New & custom work

Just a few new recently finished items, including some pieces for a custom order which included several large pendants.

Turquoise nugget with a faceted accent, sterling silver (custom).

Woven sterling and Blackstone leaf (new).

Labradorite and sterling (custom).

Cubic Zirconia in sterling silver (new).

Amazonite with faceted accent in sterling (custom).

Stuff

I have been pondering the issue of "stuff" lately.

The fact of the matter is that "stuff", also called clutter or piles of junk, drives me nuts. I've gone through some laissez-faire periods where it didn't seem to get to me at all, but lately, the last few months, wow. It's just chewing away at my psyche. The question then became "why?".

After some work on the problem, not the actual piles themselves since most piles in this place actually belong to other family members, I concluded the following about the stuff or the everyday detritus of living:

• it is sucking the energy right out of me
  
• it looks like chaos and it feels like chaos to look at it
• it holds real negative emotions
• it can be overwhelming

The reality of stuff is that it makes the spaces of out lives messy, it does look chaotic, and get enough of it, it does overwhelm. When it is not all one's own mess, there is a loss of control. I can't simply start tossing all the non-garbage items that belong to family members. I might want to, but there simply isn't any way to successfully dump the stuff without a lot of "loss" occuring for the other persons. It is only out of sensitivity to them that I haven't and don't.

The stuff also gets to a point of representing a series of negatives in our lives. Failed efforts, or lessons learned, depending on perspective, and since we aren't likely to repeat the mistakes that lead to the lesson, why do we need the reminders piled up around us? Failed relationships, failed business, failed ideas... pick a "failure" and there is likely stuff that documents it in some way or another. Do we really need another reminder?

Stuff has come to represent distraction, lack of enthusiasm, sadness and even decay. It's time to tackle the messes.... Stuff can hold us back and down just as easily as any real physical restraints can.
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Regret

“Many of us crucify ourselves between two thieves - regret for the past and fear of the future.” - Fulton Oursler

Fear gets us no thing and no one. Fear creates the regrets through inaction or reduced effort.

I've been thinking a lot about fear and regret lately, evaluating it in my own life and examining the limitations that it has placed on me and my life and work. It is absolutely without doubt, that every regret that I have for the past is related to a fear. I said "yes" when I would have rather said "no" or "no" for "yes", or didn't even commit in some cases.

Late last year, I decided that I wasn't going to live with regret anymore, that if I could prevent one, I would. It takes a bit of courage to try this because every decision requires facing our fear of "what if..." It's downright uncomfortable at times.

Something else to note, is that by taking the time to examine our field of regrets, we often find a lot of buried dreams. Some of them need to dug out, dusted off, and used as motivators, others need to be discarded as nothing other than passing fancy. Also, in this field, are a lot of fear based reasons for why we are perhaps not as happy or fulfilled as we would like, and like myself, you my discover why it has been so difficult to apply the words art and artist to your own work and being.

Good luck with the exhumations.
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Winter Pix

Winter has never been my favorite season. The damp-cold gets me as it sets off the Raynaud's Syndrome or Phenomena that I've experienced for 25 years. The effects include sudden numbness or pain combined with a complete lack of circulation in my hands and feet. It's not pretty when they go funny colours but it's a cool way to freak people out. I try to avoid exposure to temperature extreme's this time of year and stay indoors, but then I can miss out on a lot too.

There was a light dusting of snow last evening. The dark red sumac blossoms still held the fluff.

Beautifully formed snow crystals, large and glistening.

The fir limbs held the snow as if it were angel hair, while the snowshoe hares traced paths hither and yon.

Sunlight streamed through the woods casting light and shadow on the old beech tree. The young beech will try to hold their fall colours till spring.

A little Chickadee, New Brunswick's provincial bird, makes its stand on a seed laden table.

A red squirrel, a favorite wild pest, that can be coaxed to be quite brave when they know that there is a regular food supply, especially if it involves peanut butter. We call all reds by the name 'George' after a red-headed friend we had. The human George could be equally entertaining.

Winter really can be quite lovely as evidenced by this photo with warm pastel colours from the sun washing across the snow.

Winter ice has the ability to cast an ethereal effect on trees.

Year in review

to be cliche' about the whole thing....

2008 was interesting to say the least, and there are moments when I wonder if I have been cursed: May you live in interesting times.

We've gone from knowing nearly nothing about David's back problems a little over a year ago to having a grip on the problem within the last couple of months. That's progress. And despite the 'back' he managed to rebuild a car this summer and fall, took longer than he wanted because he got laid up with the 'back' a lot more than planned, but he proved it to me and more importantly, to himself, that it could still be done.

I mentioned in an earlier post about "recycling problems", people and issues that keep coming round, well, had my share of those this year. Here's two: One problem taught me what I didn't want in a business, which also solved another part of the problem, how I really feel about the person involved. Another one, which I thought I had tucked neatly into a box, nicely tied with a ribbon, hidden in the nether regions of my closet (figuratively speaking of course) managed to untie the box from the inside and turn the entire place upside down. I'm still coming to terms with this, but just know that some people will keep coming back, and that's OK when you really like them, and the key seems to be finding a way to let them back into your life even when you didn't really think there was a hope in hell of having them fit in. Not easy, but potentially rewarding.

I realized that I am not ready to go back into a structured wholesale marketplace with a product line specifically for that purpose. I bristle. I learned that I really really enjoy working with shops that want to select from already created one-off items. Now that's rewarding.

