Anew

Another chance to get it right. Ideas have been budding since this year began. Soon they will begin turning into blossoms. Lately, these ideas crash into one another on some molecular level, forming new entities that chatter away all night. During their recess, they meet all the groups that play and torture me during what is supposed to be my dreamtime. There are the Food groups, the National Mint who has failed to print more money, the Animals-for-more-vet-visits group, the Work crisis group and so on. In waking state, I am obligated to sort them out, file them appropriately and pity myself.

 My daughter has put the "house" on a clean fresh eating plan. I do pretty well with my version of it and feel quite good. I was caught with four crackers and a wee bit of cheese and I do have a secret bag of malt balls in my office that was a gift and it would be rude to not enjoy them. I now wake and fall asleep (when I do) to the sounds of chopping and blending. The kitchen fairly explodes with color; beets, mangos, apples, carrots, rainbow chard..... I feel renewed by my diet; I am beginning; anew

As the photos suggest, my garden is on my mind. Overnight, my Plum tree began to blossom, signaling fruits of the garden to come. I am in anticipation and dread thinking of the upcoming spring. I will want to spend every last dollar that I don't have, on plants. I look forward to my evenings spent on my decks viewing the garden and plotting its future; Anew

Now, Jewelry meets Paper Arts. This blog is supposed to mention the Arts once in a while! I am enrolled in a Book Arts class. I surprised myself. It is a night class and I am well known to not go out at night at all. I am doing it! I am not entirely comfortable yet. I do not have the notoriety that I once had in my jewelry classes which were filled with people who I really liked and respected, but it is early days still. I am very excited about learning about making books, decorating them, writing in them and incorporating silver, brass or copper into them using cold connections. I can revive my printmaking and work on marbleizing paper and make paste paper and on and on. The possibilities are creating a state in me of Anew

Just Winging It

I do have some time on my hands these days. My mind works in real time and my body remains in slow time. I am thinking of a magazine that I should create. "Slothful Living; the art of reclining".


I do not have enough work right now to stay afloat, which is a concern. The Tinker's Daughter Landscaping must pay the bills and fund The Tinker's Daughter Design. With each jewelry project comes the need for even more supplies. And then, more ideas find their way into my head; each extending their little PayPal hands.


So, I am spending a lot of time on the computer.
Yesterday, for instance, I sat at the computer; innocently enough, looking at French Decorative Papers at 10:00 A.M.  The purpose (yes, there was one) was to gain inspiration to create a new banner for my Etsy site. I wanted a new one, lost the old one and still cannot figure out how to get anything on as a banner. I won't again go on about my jewelry photos which remain unrecognizable; still. By 4:00, I had segued into Paste Paper making and Marbelizing Paper and finally, Bookbinding and handmade Paper Boxes (to put my jewelry in when it ha ha sells).


In order to complete my garden maintenance duties, I need a van that I can safely drive to Santa Cruz and Watsonville nurseries. Today, that means 4 new tires, which I decided I would get, with 4 dogs in tow, at Costco this next week on sale. I have been driving on all bald tires and needed to replace them before rains began. Speaking of maintenance duties; I also am required to have a functioning lawnmower for 10 lawns per week that need mowing. I was just informed that mine died a slow death last Friday afternoon; mid-lawn. I need a new one (1200.00?*z@!!) by tomorrow.
My solution today is that I have never heard of these problems. Instead, I ordered 65.00 worth of books on yes; Paste Paper Making, Marbelized Paper and Bookbinding, from Amazon. Doesn't that sound like more fun?
I am either in denial or Just Winging It.

I'll think about the lawnmower tomorrow (I can say that because I am from the South). Perhaps I should avoid the computer today. I need to rope myself in to create tiny collages to use in hearts for Valentine jewelry. And, as woe is me. I must spend precious time billing my clients so that I can pay my bills, buy a lawnmower tomorrow, buy tires another week and support the arts right now.


That is either living by faith, going out on a limb or Just Winging It.

Backsliding with Cole the Cat

Here it is; mid January, and I feel like I am already slipping. I went through a self imposed "crash- course" in "Inspiration and its Follow Through" for the past 2 1/2 weeks. My head was spinning with delightful visions. Now they are all muddled, like the haphazard look inside my refrigerator. My house, the before-mentioned refrigerator, my stuff, my garden....are all topsy-turvey which make my head crazy.

I am trying to photograph or scan my jewelry for my Etsy site. It takes so much time! But, I am finding it interesting and I am accidentally learning. I simply need a far more uninterrupted schedule without that pesky work on site and at home! I have a ways to go. My task is incomplete and leaves me frustrated.

My office is strewn with Tulle and Italian papers to use as backdrops for the jewelry. I am trying to convey a sense of elegance and damask gowns and the rustling of silk, in my photos. You, my audience (if I have one) are politely smiling. In addition, I have an office mate, or mates. Usually, there are 3 small dogs and 2 cats. All but 1 are my daughter's. My big White Shepherd rarely comes up and never with the cats. My office is about 50 square feet. The dogs are lay-abouts and do not interfere, but the one cat, Cole, who is the size of a small tank, does his best. Given enough time, I alone, could break the fax machine, scanner and computer. However Cole, after tangling himself in the Tulle & biting off pieces of Italian paper, presses the speaker phone button and scrambles the conference lines to the phone/ fax, steps on the scanner; almost crushing it and proceeds to the computer keyboard getting a nail caught in the number 6 and coming close to deleting all my e-mails by highlighting them!

