closer to fine

little bit of bokeh, eh?

I just made this more-delicate-than-is-usual-for-me necklace from an antique watch chain and vintage brass rosary chain and a tiny pin I got in Hardy, Arkansas, made of brass and celluloid. The pin was costume jewelry in its day but is closer to fine today.

And here I will confess that I used to perform this song by the Indigo Girls when I lived in the Florida Keys. It was the end of the '80s, and I'm a sucker for a nice melody and decent lyrics, so I was playing Edie Brickell and Suzanne Vega and Emmylou Harris, and if she'd made her break by then, I would have been playing Sheryl Crow, but that would have to wait till the '90s. Before Vega's "Luka" was a hit single, I'd said, "Damn, this song should be a hit single, but it's too dark."

*****

"Closer to Fine" --Amy Elizabeth Ray, Emily Ann Saliers

I'm trying to tell you something about my life

Maybe give me insight between black and white

The best thing you've ever done for me

Is to help me take my life less seriously, it's only life after all

Well darkness has a hunger that's insatiable

And lightness has a call that's hard to hear

I wrap my fear around me like a blanket

I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it, I'm crawling on your shore. 

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains

I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain

There's more than one answer to these questions

Pointing me in crooked line

The less I seek my source for some definitive

The closer I am to fine. 

I went to see the doctor of philosophy

With a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee

He never did marry or see a B-grade movie

He graded my performance, he said he could see through me

I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind, got my paper

And I was free. 

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains

I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain

There's more than one answer to these questions

Pointing me in crooked line

The less I seek my source for some definitive

The closer I am to fine. 

I stopped by the bar at 3 a.m.

To seek solace in a bottle or possibly a friend

I woke up with a headache like my head against a board

Twice as cloudy as I'd been the night before

I went in seeking clarity. 

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains

I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain

There's more than one answer to these questions

Pointing me in crooked line

The less I seek my source for some definitive

The closer I am to fine. 

I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains

I looked to the children, I drank from the fountain

There's more than one answer to these questions

Pointing me in crooked line

The less I seek my source for some definitive

The closer I am to fine. 

We go to the bible, we go through the workout

We read up on revival and we stand up for the lookout

There's more than one answer to these questions

Pointing me in a crooked line

The less I seek my source for some definitive

The closer I am to fine

The closer I am to fine

The closer I am to fine

You can buy this necklace soon,
as well as other pieces, in my Etsy shop.

RENEGADE HANDMADE

I'll be selling my wares at the Renegade Craft Fair in Los Angeles on July 28 & 29.

Where? 1245 North Spring Street, adjacent to
Chinatown and Dodger Stadium.  FAQ!

Per Renegade, here's what's happening: "We’re finishing up the West Coast leg of our 2012 RCF summer tour with the 4th Annual Renegade Craft Fair Los Angeles on July 28+29 from 11am-7pm both days, at the Los Angeles State Historic Park! Get ready for hundreds of today’s best indie crafters, hands-on workshops, music, food trucks, booze + oh so much more.  As always, our favorite free-to-use photobooth will be in full effect, and DJs from KXLU will be spinning our crafting + shopping soundtrack.  Attendees can help LA’s four-legged friends find a forever home with Second Acts Animal Rescue. We’ll also have several of LA’s finest food trucks on hand!

View Larger Map

YOU CAN BUY MY STUFF ON ETSY

say hello to Alma and Ben, earrings

antique assemblage earrings

I'm not sure what I will call this pair, maybe Alma & Ben. They were described as love tokens in the auction I won, but they look more like they were cut from some other existing piece of silver, since there is cutwork on the backs. At any rate, they're silver. And the coral bits are coral, originally from an antique necklace that belonged to my grandmother. The string disintegrated, so I've had this box of coral pieces with drilled holes, thinking I'd eventually use them for something, and lo and behold: Alma & Ben.

YOU CAN BUY MY STUFF ON ETSY

my new light box has a cathedral ceiling

Yesterday I made a light box. I used thin dowels and thinner dowels and tape and tissue paper. It looked like a box kite gone horribly wrong. It is now sitting in the fireplace waiting to be a box-light bonfire and also waiting for the weather to not perversely be 85 degrees in winter.
Today I went to the hardware store, then to the office store. I bought stuff to make a larger, studier light box (see instructions below and pics taken in the light box below that).

LIGHT BOX RECIPE

4 large dowels

8 pieces douglas fir

1 deluxe white shower curtain with a tiny allover pattern of reflective satin-stitching

4 full-spectrum bulbs, 75 to 125 watts

1 sheet polyviny core board

2 sheets white poster board

use items found in garage:

32 1.5-inch finishing nails

wood glue

8 2-inch wood screws

10 screw-in hooks

clip-on lights

Nail together 4 pieces of fir in a square and repeat so that you have 2 frames. Route holes to hold dowels in all 8 corners of frames. Drill holes into each end of 4 large dowels and drill holes though the center of each routed hole in corners of frames. Screw dowels to frames. Cut shower curtain in half horizontally and cut half of that (the half with the grommets) in half lengthwise. Screw hooks along top of box. Hang shower curtain from hooks by grommets. Use other piece to drape over top. Cut polyvinyl core board to fit bottom frame and cut notches in corners to fit around dowels. Hang poster board from top back to bottom front. Clip lights--with full-spectrum bulbs--onto sides and top of box.

  

A delicately enameled gold crescent moon curls around a flower whose center is a pearl. This piece had a broken pin and was in a box of a relative's that had been stored in a closet. I've had it for years thinking I'd love to do something with it. I'm not sure if it's gold or if that's a real pearl, but it's very finely made and hasn't been polished yet retains its gold luster. The enamel has worn off in two places, barely noticeable since the piece is 7/8 inch. Two hand-carved, not-exactly-the-same-size mother of pearl beads accent the double chain, one length of which is an engraved fetter-link or trombone chain that sets off the intricate enamelwork of the focal. It clasps at the neck with a small, nicely made antique dog clip that looks like gold or rolled gold.


*****

part 6 of Mary Oliver's "Little Sister Pond" from her book "American Primitive," 1978

6

And somewhere the blue damselfly
sleeps in the reeds
it flew back to when it left my wrist,
its tiny lungs
inhaling, exhaling, its eyes
staring east where the summer moon
is rising,
brushing over the dark pond,
for all of us, the white flower
of dreams.

YOU CAN BUY MY STUFF ON ETSY

Not "It" As in "Cousin It"

Though this hand is slight, its flight is not sleight of hand, unless it's meant to misdirect attention from the prestidigitation that conjures a rabbit from the hat...or is it a dove? A bat? Oh: a winged rabbit.

 New necklace: Flight of Hand

YOU CAN BUY MY STUFF ON ETSY

astounding

That's the word that came to mind when I first saw this work of art.

corset by Irena Gasha

I was so taken by the artistry and craft that I had to make a treasury in tribute.

Okay, enough with the treasuries;  I need to post these new necklaces to my Etsy shop.

And work on the white balance (!)

mobile website...

...achieved! Check it.