melissae", which means "bees," and Aphrodite herself was called Melissa, the queen bee. At the Ephesian temple of Artemis, the melissae were accompanied by transgendered priests called "Essenes", which means drones.

Scientifically, bees are classified as members of the hymenopteran order, meaning "veil-winged," recalling the hymen or veil that covered the inner shrine of the Goddess's temple, and the high priestess who bore the title of Hymen, presiding over marriage rituals and the Honey Moon."

And then from the Greek Myth Index:

MELISSA
That is, the soother or propitiator (from melissô or meilissô), occurs,

1. As the name of a nymph who discovered and taught the use of honey, and from whom bees were believed to have received their name, melissai (Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. iv. 104.) Bees seem to have been the symbol of nymphs, whence they themselves are sometimes called Melissae, and are sometimes said to have been metamorphosed into bees. (Schol. ad Pind. 1. c. ; Hesych. s. v. Orodemniades; Columell. ix. 2; Schol. (ad Theocrit. iii. 13.) Hence also nymphs in the form of bees are said to have guided the colonists that went to Ephesus (Philostr. Icon. ii. 8) ; and the nymphs who nursed the infant Zeus are called Melissae, or Meliae. (Anton. Lib. 19; Callim. Hymn. in Jov. 47; Apollod. i. 1. § 3.)

2. From the nymphs the name Melissae was transferred to priestesses in general, but more especially to those of Demeter (Schol. ad Pind. l.c.; Callim. Hymn. in Apoll. 110; Hesych. s. v. Melissai), Persephone (Schol. ad Theocrit. xv. 94), and to the priestess of the Delphian Apollo. (Pind. Pyth. iv. 106; Schol. ad Eurip. Hippol. 72.) According to the scholiasts of Pindar and Euripides, priestesses received the name Melissae from the purity of the bee. Comp. a story about the origin of bees in Serv. ad Aen. i. 434.

3. Melissa is also a surname of Artemis as the goddess of the moon, in which capacity she alleviates the suffering of women in childbed. (Porphyr. De Antr. Nymp,. p. 261.)

4. A daughter of Epidamnus, became by Poseidon the mother of Dyrrhachius, from whom the town of Dyrrhachium derived its name. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Durhrhachion."

So, the soother??? I have been that for that for more than one friend. And I have always had quite an affinity for honeybees. I have wanted to tend bees for a ong time but never owning my own property long enough to warrant keeping hives.... well it just hasn't happened. My brother Joe has tended bees for a bee keeper friend when he went out of town. He said it was very relaxing, almost zenlike work. My mother named me. My father wanted a different name but she won I guess. I am glad. I have always loved my name.

Suncreen is killing coral?!

Well, I guess I should change the title of this blog to Melissa freaking out about the environment! I promise I do make art... and I am not always freaking out. But I guess its interesting to me and my main concern other than my daughter how I am going to survive as an artist. But this morning I read that chemicals in suncreen are contributing to the bleaching of coral reefs. Man should really consider how many synthetic chemicals he uses and their impact.

From National Geographic News:
"Four commonly found sunscreen ingredients can awaken dormant viruses in the symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae that live inside reef-building coral species.

The chemicals cause the viruses to replicate until their algae hosts explode, spilling viruses into the surrounding seawater, where they can infect neighboring coral communities.

Zooxanthellae provide coral with food energy through photosynthesis and contribute to the organisms' vibrant color. Without them, the coral "bleaches"—turns white—and dies."

The Vanishing of the Bees

interesting documentary about Colony Collapse Disorder in honeybees.

Why Handmake?

Break the Shackles of Robotic Slavery: Crankbunny's (of Etsy.com) Handmade Video

Resin Jewelry Tutorial with John W. Golden Part 1

My prolific artist buddy John's instructional video

Prevent Coral Extinction!

This image is of lophelia wanna know more? www.lophelia.org



Speak up to Urge Swift Action
to Prevent Extinction!
A student and I were talking today about her summer plans. She is becoming a scuba diving instructor and is interested in coral reef preservation and hopes to end up in the Phillipines working with coral reef preservation groups there. I told her about how I adore red coral, but have made a personal vow to not use it in my jewelry anymore. She and I talked more and she mentioned the upcoming South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s public hearing the 15th in New Bern. Evidently a proposal is being voted on to protect thousands of square miles of coral reef from the Keys to Cape Hatteras. This is reef area already ravaged by trawling and pollution.

