Barbara S Fernald Jewelry

…BIG mess!

No wonder re-entry was tough when I faced a studio that looked like this. It IS a very small room ( 8′ x 10′),  and when I work I sometimes have to put things on top of things while I am using them. If only I would put it all away at the end of the day. But I keep thinking, “I’ll get right back to it…I might need it again….I’ll forget about it if I can’t see it…”

At this level it is no longer conducive to work. I have piled up enough stuff that I can no longer see what’s on the bottom.

So, I avoided the whole deal for a few more days by drilling rocks, in the basement, where I have my drill press set up. I have finally trained myself to listen to books on CD, so drilling rocks in the basement is much more entertaining than it sounds. It is both meditative and exciting as I think of how I might use each stone. And,  I’ve finished two books already.

These lovelies made me want to clean up the studio so I could get to work on some fine silver beads to go with them. I have much to do to get ready for a November trunk show in Greenwich and two craft fairs in December.

Along with cleaning up I also needed to reorganize tools, to incorporate some new ones among them, to find room to store the new supplies for all of the tear-away texture sheets I plan to make, (ie. where to put all those packages of Studio Sculpey that is being discontinued in December and the pasta machine), and to find a place to store my oil paints and brushes until winter brings more time to use them.

I can not concentrate on a book while sorting through so many little details. Disco is my aural motivator. Burn baby burn!

As one friend said when she first saw my (tidy) studio, “Wow, you pack a lot in here!”  And for now, I know where it all is.

It was so good to get home  yesterday, but the transition process is a mixed bag of emotions for me. Saying goodbye to friends from the workshop… being excited  to try new techniques in the quiet solitude of my own studio…  trying to catch up on paperwork and laundry…remembering it was trash day… planning meals for just 2 of us again…  All day I puttered from thing to thing, accompanied by the oddest feelings. Though I did not get into the studio,  I accomplished more than I thought I would, while carrying around an empty feeling in the pit of my stomach that seemed to be a combination of melancholy and excitement.

If I could paint  what this re-entry feels like, it would look like this view from the ferry around 5 p.m. yesterday, looking back at Great Cranberry Island as I headed home to Islesford.

Holly, Angie, Marly, Wendy and I have had a superb time staying at the home of Donna and Henry Isaacs while taking Celie’s workshop in Bethel. We each took the responsibility to plan and provide food for one dinner, and we have had enough leftovers to pack a lunch for the next day. We have had a lot of laughs, and eaten a lot of good food without being overwhelmed at any time by kitchen duties. It’s going to be hard to get back to cooking every night and even harder to say good bye.
On the way to class on Monday, Holly and I took a detour past Celie’s to see the farm belonging to Davis Dimock. (The guy spends a lot of time with stones!) It is always a treat to see someone use natural elements to create sculpture in natural surroundings. Before we even got to the land, we stopped to take in the wonder of a field of cobwebs in the morning mist.

This pond was my favorite part of the little bit of property we saw.

Celie is sure we will be able to close a gap like this in a bezel of unfired PMC! (She was right.)

Wendy works for the National Mango Board. In a preview to her fabulous meal, we all got a lesson in how to choose and cut the best mangos. (Did you know that every mango has a “nose?” Also called the “eye?” It indicates where the pit is, in case you didn’t already know)

We still have a full class today to finish up our pendants and trade information before heading off in numerous directions to pick up our lives where we left off on Friday.

I am in the middle of a 4 day class to learn about polymer inlay in metal clay. It is so interesting to be working with polymer again after such a long time away from it. Celie Fago is a great teacher and it is a treat to learn her tear-away technique to add to my sources of textures for metal clay. In this workshop, however, we are also texturing polymer clay with the tear-away sheets and then enhancing the designs with acrylic paint.  Yikes! Two workshops that involve paint and color in two weeks time. I am no more comfortable with paint this time than I was in Henry and Ashley’s oil painting workshop. But being uncomfortable does not prevent learning and I am taking it in even if I am complaining while I do it.

It is a stretch for me to put myself in two workshop situations so close together. There is a progression of feelings I should have recognized from 2 weeks ago, but I forgot that it is like this for me. For the first two days of learning something new in a group, I look around and think everyone else’s work is better than mine. I hate what I am doing and wonder if I will ever use what I am learning because I am so uncomfortable doing it. I hate painting, I don’t understand color, blah, blah blah!

But I love the people in the class, and I really enjoy Celie’s relaxed teaching style and sense of humor. I know from experience that at some point I will find the edge of a new comfort zone, even if I have not entered it fully.

So, this morning I’m making a conscious effort to embrace the whole process, self diagnosed failure and all. A fresh start for Monday.

Tear-away being demonstrated.

Conditioned polymer clay:

Here are a few of the pieces I just sent to the Red Dot Gallery in Deer Isle. Now I’m packing for a workshop in Vermont with Celie Fago. It starts Saturday, I can’t wait! Stay tuned for classy classroom shots!

Henry Isaacs and Ashley Bryan led the second annual painting workshop sponsored by the Islesford Dock.

