weekly poem

Sweater Weather: A Love Song to Language

Never better, mad as a hatter,
right as rain, might and main,
hanky panky, hot toddy,

hoity-toity, cold shoulder,
bowled over, rolling in clover,
low blow, no soap, hope

against hope, pay the piper,
liar liar pants on fire,
high and dry, shoo-fly pie,

fiddle-faddle, fit as a fiddle,
sultan of swat, muskrat
ramble, fat and sassy,

flimflam, happy as a clam,
cat's pajamas, bee's knees,
peas in a pod, pleased as punch,

pretty as a picture, nothing much,
lift the latch, double Dutch,
helter-skelter, hurdy-gurdy,

early bird, feathered friend,
dumb cluck, buck up,
shilly-shally, willy-nilly,

roly-poly, holy moly,
loose lips sink ships,
spitting image, nip in the air,

hale and hearty, part and parcel,
upsy-daisy, lazy days,
maybe baby, up to snuff,

flibbertigibbet, honky-tonk,
spic and span, handyman,
cool as a cucumber, blue moon,

high as a kite, night and noon,
love me or leave me, seventh heaven,
up and about, over and out.

by Sharon Bryan

(from her book "Flying Blind," 1996)

"...language determines what we see...a given language shapes its user's reality." - Sharon Bryan

let's hear it for women in the arts

Literally IN the arts, in the case of my friend Corwin's small daughter, who got into the fingerpaints when no one was looking. I think a lot of women get into the fingerpaints while no one's looking. I had planned to post this picture with a pithy quote or two from female artists, but these pithy quotes I imagined are surprisingly hard to find. So this is an interactive post. If you're a woman and an artist, or you'd like to say something about a woman artist you know, please post a comment about your art, your process, what drives you, or anything else relevant to your art and craft that you'd like to say. Go to it. (And thanks to Corwin for permission to use Mairead as a small painty figurehead.)

UPDATE: I got some help with this project from the wonderful community members of Etsy; here are some of the things they had to share.

"For sheer excitement you can keep movie premieres and roller-coasters. An empty white canvas waiting to be filled. That's the thing." - Pam Brown

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-things I had no words for." - Georgia O'Keefe (thank you modflo)

"I am not what I am, I am what I do with my hands." - Louise Bourgeois (thank you cicadastudio)

"The best ideas come unexpectedly from a conversation or a common activity like watering the garden. These can get lost or slip away if not acted on when they occur." - Ruth Asawa (thank you modflo)

"I am so perfect, so divine, so ethereal, so surreal. i cannot be comprehended except by my permission. i mean....i...can fly..like a bird in the sky." - Nikki Giovanni, "Ego Tripping" (thank you flytie)

"The best thing a man can do for his children is love their mother. The best thing a mother can do for her children is to love herself." (thank you jmacc)

"Understand that the world is art and it is up to artists to expose that beauty." - Aja, sagittariusgallery (thank you sagittariusgallery)

"There is nothing worse than a blank canvas because you have no excuse except perhaps for the fear of failure. Think of the possibilities instead of the ramifications. Even ramifications can be beautiful sometimes..." - Aja, sagittariusgallery (thank you sagittariusgallery)

"True strength is delicate." - Louise Nevelson (thank you cicadastudio)

"It is paint's organic nature that helps me to understand life. For within the act of painting there is a history, a continuum of alchemy through the Ages that lives on in paint." - Lori Agostino (thank you paratu)

etsy poster submission

Etsy is currently running a contest to choose twenty Treasury submissions to be made into posters for them to hand out as freebies at festivals and craft fairs. For you non-Etsyers out there, the Treasury is one of their cooler features - any registered user can choose 16 of their favorite items and "curate" the listings into a grid arrangement that can be viewed by anyone who visits the site (click on Treasury on the left of the homepage at http://www.etsy.com). The collection lasts from 2-3 days and when it expires, it's gone forever. Unless you take a screenshot to preserve it for yourself. I was really happy with the way my submission turned out, so that's what I did, and I'm posting it here just to be able to keep a record of it. My favorite shops are represented here, and I think it came together really well. The artists represented are, from left to right:

