A Studio Tour for You

Hola! Buenas tardes! It is a gorgeous day here. Just in case you happen to be the curious sort....it is 85 degrees and the humidity is 65%. It has been slightly overcast all morning and just now, at 1:45, the sun has come out. So, things could change pretty quickly around here. In half an hour it might be 102 degrees.........


Below is this morning's sunrise, before the clouds came in. Today I got an awesome email from a lady named Linda Lee. She was googling herself and she found me.................!

She is a glass artist and lives on a lake in New Hampshire. Her shop is http://www.pondhillstudio.com/ and her lampworked beads are gorgeous.

She also has an etsy shop http://www.pondhillstudio.etsy.com/ and she is really a talented glassartist. I can't say so much for her blog, she has not posted since February, silly girl! But her glass beads are worth taking a trip to her studio to see. And her prices are very good.

There are many talented glass artists out there. I do not really consider myself to be a glass artist. I just call myself a glassworker.....or a glassmesser, maybe that is what I am.


Also, there are some very impressive glass studios out there. My studio in WA was sooooooooo impressive. It was so full of stuff and so fun to walk around in. I was also very, very organized.


If you have not seen the old studio, you can go to the website, http://www.glasspondstudio.com/ and see my lovely old studio and read about the little shed in the woods. Eventually I outgrew the shed and took over half of the garage. You can see a photo of part of that studio at the bottom of this blog.


But, oh well, it could not exactly come to Mexico, could it?


While we are in this exciting stage of not really having anyplace to really put anything, I have made major compromises. I have not begged Senor to hurry up and roof this place in so I can have a decent studio in which to work. I have not bugged Senor about the fact that he even takes up more space around here than I do. I have not broken down once in tears because I do not have room to do anything around here. I have not complained at all...........

Really I am just doing what I can with what I have........ and it is working fine.

So! Just for Linda Lee of New Hampshire and anyone else out there who is interested........HI MOM.............I am going to take you on a tour of my studio today!!!

Aren't you excited? And it is a free tour!!!!! So, here we go!

In the photo below, we are entering the studio!

Try to ignore all the odd other stuff......this is the studio............
Now, let's get down to business. The table covered in orange and pink oil cloth as you enter the studio door is the main work table for beadworking.
Now, you will see other things on that table, like a papaya ripening, but that is unimportant.

The sewing maching is capable of sewing beaded tapestry hangings together when it feels like it.
The current project is a Hawaiian lei made of silver and amazonite from Brazil and opals from Africa and silver from Karen Hill tribe of Thailand.......notice the tools placed so neatly to the side of the work area..............very, very tidy.Now to the right of the work table is an area on top of a very old chest from Belgium. Alot of assorted craft and bead items are here. Note the cake pan cover at the end, bead boxes in the middle and a few photographs and things that are always getting in the way...........Against the window wall we have an area that thinks it is a kitchen, but really is not. See how the bead boxes control everything. They take over that piece of metal called a hot plate, they cover not just one table but two, including the area where the blender thinks it should be. Some old silver is drying out, competing with a few cups and glasses. But again, note how neat and tidy everything looks.
Until we get here...................now just because I am such a nice and sweet person, I allow Senor to store his tools in the studio. But, look how he takes advantage of this opportunity. His stuff is everywhere................. how he can find anything, I do not know................. so...we try not to hang out in this area of the studio for long.


Beyond Senor's tool area is the refrigerator which Senor is extremely unhappy with. I wanted a small refrigerator and I will admit this one is too small for our family of two.
The importance however, of this area is not the refrigerator which has made its way into the studio, it is the glassmessing station located on the table to the left.
All of the glassmessing is done here. When the glass is in full operation, the grinder is pulled out from under the table and set up outside in the Hilton Garden Room. Since it is a job that requires using a face mask, the circulation is better outside. Note the mangos in a bowl which have been placed out to ripen by someone we won't mention.......................
To the left of the glass is the art easel which gets used when there is no energy remaining for glassmessing or beading.......................this is a nopale cactus drawing done in aquarelle, or watercolor pencil..................don't worry, it is not finished.................
If you will follow me we will go into the bathroom. Right outside the door are more boxes of crafts and glass and beads......alot of fabric is kept here for use in Christmas cards and wall hangings ...................

In the bathroom, under the triptic daffodil painting is the current fire book, the third one. Inside the fire books are records of every firing ever done in the kilns.................
In the shower is the big computerized kiln. It is temporarily on sabbatical as it heats to 1600 degrees and it is already hot enough in there.

Someone thinks it is also a fine place to store fertilzer and other assorted items...............

As we leave the bathroom you can see the smaller hot box kiln sits on the floor and doubles as a vase for paper flowers........................

We are going to now leave the studio and head for the showroom. I am serious. I have had four shows in there.....................

