it's official ...

... spring is here!  And I've spent this gorgeous first day of spring inside, photographing jewelry and listing it on Etsy.  Ah well, needed to be done.  I'm happy to say - during my internet break, I made 4 pairs of hoops - from tiny to bold.  I'm quite pleased!  

This mid-size pair are my favorites ...

But I really do love all of them.  This is the smallest pair ...

Larger ...

and larger still ...

 

And then I've listed two of the pieces I made for the fashion photo shoot.  Here's a couple more shots of the finished pieces.

Urban Primitive Lavender Goddess Necklace

and Urban Primitive Early Spring Goddess Necklace

 

Not sure what's next for me in the coming days ... getting outside is definitely on the agenda.

Hope you're having a lovely first day of spring in your part of the world.  

l i g a - kvk

spring break

Okay kids ...
I'm working on aligning my ducks and getting ready to shut down my internet for a bit.  I had thought I would do this last week and was kind of bumming it hadn't happened.  When I saw the new moon is tomorrow, I realized my timing for doing this right now is perfect.   

And I had thought to do a follow-up post to my last couple, but I'm just not feeling it.  It's just feeling like it's time to stop.

Before I shut down, there are a couple of folks who've left comments that I hadn't responded to.
    Secret Squirrel - thanks for following along and the well wishes
    Mansuetude - your perspective is always so appreciated and deeply valued
    Lynne - you are my north star and I am eternally grateful for our friendship

Not sure how long my grand experiment will last, but I'm going to hold out for as long as I can.  Like I was saying before, I'm fairly addicted to this thing, so wish me luck. 

love and light filled blessings ....
l i g a - kvk

inching towards effortless

Still tweaking and moving forwards with the new work. 

There was a call for work from a local organization, Handmade In America.  Submissions were due by yesterday at 5 and there was much dashing about on my part to get my 3 pieces finished, photographed and my application written up.  I figured it was a good opportunity for some exposure.  It's for a fashion shoot called Rustic Urban, so how could I not submit work?

I submitted three pieces - two new ones and one you might recognize.  I wanted to combine the eco-dyed silk from the other day into the new pieces.  I started with this bit of silk, dyed with red onion skins and black walnut ...

The colors were perfect to re-do this necklace from the other day.  This one was stiff and looked almost tortured into existence ...

Here's the final product with the new silk and a slightly different configuration.  Amazing what a bit of tweaking will do ...

Then I'd gotten this amazing lavender from soaking about 24 hours with black beans.  It's really different from the light grey of the other batch which had just soaked overnight. 

I combined this beautiful lavender silk with some super yummy amethyst crystal chunks and peacock freshwater pearls.  Who knew that black beans could produce such a gorgeous color?

The last piece I submitted is one of my all time faves ... the Lapis Mood Goddess Necklace.  I still love the look of the metal clay elements in this piece - straight from the kiln then plunked into a really strong liver of sulfur solution.  Can't wait to see how its 'personal patina' will develop.

I still have this wonderfully vibrant orange and olive green silk to work with  - dyed with yellow onion skins and black walnuts.

Plus I've got a nice selection of new components made up to keep me inspired ...

I'm toying with the idea of going off-line for a bit ... being pretty much addicted to this computer, it promises to be something of an experiment. 
If I do, everything will go into 'vacation mode'.  We'll see ...............

l i g a - kvk

a compelling conversation

A few days ago, FB friend Christi, posted a link to this TED talk by Amanda Palmer.

Watching this talk, I was transfixed and energized.  Before this, I'd never heard of Amanda Palmer.  I did a wee bit of research and found that this little 14 minute talk is generating a lot of conversation ... and of course, that's the whole point of TED talks.  I'm still trying to get my head around Neil Gaiman's wife couch surfing and I'm not thinking I'll be running out to buy all (any?) of her music, but the conversation she's generating is important.  Much of the discussion is about Amanda's insanely successful Kickstarter Campaign.  As with any good conversation, there's opposing views ... this borderline snarky article in the New Yorker - at least that's my take on it - and then this article from yesterday's Huffington Post, which I love.

As an artist, maker and business person, I'm always on the prowl for innovative ways to connect with my buying public.  For a long time, I've had an idea that there's a different way to do that ... a new, paradigm shifting model.  I'm not sure this is it, but it feels like an important part of the equation.

