Hello strangers.  I’m sorry it’s been so long since I updated you on the goings on of my life.  Whew!  Things are moving pretty fast around here.  NYC was a great time, but that’s not a city that you want to spend a lot of time in if you don’t have a lot of money to spend with it.  Lunch for 2 in a no-frills cafe is $40.  Divali Glass Jewelry can’t afford that for long!  And I do have a hard time resisting temptation, especially when it’s in the form of clothes, handbags, and shoes.  No money, no self-control= lots of trouble in New York.  I did manage to get by without too much added weight to the suitcase.  But  I did make a few exciting purchases:

These are my new Cydwok tootsies.  Cydwoks are all handmade in the US, with hand-tanned Italian leathers.  They are made using the traditional shoe-making technique, so they are very elfish and romantic looking.  There’s a store in SOHO that carries nothing but Cydwok shoes, and you can custom design a pair too!  These were on the clearance rack, and they were my size.  So…they were meant to be!
It’s hard to see in this picture (that I took myself with my phone…sorry!), but this is a super-duper-cute birdie hairclip from Pylones.  If you don’t know about this company, and you like everyday objects that have been painted and brightened and accessorized, go check out their website.  You will love it!

New York is such a fun place for people watching and collection inspiration.  I saw this light in a bookstore in SOHO that I love:

And of course, good food and drink are always good for the creative brain.  This was a yummy Blueberry Pomegranate Margarita from Dos Caminos:
  So all in all, it was a good time.  We got some great new beads for Bead Trust.  We are waiting for the shipment to arrive, and then everything has to be priced and photographed.  So it’ll be some time before the new items are live on the site, but worth the wait!

We have some friends from Las Vegas in town for the 4th of July, and we’re having a BBQ at the house.  I have my party shoes on!  I bought these when I was in college….anyone remember these twinkletoes?  I don’t know how patriotic I’m feeling these days, but I guess if there is an appropriate time to wear them, it’s during the 4th of July!

I’ll try to check in over the weekend.  Happy 4th to all of you.  Eat lots of watermelon, drink lots of beer, and enjoy the sunshine wherever you are!

Carter

It was a beautiful weekend around here.  I had a totally relaxing, almost lazy (lazy for me) Saturday, and then felt so guilty about it by Sunday that I tackled 1000 things to make up for my previous day of relaxation.  I practiced the Accordion and the keyboard a lot, and am really enjoying both.  I made a skirt from a pair of Aveesh’s old jeans, and it actually fits really well.  Then I went to Home Depot and got a trunk-load of flowers and tomato plants, herbs, watermelon plants, and canteloupe plants, and got them all in the ground.  I ran myself ragged, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.  I meant to take some pictures to share, of my new garden and my skirt, but  today got rather crazy, as last-minute travel plans have arisen.

I’m up and out again tomorrow at the crack of dawn.  Headed to the Big Apple this time, to get new inventory.  We decided to give Priceline a try, and I’m not so sure I like it.  I did a lot of researching before I bid, and surveyed what flights were available, and had it in my head that we would be taking the red eye tomorrow (Tuesday) night, and a 6AM return flight on Friday morning.  Which would put us back with plenty of time to spare before the Mark Knopfler concert on Friday night (that I have been looking forward to for oh, about 6 months).  Well I’m not sure why I thought I could skew the outcome with my own wishful thinking, but the plans did not turn out that way.  We leave here at 6 AM tomorrow, and don’t leave NYC until Friday at 8 PM.  Which means….you guessed it…I’m missing Mark Knopfler.  I feel silly whining about it.  I love New York, and I jump at an opportunity to go.  It’s just that this was the one concert that I let myself buy tickets for.  I’ve really been trying to save money, and this was the one I’d been looking forward to.  Not to mention the fact that I have a lot going on around here.  I took some time to relax last week and didn’t accomplish quite as many things as I probably should have.  So I was planning on really cranking it out this week.  Oh well.  Things will have to wait!  Whimper, whine, waaaa.  Life goes on, it is what it is.