I discovered that I am knowledgeable enough about what I do to be able to teach it and make it enjoyable and successful for 99% of the participants and that there is always going to one person who is such a perfectionist that not being able to learn a complex concept in less than 10 minutes is really going to cheese them off, and it won't matter what I do, they will already have decided that it isn't worth doing. Their loss, and there is a reason why the classes are more than 2 hours long.

Also, overcame my hesitation for public speaking too. Rather beneficial when you start to teach really.

I learned that political discussions, in which I have strong opinions, that I can nearly come to blows with post-retirement age Canadian ladies who spend 6 months of their year in California. This clue to some of my hot buttons was intriguing and for goodness sake don't get me started on Afghanistan vs. The Iraq War.

I have finally, with a modicum of grace, accepted and adopted the title of artist, and am happily tagging the word instructor along behind it. It fits and it more easily defines what my objectives really are. Which reminds me, I have a rejection call to make to a business association, they don't fit me.

Also figured out a way to make custom work enjoyable. Bring your camera and document the discussion with photographs of the items they like. Make specific statements: so what you really want is this stone in that setting! When someone says "well, you know what I want based on my description", say "NO" and then make them draw it until it becomes clear what is wanted. That puts some of the excitement back into the work and takes some of the fear and ego out of it.

The good news of the year is that David is just about ready to return to the studio, I am looking forward to that because his work was evolving nicely and he seemed to be finding his niche until the 'back' took him on another track for awhile. After 18 months, he's a bit rusty, but a bit of sandpaper and a new coat of paint :D he'll be fine.

Cheers & hope that your 2008 was happy and that 2009 is brighter than the national papers predict.

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Show Season update

We have been enjoying the rush and excitement of the Christmas Arts/Crafts Shows in the region for the past couple of weekends.

The Prince Edward Island Crafts Council provided and exceptional show at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown. The entire team, all PEICC members, that worked on the show were very warm and welcoming. It was a delight to back on the island after not having been there for several years.

In Halifax, we had an outstanding show at Pier 23, the home of the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council's Christmas Market, again, beautifully organized and produced with outstanding results.

Thanks to everyone, including our regular and new clients who helped make these enjoyable events.

BTW, the music was relatively good both places.

We have three smaller one day events coming up, a 'men's night' at Viktor's Blue Rose Salon in Woodstock on Thursday, a sale at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre on Saturday and then back to Viktor's on the 6th, whereupon we will depart for Ottawa and The Originals Show for the 11th-21st of December. I am looking forward to Ottawa this year. The booth location is in the first isle towards the upper end. Our new booth design which we tested in the spring and has worked well for us at the Council shows should be ideal for this venue. We are also looking forward to reconnecting with old friends in the area and remeeting so many of the fabulous folks from last year's shows.

See you there!

Patterns and Colour

The late fall offers a range of patterns and colours that can be easily missed in the more flamboyant early fall and the garish summer.

This morning is a brisk, but not cold, overcast day, one that compelled a walk with camera in hand for a close look at small beauties.

Tiny cups and saucers are suggested by some of the fungus and the colours of quickly approaching Christmas in the other.

The growth on this decaying log seems to suggest that there is a whole micro-cosmic world of possibility in the small forest. For the insects that run rampant through it on warmer days, I am sure there is the same quest for food and shelter, lust and love, a battle of wills and stories of battles and survival that haunt our larger human world.

Bark always presents interesting colour and patterns and this is of a hole started by Pileated woodpeckers in a large hemlock. It has beat away the heavy bark layer and is now starting to peck away at the wood underneath. This is fresh activity because the wood is still very bright. The woodpeckers hunt for ants and other boring insects.

The slender branches of the wild cinnamon roses are a deep red and the leaves are surprisingly still on the bush, perhaps only now for a few more short days.

Fungi are perhaps some of the most interesting things to be examined. I particularly enjoyed this one that was growing on an old beech tree stump.


It is a banded and cascading thing of subtle beauty.

And perhaps the loveliest of the late fall blooms is the spidery yellow of the Witch Hazel. It waits in ordinary green leaves for the entire summer, and fades to autumn brown before breaking into a dynamic show after the first hard frost.

The hazel is like some people, it must first grow, and appear bland, then with the cruelty of life, the hardening in cold times, they burst open, blooming, exposing themselves for their real self. Colourful but hardy even if delicate in appearance.

For other images from today: http://www.mboot.net/imagetest.htm

© Cynthia Ryder 2008

Fun With O-rings

Once in awhile there is a custom order that really is fun to work on. There is both enough guidance and enough freedom to play and experiment and it is different enough that it shows new possibilities in other items.

Frankly I am not much of a chain person, but I like this one, nice large 18 gauge square wire for the links. It has a nice smooth feel to it. Alternating links have been oxidized creating a soft grey-black effect in the links. The somewhat too tightly linked weave that served as a prototype is my new bracelet. I really like the weight of it.



I have been making these knotted fine gauge sterling silver spheres for a couple of years now as those of you that follow my work know. As above I am back to figuring out a series a links to bring these time consuming little monsters, measuring 8-10 mm each, together into a chain. I am also a hardware/automotive store shopper in that there are good tools that can modified for the bench, and various bits of hardware that are really cool to look at. Bought an O-ring kit sometime in the past year and the a-ha moment happened...



And of course, the left-over rings from the first project had to be used somewhere and the mid-sized O-rings are just so tempting and combined with hematite, both open-eye linked across the O-rings and caged... great earrings.

Enjoy!
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© Cynthia Ryder 2008
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