The following is from information sent out by Oceana

Thousands of square miles of deep sea coral habitat in
the South Atlantic is threatened with damage and
extinction, unless the South Atlantic Fisheries
Management Council (SAFMC) votes to protect them.
At the upcoming June meeting in Orlando, the SAFMC
has the opportunity to make a final decision to set aside
24,000 square miles of deep sea coral “habitat of particular
concern” (HAPC). Before the June meeting, the Council
has set dates for public hearings at satellite locations
throughout the southeast so citizen voices can be heard.

“Deep sea coral beds are cradles of marine life,” said
Oceana Campaign Director Dave Allison. “We now
have the choice to either protect these areas as a part
of our natural legacy or to leave these unique habitats
vulnerable to destruction. In just a few minutes, a
destructive bottom trawler can sweep through and
destroy a coral reef hundreds of years old.”

North Carolina
CAPE LOOKOUT LOPHELIA BANKS
AND CAPE FEAR LOPHELIA BANKS
These distinctive reefs are the
northernmost deep reefs in the
eastern US. Over 54 species of fish
have been observed on the Cape
Lookout Banks.

South Carolina
STETSON REEF
Covering the peaks of Stetson Reef
are live bushes of Lophelia coral,
sponges, sea fans, and black coral.
Fish and an abundance of brittle
stars, sea urchins, hydroids, sea
anemones and soft corals have
been identified in this area.

Georgia
SAVANNAH EAST FLORIDA
The Savannah Lithotherms rise 100
- 200 feet tall at 1800 feet deep
just 90 nautical miles east of
Savannah along the Blake Plateau.
This reef system supports large
populations of massive sponges and
over ten different fish species
including swordfish and sharks.

Florida
SAVANNAH EAST FLORIDA
MIAMI TERRACE
POURTALES TERRACE
With the longest coastline, Florida
enjoys three main deep coral reef
sites that provide habitat for an
array of marine life, from commercially
valuable groupers to intricate
sponges.

Dates and places:
Comments may be made between 3:00-7:00pm

May 7, 2008
Key Largo Grande
97000 South Overseas
Highway
Key Largo, FL 33037
Phone: 866-597-5397

May 9, 2008
Radisson Resort at the Port
8701 Astronaut Boulevard
Cape Canaveral, FL 32920
Phone: 321-784-0000

May 12, 2008
Mighty Eighth
Air Force Museum
175 Bourne Avenue
Pooler, GA 31322
Phone: 912-748-8888

May 13, 2008
Town and Country Inn
2008 Savannah Highway
Charleston, SC 29407
Phone: 843-571-1000

May 15, 2008
Sheraton New Bern
100 Middle Street
New Bern, NC 28560
Phone: 252-638-3585

Must Brag!

I must brag about one of my "students". I put that in quotations because I learn sometimes more I teach.... Mr. Hickman is one of my private students. He is retired and has an eclectic background, spent many years perfecting calligraphy in his spare time. Well his attention to craftsmanship pays off as this is his first sawing and piercing exercise. The pierced copper is riveted to a patina'd piece of copper. Very nice....

Gutsy Ladies

Here are some photos from my Artfest '08 Gut Instincts class. The fantastic gut cicada was made by Jim Sorenson. Jim and his bug have inspired me to design a class where we work on insects! Should be cool...stay tuned!

Post Artfest Blues

Well, we are home luggage-less of course, as are 150,000 other bumped American Airline passengers. In fact it is kind of a miracle luggage ever gets on the right flight! So we are hopeful. Odd the things you begin to realize are in your bags, like my favorite Swanstrom ergonomic, expensive pliers, Robert's silver repousse belt buckle, etc. Post Artfest blues have set in. Robert keeps saying,"We're not in Port Townsend anymore, Toto!" If your reading this and attended one of my classes thank you! I had three fantastic groups this year. I think all went home recharged and revved up. I too learned so much from my students and feel renewed creative energy. I have a sketchbook full of ideas! I made these cairns Monday after Artfest on the beach at Deception Pass on Whidbey.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

So here I still sit in Chi-town. I said to Robert last night, "I am SO glad you aren't John Candy". Looks like we're sleeping the airport tonight. We even talked to the airline about renting us a car.... we should have done that last night I guess. But then again there'd have been no Malibu rums served by an older gentleman with an eastern European accent in a cheesy Holiday Inn bar, while bad 70's ballads played. We pretended we didn't know each other. Maybe we'll find out how much to go downtown today to the Art Institute.... Robert's never been...

