I am amazed by the detail the bronze clay allows me to reflect – every vein, each petal, all that makes it true to life. The rich, lustrous, gleaming finish gives my bronze jewelry the elegance and extravagance of gold without the expense. I have worked in silver for so long that I am excited about the new color scheme that bronze leads me to.

I hope you will keep coming back to see what I have created with this new medium.

Working in an atmosphere that encourages “green” thinking is so inspiring. I picked up a great book at Barnes and Noble when I was home in Erie last month called Go Green, Live Rich (50 simple ways to save the earth and get rich trying) by David Bach. He is the guy who wrote The Automatic Millionaire and Start Late, Finish Rich - two informational books for people like me who can't seem to save as much as they want to. Anyway, this book is just as encouraging in a different way. His premise is that everyone can do something to help the environment and each page is full of doable, easy, common-sense suggestions. Then, if you invest what money you save (going green doesn’t have to cost more) in a “green” fund, you can make some money along the way. My financial adviser already had my money going to an alternative green fund before I ever read about that exact one in this book – it was nice to have that validation.

This idea of “saving the earth” is a cause near and dear to my heart and whatever I can do to help, I will.

The Etsy Showcase is another very imaginative site with many, many pages dedicated solely to hand-crafted treasures. Several of us who show our work at the Barn Swallow also sell through Etsy.  It is there that I read "a connection to the creator is part of the reward of buying handmade.  Mass-produced pieces of art don’t have any meaning ."  If you are giving your purchase as a gift, what better way to show your thoughtfulness than to give a one-of-a-kind piece of art (that IS what it is...a piece of art.) There is so much value in it for what you spend and you are helping to promote such an important way of life.  I have several of my favorite "artists" featured on my "Links" page; take a minute to look at that - you might just find the source for the perfect gift - for yourself or that lucky recipient.

I will keep you updated as the new pieces are finished – just in time to help you immortalize your summer vacation!

PS - here's a picture of my son, Daniel, and me and then one of my cousin, Dot, on our last evening at Topsail.   We really had a wonderful, wonderful time!

In the blink of an eye, in the amount of breath it takes to say a few words, the direction your life takes is altered forever. I find that mind-boggling.

I have to say that I pride myself on thinking before I speak – maybe too much, but I never want that sick feeling of regret for what I have said. But, so often, it is the words said to us that has the most lasting influence. I can’t help wondering what a different place I would be in now if different words had been said to me and, as a result, I’d gone to a different college, married a different person, or not been hired for my present job (which I actually didn’t really want, but am, oh so, glad I got). It is an exercise in futility, I know…but I am getting philosophical as I am approaching 50. I do know that I wouldn’t be sitting here right now writing this if just a few words had changed my life’s path. 

I love my life – I have two amazing sons, everyone that I love is happy and relatively healthy, I LOVE my two jobs, and I have several truly wonderful friends who continue to sustain me and bolster me and encourage me and it just doesn’t get more meaningful than that.  For that, I am very, very grateful; I truly believe I am right where I am meant to be.

What phrase has changed the direction of your life?

I grew up on Lake Erie.

On a cliff overlooking the lake was headstone and carved on it was this Robert Louis Stevenson quote:

Dig the grave and let me lie.
                                    Glad did I live and gladly die,
                                   And I laid me down with a will.
                                         This be the verse you 'grave for me:
                                         Here he lies where he long'd to be,
                                             Home is the sailor, home from the sea
                                    And the hunter home from the hill.

I knew it by heart back then…. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent sitting there - an introverted, pensive teenage girl - but I do think that is where I fell in love with the water and looking for shells. We spent our summers on Manchester Beach – walking,
my son and my sister walking on the beachsailing, swimming, sitting around a bonfire….  Erie will always be my “home;” I am a Yankee by blood.

And, I have never stopped searching for that “perfect” shell….

I took a class (for my birthday last year) at Piedmont called “Death Investigations” taught by Lyn van der Sommen and I never knew “school” could be so fascinating. Dr. van der Sommen was the Medical Examiner for Louisa County and I could have sat there and listened to her forever; I hated to see the class end. I am anxiously awaiting her “Advanced” level course.

I remember as a kid getting a kick out of finding old bones and trying to figure out what they came from. We were always scouring creek beds near our house and old abandoned barns looking for some kind of treasure. I never dreamed then that people did that as a life’s calling. By the time I did, my career path was pretty much set and I had a family to take care of…so, I live vicariously through great books and wait for my next chance…

What would you be if you had it to do all over again????