So I’m looking forward to having some time to play in the city.  I always complain that I don’t have enough time there, and this time it’s the other way around.  So I plan to make the most of it.  I’ll try to blog while I’m there, but our hotel charges for internet (of course they do; it’s New York!)

I have one fun little thing to share before I leave you.  This idea hit me the other day as I was getting out of the shower, and I brought it to life:

It’s a single-flower vase, and it’s super-cute!  I was so pleased that I was able to pull it off on the first shot.  I plan to make some more and list them in my etsy shop when I get a chance.

Alright,t o bed with me.  I have a whole 3 hours to sleep before the alarm goes off.  Sweet dreams-
Carter

Woo hoo!  It’s Friday.  And this is the first weekend in as long as I can remember that I have nothing to do.  It’s like a slice of Heaven.  I don’t even know what I’m going to do with myself.  I have some altered-clothing ideas in mind, but- though this may sound strange- it depends on the weather.  If it’s too hot upstairs, I might have to go find an air-conditioned book store to hang out in or something.

We are going to see Theivery Corporation tonight at the Greek Theatre.  This is Aveesh’s music, as I have not developed my ear for Electronica.  I just don’t understand it.  We didn’t grow up listening to that back in South Carolina!  It was Willie and Waylon for me, spiced with a bit of Grateful Dead and Zeppelin; straight up guitars and lyrics.  But I do my best to appreciate new sounds.   Thievery supposedly puts on a great show, so I’m game.  And next Friday we go to see one of my favorites: Mark Knopfler!!!!  He is by far one of the best singers, songwriters, and guitarists around, as far as I’m concerned.  I can’t wait for that one!

I have finally gotten around to photographing some of the pieces that I made in Susan Lenart Kazmer’s classes at Bead & Button.  It was a great time, I met lots of fun people, and learned lots of new skills.  I need to get some tools of my own before I can figure out how these ideas are going to work their way into Divali Glass Jewelry.   But they will work their way in somehow.  I’ve been wanting a Flex Shaft (a jeweler’s drill) for a while now.  They’re not too terribly expensive, I don’t know why I don’t break down and get one.  And a soldering set-up.  One of these months soon, I’m going to take the plunge.  Practicing some of these metalworking skills were part of my New Year’s resolution to myself, and I haven’t exactly followed through yet, though I have indeed branched out my work to include more than glass (see my new Talisman pendants that include resin).  So here are some of the things that I made.
A pod made with resined paper over a metal form:

A resined paper stacked ring.  I really like this one:

A vessel pendant with resined papers inside, and lots of fun dangles and ribbons:

I had a great time in these classes, and I am looking forward to playing more with the ideas that I learned.  I’m also going to be making some glass dangles for Susan to use in her jewelry!

Enjoy your weekend, and stay cool!
Carter

I’m quick like that.  So quick that I turned my 3-day fast into a less-than-one-whole-day fast!  I’m very glad I gave it a shot.  But I think my body can be paralleled to that of a hummingbird.  My metabolism operates at super-high speed.  I can almost hear my wings fluttering as I type this!  To put it simply: I need my nutrients.  Despite the fact that I have gotten out of my usual routines during the past few months, and put a good bit of garbage into my body, for the most part, I am pretty healthy.  I am vegetarian, I pay a lot of attention to what I put into my body, I exercise a lot, and I’m pretty active.   By the time I got home from the office lastnight, I was fading fast.  My head was hurting, I was getting lightheaded, and Aveesh, poor thing, had been dreaming of eating rice all day.  He kept threatening that he was going to get a sandwich, going to get sushi, going to eat cookies.  When we got home, he asked, “Why are we doing this?  Why don’t we do it during the day, and then eat a simple meal at night?  Let’s make our own version and do what feels right.”  So the thing that sounded right was eating a really yummy plate of rice with stewed veggies that he’d cooked the night before.  And glory, glory, hallelujah, did I feel better after that!  I was very tempted to go on a binge and eat everything that came into sight, but instead I ate a reasonable portion, drank some tea, and had a small bit of ice cream to wash it all down.

