May 3, 2011 · 10:26 pm

I can’t drive through Freeport…

…without stopping to pick up something at the Beadin’ Path. On my trip back to Maine on Monday I had just enough time for a 30 minute stop at my favorite bead store. I have more patinas to try from Miss Ficklemedia, so I picked up a few more copper and brass pieces to work with.

I also scored some more raku beads made by Keith O’Connor. I can’t wait to make more silver beads of my own to go with these. I chose the darker colors to mix with some beach rocks and silver.

I thought these vintage glass “nail head” beads were interesting. They remind me of mica. At 10mm they will be a handy size to mix with a variety of beads I have on hand.

These German glass lamp work beads are 40mm long and 10mm wide between the tapers. I’m not sure how I will use them, but I thought they were pretty cool.

I’m always on the lookout for interesting freshwater pearls. Keshi pearls, like these, are pearls that grow without a nucleus.

The Labradorite  beads below were my favorite find on this trip. They were pretty expensive and there were just two strands left. I was only going to buy one strand, but the schiller effect (light refraction) in these beads was especially nice, and I really liked the shape. The graduated sizes will give me more options too.  I had several ideas in mind for these, so at the last minute I added the second strand to my purchase.

Now all I want to do is get to work!  Though I have two days off  the island on my schedule this week, so that means less studio time until the weekend. C’est la vie, eh?

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May 2, 2011 · 10:09 pm

Coming home

For me it is one of the best things about going away. Even after having a fabulous time with my best friend.

I left Rye at 6:45 and had an uneventful drive back to Maine. More gorgeous weather but fewer leaves on the trees the farther north I traveled. Bruce called me from his lobster boat around 1:30 to see if I would meet him in Bar Harbor. He had a doctor’s appointment at 3:30 and his crew would give him a ride over. My timing was perfect to pick him up and then we headed back to Islesford aboard the Barbara Ann.

Good thing the dress I bought for our son’s wedding in September is safely stored in this dress bag. There was no place to really hang it on the boat, so Bruce laid it on top of the nice flat bait stand.

It’s also a good thing the bait stand is covered, because just below that cover is bait for the lobster traps that looks like this:

I never get tired of looking back at this view of the mountains of Mount Desert Island.

While I was gone, Courtney Chaplin put the float in at the Islesford Dock Restaurant. They won’t be open for business until later in June, but seeing the float and Dan’s boat back in the water is a good sign of spring!

We unloaded all the stuff, from my trip, at the Town Dock. As I carried my suitcase, the cooler full of goodies from Arthur Avenue, my new dress, etc. up the ramp, Bruce put his boat on the mooring. We forgot to unload the present I brought him from a Saturday farmer’s market on Broadway. The rosemary plant got an extra ride in the skiff.

It is good to be home.

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May 1, 2011 · 10:15 pm

Beautiful May 1

After yesterday’s fiasco, driving into the city, we swore off getting into the car today. It was such a beautiful day, third in a row, and we were thinking of taking a nice fast walk. Susie then had an idea. What if we took a more leisurely stroll at Wave Hill, a public garden, 20 minutes away. She said, “It means we have to get back in the  car, but I promise it will be worth it.” She’s the driver around here, so if she was willing to drive, I was willing to be a passenger. I only shuddered a little as we headed back toward the city. But, this time Susie was prepared:

And it really was only 20 minutes away. By going at 10:30 in the morning, we avoided any crowds. What a beautiful spot, right on the Hudson River, with a view of the Palisades in New Jersey.  I had no idea I would see so many flowering trees and plants. I experienced the spring that has not yet come to Maine.


This flower looked just like “baby’s breath” but it was actually a large bush, and a different plant.

You can see we weren’t far from the George Washington Bridge.

Tomorrow I head back to Maine. Bruce says the trees and plants are ready to burst open on the next warm sunny day. I’ll get to see spring bloom again!

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May 1, 2011 · 10:28 am

Saturday in NYC

I didn’t post about the day yesterday because we were just to pooped to do anything last night except make a delicious spinach salad with goat cheese, hazelnuts, garlic croutons and smoked salmon. We ate the salad watching “Dial M for Murder,” a fun Alfred Hitchcock movie and then off to bed.

No matter what my friend Susie and I have been doing, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous. The blossoming trees are all out here. Magnolias, dogwoods, redbuds, cherries, you name it. They are in full bloom. Such a treat for the eyes having come from Maine where things have not yet been coaxed out by warm weather and sun. I may be surprised when I get home on Monday if they have been having the same weather we’ve enjoyed here this weekend.

As we drove into Arthur Avenue yesterday, people were out and about everywhere. A sunny Saturday is no day to spend inside.

We stopped here to get little “BFF” tattoos.

