Artfully Meandering: A slow tour through Charleston

Artfully Meandering: Charleston

And so my vacation comes to an end...I got to sleep as much as I needed during these two weeks. I shopped with my mom. Saw my nieces everyday and spent time with family. On Monday, we went to Charleston. I love old things. This is something I miss in Hong Kong...it's such a modern city, which has it's advantages. As a glass half full person, I'm learning to find the best in that. (I think I liked Beijing because it preserves the old things of China.)

Since I will be falling off the face of this earth (well at least the face of this hemisphere), I have learned it usually takes at least a week to recover from the travel. So, it's possible I may neglect the blog. To stave off blog starvation, I will feed it will some delectable photos from Charleston over the week. I have scheduled a series of posts from my meanderings in Charleston, South Carolina in the autumn. Toodles for now!

Studio News: Within these woods...

My dad took me out of his way to bury Bijou's ashes in northern Wisconsin where our other special family pets lie. It was significantly out of the way. But, he has a soft heart like me when it comes to our animals. Maybe even softer.

Within these woods

Lie our special family fur friends

Ellie - our Maltese who never complained (September, 2006)

Kodi - our wild, red-headed golden retriever (July, 2008)

and now joined by Bijou - my clumsy boy, who always made me laugh (January, 2009)

I'm very grateful for the opportunity to have known my little Texan Maltese. He was born, raised, and died in Texas. He visited Wisconsin on family vacations. And he was always funny. I was happy to have had the opportunity to be his mama while he lived and to spoil him just a little and give him a happy, secure doggy life. He is well missed and thought of with happiness and funny memories. It helps me to have a "back-up" Maltese in Molly. For some reason, I had always assumed Bijou would have been the back-up Maltese. Either way, my strategy worked...Molly has been a huge help with the grieving and filling the void.





And while on vacation, I have an Alt Malt (Alternate Maltese), my dad's little six-pound Maltese named Madison (Maddy for short) who is your friend for life if you give her lots and lots of belly rubs. Which I have been carefully tending to the belly rubs and making good friends. She is my dad's dog...she follows him around, watches him to see if he's going to sit down and if she should sit with him. But, I've made inroads into her belly-rub heart. She even slept with me once. She is trying to share herself with all three of us (my dad, mom, and me). She is ridiculously cute, and well, must get smooches and bellyrubs and backrubs. She helps fill the Maltese void while on vacation. But, I'm missing my Hong Kong Molly Dolly...

Artfully Meandering: Beginner Work

A beautiful early hit. I don't remember all of the beads, but I think the colored beads were citrine and carnelian. I think. This was one of my first necklaces that I gave to my mom. And she won't part with it. I looked at it with fresh eyes (three years since I've seen it) and "oohed" over it before I realized it was one of mine. That's kind of a nice feeling...to have your mom, who is knowledgeable about jewelry and you, who has progressed in skill, look back on an early piece and still admire it.




This one, not so much. These were the very first lampwork beads I ever bought. They are from Grace Lampwork Beads. I think I was headed on the right track, but missed the station somehow. I love the green, enameled beads with accents of copper. I plan to re-configure this necklace. It's not a complete miss, but with additional understanding and skills, I know how to refine this into a quality piece that I will like much better. The main thing that bugs me is that the "Swarovskis" are fakes. I didn't know the difference at the time. I do now!

Studio News: Wandering Around the States

While in Texas for a business trip, I had the pleasant surprise of having an impromptu "trunk show" with my colleagues. Thank you, Valerie and Dawn, who helped me learn quite a bit from this experience about how to prepare, answer questions, and not be nervous. It helps to practice small "shows" on friendly people you already know before you try anything bigger. It was a really pleasant surprise for me to sell some of my jewelry! I'm glad I brought what I had been working on! I also learned a lot about what people like, how to pack and display the jewelry, determine what is popular, then continue to develop a line that will resonate with people in general and still play with the "art" side of jewelry. In short, it was a pleasant surprise, full of fun, and a great learning experience for me.

I was in Wisconsin to attend a friends wedding and am now visiting family in South Carolina. My vacation is flying by so very quickly! I really do not miss the cold. Or the winter. But, I miss autumn. Caramel apples. Hot cider. Custard. Bratwurst. Wisconsin cheese.

My mom likes vintage jewelry and we've gone through her stash of jewelry. Her stash also includes some of the jewelry I have made for her...a beautiful double spiral chain maille bracelet, some earrings and necklaces. I'll do a post on that later. We also spent some time in the antique malls checking out vintage jewelry.