lo and behold

I love this organization:  Beads of Courage.  They describe themselves this way

Beads of Courage helps children RECORD, TELL and OWN their stories of courage during treatment for cancer and other serious illness. Through the Program children receive different colored beads each which symbolize their unique and challenging treatment journey.

Some of the beads are handmade and donated by glass beadmakers. Others are the simpler, more common beads that children everywhere string by the hundreds, fascinated and delighted that they can decorate themselves with handmade jewels.  The idea behind Beads of Courage is so right:  beauty with meaning; telling stories; marking time; invented ritual; celebrating children; reaching out to those who are most in need; facing our worst fears.

One day I want to help start a Beads of Courage program at my local hospital. 

Right now, Beads of Courage is in the running to win 25K from Pepsi with which they will fund three new sites.  They  need to be voted one of the top ten “great ideas” at this website.  They are currently ranked 13 and voting ends on July 31. Will you please stop by and give them a click?  It would be awesome if they won.  

I found each of the artists I am writing about this week through her blog.  And this person, Beth Hemmila, of Hint Jewelry, routinely stuns me with her beautiful and honest writing. Off the top of my head, I remember a recent post about having an open or closed heart, and another about the “every woman’s complex relationship with food.” Both of these posts articulated challenges that are well known to me. Beth shares openly about her failures, her lifestyle, and her business. 

On her blog, Beth describes her jewelry business this way: 

wild west spirit meets far east design :: handmade silver jewelry connecting people through simple beauty, pure craftsmanship, and common stories

On her Etsy shop, the banner says, Stories in Metal. Primarily, her work is making silver charms, mostly out of PMC, and some also in sterling.  Each carved and cast charm has a picture on it that symbolizes a part of the life force – those are my words, not Beth’s, but I think that’s the idea.  Here are a few of the charms that speak to me. The photos and the descriptive text are borrowed from Beth’s Etsy shop, with her permission. 

Prana, mighty life force and healer, come swim next to me in the borderland. Open my body to spaciousness and touch the places that hurt so as to lead me back to the sound of myself — the feeling that sings without knowing why.

Hummingbirds draw on the essence of flowers, extract sweetness from life, and show us the way to find joy in any situation. They are a symbol for celebrating a life fulfilled as well as losses in the form of loved ones and dreams. Deeply woven into the mythology of the Americas, hummingbirds are often considered tiny messengers between worlds, helping shamans keep the balance between spirit and nature.

A tree of life “to evoke the earth’s healing powers of creation, nourishment, and protection” and matched with wire wrapped gemstones in the colors of the seasons. 

Beth sells the charms individually and also uses them in lovely, luscious pieces of jewelry.  She makes some to sell (like the tree of life above), some on request from customers, and this year, she is building herself an “heirloom memory necklace.” Each month of 2010, she is adding something(s)to a necklace that remind her of that month.  I can’t imagine the time she is investing to write and draw and think about her life so beautifully and intentionally.  This is what her necklace looked like at the end of May 2010.

I can’t wait to see where it goes, and I LOVE reading what Beth writes each month about her process.  

As you might imagine, I am very drawn to this whole idea. Poetry in jewelry – that’s an interesting juxtaposition for me, as I feel that my poet self coming back alive but in a different medium.  I love the idea of making necklaces of this type as gifts.  And for myself, I could make a birthday necklace and add something each year.  Or, I could start a necklace now which I could continue to build until I am 50.  It would be a piece that represented the period of my life between ages 45 – 50 in which I feel I am re-birthing myself, or revising myself, or transforming in some powerful way (I don’t have the words yet – maybe something visual will help.)

If I got myself a birthday present from Hint this year, I think I would start with the Tree of Life.  . . . I would certainly add something glass that I have made, and something beaded.  Fun to think about.

I also want to hold Hint in my mind as a model of business.  I noticed that Beth gives away 10% of her sales to a different “good cause” each month, something that I did when I started my Etsy store.  I also wonder if I will find a way to bring meaning to the beauty that I am learning to create in glass.  I’ve thought about it, and sometimes certain ideas come up.  I think I’m getting closer that that ideal, but I know I will have to stay open to the desire and put the time in to really tease it out.  That’s a very good goal, and Hint is an excellent example. 

