This week I went to the Medieval to Metal exhibit at the Loveland Museum. The traveling exhibit displayed 40 guitars, plus some artwork and photos, on loan from the National GUITAR Museum in New York. I don't play the guitar, but I loved seeing all of them! The older wooden instruments, precursors to the modern guitar, had such lovely, detailed carving. The modern ones often had colorful paint, innovative knobs, and fascinating histories. One inventor, for example, loved all the buttons and knobs he'd included even though everyone found it too confusing and hard to use. I also learned about the Silent Guitar which can be used with headphones so you don't disturb others while practicing. If that had been invented when I was a child, I almost certainly would have played it!
On My Work (Art) Table
Now that it's a little bit cooler outside, I'm doing some painting. The bottoms of these steel tins are lightly scratched, so I'm experimenting to see if paint will give them new life. I have a potting bench in the garage that is just perfect for this kind of work. The cardboard box keeps the paint contained. I use those little plastic white lids if I'm painting something small like a charm.
In the Kitchen
I like to think that I can't be "influenced" by strangers on the Internet, but I ended up buying a sampler pack of 3 different pretzel varieties after reading a review by a 20-something writer. I chose the flavors listed on the store's website as "most popular": salted honey butter, cinnamon sugar, and honey mustard. I thought the salted honey butter were the best by far. Those would be the ones I'd buy as a gift for someone who loved pretzels. The cinnamon ones were fine, but I decided I prefer savory over sweet when it comes to pretzels. The honey mustard were okay, too, although to me the mustard flavor (no honey that I could discern) was very strong. All in all, a fun experiment!
What I'm Reading
Gretchen Rubin's new book Life in Five Senses gave a detailed look at how the author focused her energy on the senses one at a time in order to better appreciate them. As a regular listener to the author's podcast, I'd already heard some of the stories in the book. One new story that stood out to me was her visit to a restaurant where she and her family ate blindfolded.
After reading the book, I was inspired to do a taste test (not blindfolded!) of two similar items. I found two boxes of ginger-flavored cookies at World Market, one made in Sweden and one in the United Kingdom. The Swedish cookies (Nyakers Original Gingersnaps) were thin, crispy and tasted like the kind of traditional gingerbread you might have at Christmas. The British cookie (Walkers Stem Ginger biscuits) was thicker, light in color, and contained real pieces of ginger. I didn't have a clear favorite, but it was a good reminder as an artist that even though it may seem like everyone is cooking with the same ingredients, the outcome will have your original stamp on it!
On My Library Hold List
My hold list includes The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher, which is a journalist's look at how social media affects our brains and our interactions with others. I'm particularly interested in how social media affects different generations, so I'm curious if this book will have any insight into that. Another book on my list is Yellowface by R. F. Kuang. That novel takes place in the publishing world and features an unlikable narrator who runs into trouble when she passes off someone else's work as her own.
Art I Admired
This quilted zipper pouch by Instagram user quiltyobsession is so cute! I love all the tiny squares of different fabrics. It's a lot more challenging than it appears to make a bunch of random colors look like they belong together.
I also liked this animated reel on Instagram by Australian illustrator Sarah Capon: "It's a lovely day for a bicycle ride." (It does have sound, so just be aware in case you're clicking on this link in public!)
Jewelry News
The U.S. company TierraCast is going out of business after 45 years. So sad! I've used many of their charms and ear wires in my work over the years and could count on them to be very high quality. Here's one pair of earrings I made using their bee charms which are highly detailed on both sides:
Made Me Laugh
Okay, maybe it was more of a smile than a laugh. But the positive energy of a 101-year-old woman who works part time in a craft shop was contagious!
New in the Shop
I don't make too many Halloween-themed jewelry pieces, but I couldn't resist making these hand stamped Nevermore earrings with these very textured black bird charms.
See you in October!