Inspiration

I read an interesting quote this morning that seemed to make sense and even encourage me  a little.  Here is what it said:

“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case.”  - Chuck Close - painter.

 While I think it may be a little harsh (but I guess he can be because of how successful he is) I think this made sense to me mostly because I have not been one of those who has mounds and mounds of sketch pads, inspiration boards, or notebooks filled with "inspirational ideas".  I look through books, take pictures, and read a lot.  I hear of artists who get their inspiration from here or there, nature or architecture and on and on.  I try to do that but I always come up empty and that leaves me feeling less of an "artist" and more of a laborer. While I don't agree, nor would I judge that's for " amateurs", is is encouraging that a successful artist has another process. 

I like the idea of "the best ideas come out of the process" because that is how it works for me.  When I get out and work the ideas come.  I gather stones, look at components, place designs, re-arrange, re-do before something comes together fully.  

I think it's encouraging to know that we all have our processes..some get inspiration, some just do the work.  Its all art. 

Bands...

A load of new detailed silver wire turns into these:

now available in my shop as sets.  They are also going to be available individually; however I haven't gotten around to photographing and listing them yet. 

Buttons...

I hit my vintage button stash this week, picking the prettiest I could find and Voila~... new necklaces. 

You can't tell from the awful photo (I don't know what happened when I uploaded it) but the bottom left button is actually pink..like depression glass.  The one on the bottom right is silvery like mercury glass.  Oooh so pretty. 

I tried to get a good mix in there so we'll see.  I have about five more on my bench I want to set so we'll see how much work I get done on new stuff this week.

Plug for Pinterest Pin..times two.

I'm sharing a couple of desserts with you today since they are small and so similar in ingredients.  Both of these are deeeliissshhuuss!

First, cheesecake stuffed strawberries from here:

They are super easy to make.  The hardest part is the coring of the strawberries.  That took a while.  Also, you might be tempted to double this recipe but be cautious.  They aren't really good the second day if you have ripe strawberries.  The strawberries turn quickly being cut into and stuffed like this. 

They are a perfect little finger food though.  Just pop the whole thing in your mouth and yum.  They are MUCH better than I expected them to be. 

Second, mini desert pies from here:

These are uber fun and yummy  AND unlike the strawberries are still good the next day! 

The cookies were amazing.  I was surprised when the cookies cook they puff up in the mini muffin tin.  BUT, when you take them out of the oven they deflate and make the perfect little tart shell.  Have no fear, it works wonderfully!  I changed the recipe, though, and only topped them with  raspberry, nothing more.  So cute and yummy! 

Definitely try these.  They are really easy, a few time consuming steps (coring strawberries and/or making the cookie shells)  but are so worth it.  DE- LISHUS!

Its not Rings!

I made bracelets today.  A shock, I know!  I've been making an effort to make my shop a little diverse. 

I love lampwork beads, by the way.  They are just so fun!  So many colors, shapes, textures.  These bracelets are perfect for my little collection. 

I have a nice purple blood blister on my finger from missing with the hammer when I was hammering out these links. 

This focal was recycled from a necklace that didn't sell.  I hope  this one does better than the necklace did! 

They are in my shop now, here.

Happy Independence Day!

Crazy Electricity and First World Problems

I love thunderstorms.  They are really one of my favorite things in this world.  I love watching them, hearing them, and being in the middle of them. 

It was during one of these wonderful parties of flashing lights, booming thunder and pounding rain that we got a little surprise.  Lightening struck...right on our house.  CRAAAAAAK!!! doesn't even describe the noise!  It was like someone took two 2x4s and slapped them together right next to my ear!

Immediately our tv went out, the smoke alarms in the house went off and our poor little dog who is afraid of storms went running. 

Funny thing, though, our lights didn't even flicker.  Not one.  Alarm clocks didn't re-set, appliances stayed on, ceiling fans kept going.

After about half an hour I called the cable company to ask if it was an area wide outage or if it was just a localized to our house problem.  Unfortunately it was a localized problem. 

The next thing we started to notice was that our air conditioner wasn't working, and our pool pump was on high.  Oh, and no phones. 

What I've learned in the past few days are that the lower voltage items are most at risk.  Phones (not the line..it's fine and we have an old school with a bell ringer right now!), air conditioner electrical panels and thermostats, cable for tv, HDMI circuits on flat screen tvs, are all more susceptible to lightening strikes than the major electrical systems in a house. 

All in all it will probably total just $1 less than our homeowners deductable.  grr.  But I am blessed.  We had no major damage, we had no fire, we had no injuries.  Just our First World problems.