Intentional Stones

Time's almost out!

  Our first ever sale is almost over!

Midnight on Sunday night these great prices will be gone.

Don't forget the special Intentional Stones blog coupon code:  ISBLOGFIRSTSALE for an additional 5% off your entire purchase.

Books for the Road

Along with crafting, I'm rediscovering my love of books. Maybe I've just been too busy. Maybe the enormous number of unread books in my house in Pittsburgh has been stressing me out. Maybe the television was eating my soul. But I hadn't been entertaining myself with literature or non fiction for quite a while.  The idea of e-books is growing on me, but moving away from your wireless router or out of cellphone range will never be a problem with the bound paper version.

The kids love to know they aren't alone in getting dragged around the country and Are We There Yet is a favorite with both the kids and the adults. The elephant who ate the hated hat is Havoc's hero, and I'd love to surf on sandstone cliffs at the Australian Bight.

I've been cultivating our habit of breaking up our long drives by stopping a interesting spots along the way. It's better to find places that aren't marked on the signs sometimes. So we've been using The Geology of Australia as a bit of an off the path travel guide. This book is amazing in that it provides an intelligent explanation of geology and it's terms for a beginner, but also goes in depth into new information and nitty gritty science. I admit it, I've never taken a course in geology, and considering how much I love stones, this is unbelievable. I may rectify that problem when I get back, because this book is fascinating!

I miss my jewelry books, and the internet has supplied me with the information I need, but sometimes the best part of a book it's lack of distractions- No people! I was lucky enough to find a great bead shop and though I've finally reached the point where I feel I have enough beads. (Yes, I said it, it's possible to have enough beads.) They had a lovely rack of instructional books. There are hundreds of books on basic wireworking and bead work out there, the unusual thing is a book about more advanced technique. Wirework, and Illustrated Guide to the Art of Wire Wrapping was just the right thing, taking basic technique to the next step with inspiring and beautiful projects. There is no substitute for time in the studio with an experienced teacher, but when it's hard to find the time, books are great for self teaching.

And for entertainment, I'm reading the long long awaited final volume of the Wheel of Time series, The Gathering Storm. I love a good fantasy novel, especially one you can get your teeth into, and at almost 800 pages, these books will not leave you unsatisfied. The death of the Author was quite a blow to the fantasy world, but he left behind a testament to the care he took in writing. After committing to novels and a series of this epic proportion, he had carefully planned and plotted so much that it was possible to finish his work. Brian Sanderson is doing a great job bringing me the story I've been wanting to read since the early nineties in college.

What are you reading?

Sleepy Saturday Snack

I needed to take a jewelry marketing break, so here's what I had for lunch today, after sleeping in for the first time in months:

I guess I'm developing some Pittsburgh after all.  I wanted potato and cheese pierogies, so we found a recipe (ok, I changed it a bit, since it called for 2 cups of milk, and I couldn't find anywhere that was appropriate.  I think I ended up using about 3 ounces) and made them.  NaCraMaMo had me so busy I wasn't cooking as much last month. 

It's good to be back.

Decisions lead to results

What stones to use, what clasp to hold it all together, how the piece should feel, are all decisions we make as we craft a necklace.  When you are done, hopefully you have something that balances well and evokes an emotion.  The smallest choices can totally change the feel of a piece.

When I started the coral necklace, I focal bead in place, roughly laid out the beads I intended to use, and started stringing.  I had two repetitions of pattern down before I sat back and looked at it. I left it sitting there for a day, trying to figure out what I didn't like about and finally decided it was boring.  Pretty, but boring. 

So, off it came, all back to bare, and I tried again.  What I finally came up with isn't that much different, but there's a movement to it.  There's a much more natural feeling to it.  Not so sterile and mechanical.  One of the reasons people enjoy hand crafted jewelry is you can feel the artist's intent--no point if all I give is a boring, mechanical repeat.

Now when I look at the finished piece, at a necklace someone will own some day, that they will wear on special occasions hopefully, I smile.  I see the ocean.  I see waves on a rocky shore, pulling back to reveal coral outcrops and starfish.  I want to touch it and smile more.

--Mina

Charming

    

In crafting month, I was trying to make a charm a day. This simple goal kept me thinking on a small, nice and workable scale for my items.

But there's so much you can do with a charm!

The beauty of a charm is that simple or complex, representative or abstract, beaded or only metal, it represents a complete idea. You can make them in identical pairs, sets to tell a story, and singles that are a picture.

And I love that you can wear just one on a necklace or choose as many as you like. Tack one onto a beaded bracelet for fun.

Charms make a statement that represents you or reminds someone you care about of why they are special.

What would your charms say?

