How long do we keep trying to fix things? What does it take to accept when something’s broken, and it’s not going to get better? How many times do we stubbornly apply the glue, sand down the cracks?
And once we let something into our hearts, can we ever forgive it it for falling apart?
Go vote for my Mr. Dino Whistle in the Etsy Mud Team Critter Challenge!! My guy is super cool because he is a whistle in addition to being a weird little monster! You can also get lots of bonus gifts and prizes from Mud Team members in the next few days! Check out the poster below for all the info!
I’m going to be gone for a day – I’m taking a little trip to go hiking on Hawk Mountain. The weather is predicted to be cold, rainy and windy. Yikes! Wish me luck…
While I’m out, I’ll leave you to contemplate this amazing sketch of a hawk, from MichelleSM. She actually takes a clay board, covered in India ink, and scratches away the image. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’m going to see one of these lovelies tomorrow!
What a treat, really, when after admiring someone’s beautiful artwork, you find you have an amazing connection with them. That’s the case for me over at Infinite Cosmos, the family-run Etsy shop featuring the art of Todd and Marlena. This husband and wife team produces both eye-catching blown glass work (I believe this is mostly Todd’s arena) and some sweet hippie-style hand-sewn clothes (check out Marlena modeling one of her pieces below).
What a surprise for me to discover that I went to high school in Upstate NY with Marlena, who now lives waaay on the other side of the country, in Oregon. What’s even funnier is that Marlena and I probably had absolutely no interaction when we were at school together (I certainly have no memory of her) and now years later we meet over a mutual love of art and craft.
It’s still amazing and fun to see what a great life an old classmate (whether I knew her or not) has made for herself. I am so jealous of her awesome looking home, full of goats, llamas and every other kind of animal. Cheers to Marlena, her husband and their beautiful daughter, Leona!
There is something about Cindy’s artwork over at blackcatgraphix that really kinda creeps me out. And also kinda fascinates me. Something about the crazy Alice-in-Wonderland world combined with the white, high-contrast faces that just seem to stare right out at you….*shiver*
One of the coolest things about her art is the process. She says that she paints on wood until the figure says “hey, get me out of here” and then she saws them out with wood (hey, I understand talking to your art work…). Sometimes they wind up wired together at the joints, others wind up clothed. Even her paintings on canvas don’t stay in one place. She says she frequently photographs them and then digitally transports them to new contexts.
The only thing is, when she says her characters talk to her and then I look at them staring at me, I begin to wonder: maybe they really do?
Do you enjoy what I’ve got going here?
Then don’t miss another featured artist, contest or sale announcement!! I just added a new feature to my blog that allows you to have new posts mailed directly to your inbox!
To kick it off, I’m going to raffle off a set of two gold dip bowls (pictured above) to subscriber randomly selected from the mailing list!
The sign-up is on the top of the right-hand sidebar – totally private. The drawing will be on April 1.
This will definitely not be the only raffle for subscribers and readers, so please join me for a fun way to score beautiful (and free) pottery while getting the latest on awesome Etsy artists! Thanks so much for your support and participation!!
Ever have a piece of jewelry that you just can’t stop playing with? You feel it, wrap it around your fingers, jangle it, tug on it…
These beautiful earrings, by Mary of MLMjewelry, seem just perfect for that! I want to reach right in through my computer screen and touch them. Oh, and as a side note? They are also amazingly freakin’ gorgeous.
Okay, so I’ve been “tagged” by my lovely blogging friend Susan, over at Capitola Girl Jewelry (A pair of her awesome earrings was featured earlier in my blog. Check them out).
So now I’m supposed to share seven weird and random facts about myself, then tag some more people. Somehow I have to come up with something weirder than her peanut butter and pepperoni sandwiches? Here goes an attempt:
1. The weirdest thing I’ve ever eaten was fried goat intestine, while living in Southern Africa. But it wasn’t the grossest thing. That was when we were backpacking through the African Bush, and had to live off of what we could purchase and carry from the only little shop in the only little town. Our regular dinner was deep-fried “fat cakes,” hollowed out and filled with cold spam and baked beans. Mmmmm….
2. I get really bugged when someone says they are going to “itch” something. You scratch an itch, you don’t itch a scratch. NOT A VERB, PEOPLE.
3. My bathroom walls are covered in pottery porn. Beautiful gallery shots I’ve clipped out or saved of cups, bowls, jars, sculptures, vases – whatever! I like to contemplate them while I pee. My friends think it’s a little creepy or something.
4. I write my best while listening to the first disc of the broadway version of The Who’s Tommy. I can’t explain it. (He’s a pinball wizard, there has to be a twist…)
5. I love to snip split ends off my hair. Individually. I will inspect the ends of my hair for frizz and proceed to cut the tips one by one by one. It can be an all-consuming hours-long obsession, which must be nipped in the bud by getting regular haircuts.
6. I eat french toast Canadian style (or so I’ve been told) with salt and pepper instead of cinnamon and syrup.
7. I write for a newspaper, but I get very super nervous when friends and family want to read my writing, and I frequently hide it from them. Somehow the thought produces a terrible shyness in me – unlike the fact that 46,000 other people read my stories every day.
Okay, so now comes the part where I tag other people! Apologies to anyone I’m picking who has already done this…
- Eight8words – An awesome “silversmith and wordsmith.” Wish I could afford one of her cool necklaces…
- Piggy-Tails – Has the cutest cards ever. You want them and you don’t even know it yet.
- Rowley Baby – Sells bigs and blankies and all kinds of things that make you want a baby.
- Contrarywise Rambling – I much adore her beautiful jewelry. Look for a feature on her work very soon!
- Grizzly Mountain Arts – Makes such intricate little things, I’m stunned every time.
- Purty Girl Designs – By awesome artist Anna Cox, who is using some of my new pendant designs in her work!
- A Field Journal - By Natural Historie. The sweetest, prettiest page in the blogosphere.
What makes jewelry made out of money so cool? Seriously, smash a dime with a hammer, stick a hole through it and I’ll pay you $20 for it.
Maybe it sparks some internal contradiction, something that forcibly reminds us that money is no more than decorated metal and paper – and that we, ourselves, determine its ultimate value.
Plus, it’s pretty!
Either way, I’ve got a yen (hahaha) for these yen, by FreeForged. (Oh, and they’re only $8.99).
I admit it – I wear too much black. It’s not that I’m goth or that (as my friends think) I have an aversion to wearing clothes with bright colors. It’s just that I like to reach, tired and bleary-eyed, into my closet every morning knowing that everything I pull out is going to match.
Same goes for the jewelry. That’s why these onyx and silver earrings by Elaine Haydon instantly called to me. Elegant, easy, goes-with-everything… I’ll take two!!
