Artfully Meandering: Campbell's Covered Bridge

A century-old relic of South Carolina's history. The last one in the State.

Artfully Meandering: Greer, SC

I am expanding on an idea spawned from My First Hong Kong-er-versary. I was re-reading the post as I was cleaning up my blog and cataloguing my Hong Kong adventures and liked the phrase, "Resident Adventurer." When we get used to living in a place, we forget to be adventurers. We stop looking around and stop seeing what is right under our nose. 

I love where I live in South Carolina with the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop and lovely foothills to meander through. I did a Resident Adventure tour of Greer today. The above is a floral arrangement from by Joy Felts at Greer Florist. She claims she is an amateur floral designer, but I love this sweet bouquet and took it on my Adventure today. I'll post a few pictures later, but just wanted to post the first result from today's little adventure

Artfully Meandering: This Little Chickadee is a Reformed Northerner

I grew up in Wisconsin. I am now a Reformed Northerner aka A Southerner. I was in Denver two weeks ago and went from 55 degrees in Greenville to 5 degrees in Denver. In a single day. This New Fangled Southerner's blood is too thin for this! I like southern winters. I believe snow should be viewed from the comfort of your home, with a roaring fire, and a mug of hot chocolate. I believe in snow days. This little chickie's blood thinned right out as soon as I hit Texas in 2000. I visit winter. I don't live in it anymore.

But, in spite of that, I am okay with visiting. For a little bit. Snow is purty. The Rockies are spectacular. And the hotel I'm staying at (Hotel Boulerado) is a throwback to the early 1900's. In fact it has one of the remaining original Otis elevators, still operated by a bellman. So cool. Yeehaw!

Also, this week of learning has made me realize I'm not as daft as I thought I was! I know I have a quirky mix of thoughts and bring an electic mix of skills (business and artistically) to the table. But, through this week, I'm finding there are other souls whose mind is in the space mine is at... and that there is hope! I've been noodling on the idea to combine my art and consulting business... or even using and leveraging my art business in the professional consulting world. Businesses are starting to recognize the need for a creative approach. What better experience to offer than that odd mix of change agent for a process and an artist who uses creative processes? Most creatives are bringing their business knowledge to the table. I'm thinking about bringing my creative knowledge to the business table. I'm going to experiment with this voice for a bit. I don't know where it will lead. I have slowed down in the jewelry making for a while this year. I've been struggling to re-establish in the US, and I found my usual inspiration taxed by a tough year. 

So, I think the next year is going to be an experiment: seeing how an artistic approach and inform the new face of business as knowledge (aka creative) work. I'm in the process of thinking how the two can cross-pollinate...like an article on Agile for Artists and articles on Art for Agilists. Plus, I've had an idea for a journal I've been wanting for a long time. It's going to require stepping up my photography skills. If I get a day job, I'm going to work on my photography skills when it comes to florals. I loved the original Victoria magazine for it's floral photos. I never thought I was a big floral girl...my house is really decorated that way, nor do I wear them. But, I'm a sucker for the real thing. 

My goals are to work on lighting. I'm adoring the color palettes other artists are doing like Design Seeds and BrandiGirlBlog. For the journal I have in mind in the long term, the floral photography is a theme of one version and the color palettes are just a piece of it. After the year, I'll gather up the photos and palettes into this journal I have in mind. 

Along with the journal idea, I'll probably intersperse a little jewelry in there. I'm sticking with the Cotton collection. I'm thinking up another line that needs to be developed. But, I think that's all I can manage on the jewelry side for now. So, I'm scaling back a little bit and have some changes in the works for 2012. A new journey! Let's see where it goes!

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... 

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!