Count Down Fun! 10 . . .

Ten Days and Counting until the October Guild Fair!

We shipped a packet of Labradorites to Deb H. this morning, so she can see if one of them is the Right Stone for her engagement ring!  Unfortunately, because Monday is Columbus Day, she won't get them until Tuesday.  It's a Zen Mind thang . . .

I've gotten out for meetings at the Folk Art Center, but we both had a touch of cabin fever this morning.  So we took a nice sunny wandering drive with the car windows down, just enjoying the fresh clean air and the incredible light.  It worked wonders for us!

So here are some photos of our latest work!



Lapis Lazuli

Sterling and 14K

$375 ~ Now Available

Starry Jasper & Garnet

Sterling & 14K Accent

$250 ~ Now Available

Chrysocolla

$250 ~ Now Available at Allanstand

Jasper

$250 ~ Now Available at Allanstand

Chrysocolla

Sterling & 14K Accents

$275 ~ Now Available

Labadorite

$250 ~ Now Available at Allanstand

Amber

$180 ~ Now Available

Jasper

$225 ~ Now Available at Allanstand

Labradorite

Now Available ~ $175

Mara Mamba (Australian Tiger Eye)

Sterling with 14K Accents

$275 ~ Now Available at Allanstand

As you can see, we delivered a nice body of work to Allanstand, at the Folk Art Center.   As you can also see, I need to re-photograph some of them once I have a chance!  The new lights have helped though.

I almost forgot!  Here are a couple more . . .

Boulder Opal, Sapphire & Diamond
14K & Sterling

$750 ~ Now Available

Tiffany Stone

Sterling & 14K Accents

$225 ~ Now Available

We had a late lunch in the yard.  Pat spent a little time in the sunshine doing some design research.  I got to work getting the office back into shape and clearing the decks for action, got these photos cropped and posted.

Next I'm going to take a little time to update our badly out of date Guild members' web pages, while Pat gets some new earring design play time in the studio.  (This morning we decided that we were working today and taking tomorrow off.  After our drive and lunch we decided that we're working tomorrow and taking today off.  You can see what we both think is a good time on a day off!!!)

Ten Days and Counting . . .

Count Down Fun! 11 . . .

Photos Tomorrow.  No.  Really!!!

So, somehow, we have two weeks of photos, work, and life backlogged.  We haven't posted in how long?!?  Yet here we are and somehow the countdown has already started  .  .  .

We have eleven [ 11 ] working days before Load-In for the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands.  (I said that rather calmly, while I think somewhere deep inside myself I heard, "Eek!")  It's about to get, um, interesting.

It is also going to be very very rewarding.  The reality is that it's going to be physically harder than I would like.  (I'm already afraid that I'll meet "The Wall" again at some point . . . )  But it's going to be worth it!  When the October Guild Fair opens, the morning of Thursday the 21st, we'll be set up and ready.

We delivered a sizable body of work to Allanstand, at the Folk Art Center, today.  (I hope to post those photos tomorrow!)

What still amazes and astounds me is that, despite today's delivery, in the space of a couple of months we have designed, created and literally made real, what the art world might call, "a Major Body of Work".  Most of our larger Ridgelines pendants are finished, a few are still works in progress.  Four major commissioned pieces will be ready to be picked up at the Fair too.  Of course, quite a bit of the supporting production work is patiently waiting! 

It really is going to be Fun.  Being able to concentrate exclusively and so intensely on our work always is Fun!  But it's going to take some serious discipline to make up for all of the time that we have both been devoting to our other Guild responsibilities recently.

I'm looking forward to the point when, in the middle of the night, I look down at the office table and see a collection of finished work that we have made together.  That moment in time still astounds me.  It amazes me.

There's also a sculpture that I've been working on for a very long time.  I am sooo close to having the wax ready to cast in bronze . . .  It will be so personally satisfying to see and hold that piece once it's finished . . .

Oh, I almost forgot!  We'll be unveiling our new, limited edition, Seasonal Botanicals at the October Guild Fair!!!  (And Terry thinks I'm going to show her the photos I haven't taken yet?  HA!)