I can’t believe I forgot to include this bit of news in my Report Card: May:  lo and behold on Artfire is now open! 

Isabel took my new camera and did a beautiful job photographing my bracelets, so they are now available for online sale.  I will be adding my glass items soon.   Take a look:  www.lisaoram.artfire.com. 

And guess, what?  I have 500 bubble padded mailing envelopes to safely ship these beauties to new homes!  How’s that for optimism? 

I have lots more to list in the shop, but still, 500 mailers seems like a lifetime supply.  What do you think?  Prove me wrong! 

I live in a college town and today was the last day of classes. Finals coming up for the students, but not for me!  No exams in my personal fake graduate school. 

Classes:

• Three days in Austin, TX for classes with Jill Symons and Heather Trimlett.  Wrote about it here, here and here.   Felt very welcomed by Jim and Rose of Blue Moon Glassworks.  Enjoyed the social and the solitude.  Definitely worth going. 
• Had more than a few “ahah” moments at the torch in Austin, many of which I felt impacting me immediately when I started working again at home.   Will detail this in another post. 
• Also, visited Nancy Tobey at Snow Farm and got re-inspired to take a class there in the fall.  (Plus, Nancy said she likes my blog and that was a big smile for me.  Hi Nancy!)
• Next:  I am taking a weekend class with Kristina Logan in May.
• Next:  Will continue to keep my eye open for classes with bead makers I admire. I would like to take at least one “travel class” a year.  Maybe Bead and Button next year? 
• Next:  Will also look for teaching studios in a wider driving distance. Recently discovered some interesting classes in Rochester, NY. Need to look into Boston, Worcester, CT, NYC, DC. 
• Next:  I am re-thinking the Gathering in July.  Maybe TX and NJ are enough and I could add Snow Farm. The Gathering is very expensive and long and it may be a better use of my energy to keep up steady practice on my torch and focus on getting my indoor studio set up before the fall. Plus, my mother is having surgery at the end of June and I may want to travel to Michigan to see her. 

Reading:

• Caught up on my magazine reading while on the plane to Austin: Jewelry Artist, Step-by-Step Wire, The Flow.
• Next:  Not sure.  I felt like reading was really important in the winter when I couldn’t torch.  But now that I can, I think doing is more important. 

Blogging:

• 15 posts in April.  Down from March, but still in my zone
• Learned to post from my iPhone!
• Got a new camera.  Long needed.  Can take much better photos now with little additional effort.  At some point, I will actually learn something about taking photos and they will get better still. 
• Added my blog to the BlogHer network. 
• Discovered some more “midlife bloggers.”  Will write about them soon.
• Next: My 100th post is coming up.  I think this one is number 95.  Want to mark this in some way.
• Next:  Stop writing report cards. It’s feeling tedious for me - which means it probably even more tedious to read it. 

Studio:

• Spoke with building commissioner of my town. More food for thought about how to proceed.
• Met someone in Austin who powers her torch with natural gas and an oxygen concentrator in a spare bedroom of her house.  Suddenly, that sounded very safe and comfortable and maybe like the answer to having the studio in an already finished but unused room of our basement (used to be an office that Steve and I shared). 
• Next:  Do some more computer research into oxygen concentrators and maybe look at some at Carlisle . It would be so great to find one there and drive it back in my car.  I assume the class will also use Mini CCs which will be the first time I’ve used something different than a Minor Burner.  One of the best reasons to go to the Gathering is to check out the technical vendor display. But we’ll see. 

Making:

• Heather said “A bead a day" and that’s what I’m doing.  Well, actually it’s more like an hour a day which includes 3 mini spacers for a warm up, and then usually two or three other beads. Where I used to think I worked best if I had at least a three hour block of time, I am rather liking this daily dose of glassy love. 
• Next:  Torch as much as I can.  Go where it takes me.  This is the most important thing and what I most want to do. I may stop writing altogether and post just big photos of what I make every day. 

Professional/Networking:

• Am making local connections through a group called Artisans of Western Mass. Went to one meeting. Will get myself on their website soon. 
• I had hoped to set up my Artfire store and do some selling for the Mother’s Day/Graduation gift season, but I couldn’t do it without a better camera.  I have now taken photos to list ten items and I hope to get them up by end of May.  
• Next: Going to a <free> workshop tomorrow about business and marketing for artists. 

