Sunday, November 27, 2011

Studio Time: Cotton Themed Jewelry Available!

In support of my fellow Artisans of the South Carolina Cotton Trail, I am posting my cotton-themed jewelry on their e-commerce site. There are some fabulous artists that are part of the Cotton Trail in many mediums: painting, photography, ceramics, glass, to name a few. Very excited to be part of this group as I love local history.


Here is one of the pieces that has already found a new home Cotton Cascade:


A decadent cascade of patinaed Argentium Silver (.925) and glass beads for the chic, cosmopolitan woman with a sense of history… Necklace: Argentium Silver (.925) hand-made glass beads. Can be worn in a traditional style or clasped higher as a lariat style. 19”.  Earrings: Argentium Silver (.925), and hand-made glass beads. 1”

Rambling Thoughts 

I am working on launching a consulting business with my knowledge as "girl geek project manager." I'm a little nervous, but that is one of the projects taking up some of my time, handling the administrative setup, getting articles written, finding my voice, rounding out my training, etc. All the things needed for a good consultant. 

Anyway, I was noodling on the subject of how a creative business and the particular project management framework I teach (called Agile) relate to each other. At first it seemed like Kanna Glass Studios and Kanna Consulting would be very different entities. However, as I have been researching and writing, I stumbled across the observation that knowledge work (a phrase coined by Peter Drucker) is creative work. The more I contemplate this correlation, the more it makes sense to me: knowledge work involves a lot of ideas, concepts, and thoughts before there is a tangible finished product. (Examples: a lot of programming takes place before there is useful software. A lot of discussion and ideas before a television ad can be run.) While it is not necessarily art, it does follow a creative process like art. So, I am figuring out how to blend my experiences as an artist into the consulting approach. I have often thought my artistic, creative side complemented what I offered in a traditional business environment. Now I want to explore this correlation a little deeper. I might mumble about these concepts from time to time...but I'll try not to be too boring. Just wanted to let you know where I've been lately, why, and throw some ideas out there... 

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Artfully Meandering: I was getting a little worried...

As I wrote of often in Hong Kong,  I would translate my clumsiness into an amusing story of life in Hong Kong. This year was just working like crazy and attempting to recover from the migraines caused by the pollution in Hong Kong.

Side note: I still miss HK A LOT. I watch movies and I'm horribly nostalgic. Yet, I love where I live...it is truly beautiful here. I mean, if this was in your back yard, how can you NOT be inspired? Oh, I seriously am.


But, I have had a dry spell on klutziness. It wasn't intentional. It has been a signature feature of my life for...well, all my life (my younger niece is following in my footsteps. Literally. Poor thing). But, I guess I have lengths of time where I can go and be relatively stable and un-klutzy. And lull people into thinking I'm a physically stable person, and able to walk with grace and elegance. Ooooh, little do they know...

But, I had a glimmer of the usual me on Tuesday. I treated myself to a Starbucks (I was on vacation...Starbucks = Vacation for me). I went through the drive-through and as I was handing my card to the barista, I didn't let him fully grasp the card and then I promptly dropped the card onto the driveway. I also had change in my hand for the tip and attempted to toss the tip into the jar. Missed that, too. The barista laughed and commented, "Batting 1000 today?" I grinned back, squeezed out of the door to pick up my credit card, and commented, "Yeah. I shouldn't have been let out of the house today. I'm a menace to my credit card. In more ways than one!"

Yep. I'm baaaccck!