...until you take flight...

it's been a while since i have done a post about my process. i was very excited about this bracelet so i took photos as i went. i am realizing that a bracelet is an excellent canvas for stories, for a progression. first i drew the above picture, to scale, ready to be glued onto silver.

i forgot to get a picture after i pierced out the birds, but here is the back, with the solder ready to go. it probably seems like a lot of solder, but it's necessary.

and here are the tiny little pieces that have to be soldered on separately.

here it is, all soldered.

this is the back.

then i hammered it on the mandrel to shape it.

then i heated it up to anneal it and hammered it some more. i repeated that process several times.

then i oxidized the entire piece, hand-buffed the raised areas, and...

the "until you take flight" bracelet.

this bracelet represents a progression, from a little bird who is resisting flying...

to a bird that is considering it, but hesitating...

to a bird that is poised and ready to go...

to a bird that has launched...

to one that is soaring...

...you never know how high you can soar until you take flight...

so where are you in this progression? are you resisting? do you have a reason for not wanting to fly? are you afraid? or are you considering flying, but just not sure if you're ready? or are you ready? ready, poised, but just need a little push, something to encourage you? or, have you launched? launched, but still nervous, flying low to the ground? or have you done it? have you made it through all of those stages and now you're really soaring? you finally made it?

photos!

so it turns out the reason i couldn't post any photos was that i had reached my limit for my blogger account, which is 1000 photos! that really put it into perspective for me how much i've put into this here blog. pretty cool. i just love that i have this record of our lives and of my work, what a wonderful thing. anyway, i realized that i could go to my picasa web album and delete some to free up space here and that's what i did. so here are the first day of school pics.

i almost never dress them in matching clothes. but patty and i took the girls back to school shopping in nearby farmington and when i saw these dresses i had to have them. i think some family portraits may be in order soon as well. please note junebug's choice of footwear. and how freakin' TALL hazel is!

of course her blanket, "tinky", went with her.

she's so proud of her little first grade self.

and here is my new office! it is fabulous. the main framer, woody, told me today that they are almost finished framing!

this is the view if i am standing right outside the door to my shop. that big space there will be french doors leading out of our bedroom. above that is a big window that you can't see because of the tree. next summer glenn will build us a beautiful flagstone patio outside those doors. it will be so fabulous!

how's everybody doing? are your children back in school? what is the end of summer looking like for you?

first day of school!

i am so bummed. blogger here will not let me upload ANY more photos, which means i cannot share any pictures from hazel and june's first day of school today. but believe me when i tell you it was pretty darn sweet.

i also cannot show you how the remodel is coming along. although i have been referring to the girls and i as renovation refugees, and doing anything i can to keep us out of the house while they are working, mostly because it is so LOUD all the time, when i climbed the ladder up into my new office today, i almost cried. it is going to be so amazing!

my good friend doug is working on getting my new site up and running and i will share the link with you very soon.

several folks have asked about the renovation, so i thought i'd share some photos. (the weird thing is, i just got a message from blogger saying i have reached my limit; i can no longer upload photos to this blog. which is very interesting because i had just made up my mind to move to my silversparrowdesigns.com wordpress site. will you all follow me over there when i make the switch?)

anyway, here's the house after they tore down the mudroom.

they only just poured the concrete yesterday and this is what it looked like today when i got home.

that's our future bathroom.

and the future bedroom. it will be 15' x 20', 300 square feet. our bedroom right now is 12' x 13', which means we are doubling the size of our bedroom. it is hard to believe!

very exciting, we just cannot wait!!!

for your wrist...

always when i do shows, people ask me about my bracelet, and want something similar. the durango arts festival is quickly approaching, so i thought i would start working on some. this is what i came up with so far:

this one is my favorite. emily had a fascinating wizard of oz pop-up book, by richard sabuda. the images in it were remarkable, and very inspiring. i had to create this bracelet. it is for all my wandering friends. the image is of the scarecrow, dorothy, and toto wandering through the forest, as it was the scarecrow, hoping for a brain, that dorothy met first.

on the back, i stamped a line of conor oberst's, "there's nothing that the road cannot heal." because what is the wizard of oz about if not being on the road? the yellow brick road is a symbol of everything wonderful about traveling- freedom, adventure, challenge, chance encounters, new friends, lessons... everyone on the journey got something so much greater than they ever expected out of it. it was never about the wizard after all.