A Veritable Plethora of Labradorite Ridgelines Pendants!

Here are a few photos of some of the Ridgelines Pendants that we've made in the last few years using Labradorite and Spectrolite.  The best ones have incredible luminous colors.

(Graphic Content Warning!  I took these photos for our own reference and record.  So most of them were taken pretty quickly and really aren't very good photos!)

We know that Deb loves the blues, but we thought it would be Fun to show you the golds and greens too!  (I can't find photos of the rosy and purple ones.)

Talisman

Gateway

Mountain Lake II

Lightning Strikes Twice

Vision

Doorway Into Time

Spring Rain

(This is a Rainbow Moonstone.)

(This is also a Rainbow Moonstone.)

Phoenix Eye

(Another Rainbow Moonstone.)

I guess you can understand why we have a couple of Collectors that call us Mr. and Mrs. Labradorite when they visit us at the Guild Fairs in July and October!

Hope you've enjoyed the trip down Labradorite Memory Lane!





Shipped & Wedding Rings & Still To Come

Now we can post Kathy's new Ridgelines Pendant since we shipped it Tuesday!

This is the Starry Jasper she picked.

The marcasite she wanted accent her new pendant perfectly!

Tuesday we also got to meet Debbie H. for the first time.  We'd exchanged emails about wedding rings and engagement ring designs.  Besides having a great time talking and beginning to get to know each other, it was really helpful to see what type of designs she favours.  (What's not to like about a real horse person!)

I have to invest a couple of flasks this morning, but later today I'll post a number of  pieces we've made using Labadorite, and it's relative Spectrolite.  The range of colors, and their intensity, is amazing.

Until then, here are a few photos of some of our Ridgelines Rings.  (And now I realize that the other Ridgelines rings never got photographed!)

Garnet



Peridot, Oxidized

Peridot

Blue Topaz

Our "V-Swoop" Ring

This style, with a stone nestled into the "V"

was made for Kevin J.'s engagement ring.

She said "Yes!"

I don't know why I didn't before now, but I only began photographing some of our custom work in the last year or so.

These matched bands were based on the happy couples' design ideas

and feature stunning bezel set sapphires.

Heidi and David's Wedding Rings were a lot of Fun to make!

Ridgelines Wedding Rings with cast-in-place 14K Yellow Gold Ridgelines Plaques.

Rings are Fun. 

Creating and making the very real and lasting symbols of two people's love and devotion is the best part of being a jeweler.  Maybe that's why Wedding Rings and Engagement Rings might just be our favorite jewelry to make!

"It's A Question Of Lifestyle . . . . . . . " or Love's Labour Found, Part II.

Red Coleus

Sunday Morning, September 12th, 2010

As I was saying, it's a question of lifestyle.  Fall always seems to be an introspective time for us.  It's also when we suddenly feel the Season's changing, or beginning to change.  And for us we know that Winter is coming and that there is so much to do before we are ready!

Like eating as much fresh local organic lettuce as we can!

Bowl by Sandra Wells Rolland,

purchased at the October 2009 Guild Fair.

A couple of decades ago my Mom gave me a large envelope stuffed with some of her favorite recipe clippings.  My Mother was a phenomenal cook and baker.  She could cook anything and everything, and she cooked it superbly.  I guess, in a way, I grew up in her kitchen.  I don't really remember helping her that much.  But I was with her, watching and talking and learning a lot more than I realized at the time.

We looked and never were able to find the rest of her recipes.  I thought they were gone forever . . .  Last Fall I found them!  They were stuffed in the back of the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet we inherited from her.  A different manila folder for each type of recipe: cakes, breads, main courses, salads, and on and on.  So many recipes that I remember!  So many recipes to cook.  Oh my, so many taste to recreate.

Pat caught me!

Slicing organic Market cukes by hand.

My favorite large bowl by David Grant, from 2009.

I was in the grips of a Fall Compulsion!  Last year was the first time I had ever made pickles and they were wonderful and fun and I am hooked!  And we'd actually been buying pickles for a month!!!  So now, armed with Mom's recipes I was determined to re-make her incredible Bread & Butter pickles.