We noted where to get our hair done on the way home. Perhaps a wave nouveau?

At lunchtime on Arthur Ave. the fire trucks double park while the firemen pick up their lunch.

Our first stop, Cassa Della Mozzerella where I picked up some fresh and smoked mozz., some speck, and some parmesan. Yum.

Then on to Vincent’s, the butcher shop where you can buy just about anything. We bought lamb sausage $4.99 lb, etc. etc. Great prices, great service, and if I wanted to pick up pig skin, I could have.

We went on to the bakery, Morrone, for little cannolis, a sandwich at the Arthur Ave market, and got back in the car to drive into the city. Susie had a haircut appointment and then we were going to  the Museum of Arts and Design. The drive is where the day became complicated. A series of wrong turns, saved by changing the appointment time, then sabotaged by traffic and unexpected street fairs, made for a stressful drive on an otherwise beautiful day.

Susie missed both hair appointments and drove around for quite a lot of time looking for parking. Garages, on Saturday, cost $28 for 2 hours. Once we found a spot on 68th St. we booked it down Broadway to Columbus Circle and finally went in the MAD. One of the exhibitions was ceramic body adornments like this necklace.

What I really wanted to see was the museum’s permanent collection of jewelry. I’m not sure if they are always displayed like this, but for this visit the collection was stored in drawers below the current ceramic exhibit. To be tired and have to bend over or get up and down to look at drawers of work, that were poorly lit, seemed like a continuation of the challenging trip after we left Arthur Ave.  I was too tired for this, but I did it anyway. This is what I came for.

No matter how stressful our afternoon was, it was still Manhattan wearing her spring finest. A beautiful beautiful day.

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April 29, 2011 · 9:52 pm

Matching up another glass bead

I bought this handmade glass bead at the first PMC conference I attended in 2006, at Purdue University. I wish I could remember who made it. It has bounced around my studio for 5 years, as I have thought about ways to use it in a necklace. When I started  making more asymmetrical necklaces and had a new supply of drilled beach rocks, I brought out the glass bead for another try.

I’m happy with the way the silver PMC beads, the cream colored beach stones, the patinated copper, and the discs of turquoise echo the colors in the glass bead.

Today’s post is a short one. I’m visiting my friend Susie in New York and we spent the day looking for a dress for me to wear to my son Robin’s wedding in September. (Hey, after watching the royal wedding we were in the mood!) I scored at the third store we tried. But now we are both tired. Tomorrow, some shopping for lamb sausage, fresh mozzarella, etc. on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. We may nip into Manhattan for a few hours at the Museum of Arts and Design. We’ll see….

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April 28, 2011 · 11:20 pm

More PMC bead asymmetry

Another of the necklaces I made this week. Another rainy day photograph.

This necklace shows a little history of my bead making with precious metal clay. The toggle clasp and washer beads are from this year, and most of the others were made in previous years. The beautiful round patinated copper beads are from Shannon LeVart of Miss Ficklemedia. Her range of patinas inspired me to find some of my own copper components to try my hand at patina. The smaller, flat oval-shaped beads are from my first attempts with Shannon’s Verdigris patina.

There are beads in this necklace that were formed over a Cheerio core. A round bead formed over a ball of wax, and two beads from the series I made for my entry to the Saul Bell Design Competition in 2006.

Making beads is one of my most favorite things to do!

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April 27, 2011 · 10:55 pm

Pod beads hang out together

The center bead is fine silver metal clay, made from a mold taken from a goldenrod stem gall. I call it my pod bead. As I was trying to decide which of my other beads to include in the necklace, Sue Kennedy posted some dark glass pod beads on her blog. I went to her Etsy site and snapped them up right away. I knew they would be the perfect match for my pod bead.

I love finding beads made by other artists to combine with my own. I am drawn to the work of others who like making      beads as much as I do. I made all the silver PMC beads in this necklace. Two are made from molds taken from beach rocks, and four of them are the drape beads I learned to make in Fred Woell’s workshop. The clasp is one I made a while ago for another necklace. The bunch berry leaves I used in the clasp will be coming up again soon, now that it’s spring.

The freshwater coin pearls were just the right color match for Sue’s beads. I’m happy with how everything came together. I wish the sun had been out today for better photos. (I wish the sun would just come back out period.)  I was in an hurry anyway as I took the photos late in the day. I didn’t get everything done today, but I am satisfied with what I accomplished. Clean fridge, sourdough bread made, clean closet, organized dresser, tidied up studio, suitcase packed, and now daily blog post finished!

