Barbara S Fernald Jewelry

…healthy happy sons….the best husband in the world,  even after 31 years…the opportunity to live on a quiet tiny island in Maine…lobsters…the Japanese person who first figured out how to make silver in clay form…really terrific friends…my brother visiting for Thanksgiving….my health…a house that heats with wood and plenty of trees around…great in-laws…island weddings…my sobriety…internet that is maybe not fast, but faster than dial-up…books…good food…the ability to create…humor.

Of course there is so much more. Gratitude is something to think about more than one day a year, and I do.

…for two events next week. I just finished a necklace to donate to the Ubuntu Education Fund for the silent auction at their big gala in NYC next Thursday.  From their Web site:

11 November 2010: Ubuntu Gala: I am because you are (New York, NY)   Please join Ubuntu Education Fund as we celebrate over 11 years of progress in the townships of Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Our Master of Ceremonies, Malaak Compton-Rock, will host an evening of music, food, and fun. Two students from Port Elizabeth will join us and South African-born musicians Vusi Mahlasela and Dave Matthews will perform.

What an honor to donate one of my pieces to this worthy cause. It is also an honor to be attending as guests of our friends Dan and Cynthia Lief, parents of Ubuntu’s founder, Jake. ( Two images of the necklace, because I didn’t have any more time to try for a better shot. My usual amateur photographer’s lament!) The 18″ necklace consists of fine silver hollow beads, formed from silicone molds of Islesford beach pebbles.

The other event next week is the trunk show at the home of my friend Val in Greenwich, CT, on November 13.  After setting up to try to capture the Ubuntu necklace, I took a few shots of some  pieces I’ll have with me at the show. The bracelets below, made of rubber and fresh water pearls were a breeze to photograph. I got what I wanted in one shot, whereas I took about 40 different shiny bead necklace shots and still did not get what I wanted. (Yes, this winter I will have some professional photos taken and I know just the photographer I would like to work with!)

A sterling silver bracelet design from my past, makes a new presentation at the trunk show.

Trunk Show 2010

Click for details.

(Why I can’t just copy and paste this flyer onto my blog is beyond me! Obviously.)

…to a time when I did not have much experience with PMC, but I knew I loved it. In July, my sister-in-law Karen asked if I would put some gold posts on a pair earrings I gave her a hundred years ago. The sterling posts were starting to irritate her ears. “Absolutely no hurry. Just when you get around to it.”  (Words that always give me way too much time to procrastinate. Things get lost in my studio when they fall into the “no hurry, really” category.) So, now it is almost the end of October and Karen and her husband headed back to Baltimore today. It was the deadline I needed to change the posts on her earrings before she left.

What I love when I look at these is that they were made when I did not know you could smooth edges with an emory board before firing. They mark a time before I had ever used PMC sheet and punches. The holes were made with drinking straws because I did not have any fancy little brass tubes to make perfect cuts. The edges were smoothed and the corners were rounded with a file after the earrings were fired. The hint of gold  in the recessed circles was my first attempt at using Aura 22 before I learned how to keum-boo.

I’ve learned a few new techniques since I made these earrings, but the design still pleases me. When my new batch of PMC arrives tomorrow, I might just have to try a “remix” of this pair.

On Sunday, I took a break from the studio to walk down the road to watch as friends helped raise a wall for Lindsay Eysnogle and Jason Pickering. They are building their timber peg home from island trees they have milled themselves. It was pretty exciting to watch the progress on a snappy clear day in October.

Where the heck is all this time going? Life is moving way too fast! How is it possible that I have not posted something new in 10 days? October is almost over and my head still thinks it is September. Sheesh!

I’ve been super busy in the studio working on inventory for the upcoming trunk show at my friend Val’s house on November 13. (Clicking the “trunk show” link will take you to a tiny image of a PDF file. Click on that and you will have a  poster/flyer in your face.  Sorry for the way this is formatted. I’m too busy to figure out how to make it appear in a more direct way!)

…to catch the 6:30 boat to the mainland, which left the island just before the sun was up.

Had we entered Northeast Harbor two minutes sooner we wouldn’t have seen it peek over the horizon.

It was colder in N.E. than on the island; the first time this fall I’ve had to scrape frost from the windshield. (It took a few minutes to find the scraper from wherever I tossed it last spring.) I was thinking how I was not quite ready for this yet when I was totally distracted by the mist (provided by the same cold temperature I was lamenting) on upper Hadlock Pond as I drove by. My appointment in Bar Harbor was not until 8 a.m. so I actually had time to turn around and pull off the road to watch the sun light the top of Parkman Mountain.

The 20 minute drive just got better and better.

Frost schmost. How many people get to drive through the beauty of a national park on the way to their annual mammogram?! In contrast, the wind is starting to pick up tonight, and tomorrow it will be blowing 40 knots with gusts up to 50, and driving rain.  There is talk of canceling the (ferry) boats coming out to the island and of the power going out. I probably won’t be getting up early…

Browning ferns jumping out from their green hiding place, and winter berries peeking out at them from the leaves they will soon drop. (Click on photo to enlarge. It gives the winter berries a chance to show off.)

After catching up on some work in the studio, I took a little time to finish the piece I had started in Celie Fago’s  “PMC Pendant with New Polymer Inlay Techniques” workshop a few weeks ago. My feelings about this piece go up and down like a see-saw. I like it – I don’t like it.  I’m not sure how much I will actually wear it, but I had fun finishing it. It was so honkin’ big, I figured it could carry a few silver dangles on the bottom. Once I had gone that far, I decided to use some enameled head pins for faux rivets on the side, because I liked their robin’s egg blue color with the polymer.  I wish their color showed up better in these photos. (The enameled head pins are from Miss Ficklemedia’s Etsy shop) The polymer inlay is my least favorite part of this piece. I would definitely make a PMC bezel like this again, but it would be a little more shallow next time. And I might fill the bezel with a collage set in resin, or who knows? I might even come up with a piece polymer inlay I like better.

Fresh from the kiln.

Ready for a brass brush, some liver of sulphur, a toss in the tumbler and a final polish. They might not look like silver at this stage, but that is exactly what they are.  .999 fine silver and nothing else. I love moldable metal!