So today is a new day.  After I satiated my hunger, I wondered how I would feel, emotionally, this morning.  I’m not one to give up easily, and I am very determined.  I was worried that I would feel disappointed with myself.  But to tell you the truth, I felt great when I woke up this morning.  I wasn’t disappointed at all, didn’t feel like I’d given up on myself.  It felt good that I’d risen to the challenge, given it a shot, and done what felt right.   I woke up, took Finn on a long walk, had a nice hard workout, and have decided to have just smoothies and juice today, until dinner time.  It feels right, I feel better, and that’s what counts.

I plan to give this whole fast idea another go-round at some point in the future.  Maybe one-day fasts are more my style.  I’ve learned a lot from this, and I have much more of an understanding for what it must feel like to truly be hungry.  I am so thankful that I am fortunate enough to have food when I want and need it.  To finish off this fast, I have donated money to Heifer International.  Their goal is to end world hunger by giving poor families the world over the gift of livestock or trees; things that they can use to sustain themselves.  I know our wallets are tight these days, but if you have some extra money this month, consider donating to Heifer.  We here in America are suffering due to politics and our economy, but for the most part we are blessed enough to have food on the table and a roof over our heads; there are many people in the world who don’t have that much.  Let’s remember them and do what we can to share what we have.

It’s day 1 of a 3-day fast for me and Aveesh.  I’ve heard a lot about  the Master Cleanse, aka The Lemonade Diet, but never thought about doing it.   After having such a crazy few months, and not exercising as much as I would have liked, eating a lot more junk than I would have liked, and not taking care of my physical being the way I should, I decided that I’m a perfect candidate for a cleanse.  I did a bit of research online, and realized that the rules are pretty simple: don’t eat.  I have chosen a 3-day time-period because I don’t know if I can make it any longer than that.  I like to eat.   I love food.  I woke up this morning thinking about all of the things I wanted to eat today.  And then I went downstairs and fixed myself a nice big glass of water with lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup.  And I drank it.  I’m on glass #3 so far today, and I’ve had some mint tea as well as water.  Glasses 1 and 2 went down ok.  I must admit that the cayenne pepper in glass 3 got to me a little bit.  It hits you in the back of the throat after the other flavors are down the hatch.  I might lighten the amount in the next glass.

So far, I’m hanging in there.  I am feeling a bit hungry, but I suppose that means it’s time to go fix another glass of the tonic!

I’m busying myself with tying up all of the loose ends in my office today.  Papers that need to be put away, e-mails that need responding.  It’s amazing how much stuff can pile up while I’m away.  It’s nice to take a few days away from the torch, no matter how much I like beads.  And deep inside, I think I have a bit of secretary blood flowing in my veins.  I like to shuffle papers, check of items on a list, pay the bills.  I don’t know why; it’s something about the mindlessness of the tasks, but feeling like I’ve gotten so much done when I’m finished.  I have some ideas brewing for magazine project submissions as well, that need a bit of fermenting time in my brain.  I have some decisions that I need to make regarding the sales of my beads, and I am trying to mull all of this over.

Alrighty, off to make another class of the cleansing tonic.  Wish me luck.  I feel like I could eat my arm off right now.  It makes me stop and think about the starving people in the world who frequently go days and weeks without food.  I guess I don’t realize how great I have it, that there’s food on the table whenever I want to eat it.  I am blessed in more ways than one.

Do you know about UncommonGoods? If you don’t, you should. It’s quite possibly the coolest spot to get unusual, and mostly handmade, gifts. I do most of my holiday and birthday present shopping from this catalog, so if you’re on my list, chances are you have received a package from UncommonGoods. And I’m excited to announce that the already-cool catalog just got a lot cooler, because it’s now featuring the work of yours truly!

I consider this quite an honor, as this is a catalog house where I have shopped and browsed for countless hours, and only dreamed of being a part of it.  So dreams really do come true!  They’ve done a really nice job with both the descriptions and the photos, and I’m very excited to be a part of such a cool catalog.