     I am getting ready for the “Bloom” show at the Barn Swallow in April. As spring approaches and everything is starting to bloom, I am” inspired” again. But I must act quickly to “catch” the new growth. There is such a small window of time for buds and small leaves and a hard rain could ruin everything! This morning, I found buds on my Lilac bush and my Hydrangea has a few flowers open so I quickly pinched some and brought them in to make molds for my silver work; I have not used either before. I already have Daffodil, Hyacinth, Begonia, and Periwinkle molds, so I can’t wait to get started.

“We must preserve the natural world; for without nature, there would be no beauty to inspire us.”
( Hap Hagood )

     In addition to the flowers I immortalize in silver, my other passion is leaves; especially heart-shaped ones. I was explaining to a customer today that I have learned, through experience, which leaves work best with my silver. I look for ones with depth and pronounced veins and interesting shapes.

My favorite is the Morning Glory leaf, because they always turn out perfectly. I have also had great success with Geranium, Bindweed, and Verbena leaves; their symmetry and natural beauty never cease to amaze me. When my piece is finished, I almost feel as though I have frozen the leaf or flower in time. 

I hope you’ll come by the Barn Swallow sometime during the month of April to see everyone’s “Bloom” inspired creations.

This book that my friend, Jo, gave me really resonated with me because so much of what motivates me, or gets in the way, is based in fear. It permeates my daily life, but it also is a part of my jewelry making. “Every artist must learn that even the failed pieces are essential.” It is that potential “failure” that scares me so. That and the subsequent waste of time and materials (the silver is SO expensive) that make an anxious ache in my stomach every time I start a piece.

About a quarter of the way into the book, it states that “fear that you are not a real artist causes you to undervalue your work.” I googled the definition of the word “artist” and, as you can imagine, found a lot of variations. The only one I felt applied to me was “a person who creates an aesthetic work.” Art and Fear goes on to say “while you may feel you’re just pretending that you’re an artist, there’s no way to pretend you’re making art. “ That made me smile and that is one of the nice things about the book. It acknowledges the fear and angst, but it also makes me feel better about what I do as though it is somehow validated.

“What is really needed is…….an overriding willingness to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way.” I am often asked about my creative process and I can honestly say that, often, a piece comes together purely by accident. I may have an initial idea, but then something goes “wrong” in the process and I am led in a different direction. I had one piece when the oxidizing produced a different color (and much more interesting) than I had intended. I put it down on my work table next to some pearls I was waiting to use while I went to do something else and they were a perfect color match! (If you know me at all, you know that being color coordinated is crucial to me.) It ended up being one of my best and most favorite necklaces.

The fear that no one will like what I make seems to be a common fear for “artists” and I think I have gotten past that. If I like it and it is the best it is going to be, I am satisfied. If it sells, that is a bonus. I’ve hit the lottery if the person who bought it loves it as much as I do.

Thank you, Jo, for this book – you have no idea how much I have gotten out of it.

At the age of almost 50, I am struck by the fact that all the tenets that guide my life now are those I have learned from my mother. I clearly listened when she spoke in her quiet, gentle, wise way and I was paying attention when she taught by example….here is what I learned:

Your kids come first – no matter what. You can’t truly understand this one until you have children of your own. My mother would do anything, and has done everything, for each of the four of us. We are the good, decent, stable people that we are because of her.

Except that….. I have learned to lie (just now, as my children are in their 20s, have I stopped talking about Santa – he never came up once this Christmas and the “Easter Bunny” hasn’t stopped by in years.) I have cheated with the best of them. I can make arrow heads appear out of thin air and I have thrown a game of Monopoly or Stratego just to make sure one of my kids felt like a winner. I stole on a regular basis when they were little – Christmas trees when we would drive around for hours trying to find the perfect one and then cut it down not knowing which farmer to ask permission from ahead of time. I have stolen many kisses – especially once they’ve gotten too old to want to give me one in public and I have stolen many, many “just one more minute” of snuggling. I would do it all again in a heart beat and gladly go to jail if I had to. If anything, I have protected them too much and not let them skin their knees enough, not let them feel life’s knocks enough, but I can’t change that now. I am essentially a mother bear who will rip the head off anything or anyone that threatens my kids – even now that they are grown.

