Monthly Archives: August 2022

.5″ x 1″, found objects

We held a Harry Potter-themed birthday party yesterday, complete with some very yellow and gingery good luck potions.  That was all happening outside, while in the kitchen I had the makings for my favorite late-summer potion: fresh peach sauce.   I got a big basket of juicy, over-ripe peaches from the local farmer’s market and eyed them (and ate them) until I had time to cut them up and cook them down into the sweetest, tastiest sauce ever.  I have it cooling in jars now, but have already devoured almost a whole jar.  This pendant includes a shape that reminds me of the vials that Harry Potter and his friends store their potions in.  Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a necklace with an ever-ready drink of peach sauce waiting for me to get hungry?

1″ x 2″, found objects

My studio is a jumble, and my calendar is a jumble, with bits and pieces of the too-many projects that I would like to finish before the school year begins all spread out over my surfaces. Some have actual deadlines, and others have drifted to the top of my list only to make room for the projects that are already on my calendar for the fall.  I tried hard to sit down today to make a sophisticated pendant, but what came out was a jumble.  I suppose it only makes sense.  I listened to a podcast today about how our gut microbiome is intimately connected to our mental health.  I think the navigability of my studio is intimately connected to my artistic health.

1″x 1.5″,  glass

Why is it that we always talk bout downward spirals and not about upward spirals?  I understand the physics of it, but emotionally, I think I’m ready to notice some upward spirals.  It seems like the summer workload is slowing down a bit, and there’s room for a bit of spiraling into learning and making and relaxing.  The heatwave broke this week and the air is finally brisk again. Maybe, for the first time ever, September and October will feel like an upward spiral into fall instead of a downward spiral into winter.

1″x 2″, glass and steel

One of the things I love about my plasma cutter is the sputter it makes as the steel melts and bubbles before being blown away. These little treasures are cut-offs from a lantern that I’m making. You can see the metal that bubbled and dripped before cooling. I added cool colored glass to counter the heat implied by the metal and to add some sharp edges to the smooth melted steel.