Surprises in the Mail and Plans in the Making

It's been an interesting month since I returned from my trip to Maine.

I hit the ground running in my shop with a backlog of custom orders and what turned out to be a record breaking amount of components going out of my shop.

I was in full production mode as I knew I was going to be shutting down for all of October and partway into November. I did happen to let a few of my regular customers know it so that may have accounted for some of the rush.

I've had some interesting mail days with surprises from some very nice people.

This beautiful postcard made by Marcia Dunne from

thealternativefoundry

showed up with this lovely snack pack of goodies. What's even more amazing is that it went to our address in Arizona first and got forwarded to me here in Alaska!

here's an example of Marcia's work 

(with some nice scorchedearthonetsy pieces used to quite an advantage))

and then I got these in a trade that I didn't know was a trade when I sent some headpins to Deborah of Tribalis to try out. This design knocks me out in its grace and rustic simplicity. She has more to sell too in her shop.

Check out her blog too.

And then Priscilla Moore of ReadBetweenTheLines was decommissioning some consignment pieces that she had recently gotten back and was GIVING these away! I spoke up quickly.

http://betweenreader.blogspot.com/

I literally only had a handful of beads left to sell at my next two shows, one of which is an actual bead show so I had to get busy and devote some time to some pieces I would not list in my shop.

Fortunately my next show is one that I can resell beads at too so there will be some other things to fill out the table. Oh, and I do hope some will be tempted to buy some of my jewelry too.

I had some little copper tube beads that I enameled. They are a little sharp edged for stringing and I'm not sure if I could command the price I need to make for these little numbers.  A buck a bead? what do you think?

I'm finding that the salmon leather and copper enamel are a winning combination especially for Alaskans apparently.

I thought I would show you one of my focal beads that I  have saved out as it is one of my favorites. I'm thinking of branching back out into making more of these. Focals used to be my primary focus in beadmaking. I kind of miss it.

And now I'm about to embark on my epic travel starting with a 300 mile trip to sell at a bead show in Anchorage and flying through the night to the east coast to meet up with my sister who I talked into attending Art Is You art retreat in CT. I'll be taking five days of classes with some of the biggies in mixed media like Michael DeMeng, Seth Apter, Cat Kerr and Richard Salley hoping to play a bit with the mixed media which I just haven't seemed to have much time for  in trying to keep my shop stocked.

I hope to pick up a few skills in soldering and metalwork too.

I also talked my sister into manning my table that will be set up for a day in hopes of introducing my work to some new folks.

After that I'm flying to Ohio to meet up with my husband who is driving up from Arizona and get to meet Ms. LoveRoot herself - Nikki Zehler on her birthday, no less!

Then it's off to check out my husband's old family cottage which he managed to re-acquire recently in Michigan and have a little reunion with his two sisters. 

Off to drive to Maine from there and have another visit with my family again and then simply drive back to Arizona with the intent of visiting and meeting a few more folks along the way like polymer clay guru Ginger Davis Allman of The Blue Bottle Tree and the illustrious Janet of AnvilArtifacts

We should be back in Arizona by the second week of November or thereabouts where I will be getting back in the mode in my Bisbee studio.  I do hope to be filling you in along the way with some tidbits from my road trip.

I did a post today over at LoveMyArtJewelry today too  discussing frit and some of its uses. Stop on by.

Until later, CIAO!

Kim

Kristi Bowman Wonky Bead Blog Hop

 I don't usually participate in these sort of challenges but I was intrigued with the beads that Kristi Bowman had made up and one of the requirements for purchasing was to use them  for this blog hop.

Doubling the challenge for me was that this was out of my color comfort zone added to the fact that designing with chunky beads was outside of my comfort zone as well. I also had never designed using primarily polymer beads.

I went strait to work as soon as I had the beads in my hand and had this necklace finished the same day as I knew that I wouldn't have the time during or after my trip back east.

I had some really nice WondrousStrange ceramic shell disc pieces that were screaming to be included.

Also a wonderful Shipwreck Dandy faceted polymer piece that was perfect in it's gemlike splendor to balance out the chunk and funk. 

Let's see yes I had some  numinositybeads mini criffles of my own that were hanging about. This necklace was making itself! 

With a ragged worm tube remnant for which to dangle as a focal piece and then accented by some faceted turquoise rondelles and a few red Tibetan mala bead to finish it off, I was quite pleased.

I'm not accustomed to wiring pieces together so this has a stiffer design than most of my necklaces.

I just had to give you a close up of the faceted polymer bead. I just love it!

My Dear Dad

 An unexpected turn of events occurred on my Maine vacation visit to see the family. I just couldn't wait until October as I had planned to meet my newest nephew and spend time with my brother and his family visiting from Bali. With a wedding in Alaska that was smack dab in the middle of the month of August and my husband being away at the beginning of August I was delighted to find a halfway reasonable ticket the day after the wedding to the east coast. In my haste I had forgotten that my older brother and wife had already "booked" a visit at our family camp and I felt a bit guilty for totally overlapping their visit but they were quick to let me know that I was welcome to be there at the same time.

My son had been back for a visit early on in the summer because he had a strong calling to be around his grandparents as we all have had it in the back of our minds that it could be a last visit.

My father, Raymond Rogers was a cancer survivor for over 30 years. We almost lost him when I was in my 20's before he had any grandchildren at all.