Composting Good and Evil: Redesign for Sanctimonious Sinner

Well Artfest is over and I sit in a slightly shabby, lonely Holiday Inn in Itasca Illinois. Our flight home was cancelled.... so in an effort to entertain myself I give you the virtual exhibit by Ethical Metalsmiths "Composting Good and Evil: Redesign for Sanctimonious Sinner"
This image is great! It's A men's suit made from recycled potting soil bags
"A totally 60s, totally groovy suit made from organic potting soil bags. Dr. Earth's colorful bags leant themselves so naturally to trash fashion! An orange striped fitted coat, over a frilly white shirt made from vanilla-scented kitchen trash bags. The straight-leg pants give the ensemble some real flower power!"
Designed by Prima Debris (Kathi Griffis).

Healing Art Works!

Just wanted to give these folks a plug. Found them on Cheap Joes website and it looks as if they do good work!
Healing Art Works
Healing Art Works, Inc., is a non-profit organization committed to providing works of original art for patient rooms at hospitals and medical centers in order to facilitate emotional and physical healing through art -one room at a time.

Earth Hour 2007

Have you signed up yet?
http://www9.earthhourus.org/

A bit more

Sorry had to throw this in:

'There is not much wilderness left to destroy, and the nature in the mind is being logged and burned off. Industrial-urban society is not "evil" but there is no progress either ... A gas turbine or an electric motor is a finely-crafted flint knife in the hand. It is useful and full of wonder, but it is not our whole life... I try to hold both history and the wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times'

-Gary Snyder quoted in David Kherdian, Six San Francisco Poets, Fresno, Calif., 1969

Prophetic!

Get OUT!

Gary Snyder was raised in Oregon and Washington state.....and I just sensed it! ha!

Poet Gary Snyder

I love it when I stumble upon a new poet to get into.
On Writer's Almanac a couple of weeks ago I heard this by Gary Snyder:

At Tower Peak

Every tan rolling meadow will turn into housing
Freeways are clogged all day
Academies packed with scholars writing papers
City people lean and dark
This land most real
As its western-tending golden slopes
And bird-entangled central valley swamps
Sea-lion, urchin coasts
Southerly salmon-probes
Into the aromatic almost-Mexican hills
Along a range of granite peaks
The names forgotten,
An eastward running river that ends out in desert
The chipping ground-squirrels in the tumbled blocks
The gloss of glacier ghost on a slab
Where we wake refreshed from ten hours sleep
After a long day's walking
Packing burdens to the snow
Wake to the same old world of no names,
No things, new as ever, rock and water,
Cool dawn birdcalls, high jet contrails.
A day or two or million, breathing
A few steps back from what goes down
In the current realm.
A kind of ice age, spreading, filling valleys
Shaving soils, paving fields, you can walk in it
Live in it, drive through it then
It melts away
For whatever sprouts
After the age of
Frozen hearts. Flesh-carved rock
And gusts on the summit,
Smoke from forest fires is white,
The haze above the distant valley like a dusk.
It's just one world, this spine of rock and streams
And snow, and the wash of gravels, silts
Sands, bunchgrasses, saltbrush, bee-fields,
Twenty million human people, downstream, here below.

This poem is from No Nature: New and Selected Poems Some of its imagery reminded my of the Olympic Pennisula. Here's another great bit:

"How Poetry Comes to Me"

It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
I go to meet it at the
Edge of the light


Gorgeous!

Beautiful Quote

Found this on Neoterra Blog

"It is futile to argue as to which single leaf, which design of branches or which attractive flower you like; when you understand the root, you understand all of its blossoming."

-Bruce Lee

Port Townsend!

In exactly one week, at this very hour, I will be in one of my favorite places in the world Port Townsend, Washington. I daydream of moving there. Robert and I head off to Artfest! A weekend wonderland of art developed by Teesha Moore. It's a blessed life I lead, indeed. This was where we stayed last year, in one of the officer's houses at Fort Warden.
Needless to say Robert would love living there. This is a photo of last years West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium there at Fort Warden.














