Poetry

I don't think other people are as enthralled with poetry as I am. I come by it naturally. My dad was a ring-tailed tooter at memorizing a rousing poem. He could recite "The Charge of the Light Brigade" at the drop of a hat. There was another one about Darius Green and his flying machine he did for me many times, and I need to find it again. He didn't memorize to please some teacher or get extra credit; that's for sure. I treasure his 8th grade English book. The pages are thick with Donald Duck comics of the era pasted over the pages he was supposed to study. When I read Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams (insert dozens of others here), I want to absorb those words, to savor them, to make them a part of my own worldview. It's not just serious poetry either. On this bracelet I put one of my Ogden Nash faves:
The Panther
Should you behold a panther crouch
Prepare to say ouch!
Better yet
If called by a panther
Don't anther!

Craft Fair Philosophy

Yesterday I watched a first-time craft fair vendor. Her booth was well-designed, her product was plentiful,eco-friendly and cool. She had professional marketing signage. I don't think she had a very good day. It's so hard to get it right at craft fairs. Your target market is always changing. There are many variables: indoor versus outdoor, customers on a budget versus spendy up- and- comers, an older population who don't want dust catchers versus hipsters looking for something no one else has, kid-friendly products versus pricey touch-me-not items. Here's some advice from a craft fair vendor/patron of twenty-five years plus:
1. Smile and engage people when they slow down at your booth. It's overwhelming to see the array of items offered in every booth. Make your products special.
2.Don't get discouraged if someone walks away after your ten-minute spiel about how your product is made and why you made it. They might come back after they've compared it to other things they see.
3.Price your product to fit the market. Things are tough today. It would be nice to make big bucks crafting, but realistically you charge what the market will bear, not what you'd make per hour in a nine-to-five job.
4.Be passionate about your work. If you don't love it, how can you expect others to?
Oh, today's bracelet is the one I wear to this season's fairs. I take it off when someone stops to look and say, "Try one of my bracelets on. You'll love it!" I love it myself. Would I sell it? You bet your boots I would!

Chicago Skyline

The spots remind me of the lighted windows from our visit to Chicago. Here's the story...We were visiting the college boy and cut across Illinois to save time. We pulled into a grocery parking lot to look at a map and realized it was actually a combination grocery parking lot and open air toilet. Hightailed it back on the road. We pulled into a filling station parking area to look at that doggone map. A car pulled in verrrry close on our left. Another pulled in nice and snug on our right,everyone looking cool, slouched low in the seats. When a third car pulled up to the back bumper, we vamoosed. It was getting dark. We circled hopelessly. The interstate was visible, but no on-ramp appeared. Finally we saw one just as we whizzed by. "There's an alleyway," I screamed, "let's turn around there!" A smiling welcome committee with matching t-shirts and hats stepped out of the shadows. We burned rubber in reverse, made it to the interstate and drove all the way to Joliet to find lodging. Apologies to Jim Croce for not listening when he told us about Bad, Bad Leroy Brown & Co.

Spiders!

Spiders seem to be lurking everywhere lately. Is it fall or Halloween that calls them forth? Many years ago I walked in the woods behind my family's house and went over the fence separating our property from the neighbor's. I knew I was on forbidden territory making everything deliciously frightening. The trees cast a sinister shadow; I heard a weird bird call I'd never heard before. I stepped through a shadowy arch to find a grove where the ground was white with thick spiderwebs. I ran home and have had nightmares about this place ever since. Did it really happen or was it a dream? I never went back to find out. Still won't.

Rose in Bloom

I can't believe how incredibly easy it is to make a rose cane once you know how. Simply create a red to white Skinner blend. Wrap it in a thin layer of black. Reduce the cane quite small. Compress the cane from round to slightly smooshed. Slice and build a rose rounding the edges as you go. A lovely effect that looks much more complicated than it is!

Groovy Goldfish

This bracelet was my attempt to create a fish out of water with orange Skinner-blended scales.
There are things that make everyone feel like a fish out of water sometimes. Often it seems that there must have been a book or a memo handed out that explained everything: how to act, what to say, what to wear. Where was mine? Did I lose it or just never get one?
Oh well, there's always a block of clay to mold, a bracelet to design, a new day to unfold. Scarlett O'Hara summed it up so well: "Tomorrow is another day".

Crazy Klimt

This is called a Crazy Klimt bead set. The patterns are made by putting several shades of raspberry and teal with white into my new clay extruder. It's the kind that has a crank handle and actually can be worked without making your hands hurt for days. I love this look. The "Klimt" is for the patterns in Gustav Klimt's paintings. Lately the beads I'm making are getting smaller and flatter and more workaday friendly. The flat disk beads give the bracelet a softer look. My hands long to make grand and glorious diva-style spheres that are gigantic and gorgeous and almost impossible to wear. How did Wilma Flintstone do it?