I’ve Been Mehndi’d

My first Mehndi tattoo.

I worked at the Patron’s Preview Party before the Edmonds Arts Festival this year.  The motif of the party was a Night in India and they had a gal doing Mehndi there.  Towards the end of the party I saw women walking by me with glittery hands.  The Mehndi artist sprinkled glitter onto the henna paste before it dried so the ladies hands were all bling-y, which is what I was seeing in the dark.

It was so pretty that I had to see if she would do one more.  It was a bit dark and the only light she had was a candle lantern but I didn’t care.  The glitter made me happy but it comes off once the paste dries.  You’re supposed to leave it all on at least 4 hours or overnight.  Once it all flakes off you’re left with the pattern.

The first day it’s orange,  (OH ANN, you would love it that first day) and of course, it tortured me so… then it turns sort of milk chocolate colored and eventually mahogany like you see here.   My pattern lasted for a week and a half.

Mehndi patterns on hands.

It looks pretty cool.  It would be fun to have it in indigo, too.  I do like the sepia tone look though.  I know that there are sacred things attached to mehndi, too.

At the arts festival we met a potter that decorates his work with fabric patterns using the mehndi cone to apply paste so that it fires as an embossed pattern.   I got a fabulous mug from him and I have to say it’s beautifully made.  You can see his work at:  www.creativewithclay.com

Something Else My Mother Told Me and More

Something else my Mother told me was that I could do whatever I put my mind to.  When I was younger, I think I only sort of understood that.

There was a time when women weren’t allowed to do much but take care of others: keep a house, shop for or help harvest food, make meals, clean the children, clean the clothes…clean, clean, clean.  It seems that cleaning part hasn’t changed much but other things have:  we are allowed to vote, go into bars, be bankers, executives, Doctors, cops and stockbrokers, climb mountains, compete in all sorts of sports and even serve in the military.  While those younger then I may think of these things as a given in their world, I do remember differently.

I remember that when my Mother told me I could do or be whatever I wanted that I didn’t really think a lot about it.  Now I wonder how hard that must have been for her to tell me something that wasn’t as true for her.  It’s sort of like wondering if the Captain of the Titanic cried, (to quote a good song).

On another note, I’ve been listening to a great audio book:  ’A Girl Named Zippy’ by Haven Kimmel and it’s incredibly funny.  The author is actually reading the story and it’s cute as heck.  Her Mother told her that they bought her from the gypsies at one point and she believes it.  I know the feeling.

iPod Touch 2G, Part Two

         I love the interface of this device.  I knew it was the same as an iPhone.  My girlfriend Autumn has an iPhone that we played around with at Clay Camp.  She got an app for it called “Light Saber” and it turns the device into a Star Wars light saber: when you wing it around in your hand it makes all the light saber noises. Isn’t that hilarious?   Imagine having that at a dull meeting?  OOOH I could liven up some stuff  with that…  Well, I got the bug playing around with her iPhone.  I love that cool, Sci-Fi  like interface.  So when I got back from camp I started paying attention.  Another friend of mine, Elizabeth Sheets, (http://www.lizartseattle.com/) has had an iPod Touch 2G for awhile so I knew about that and asked her some key questions.

       I justified it with the fact that this mp3 player can do WiFi.  I can surf and email from this device when in a hotspot and it’s a snap.  Perhaps I could travel without my laptop!  That would nice and save wear and tear on my main machine, too.  I also saw that I could watch movies on it.  HEY why not?  Those flights to Philadelphia are long and nobody seems to show inflight movies anymore (unless you can afford Business class).   I could watch a movie on a 3.5 inch screen on a long flight if it would help me to forget that I’m crammed into a plane.  I can certainly listen to audio books or music using my noise cancelling headphones so why not a movie?

      One of the best things about it is that it actually took both my calendars: my personal calendar and the one I maintain for the art center and it automatically color coded them.  My friend Ann will *love* to know that it coded my calendar with ORANGE (remember she tortures me with orange?) so that’s amusing.  May she be tickled PINK (she hates pink!). LOL!   Now when someone calls me and asks about a date for a booking, I can have the calendar without my laptop, a major improvement!  Even my smart phone wouldn’t take both calendars (very frustrating to me).  How smart is that? NOT.