http://toybreaker.etsy.com
http://fringe.etsy.com
http://arete.etsy.com
http://artandghosts.etsy.com
http://boringsidney.etsy.com
http://kjoo.etsy.com
http://dkim.etsy.com
http://foundling.etsy.com
http://bayousalvage.etsy.com
http://talula.etsy.com
http://treehouse28.etsy.com
http://surlymermaid.etsy.com
http://urbanheirlooms.etsy.com
http://angryartisan.etsy.com
http://Kreativlink.etsy.com
http://pamelatang.etsy.com

time machine blogging

I'm quite a bit behind schedule with this post, but I want to include it because it was such an extraordinary experience. On our last day in Twin Falls, Faith and I drove down to Dierke's Lake to catch a glimpse of Shoshone Falls, the big waterfall that the town is famous for (to be honest, I don't know what the other falls that make it "twin" is - there are hundreds of little falls all over the Snake River in the Magic Valley, but there must be another sizeable one somewhere that we never heard about). We had a whole bunch of little errands we wanted to do, plus packing, and it was the 4th of July, so we just drove halfway down the canyon to the lookout and took stock pictures. The falls are really spectacular, but as per the rest of our experience in Idaho, the pictures don't convey that at all. However, on the way back up the access road, we looked up and caught sight of a herd of elk grazing on the edge of the cliffs. We pulled off (as did everyone else who was on the road) to watch and try to get some pictures. The photos are abysmal - it was hazy and I was shooting up into the sun. My poor camera is not built for finesse in such a situation. You can still get a sense of the grandeur of the moment, I think, and you can certainly get a sense of the enormity of their antlers. They were breathtaking, and the experience was unlike anything else I've ever seen.

The guy standing next to me didn't seem to experience this in quite the same way I did. He elbowed me and said, "They're standing so close to the edge, I just wish one of 'em would fall. That'd be funny. Then I could eat it." I consider myself a fairly sophisticated person and there isn't much that shocks me, but that left me open-mouthed. I've been attempting to live a mostly vegetarian lifestyle for the past year, and the fact that this guy's first thought while drinking in all that majesty was how to scavenge a humiliated and injured elk actually took my breath away. I edged in the opposite direction. Faith said, "She's a city girl." I wasn't always a city girl, but I guess I really and truly am, now.



On our way back home, we stopped and took pictures of our favorite view in Twin Falls, on Cypress Way heading home towards Ironwood Ave. There's a beautifully maintained vintage Chevy Apache parked on the street and it makes the whole street so appealing. You can see the mountains to the south at the end of the street (sadly interrupted by a very obvious telephone pole), and the greens and purples of the trees on the left are perfect complements to the aqua of the truck. We loved coming home to it every day. I also got some nice close-ups of the truck itself, one of which I post here for the special benefit of Dennice, Kerry, Lynda and Belle, all of whom seem to love pictures of vintage automobiles as much as I do.



Last, but not least amongst our errands, was the purchase of a souvenir for me to bring back to Leslie. Since potatoes were out of season in June, I settled on this substitute item of incredible horror. Mainly because of the revolting fudge "butter" parked on top of it. When I gave it to her, Leslie made a terrible, terrible face, which is how you know if your gift is a success!


And here endeth Kateri and Faith's Excellent Idaho Adventure. Thanks for the trip, Gimlet Girl, it was an experience.

poets redux

A while back a dear friend of mine started an email list to send out a poem once a week, using mostly contemporary poets and trying not to repeat any authors. It was a wonderful project that eventually fell by the wayside, but he's given me his kind permission to take a swing at reviving it. I'll be posting a poem on this blog once a week (rather than emailing them out); feel free to comment or email me with suggestions for future postings. I'll be glad of the help, and I always like to expand my horizons.

For this first week, I'd like to reprise one of Corwin's choices that has stayed with me for the past few years. If you'd like to browse through his other selections, you can find them here. Thank you, Corwin, for all the work you put into this, and for bringing all of us a little concrete language every week to recalibrate our lives. It's an impressive selection of work; take an hour or so to wander around in there if you can.

Wiglaf

Wiglaf the foot-warrior sat near the shoulder of the king, wearily sprinkling water on his face to wake him. He succeeded not at all. –Beowulf

It is the saddest part of a sad story:
a young man in an old man’s heavy shirt,
his helmet, arm-rings, all the gold gone dull

and gummed with blood. The gutted dragon lies
there twitching, and cowards–seasoned fighters–
are dragging themselves, shamefaced, from the woods.

