ch - ch - ch - changes
Okay, so I totally spaced on putting up vacation pics ... got sidetracked by an overwhelming urge to do some culling of books and magazines and papers in my studio library. I opted for brutal honesty in choosing what to keep and what to let go ... spurred on by the news that we're going to be moving ... again!
The deal is, the super secret part of that vacation was Dave had a job interview at the University of Florida in Gainesville. And what we found out as of this past Tuesday, the 17th is that Dave got the job! He won out over internal candidates and who knows how many others. After that 5 year slog to get his MLIS and plugging away in small libraries honing his craft, Dave's finally getting his dream job - cataloging in the special collections unit at a highly respected school. This is the big leagues and a huge deal and I'm so happy that we'll both be following our passions.
More on that in a bit and now back to that major book purge ...
I think I did pretty well. I still have my favorite technique/how-to books and the inspiration books I'm keeping are mostly antiquities and not so much contemporary work. I even pulled out some of my clay books, keeping the same sorts of things ... kiln building and reference, all my Daniel Rhodes books and a few other classics that I'll never part with like my American 1st edition of A Potter's Book by Bernard Leach.
The only question that remained ... now what? The magazines went to my local library's magazine swap bin - somebody was going to score big there - FiberArts, American Craft, Habitus, YES ... As for the books, there were some pretty valuable books in the jewelry pile and, as much as I like our little used book store, it seemed an injustice to just trade them in willy-nilly. Then I remembered that the Asheville Art Museum had a nice little library ... perfect! I donated the whole lot to the Museum!
But there's still this ...
My collection of Studio PMC newsletters. I used to haul this notebook around when I taught workshops. In the early days, I was a gung-ho PMC geek. I'm a founding member of the original PMC Guild (that first year, I think there were 12 of us) and submitted articles and images on a regular basis and got my work in several of the publications. I entered all the PMC shows and was quite the team player. I kept up my membership for several years, then let it slip for a couple and then signed back up for a couple more.
My geek days are long gone but I've been holding onto these for sentimental reasons. I'm not feeling sentimental anymore and I'm ready to part with my stash. But what to do with them? Seems like someone might get some use out of them. If anyone's interested, let me know.
While I was mulling over what to do with that ginormous pile of books, I got inspired to work on some new lapis and sea glass jewelry. I spent one afternoon cleaving off little chunks of lapis then sanding and drilling and polishing. Then I drilled out a nice little stash of aqua and cobalt sea glass.
It's always great fun when I start pulling out other elements to use and then seeing what sort of silver components I had on hand.
I do love using Roman glass with lapis and sea glass and I have some yummy little lapis tubes. I thought about doing something long and spikey, but the inspiration just didn't come.
One component I wanted to use for sure were my little pinched sequin discs. I love using them in bunches ... so I did.
Thought it'd be fun to see the progression ...
And then there were these yummy lapis chunks that looked so great all lined up ...
... really like how this one turned out - Lapis Nuggets!
And normally I'm pretty stingy using my shrinking stash of blue and aqua sea glass. This time I thought it would be much more fun to just use them all in one necklace ... lush!
To put it all together, I opted for the simple but elegant solution of having everything slide on a hand-plied nylon cord. For a little extra flourish, I left a 5" dangle from the loop side of the button and loop closure ... it's got a tiny cobble bead topped by an ancient Roman glass bead.
I've just listed these on the lapis page and I'm thinking that's going to be it for new jewelry for a while. Dave's start date in Gainesville is July 21st! Needless to say, we've got an insane amount of work to do between now and then. Ditching and jettisoning more stuff, just gave away a love seat and my computer desk to our neighbors (for delivery after I pack up the studio), we're thinking we're going to sell one of our cars and, oh yeah, there's that little thing - selling the house! We've got to find somewhere to live and line up U-hauls and pack and and and on and on.
Funny thing is, we've never done it this way. We always pick nice places to live and then just pick up and move when everything's ready. We show up in our new location, maybe stay with a friend or in a hotel for a few days while we track down someplace to rent, then look for jobs. It's always worked exceptionally well. This move, which is kind of backwards for us, is probably the way normal people do things ... but it's a first for us.
So you can help me out here, message me or leave a comment if ...
- you're interested in the Studio PMC newsletter collection
- you know of anyone in the Asheville area interested in a '96 Subaru Legacy wagon in good condition
- or know anyone in my area that would be interested in a good deal on a 5 piece bedroom set
- are looking for a new home in Asheville and want the deets
Okay, I think that's it for now ... we've got someone coming to look at the house on Monday and I'm off to wash windows!
l i g a - kvk
p.s. where we headed has roads like this ...