I had a HUGE, I mean H.U.G.E day of discovery. Huge. And it came so unexpectedly.  My brain just about exploded this morning. 

I can’t even remember what I was looking at first. I made my hotel reservation for The Gathering, so maybe it was from there.  I made my hotel reservation for the  Kristina Logan class at Carlisle, so maybe it there. Maybe I was momentarily abducted by aliens. . . .I don’t know, but one way or another, I landed on a website called Mostly Glass Gallery.  And what I found there rocked my little artist-y world:  four seed bead jewelry makers, three of whom do bead crochet, on display at this very moment at SOFA in New York City, which opens tonight. 

First of all, I had never heard of SOFA, and I soon learned that the International Expositions of Sculpture Objects & Functional Art: SOFA CHICAGO and SOFA NEW YORK  are the “The World’s Foremost Fairs of Contemporary Decorative Arts & Design”  Their website describes them this way: 

At SOFA expositions, prominent international galleries and dealers present masterworks bridging the worlds of design, decorative and fine arts, showcasing the rich visual heritage of the decorative arts alongside new, innovative expressions.

So maybe I am just a babe in the woods, the last person on the block to know about the party, but I have never seen bead crochet jewelry recognized and included at such a high level.  The fourth seed bead artist used mostly freeform peyote to create stunning works of jewelry.  Undoubtedly, they are exceptional.  I have seen amazing stitched and woven seed bead sculptures, wall hangings, and fine art pieces, but it struck me as pretty unusual to find seed bead jewelry in the company of an international collection of sculpture objects and functional art.  At least I have never seen any in my limited travels. If I am naive, please point me the way to more.

But let me just get to the main point – introducing these artists to you.

Hildegund Ilkerl and Gabriele Malek:  These gals are from Austria.  Their personal website is mostly in German and I haven’t taken the time yet to read it in translation, but I did look at the pictures :)!  I think one of them is a lampworker.  Their work features bead crochet all over the place.  Some of it blows me away because it doesn’t seem that different from what I do or what I could do, and some of it blows me away because it’s what I can do but on steroids to the hundredth degree. I am using these photos without their permission, and I hope it will be OK; both the work and the images belong to them.  It looks like they often use size 15 seed beads, and I don’t have any idea how they do the flat pieces.  The third photo is a necklace. Click on the links above. Go. Treat yourself.  But come back.  There’s more to see. 

Karen Flowers:  I can’t even find a personal website for this woman. Mostly Glass Gallery says that six of her pieces are on display at SOFA – right now.  Tonight.  Do those squared have wire in them?  I want to hold that piece in my hand. 

And lastly, Mary Darwall. These beadwoven pieces were exquisite, but even more important for me, when I looked at her personal website, it looked like she and I are not so different:  she has no formal artist training, she was once a teacher, she wove her life around to art, and she loves the tiniest little beads and the process of working one bead at a time. She has an amazing eye for color. I am not trying to say that I am anywhere near as skilled or talented, but she feels to me like a model of what can be done.  Dare I say: what I might become. And look at her list of galleries.  Look at her list of shows.  The prices are high and it looks to me like she sells. I always wonder how the people behind this kind of art have the time to build an inventory, but somehow she has. One day, I will have to learn more about how she has done it.  

OK.  My day of discovery: I haven’t even started to say what I learned at my torch today. Part 2 coming in the next day or so.

I just realized that in My Own Personal Fake Graduate School, I forgot to plan vacations.  No spring break coming up?!?  No intersession between semesters?!?  I am going to need to talk with the Registrar or a Dean and get that changed.  I’m getting a little burned out – or maybe it’s because I’m writing this just before bedtime.

Classes:

• Registered for Marbles, Buttons, and Beads with Heather Trimlett at Blue Moon Glassworks in Austin, TX.  Marble class got cancelled b/c not enough enrollees.  Negotiated a day-long private class with Jill Symons instead.  So, three days of glass class coming up in April. 
• The decisions and planning and emotion around the class in Austin was so huge, it’s worth at least two bullet points. 
• Next:  I am taking a weekend class with Kristina Logan in May. I cannot imagine better preparation (Heather, Jill, Kristina) for a summer of torching.  