this bracelet is heavy, comprised of many layers. i have a special connection to this piece, as my middle name is dorothy and wizard of oz/ kansas/ toto/ there's no place like home comments have followed me around most of my life.

this is the "raise your head high" bracelet. as a totem animal, an ostrich is said to help with grounding. this particular ostrich is struttin' her stuff, with her head held high and a sweet little moonstone soul. i like her as a reminder NOT to bury your head in the sand. to raise your head high and face the facts. to see the world as it really as, to not purposefully shelter yourself from the facts.

a beautiful fire opal accompanies her.

and the labradorite marquis magnificence bracelet,

with the very most incredible labradorite

it is simply gorgeous.

these will be in the shop tomorrow!

salt lake city

so, in order to escape the intense chaos of the renovation, and to go visit the fantastic emily, and to see BRIGHT EYES, the girls and i headed to salt lake city for a few days.

it has been a while since i have driven a long distance with both of the girls without glenn. it was quite trying, but very worth it once we reached our destination.

i think the highlight of the trip for the girls was riding the "train" to the show. as you may have guessed, there is no public transportation in dolores.

emily's the best;

we love her.

i admit, it was an entirely different experience having the girls with me at a show. but when i saw that it was a free show, in a park, i figured i should give it a try. luckily, some random man saw us with them, told us to stay right where we were because he would be right back, and returned with a beach ball. i guess they had been giving them away earlier and we missed it. it is a good thing that he did because it kept them thoroughly entertained the whole time. they kept hitting people in the head and they would just laugh and toss the ball back to them. they danced a bit with me, read their books, played, etc. we had so much fun! of course, twice june had to go to the bathroom, during songs that i love. and we were pretty far back, where it was safe to lay out a blanket for us to sit on, not right up front, touching the stage like i usually am. and i really could really only half watch conor up there because i was keeping a constant eye on the girls. but it was great, and i am glad they were with me. i was very glad emily was with us too; she was a big help with them!

i have seen conor several times, but i have never seen him like this. he was ON. it was amazing! he is playing again next month in albuquerque and i think i will have to go (without the girls).

on friday, we went for a great hike, to donut falls. it was about 1.2 miles, and only took us 3 hours!

emily's kids, ella, sammy, and sadie, are so awesome.

and emily is hardcore!

(two on her back, one in the stroller.)

and then, after the hike, i went paragliding.

yep. i flew.

emily's husband, johnny, runs a paragliding business. that's him there in the back and i am in front. words cannot describe what it felt like.

i can't wait to try it again!

they live right down the road from point of the mountain, a world famous paragliding spot. people come from all of the world to train there. so cool.

THANK YOU so much, emily, for everything! we had such a great time with you!

unfortunately, we had a tragedy on this trip as well. we brought daisy with us, because we bring her everywhere with us. but we had never taken her on such long trip before. we didn't really think about it. but she didn't make it. she was in the way back of the element, where she always travels. the air conditioning was on, but i am afraid maybe it was still really hot back there. when we arrived, she seemed very disoriented. we put her in the shade, where it was quiet, away from the kids. but when we went back to check on her she was dead.

i think i was as devastated as hazel. but the interesting thing to me was it was the first time that she was truly inconsolable, about something real, and i don't mean that in a judgmental way, i just mean she wasn't crying because she didn't get her way, or because she wanted a toy that june had. she was truly heartbroken. and i felt that, and it was intense. it is cliche', but i felt her pain. and it made me realize that there is a lot more of that to come. and it scared me. i called vicky, the woman we got daisy from right away to see if she had any more babies. it just so happened that she had a litter that was ready to leave their mama today, so we stopped on our way home and picked out a new bunny. her father was the same as daisy's.

i am a bit smitten with little cleo. yes, it was my idea to call her that. short for cleopatra because she has these perfect rings around her eyes, like eyeliner. i loved daisy so much, and her death made me realize how fast things can change. but rather than spend too much time mourning the loss of her, i intend to put my energy into making sure this sweet little girl feels as happy and loved as daisy did.

i will be out in the shop all day tomorrow and i can't wait!