I can't WAIT! The Olympic Mountains...Puget Sound we may get up to ORcas island this year if all goes well. I just love it there. And PT has lots of galleries and plenty of good brew pubs!

Archetypes

So.... I am involved in a collaborative art project right now. I was invited to join 12 women who are all movers and shakers in the collage world, to do a collage/assemblage round robin. I am extremely flattered to be invited! We mail our container with 12 "pages" in it to the next person on the list. Each month we work on a different Archetype, the Teacher, the Healer, the Crone, the Muse, the Empress... you get the idea. Its going to be really, really cool. I just got the first box! Its full of beautiful small decorative canvases to work on. I will work this month on The Teacher. Prophetic as I head off to Artfest to teach again this year.

Rolling right along

So, my camera bit the dust in the wet exit last month and I am realizing now how much I used it. I can't photograph the work I am making for Artfest, or Meredith's first short haircut! I couldn't snap shots of the SlotMachines in our recent appearance at SNAG in Savannah GA. I can't photograph work I did for an archetypes round robin project, heck! I can't photograph anything!!
So you'll just have to hear about it all.... okay so Meredith has her first short haircut-smashing! I went to Savannah. I am frantically making bits for Arfest08, and working in a round robin for the first time in years. Life is just rolling right along at a fantastic clip. I haven;t relaxed, read a book took a nap or been leisurely in any way. Although I did catch a performance of "Turning the Wheel-Nearly Invisible" tonight.

Jesus Shaves-David Sedaris

I am gasping for air. This one always gets me....
gotta love David.

Neko Case

Driving back from Savannah Neko Case music over and over.... dreaming of the spanish moss....wet bricks.... the Lucas theater's lights glinting off the wet oak leaves. GOD can she sing!

Eilen Jewell - Rich Man's World

YEAH! Some of my new favorite music! Listened to Eilen Jewel and Neko Case all the way home from Savannah today! "Rambler girls...watch your step babe, watch what crowd you end up in....."

Check it out!

http://theslotmachines.blogspot.com/

Coffee -ART- Talk!

Later this month IAC will host the beginning of potentially ongoing coffee klatschs.
I call it Coffee ART Talk. The basic idea is we host an open house coffee social hour for creative types. We found those of us that are there in the afternoon head down the street for coffee sometimes together. So we thought, hey! why not stay here and invite others for networking, laughter and shop talk? Stay tuned for the dates and times.

SNAG!

Well its that time! SNAG! Off to Savannah for an earlier conference this year with the Society of North American Goldsmiths. I will be assisting Sharon Massey, co ordinating the Silent Auction again this year, our last and fourth year. Should be rockin', a bunch of crazy metalsmiths all converging on a town for a week to talk shop, watch demos, party and buy tools. Woo hoo! Back next week!

Sucked in

Oh yeah, Robert and I got sucked in. We did quite well actually... I think. We donated 2300 grains of rice. Robert's vocabulary was quite good. Click on the title to go to http://www.freerice.com/index.php and play the vocabulary word game to donate rice. Its addicting...well, to geeks anyway.

lunar eclipse - 03.03.07

This is last years lunar eclipse. I kinda like the music.... I missed the latest eclipse...but I hear it was cloudy here and not as spectacular.

Star Wars according to a 3 year old.

Oh my god Iove little kids! Why did I only have one?
three year olds are THE BEST! such insight!

AGH!

I am laughing so hard! Yes folks, people are painting cats. No, I don't mean watercolors or oils OF cats, I mean they airbrush ON cats! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH........gasp AHAHAHAHAHAHA! what in the hell is this world coming to? One women who commented on the website said she was excited about the book because she'd dipped her cat in beet juice but it was not effective he looked as if he'd killed a chicken and rolled on it. What posses someone to dip their cat in dye???!!!!!!!!! Bad enough people dye THEMSELVES but a (relatively) defenseless animal? What a riot.
http://www.whypaintcats.com/

Kayaking

We went out for a quick kayak trip at the beach yesterday. My daughter, Robert and I went down Banks Channel to a small beach and had lunch and paddled back. It was borderline too windy for Meredith and I, being the novices, but we persevered. As I walked the little marshy spoil island I thought how lucky we are. We don't have much. We chose artsy lives which don't include big salaries, very reliable cars, paid vacations, etc. But we do have this- this water to be near, this sun on our full bellies, the wind blowing the grass, the marks we make in the sand. And we have it any time we want it pretty much.
Those of us that live here on the coast live in a kind of paradise when we slow down enough to remember. Art by Shellie Mitchell from SC. Click the post title to purchase and to view her Etsy store.

