Sometimes weaving the right people together needs to be added to the planning of an event. Have you ever sat by someone at a dinner party with whom you have absolutely nothing in common with? I guess that’s why some people use place cards! Perhaps you have been invited to a jewelry design event where everyone else was working solely with wire and you were the only metal artist. You either have to weave yourself into the group or watch from afar.

We can also consider how friendships are woven together. When these relationships ebb, flow or dissipate, it can be because the interest that bound them together has changed for at least one of the parties. A tightly woven relationship may continue if there is more than one common thread.

Weaving is also important when you are trying to decide what art/craft shows to participate in. The artist needs to be woven into the tapestry of a show where customers will appreciate the work. If customers visit a show because it is known for sparkling, blingy jewelry and your wares are metal and leather, things might not work out well for you. I like to find venues where I fit into the tapestry, but edge to the fringes with something slightly unique for the customers.

Aside from the above ramblings and philosophy, I wanted to share the new rings I’m been weaving this week. I learned how to create them from a youtube video and share the link below with you.

First I made several of the rings out of copper. I tried putting a bead in one, but am not especially pleased with it.

Then I made one out of sterling silver wire and must admit it is my favorite.

The weaving on these rings is the same technique that I have used on the newer bracelets and some of the necklaces. It works up very quickly. The only difficulty I had was is molding the 14 gauge main wires at the end.  I hope you will try one of these rings as I think you will like the look.

I also urge you to consider how you weave other things together in your family and relationships. Just as with the wires in the rings, individuals can support one another and create a strong whole.

We were also blessed with the beautiful sound of our new wind chimes given to us by wonderful friends. These alto chimes resonate (wing) gently through the air with wonderful clear tones. The photo verifies the fact that we finally received some rain here and the outside terrain is looking much better. This was much needed moisture since the last loads of hay that arrived here came all the way from Mississippi.

I winged it by creating some new wire jewelry that looks a bit like some type of flying creature. It’s already time for me to start using Spring colors since this it what my wholesale customers will need next. These are just the beginning.

I created this garnet piece at the end of last year, but it got me started on the “winged” pieces above.

In between drumming, singing and making winged jewelry, we did find a little time for baking. My grandson was only too happy to help me bake a chocolate pie. Amazingly, the rest of the family was only too happy to eat it!  

Since the New Year has been properly winged in here at Dreamcatcher Ranch, the only thing left to do is say “Happy New Year” to you.

Today I happily set out with a small group of errands to run, none of which would be life or season threatening if not accomplished. It’s a very cold day here in Central Texas and I was sure that shoppers would don the Christmas spirit along with their jackets today.

People were actually quite cheery at my first stop; but then I was just finishing up a previously ordered large purchase and they were feeling good about it. The “spirit” of people at my next stop wasn’t quite the same. There were lots of shoppers at Penney’s and they were NOT all smiling. I felt sorry for the little children there who were either being pushed in a store cart or ushered by hand around the building. I was hopeful of finding a smiling child and eventually spotted two. Their dad had them in a double stroller and was tilting it as he tried to convince the little guys that they were flying. I hope the mom, who was shopping nearby, appreciated the delightful squeals of her children.

I also saw a large fellow standing very still as he looked at the women’s slippers hanging on the wall. He just stood there; so I just watched. Finally he removed a carefully folded list from his coat pocket. He put it back and continued to just stand there. Perhaps I should have offered to help, but, knowing that advise sometimes adds more confusion, I just moved on.

Many of the people in the store just looked confused. It’s that time of the season when you can no longer put off choosing what to get for Aunt Margaret or Uncle Harry. I noted that some people look downright angry when they are forced into last minute decisions.

A pair of women, having trouble making a choice, eventually grabbed a garment and determined they could take the one they already purchased back. I think there will be many returns after Christmas and I’m really glad that doesn’t usually happen with the jewelry I sell.

I traveled on to Walmart and kept watching for smiling Christmas shoppers. Several times I observed older couples and thought one or the other of them was smiling. Then I realized that when you’ve lost several teeth, your lips take on a different shape that can look like a smile. (Actually, some looked like frowns.) I hope when my teeth fall out I’m left smiling.

Although I had planned some other stops, I came home right after Walmart. I had collected all the smile data I needed for the day and concluded that the facial expressions I sought just weren’t very abundant. At home, I put the Christmas music on, gave the animals extra treats and put on my own smile. I plan to keep it on my face for many days. This is more important than what I’m giving people. My family may not remember what I gave them for Christmas, but they will probably remember my disposition!