I encourage you to watch Amanda's TED talk and the Huff Post slide show.  What do you think?  How can this idea translate into other mediums?  Is this a viable model? 

... inquiring minds want to know.

l i g a - kvk

gettin' skinny postscript

A couple more notes regarding gizmos .......

•  my blender is ancient ... it was old when Dave's grandparents gave it to us over 30 years ago; the blades are dull as mud.  Hoping to invest in a VitaMix this year ... fingers are crossed for a tax refund.
• I have a food processor that I hate.  It was the best budget model I could afford way back when, but it's poorly designed and way too small.  A new one is on my wishlist as well.
• lately I've been making raw crackers with our dehydrator.  We are blessed to have a 9 tray Excalibur from our long ago days of having big veggie gardens.  It's been sitting on the shelf for years.  Inspired by the amazing raw food at Present Moment Cafe in St Augustine, I hauled it out.  I found some recipes on line and I've been making crackers with raw nuts, flax seeds, a red onion, tomato and have just started adding carrot pulp.  
• My enormously satisfying lunch is a jar of juice, a couple of my crackers with regular old hummus and an orange - then I'm pretty much stuffed.  
• the recipe books I've been using the most:  Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Diet is chock full of yummy goodness - cornmeal/walnut pancakes - seriously yummy.  Another food documentary we loved (you should see all the food documentaries in our Netflix and Amazon queue's!) was Forks Over Knives.  The recipes in the original companion book are quite good (local library's copy) - especially Rip's sweet potato lasagna.  I had checked out the full on cook book from the library, but didn't get very far with it before I had to take it back ... looks very promising, though.  I'm going to order them both.

 Here's to getting healthy and feeling great!  Yay us!

l i g a - kvk

the skinny on gettin' skinny

Lots of peeps are asking HOW ... how did I lose all that weight?  So I figured I'd post what transpired and then I can link to it from here on out ...

First off, I wasn't trying to lose weight, so I'm not really sure when it all started.  It must have been around when I bought our new fancy schmancy juicer and the tailgate markets started ... May?  I don't know.

Anyway, we got inspired by watching the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead ... it was quite the wake-up call.  I'd been juicing on and off for a while, but this got me really motivated to be more regular and take it a bit further.  Easy to do with the bounty of tailgate markets in our area.  Hard not to be inspired by so much good food.

I would hit the Thursday and Saturday markets and load up on greens, then everything else from WholeFoods.  My juicer is a slow juicer, so I make a lot of juice at once - usually 6 pint size canning jars filled to the top ... that's at about 3 days worth of juice.  It takes about an hour - prep, juicing, cleanup.  Because I wasn't trying to do anything specific, I didn't worry about too much of anything in particular - just what looked and tasted good and what I was drawn to.

My "kitchen sink" juice usually consists of whole bunches of chard, 2 or 3 kinds of kale, a couple of red beets with greens, 2 cucumbers, half a big bunch of celery, a big knot of ginger, one granny smith apple and one pear and a lot of carrots.

Then there's my smoothies.  One cup almond milk, one banana, a heaping tablespoon of HealthForce Nutrionals Vitamineral Green (most of the time, Amazon's the cheapest place to buy it), a heaping teaspoon of maca powder, 1/3 cup frozen blueberries and 1 tablespoon of chia seeds.

Most days I'd start with a smoothie and a small handful of toasted almonds.  Lunch is juice and some more almonds, maybe some more fruit.  If I need a snack - almonds.  Some days, I'd drink two jars of juice, some just one.

For most of the summer, dinner was a plate of  Organic Girl Super Greens, topped with a 1/2 a chicken breast sauteed in olive oil with seasoning salt, chopped up broccoli stalks, cucumber, maybe edamame, toasted sunflower seeds, juice sweetened cranberries, tomato if in season and my own balsamic/olive oil vinaigrette and Caesar croutons.

Sometimes a glass of red wine, most days not.  Dessert was and still is a couple of bites of Chocolove 70% dark chocolate.

I think a big help was my apple cider vinegar (ACV) concoction - 1/3 cup unfiltered ACV, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda to cut the acidity, a few drops of stevia and then fill up with water to a quart.  I'd drink one or more of those a day.  It's also really good for allergies and clearing seasonal glop.

Me being me, there were my side trips for fast food evilness ... politically incorrect ChikFilA's or my favorite $2 lunch - a McDouble and large iced tea.  There'd be pizza and beer nights - pepperoni and pineapple with pints of porter, breakfast out every Saturday and maybe BBQ for lunch and those wicked good deep fried maple pecan scones from Greenlife/WholeFoods on Sundays with scrambled eggs.