Bacon

So my 12 year old daughter said, "Yeah, I thought about becoming a vegetarian, but then....
I remembered bacon."

The Grays

The Very Best Years and awesome Grays song. I couldn't embed it sorry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtkgE4h_EKw

Jason Faulkner

So if you're not familiar with him, I LOVE Jason Faulkner. My favorite cd will always be Can You Still Feel? When I play that cd people always ask what it is. I loved previous incarnations of his, the band The Gray's and later Jellyfish
http://www.rogerjosephmanningjr.com/projects/jellyfish/.

The Treasury

I LOVE intelligent pop. I guess its growing up with the Beatles...dunno/ I was glad to recently see Jason Faulkner still out there kickin' it... http://www.jasonfalkner.net/
But I just discovered this band The Treasury and love 'em! Evidently missed them last year at The Whiskey. Love their song on myspace "My Way". Good solid pop.

Chris Jordan

I am not kidding folks.... you have got to check this guy out.http://www.chrisjordan.com/



"This series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 410,000 paper cups used every fifteen minutes. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. The underlying desire is to emphasize the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

My only caveat about this series is that the prints must be seen in person to be experienced the way they are intended. As with any large artwork, their scale carries a vital part of their substance which is lost in these little web images. Hopefully the JPEGs displayed here might be enough to arouse your curiosity to attend an exhibition, or to arrange one if you are in a position to do so. The series is a work in progress, and new images will be posted as they are completed, so please stay tuned.

~chris jordan, Seattle, 2007

Capturing the Scale of American Consumption

Fascinating talk (30 minutes? ) by Artist Chris Jordan who brings the enormous scale of our mass consumption into high-resolution. He shares Running the Numbers, composite photographs of discarded cell phones, computers, aluminum cans and other modern detritus, urging us to consider the consequences of our consumer culture while insisting that each of us has the power to make a difference. Gotta love Pop!cast.....

South River Paddle

My first OBE

And no, I don't mean Out of Body Experience.... I like to call it Out of Boat Experience! Salt Marsh Kayak and Bluefield Enterprises had their first Oyster Roast and Paddle this weekend. While we got there late to the oyster roast out in Bladen county, it was great, big fire, good food, live band.... We camped on the property and ate a huge spread that Bluefield Enterprises CEO and chief cook Scott prepared. Fresh homemade biscuits with sorghum molasses, yellow grits, sausage, cinnamon rolls, I was ready for the paddle! We were all going down the South River ending near Tomahawk NC. Gorgeous day, brisk, blue sky, Black water mmmm! The South is a nice river a bit more gravely than the sandy Black, and low this year. We had a lovely paddle about 13 of us. An adorable little black puppy hovered about as we put in and one of the group just couldn't leave her. She rode in the bow of his kayak the whole way down, 9.64 twisty turny miles! So Robert and I were hanging back, it was after lunch and the river had a bit more current than I, the beginner, am used to. There were plenty of obstacles, some really BIG trees down over the river. So lots of strainers. Robert hung back to gather some wild gourds and the puppy rescuer and I were alone trying to shoot through a tight zig zag of logs and trees down. I got trapped, the back of my kayak pinned between two cypress knees and the front wedged. I couldn't budge. and every time I did try to move I would nearly flip with the current rushing under me. I just sat there waiting for Robert as the other guy went on through. Robert came along chuckling at me sitting there looking glum. He moved to the bank, got out and helped me get unpinned. I backed up to try again. This time he was patiently giving me instructions as to how best to paddle through the narrow passage. Well I made all the same mistakes. The current caught the back end and I lost control of the boat again and got trapped....again. I was irritated, frustrated and mad at myself. The rest of the group was long gone. And then trying to move myself out of my situation I flipped.
This is a big deal for me.
I have never flipped over. I have taken a quick rescue and recovery class in the summer, in warm water, at the beach in which I flipped over hung for a second or so, and then released the skirt and popped up. But I have never accidentally flipped over in freezing cold water with nothing on but a T shirt and pfd. I panicked! It was only waist deep but the current was pulling me under the strainer and I was freaking. Robert was shouting at me to calm down and pull the skirt and get out of the boat. It took a second, I was gasping at the cold. trying to grab gear. He's shouting "leave the gear!", forget it... I was a very cold mammal at that moment, not hearing anything. so I stand up and try to wade out against the current. I shook for 20 minutes from just adrenaline. Robert had brought all kinds of extra dry clothes so I was warm soon. But it was pretty big milestone for me. And evidence as to how quick a reasonably calm looking river, no rocks, no whitewater, nothing scary can become really scary when you are being towed under logs and branches with a current especially for a novice. We are laughing about it now. And I am glad that I have that experrience under my belt. He wants to kayak the Orcas islands and I feel nowhere near ready. I am not a cold water girl! I know there's gear and all... but...I am a big chicken. I don't love adrenaline. I like yoga and making things. I love easy, gentle paddling in pretty surroundings! Needless to say I am sore and slept like a baby last night.

