Intentional Stones

Because I want to be more in touch

Life is overwhelming.   Whose isn't? 

I promised writing today, here I am.

It's the time of year for things to be waking up.  The flowers, the birds and animals, me.

This year I'm working much harder.  Period

I'm working to be more true to what I really want to be doing.  Working in gemstone.  Working in metal.  You won't see anything from me that's metal that anyone else has made, unless I've had it a while and I've drilled holes in it or added findings to it or taken it apart and put it together.  (see bracelet above, yes those beads were pretty, but only one hole?  Really?  for such a large bead?  they're almost an inch wide!  So I fixed them.)

I spent today working on findings and on the trinket rings that people seem to love.  Thank you all! 

I'm also working much harder on the kids' school.  It's like I have three full time jobs. 

Hence the blog falling off the face of the earth.

We went to Florida and saw breathtaking things, above and below the water.  I hope I'll have time to write about that. 

And the summer is starting to shape up beautifully. 

Save the Date on April 14th, we'll be showing at the Soutside Works I Made It Market's Chili at the Works!  More on this tomorrow.  I'm really excited.

 

I'm not noticing

This may be a rambling post, as I want to write, but I'm not sure what to write about. If I get too confusing, just close your eyes and imagine yourself here:

We just spent the week in New England, partly in Gloucester and Boston and otherwise just wandering around.   Submarine museums, Native American museums, Walden Pond...  We even got beach time. 

Summer is in full swing.  With the remodel I'm feeling way off balance.  Not as much time at the bench as I'd like.  A huge amount of time with the kids having fun, which I love. But certainly, not as much time blogging and keeping up with the world in my computer. 

Food while the kitchen is dismantled is a disaster.  Stuff that goes in the microwave, eating out, grab and go.  My fridge is not plugged into its regular socket and I worry that it's not getting enough juice.  (This is probably irrational, I know, but I'll keep the doors shut as much as I can anyway.)

My poor kitty has been feeling poorly lately.  He's getting dehydrated easily.  The vet changed his meds a little and we're hoping this will help, but it will be a few days until we get the new ones.  I'll keep worrying until then.  Sigh. 

Today we get a new stove, microwave and dishwasher.  I'm not sure they'll be installed today, the cabinets are going in right now, so I'm hopeful. 

I'll write more when I'm feeling more organized.  Hope your day is going well!

-Simbelmynë

Ramblings and absences

This blog has suffered a period of neglect. Ordinary life seems less interesting to write about. And I've just been ordinarily busy.

I'm going to try to pick up the pace. Blog daily. But there's a catch. Part of the difficulty is finding words to express how I'm thinking about the art and my creative life.

Some posts may not have words. Not in a wordless-Wednesday kind of way, but in a "the words aren't coming" way.

The other posts will have perhaps too many words.

Bear with me. I work in plastic art because the ideas don't translate into words. And I do love to talk. My days are just full of stuff. Much of it is not really worth talking about. You can get the idea better through a picture.

I babble on twitter all the time. You can see my rambling, uncensored thinking there.

I'll write here when thoughts and ideas are sounding interesting. And when a picture really says it better, I'll share that way.

-Simbelmynë

The kerfluffel

Well, last week ended in a big fuss with the discovery of some asbestos tiles in the floor. With that thought we called the main contractor, who reassured us that the stuff in the walls is some sort if plaster over lathe, not asbestos. So the only thing to worry about were some floor tiles. These turn out to not be a source of contamination unless they're damaged.

Fortunately, they are tough and only one is exposed this week while my sister is visiting. Turns out these tiles are pretty standard in a house 75-100 years old, they usually can be removed intact, and clearing out for a day should be enough. When they do the floor, not right now.

We hung plastic anyway, since the exposed plaster is very dusty. Everything is thoroughly covered. We can exist.

The contractors are returning on The 23rd to remove the wall!

I'll miss having a bathroom on the first floor. I won't miss my dishwasher in the middle of the floor. (yes, the bathroom is _that_ small)

My Uncle's funeral went well. I got to spend some good quality time with my Aunt and some cousins I rarely see. My family is so small. The contrast with my family-in-law is pretty extreme.

~Simbelmynë

New Year 2011

Happy New Year!

My post is a little late.  Life has gotten in the way of blogging.

Too many pieces to make, too much fun and family.  I surely do not complain!

As you can still see, time management is a new years resolution I still haven't conquered.  I won't even make it.  That would be unrealistic.  I do resolve to take stock of the time I spend, giving a realistic time estimate is essential to taking commissions.  My current work is for friends and family members and they are extra special understanding as they share some of my holiday schedule.  Next year I will officially call the holidays "vacation" and not give myself any due dates during that 2 or 3 weeks.

Currently on my bench I have a ring, three necklaces of woven chain and wire work, and some interesting non-pierced earrings.  Look forward to posts about these.

This week I'm looking at the list of art fair opportunities I've collected and choosing some.  The summer is way up in the air!  Over Christmas I visited a heritage event down at the Waterfront shopping center on the river and I hope I'll hear more about future events in these old steel-industry buildings.  Pittsburgh will definitely see more of Intentional Stones at art events this year.  As for traveling to shows, I'm pretty sure I'll be at the Cheat Fest in West Virginia again.    I'm going to look for a show in New York and a couple further away in Pennsylvania in the Laurel Highlands.  (If you're local to either of these places, please recommend your favorite art event!)  I'd love to go out to Florida or someplace warm, but I'm sure school and work schedules will make that complicated. 

I also plan some stone hunting trips.  These are very much tentative still, the Southwest hosts a rich array of lapidary and jewelry events in the spring, so I'd better get my ducks in a row! 