One of the gifts I made best depicts the source of my feelings for the season.

I just need to realize how happiness comes from that which touches my heart and let the cross remind me of the source of the true Christmas spirit. I hope this also puts a smile on your face.

Red jewelry also seems to be popular right now. I’ve sold all the coral necklaces I made and have noticed an abundance of red bling on the necks and wrists of shoppers.

I tried to wear red bling. Several weeks ago I made a red garnet pendant and hung it from black seed beads. It just didn’t work. One reason was that it was not the right length. This became apparent when I wore it to a wire workers meetup and people kept saying “pull your necklace up” or “pull your shirt down.” These gals are very helpful and obviously I needed to do something about that red necklace.

Last night I took it apart and reworked the little jewel. This is not my favorite part of designing, but every once in a while you just have to give in and admit you didn’t get it right the first time.

I changed the strands from which the pendant hangs to a type of figure eight double strand. In the dark last night it looked great. In the light this morning IT DIDN’T! Although all the beads are garnet, they didn’t all look the same color. Therefore, midday brought another necklace revision wherein I added some of the strand beads to the pendant. I’m almost afraid to look at it again, but am hoping I have it right this time.

Right now I’m thinking that it’s too bad you can’t give unmatched beads a dip in something, like you do with metal in liver of sulphur, to make them end up the same color. If there are any chemists out there – go for it! (OK – I’m sure all you gemologists just cringed – sorry.)

When I struggle with a piece like this I try to figure out what, if anything, I learned from the project. This piece taught me to pay more attention to how I finish something, to try on a piece as I work on it, to look at things more often in good light and to accept that good resistance to closure may go on for weeks. “Yet, red necklace, I’m definitely finished with you now.”

Happy Red to all of you!

Lately, I’ve seemed to be in need of some of the Division’s spontaneity. At this point in December, I’m feeling a bit spent and my productivity has waned. It’s obvious to me that creativity and productivity are inextricably linked for me. If I’m not producing, I’m not problem solving and therefore am not being creative.

Yesterday, I got a little help with this problem from a friend . . . my mother. When I arrived at the nursing home to visit her, she informed me that it was about time I got there. She had on one earring and was trying to get the other stud on. I couldn’t help but wonder how long she had been at it. We laughed when she was finally “fixed”.

Then I asked her what she wanted for Christmas. Without missing a beat she said, “my TWO FRONT TEETH” and flashed me a big toothless grin. Indeed, her two front teeth are missing and she does need a couple! Again, we laughed and laughed. I think it was her spontaneity as well as her answer that got me. We went shopping together and then grabbed some lunch, but I just kept thinking about her Christmas wish.

This little episode reminded me of last year when we asked her where she was when she and my father got married. Again, without missing a beat, she said, “Out of My MIND!” The woman, who will be 91 in January, is quite clever.

When I got home yesterday, I continued to chuckle and decided to try a bit or jewelry work. That’s when things began to flow nicely and the ideas became present again. Was it just time to design or did the laughter really help. I vote that it was the latter.

I mainly worked with cabochons yesterday, but was pleased with a couple of the new wrappings and the bezel I created.  The first stone is a boulder opal and all the rest are turquoise (yes, even the brown one). See what you think.

I’m hoping to hang on to this productive thinking and continue to get some good work completed. I’m a believer that for me, at least, laughter leads to productivity and creative thinking.

I guess that the moral of this entry is . . . find something to laugh about and if you can’t find anything, go visit my mother!

One of our favorite tasks has been gathering acorns outside and then bringing them in to practice our hammering skills. Those acorns really “smush” when you put them on the bench block and whack them with the big hammer. We’ve learned that you shouldn’t swing the hammer back too far because you can whack yourself on the head if you aren’t careful. After a few tears, we are now very careful. This is the only jewelry design tip you’ll find in this blog entry.

       I’m excited to watch my grandson’s imagination grow as evidenced by his ability to pretend. He has no trouble “goin’ fishing” with the pole we rigged together.

I could only find one magnet which didn’t function very well for catching fish, but we did manage to catch several healthy paper ones – - over and over and over again. Do you like our red pond?

Another day, we both got a good splashing while we worked on the concept of sink and float. He got pretty good at hypothesizing whether an object would sink or float, but that piece of orange sponge that floated and then sunk was rather perplexing. Don’t you think it’s good to challenge the child’s thinking?

