When Vicki called to tell me this piece sold she forgot to tell me it also got a first place in Mixed Media! I was so surprised to find this when I went in to Gualala Arts to photograph the "Self Portrait." There it was with the first place ribbon and the tiny red dot (on the pedestal) to show the work sold. After the several (natural) defeats of this season I am totally reveling in this positive feedback.

Am having trouble settling down to new work but that is okay! I need this time to celebrate!

PS

I found out it was Jeanne Jackson who bought this. She is the lady I made the crystal pillar for. So now she has two pieces from me and that has become a "collection,"

SOLD

Doing catch-up here. I should have posted this on Sunday when I got the good news in a phone call from Vicki. Better late than never. Now what does this do to my plans for new necklaces? The message is the art piece sold and the beaded pumpkin did not? Or was it the low price? I put too many months in the pumpkin to lower it below $500. It is a steal at that price, I think. I just need to find the person who really wants it!

Last week I brought in my baskets of beads for stringing and put them on my desk hoping that the increased comfort of the indoor studio would get me started on making new necklaces. However, on Friday Rhoda returned this necklace which I had donated to a fundraiser for the Mendocino Music Festival.

I had kept thinking of the necklace and at times wishing I had not given it away because it is a good example of what I want to make. Yet, when it came back with Rhoda's note that it did not get one single bid I was seriously depressed. Even Rhoda's telling me that her necklace also did not get a bid and that art in general was not taken did not soften the blow.

Result? I am back to crocheting bead bracelets again. I refuse to even show them to you as they are all looking alike! Have got to try something new or screw up my courage to go back to stringing beads to make new necklaces that are not quite as big and heavy as this one.

I had left a note on the "Self Portrait" entry in the Art in the Redwoods entry that they should call if they had trouble hanging it so it was no surprise Monday evening when Sue called to say they had found an excellent place for the piece in the foyer. However they were afraid that the loose beads on the flagstone would skitter around and be a hazard. It was her idea that I bring a bowl and put them in it. By morning I had the idea that the bowl sitting directly on the floor would not look right and got the new idea of placing it on a low pedestal.
Knowning how a show of this size (over 320 entries) absorbs pedestals, I took my own. But while standing around waiting on a ladder, they had hung the piece from one of the gold hooks instead of the silver one, I noticed a pile of pedestals and asked if these were the left-overs? They were. Probably because they were so short (who wants their work shown that close to the floor?) so within seconds we had this arrangement. The work hangs between two huge windows and it is in the very place where my fountain was shown several years ago that sold.
As Sue was attaching the label she caught a glimpse of my price ($250) and hissed her displeasure at my inability to price my work. Thank goodness she was too busy with others asking her advice on the other problems to give me the lecture.

After I finished the entries for the Art in the Redwoods fine art exhibit - that opens next weekend - I finished up the other projects that were floating in the backwash. The top is one of the rope jobies I love to do when I need comfort and reliability. No experimenting, no finding something that does not work. Safe and easy; almost mindless.

The black circles are the napkin holders I had started to show Sheree. I hate starting crocheted bead tubes and I truly hate closing them into a circle. So this project gave me lots of practice with those parts and the red embellishments covered the places when the joints did not come out perfect.

I had brought all my beads from the studio into the house so I could start on some far-out necklaces Bambi could peddle for me in Aspen. Now it seems she might be moving to Flagstaff instead. I am hoping that I will soon be over this eternal tiredness from the pneumonia and have the energy to try something new.

I think I have "Self Portrait" ready for Art in the Redwoods. As usual it is difficult to photograph one of these long narrow works - which my larger bead pieces seem to be. So I am showing you the top and the bottom in separate views. I took these to help the persons who would hang the piece to know what I want it to look like. It will also explain the untidy pile of beads they get in a box lid.
I hope to get better photos of the piece wherever they hang it at GAC.
As you can see, I did find a place for all those starfish I could not stop making last month. Now I understand my fascination with them. See (I remind myself) those hunches and unexplained desires do have a final purpose and it is good to follow the muse even if one seems stuck in a tide pool.

A couple of years ago (when Michelle Obama became First Lady) I was on a kick to make brooches but gave up because my designs were either flowers or flower-centered or so wildly asymmetrical that they look more like a bead spill than a brooch design.

On Saturday, while waiting for Sheree (she was right on time; I was just very eager to see her) I made some samples using the new magatama beads. I was going to cut these short pieces up and recycle the magatamas but the cat had pushed two of them off the table which I could not reach without getting down on my hands and 'still very sore knee.'

On Sunday I was determined to make the bracelet Sheree had liked enough to make it her own. However, I was so jazzed I tried to make the swirl too high, too thick and the piece began to curl. I set it aside and made two more attempts to replicate the other bracelet (without looking; I was too lazy to get on the computer to check how it was made) - both of which failed. As I fingered the original 'error' it began to want to be sewed together, so I complied. About 11 o'clock, well past my time of reason, I began to idly hold the magatama samples against the failed bracelet and whoops - there was this brooch.