Like I said, I wasn't trying to lose weight.  But come September, it cooled down and I put on some jeans and they were huge ... wow, how'd that happen?  I got on our not accurate scales and it looked like I'd lost 18 pounds ... wow, when did that happen?

After that, I got to trying a bit ... now, I want to make sure I keep it off.  As of today, I've lost 23 pounds.  At my heaviest, which was in Port Townsend, I was close to 150 pounds.  For the last 4 years I've been about 137.  Right now, I'm hovering around 114 or 115.  BTW - I'm 5'2" ... eyes of blue!

And for a grand experiment and because we've never tried it, we've been doing mostly vegan since early January.  There's still the occasional side trips to 12 Bones for BBQ and lately back to breakfast out on Saturdays which includes eggs.  Still, we do very little beer or wine, not much wheat and, if I have coffee - 1/2 and 1/2. 

So that's it ... my skinny on gettin' skinny.  If it helps anyone, I'll be a happy camper.  If you've got any questions, give me a holler.  Bottom line, it's all about getting healthy and feeling better.

l i g a - kvk

p.s ...

• my juicer is an Omega J8006 masticating juicer - right at $300 ... but the best juicer is the one you'll use.  There's a ton of good info online and on YouTube about choosing a juicer.
• all those people who say it's close to impossible to lose weight after menopause are dead wrong
• I didn't really do any exercising at first.  Somewhere along the way, I got inspired to stretch a bit and end with a headstand.  Amazing that I could just hold the headstand for as long as I wanted.  It started getting my core muscles interested in doing a bit more.  Then I got going pretty regularly with a series of yoga stretches, which led to stomach and isometrics, which led to 3# weights and some upper body work.  
• for straight yoga, I really like this Jivamukti DVD; for a nice combination of yoga and core strength work I like the Gaiam DVD, Fit Body Yoga 
• for plain old inspiration, I'll end with a favorite that, if you've been following my blog, you've seen before ... My Friend Maia ... pure joy

My friend Maia from julia warr on Vimeo.

skinnie me + silk

Okay, so I was having a pretty good hair day and was getting ready to change back into my 'house/studio clothes' (aka skaggy housewife outfit) and the sun was shining into my workroom, so I figured I'd get out the tripod and snap one of the new me ... the 23 pounds lighter than the last time you saw me me.

et voila`

I'm thinking the last time I weighed this little (114 I'm proud to say) was in my early 20's.  This is the me that's been hiding in a fat suit for decades ... I'm really glad she's back.

And now on to the equally important stuff ... dyeing!  Alright, the silk's still wet and therefore the colors are darker, but I couldn't resist snapping one before I run them through a wash (get rid of the onion smell) and dry.  The one on the right is an incredibly brilliant orange from yellow onion skins; the left one is an equally lush magenta from red onion skins.  The darker olive is from a walnut in the dye bath.  

The walnut only bath wasn't strong enough and the silk was a boring beige and not much change in the linen.  I poured the concentrated liquid from the onion/walnut bath into the bigger pot and now have it simmering for a while longer.  Fingers are crossed.

Lots of projects in the works, so back to it for me .......

l i g a - kvk

later

Kind of a mixed bag of results this afternoon ...
Really liking the look of the dyed seersucker silk ripped into slender ribbons.  These were dyed in the water with soaking black beans.  And I love this 'donut' component ... only made these five ... will definitely make more.  Still not sure what I'm going to do for a closure.

This piece feels effortless ...

This one not so much ...

Again, I love the components.  But the silk I'm using for the wrap is too stiff, making the whole piece very stiff.  Since I'm so in love with the other silk, I made a blitz trip down to the fabric store ... our house is really conveniently located ... fine fabrics a mile and a half one way, AC Moore and Hancocks a mile the other way - very handy.  I came straight home, chucked the silk into the wash and then tore off some to dye.

I've got three dye pots going.  One with just walnuts.  That one has silk and a small test piece of the Ukrainian linen.  Another one has two small bundles - one rolled up with yellow onion skins, the other with red onion skins - both wrapped with bailing wire.  I dropped one walnut in for just a bit - didn't want any white showing.  The third pot is a mason jar where I'm soaking black beans with silk at the bottom.    