Below is the computer where I work on http://www.glasspondstudio.com/ www.glasspondstudio.etsy.com/ and my galleries at http://www.glassartists.org/ and http://www.delphiglass.com/ and www.glasspondstudio.artfire.com/

and, of course, the blog................

When it is showtime, the books go under the bed or in the bathroom attached to this room, the lights go down, the red carpet comes out, well sort of..............

and the glass and the beads come out of their hiding places to say hello.................

Who knows what this little studio will be in the future? I am not sure. I would like to see it out in the stable, but I will patiently wait, until after the roof is on, to see the possibilities...........

hey, if you have a little studio............... glass, beads, painting, sewing, woodworking, metal, it doesn't matter what you do in it...............well, please, nothing we would not want to see.................... send me a picture of it and I will have a studio posting day. I would love to see other people's studios and workshops.

You have always had access to my email on the website, so I will just go ahead and give it to you here. adamsLH@aol.com. Be sure and tell me it is a studio or workshop picture or I won't open it................

Send me your studio picture, Linda Lee.

Cookies, the fat cat says it is siesta time. adios, linda lou.

Cake Pan Cover

Hola!
I will get right to the point because my mom called earlier and is very eager to see the cake pan cover. There it is.


So, now you have seen it. If you want to know how I did it, you can read on and there are also more photos of the finished product at the end of the post.

If you find this all rather boring and not your kind of thing, just log out and (to use a phrase our son Ian came up with) don't blame about it, which basically means, no worries, get on with stuff.......


Should you be sticking around for the details........HI MOM!!!!.......I will give you some history.
It was either a half of a fish that would hang on the wall or a cake pan cover. I decided the fish would be very complicated after looking at a website where a guy makes dragons out of papier mache'. So I went for the cake pan cover.

It took two tries.

The first try I used light weight screen for the form, and covered it with masking tape to give it some strength. I made a mixture of glue, flour and water, dunked the torn newspaper strips in the mixture and slapped them on the form.

this did not work.....................the torn pieces of paper were too big and they caused the screen to warp and then it got too heavy after it dried and then, it smelled terrible....................

So, I switched to Plan B...................... a new screen that I made into a circle and only masked off at the seam.

I omitted the flour and went with straight water and glue, used very small strips of paper and covered first the main body and then, the top, which I simply cut out of a piece of cardboard and slathered the glue and newspaper on.

I used masking tape to connect the top to the main body and added more newspaper to firm it all up and then painted it white.

After cutting two slits in the top, I inserted a wadded and rolled up piece that I shaped into a handle and covered that in newspaper and tape. I taped this handle where it met the top and added more newspaper and then painted that white as well.

I wanted to paint it in a talavera style, so I followed the design of a dish I have. I made a grid out of cardboard and penciled in all the little squares and other designs I wanted.

Below you can see the squares have been painted with blue acrylic and the other designs which were also penciled in using the cardboard grid, are painted in browns, yellows and orange acrylics. Later I went over that all again and put in alot of black details.

After I completed all this background work, I drew in the flowers and leaves and started painting them. I used blues, and greens, and yellow and orange and red and magenta (all acrylics I found here at the mercado, along with about six other paints I am saving for some other unknown project).

After it dried I put three coats of brilliant high gloss varnish on it and Voila! A cake pan cover!

Now, all I need is a cake!!

adios, linda lou

The Paved Road to El Fuerte

hola!

I am pleased to announce that during our Sunday drive we saw no smoke and no fire. The land was very peaceful, dry and hot, but it is surprising how green the terrain is beginning to turn. We still do not really know what the helicopter has been doing.


We weren't able to get up too close to Mt. Cacharamba as we had planned, but here is the backside of Mt. Alamos. You are looking at the huge landslide from the hurricane. This slide has been estimated at more than two football fields wide. There are no communites, no pueblos, no ejidos here, thankfully nothing but land at the base of the slide.
The town of Alamos, is right on the other side.Happy to not see any smoke, we decided to keep driving and go to the sea.

We took the new paved road to Masiaca. This road provides great conversation around town. Many people think it is paved ALL the way to Masiaca. Well, we have been on this road many times. It is Not paved all the way to Masiaca.

It is nicely paved from Alamos to KM7 and then, it is back to the normal..... dirt , dirt, and more dirt, huge gullies, oops, washed out on that side, yikes, deeply rutted on this side, time to put it in four wheel drive over there and this hill, do you want me to get out and push?

It isn't always that bad, and sometimes, the road has been graded, smoothing out some of the rough areas, but the road also changes all the time, depending upon how much travel it has received, how much livestock passes on it and how much wind and rain there is. Just wait till June 24, and the monsoons. What road?


At KM 20 the paved road begins again and then, it is approximately 37 KM's to the little town of Masiaca.