Its Up!

My interview with Allison Lee is up at Craftcast.com. Its moving hearing it. I was scared to hear myself, but I think its okay!
Check it out! http://www.craftcast.com/

Derech - Mosh Ben Ari

I just love csome of these lyrics if they are in fact as this person posted them:
Road (or- Way)
---------------
I wake up in the morning, I'm addicted to the road
I travel, I travel
A lot of green around, it touches laughter
It's a sweet moment
How should I move between the paths that were embroidered on me by the years
I sink into the radio
Silence is sweet again, on the escape rout again
And again it touches
chorus:
And in the nights, eye full of tears
Lips whisper To you, to you
And in the days, face to face
I'm in the middle of life
And still without you

The road does not end, it's the road to tomorrow
I touch the horizon
If only you were here with me,
to strengthen my weakeness
I would be calm

mosh ben ari-ya

Another one I am lovin'!
So catchy,happy....
Here's the lyrics posted on Youtube:

open your eyes,
we are here together in this world
and there is one God above
And just accept that it's ya ya ya...
He always comes on time.

"Mukeret Li Mipa'am"- Hebrew song, by Din Din Aviv

I am so excited about this group! Great animation
here's the lyrics that I could find on the internet:
One moment before the sunset
I embrace you and my heart, like a ball of fire,
dives and falls with you
Then comes the darkness
The magic disappears
Leaving only the depth of your eyes
and the sadness of the world
I have known you long ago
Perhaps in another lifetime
A dream that left in me a fragrance
Of a burning memory
So before I touch you
Just before sunrise
Come and say to me,
I am all yours
Perhaps from another lifetime...
There is only one in my imagination
She is good and sweet
And I am pointed at her
From a cloud of silence
Maybe that is where you came from
So if you are real
Please take me with you
And look after me
I have known you long ago...

6 Word memoirs

Can you do it?
Sum yourself up in a 6 word memoir?
I heard an interview on NPR with the books editors. Very cool idea.
Based on the story that when challenged to write a 6 word novel Hemmingway said, "For Sale: babyshoes, never worn."
I am still working on mine.
For more cool stuff like this book go to Smith online magazine: http://www.smithmag.net/
Everyone has a story.....

yael naim new soul

I think this is my life's theme song. People say "She's such an old soul..." Not me. I have always thought I landed in the wrong world and am new here. Live the video too!

Collaboration Factory-PLASTICS!

Dan Brawley is hosting a Collaboration Factory at IAC-Wabi Sabi Warehouse. If you want to make art out of plastic then come on down!



Go here for more info: http://wabisabiwarehouse.blogspot.com/

No experience necessary. Bring plastic stuff to upcycle into art! Finished works will be installed as part of the "Retirement Plan for Plastics" Exhibition at UNCW's Warwick Gallery.

EXCITING!

Dan Brawley has set up a blog for our studio space Wabi Sabi Warehouse.
Very cool...
http://wabisabiwarehouse.blogspot.com/

Lots of exciting things will be happening there this year, stay tuned!

Craftcast

Well! I was honored to be surprised by an email from Allison Lee of Craftcast.com. She interviewed me today! It will air sometime next week. Go check out her interview with Susan Lenart Kazmer and many other great metalsmiths, including Linda Darty, Kathleen Dustin, and Alan Revere. COOL!

Liveearth.org

Very cool website...Live Earth!

Behind the scenes - Making of the Lord of the Rings Props

AGH! I wish I could have worked in this art department!!!!

