Color and Insomnia

Most people who know me know I suffer from chronic insomnia. I can’t really remember a time when I didn’t have trouble falling asleep. This would probably not be a problem if I was free to go to bed when I wished (3am) and wake when I wished (10-11am). I’ve never, ever been one to bounce out of bed, cheerful and ready to attack the day. Oh no. Not I. It’s more of a slow, staggering, where-the-heck-is-the-shower type of rising.

I have a husband and a son, so I therefore get to bed at 11pm (read for an hour to try to relax the mind) and then get up at 7am (staggering) to start the day with the kidlet. My first attempt at creativity doesn’t start until 1:30pm, after I’ve dropped Zack at preschool and hit the gym, and by that time, I’m eyeing the bed with longing and hoping that maybe, just this once, caffeine will actually WORK on me.

So, many times, I fall into a color rut. I can design a pretty bracelet while I’m tired, but often I can’t get my mind to think of new, exciting, or unusual color combinations, and I end up making something pretty, but (to me) “normal and boring”.

I get tired. I just can’t think. So I’ve come up with a solution called a Color Book. I cut out clipping from magazines — bits of clothing, photos of flowers, Pantone swatches, paint chips, anything that gives me an “a ha!” moment.

This helps get my mind out of “I desperately need a Starbucks” to “oh yeah, I do have other beads I can play with”. It’s amazing, like a walk outside, when I flip through this book. Ideas start clicking and I start grabbing beads out the cabinet and cool things start to happen…..

The color book helps me get out from under making an all pink, all blue, or all purple bracelet (easy for me to do!) and gives me a much needed injection of mental caffeine. It’s a great artist’s tool that I highly recommend!

Now, if I could only do something about the insomnia……

Lori Anderson designs and blogs from her studio in Easton, MD. You can buy her work at her website, Etsy, and craft shows, and read more about her at her blog.

Keeping a spirit alive with art glass beads

Beads can be little keep sakes. Years ago I enjoyed making neck pieces with seed beads that would tell stories. Little pictures of landscapes and stick people, would go around a 1/2″ tube of seed beads. I used a geometric square stitch. The stitch only had so many possibilities; I had limitations. Unless I made the piece huge, I could not really get the detail I was looking for, so I lost interest.

One of the things I LOVE about lampworking glass beads, is that I am not limited at all when it comes to detail. The only thing that has held me back in the last few years is my experience, and skills. At this point I feel my skills have come along way, and I am much more confident with the custom orders I take. In the last couple years I have been making family beads, and keep sake beads with animals or people.

My most recent commissions were gifts made for a mom and daughter that lost their family in a car accident. I was asked to create two beads. One for the mother who lost her daughter and husband, the other for the mother’s other daughter that is getting married this weekend. The flower girl was the little girl killed in the car accident. Sad.

The bead for the mother, with the family of three was created as a keep sake, created to remember her family by. A family of three Soul gestures with a rainbow horizon. On the back of the bead is three hearts, symbolising that someday they will be together in heaven.

The bead for the step daughter is a gift for her Wedding. On one side, we have two soul gestures, representing the couple to be married, and a horizon with a rainbow. The back of the bead is two murrini hearts in the sky. This is symbolizing her step sister, and Dad in heaven looking over them.

Traditionally Art has been used to depict historical figures. Usually to show our appreciation for the people that come before us, and to remember what they stood for. Seeing a piece of art, custom made, that is about your family, is priceless. It is awesome, and exciting.

Creating something that has a strong meaning, and can make someone have feelings, is inspiring to me. A keep sake like this can keep the spirit of those two souls alive for years to come. This bead will tell a family story that may be sad, but in the end, that family will enjoy the memory of those two people forever; keeping their spirit alive.

You can visit my website (www.sheilamorley.com) if you are interested in seeing more of my work.

Pleasant Surprises Don’t Happen to Me Often.

After my recent show I crashed, as I usually do. This wasn’t a particularly hard show…it was local and the hours were not too early nor too late. And there was a Starbucks. Regardless, I slept for two days afterwards. I’m such a wimp. Upon returning after a show I always feel like I should be at the torch but I really don’t have a purpose. What the heck would I make? My next show isn’t until September. I guess I could work on orders.