On another note, a neat thing happened at the Live Oak Park fair today.  A woman was in my booth looking at some of my Talisman pendants, and she was really moved by one in particular, that has this quotation from Hafiz:
“Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, ‘you owe me.’  Look what happens with a love like that, it lights up the whole sky.”
Beautiful, isn’t it?  So she looked up at me and said, “Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we would all think like that?  I was just keeping tally this morning.”  She took a few moments to reflect and look at the rest of my work, then thanked me, and moved on.  I was very touched.  Because to me, it’s not just about making the work, or even selling it.  It’s about the messages that the jewelry carries, from one heart to another, one being to another, one soul to another.  The work that I created made a complete stranger stop and think about her actions in this world.  And that’s a pretty powerful thing.

It’s good to be home!  I love traveling, but as Dorothy said, “There’s no place like home.”  I finally got in the door around 9:00 last night.  After unpacking, resettling, sorting the mountain of mail and trying to establish some sense of order around the house, I decided that I’d be better off hitting the hay instead of making beads.  I had great intentions of waking up at 6:00, but somehow the alarm became a part of my dream, and I slept right through.  To say that I needed the sleep is an understatement; I missed an entire night of zzzzz’s on the way here.  We drove straight from Milwaukee to Las Vegas.  It took about 30 hours and lots of coffee.   Aveesh and I took turns driving, and his cousin Noor (who is here visiting from India, and came along on the journey) helped keep the both of us awake while we drove.  Then I hopped a plane from Vegas so I could get back here to prepare for my show.

Nevertheless, it was a productive day.  New deliveries headed to Elaine Todd in Mesa, AZ, and BKB & Co.  in Tacoma, WA.  Next on the agenda is the Live Oak Park Fair here in Berkeley, this weekend.  Thankfully I have a fairly good stash of jewelry already made, and I will be working into the wee hours tonight to get as much done as I can.  I feel like a million worker bees and the queen, all rolled into one.  After this show and one more wholesale order, I can relax for a few days.  Then nose to the grindstone again as I need to get some new designs ready to be photographed for Rice’s next book.

It’s hot here in CA.  I guess it’s hot everywhere this time of year.  But we don’t have AC.  And I hate to be a whiner, but my studio is in the top corner of the house, with little airflow.  By evening, it’s as hot as a kiln, and then when I come in and get the torch rolling and the kiln cranked, it’s as hot as a fire pit.  I sweat a lot.  Guess that can replace my Bikram Yoga that I’ve been missing the past month or so ;)  I drink gallons of water while I’m working this time of year.  And tonight I’m going to crack a bottle of white wine too.  Off to sweat.  Cheers-
Carter

Today is the last day of the Bead and Button show,  and I have to say it’s gone by pretty quickly.  The Bead Trust booth has been super-duper-busy, which is a blessing.  We have all closeouts, and people love that.  So I’m thankful that it’s been a good show for us.

I’ve hardly been out of the booth, so I can’t give you a very exciting report on what sorts of cool things are available on the market; I hope to get a chance to sneak away today.

A big group of us went out to dinner lastnight to  celebrate  Saki’s 40th birthday.  Saki and his wife Liz own Saki Silver, a Thai silver company.  They create  and sell gorgeous clasps and jewelry-making components.

I’ve had a great time getting to know Cynthia and the crew of Green Girl Studios.  They cast incredible charms made from Cynthia’s carvings.  All of their casting is done in-house, and they are truly an example of artists making a living off of doing what they love.

Sorry I don’t have any pictures for you this Sunday morning.  Truth be told I’m not feeling so hot today and I don’t feel like hooking up the camera to unload the pictures ;)  (What is it about mixing liquor and beer that does that to you?!  I didn’t have that much to drink, but I feel like I consumed a Malotov Cocktail.)  We’re off to straighten up the booth before the rush hits again at 10:00.

Happy Sunny Sunday to all of you-
Carter

I’m in Milwaukee taking the first of my two classes with Susan Lenart Kazmer. Today was great! We applied resin to all different kinds of paper and made bezel forms to stretch resin-paper over. I got sticky and glittery fingers, and learned a lot!