There were several episodes in which I just happened to be visiting that he experience various health crises, the most major one being a massive heart attack on the very last hours of a visit to our new home in Arizona 4 years ago.  I was able to care for my mom in the sunniest and warmest of places while he had his quadruple bypass and subsequent aftercare. How convenient!

He is a survivor through and through and has bounced back remarkably from many more tentative health crises.

The week I was here he was doing better than any of us had seen him in past years but the lack of mobility and ability to really do much of anything was wearing on him I know for sure.

Tuesday night my one brother and family and I took off for a facebook friend meetup on a glorious Maine coast day allowing for my other brother and his wife to enjoy a little less crowded time with the folks. My eldest brother is extremely busy as the chancellor of the University of Alaska and has to carve out precious time to visit with family.

Several friends and neighbors had stopped in to visit that day and my dad enjoyed it very much.

We had a wonderful dinner with Alaskan salmon grilled  by my brother and blueberry salsa lovingly prepared by my sister in law and a rare home baked blueberry pie that my mother cooked. She'd given up on baking desserts years ago. I had made a huge jar of kimchee at my brother Dan's request which my dad bravely tried even though he didn't normally like spicy food he actually enjoyed it.

I gave him a little extra helping of pie and got to sit next to him at dinner.

After dinner the folks settled down into the other cottage which is yards away from our original family cottage and were watching an old Sean Connery movie. We stopped in and sat with them and I went back to the other cottage and within several minutes I heard my brother shouting that something was happening to dad. It seemed he had just kind of keeled over and I was there in time to witness his last few breaths while my older brothers brothers heroically did hundreds of chest compressions and mouth to mouth until the EMT's showed up. And because my folks neglected to bring the Do Not Resuscitate order with them from their winter home the EMT's were obligated to work on him for another 20 minutes by state law.

I was able to hold his head in my hands and comfort my mother and my dear sweet father passed away with Three of his five children and daughter in law and wife of 65 years were present in the room when he died..

We made a circle around him and held hands for some silent reflection.

Since he passed my two sisters have arrived and there is not one of us that is not comforted and uplifted by the manner and timing in which he orchestrated his exit from this earthly plane.

There were several signs before and after that some of us experienced in the form of unique animal appearances and dreams that have made the experience so much more numinous.

The very next morning after his death we were standing outside in a circle and my little 15 month old nephew from Bali began waving and beaming as if someone was standing in the gap in the circle where no one was standing and  then he pointed to the sky. He repeated that again later on, pointing at the other cottage and waving, then pointing to the sky.

I needed to chill out the the same morning having a few moments of quiet reflection overlooking the bay after the adrenaline filled and fairly sleepless night, closing my eyes and allowing a few tears. When I opened my eyes from the half reclined position, a perfect bald eagle soared across my field of vision.

 He was a dear sweet gentle and loving man and I feel that I got the gift of being able to say goodbye to him these last four years and bathe in his lovingness and care as well as being able to have the chance to let him know how much I cared for him. Who can ask for more?

His passing not a tragedy but a blessing and he will be missed by so many.

We're so grateful that he didn't have to endure any more hospital and doctors visits and that he passed peacefully in his own home surrounded by so many that cared about him.

 

In his classic style he made sure he was ahead of me in cribbage this week, 3 games to one, skunking me the first game! 

And he had ordered us all a lobster dinner in advance from the local lobsterman that uses our property as access to the bay which the lobsterman graciously gifted us the order of six lobsters that we ate in his honor that next night.

 

Here is a picture of us from that last meal we had together.

I'll be heading back to Alaska on Wednesday and then have a busy month ahead of me trying to get ready for several shows, an art retreat, trip back east again and our yearly migration south.

XOXO Kim

What would you do with 27 orphan headpins?

This giveaway is closed now and the winner that was picked by the random number generator  is The lucky Cynthia of Beatnheart!

I think it's her lucky day as she was just featured on the front page of Polymer Clay Daily today too!

Thank you all for your many great ideas, comments and enthusiasm for orphan headpins.

Some Summer

Things are smokin' around here.... quite literally.

It has been one mostly hot and dry summer here in Interior Alaska.

I have probably had more time to sit down and have some solid studio time with large chunks of alone time this summer

It was kind of cold at the beginning of the season but it went from winter to full on summer in a matter of weeks. ( That's me trying to keep warm at the farmer's market)

Enjoying new drink concoctions in the late night sun.

Mate infused vodka with pandanus leaf flavoring.

( Asian meets South American fusion)

Lolling about on the lawn

Smoking fresh caught salmon

Seeing my honey and my son off on their archaeology expedition

Cass-man, my son... yeah I have a 30 year old son now!

A  Hay-lo

Making lots of crusty beads

and a focal bead or two

Glimmer daggers

Unreal orange crush fruit loops Tang nuggets

criffling along

and then some torch fired enameling

I was very excited with the results of this combination

Shiny ridgies

Crusty ridgies

crusty focal

Misbehaving beads that were taught a lesson

and just a few headpins

I had been feeling like I had been blogging more than I actually did here. That's because I had been blogging over at Love My Art Jewelry Blog a few times and maybe I just ran out of time with things to say here  but here's what you may have missed from me.

30 Beads Later

Not Enough Headpins

A Good day To Thanks Your Hands

Now it's going to be the busiest week ever with my stepson getting married and we're hosting the reception for 100 or so at our place and the very next day I fly off to Maine to visit with my folks and my brother from Bali with his family.

So sorry if I haven't been visiting and commenting on your fine blogs, I've been a bit of a lurker lately.

Ciao for now, Kim