If you like these or have any ideas you'd love to see on a charm bracelet, just contact us!

Celebrate Artfire Sale!

We're celebrating
the new Intentional Stones Artfire shop
with a Sale!

Now through Sunday November 8th,  all listed items have been marked down 10% 

Come take a look around the shop.

This might be the time to get your Christmas shopping started early.

Mention the blog and you get an additional 5% off your entire order. 

Use coupon code ISBLOGFIRSTSALE

Inspiration from the World

I'm nearly ten thousand miles away from my home. So it's understandable that I feel out of touch some days. And my main lifeline to the world I know when the world outside my windows seems overwhelming, is the internet, and particularly the blogging world. (Not that I would dispense with instant messaging or twitter either.)

Today, I'd like to share some of the sites that have been the most inspiring, encouraging and grounding for me. I cannot hope to mention everyone, since you'd be here reading all week, but I'm working on updated my blog list on the sidebar.  Until I get that done, here are a few of my favorites:

The EtsyMetal blog follows the members of the EtsyMetal street team and shares the challenges they give one another and the places they'll be. I also follow several of the individual members, who's jewelry is amazing.

Sites like the ArtBiz blog, Ask Harriette, Timothy Adams Designs and Handmadeology are great sites discussing the business of selling handmade online.

And Regretsy makes me laugh each and every day. Yes, I've even found an item that I love there. But some days I stare so much at my shop stuff that I really need to laugh at myself through the ridiculous things that can show up.   Am I terrible?

But I'm not all business, I love to read about families, food and fun.

I started blogging inspired by the Super Baking Nytesong at Vanilla Icing, who also happens to be my dear friend and neighbor. Her pictures keep us grounded to our home, neighborhood and friends, as well as delicious food and the seasons I'm missing!

Amanda Soule and her merry band show all the ways a creative homeschooling family can be make this crazy lifestyle work, so I check in with them every day.

The Simple Green Frugal CoOp is another place to find tips on living simply that I always need.

A Fanciful Twist is a lovely photo blog that simply delights me every day. Her photos take me into another world where fairies are real and nature is magical. That's the only way I can describe.

Smitten Kitchen makes me drool each and every time.  Want gourmet Rice Crispie treats or mouthwatering stuffed eggplant?  This is where you'll find it all.

And The Pioneer Woman can photograph, write, and cook her way to laughs several times a day. I have got to love her spirit and energy.

For the personal and minute to minute stuff, I look to Twitter and Facebook. I'm also finding more and more life, homeschool and jewelry connections in both places every day. My small space on those large places is getting updated continually and I'm adjusting to their new features. So please feel free to follow or friend me and I'll shout out about the people who have just made my day.

-Simbelmynë

The Koala and the Platypus

The first time, leaving the Deep Space Communication Station, we stopped in at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, it was an hour before closing and the nature reserve was free!  (you normally have to pay a small fee for taking your car into the park.  It's certainly possible to hike the park, but it's a looooooong haul.)  We ducked in, stopping as the visitor's center was being locked up, and got a map to the most likely place to see a Platypus.

At least an hour before sunset, the easily accessible platypus area (five minutes drive plus a 15 minute hike on paved paths) was not hopping at all.  Frogs, ducks and wood hens, sure,  Platypus- I think I saw a ripple, but no way to confirm that it wasn't just a fish.

The Koala area was closed, their precious gum trees, damaged in the horrible fires of 2003, were not safe for visitors in the days wind.

Luckily, Tidbinbilla is less than an hour away from our home in Canberra.

And so, on a lazy saturday when we'd slept in and only wanted a medium sized adventure, we stopped at the Moonrock Cafe to say hi! to the DSCS, and prepared to really see the hard to find critters.

I glanced at the tiny stuffed Koala Persephone bought me to make me feel better when we couldn't see Koalas just any old place, prepared to search fruitlessly one more time.  Apparently, I'm not the only visitor REALLY hot to see these disappearing and adorable creatures.  The visitors center provided us with a map, marked with the place someone had seen a Koala that morning, and the time for a guided hike to the platypuses.  We headed into the park.

There he was.  We'd been looking in the higher trees and branches securely next to the trunks.  But our Koala was happily snoozing only 12 feet off the ground on a sapling. Right off the path, there was a yellow tag, saying KOALA and today's date.

Yup, that's right, he hadn't moved all day.
Koalas sleep on average 22 hours of the day.  This guy yawned and stretched.  He even took a moment to scratch his chest.  Now there's a relaxing life.  We hiked a long path around the Koala enclosure to discover a new one of our own.  And saw not one. 

Why are these poor little guys enclosed?
I mentioned the fire earlier?  It wiped out 99% of the koala population in Tidbinbilla.  Literally one out of the one hundred in the population survived. 