Shortly beyond Masiaca, is Highway 15. Going north we would end up in Navajoa, south would lead to Los Mochis, but west will take us to Las Bocas and the beach, or northwest would take us to the beach at Huatabampito. Both are very different and very beautiful.

On Sunday, we chose Las Bocas. The water was gorgeous and we soaked up some good humidity. It was 10 degrees cooler there than on our drive.

Little lots, their boundaries all fenced off, are for sale here and there. A few rustic adobe structures are also 'se vende', as well as some larger casas and haciendas. I told Senor I thought it might be nice to live at the beach, get one of the little fenced lots........wrong thing to say to a guy who works like he does, in the sun, 7 days a week to get a roof over the casa we have.........

So I walked on down the beach by myself because I knew he was a little irritated, scored big on shells and by the time I got back, life was good again...........

cute little 'se vende' lots. Senor, if you are reading this, I do not want to live at the beach.....I REPEAT, I do not want to live at the beach...I am just showing people how pretty the little lots are, that's all.........

So, I told Senor a funny story.

I told him about the 2 fellows I met, in town, on Saturday morning. They had dropped by to check out Alamos, on their way from Las Vegas to Mazatlan, where they were going to be renting a casa for the year.

They had just been on a tour of town and had heard there was only one other tourist in town..............was it me, they asked...............no, i said, i live here, how do you like Alamos?.........Oh, we love it! We think we might want to live here! one of them said.

They were very excited. Not only had they fallen in love with Alamos after being in town for 2 hours, they were eager to try out the new paved road to El Fuerte because it would cut down on the driving time to and from Mazatlan................huh? i said, boy, i don't think so, there is no paved road to El Fuerte.................we were told we could get to El Fuerte, in an hour and a half, on the new paved road, one of them said.

Well, i explained, there must have been some confusion................there is a partially paved road to Masiaca, but every road that leads to El Fuerte, is dirt, and........an hour and a half?.....the last time i went, it took almost 8 hours.

They looked at me like they did not believe me. Their final destination was Mazatlan by nightfall............. won't happen, i said.

What kind of vehicle do you have, i asked......a chevy van, one man said.

Won't happen, i wanted to scream at them..........you will be on the back road to El Fuerte and it will be getting dark and you will not know where you are and you will have to sleep in your van and you will not, I repeat, will not get to Mazatlan until tomorrow!

The two men just looked at each other, one said............ well the road is just right out there, we heard.

They thanked me and got in their van to go on the new paved road to El Fuerte.

Below is part of the paved road to Masiaca.

Below is one of the dirt roads that leads to El Fuerte. There is NO paved road to El Fuerte.

gotta take a siesta! linda lou

Pulling Senor's Leg?

Hola!!
The western sky last night.And below, the eastern sky last night.

Some nights we are just a color palette. I hope you will not get bored looking at my pictures of the sky because I can just never take enough!
I have never lived where I could see such dramatic colors in both the east and west at the same time.
And you know, the mornings are often the same way, colors in both horizons, but I am usually at the track or now, on new old bike when that happens.

Speaking of 'you know what', LOOK! I went to Alexis's yesterday and bought a basket. He said he needed an hour to attach it, so I went to the mercado and bought some plastic flowers and when I got home, I decorated the basket!

And, by the way, the basket holds alot. Yesterday I basketed...........my camera, the plastic flowers, one topochico, four chicken quarters, two onions, one package of chorizo, three slices of chuleta, three avocados, a box of milk and a loaf of bread and a new umbrella. I still could have crammed more in there.

When I rode to the track this morning, I got some hoots from the guys at the Pemex. I am sure they were laughing at me. The women waiting there for the bus all pointed and smiled. One guy drove by in his truck and yelled, "right on! hang loose!". I guess that was a good thing.

The new sewer system is going in. I hear that the new treatment plant is somewhere out north of the La Aduana arroyo. Maybe I will ride out there and find it. It probably is not much to see........a sewage treatment plant, yahoo!.............. but it would be good to know where it is actually located. Alamos has had a sewer system for quite some time, this is just an updated project.

A few of the streets are being dug up and large new pvc pipes are being laid and connected. There is good and bad news about this..... good news? of course, updated services.

But I doubt they will replace the beautiful old cobblestoned streets with cobblestones.

The street below used to be a lovely cobblestoned street, very, very pretty. I think they will resurface it with the octagon shaped concrete pavers that are prevalent in many towns in Sonora. I wish it could be different. I wish they would replace the stones, but I don't think they will. Maybe if they laid the pipe down the side of the road? Then they could save half the road and half the stones?

No worries, they will do what they need to do and there are still many, many cobblestoned streets in town.