My step daughter's Etsy shop!

Check out my step daughter's new Etsy shop.
http://byotekiboutique.etsy.com

I mean c'mon....

their heaven has a BEER VOLCANO!
You might like it, there's pirate gear involved!
Find out more about Pastafarianism:
http://www.venganza.org/flash/guidetopastafarianismpreloaded.swf

I have heard the word......

And the word is FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER!
I have been touched, nay moved!

go here to find out how:
http://www.venganza.org/

The Avett Brothers sing

YES!!!!

Enough Fear.org

interesting...
"This website will collect and display photos of people from the US and Iran (and other countries as well) holding up a hand in the universal symbol for "stop!" These photos are the first step in what we hope will become an international campaign in which people from both sides will work together to prevent any attack. These are the people who will suffer if war breaks out."

Dig this Blog!

Country French Antiques

Oh what a great blog!
Such yummy imagery, and she talks about French antiques, cake and Absinthe!!! mmmmmm

http://euroantiquemarket.blogspot.com/

Copper Chameleon

Go here now! My friend Brittany's jewelry design website will allow you to design your own enamelled jewelry that she then custom makes for you. Check out the great designs and luscious pattern!
http://www.copperchameleon.com/designyourown.html

recycle

no explanation needed.

The Commission

SO! before Christmas this interesting gentleman emailed me about a commission. He wanted a cover for his pool table light that would have a House of Blues look to it. This is what I did over the next two weeks. Oh.... He also wanted references to BBQ and primitive turkeys and pigs.
The two bottom pictures are of the piece in progress. I had a blast working on this and listened to alot of Lucinda Williams to get in the Delta mood. I am working on another commission for the same person. It's a mirror with old pieces of wood tin and copper all around it. Then if he's happy with the mirror I may do some enamelled light sconces for him.

"Nothing is Lost"

Loved the Noel Coward poem on the Writer's Almanac this morning on public radio.
check it out
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
Breathtakingly beautiful....

Mine Enemy Grows Older

check out my buddy and former studio mate Rick Mobb's blog:
http://rickmobbs.wordpress.com/
Some fantastic writing. I had no idea the extent of his talents a fabulous painter yes!
and a poet as well.

Affirmation by Donald Hall

When listening to Fresh Air with Terry Gross tonight, I was introduced to the poetry of Donald Hall.
This one particularly struck me, thought I'd share:

Affirmation
by Donald Hall

To grow old is to lose everything.
Aging, everybody knows it.
Even when we are young,
we glimpse it sometimes, and nod our heads
when a grandfather dies.
Then we row for years on the midsummer
pond, ignorant and content. But a marriage,
that began without harm, scatters
into debris on the shore,
and a friend from school drops
cold on a rocky strand.
If a new love carries us
past middle age, our wife will die
at her strongest and most beautiful.
New women come and go. All go.
The pretty lover who announces
that she is temporary
is temporary. The bold woman,
middle-aged against our old age,
sinks under an anxiety she cannot withstand.
Another friend of decades estranges himself
in words that pollute thirty years.
Let us stifle under mud at the pond's edge
and affirm that it is fitting
and delicious to lose everything.

Joy!

As you get older its harder to make new friends and even harder to keep them. I am blessed with a core group of compadres from grad school that are the most amazing folks. Its fabulous to see when they have happy endings, or should I say beginnings!

For Aan

Sigor Ros is for Aan who passed on thursday I think of her as my Obi Wan. I am forever changed by her light.

Sigor Ros - Saeglopur (the fountain mix) SPOILERS

YEEEEEESSSSS! Ah....so beautiful. what a great flim too. not for everybody i am sure.

Sigur Rós - Glósóli

makes me want to cry am I happy? sad? beautiful

Cool! Recycled Gold!

check this out...
Go to Greenkarat to recycle your old and broken gold jewelry. You can recycle it through GreenKarat and receive a store credit, or GreenKarat suggests that you consider the Basel Action Network (www.ban.org) for your contribution. BAN is working to eliminate global trade in mercury, which has an intimate bond with gold.
You can also designate any charity to recieve your contribution through GreenKarat. Very cool way to utilize that icky wide 80's chain that's all mangled, or any old gold junk in the bottom of the jewelry box. The gold you recycle eliminates mining more.
Hey, could be tax deductable too!
Gotta love it!