A Little and A Lot

For a designer of jewelry to create, it is always about the little details. For the bead maker in me it is about the excess! For the artist in me it is about everything! For those of you who know me I am all about the details, sometimes, actually all of the time, I can't see the forest for the trees. There is usually so much stuff around here that I can't get much done, I have to have it all out all of the time, out to visually assault me and remind me of what I want to do with it. 

An example: at least 10 years ago (I am lying to myself, it has to be more like 20 years ago) I collected some awesome bark from some downed birch trees in upstate N.Y. My friends Mary and Rick Bright have this great place on Schroon Lake and they let me strip the bark off of their fire wood one summer. Well, this stuff has been moved from N.Y to Colorado and many places in-between because I just couldn't bear to part with it. It must have some use, right? Well, it was in boxes so I forgot about it. Awesome, patient, husband Fred finally said, "Gin can we finally throw this garbage out?".....I replied, just wait, put it in the studio and I will think about it.

Anyway, as you know very well the stock market is tumbling, prices of gas are through the roof and now you are wondering if I need some new medication or something to help me focus! Well, it does all come together. Most of my friends are artists, and most of us suffer from the same disease called MAD (Multiple Artist's Disorder), the symptoms of MAD are that we collect cool things and fill our homes and caves with all kinds of stuff that may have some kind of art use some day. Like my birch bark. 

My goal is to use up a lot of this stuff and to tell you about it. Then to have you tell me about your stuff. We will inspire each other-and not spend a lot of money making our art. I have a studio full of beautiful glass (because I am mostly a glass artist), glass casting stuff (because I always wanted to do more glass casting), jewelry making stuff (mostly silver) and assorted stones (nothing like fine diamonds, but some interesting dinosaur bones and such, and I like to use scrabble tiles and odd stuff from the FIRST depression...)I live in an interesting state with some interesting dinosaur and stone hunting places, where you live may be near a mine, or an urban place with some neat junk someone else can use...

One more thing. Please be nice. I think the world is an awesome place and that there are some wonderful people in it. I would like to hear more about the good things. I will be blogging about some great things/people and charities I know about. I am a very lucky person, I live in beautiful Evergreen, Colorado, my 95 year old (artist/painter)mother lives with my husband and me, I have a great son and daughter in law who live in Washington State (Jesse is an engineer and she is a scientist who is working on a cure for stomach cancer, way to go Laura!), and I help a couple of charities you will learn about if you want to continue to read my blog.

Coming soon, making jewelry for the wild animal sanctuary!