Reading:

• Read Blogging for Bliss and discussed it here. 
• Bought a copy of Totally Twisted.
• Next:  not sure yet.  I may go back to some of my old books like Passing the Flame to study technique.

Blogging:

• 13 posts in January, 14 posts in February, and a whopping 23 posts on March! 
• Updated my About page with a photo. Still there is a second photo I want to add.
• Next: get a new camera.  Even if it’s just another point-and-shoot.  A point and shoot is bad enough to begin with, but a broken point and shoot is just out of the question.  And constantly borrowing the camera we bought my daughter for her birthday just isn’t fair. 

Studio:

• Finally:  met with Jim, our beloved contractor and carpenter. Discussed two options:  1) moving the studio into a finished room in our basement, or 2) building a shed out back. 
• Next:  Talk to some folks in Amherst government about permits and regs relating to business space in my home.  Continue to learn about venting and torch.  Look into oxygen concentrators when I am in Austin and at Carlisle.   

Making:

• Made necklace.  New original design.  Great experience.  Very happy with resulting product. 
• Got Isabel to string a bunch of beads for bracelets so I have lots of portable projects for the plane ride to Austin (see classes above)
• Got back behind the torch for the first time since November.  Spent a few afternoons at Open Studio at Snow Farm.  Cranked up the torch in my garage.  Ran the kiln a few times.  Feels great to be back on the horse. 

• Made great progress on the elusive sphere that I long for – the marble mold!  
• Next:  Torch as much as I can.  Go where it takes me.  Be present and work hard in my classes. 

Professional/Networking:

• Finally joined the International Society of Glass Beadmakers (IGSB). 
• Registered for the IGSB Gathering in Rochester, NY in July.  I’ll be there for about four days.  I’m a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing, but what the heck.  Jumpin’ in with both feet. 
• Joined a local newly-formed group called Artisans of Western Massachusetts. Will go to my first meeting in April. 
• Got my Facebook profile updated and added Friends.  Started to use the site regularly.  Jury is still out on whether I think it’s a good thing.  But it has been fun.
• First time – I entered a contest!  Art Bead Scene Color Challenge.  They also have challenges every month, so maybe I will do another one.  Or maybe I will next send something to a publication. 
• I had hoped to set up my Artfire store and do some selling for the Mother’s Day/Graduation gift season. I know it’s a good idea, but I could not do it.  Not without a more functional camera.  I feel bad about this because I really wanted to do it.  Perhaps I can open in September for the holiday season.
• Next:  My focus is going to change over the next two months.  I am moving from winter to spring work mode which means more time at the torch, less time at the bead table.  More hands-on time, less time in books and on the computer.  I am ready to turn myself away from the hard push of self-propulsion I’ve been on for the past three months, and move toward being more open, more receiving of what I can absorb from other <real> people rather than just what I make for myself.  I feel like I can slow down a little and breathe.  It feels welcome to place myself in others’ hands for a while.  My Own Personal Fake Graduate School becomes My Own Personal Real Graduate School for just a little bit.

Health:

• I am pretty much sustaining morning water ritual.
• I am exercising moderately 2 – 3 times a week.
• Experimented with getting up early to write and exercise.  Worked OK, but I am not committed to it right now. 
• Next:  Get back to taking notes in Health Journal.

Part of the motivation for my new time management scheme is that I need an hour a day for my blog.  Since January, I have been dedicated to posting frequently, and I have to say, I get it now.  I get why it’s fun to blog. I get how it becomes a habit and a part of your life. I get how blog readers become friends. 

When I was a teacher of writing, I told my students that “the more you write, the more will you have to say.”  I was a disciple of the Natalie Goldberg, Donald Murray, National Writing Project school of thought:  writing is a practice and also a method of discovery, not just a result of learning.  

The thing is, I never really got to practice the practice myself. The closest I came is when I was in my MFA program for poetry at Sarah Lawrence College, but I never really had the time when I was a teacher, nor ironically, have I ever been very effective at keeping a journal. 

Now I get that this blog is a midlife gift to myself, one of the tools my life has been leaning toward, but which I have never quite reached.  Odd that choosing a visual art has also brought me back to my oldest and deepest love: writing. Also, since I opened a freelance writing business nearly 8 years ago, I have thought of myself as a “pen for hire.”  I can write about anything and do a decent job, but I did not ever, in that business, succeed in both earning money and writing anything I really cared about.  I did occasionally land assignments that really turned me on, but not sustainably.  I am not in the business of blogging, but I am writing for both myself and an audience and that works for me.  

