Getting ready for two shows in November and one in December. First, a trunk show at the home of my friend Val Storms in Greenwich, Connecticut. I stopped progress in the studio to make a flyer to e-mail out to friends and family in the area.

It seemed to come out okay, but could I translate it to an email that would look like this without having to download? Nope. I spent way too long trying to figure it all out, and in the end sent out just the text in the email with attached photos one could see without clicking to download. The good part about all of this is that I will finish the e-mail and post about the upcoming trunk show in Baltimore in much less time after spending so much time now trying to learn this one.

Now back to things that look more like this:

Work in progress!

As many of my friends know I write a monthly column called “The Cranberry Report” for a little newspaper known as the Working Waterfront. It is a wonderful publication put out by the Island Institute in Rockland, Maine. I am honored to be able to write for them, though almost every month when my deadline approaches I am panicked as I try to figure out what to write about. I don’t write about jewelry, but I do try to convey a little of what my life is like on the tiny island where I live all year. In the past few days I seem to have gained some new readers who found my blog via my writing about our wonderful Ashley Bryan School. While I’m still struggling to find my way back to my jewelry studio, I have had other opportunities to pursue some creative endeavors. Writing has been one of them. My latest column was published on September 1 and I had some delightful feedback from it. Especially in the form of a phone call from Mr. Bunker of Mt. View Auto. He really appreciated the shout out. (As if he needed any extra golf cart business….) Anyway, here is a copy of the column from the Working Waterfront web site. Another little slice of island life. I hope you enjoy it.

Fore me! Golf cart dream comes true

 by Barbara Fernald

Used golf carts are one of the handiest modes of seasonal land transportation in the Cranberry Isles. They are a lot of fun to drive, have a top speed of about 12 mph, use very little gas, and I have wanted one for a very long time. I wrote about how close I thought I was to achieving my dream three years ago

click to enlarge

Barbara Fernald

(http://www.workingwaterfront.com/articles/Island-Vehicles/14433/), only to have the dream squashed yet again by an able island mechanic and a reasonable husband.

At the beginning of the summer, though, our island car was succumbing to rust. The engine was still running well, but the chain that held it in place was starting to compromise the car’s steering ability. The car made a constant “bad” noise and it was not safe to drive.

I also won’t use my husband’s truck. I’ve driven all of his other trucks with no trouble, but his current one is so big that I have to climb two steps up to get in. The engine is powerful and noisy, it guzzles gas and the clutch is tremendously stiff. The doors are heavy and out of line so one must pull up while shutting to close them properly. I don’t have the strength for that so, even as a passenger, I am pissed off at the truck before we leave our driveway. This attitude is also not conducive to safe driving. Bruce started looking around for our next island car.

As I rode my bike to the dock one day, Donna and Henry Isaacs came up the road in a spiffy new orange golf cart. It had a roof, a windshield and a luggage compartment in the back where the golf bag holders used to be. My golf cart envy returned in a most swift and serious way. With a minimum of research I learned three helpful things: Mountain View Auto on the Bucksport road had a whole line up of colorful golf carts; gas powered carts are easier to service than battery powered; and I actually had enough money to buy one.

A synopsis of our marital golf cart conversation:

Me: Well, I’ve decided to spend my own money on a golf cart.

Bruce: You don’t need a golf cart! What will you drive when the weather gets bad? It’s impractical! What about storing it for the winter?

Me: What about fun?

Bruce: (The next morning.) OK, you can get a golf cart if you really want one.

Me: I know, but what brought you around? The argument for a little fun?

Bruce: No. It was realizing I could put off looking for a new island car.

Me: I’m going off island tomorrow to get one.

On Monday, I passed right by Mountain View Auto, overshooting my mark by several miles. I saw no line up of colorful carts that several helpful friends had described. When I actually did stop to talk to Mr. Bunker, he told me his carts were sold out. (He has sold over 20 golf carts to people in the Cranberry Isles in the past few years.) He took my number and said he would call as soon as the next delivery of golf carts arrived.

I only had to wait two days. By Wednesday I was asking him to pick one out for me and I put a check in the mail. He apologized for the fact that these carts were all white, with no fancy colors.

By Friday morning my new ride had arrived. I was a little concerned when there was only one key, but I figured I could have a spare one made the next time I went off island.

“Oh no,” said one of my friends who has had a golf cart for many years. “We tried all different hardware stores and even the automotive department at a Sears in Boston. You can’t get keys like that made anywhere.”

The thought of losing my one key cast a little cloud over my golf cart euphoria until I looked online to see if I could at least find a blank to get a new key made. It turns out that Yamaha golf cart keys are universal. I got a spare key for myself and one for my friend for less than the cost of a ride on the mail boat!

Within a week, two more golf carts arrived on the island. One was purchased by my brother-in-law, Mark, who had been in tandem with his brother Bruce in their feelings about the impracticality of alternative seasonal vehicles. (These two nay-sayers now discuss things like how to install headlights on their carts.) Mr. Bunker found Mark and Vicky a cart with a back seat that folds down to create a little luggage compartment when needed. They had to pay a little more for it, but that is a really practical adaptation, one that Bruce and I wish we had. And, their cart is red.

