thinking and re-thinking

I'm thinking something needs to change.
I look in the mirror and think, I'm 55 (well almost) and I've got zits - wtf?
I drink 3 to 4 large mugs of black tea most every day.
My vegetable intake is less than ideal.
I try to remember to drink more water, but even when I've got a quart jar on my desk it tends to just sit there.
I get up in the morning, wash my face, make tea, eat a little something - lately a banana and some toasted almonds, sit down with tea at the 'puter, spend way more time than I planned reading email and surfing blogs.
I look at the yoga DVD sitting next to the tv and think, "I'd probably feel better if I'd do that."
As I sit down to the computer, I think, "my time would probably be better spent meditating for a bit."

So I've been looking at the Urban Zen site and reading a bunch of really excellent posts at WhiteHotTruth which lead me to this book and was immediately smitten with this blog and I'm thinking, "enough already!" 
If not now, when?

excuse me for a bit, I'm re-thinking a few things .........

blessings - kvk

delicious transformation

One of my favorite things  ~ opening the tumbler and sorting out the fresh batch of treasures ~ and always a nice way to start my morning.  Delicious anticipation and delicious transformation.  I am never not amazed at the finished components and their amazing transformation from clay to fine silver - after all these years, a wonderful thing for sure.  My fresh batch of lovelies ...

Ever one to go on word association journeys, this morning I've gone from transformation to catalyst,  thinking back on my own on-going evolution, thinking about what have been the catalysts along the way.  Through the years, these catalysts tend to be either people or places and once the lessons have been learned, the new awareness firmly absorbed and assimilated into this body and mind, it's time to move on.  Washington state has proved to be a powerful catalyst in my life.  For some reason, living in the Pacific Northwest is like jumping on a bullet train for transformation, for Dave and I both, and probably why it seems that Asheville is so slow.

Turns out Provence was another such catalyst.  Looking at my little pile of lovelies, the influence is quite tangible.  I worry that the Provencal spell will wear off, but now I'm thinking the magic of that place has been absorbed and assimilated and has established permanent residence in my psyche.  I'm thinking, yes!

So in anticipation of the catalysts to come and paths unknown, today's Abraham quote seems very timely ...

We would begin saying, "I'm not ever going to get it done. I'm an eternally expanding Being, and I'm doing great where I am, and I'm so eager about what's coming." That's the essence of the vibration that keeps adventurous things coming, keeps you feeling always excited, stable and secure, keeps you feeling in love with life. All day, every day, count your blessings! All day, every day, make your lists of things you appreciate. And as you keep activating what is working in your life, then more pleasing things on all subjects will flow to you. 

with deep gratitude and joyous blessings - kvk

wednesday's radar

What's pinging on my radar this morning ...

Really excited about finding this source for diamond drill bits for my flex shaft - jumbo bits up to 1 3/4".  Woo hoo - big holes in glass and stuff !!!!!!

Serious lust here - Urban Zen - just my cuppa.  I'm thinking my jewelry needs to be there ... time to visualize done!  This is so much my aesthetic ~ this image just takes my breath ...

And I know I've posted this before, but it's always a welcome way to start the day ~ from 1 Giant Leap, Happy ..

still feelin' wabi-sabi, still soaking up birthday month gratitude
back to the product shots for me ...
blessings - kvk

feelin' wabi-sabi

Some days I wake up in a thick fog and struggle to move through the day; some days feel all rhinestone sparklie; today I'm feelin' kind of wabi-sabi.  Could be the pieces I'm working on ...

Gotta admit, I'm pretty obsessed with these right now.  Nice to know my galleries are feeling the same way.  It's always interesting, after all the designing and problem solving and assembling and pricing and catalog organization, to start actually producing the work.

Could be the tools I use ... toothpicks and drinking straws, coffee stirrers and crimp beads stuck on the ends of bamboo skewers, vintage clay tools from my pottery days and strips of crusty card stock and why magenta plastic wrap makes me so happy ...