Friday, pre-hurricane, we painted at Frank and Kim Newlin’s house. Photo journalist, Richard Hill, took many shots of the class. Click here to check them out. The weather started to get windy so we regrouped at the dock after a picnic lunch.

Tiny homemade potato chips from home grown potatoes! One of my favorite parts of the lunch!

A change of venue brought renewed energy to the painters on the first day. We were all pretty tired by the time we met up again for a critique and then dinner. (I was not only tired but was beset by a huge migraine. Talk about bad timing.)

On Saturday morning, Hurricane Earl had taken a two hundred mile detour to the east and we were all spared the extreme weather that had been predicted. We did get a heavy downpour which kept painters inside (and migraine sufferers in bed) until the sun came out again around noon.

After lunch we assembled at Bunker’s Cove to work on capturing this:

or this:

(Same view, rapidly changing sky.)  At this point I still had my headache and was thinking I would never become a painter, and I was not sure if I ever even wanted to become a painter! In total frustration I painted a huge zig zag on my canvas and threw it down on the rocks.  I lose something between looking at the landscape and touching the brush to canvas. It’s like I become blind to seeing what is light and what is dark. Most frustrating. If someone recites numbers to me, my brain shuts down and I can’t focus. I think its why I don’t like card games. I have discovered that plein air painting has the same effect on me. When I try to capture what I am seeing on a flat piece of canvas, I can no longer focus on what I am seeing.

Give me a camera, instead of a paintbrush, and I can see exactly what I wish I could paint.

I’ll try again tomorrow, but I think I will start with painting something that is 2 feet away from me.

I ended this month with a visit from my (internationally-known geochemist) brother, Steve Shirey, and his son Clayton. It was great to have a chance to see him before he heads off to Australia to look at some of the oldest rocks on earth.

At the same time my brother was on the island, all three of our cousins were staying in the family house. I think the last time we were all on Islesford together was when we were kids.

L to R: Gail Collier, Lisa Luke, Steve Shirey, me, Jonatha Paetzhold. (Yeah, Steve looks like a dork in this photo, but at least there is a better one of him above it.  And if you happen to check his Web site, he has an excellent picture there, along with the most extensive CV I’ve ever seen.)

Our family dinner was preceded by this sunset from the front porch:

The Islesford Dock Restaurant closed for the summer after dinner on Sunday, August 29. The next day, 40 people including staff, friends and family headed to nearby Baker Island for a picnic to eat up some of the restaurant left overs. (Clams, crabs,  lobsters, ribs, sausage. It was kind of a hardship, but we were willing to help out.)

The name of Dan and Cynthia’s boat is one of my favorites; the Macamer. It looks so French and yet it is just a shortened version of “Ma! Com’ere!”

Henry Isaacs and his lovely wife, Donna. (Does this guy ever take a break from painting?)

The picnic ended with yet another gorgeous sunset.

At this point in August I feel a little bit “fried” from trying to work and keep up with the fantastic pace of friends and visitors who are squeezing a lot of activity  into their 2 week vacations.  How could the summer go by so quickly?  There have been so many events and no way to attend them all, without being two places at once. A few years ago, I heard someone say, “My life is SO busy!  It is so full of good things.” I try to remember that. Busy does not have to equal bad.  But sometimes it means rushing through something where more time should be taken.

Sunday was the first gray, cool day we have had in a while and I was able to work all day in the studio to make some necklaces for Alone Moose Gallery in Bar Harbor. It was exactly the kind of day I had been craving. By Monday morning, I was back to the rush. Taking photos at 8 a.m. by the window, before hurrying off to yoga class and then rushing to catch the boat to go off island to drop the necklaces off. How do people manage to blog daily and add in great photos? I just have to accept that, in August, I am not going to figure that out!

What a day for the outdoor wedding of Ashley Alley and Drew Staplemen at the old Coast Guard Lifesaving Station on Islesford. It was sunny with just enough breeze to keep everyone cool and keep the mosquitos away. Absolutely perfect!

…to cocktails and dinner in Northeast Harbor with the New York Yacht Club? We were invited by dear friends who were raising funds from the sailing crowd to help pay back lobster fishermen for some of the gear that gets lost due to being cut off by yachts passing through. The money will go to the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation to help continue their “ghost trap” work. (Recovering old lobster traps from the ocean floor.) It was a really nice thing to do, and the dress was much more casual than I expected.

Luckily I found a little black skirt I have not worn for a few years, paired it with a salmon t-shirt and salmon sash belt, and put on one of my old faithful necklaces of PMC beads. (The necklace from the old header photo.) I think I even looked okay, and I was very comfortable, if  a tad over dressed for the occasion. Always better to be over dressed than underdressed don’t you think?   Bruce wore my favorite shirt  with nattily dressed fish.  We were unplanned in our color coordination!

I was afraid the group would be a bit stuffy, but our dinner companions were delightful, and the family style dinner of antipasto, salad, garlic bread and ziti with meatballs was quite tasty, and relaxing.  Thank you to our hosts, and thank you to the N.Y. Yacht Club for their generosity toward fishermen with whom they share the same ocean real estate.