Sliced onions and garlic added.



I pressed a beautiful bowl by Tom Turnbull into service for the overflow!

Packed back into David's bowl, salted and iced and

into the fridge for 3 hours.

In the meantime I sliced more cukes for dill pickles

as the brine heated.

A few hours later Bread & Butter pickles heating through before hot packing.

I never knew that turmeric gave them their wonderful color and flavour!

Pat's partial to dill pickles.  Mom's Bread and Butter Pickles have always been my favorites.  After checking some other recipes I changed her recipe by slightly reducing the sugar content.  (No wonder I loved them!)

I also learned just how much work they are.  What an incredible Labour of Love Mom did year after year after year.  She supplied us with pickles, cookies (oh the cookies!), cakes and pies, some of the greatest healthiest meals of my life were made by her.

7 half-pints and 1 pint of Almost-Mom's Bread & Butter Pickles!

9 half-pints and 3 pints of Almost-Kosher Deli-Style Dill Pickles for Pat!

As I said, it's all a question of lifestyle.  It's pretty simple.  What's important?  How do you want to live?  What do you want your life to be?  Every choice, large and small, determines who we are and how we live our lives.

And I wanted homemade pickles back in our lives again!

Sure, some choices and decisions take a little longer to grow to fruition.  But isn't it worth it all???  So, these views are for Terry . . .

Inky and I had an idea, May 23rd, 2010.

Planted June 14th, 2010.

Nearing the end of the Season, September 2nd, 2010.

Because, you know, my Dear Sister Terry is right.

It's a question of lifestyle . . .



"It's A Question Of Lifestyle . . . . . . . " or Love's Labour Found, Part I.

I can't remember just how many years ago it was, but I can still very clearly remember that when Pat and I expressed amazement at Terry and Dave's work and barn schedules my Dear Sister patiently explained that, "It's a question of lifestyle . . . "

For years I would hear her voice say, "It's a question of lifestyle . . ." Sometimes I bristled when those words would float, all unbidden, through my mind.

We're A Matched Pair

Balloon Flowers June 29, 2010.

Pat and I woke to a wonderfully cool and drizzly morning.  A chorus of crickets and other buggies were serenading us and suddenly, somehow, we knew deep-down-inside that Fall is coming. Fall is coming and it's Market Day! Despite the wet (like my Father before me, I melt) we headed out ~ telling ourselves that maybe it wasn't raining as hard on the other side of Beaucatcher Mountain. And, well, frankly, I was in the grip of a Fall Compulsion. (Pat really can be so patient with me.)

The North Asheville Tailgate Market, at UNCA, is our favorite. (The trees and the tents and canopies, and our hats, kept most of the drizzle off.) Actually it's the only Market we go to now: though the Wednesday Weaverville Tailgate Market, at Lake Louise, would probably fit into our schedule . . .

The sweet couple at Country Fields Farm came up aces! Our first stop almost satisfied my Fall-driven compulsion. We also came home with some more great spinach pasta made by Pasta Momma; a perfect fresh Garlic Dill Goat Chevre made by Spinning Spider Creamery (incredible on the Spelt loaf from Annie's bakery we picked up Friday ~ ah heck, it's incredible on anything!); delicious Lion's Mane mushrooms from the Mushroom Lady;

some perfect locally grown organic garlic;

(small platter by Hank Goodman,

purchased at the 2009 Guild Artists' Sale)

and these irresistible local organic onions.

(Bowl by Dede Vergot; gift of the artist many years ago.)

It was a good Market run.

We stopped at Ingles on our way home for a couple of necessities, and for a few more essential ingredients to satisfy my "compulsion".  Fall really is coming.

I'm pretty sure that Terry will still tell you that, "It's a question of lifestyle . . ."  It's that simple.  And, so many years later, Pat and I find ourselves repeating her truth to ourselves more often as each Fall passes.

It is a question of lifestyle.


More of today's Fall Adventure, tomorrow, in "It's A Question Of Lifestyle . . . "  or Love's Labour Found, Part II.