Wiglaf’s own eyes saw his master’s body
caught up by waves of flame, saw long teeth tear
the great one’s throat. Through clots of smoke, he

found the weak spot, struck, and found out later
what is worse than dragons. Kings die slowly,
gasping words. Young Wiglaf loved his king

and carried water to him, in his hands.
This story is and isn’t old. My half-brother’s
sixth-month-born, three-pound daughter was alive

an hour last December, and in spring, he’s
saying this, “You haven’t seen her room, yet”
although he knows I have, the crib and stack

of folded blankets, silver brush and comb
his wife lifts up to dust beneath and then
puts back. Fat bears and grinning tigers dance

across the wall. Foot-warrior Wiglaf knew
the king was dead, and still he bathed his face
to wake him, sprinkling water, while the others

watched. We are standing in my brother’s yard,
where a single mimosa, bloom-decked, leans
in careful arabesque. He’s choking, weary,

on his loss, and I see how love, once started,
can become a thing apart from us,
a being all its own, unstoppable,

just watching as we waste our human gestures
on the air, and who can say if it’s
the monster or the hero of our lives?

–by Marisa De Los Santos

(from her book “From the Bones Out” and also published in “The New American Poets” Breadloaf anthology, edited by Michael Collier. Originally published in the Antioch Review)

I ask you

How cute is my nephew?
(his mommy's not bad either)

family pride

Tim and Abby have joined the Etsyverse, and Abby's been working meticulously, as is her way, to make sure that they have lovely, well-presented work on display. Case in point, this exquisite print. Please visit their shop at http://mavora.etsy.com for more beautiful photography.

drumroll, please...

I'm pleased and incredibly honored to announce that my jewelry is now being carried in a local Chicago boutique. If you live in the area, please check out RR#1 Chicago, housed in a beautiful 1930's apothecary building at 814 N. Ashland, fitted with the original wood paneling, painted tin ceiling and wood display cases. It's magical, just my kind of place, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

etsy urban hip, week 9: reused, recycled and repurposed

As opposed to bewitched, bothered and bewildered, although the work represented below is certainly bewitching. This week I've been delighted with my very talented colleagues' pieces using recycled and vintage materials. I'm going to continue featuring a guest spot, as I did last week. This week, please visit http://nolasalvage.etsy.com and enjoy Heather's powerfully beautiful creations made with New Orleans salvage. Also, I'm not featuring any of my own pieces this week, as I don't currently have anything using repurposed materials. Of course, I won't discourage you from visiting my shop if you really, really want to.

As usual, Fringe is ahead of me with better design concepts, so I'm converting to her method of linking to a whole shop, rather than a specific item. Often, the items I feature sell out and then the link leads you to a disappointing "This item sold out on ..." page. This way, you get to browse the artist's full selection. (And I get to use the same link every time, which, admittedly, is a time-saver for me.)

Enjoy the talent, people.

Tetanus by boringsidney, $150.00

Shotgun House 80 by nolasalvage, $15.00

No. 152 Bettie Was a Boyscout by talula, $28.00

Sagebrush Trail Lariat by fringe, $50.00

Sweet Tea ... recycled pleather and vintage crazy quilt cuff from down de bayou by bayousalvage, $27.00

etsy urban hip, week 8: gumshoe fetish

It's no secret, I love detective stories. I thrive on Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, The Continental Op and Roderick Alleyn, and summer brings out the yen even more. Irresponsible beach reading, and all that. My fixation has led me to launch a new series of jewelry, Noir, using light and shadow as design concepts. Watch for it, it's coming... Besides, some detective fiction novels are exquisite works of literature in their own right: The Maltese Falcon, Mystic River, The Long Goodbye, etc., etc. And even if they're trash, the lure of light vs. dark is irresistable. This week, for love of the gumshoes, some accessories that prove you can still be sexy, even on a stakeout.

For the ultimate in femme fatale fashion, indulge in Amarillis by boringsidney, $75.00

Never forget that detection always turns up more secrets than you expect. No. 148 Pandora by talula, $56.00

Powerful protection for those moments of heightened danger: Black and White but feeling Blue mojo cuff with vintage button by bayousalvage, $18.00
Stay cozy while waiting out those long stakeouts; wear fringe's French Maid Cowl, $48.00

And, lastly, never forget your all-important Alibi, earrings by leavesofglass, $18.00

etsy urban hip, week 7: ode to home

(sorry I'm late with this, y'all; after next week, I'll finally, finally, finally have internet access at home, and this won't be such a crapshoot.)

