This summer I moved into my father’s old blacksmith shop.  No one has spent a great deal of time in the building in years so I was living with lots of bugs and mice and other things that go bump in the night.  I can say now that there were a few nights when I was sure there were very large animals crawling around in the walls and ceilings and they made ALOT of noise and gave me a good scare.  Since I felt home for collage I have mostly lived in a city and so it was strange to be back in the quiet of the country and yet it was nice after an adjustment period.  

I was in several art fairs in the early part of the summer and had a lot of fun and met some great people.  I saw some great work with Precious Metal Clay (PMC) and really want to give that a try soon.  I learned a lot from some of the artists who have been doing the art fair scene for years and made some good contacts.  My favorite fair however was right in my town of Bloomington and benefited the Middle Way House and so I plan on definitely doing that again next year.  Not only did I do well selling, and made new friends, they had great entertainment close to my booth that made up for the sometimes slow traffic.  

On a sad note my grandmother, my last living grandparent and the only one I really had a chance to know as an adult, died this summer.  I was very lucky and we knew it was coming and so the family was able to all come to town and spend her last few days with her and each other.  She was an amazing woman who has been a great support for me especially in the last year and I still miss her a lot.

I was in California for a few weeks this summer visiting Bob and his family.  I was lucky as my cousin Tyler who I had not seen in several years (due to him living in China for the past 4 or so years) was in San Fransisco interviewing for a job and so Bob and I drove down from Davis to see him.  It was the 4th of July so we tried to see the fireworks but unfortunately SF being one of the foggiest cities that didn’t work out well.  However I had a great time because it was one of my few 4ths outside of Indiana and as we stood on a pier and tried our best to see though the fog I was listening to the people all around us and most of them were speaking on other languages.  It seamed kind of perfect to me that we were standing in one of the major port cities in a country founded by immigrants and I couldn’t hear one voice speaking English on the anniversary of our independence.  

Back in Indiana a group of other Brown County artists and I formed a group and opened a shop in Nashville called Hand Made in Brown County.  Unfortunately I had to leave before it really got off the ground but I hear its doing well and I cant wait to get back and see all the new work that has been added since I left.  My work is on display for sale even though I’m currently out of the country so  if your in Nashville stop by and take a look.  Its located across the ally from the court house.

Bob came to Indiana at the end of August and helped me get things squared away before we left for…PARIS!  I have wanted to go to Paris since I was 12 years old and I finally got to do so!  We stayed for a week on our way to Cairo and it was AMAZING.  I loved it so much I’m trying to talk Bob into living there at some point in the future.  I don’t have any pictures posted here yet but Bob has them up on his so you can see them here.  These are both of our photos so there a a lot, and for some reason they loaded last to first so the first pics you will see are of our last day.  

I have been back in Egypt for almost 2 months and have lots to tell about that but in the interest of not turning this post into more of a novel than it is I’m going to stop for today.  I am going to leave you with one more link to photos on Bob’s blog. Last week we went to the Harvest Moon Autumn Ball at the British Embassy and it was wonderful!  I will tell about it later but for now…here are pics!

I also want to say that Bob and I are going to be working on this site some so if you have any critique or advise sent it my way!

I know this seems like a strange topic but its something I have been thinking about for a while and I thought I would share.  Thats all for now!

My newest jewelry obsession has been making what I call Branch Pendants out of semi precious stone and twisted sterling silver wire. I have had a great response from customers about these and I absolutely love making them!Due to some health problems that I am resolving right now I was not able to go to Italy. I should be there right now, but instead am back in my beautiful home town near Nashville, Indiana. I’m living in the large studio on my mother’s property and trying to fix a nice place for my self to be an artist in the next few months. My goal is to do a lot of painting and make a lot of jewelry this summer which I can leave here to be sold (hopefully) by shops I’m trying to arrange now. If you own a shop owner then let me know and I will send you my info

Since I’m not going to Italy my boyfriend and I are going to spend a week in Paris on the way to Cairo in August. I’m SO excited! When I was about 11 years old a friend of my mom’s backpacked around France and I decided that I was going to do the same after I graduated high school. That didn’t work out and so I’m looking forward to finally seeing a small part of France. Also our favorite movie is Moulin Rouge and we are going to go take a look at the out side (cuz its really ridiculously expensive to get into it). I also cant wait to see the Victory statue at the Louvre! When I was a freshman I took a class on ancient art and absolutely fell in love with this Greek statue. There is something so incredibly beautiful and touching about this headless statue that it has stayed in my memory all these years.