I will, against all odds, continue my lessons in scanning and posting on Etsy, learning how to use Picasa and finally; figuring out blogging. Others on Etsy have 100s of "hearts". I have 7.

People are shaking their heads, cats mock me and only the dogs are keeping their opinions to themselves because I pay them. However, I am pretty certain that I hear muffled snickering.



Again, as I don't understand "links' or whatever (I did take out books from the library on Blogging, I want you to know) my etsy site is :  tinkerbelledesign.etsy.com

Fears into Fruition

I have been unable to write for over a week. I feared that I had nothing of interest to convey, no extraordinary moral high ground was taken, nothing to say to a reader to make her or him feel more informed, no comfort to be given.

I began by worrying that I had not been finding a balance between career and art. I have been working on solutions and though I have not yet seen those plans through as of yet, I have kept my head above water. I have done my best by journaling as often as I can, choosing classes to participate in, opening the windows in my head to allow in images, have been separating work time from personal time and I dream and imagine.... Life shows up to guide me onto other roads some days and it can be a blessing.

I have been gifted by my daughter and her sweetheart (I will refer to them both as my kids). I have been living alone for almost 3 1/2 years and have become very accustomed to it. They moved in last autumn and I anticipated that their presence would bring me new lessons and I have been able to treasure them.

They just came home from a trip to Spain and Paris and brought me new forms of inspiration to add to another that was given me by a friend; also in book form. A big beautiful book on costuming, the print that you see on your right and postcards of a Parisian artist who turned my world upside-down!
Hours have already been spent on the computer researching her work as well as the hours I have spent figuring out how to work in paper and even more hours lying awake dreaming up hats of silver and fine wire and gauze and thread and candles and it goes on and on.

It looks like I am inspired! I normally go to sleep by 8:00 P.M.; yet I was up well past midnight; thinking, drawing and writing about ideas dancing through my head!

I wish that my words would have an impact that would make a difference to more than myself alone. But here, I can chart my new journey and in time, hope to inspire.


As I do not know where to place this addition, I will again place it right here: I am still in the process of redoing my photos on etsy.com What I have on the site are difficult to view, but, if you must, please visit tinkerbelledesign.etsy.com

About blogging; I have read so few that I feel I do not have guidelines. I think that people talk about themselves (is that selfish?) or what they have accomplished that day, week, month...Is using this modality as a journal something that is a recommended use of cyberspace? This is so foreign to me that I do not know how to find blogs from like-minded people, that would be of interest to me. Not that I want to view and coorespond with a multitude of "me"; plural. I would then really get back under the covers and stay.

In my 1st and only blog, I was thinking in terms of "dichotomy"; in this case, the struggle between work and play, so to speak. It is a challenge that most are familiar with and still wonder how others place these two necessary and distinct activities in balance.

I have read, written, talked to myself and friends, all week about the possibility of change and how I can influence those changes. Today is the day that I must act upon my own written suggestions and calmly enter the new work year and art year.

I am a pro at list making. All during the work year, I carry 2 clipboards and at least one other sheet of paper to keep my work life and chores organized. I practically carry a suitcase to my jobs. A friend who (or whom) I saw today, made it very clear, the importance of adding; what I will call, the "good bits" to those formadable lists. I did do that in my journal, but not on the list o' the week that I look at every day. I have forgotten what fun and happiness are or what they feel like. So, I suppose that big note reminding me to take blank amount of time today to do what makes me feel good, is the ticket.

I photographed a painting that I completed a few years ago, a few minutes ago, in order to possibly use part of it to display my silver jewelry on.. It is an experiment suggested by another friend. It not only reminded me that I like both my jewelry and my painting, but that I crave more of them. It is a drop in the ocean, but a beginning. And I still have 2 hours left today just for me. I wish I could remember the name of the painting; it belongs to my beautiful daughter who was depicted in it. I can almost remember how it felt to be immersed in an artistic project and the complete faith I had in it.

I am having difficulty navigating the blog set-up and friends are having a problem being able to leave comments. I do want to mention that I do have a site on Etsy.com for my jewelry. I have to redo the photos on it and finish photographing what I have, but please take a moment to visit at:

tinkerbelledesign.etsy.com Thank you, all, for reading.

Catherine

2010

I awoke early to get a head start in my personal assignment to fill my day to the top with inspiration. I am trying to cram everything into one day.

I have been sulking because I take one week off per year from my landscaping business and again, spent it working on one thing or another, but not art, as I had planned and wished for.

This morning I read about creativity, other artists and took photos of the sky before the day began; good things. I take a new year seriously; at least for a few days and though I did not compose a long list of hopes, I did ask myself to rearrange the puzzle pieces in my life to accomodate more art, equating to more life. Running one's own business tends to be all consuming, but I think I can figure out some timing solutions by devising a new formula.

Mostly, I worry how to grasp inspiration and use it somehow. So much thrills me, paper, silver, textiles....how can I put treasures together that are mine alone? The fragments are floating through actual and cyberspace; just out of my grasp.

I tend to keep to myself (with dogs) and realize that I do better in a workshop setting. People sharing is healthy. So, I need to find that enviornment, a dog (plural) sitter and maybe a walking partner (for walking in the woods for excersise; mentally & physically in tandem to discourage mountain lion advances!).

There are other things printed on my mental list for today, if only I can remember them!

By the way, this is my first blog; ever. It is still a mystery!