In honor of the delights of home, I'm changing the routine a little bit this week. Instead of listing coordinating items by my very talented colleagues, I'm featuring items which I've already bought, and which I was delighted to see again when I got back home (except in the case of boringsidney's cool hat, which I covet, but haven't bought yet - I'll get around to it, Belle!). I've also added a guest artist, the very talented stilettoheights. Her art card is a one-of-a-kind item, as are talula's magical Indigo necklace and rustchic's very special salvage angel, so I haven't included links for those photos. They're mine, all mine, but you should, as always, check out their shops for other wonders. Fringe's Climbing Rose Lariat can be purchased here, and boringsidney's Corset Top Hat is listed here. Oh, and my Long Goodbye earrings - I kept a pair, but there are more for sale here.

And I, Too (ACEO by stilettoheights)

March for Peace Architectural Salvage Angel from New Orleans by rustchic
Climbing Rose Lariat by fringe
Corset Top Hat by boringsidney
No. 127 Indigo by talula
Long Goodbye earrings by leavesofglass

goodbye, twin

Thank you for your gracious hospitality to us during the last six weeks. We had a great time, and we'll miss you, especially our favorite homecoming view on Cypress.

our sun shines on your breakfast...

...or "Idaho, what the #@*!?"

The last, the best, the greatest of all weekend daytrips was last weekend's jaunt to Ketchum/Sun Valley. I plan to tell you about it. But before I do, there's some stuff I've neglected to report on, so it's all going in here: Twin Falls, random Idaho stuff, and Sun Valley. Flee this post now, or forever hold your peace.

The first thing to understand, if you're going anywhere in Idaho, is that they don't put signs on things. Well, from time to time they do, just to mix it up, but only right as you get to whatever it is you're looking for. Not with any time to prepare, signal, slow down, all the niceties of vehicular etiquette. And ideally, when posting a sign in Idaho, you want it to face away from the road, thereby making it invisible to the driver who's looking for it. I say this not because Sun Valley is especially hard to find, because it isn't (although we did end up taking a brief detour due to the aforementioned "sign-facing-away-from-field-of-vision" policy), but just as general information pertaining to all the weekend driving we've been doing. Also, if something is clearly marked on the map and the street it's on is also clearly labeled, it is 100% guaranteed to be either closed by the time you get there, or out of business altogether.

There is one other key element you should know when navigating Idaho. Everything here looks like it's just flat - plains or desert, smooth level valleys in between towering mountains. This is one of the reasons why we have so keenly felt the lack of signs. You'd think that if you were looking for a city made of rocks, it would stand out in the landscape, but that's not really the case. Huge geological formations hide in plain sight (pun not intended at first, but really very apt...), tucked behind a slight rise, or a single sagebrush. Or not tucked anywhere at all, but simply appearing beneath your feet, as in the case of the Snake River Canyon at the north end of Twin Falls. Imagine you're traveling south on 93, approaching Twin Falls. The view out your window will look something like this:

Note the vast expanse of nothingness. Note the trees in the very far background, towards the left of the photo. Is there anything in this picture to indicate that between you and those trees there lies the following 500 foot deep hole in the ground?



The Snake River Canyon is an extreme example, but the phenomenon exists all over this great state. Faith and I have spent countless hours driving around, looking out the window, smiling at the vast expanse of nothingness, when suddenly one or the other of us will crane our necks out the window and shriek, "Hole in the ground! HOLE IN THE GROUND!" And with nary a word of warning. Imagine being an early settler, rumbling along in your covered wagon, already enduring terrible hardships and deprivation, but seeing somewhere up ahead an area that appears to be greener than the rest of the land around you. You think to yourself, "In half a day's time, we'll be at that greener area, and perhaps there will be a water source and somewhere for us to rest." And then you come upon the Hole in the Ground. And eight months later, after sliding down one side of the canyon and dragging up the other, you've reached the green spot that lay not half a mile away from you when you first laid eyes on it last June. It boggles the mind.