   I have an app for it that will stream Pandora Radio, my all time favorite music source online for listening to and finding new musicians and tunes.  If you don’t know about Pandora check it out: www.pandora.com   It’s wonderful!

  2nd day (July 1) – I had a problem with the iPod freezing for some reason.  So I took it to the Apple Store and in about 5 minutes I was leaving the store with it fixed, no charge, no trouble, and everything working.  SWEEEET!  That right there sells me on product: GOOD support.  Not pretend support i.e. ”you gotta pay us to support our product support”.   Real customer service  makes for loyal customers and it makes sense to me why I might be paying more for your product then, too.  Don’t nickle and dime me to death when I’ve already bought your merchandise!  This goes for you too, airlines…

  Anyway, apparently you can turn this iPod into a phone with a headset/mic  using Skype and an app called FRING.  Zowee.  It just gets better and better.

iPod Touch 2G

Six iPods (Touch 2G) in various modes of use.

    Two weeks ago I got the news that what has been bugging my hand is that I have lost cartilage in my wrist and bones are rubbing together.  It took awhile to dawn on me what this means.  I’m pretty young for this and even though surgery can be done to grind the bones down so they don’t rub, what does that mean for all the other joints in my person? How will this effect continuing to make jewelry and art? I came up with lots of questions that already have an answer.  I just hate to know it so it took awhile for it to sink in: time to do things differently, like not type so much…

  Okay, so with that news and my birthday coming up, I bought myself an iPod Touch 2G.  Definitely an all out extragance that I didn’t really plan but what the hey, you only live once.

Happy 4th of July: KABOOM!

 

Fireworks in WA D.C.

KABOOM!  That’s what it says on my calendar at home. That’s all, just KABOOM!

    It’s time for BBQ’s, sun, family, maybe some sand or whatever your annual ritual is.  Amid the ooooooh’s and aaaaahhhhhh’s I think about the beauty of those amazing sparks of fire and how many centuries it took to refine them into the displays we see today.

   Last year we were so close to the small town display that a firework shot into the crowd 3 people over from us.  Everyone was okay but it was a little too exciting.  Still, all I could do with each salvo going up was laugh.  I think I laughed my butt off.  It was feeling the percussion of the works going up before they even went off that I find funny when we’re that close. 

  We don’t have an annual ritual so never know what we’re doing but whatever it is, it will be fun just to have the day off.

   On the 4th I always think about how great it is to be here right now, in this moment. The fireworks are so elusive and short lived that watching them reminds that life is like that, too.  Strangely most of my life is about scheduling, organizing  events in advance, details for things yet to come but whenever I get to be in this minute I always have the best time.  Enjoy each  moment and have a happy 4th! KABOOM!

Sharky Leaves Bathroom World

 Sharky has left the bathroom! OH NO! This means that our whole house is game now.  It also means that I have to be observant to find out what he’s doing now…  Where is Sharky?   Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Sharky Shark!

A Lesson I Learned From Dad

 My Dad has always been pretty independent, impatient and stubborn.  These traits got him into trouble from time to time with his kids, who liked to tell stories about him to the guests, because we kids didn’t forget much especially when he pulled what we called: A Dad.

  One time Dad was getting ready to go fishing.  He had a row boat that he would take to a lake to fish in.  The row boat had to be put on top of his car the night before because of course, you leave at 4 a.m. or some such time in the middle of the night to be present at the fishing spot in time for the fishes breakfast (or at least that’s my understanding of the ritual of that).  Okay, so all the gear gets packed, food prepped to take with, and so on.  Once all is said and done it’s time to put the boat on top of the car.  One of my many brothers has been enlisted to help with this fine task but somehow doesn’t quite get the directions being given in a fashion that Dad can put up with.  After much griping, Dad says in his loud, ‘I’ve had enough of you’ voice,  ”I can do it myself!” at which point, the row boat smashes completely through the windshield.  Ahhh, yes! Another story for the dinner guests!

  Lesson learned: sometimes just take the help and be gracious about it.

Printmaking is Cool: Which is the Art?

  I can hardly believe that it’s been a year since last July 1st.  This year has sailed right by me almost faster then the year before.   To me this is the beginning of the New Year.  My New Year’s resolution is to slow down some and keep some time for me. 