We even saw his private enclosure.  He lived the rest of his little natural koala life and died a couple of years ago. 

The reserve has imported a new population, not an easy task, since koalas spend most of their life in one particular tree.  Now one particular area of the reserve is carefully maintained to nurture this new group of animals. 

The Platypus hike was really a guide making sure we found the correct pond.  Then an urging to be as quiet as we could so that the playful little critters wouldn't hide. 
More than satisfactory, since immediately we saw the ripples of 4-6 different platypuses in different parts of the pond.  The guide also showed us the places on the bank where, in later spring, the platypuses climb up and build nests for their eggs. 

Here's what you can see when you've seen a platypus in the wild.

Here's what they look like under water (video taken at the Sydney Aquarium by Adam)

Platypus need clear, unpolluted lakes. Koalas need us to stop taking down their gum tree forests and to be more careful with our fires. Maybe in PA it's hard to see the immediate effects of our behavior towards wild places. But here, it's right in our faces. I'm so glad we're getting a chance to be here and see this. And we've seen the forests with their charred, but surviving trees. Our kids know first hand how beautiful and elusive these creatures are, what they need to survive, and how humans have directly impacted their habitats. -Simbelmynë

Clasps Make a Difference

Upon completion of the design and stringing of the coral necklace, I realized the only clasps I had were small lobsters.  Perfectly nice sterling lobster claws, but not at all what this necklace needed.  To balance the blue coral focal bead I had to have a clasp with some weight.  And with some elegance.  Otherwise it would be like putting on a cocktail dress with a pair of five dollar flip flops.  Not exactly the statement I was going for.

Happily for my necklace if not my bank account, the bead trunk show came through town last weekend.  I knew Green Girl Studios would be there.  They would have SOMETHING I could use.  If I picked up a few other little things, well, I only have to feed my kids, not me.  Right?   Unsurprisingly, they did have the perfect thing.  After watching a half dozen women oohing and ahhing over the lovely cast pieces,  I had my turn.

And, of course, it took all of two seconds to find this:

That was, in all fairness, exactly what I was looking for.  The right size, with plenty of detail, and the subject goes well with the coral and ocean blues of the necklace.  Had I not found that beauty, though, I also found some simpler clasps that would also work.

These beautiful hammered toggle clasps from Min Imports only make me miss Cathy more, though, since I'm pretty sure she can make me something very much like them.  Ah well, only two more months.  Right, Cath?

Coming up next, how a pattern goes from simple to simply elegant....

-Mina

Halloween, Australia Style

Our neighbors were delighted at the invitation to a Halloween Party.  This year's Halloween enthusiasm came from Adam.  (You might be surprised at this, since most years, I am the one creating the awesome plans and over-complicated costumes.)  I just played along and made simple decorations with the kids and food.



Adam did the inviting, the greeting, watermelon purchasing and making up games.



Yes, you heard me right,

Watermelons. 

Well, it's spring here, you see, and carving Pumpkins are kind of a rarity.  It was great fun discussing the difference between Pumpkins in Grocery stores.

Australians maintain the entire hard squash family under the title of "Pumpkins."  So you'll see an awesome selection of pumpkin toppings on pizzas, pumpkin risotto balls, and, of course, pumpkin soups everywhere you go in the fall and winter. 

So Adam went to the store, where late spring watermelons are cheap and bought four of them for the party.  Our guests brought more, and one even brought a pumpkin!

We bobbed for Apples, did Tricks for Treats

(this awesome idea was from my Neighbor) barbecued for our first time here, ate candy and played all evening.  It was lovely and we made new friends. (Yup, Adam did his thing of waylaying friendly looking people on the bike path) We were not alone as we introduced neighborhood people to each other, too!

The next day, Halloween proper, the kids were a little disappointed that they don't do trick or treating here.  But my kids took the initiative, Persephone created a wonderful costume out of the extra card stock from the decorations and visited our house and the Neighbors (who brought the candy the night before) as Lady Liberty

Definitely next year we're going to be working together more on the costumes. 

I'm feeling completely between the holidays this year.  Please understand that my holiday thinking is very strongly influenced by nature.  Halloween (or Samhain, in the celtic calendar) is a time of harvest and falling leaves.  Here, in the Southern Hemisphere, the flowers are finishing their blooms, the bees are humming loud, the animals have found their mates and the summer days are just around the corner.   Just right for May Day! (Beltaine)

We celebrated that on Sunday in the Capital Gardens, and it was simple and perfect.

My takeaway lesson from Halloween in Australia?  Simple is much more fun and you Can trust people to come together to make a fabulous time.