Barbara S Fernald Jewelry

Our sons, Fritz and Robin, are both home on the island for Christmas.  From the storm on Sunday we ended up with a foot of snow, and a power outage. Bruce has all of his lobster traps out of the water and the Barbara Ann has been winterized. We’re ready for Christmas, and happy to think that the days are already starting to get a bit longer.

My jewelry  studio has become a big catch-all for the holidays, but soon I’ll be back to work. I have a necklace to finish up and send in to Rio Grande by the end of January. I found out in December that I have been chosen as one of the 5 finalists in the PMC category of the  2009 Saul Bell Design competition. Yee ha!

 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, December 5 and Saturday, December 6. There is no admission fee and there is great food to buy for lunch! (Sales benefit the YWCA in Bar Harbor.)

 For the second time, the fair will be held in the conference building of the Atlantic Oaks on Eden Street in Bar Harbor. If you are headed out of town toward Ellsworth, the Atlantic Oaks is just a little bit past the College of the Atlantic on the right. Look for the signs. There will be happy people who enjoy seeing each other at this time of year, and loads of beautiful work in a whole variety of crafts. This is a fair I have been participating in for about 20 years. I love it for the chance to catch up with people who I don’t usually get out to see. It’s great to just be in one spot for two days, rather than rushing through the local grocery store with just enough time to catch the boat back to the island.

The fair is an opportunity to see everyone’s work, and to see how they’ve grown, changed or refined their work since last year. I realize everyone’s  budgets for gifts this year will be slimmer. I know mine will. To show my appreciation for local shoppers, I will be taking 30% off the price of my jewelry for the fair.

Whether or not jewelry is on your gift list this year, it is important to buy locally as much as possible. The IAA Fair offers numerous possibilities to so. Hope to see you there!

What a storm we had here on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. There were wind gusts up to 87 m.p.h. and the lights started to blink around 6 p.m. I was with my friend Sonja and her 4 week old baby Finn, inviting them to dinner and a possible sleep over if the power went out. Her husband Bill was stranded off the island when the last boat of the day was cancelled. As Sonja was grabbing the diaper bag, the power went out. We arrived chez Fernald to find the generator just being turned on and Bruce and Fritz cooking up a great meal. The power came back for a few hours, but as the wind got stronger,  Sonja decided to stay. Finn’s first sleep over! The power went out again around midnight. When Bill came home the next day, he moved in too. Power came back at 11 a.m. on Thanksgiving, just in time for cooking turkeys for late afternoon meals. Somehow we managed to squeeze 20 people in our dining room, a new record. 

Living in a beautiful spot,  good friends and family who are flexible enough to change plans at the last minute with a sense of humor, spectacular cooks…I am very grateful. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

It was great to get home today to my little island, even if the wind gusts were up to 50 mph on the boat ride home. At least they didn’t cancel the boat. Tomorrow some unpacking and catching up with all of those things I set aside while getting ready for the New York and Connecticut trip. Things like making crab apple jelly and paying bills! Thank you so much to my hostesses Jannie and Nora. Your homes are beautiful and you were so gracious to let me have my  jewelry sales there. Thank you also to my BFF Susie, for everything. You are the best of the best.

I am one lucky lady. Though lobster fishing continues to be slow and depressing, my wonderful husband Bruce calmed himself by cleaning the house to surprise me when I got home. He even dusted and washed the kitchen floor!

I’m happy to be back in Rye. Susie and I set up jewelry at Jannie’s this afternoon I’m lucky to have good friends. Hope to see many of my old/new friends tomorrow!

I’ve posted some of the jewelry that I’ll be bringing to Rye and Greenwich on the Gallery page. More photos to come later in the week. Again, the dates for the trunk shows are Tuesday, Nov. 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the home of Jannie Gerrish in Rye; and Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the home of Nora Leary in Greenwich.

Here on Islesford, the leaves are off the trees and it is starting to get cold. However, Joy, Barb, Stefanie and Cindy have all completed their October Dip of the Month! The ocean water temperature is now around 50 degrees. Looks like this might be a life sport for us. We have all been running into the ocean at least once a month for 6 years. That’s 72 consecutive months. Love that “spa effect.”

I was watching “Morning Joe” (MSNBC) for my daily dose of political news as I addressed postcards for the shows in Rye and Greenwich, when something caught my eye. Co-anchor, Mika Brzezinski, was wearing a necklace of freshwater pearls and tumbled sea foam glass that looked exactly like the one I had for sale last summer at Winter’s Work, on Islesford. I asked my friend and shop owner, Sue Hill, who had purchased the necklace? Her response, “It was an attractive woman with blond hair who had come over to visit the island from Northeast Harbor.”

I have been doing a lot of work on necklaces and bracelets to get ready for the shows in Rye and Greenwich. Thanks Nora, Jannie and Susie. I can’t wait to see you guys and show you what I’ve been up to this fall. If you are in the Westchester County area of New York in early November, please mark these dates and stop by. I’ll be doing a trunk show at the home on Jannie Gerrish in Rye, N.Y. on Tuesday, November 11. I’ll be at Nora Leary’s house in Greenwich, CT on Friday, November 14.

I’m happy to report that lobster prices have stabilized at $2.50 a lb. A dismaying change from last year, but stable none the less. It’s a different world for all of us. I’ll be keeping that in mind as I work on making more moderately priced pieces for the shows.

This is all new to me. Thanks to my friend and potter Marian Baker, I am trying a blog site to dip my toe into having a Web site. Islesford is beautiful this fall, but the lobster fishing industry has so many ups and downs lately. Mostly downs in mid October. Boat price this week is below $3, and rumors of fishermen receiving $2 a pound for their catch.

Meanwhile I am working hard in the studio to make lots of jewelry for upcoming trunk shows in Rye, New York on November 11 and in Greenwich, Connecticut on November 14.