It helps that the sun's pouring in ...

And that there's a lovely dusting of snow and I don't have to leave the house ...

And that Pat Metheny is playing in the studio.  I started my workday with one of my favorites - Speaking of Now.  We got to see them perform most of this album, absolutely incredible.  I do love Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays.  First time Dave saw them it was free, first time I saw them it was 1980 and $4 at Ruby Diamond Auditorium at FSU, next time it was 1983 and $12 at the old refurbished theatre in Bellingham, WA, next time was 2005 and $45 at the Paramount in Seattle, still incredibly reasonable considering they played for 3 hours.  The first cut from Speaking of Now ...


I'm trying to figure out why I'm calling my morning mood wabi-sabi.  Seems to be this - I'm feeling inspired and motivated, but most of all grounded and at peace with a bit of a happy tingling sensation lurking in the background.  I've also got something from Danielle's blog as my new theme - rather than visualize possibility, visualize done.  That's feeling much more better.

One more cut to swing on out.  This one just makes you feel so good, Afternoon from Speaking of Now (okay so this visuals are not so nice, but the tune is sweet sweet) ...


This will be me, visualizing my goals and aspirations - DONE!
on this frigid Tuesday morn, with gratitude and joyous blessings - kvk

gotta love YouTube

Look what I found - my two favorite segments from the Living Treasures film ...



And about two minutes in, Arakawa's black seto ware ... breathtaking.  (sorry - didn't see one without the cyrillic subtitles)


gotta love YouTube.

blessings - kvk

just a wee bit ...

... further down the hole.
Just found this link at AOT's blog.  Amazing good fun.



joyous blessings - kvk
'cause hey, it's my birthday month!

this morning's rabbit hole

I usually start my mornings with a large mug of strong black tea with a few drops of stevia, a munch of something for brekkie and a, hopefully, brief perusal on-line for email and blogs ... the brief part is the challenge.  This morning finds me following links from one end of the spectrum to the other, winding my way down a rabbit hole of assorted inspiration.

First an email from Phuni at Tibetan Karma in MA about a fund raising effort for Machik -" Machik works to develop new opportunities for education and training on the Tibetan plateau and supports initiatives that advance innovative, solutions-oriented approaches to the challenges of community revitalization and sustainability".  Over the last few years, Phuni and I have developed a great rapport and she's been a great supporter of my work.  She is Tibetan and a big part of her life and business is her commitment to supporting sustainable products and social justice.  I'm always on the lookout for good causes to support, so for the month of December I'll be donating 10% of my gross sales to Machik.

Next on my morning cruise, I was checking in on new blog posts.  I started with Tumbleword, followed her link to Lucid Cafe and started looking at the artist biographies which lead to one on Robert Motherwell which lead me to remember that a favorite video was due to be released on DVD, Storming the Citadel, a really excellent film on the New York School of abstract expressionists - really excellent film, now on my wishlist.

Thinking about favorite films that we owned on VHS and no longer have and miss terribly, lead me to look for an all time favorite, a National Geographic special, The Living Treasures of Japan.  It's an hour of some of the most inspiring artists and work I've ever encountered ... a traditional potter, his enormous anagama kiln and exquisite pots, the very essence of wabi-sabi; the sweet smiling and ancient face of a weaver of hemp and dyer of indigo; music and theatre and paper and, well, it's just an amazing collection of artists.  Turns out their DVD's are 40% off right now.  Needless to say, this one is coming home to Kathy.

One rabbit hole I'm reluctant to do down is Tumblr.  I see it everywhere, love the look of it - I especially love the archive at Abundance - but that's one hole I need to resist ... for now anyways.