All that said, I recently read Blogging for Bliss by Tara Frey.  It’s a great guide for someone starting up a blog, gives good overview information about the kinds of decisions you have to make: the technical platform, choosing a name, making a banner.  The book also provides a good blueprint for keeping a blog going:  establishing your voice, crafting photos and images, drawing traffic.  For me, one of the best parts of the book are the profiles of other bloggers that are woven into each section. Even though I think of myself as a part of the “creative blogger” community, most of the folks in the book were new to me, which meant I could also go online and hop around among them for a few – or a hundred – hours.  I guess, in reality, “the bloggers in my neighborhood” are more specifically jewelry oriented than the general crafters in the book.  Also, a big part of Tara’s interest is vintage stuff, and I am not drawn in that direction at all.

One of the puzzling things I read in Blogging For Bliss is the following statement in a chapter called “Beauty and the Blog:”  

For my own blog, I decided to take down my fancy sidebar decorations and just be me.  I’m not a plain Jane by any means, but I like things simple, casual, and elegant, whether it’s my home, my clothes, or my blog.  After making this change, readership doubled and I was getting thousands of hits a day from all over the world.

Tara shows a screenshot of her blog when it was called Bella Pink and was filled with visual froufrou, and then she shows a  shot of the “after” design for Tara Frey: Typing Out Loud.  I love the cleaner look she evolved to, but of course, that’s me – I always choose bold, colorful, and clear over frilly, fancy, and cute. But when she says her traffic doubled after the redesign, it sounds like one action caused the other.  And that can’t be.  There had to be many different factors that came together and boosted her readership like that.  And if she’s saying that readers in general like a cleaner look, I don’t get why so many of the other bloggers featured in the book are visually of the Bella Pink variety.  I mean, I agree with her:  as a reader I do not like cluttered visuals in a blog. I love striking photos, I like a design that’s cohesive, and I hate dark or black backgrounds.  Sometimes, I have liked the content in a blog whose design I hated, and unfortunately, the design wins out.  I just can’t fight the graphics to read the words.  So, I while I like the opportunity in this book to hear how other bloggers got started, chose their names, and made a blogging a part of their lives, I think you have to also look carefully at the profiles and not take each one as a good example of design. 

And now that I’ve just said all that, I’m going to try and turn a fresh eye to my own blog.  If you think there are any distracting design elements, please feel free to let me know.  I am definitely still working on it.

I am so, so, so excited – and I feel like a madwoman!

I have made a decision, and signed on the dotted line.

In April, I am putting myself on a plane and flying myself down to Austin, TX to take a three-day glass class with Heather Trimlett at Blue Moon Glassworks. Check this out:   Marbles. Buttons. Beads.  One each day.  Can you imagine anything better?

And then, in May, I am driving myself down to New Jersey and taking a two-day glass class with Kristina Logan at Carlisle School of Glass Art . Two whole days – I think the title is something like Take Your Bead Making to the Next Level. 

I am looking at five days of glass instruction and inspiration with women whose beads I love and admire, whose aesthetics feel near to my own, artists who are nationally and internationally recognized for their skill and their pioneering efforts in the bead making world. These women have fingerprints, and I’m ready to have them all over me.  They feel like mentors – not that they are going to take me under wing and become my best friend or anything, but I feel quite differently about learning from them than I did about the Italian glass master that I wrote about a few weeks ago.   I would feel nervous about taking his class – that I wasn’t good enough yet, that I’m not so interested in sculpture so maybe it’s not a good idea to spend time tinkering in it. . . .but for these two classes, I am nothing but thrilled to death!

I’m still a babe when it comes to this lampwork stuff, and taking these two classes, and even in such proximity to each other, feels like an amazing opportunity to feel as if I really was in art school.  I took two glass classes last year, and they were great, but I made the choices based on what was close by, what times worked, basically, what was simplest.  But now, I am making decisions with intention and direction.  And apparently, I’m willing to go far to get what I think I need to become the artist I want to be!   These five days are going to fuel me for the rest of the year.