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April 27, 2011 · 12:06 am

A busy night

On Thursday I’m off to New York to see my friend Susie . I’ll be back for the 5 p.m. boat on Monday. Getting ready to take a trip always throws me into a flurry of activity as I try to get everything done in two days before I go. I like to leave with my studio tidy, checkbooks balanced, bills paid, house clean, refrigerator clean, laundry done (and put away), and cupboards full for Bruce while I’m gone. Heading a little bit south, where the weather might actually feel warm and there might even be leaves on the trees means I need to dig out some clothes that are not geared for cold weather. Which means I’ll try to clean out my closets and drawers before I go too. Of course there is no way to get all this done in two days, but I still think I’m going to accomplish everything when it is the day before the day before I leave.

I worked in the studio today, stringing some necklaces that I hope to photograph tomorrow, and send to Red Dot Gallery on Deer Isle. It wasn’t until dinner time that I tried to address the rest of my list. I made dough for oatmeal bread so it could rise while we ate. After I cleaned up the kitchen I mixed up a triple batch of granola. (Triple because if I have to sit around for an hour stirring one batch every 10 minutes, I might as well have three batches in the oven. Easy enough to do with a convection oven.) While the granola cooked I picked out crabmeat to take to Susie and to have for crab cakes tomorrow night.

This is the first time in a while that I’ve made a yeast bread. I wanted to see if it would cook as well in the dutch oven as the sourdough bread does. I decided to add in some odd ingredients like millet, dried cherries, molasses, and pumpkin seeds. As I did, Bruce commented that he doesn’t really like “that kind of bread.” Well, maybe for toast, he admitted. So, I also mixed up dough to ferment overnight for sourdough bread. It’s okay. Bruce is not a demanding guy, and I really like making bread.

There is one thing I used to hate about making bread until I learned one of the best little tricks ever.  When it comes to wiping up flour from the counter, my sponges used to get like this:

You know those nasty bits of flour and water that are impossible to rinse out of the sponge after you’ve wiped flour off your counter? There is an easy solution to this problem.  Salt!   Sprinkle salt over the flour on your counter and then wipe it with the sponge. The salt even works as an abrasive to get stubborn bits off the counter and when you rinse it under the faucet, all the flour rinses away. I learned this handy trick so long ago that I don’t even remember who told me or where I read it. It is a little trick you will like even more than Bruce like bread with millet.

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April 25, 2011 · 8:24 pm

3 friends hatched a plan…

…on yesterday’s early ride home.

The mailboat passed us heading in to Northeast Harbor to pick up passengers for the 3:30 run.  Happily, we were not among those waiting at the dock for their ride to Islesford. We were almost home.

Once home, we all helped unload each other’s stuff by making a chain and passing bags along up the steps.

Cindy Thomas, Stefanie Alley and I all happened to be on David Thomas’ boat yesterday. We are 3 of the 4 die-hard members of Dip of the Month Club. The air was 60 degrees, the tide was pretty high, there was no wind, and none of us had gone for our April dip. It was a no brainer. Though we tried and were unable to locate Joy Sprague, our fourth member, we agreed to meet at 4 p.m. for our dip. The water temperature was 41 degrees. We’ve been running into the water and getting horizontal at least once every single month for over 8 years. We have no plans to stop anytime soon.

Yesterday it felt so good to get out of the water and stand in the warm air (60 degrees is very warm for us this April) in our bathing suits, that we went in for the dip 3 times. A rare triple Easter dip! We know the water will only get warmer between now and November.

Why am I writing today about yesterday? Because today I was off island again, getting groceries and visiting my mom. Our planned stop at the grocery store yesterday was foiled by the fact the the stores were all closed for Easter. Tomorrow I’m hoping for some studio time.

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April 24, 2011 · 8:49 pm

Why do people groan when I say….

…let’s take a group picture!!!

Standing: Me, Kelly, Meghan, Fritz       Seated: Bruce, Robin, Stephanie

With the seven of us distributed among two cities and one island, it’s rare to get the opportunity  for a group photo. Before Bruce and I left to catch the ferry in Northeast Harbor, I gathered up “the kids” and Bruce’s sister Kelly  for a timed photograph. Everyone was actually pretty cooperative. The groans came when I wanted to take the third and fourth shots. (Hey, somebody’s got to do it right?  And this was shot #3.)

Of course, once I got the group shot, I really wanted one of Robin, Stephanie, Meg and Fritz. Thanks you guys. Now, even though we can’t be with you, we get to see you whenever we want.

Meghan was wearing a pretty cool apron as she rustled up some Italian scrambled eggs. Bruce posed happily for a photo. He said, Meg needed a six gun to go with her apron. She was fast on the draw with her weapon.

We got back to Northeast Harbor at the same time as our neighbors David and Cindy, so we caught a ride home with them. (Earlier than the mailboat.)

So did several others.

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