Piecrust and Coasters

OK, Yesterday was a physical challenge. Today is recovery day (physical) and payback. As it is Sunday, I am using the day to prepare for the weeks creative endeavors, preparing some of the supplies and meetings of artists and meetings of minds, as well as a few other personal preps. It is a pretty autumn day so it is a perfect day to do some mental prep for the coming changes of season and the shortening of the days. 

I took a short walk up hill to bring a deserving neighbor a home-made peach pie. Is pie baking an art? Lora Hott, an old friend of mine in Virginia Beach, Virginia, once scolded me years ago when I made a pie that had messy untrimmed edges. She asked why I put so much effort in making delicious pies (peeling fresh fruit, getting the best ingredients, going through all the effort of making a good pie) and making an ugly crust? Her point, it is in the small details that we see the beauty of things. The Shaker societies saw this, and certainly computer programmers can understand this, as well as Haiku writers! 

Carole (wonderful neighbor) and I are embarking on a little art project this week. We are also using up some of my junk. I have a lot of old tiles laying around here (kitchen, bathroom and hallway project extras, does this woman ever throw anything out?), pieces of cork left over from a map project Jesse (my son) made about 10 years ago that I couldn't throw away (it was just too useful looking) and some glass (that is new) and Carole will be donating wood pieces that come from Ray's workshop (I think woodworkers always save little precious treasure of pieces of wood that they will use someday) and Ray's labor (he doesn't know about this part yet) we will tell him later when we get to that part. Long story made short, on Wednesday we are experimenting with Lazertran Inkjet decal waterslide paper. This is cool new stuff and I, of course, bought the whole professional packet about 6 months ago and have never opened it. When Carole came back from Africa a couple of months ago (Ray and Carole's son is in the Peace Corp in Namibia) with awesome photographs she realized she just had to do something fabulous with them, hence our coaster project.  We will print, then transfer her photographs onto tiles, back them with cork, then have Ray make awesome coaster holders out of wood for them and she will have really great Christmas presents for her family ( I will have some too). One project down. One thousand more to go. And I have a great idea for the birch bark...maybe I can start on that this week as well......

Another Kind of Design

Garden design was the art of the day.  Fred and I had to do some work on the front of the house, to create a new driveway to allow an easier way for my mom to get in and out of the house so we simply removed half of a mountain and added a driveway then we added a double row of used railroad ties and back filled with some mulch and good top soil. So how does this work with the philosophy that I wrote about yesterday? Really well. I found the mulch by reading my local newspaper, the Canyon Courier, and noted that they give away mulch when they shred unwanted trees, you just have to wait until they have a job in your neighborhood  (I only waited 2 days), the used railroad ties were free from a friend who was having them replaced and they were going to be thrown away, and the mountain was removed professionally because I don't own any heavy equipment!

Some of what I had to do cost me a lot of money, but that is the nature of the game. This was a big job, a long driveway (over 200 feet) and to make it accessible for a 95 year old person means wide (think ambulance width) and flat. Permits, all that stuff. To make it attractive cost a lot less. By using recycled railroad ties, recycled rebar, free mulch,  and a little creativity it will look awesome! When we had the driveway dug out Fred dug up a lot of the small pine trees, today he replanted them. I am dividing a lot of my old plants and transplanting them, one of the most time honored gardener's ways of making a wonderful garden. The other way is dividing and sharing plants-which is what I want to do next. I really need some hen's and chicks... hint, hint! Now to take our tired bodies to bed and to much needed rest!

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!