A work ethic is what defines you. As I think about the people around me who are respected by others, or who I respect, they are the hard workers. They are the ones who, usually behind the scenes, put in the extra hours to make sure everything runs smoothly and gets done. Both my parents had a very strong work ethic. My father put in LONG hours worrying about keeping his own business up and running so he could pay the bills and my mother took care of four of us kids in this huge drafty, bat-infested, pet-filled, cavernous, old house with a million windows to clean and beds of pacasandra to rake and replant. Neither ever complained and taught us to be grateful that we had such a magical place to grow up in. (Even though, every now and then, the threat of “I am going to sell this house if you kids can’t get the grass cut /the leaves raked/ the garage cleaned/your closet bull dozed” was always right there.)

Character is who you are when no one is watching. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t get nudged by this in some way. I guess it is like having Jiminy Cricket hanging out on my shoulder all the time. Whether it is holding the door at Barnes and Noble for a stranger or letting someone out in an endless stream of traffic or letting that person with two items go ahead in the grocery line instead of getting stuck behind you and your overflowing cart, it is about just choosing to do the right thing – simply because the right thing needs to be done.

People are more important than things. This is the one that stings most often because it never fails to mean there has been damage done to something special/expensive. When I was little, I dropped an entire platter of my grandmother’s china when my mother TOLD me not to carry it – but I was being my obstinate self. My mother just stood there with tears in her eyes and said nothing. Then, there was the time that my little brother and his friends spilled a blueberry Slurpy (it couldn’t have been a milkshake, Bri, could it?) on her white, wool, wall-to-wall carpet right out in plain sight. We scrubbed and raked and cut it out and finally dragged a piece of furniture into the middle of the room – nothing hid it. I don’t even remember her reaction to this one, so she must have accepted the damage with her usual grace and poise. THEN, one of us spilled a cherry 7-up on another white, wool, one-of-a-kind, Portuguese rug – right in the middle. That was when she actually used the words “people are more important than things, Honey” - we felt just sick about it. There was also the time I spilled a can of Hershey’s syrup on my pink, long- shag, bedroom carpet and tried to hide it, so by the time it was found, it was a glob of petrified chocolate. Dad was NOT very happy with me. I liked Mom’s way better…she never really said anything – her pained expression said it all. I have been tested with this many times over the years and I can say that I have been able, though sometimes with great difficulty, to say to the offender….”it’s alright, (heavy sigh), people are more important than things…”

Pay it forward – Long before the movie made that saying popular, my mother was living it every day. As I have gotten older, I realize even more that there are so many people I can never repay for their kindness and support – the wonderful teachers who saw that spark in my kid that no one else saw, that police officer who was there when we needed him, that soldier who sat with Daniel as he waited to go into court, that bus driver who listened when my kids were upset, that friend and mentor who checked on me and somehow knew when I needed a hug and words of encouragement. I am a Libra so I believe in keeping the ledger equal – someone does something nice, you repay in kind. The problem is that I can’t ever repay those people so, to keep it fair, I have to help someone else. So very often, my mother says that it is because of her mother’ generosity and the wonderful people in my mother’s life that she can help all of us kids now” so my mother lives this credo every single day of her life. She has shown me the real joy of giving and helping someone else – it just plain feels so good to do it and it is necessary in order to keep the scales balanced.

Never underestimate the importance of a “thank-you” note. It seems like such a small thing, but saying “thank you” is far from insignificant. To my mother, there are those who do and those who don’t. In my eyes, it goes along with keeping that balance sheet balanced. If you can’t repay it, at least say “thank you” with all your heart.

Things happen like they are supposed to. Again, as I have gotten older, I believe this more and more. I wouldn’t be sitting here in this house on this Christmas morning with my two sons and my two dogs asleep somewhere in the house if life had happened any differently. I wouldn’t change one thing or trade places with anyone. Things haven’t always turned out as I had wanted them to at the time, but I have been able to see why – sometimes much later – and wouldn’t have wanted the alternative. Mother and I share, quite often, small world stories or marvel at the amazing coincidence of something and I believe, as she has taught me, that you accept what happens as if it is God’s plan and act accordingly….

What I believe has defined who I am and how I live my life. Hopefully, my children have gleaned much of it – if only by osmosis.

It is my mother who laid the foundation for what I believe.