So all those pots are simmering and soaking while I'm working out the logistical details of this piece.  I like all the elements - the silver links, pearls and crystals, the color palette - just not the assembly.   

Back to it for this little peep.
stay tuned .......
l i g a - kvk

p.s. Dave doesn't much care for the smell of simmering walnuts ... a bit too earthy for him ... I rather like it

the path to effortless

working on new designs ...
When I get a concept in my head, my initial efforts pretty much always look tortured.  Materials will be wasted, designs will be assembled, taken apart, reworked ... at some point a shift will happen, the conundrum sorted out, the log jam broken and the components will flow into my hoped for vision ... work that maybe, initially looks haphazard yet on further inspection reveals a rhythm and flow ... effortless.

l i g a - kvk

tenacious bits ...

tentacles

shreds

remnants

vestiges

remains

Those niggling bits are not letting go without a fight.

Dreams have been crazy and erratic.

Some 'letting go' efforts have been more successful than others.  

I've emptied out that bowl full of components that's been sitting on my worktable for months and sorted out fine silver bits that have been sitting in my supply bins for even longer.  Most have been listed on Etsy.  Some bronze elements I cut off the silver bails and chucked straight out.  

Some of the silver components that have been listed on Etsy ...

 

And some pieces from my All One Talismans series ...

I've also listed five of my eco-dyed silk scarves.  I'm really really pleased with my results and can't wait to use some of the plant stuff I've been stashing in a jumbo zip-loc in my freezer.   

This one's my absolute fave ...

But back to those tenacious bits ...

I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself.  Behavior modification, breaking long-held patterns and habits, changing how I operate in the world ... this is big time stuff.  

 

Some days and nights are better than others.  A couple of days ago, I woke feeling like I'd been to war with my subconscious ... flat worn out.  I've been working on weaning myself off of the nightguard I've worn for the last 18 months.  The thing does nothing to stop me from clenching my jaw, it just keeps me from further cracking and wearing down my teeth.  It's a classic western solution - don't fix the problem, just use this really expensive gizmo and cover it up.  So that morning, I woke with my jaw in pain and a huge headache.  My mind was still reeling from layers of convoluted dreams.  The next night I wore the nightguard.  

But, that was it ... it's an ongoing challenge to stay aware through the day.  When I catch myself clenching my jaw, I try to stop and say "it's okay, let go" then take a minute or two to massage the joints, repeating my little mantra.  Needless to say, it's a process. 

One thing I keep coming back to ... it feels vitally important ... my work - all of my work - must be my own.  I'm down to my last few Basha beads, but for now, I'm not going to order any.  As much as possible, I want all the elements in my work to come from me.  Granted, for the most part I've been doing this for years.  But I'm finding this urge is spilling over into things like my clothing ... curious.

It's also why some of those bronze elements got chucked out.  Last year, I had what felt like a huge inspiration.  I have a very talented friend that has a singular artistic voice and style.  I had this idea to take some of her decidedly quirky images, translate them into rubber stamps and do a series of components and jewelry ... a collaboration of sorts.  I approached my friend and she very graciously gave me permission to use her images.  I spent hours and hours choosing images, photo-shopping them, laying out my proposed stamp sheets, pricing then ordering the sheets.  But the images didn't translate like I was hoping, I'd made most of them too big and should have done 'innies' instead of 'outies'.  I remained enthusiastic and hopeful, but the finished pieces just weren't working for me.

So they've been sitting on my worktable for months.  I wasn't really sure why my inspiration flagged and evaporated.  Surely, I could have revised the size of the images and had new sheets made ... but I resisted.  Now, and I feel this very strongly, I'm glad it didn't work out.  

As I'm moving forward, it is essential that I stand on my own.  It's enormously tempting to pursue a path where I can glom onto someone else - that "guilty by association' thing - get sucked into their wake and propelled along in their momentum.  I know it very well ... been there, done that ... and it's a nasty nasty habit.  I want to feel the exhilaration generated by my own momentum.  

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe in partnerships and collaborations.  

But for now, I need to see what it feels like - me, all by myself.  

My over-analytical brain keeps wanting to know "why" ... "what caused all this in the first place?" - don't I need to know all those "w's" to really let go and move forward?  I'm sticking with my current idea - don't try to figure it out ... just keep letting go.  

Yep, those niggling bits are indeed tenacious.  

l i g a - kvk