Two months in a row – that’s what makes me feel like a madwoman.  This is where the “middle age, midlife” thing comes into play.  I am leaving my family, spending money, and doing something for. my. self. And it makes me just want to grin from ear to ear. 

But it’s not even totally for myself.  Or rather, it’s not like it’s just spending five days by myself on a beach in the Caribbean (but that wouldn’t be so bad either).  I’m trying to build a new business.  A creative business. The creative business that I did not manage to build from my writing skills.  Until now, I’ve made almost all the decisions about my work life around what would keep me most flexible and available for my job as a mother.  I gave things up.  Sometimes knowingly, and sometimes not so much.  I don’t regret that I did, but now, I want a work life that nurtures me, and I know that flying to Austin, TX is part of what it will take to make that happen.  And other people will give things up, for me.

So, why does it make me feel like a madwoman?  I think it happens to a lot of women and a lot of moms.  We lose ourselves along the way – sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.  If you had asked me when I got married if I would “lose myself” in motherhood, I would have laughed in your face. I was in my early thirties, I was a strong feminist, a deep thinker, a woman of ideas and integrity.  I knew what I wanted and what I didn’t. But ya know, it didn’t go as smoothly as I expected.  I’m certainly not the first for whom that is true. 

When I told my a local friend about my plan for Austin, and said that I felt like a madwoman, she looked at me and said, “I need to find my madness.”  She is a creative soul, and she knew exactly what I was talking about.  And she will find her madness, I know. It’s part of how and why we are friends. 

The more I make choices that make me feel like a madwoman, the sooner those kinds of choices will be the “new normal” and not madness at all. 

P.S.  Come back to tomorrow.  I’m giving out presents to celebrate my madness!

My daughter Isabel reached into the hat and pulled out a name: 

Adrienne Campbell  - Yeah!  You won the surprise giveaway.

My daughter Rachel reached into the hat and pulled out a name: 

Kate from Organic Odysseys – Yeah!  You won a bead crochet bracelet. 

Please get in touch, and we’ll work out the details.  If the bracelet I originally posted isn’t the right size or color, there are lots of options. 

Special thanks, too, to everyone who entered by adding my RSS feed to your blog reader.   The best part (for me) is that hopefully we’ll stay connected and a bloggy friendship will grow.  

This was the first give-away I’ve done on my blog, and I liked it!  I want to do it more; I’m thinking maybe once a month.   One blog I follow, The Vintage Pearl, gives things away all the time, and I love the spirit behind it . She says, “Let’s give one away!” and I hear the generosity and fun in her voice.  I’ll take her as my model. 

And, I’ve been reading about all that One World One Heart stuff. WOW!  I thought about participating in the event, but it seemed overwhelming.  Next year, though.  Talk about giveaways! 

Happy Tuesday!  

When I indulge, it’s usually chocolate or sleeping (remember that recent post about health), but today I stumbled onto Indulge, a jewelry marketplace at the Bellevue Museum of Arts in the Seattle area.  Now there’s an exciting idea:  indulge myself by buying jewelry! 

Indulge is a weekend show this coming February 5, 6, and 7, featuring 30 jewelers from around the country.  Check out this link for easy access to photographs from each participating artist.  I recognized Lulu Smith, Rona Sarvas Weltman, and Susan Chin.   And here are some folks who are new to me and who I would like to see more of:

This ring by Anat Basanta really caught my eye.

And then I discovered that she has a line of neverending necklaces.   The no-clasp-slip-over-the-head design is also something I do with my bead crochet necklaces.  I love that it allows the wearer to choose and change what part of the design is centered.

This work by Alison Mackey below looked similar to what Lulu Smith does with resin.  Turns out, the color comes from photographs of nature taken by the artist and then incorporated into the jewelry – very cool.  I really like the organic and whimsical sterling silver shapes.

Now, here’s the really interesting thing (to me, at least).  I did not see any jewelry made from glass, or more exactly from handmade glass beads.  Nothing like what I want to do.  I saw one person who did use some clear Pyrex components.   Chihiro Makio, whose work is pictured below, studied glass, but most of her work is metallic with some crystals, and as shown here, what she describes as glass beads that are hand sewn onto the pieces.

So, what I figure is that what I am trying to do is either really original, really old and overdone, or really impossible to do profitably.  I’ll just have to keep going and find out which it is.