Here are some pictures I took for scale. I zoomed in on a hiker climbing around inside the canyon to give an idea of how huge it is. Here he is, near one of the enormous concrete feet:




Anyway. It turned out to be incredibly easy to get to Sun Valley. It's only about an hour and fifteen minutes from Twin, and it's literally in a straight line. You don't turn once, not even when you get to Ketchum. You just pull slightly to the right, and park. And then, if you're lucky, you go the Kneadery and eat a delicious breakfast, as we did, of french press, mimosas, sourdough toast and omelettes. Faith had a potato omelette, and I had the Idahoan, which consists of smoked Idaho rainbow trout, dill, green onion and swiss cheese. They were both amazing, and we got a late start enjoying the rest of the town because we lingered over our fat and satisfying breakfast for a long time, watching paragliders circle overhead.

We then spent nearly two hours in Iconoclast Books on Main Street, browsing their thorough and appealing selection of new and used books, including an impressive art collection. We, of course, bought several things each. Since Faith has no fixed abode, and I live in a studio apartment already full to the concrete rafters with books. Having been told that there's an impressive local art scene in Sun Valley/Ketchum, we tried a number of galleries, but we both found them disappointing. Everything we saw seemed mass-produced or airbrushed or not up to par in some way. There was a little pottery shop that looked promising, but it was closed. Faith found a yarn shop, however, and bought some lovely things. We wandered around taking several more pictures of the town, which I'll put in a separate post, since this is getting long.

And then we found it. We ran into an incredibly tiny house which claimed to house a pottery studio and shop, as well as the artists' home. There was a tent set up in the driveway, with buckets of clay and porcelain, and a potters wheel in the center. I thought Faith was going to pass out from jealousy on the spot. She certainly swooned a little. Inside this candy-house-for-the-art-lover we found the following rich delights, of which we bought several.






All of these pieces were made by a man named Elmer Taylor, except for the ones in the last picture. Those were made by a student of his (I've forgotten her name, unfortunately), and you can't tell from the picture, but she's perfected a technique of making screw-top lids for the pieces pictured. Several of these pieces, including the one in the third picture (the brown and blue jug) and those of the student, were wood-fired. All of Elmer Taylor's pieces have fascinating signature markings and unusual bases. I don't think you can purchase pieces off their website, but most of the ones I took pictures of have their prices clearly marked, and you can contact the store, Taylormade Pottery, at 888-494-1064 if you're interested. They're well worth a look.

On our way out of Sun Valley, we stopped at the Sawtooth Botanical Gardens to see their Tibetan Prayer Wheel, one of only two in North America (I believe) and the only one to be blessed by the Dalai Lama. I was inclined to skip it by that time, since I was hoping to make it to a bead shop in Hailey on the way home (which, being clearly labeled on the map, was of course closed when we got there. See rules for driving in Idaho, above.) But The Gimlet, as she has come to be known, said, "We're only here once, and it's so easy to find the gardens. They're right there. You'll be sorry." So we went. "Botanical Garden" is a somewhat optimistic term for what we actually found. It turns out that the Sawtooth Botanical Gardens, although lovely, consist entirely of a handful of rose bushes and garden-variety succulents scattered amongst interesting arrangements of rock, the whole of which was obviously created as a setting for the prayer wheel, and the prayer wheel alone. It's less than an acre of space, altogether, with a little man-made stream flowing through it. The water is intended to power the prayer wheel and turn it so that the bell rings and the prayers are distributed in all four directions, but the level of the stream isn't high enough, and the wheel doesn't actually turn. It's still fairly impressive, and the stream was cool and refreshing (you're probably not supposed to wade in it, but there wasn't anyone around and we were hot, so we did).





And after that, we drove back home. It was a lovely day, and the best of our mini trips. I'll put another handful of photos in a separate post by themselves - I can't bear to paste anymore.

Etsy Urban Hip, Week 6: kaBOOM!

Here in the state of Idaho, which I think I've mentioned liking, fireworks are legal. I'm psched about my 4th of July, which is also our last day here. We're gonna go out with a bang. That's right, I said it. Wish I had all this swag to wear to the festivities.

talula: No. 005b Pure Texas, $22.00

boringsidney: Red Madhatter Top Hat, $75.00

fringe: Sweet-Talk Shrug, $64.00

rustchic: Destash or Divorce vintage cotton fabric, $7.00

leavesofglass: Independence Earrings, $18.00