From the Wellspring of my mind

Last night I attended the monthly meeting of the artisan craft group to which MostWonderfulDaughterinLaw (MWDL) and I belong. Admission to this group is by the jurying of your particular craft, which for us is artisan jewelry. Our definition of artisan jewelry is that each piece is unique, one of a kind and handmade by us. Due to the advancing of my degenerative arthritis, I can't do the finishing, that is putting clasps on my pieces so MWDL assumes that task for me.

We work in what was once my den, now called the sweat shop. Each of us has a work station set up with an overhead shop light and an additional full spectrum standing lamp.We share materials but each has her own private stash. One of my loves is to work with fresh water pearls and right now I am working on a series of necklaces that I call "Not your Grandmother's pearls". I am striving for fresh contemporary designs. I also love non-precious gem stones like agates, jasper, jade, carnelian, lava, fluoride and others. The cut, shape and textures of stones is a real turn on for me and a challenge to create a design which shows the stones to their best advantage. This act of creating is still a wonder to me.

This discussion is going somewhere, I promise. About three years ago, our family was in Flagstaff. Now I have a passion for Native American Art, particularly Katsinas and MWDL and I were cruising galleries and shops. She also is a collector. After a couple of hours of this, she mentioned that she wanted to visit a yarn shop and a shop called Animas Beads that were just down the street. So it was my turn to explore her interests. The yarn shop didn't do anything for me; I wandered down to the bead store.

I had never been in such a store before and was dazzled by the colors and diversity of the beads and carvings. I was particularly drawn to a display of Baltic amber beads and chips and before I even thought about it, I bought two strands of amber. They were so smooth, light and beautiful and I had no idea what I would do with them. Sometime later that night, Kim slipped out of the hotel for a walk and returned with a set of beading tools and a bead board for me.

On a subsequent trip to Flag, I bargained for several hand carved cedar North West Coast style pendants, signed by the Canadian artist. I also purchased a couple of dichroic glass pendants from GlenGarry Glass. Now I had to do something with my investment and I begin to design a necklace which I would call "Beaver in the Woods".
It is centered by a North West Coast style cedar pendant of a beaver with deep green chunky glass, wood beads, amber, pipestone and coral. Having spent years believing I had no creative gift, I was on my way!

Those two stings of amber have grown into a way of creative life in which I express through the work of my hands, the dreams that I see in my mind. Many a night, a design will start tugging at the edge of my brain and I have to get up and lay out the design on a bead board or I will not sleep.

Back to the beginning of this post. When I walked into the meeting, the topic of conversation was my blog. Everyone was most complimentary and there was much discussion of my last post on the younger man / older woman situation. I have given some thought since I posted and finally blocked him from any contact. Three contacts in three weeks, two of which came after I had expressed no interest in him, felt more like stalking or harassment than being wooed. It isn't that I oppose the idea of a younger man, in fact, I will not be surprised if I end up with someone slightly younger (he has to like my car and sing my tunes with me, I need that ole time rock and roll to sooth my soul). As I said it will depend on the man.

My friends were also surprised at my writing ability. Prior to 1993, I have written short stories and poetry for myself. I always wrote the descriptive introductions for Gordon's briefs when we were doing litigation support for complex cases. But in 1993, it all came to an end.

In the middle of a very difficult case, I developed a headache on a Friday afternoon. I remember most of what happened until about the following Tuesday night when MWDL came to pick up her baby (Tuesdays were Granny's play day with the baby) and I complained about my head. My next memory is waking up in the recovery room at a local hospital. I had undergone five and a half hours of brain surgery after Gordon found me comatose in the bathroom early Friday morning. It was a very close call but I survived with some minimal damage, well two drill holes in my head and a ton of staples. With time, words and then sentences came back. But my ability to write creatively seem to be gone forever and I mourned my dreams of someday writing a series of murder mystery's, my favorite genre. The doctor also said that I would never work again and restricted me from driving.

In time, I began to drive again (anyone who ever rode when Gordon was driving understands that I had to drive myself or spend the rest of my life clutching the dashboard and screaming) I worked for the Nevada Democratic party and briefly for Friends of Harry Reid. Then I spent over eight years working for one of the most prominent real estate developers in Nevada. Since he retired, I have been mostly unemployed. One of these days, our economy will recover and I will return to some type of job.

In the last two years, I have healed from Gordon's long goodbye. My world view has changed and I truly believe that when one door closes, another will open if you wait and look for it. Here, after so many years, the ability to write has returned to my life. When the time is right, a very special man will come and be my last love.

In the meantime, Granny will keep her boogie going!

You may find our work at www.outofourminds.etsy.com