It is overcast here today. There is a steady breeze that is keeping the temperature down for now. By 1pm it could be pretty hot. Still there is no serious humidity, that will come any day, I am sure.

The gardener next door told our gardener (that would be either senor or myself, and in this case, it was senor) that the monsoon season has come and gone.............. he believes that we will have an extremely dry and hot summer...........jeez, we had what? one day of heavy rain and two with sprinkles.

I certainly hope he is pulling senor's leg..........

adios, linda lou!

Hand Carved Cedar Loons For Sale

Buenos Dias! Wow! Look at this full moon in the east last night............. absolutely gorgeous.....the photo barely shows the hint of pink in the lower left half.........it was mesmerizing and I easily took ten photos as it continued to change in size and color. Then Senor would yell........come, quick and see the sunset.............. and I would rush out the gate and look to the west...........then he would yell, hurry, look at the moon............it was all very pretty............the sunset never produced any vivid colors...........it was the clouds that became so dramatic.

I like to travel.

Some days it is no farther than from the back yard to see the moon, to the front to see the sunset. Somedays, it is in the truck. I really like to go by plane...... a bus is okay, if it is my only choice, I will go. I will go on foot and now, of course, I have the bike. I do not travel real well by train or boat, but no problem, I will still go.

I always have maps of different places hidden among our books and journals, and I am always secretly planning our next trip, even if it is to the market.

Currently I am planning a big Mexico trip for us around January. But I can't divulge anything because I have not told Senor we are even going.

I just like to go. My mother told me my grandmother was like that. She would get on the city bus in Hot Springs just to go somewhere.

My parents are like that as well. When we kids were growing up, my parents introduced us to long, lazy days of summer travel.

They were both teachers and back then, summer vacations could go from May to September. We would spend days loading the VW bus with food, clothes, and most importantly, as many guitars as we could fit in among ourselves, and then, in the dark of the morning, the six of us would load in and go.

Favorite destinations for my siblings and I were Galveston, Destin, Myrtle Beach, the ocean and the beach scene. Each campsite we blazed a fire regardless of the weather, pulled out the guitars and sang into the night.

As we got older, our father, being a history professor, set his sights on every battlefield we could find in a summer, every historical point on the highway needed to be read, and while we traveled he would have us learn the names of all the presidents, in order, and would give us 'question boxes' to answer about what we had seen that day.

Then, came the monumental sights of Pennsylvania and the east. Eventually, we included the exciting scenes of New York City, climbing the Empire State Building, walking through the musical sounds of Greenwich Village.

And then, one summer we began to explore the mountainous terrain of Colorado, camping in Durango, Cripple Creek, Silverton, Colorado Springs......

You know, I cannot begin to tell you what fantastic, rewarding and exciting summers my sister and two brothers and I had. They were dream vacations and our family was, and still is, very close. When there are six of you traveling in a VW bus (not the pop up model) for up to four months, well, you have no choice but to be close. You just can't get mad at your little brother who wants to string up the hammock and sway in it, over your head, while you are laying on the vinyl covered pull out bed trying to read a magazine. We went with the flow.

These adventures just made us even closer.

But see, this caused me to be on the go. I absolutely love to be on the go. Senor likes to remind me that once on the beautiful island of St. Croix, I began telling him where we were going to go next. I deny that. I don't remember it, but ahh, he is probably telling the truth.

Around thirty years ago, my parents sold their home and set off across the country in an old airstream trailer. They went everywhere and often, wherever any of the four of us grown children lived might be included in the traveling at some point.

They have since given up the airstream and settled again in a home in their favorite state of Texas. But, they still go.

They continue to travel, to load the car, leave as early as possible and if the road looks good to the right, that's where they go. If it looks good to the left, they might go there. They still set up the tent and still light the fire. I imagine my dad still might have his old KAY guitar, or maybe a different one now.

I grew up listening to my dad singing the old tunes of Guthrie, Seeger, and Cash, Waylon and Willie, Patsy and Loretta. I also grew up listening to my mother's hands flying across the piano keys, her favorites being Bach and Beethoven.

My father is also a very talented wood carver. And my mother, a very accomplished watercolorist. They are both very talented musicians and artists.

As I write this, my parents are traveling to Minnesota and Wisconsin, where my mother will sketch and paint and my father will sell over eight-hundred of his hand carved cedar loons.

Each year, for about ten years, they have been making this trip north. He carves throughout the winter and in the summer they add the loons to the rest of the gear in the car and travel north and sell them. Sometimes he has orders for them, other times he doesn't.

He will almost always sell them all.

But if you happen to be in a campground somewhere between Texas and the north woods of Minnesota, look for the man selling the hand carved cedar loons. He will probably just give you one that he will be carrying in his pocket.

hola, mom and dad, you may be in Clubhouse or Loon Lake, who knows? Love you.

linda lee