I'm only taking one class this semester, Jewelry Making 2.  Yes, I  can learn from past mistakes!  I have goals to do more drawing, I feel like I owe it to myself and my instructor last semester.  I even promised one of the kids' friends lessons in drawing people.  Improving my art is extremely important. And I'm not managing props for any plays.  If my daughter decides to continue with dance, I'll help out where I'm available, but no all-semester commitments. 

I feel ready to run right now!

-Simbelmynë

 

Planning a Funeral part 3

I'm feeling, mostly, that this funeral represent my Dad's life.  And it will mean taking the next step into our lives.  In planning it, I spent a lot of time thinking about that time in my life when I lived with my parents.  Not so much the things that have happened since that time.  Maybe for the first time. 

And I liked it. 

It makes more and more sense to me that I chose to affirm life in the decisions I made towards the funeral.  I wanted, very much, for his casket to be of a natural material and the fact that the company plants trees in the name of the deceased.  In order to renew a forest to make up for the tree used in the casket.

And I chose live flowers for the arrangement I sent to the funeral.  Not an easy thing to do in January in Illinois. 

both the basket and the irises were ordered together.  I asked the florist to create something that would build from the shorter living plants to the irises in the vase if I set them next to each other.  I don't think they achieved the effect.  But, they were both beautiful. 

Most funeral flowers are very large arrangements, and the two that were chosen by my sister and our cousins ended up staying at the funeral home to be donated to a rehabilitation facility/nursing home that my dad spent time in last year for use in their flower arranging class.  

I'm very glad my mom will have the bulb plants in her apartment throughout the spring.  Something visible that she'll be able to keep and possibly put on the grave come springtime, if she wants to.

Good bye, Dad.

-Simbelmyne

Planning a Funeral part 2

As for bigger arrangements, the funeral director we chose did an amazing job of being patient and walking us through all the decisions that needed to be made.  Most importantly of all, he took care of us so that we could think about these little details that we'll remember most.  For example by remembering when we mentioned my dad's enduring love for nature and trees.

My mother, sister and I have widely divergent feelings about religion and philosophy.  He patiently steered us through decisions in order to make sure we were all happy and my dad was honored.  And I was amazed and pleased with the result.

The obituary was probably the hardest part of the process.  It required a knowledge of newspaper requirements, traditional format, consciousness of genealogy, as well as writing skill for portraying a life.  Let me say, there was a lot of arguing over details and things to include.  But, thanks to patience and experience from our funeral directory, we made it through. 

Also, there was the matter of my dad's wish to be buried near his parents in New Jersey.  Weather conditions and poor records made it extremely difficult to obtain the information that there was not a plot available in that cemetery.  Fortunately, since my dad has always had a very strong attachment to his home in Illinois, we felt comfortable burying him in the beautiful and historic public cemetery in Wheaton. 

Choices of casket and vault provided me with the most inner turmoil.  Though my spouse and I have not looked into our options in detail, we both feel very strongly that some form or natural or "green" burial is the only way to go.  My parents, however, are much more traditional.  And since this was not my funeral, I worked very hard to put my own feelings aside for this. 

At issue, for me, is the fact that with a traditional burial, there is no way for the body to become a part of the earth again.  It is encased in a heavy casket and the casket is placed inside a thoroughly sealed vault.  There exist unsealed vaults, and I was very much interested in this option, but it became clear that, for my mother, the sealed vault was important. 

So, to make myself happy, I leaned toward a casket made of natural material, oak.  The company that makes these caskets also offers a program where they plant a tree in the deceased's name in a national forest.  Very fortunately, my mother and sister loved these choices and we all even liked the same coffin style.  It is true that none of this is particularly the most economical option, but I found the tie in to my dad's passion for the trees I grew up with to be very reassuring. 

The cemetery in Wheaton was full of trees and lovely with all the snow everywhere.  And we were able to find a plot (for 2) under a beautiful tree in a grove of pines.  It reminded me and my sister of our home growing up, surrounded by very tall trees. 

-Simbelmyne

Planning a Funeral part 1

My father passed away on Thursday, January 8th after being ill for a long time.

My experiences that I've been detailing here, in working creatively, have helped greatly in the planning of the funeral and just my thinking for the last week.  It really helped me remain flexible and prioritize the different tasks that needed to be done.  I've never planned a funeral before, he'd not made any arrangements, and it was important to me that we honor my dad- from choosing caskets and services to flowers and photographs for the viewing. 

Thinking about the funeral from detail to detail gave me the opportunity to reflect on his life and the things he enjoyed. 

We created a simple memory book of his adult life.  I was able to find photos of my dad from my early childhood that I had never seen.  And though I have no desire to rewrite his life story to make it all sunny and happy.  I felt it was appropriate to emphasize the good times he had, to help dispel memories of the last several years, when we've spent all our time worrying about doctors and health issues.  

We chose photos of the four of us together when my sister and I were babies, pictures of trips my parents had taken, him with us at some of our graduations and achievement moments and him with his retirement volunteer organization.  The layout was very very simple, especially since this was all pulled together in one day and the photos are all originals and therefore, irreplaceable.  I left room in the book for us to add pages from all eras of his life and after the funeral, I added prayer cards and my dad's obituary.  I have a lot of pictures from this last week, but I'm taking a bit of time to sort through them and print them to add them to the book.

This book complemented a book his mother had collected of school photos, high school roast paper and sports teams, his time in the Alpha Chi Sigma honors chemistry fraternity and his navy graduation into the medical corps.

In other words, I wanted the funeral to celebrate his life. 

-Simbelmyne