My table-neighbor in class is an artist named Bernie Berlin. She’ s makes Faberge-style eggs, in a tradition passed down from her grandmother. Bernie and I shared lunch today, and then got to talking all afternoon. We had lots in common and got along really well, and I’m so glad we sat next to eachother! Bernie has written several books on various crafty topics, and has several more in the works, but she has also devoted herself to a cause that deserves a shout-out. Bernie is the founder of a non-profit, no-kill animal shelter in based in Tennessee, called A Place to Bark. She rescues dogs and cats that have been abused, abandoned, or confiscated, fosters and retrains them, and then find them “forever homes.” This is a remarkable task, one that not many people could handle. I truly admire Bernie for her dedication and devotion to the animal race. If you would like to learn more about A Place to Bark or make a donation to the shelter, here’s the 411

Off to sleepytown for me. Another big day in class tomorrow.
Sweet dreams-
Carter

I feel like a real jet-setter these days.  I’ve been covering some serious ground (or air), flying all around this country.  I’m taking off from San Jose momentarily, headed to Milwaukee this time for the Bead and Button show.  I’m taking 2 classes from Susan Lenart Kazer, and I’m very excited about them. I’ve taken several classes from Susan before, and she’s not only an amazing artist, but a great teacher too.  The classes I’m taking are: 1. Transparent Layers and 2. Prayer Box Jewelry.  It should be fun!

It’s been a true whirlwind of a week getting ready to leave again, and I have to admit that I have hardly even thought about the fact that I’m going to Milwaukee to take a fun class (and work the Bead Trust booth at the show).  An unbelievable number of beads have been created and shipped out of my studio this week.  This might have been the most productive week of my career as a beadmaker yet.  This is what my studio table looked like yesterday:

Talk about a mess!  I have a constant battle with myself because I really am a neat person; I promise.  But what in the hell is all of this chaos?  Where does it come from?  How can I call myself neat and orderly and have a studio table that looks like this?  It drives me nuts. Since this photo was taken, I’ve organized all of these beads, strung and shipped out many of them, and packaged the rest of them up to bring them along with me.   I have a few more orders that need to be whipped out, and I’ll do that from Milwaukee.  No rest for the weary here; I’ll be stringing in my hotel room at night.

And lots of orders have gone out the door.  Here are some of the new galleries that have (or will have by next week) a fresh supply of Divali Glass Jewelry:
Portfolio Art Gallery in Columbia, SC
Museum of New Mexico Shop in Santa Fe, NM
Half Moon Creek in Anchorage, AK
Elaine Todd in Mesa, AZ
BKB & Co. in Tacoma, WA
Ursus in Upper Arlington, OH
So go shop!  There are lots of great things to see!

And I have a new toy as well that I am so very very very excited about.  It’s a bit off-the-wall, I do realize.  But I like to keep ya’ll entertained!  You see, I took piano lessons for 11 years while growing up.  It was something that I started fairly young, and then I just kept taking because it was on the schedule.  My teacher was a sweet little grey-haired old lady named Ms. Behles, and I took from her until she was too old and sick to teach.  Then I went off to college and forgot about the piano.  Time passed.  Last year, I had an itch to get back into music.  I have had several musical ventures in my life, most of which ended in me getting frustrated because I didn’t really know what I was doing and didn’t make the time to take lessons.  I could almost be a one-woman band (that you really don’t want to listen to!)  Remember Bert in Mary Poppins with his walking musical ensemble?  I have enough instruments to do that.  But I don’t play any of them very well.  But this is going to be different.

So welcome the newest member of my musical family:

That’s her, in all her beauty.  And here’s a picture I took really quickly this morning of me with it on.  Sorry I cut off my head in the picture!

Watchout neighbors, I’m learning to play the accordion!  It really is a cool instrument.  Aveesh, poor thing, balked when I told him what my plans were.  But when I  pulled it out of the box lastnight, and serenaded him with all of my musical skill, he was pleasantly surprised.  It’s going to be a fun journey.  I’ve already taken my first lesson, and have another one scheduled for when I return.  I feel so happy and alive when I’m playing it.  Yeah, yeah, I only know three bass cords at this time, but I can tell this is going to be fun!

OK, I gotta run.  My plane is boarding.  If you’re going to be in Wilwaukee, come by and say hello!
Carter