So the tumbler I really use, that would be the rotary one with stainless steel shot, should be about ready.  Ah, but one more update on my adventures in glass.  My mondo box from Rio Grande was deposited on my doorstep sometime last evening, one side split.  I opened it right before bed only to find the contents inadequately packaged.  The 10 8oz. jars of crushed glass in one oversized zip-loc bag, one of the jars halfway open, the other nine jars swimming in 4 ounces of bronze frit.  Not happy about that.  A mess and an unsafe mess at that.  I'll be calling Rio here shortly to fill them in and suggest some packaging improvements.

Well now, if I haven't been playing hooky just way too long.  So on a gorgeous fall day, this will be me off to empty the tumbler and get back to work.  Here's another favorite Nick Drake cut ...

• River Man by Nick Drake

blessings - kvk

thursday radar

Been in observation mode much of the day ... this is what's popped up on my radar with some musical interludes.

Firstly, it's been an Incredible String Band kind of day ... maybe because the cloudy and cold makes me think of what England must be like this time of year.  My ISB Pandora station has had some perfect tunes.  Hard to beat Steeleye Span's Calling On Song.


This morning I was struck by all the little treasures that surround me while I work  ~  bowls and dishes filled with bits and pieces and gems and nuggets ...

The black and white dish  ~ tumbled quartz, bone fragments and glass from North Beach in PT along with two carved bone tiles from an antique store all resting in a little black clay pinch pot dish, the edges brushed with pmc slip and over-fired which makes the slip crawl and curl into little mercurial balls...

A tiny Japanese dish filled with the recently extracted gems from my silver scrap pile.  I love this image.  I may have to blow it up and hang it on my wall somewhere ...

  

And then there's the assortment of cast glass beads from Ghana, the other source of my inspiration for attempting my own versions.  Like Andrew mentioned in his comment, sticks are forced through the molten glass to make the holes - hence the 'blown out' ends on many of them.

My own glass experiments have been informative, but less than wonderful.  One problem I've had is the glass sticking to the paperclay.  So I thought I'd refire the beads that were kind of interesting and see if I could get the edges to smooth out.  I made little cups around each bead to keep them from sticking to the kiln shelf.  You might notice the ragged look of the shelf - a long ago remnant from particularly unsuccessful enamel mixed with pmc experiments.  Then, fingers crossed, I chucked them in the kiln ...

 

Nothing much happened - it appears I needed to fire higher and longer.  The Roman glass experiment was equally informative and less than perfect.  The tops ended up a lovely mottled green albeit with some spikey bits ... 

The crusty parts of the crushed glass settled to the bottoms and sides and look like bread dough - sort of an unpleasant look for a bead, well, at least they're not to my liking.  One of them was okay, the other two, not so nice ...

Yesterday I bought some kiln wash/bead release that I'm hoping will help with the sticking problem and I'm holding off on any more experiments since my Rio Grande order will be here this afternoon  - ten colors that make up five pounds of glass ... delicious anticipation, no?

Ahhhhh, another musical interlude.  Being the tenacious sort that I am, I heard this cut on said Pandora station and have been trying for hours to find it on-line so's I could embed it here.  All normal efforts failed, it was nowhere that I could find, so I bought and downloaded the album, then uploaded the track to a playlist sight and created a widget for you to enjoy herewith.  Hope you like it ... I do.  Goodness, I can be ever so silly and driven and, well, tenacious.  Sweeney's Men, Dreams For Me ...

Another treasure showed up super quick fast fast - over the weekend I dove into a rather large splurge and ordered two litres of freshly pressed, unfiltered Tuscan olive oil from one of my favorite on-line catalogs, Toast , one to keep and one to share.  Amazingly, they arrived today.  Must get some good crusty bread and do some dipping ... ohhh and some freshly chopped rosemary from my little bush that's currently huddled under a protective plastic covering.

Nick Drake seems like a nice finish for now ... well Nick Drake and one more image ~ a fine treasure indeed, my Little Zoe Bit all curled up in a toasty ball ...

Well, Nick Drake and a couple others inspired by the String Band ...

Rightio ... back to work for this little peep.
and with vast amounts of gratitude for the treasures in my life ...
blessings - kvk