As I sat down I wondered what would happen. I didn’t have designs in mind. I didn’t even have color ideas. I dreaded the thought of just sitting down and playing because that never turns out well for me. But, I sat my butt down anyway. And this is what happened:

More large, flat-backed medallions that more than stand alone. But wouldn’t a whole string of them, choker-style, be cool too?

Somehow the bright colors called to me…which they usually don’t. Simple forms on a grand scale.

They’ve already morphed into something else and I better get out to the studio to see how they turned out!

My Other Studio

I have another studio that has nothing at all to do with glass. In this other studio I work with colors and flame to change, rearrange and transform an organic material into something all together different. Wait, no that is what I do in my glass studio. Well, maybe the two are not so different after all.

My other studio is my kitchen. It is one of my favorite places to be. I enjoy making people happy with what I cook and I love the process so much. For me, cooking is like glass, it is part science, part art and all passion. Previously I worked as a chef and although I do not do it full time anymore, I still love it.

I am catering a gourmet dinner for four this weekend and today I am playing in my “other studio”. I am doing some prep work for the dinner. Things that have to be made ahead of time for the best flavor. I am making soffritto today and I am making garlic comfit. The garlic comfit is not so time consuming but a good soffritto takes about 4 or 5 hours. By the time Saturday comes both of these should have full flavor and enhance the dishes I am using them for.

As with glass, in cooking the process is a huge part of what draws me in and keeps me intrigued. I love to watch glass as it reacts to the heat, to the flame chemistry, to items like silver and to other glasses that you mix with it. Today, with the soffritto I am making, that is what I am doing as well. The process is what is important and there is a reaction happening.

I am creating a reaction by applying slow heat, very slow heat so as not to burn it. Moisture is getting slowly driven out and sugars, acids and other flavors are getting concentrated and mixing together. I can see a very gradual change as the heat begins to caramelize the sugars. Heat control is of vital importance today.

I am also making an aioli with the garlic comfit I made. Again it is the process that intrigues me here. An aioli is an emulsion made basically with egg, oil, lemon juice and garlic (a mayonnaise). The acid in the lemon juice will help de-nature the proteins in the egg and that will allow the water in the egg and lemon juice to get caught up in the proteins of the egg and it will bind together with the oil. Sounds complicated but it really isn’t and it is very tasty.

The color pallet is also a natural draw for me. The stark contrasts of red tomatoes with the pale yellow and whites of onions or the earthen muted tones of garlic cloves against a sprinkling of deep green chives. There are so many possibilities.

The flavors again are part science and part art. I like to layer flavors so you get hints of different tastes as you eat. I like contrasts in flavor, texture and temperature. Of course you take the science, the art, the colors and the flavors and then add fire and who wouldn’t love it?

So, today I will play in my other studio and maybe go play with glass later. Somehow though I know they are both related. Creativity is often where you allow it to be.

Otter

Otter is a glass artist who blogs from The Pacific Northwest.

A Kilo of Happiness

I got a kilo of happiness in the mail!

No no no. Not that kind of kilo. Although it did come from a tropical island!

I love, love, LOVE larimar. Larimar is a rare blue gemstone found in only one square kilometer of the world — in the Dominican Republic. Larimar is a volcanic rock, and since it’s in such a limited area, it won’t be around forever.

It’s not often that you find jewelry made with larimar beads. There’s a lot of wasted stone when cutting beads, so it makes sense that they aren’t readily available. I feel lucky to have a source.

The other day I emailed my supplier and asked if any beads had come in (last time I’d asked, in February, he’d said there wouldn’t be any until September, but I figured there was no harm in asking). He said no, and he doubted there would be any at all until late next year.

Panic mode. No no no.

And then Divine Intervention — it must have been. Because he said, “Oh wait. I do have a kilo sitting here of all random beads that never made it onto strands. You want ‘em?”

Heck yes I wanted them.

Three days later, FedEx arrived, and I poured them out into a big serving bowl. (Cue angels). Aaaaaaaah.

I don’t know why, but I dearly love to sort beads. Sorting is also something I tend to do when the Creative Muse isn’t bothering to make a house call. So not only is this a mega mother lode of larimar beads, I get to sort and string and weigh and it will be an enormous pleasure.

However, I’m not looking at my credit card bill for a while.

Lori Anderson designs and blogs from her studio in Easton, MD. You can buy her work at her website, Etsy, and craft shows, and read more about her at her blog.