Voices From the Past

Ah.
I love that “somebody else’s job now” feeling of putting a thing in a FedEx. I was blown away by the box FULL of Mixed Media projects; so much work, so many really good new things. Wow. I did shot mockups, wrote a jillion little notes…good luck, Box. Both it and my family are on airplanes right now; Bill and the boys fly into New Orleans ahead of me.

A tree ring for you
This ring is…fantastic. It’s just excellent in every way. And this tall photo of it makes me hot. There is something about the angle of it.. can’t quite put my fingers on it.   In an unrelated note, I’m looking forward to seeing Bill tomorrow. And the boys, and Bill’s parents, and the family house, and the feast, and Fraser, and the street, and the streetcar, and the oaks, and the park. I love going to New Orleans. &

A festive ring for that burst of freshness
A sexy Cocktail Ring with a ridgy base and a rich patina. I think that I’ll forge and polish the shank a little bit more before I call it finished. Usually when I look at a piece in a photograph, I can more easily make aesthetic finish decisions like that. In hand, the patina looks and feels smooth; in a photo I can see where it will deepen and also where it will stain. I try to restrain myself from final polish or burnishing until I’ve had a chance to absorb the first shots.

War
I was showering this morning, warming up, thinking about how excellent it is that John McCain isn’t president, how much better it is to have the intelligent, well-spoken, sane Barack Obama. But then I started thinking about the stupid “wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan, and wondering why it’s so hard to just stop them. Why even Barack can’t see the Viet Nam he is going to be forever wedded to in history, why he would accept this horrible legacy from Bush and Cheney, these are questions I cannot even guess at. War isn’t a successful sort of thing; only rarely has it been used for what I’d call good (it’s hard to argue with stopping a

Sexing coatis
Allison, inspired by our Sabino Canyon coati sighting, ramped up progress on coati effigy bowls in her studio. You can see them in progress on her web site. The choice of closeup view that she provides is just an example of one of the many reasons that I love her. You really must click the photo to see what I am talking about. Ph