I learned that when you play sink and float with a two year old it’s important to have multiple towels available. We got the wettest when we decided to blow through straws in the water so the floating objects could boat around.

We have had many other adventures, but since we’re off for another one right now, you’ll just have to wonder about them. I can truly say that this little learning break is worth every minute.

My show corresponded with a fundraiser being held in the same room. For a mere $5, folks could partake of salad and their choice of 10 different delicious soups. It was really hard to decide what to eat and the aroma that filled the room made us all feel hungry. The fact is that we had all the senses covered in that room. The smell of good food was compounded by the eye candy provided by my jewelry, the murmured accolades of the customers and the tactile pleasure of handling the jewelry. The latter is what caused the trouble.

In addition to the food previously mentioned, cupcakes were available (wonderful, gooey cupcakes covered with mounds of sticky icing and various sprinkles). There were chocolate cupcakes with luscious chocolate icing, carrot cupcakes piled high with cream cheese icing and many other choices.

Since I have a family of musicians, I know that after a good meal comes the entertainment. I think that on this day the jewelry and I were supposed to be the entertainment. Things were going well at this little show until I got a good look at the hands of several residents who were carefully fingering the jewelry. The hands held the fingers that had just finished the cupcakes that had covered the fingers with sticky icing (lots of sticky icing!) The closest jewelry to the front of my display table and wheel chair viewing were the small items such as the rings and bracelets. Of course each ring had to be tried on by each looker and the bracelets were carefully fingered while they were examined. Several deep breaths after discovering this phenomenon I decided to just ignore the sticky problem. Those residents were having a wonderful time and I knew that I could clean things later. I had to breath deeply again when people realized they could go back for a second cupcake and then return to the jewelry. Again, I just let it go.

Last night, I got all the remaining jewelry out and cleaned the pieces that were sticky in hopes that the ants wouldn’t find them in my storage trays. You know, this didn’t hurt me a bit, but asking the residents not to touch my pieces would have hurt them. I’m not one to just “let it go”, but it seemed appropriate in this situation.

I guess you just never know when you’re going to learn things from your elders. The lessons I learn from these nursing home visits usually stem from the fact that I really need to think about what’s important before getting my dander up about those that are insignificant.

Speaking of dander . . . thanks to those of you who wrote to me about my cat scratch fever. My hand is much better following antibiotics. Soon I’ll be able to solder again with both hands.

We have outside pets, but rotate them, one at a time, into the house for their own special treatment. My Mother’s cat comes into the studio so that she can eat and then goes back out. The ranch is so inundated with ants that she can only get about two bites of her food on the porch before it is covered in the little varmints. After dark, when the ants are gone, the raccoons come up and take her food. They are brave little critters because even when I stand with the cat outside while she eats, the raccoons still come. I’m dismayed that they aren’t frightened by my mean look and scary voice. I’ve failed as a raccoon scarecrow! That’s why the cat comes in for food in the morning or mid afternoon.

Our dog Bruno comes in after supper each evening for his bit of TLC. This gives the two female heelers a respite from him. I think they need it. For example, tonight as the oldest one walked past Bruno he just reached his paw out and whacked her. He and I had a talk about this, but I fear I have about as much influence on him as I do the raccoons.

Saturday night while Bruno was inside, he followed me into my studio. That’s when the trouble began. I forgot that I had not put the cat back outside. You can probably imagine the surprise of all three of us when we realized the cat and dog were within a foot of each other. Before I knew it, Bruno had the cat in his mouth and she was whacking him on the head with her claws. When I extracted the cat from the dog’s mouth, she, of course, ate my hand and scratched my arms as I yelled for help. My spouse dragged the dog away as I tried to catch the cat again. Did you know a cat can actually scale the wall of a house? I finally caught the cat and put her outside. As my husband held the dog, he kept making biting sounds as he cracked his teeth together. He really wanted to eat that cat!

Luckily, neither the dog or the cat sustained any injuries. The cat had wet fur, but no abrasions and the dog was left with one cat claw stuck in his forehead right between his eyes. Unfortunately, I wasn’t so lucky. I was pretty badly scratched up and had one deep wound on my left hand. I tried to ignore it, but by Sunday it was extremely swollen and today, Monday, my nurse friends sent me to the doctor. We’re anticipating that the antibiotics will help. Currently the swelling is half way to my elbow.