   I’ve already started with a three day class this week (M-Tu-Th).  It’s an intro to printmaking!  We got to be experimental with collagraphs the first night, carve and print our own wood blocks the 2nd night and play with monotype prints the last night which will be tomorrow.  It’s surprisingly fun and I love the plate as much as I love the print which gave me an idea - which is also an idea for ArtWorks (the art center where I work).

  I’m going to create a display where the plates are the art!  I think it will be fantastic and interesting.  I want to photograph them on a lightbox and print transparencies from them, too.    I guess I’ll have to buy me a bunch of plexiglass now.  I’ll post some pix when I have them. Oh dear… another tangent is coming on!

  Okay, back to printmaking.  There is a great new book out on experimentation with printmaking by Dorit Elisha (http://www.amazon.com/Printmaking-Mixed-Media-Techniques-Projects/dp/1596680954/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246345325&sr=8-1)  

  I don’t own it yet but will someday.  It looks quite good!

Stories We Used to Tell About My Dad

   It’s hard to simplify stories sometimes.  They can be so complicated and convoluted.  Too many details and the story is lost, too much rambling and the story is forgotten before it’s finished.  But the stories we used to tell about my Dad (in his presence) were usually pretty simple.  We always told these stories whenever we had company for dinner.  Because they were funny and not very impressive and of course, we thought they should be shared.  Here’s one:

  My Dad was a great lecturer about being observant.  We kids weren’t always very aware, apparently, at least not to his standard so when one of us did something that exposed our inattention we would all get the lecture on being observant. 

  One time Dad was giving us this lecture at the dinner table.  “You kids need to be more observant”, he said.  “If you would pay more attention these things wouldn’t happen”, he went on as he reached for the French salad dressing.  “Blah blah blah”, he intoned, as he began to shake the salad dressing.  Off pops the lid on the dressing and bloosh!  French dressing is all over Dad.   Oh how we howled.  We were laughing all over ourselves with glee.  Of course the smart aleck kid (I’m not saying which one that was) points out to Dad that wasn’t very observant of him, and again, we are falling out of our chairs.  Dad harrrumphs mightily and we laugh on, silly over this new episode of quintessential Dad, knowing we now have a NEW story to tell visitors at our table…

  To this day,  I hear how observant I am. That’s not such a bad thing for an artist.  Thanks Dad.

Airport Carpets and Other Weird Things

  Well, I don’t know if anyone follows this little blog or not but if you do, you know that I wrote about my study of airport carpets.  I travel a lot to teach and so to amuse myself on the “road”, I started taking pix of carpets in airports and anywhere I happened to like the carpet.  Since I couldn’t very well take a square of carpet from wherever I was it seemed best to just take pictures. 

   It started in Seattle when I was on my way to teach at the University of New Mexico for an event called Art Universe some years ago.  A friend went with me and it made her laugh when I told her I was going to take pix of the floor.  I suppose she’s gotten used to me doing weird things like that.  We’ve traveled together before and roomed together at different events, too, so she knows just how silly I can get.

Hotel room carpet is busier then I am! Some day I will do an expose (expos-ay) on commercial carpets. What it will expose is still a mystery but I have discovered that these carpets, though functional, are busier then all get out. This carpet was in my hotel room in Miami 2008 at the Merchandise Mart Hotel there. That was a really lovely hotel but god forbid that you look at the carpet too much or you would never sleep. I spent a lot of time watching planes take off from my window in that room. It was interesting to be that close and not be able to hear anything of the planes. Was it because of the carpet?

 

     It’s in my nature to amuse myself.  I find a lot of ways to do this and have to say that I’m never bored.  Do I just think too much?  I want to know who gets to design these carpets?  Some of them are wild and just think, they’re long lasting and stand up to lots of traffic but who wants this carpet after 3 years? 

Orlando Airport Carpet

I really do wonder how long they last.

 Wouldn’t it be fun to come up with designs for an airport?  Or would that be one weird job?  I suppose  there is such a thing as a commercial interior designer who studies years of interior design to know which materials work best for which venues.  Then there are trends to know about too.   It would have to be in your nature to pursue this particular occupation…  I just find it interesting how many people are subjected to it and probably don’t even think about it.