When Mr. Bunker told them about the color, his next words were, “Don’t tell your sister-in-law! She might be mad!” (Does he imagine we would never pass each other on the road out here?) He needn’t worry. I have not felt mad even once while driving my golf cart. I’ve wanted one for such a long time and it is every bit as fun as I imagined.

Barbara Fernald lives, writes, makes jewelry and drives her cool golf cart on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island).

Last year, toward the end of the summer, my sister-in-law, Vicky, asked if I would show her some basic techniques of soldering and fusing silver. “Sure, maybe in the fall when we both have more time,” I said.  Learning to solder or fuse involves putting two ends of metal together and joining them solidly with the heat of a torch. Although Vicky is very proficient with metal clay and beading, she lacked some tools that would be fundamental to metal smithing. “Just order what you think I’ll need. I have one of those butane torches, but that’s about it,” she told me. Last September I ordered a set of needle nose pliers, a set of needle files, a chasing hammer, a steel bench block, a bench pin, a jeweler’s saw, some saw blades, and some silver sheet and wire. Then our lives stayed too busy to follow through with our plan, until today. 

I admit that any teaching situation makes me nervous, even when I’m with people I like to see, but I do like the planning part, and thinking about why I would teach one technique before another. As we got going I forgot about my nerves.  I had Vicky get a feel for the saw by cutting into some 22 ga. copper sheet. The sheet is supported by a thin block of wood, called a bench pin, that is clamped to the work bench creating room to move the metal around while keeping the saw in one spot. She traced two ovals on the copper sheet and cut them out. I love hearing the change in sound when someone starts to get more comfortable with the saw. Vicky got there very quickly. She filed the edges of the ovals to smooth them and them drilled holes near the tops. Lastly, she hammered the pieces with the small end of the chasing hammer to texture them. Ta da! Two dangles for a pair of earrings. 

(Okay, right here is where I am kicking myself for not taking ANY photos all day. I apologize. The evening pictures of my workbench and tools are a pitiful compensation for showing you Vicky’s work.)

On to the silver sheet. Vicky cut out two triangles for the top part of her earrings. She drilled holes in the middle of the long sides, with plans to solder posts on the backs. She designed the earrings to connect the copper and silver parts with a jump ring. Then I had Vicky wrap 16 ga. Argentium sterling wire around a round mandrel to make a coil. She cut down through the coil with the saw which makes clean edges on each side of the open ring. (You need a tight clean fit between the pieces when you are soldering or fusing metal.) She also made some square rings.

Ready for the torch! To get comfortable with the torch Vicky started balling up the ends of wire with the flame. This is a basic technique I use all the time to make my own head pins for earrings. Vicky closed the ends on her square links by fusing them with the torch. No solder is required, but a tight join is needed if you want those two ends to flow together. She connected the squares links with the smaller round links between and soon had the makings of a cool little bracelet. Vicky was ready to try the solder. In no time, the posts were on the back of her earrings, the two pieces of each earring were linked with a fused 20 ga. jump ring, and my sister-in-law was comfortable with the torch. She even pulled out a broken ring that she brought along hoping to repair, and soldered it back together!

For me, it has been an “off” summer, creatively. I haven’t spent much time in the studio and I have had a hard time wanting to. Vicky, too, said she hadn’t been making anything for a very long time.  Before today, each work space on my bench was a messy pile and I just didn’t feel focused when I walked into my favorite room. It’s a small space (8 x10) and I needed to clean it up to make it workable for 2 people today. I felt focused for the first time in a while as I wrote a little outline for myself to think through the progression of what I would teach Vicky. Her enthusiasm for learning something new and her success with mastering several new tools filled my studio with fresh positive energy. She left wearing a new bracelet, a new pair of earrings, a broken ring repaired, and carrying a box of new tools that she’d learned how to use. I was left with huge satisfaction at her success, optimism for the return of my own creativity, and a clean studio!

  I think this day, in the midst of a crazy busy August, was exactly what each of us needed.

Sponsored by Marian Baker and Islesford Pottery it’s time again for the super cool bi-annual fund raising silent auction to benefit the Islesford Neighborhood House. This year’s theme is, of course, lobstahs! If you’re anywhere near Little Cranberry Island you’d better plan on coming to the Islesford Dock tomorrow (Sunday, August 17) from 1 to 3 p.m. or you will miss out on seeing and bidding on some wacky and beautiful crustaceans.

Who has had their hands in clay in the past few weeks? Who has been making lobsters from alternative materials? Who is bringing back the “Barbie Lobster?” Who will have the winning raffle ticket for Ashley’s lobster plate?

I can tell you who has been up late tonight making lobster cookies… The mug I’m contributing to the show is a collaborative piece. Marian made the mug and I did the lobster design.

If you want to preview a few more  pieces that will be in the show, check out the Islesford Pottery facebook page. See you on the dock!