So, that’s how I became a one-handed beader. It’s been very perplexing to try and figure out what I can do with one hand. Yet, undaunted by my plight, I got started stringing and found that I can do that with one good hand. The picture below shows what I accomplished last night. It’s pretty slow, but better than being completely idle.

The two necklaces on the left feature glass pendants made by my friend at Light Work Glass (lightworkglass.etsy.com) You can see the pretty colors in the close up below.

I was fortunate to have these on hand since there is no way I can wrap a cab for a while and one-handed hammering of a metal pendant didn’t work either.

I guess, like Aesop, I can say there is a lesson to this sad tale. First, keep the dog away from the cat and second, even a one-handed beader can get things done. I hope no one else has to learn this the rough way.

I’ve been enjoying making bangle bracelets the last couple of weeks. They are certainly the easiest bracelet that I’ve made in quite some time and with slight variations in diameter they fit most folks.

Those in the above photo are formed with a basic 12 gauge copper wire armature that I soldered together and then hammered into shape. With a liver of sulphur bath and only a couple of hours of tumbling, they are ready to be spangled.

I thought I knew about “spangles”, but did look up the term just to be sure. A spangle is a small shiny/sparkling spot or object. It might be a sequin, a piece of metal or a bead, etc. If you spangle something, the dictionary suggests that you are sprinkling it with spangles. Hmm . . . it didn’t take any deep thinking to figure out that one, did it?

I wrap the base of my bangles with different sizes of copper or artistic wire and decorate them with small beads or charms.  Most of these are adorned with gemstones, but the red one shown below features glass beads. The turquoise spangled bangles seem to be the most appreciated.

I tried putting just a few charms on one of the bangle and like the look. I haven’t yet given it a trial wear and don’t know if it will be comfortable. I made small loops in the wrapping wire and attached the charms as I wrapped.

It remains to be seen whether these spangled bangles will be popular with customers and friends. I do, however, know that people like spangles of one kind and another. Whether these are on jewelry, garments or in the form of smiles on friendly faces, we can all use a spangle now and then. How will you create yours?

If I go back to the original context of “agitation helps”, I can say that moving the solution around a bit while patinating the metal was supposed to help. What gets “moved around” when I become agitated? I think it’s usually my routine or the way I believe things should be that gets moved and this makes me agitated. Unfortunately, this context really does make agitation a negative; but is it really?

It seems to me that agitation often brings action and change. I remember years of working with volunteer forces in Louisiana trying to muster services for academically gifted youth. Our group often hunted for members when educational services were at their peak, yet when the legislature threatened to cut our funding or the schools committed some sin, our ranks swelled with eager voices. In other words, folks needed to be agitated about something in order to act. In this case isn’t the state of being complacent the opposite of being agitated? You can feel the silence when things are going well and be bowled over when people become agitated.

At this point, I might certainly break in to some political speech, but I’m not a politician, I’m a jewelry designer so how in the world can I make this big stretch? Actually, that big stretch happens almost every day when I want to be creative. I feel like I need to become agitated enough to change that with which I’m complacent and develop something new. What are the design problems that agitate me enough that I have to create something different? (I know that they say if it isn’t broken don’t mess with it. Yet, not everything unique and new comes because something was broken.) Following is an example.

Several entries ago I posted photos of a new wire weaving that I used for both necklaces and bracelet. Here’s a small photo reminder:

I liked the weaving and those designs, but was a bit agitated because I more or less copied the bracelet from a magazine and then made a necklace. Shouldn’t I be doing my own thing? What would be my own thing based upon this foundational design? How about . . .

The photo with the stone obviously shows abbreviated weaving on the sides. I thought I was being real smart by lessening the number of weaves, but found it very difficult to widen the distance between the main wires and keep a consistent weave. I actually did a better job on the first attempt as opposed to the smaller second try shown below.

My fourth attempt is progressing more easily than the others (no, you can’t see my third attempt!) if you don’t consider the fact that I got two of the main wires crossed in the middle. That’s why they are wrapped together and will soon be hidden behind a stone (psst, don’t tell anyone).

  I’m a little agitated about getting those wires crossed in the middle of this armature, but am now wondering about the possibility of intentionally crossing some wires . . . that bears consideration.

So, whether this entry leaves you agitated or complacent, I hope it at least provides food for thought the next time you get agitated. In fact, the next time you get agitated, I hope you do something creative! That’s my plan and I’m sticking to it.