A few weeks ago I participated in the annual paint out at the T. C. Steel State Memorial and I greatly enjoyed it! Being as busy as I was last semester I had not painted in months and it was great to get back into it. T. C. Steel was an artist who was an Impressionist in the early part of the last century and fell in love with the beautiful scenery of Brown County. He eventually made his home here and was followed by other gifted and well known artists of his time there by founding the artist colony which I now call home. Unfortunately I ran out of time to finish my painting but I had SO much fun I cant wait to get back into painting again!

Also next weekend (June 6-7) I will be in an art fair at the Fig Tree Gallery and Coffee Shop.  (click on the link to get directions and such) I hope to see some of you there!

Also I found this handy list of 50 things to do to save help save the earth…like wash your clothes in warm or cold water to save energy on heating water.  I like #17 in particular.

But to make up for my lack of posting I have lots of things to talk about, unfortunately I have a ton I have to get done in the next two weeks include move so it will be short!

First, as I mentioned before, this semester all the metals students made a piece of jewelry to represent a faculty member in the school of fine arts. I chose the wonderful Yara Culver as my faculty member and made a pair of earrings about her work and life.

Every semester a Canvas magazine is published with art work and is distributed around the state and I have two pieces of my work in the current issue. My Leaves of Brown County and Grandmas Virgina Bluebells were selected so check that out!

Bill Clinton visited IU a few weeks ago and I was able to hear his speech about improving the economy. I had amazing seats and even though He was three hours late I enjoyed every minute of Bill’s speech. It was actually quite amazing I was totally exosted from standing in line and then waiting for hours and didnt expect to get much out of the speech, but as soon as he started talking I was hanging on his every word. To see some video clips of his speech click here or here.

I was in a women’s art show in Bloomington in the end of March that was alot of fun. I also had the luck of having my aunts in town at the time. My Aunt M’lou is a silversmith who first encuraged me to become a silversmith after seeing some of the jewelry I made out of my father’s copper scraps. My aunt Genny also makes beaded art and jewelry, which is mostly what I had in my booth.

Also I dont know if I have talked about this much here yet, but I have decided to take a semester off and am heading back to Cairo in the fall. I am in the process of trying to find a job so let me know if you have any ideas! My dream would be to work for Azza Fahmy but only time will tell what happens!

Thats all for now, I have to go try to get a paper done!

First of all I wanted to share this link that was just sent to me with photos from the Field of Vision show we had here last fall.  Its fun to see the exhibit again as well as the opening.  I’m even in one of the pictures talking to Robert Banes!

One of the few things I have felt up to doing to making earrings!  I think I have made about 40 pair of earrings in the last few days, so that has been a lot of fun.  I’m going to be in a craft show at the Showers Building to benefit the women’s shelter here in Bloomington at the end of March.  (Ill post more details about that later.)  I’m going to be selling mostly earrings as well as (hopefully) some prints of my watercolors and maybe a few more things if I can think of them to try to raise money for my Venice trip.

Well thats all for now, as I said I have not done much in the last week or so and my life has not been very interesting.  Hope that if your here on campus you can avoid this nasty virus!

Any way Etsy has these lovely buttons that link to my page…and your going to get my first one!

When I was in the 6th grade we had a school trip to Chicago and I raised the money to go by selling hand drawn greeting cards.  This time Im going to be selling earrings.  So I will be posting pictures on Etsy tonight of some earrings I will be selling to raise money.  Please buy some earrings so I can go it Italy!