Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

elisem just posted LIONESS CHALLENGE: Moon in a Rocking Chair, a writing challenge/contest based on a sterling silver and opal pendant she made. Details there, but it's pretty open-ended: a piece inspired by the pendant, no more than 500 words long.
The winner will receive the pendant "Moon in a Rocking Chair" and bragging rights. The winner retains all copyright to their work(s).

I'm signal-boosting this because, many years ago, Elise did a similar challenge for poetry a pair of earrings, "Song of the Lesbian Elephant." I don't think of myself as a poet, but they were pretty earrings, and an interesting title, and one day I decided I could write something good enough to lose a poetry contest. I was surprised, and pleased, when she told me I'd won.

elisem is having a clearance sale on jewelry: earrings, pendants, hair sticks, watch fobs, and other ways to ornament yourself.

I got a gorgeous new pair of Elise earrings, shell and Swarovski crystal, in the mail today; I will probably resist this sale on the grounds that I have only two ears finite storage space and already don't get the chance to wear all my cool jewelry.

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This panel was Elise Matthesen, Laurie Edison, and Kate Schaefer talking about their art/craft, with physical examples. "High geekiness" is Elise's term for the ways she thinks about her work. Elise and Laurie make jewelry, and Kate makes one-of-a-kind wearable art. Lately, she's doing hats; for several years she made gorgeous complicated vests, which I never had enough money to be the high bidder for at the Tiptree auctions. (After the panel, I asked her, if she goes back to making vests to sell, to please let me know.) Neither Laurie nor Elise calls herself a "jeweler," that apparently being a term of art: Laurie is a sculptor who makes jewelry, and Elise names herself as a metal-bender, and was bending metal throughout the panel. She swore us all to temporary secrecy: the item in question was for Geoff Ryman, one of the guests of honor (and he was wearing it that evening, for his GoH presentation). The panelists talked some about their work, and interrupted at the midpoint to invite people up to look at examples they had brought, because they felt that would work better than saving the looking (and feeling, in the case of Kate's work) until afterward. Being familiar with Laurie and Elise's recent work, I only went up to look at Kate's, but I highly recommend all three. (Laurie has a work blog as laurieopal on LJ, and Elise is elisem on LJ and does regular "Art Log" and "Current Shinies" posts about her work. AFAIK, Kate isn't blogging about her art, or otherwise.)

The panelists all agreed that the art/craft distinction is irrelevant if not harmful, and largely political (not a new idea in feminist terms). They talked some about the difficulties fitting art into the rest of life: Kate isn't doing this full-time, and mentioned that visiting grandchildren are an interruption, because while her actual workroom is sacred, when she's at the stage of piling up fabrics to decide what to use, and how, she piles it on the beds they sleep on when visiting. Elise's work grew out of her pain management and physical therapy, in part as a way of reminding herself to do the necessary exercises, and "work is a comfort" when things are difficult for her, physically or emotionally. [Many people throw themselves into their work to avoid or cope with emotional issues; fewer for physical problems, I think.]

Laurie said that a lot of jewelers hate her work, because, having trained as a sculptor, she's using very different techniques than they were taught, and the techniques work well enough to annoy some people. She also told us about her grandmother, who had run a fairly fancy antique jewelry shop in Greenwich Village for quite a while; the rest of the family was disappointed that Laurie didn't follow their plan, in which she would become the first member of the family to get a Ph.D., but her grandmother was pleased with her work.

Some quotes I jotted down: "There's an art to pausing in the middle of something, and knowing when you have to pause." —Elise
"I make a difference in my head between the work in my hands and the thinking about it." —Laurie
"My definition of 'perfect' is evolving." —Kate That was part of talking about learning both craft skills, and what does and doesn't need to be gotten right. On the one hand, the person who buys the garment isn't going to care whether every stitch in the inseam is perfect, because they won't see that: they'll care that it's lined up right, and holds. On the other, as she does it longer, she can get an equally good job done in much less time.
"Materials science is the buzzword to sound respectable." —Elise

This is the panel I had trouble explaining to a coworker when I got home, when she wanted to know what we did at a feminist science fiction convention.

I think I've managed a reasonable balance between resting, and not getting bored or fidgety. I took advantage of a sunny interlude to re-waterproof my boots, because they leaked slightly in Montreal last weekend. I also went for a short walk in the park, on the snow: in a different and inferior pair of boots that I should probably get rid of, because they are simultaneously too big for my feet and too small around my calves.

I've also done a bit more of decluttering, some of the stuff from the top of my dresser. Lots of ancient ATM receipts, con badges, ancient tea bags, and business cards of people I have no recollection of. I also turned up one game I might play again (Nuclear War, the card game), some coins, both U.S. and foreign, and a necklace that I had no recollection of. It's elisem's work, and I would have known that much even without the handwritten tag. And then, describing the decluttering to Lise (WINOLJ), I suddenly remembered buying it, near the end of a Minicon (I think that was the same Sunday afternoon when Elise's sister gave a talk on some characteristics of fannish speech and conversation). Freshwater pearls and mother-of-pearl, and maybe I'll remember it sometime when I'm wearing a suitably bright-colored shirt (it would be lost against white and, I think, look wrong against most pastels).

Other things I'm keeping include some photos my mother sent me between 1981 and 1990 (based on the return address) and a pair of small blue lampwork beads. [Also, most of my jewelry lives on the dresser, as do pony tail holders and my deodorant. Things that are supposed to be there get to stay, of course. And I have to decide whether that category includes my Beads of the Month stashes, and if not, where they are supposed to live.

My last post from here with a similar subject said "pleasantly cool north" (as Firefox just reminded me). Right now, I think it's -19 out, wind chill worse than that, but the parka is rated to -25, -40 with appropriate layering or exercise, and I have boots, long underwear, and wool pants. At some point the rest of the household will stir (papersky is over at her computer doing email and LJ or the like), and we will head out for dim sum, with no long walks or waits outside involved.

Travel is always somewhat draining, even when I don't wake up earlier than needed, as I did yesterday, but in most ways the trip went smoothly; now that I'm here there is good food and good conversation.

I gave Papersky a slightly belated birthday present, and was surprised and a bit flattered that she immediately asked if I had made it. (elisem made it, and it's a necklace Papersky admired when Elise posted pictures of it a while back. I doubt I'm capable of taking up a new craft and getting to that level without saying something on my LJ beyond mentions of new beads; whether I could reach that level at all I don't know, but probably not in four months.)

Over on Making Light, Abi asked people what physical objects we're particularly fond of. This isn't necessarily the answer I'd have given last month, or would make next, but I expect there would be serious overlaps:

Interesting thinking about this. There's the dresser I've been using since I was three, that was my mother's before that. One of the drawers is slightly out of true, there's a loose handle, and sometime I should see if those are reparable. Even if we went and otherwise got new bedroom furniture, I'd want to keep that dresser; we can find things to match it, I hope. (Right now nothing matches; six things that did and one that didn't would make the valued one look like the anomaly.)

The nested Pyrex mixing bowls, in assorted colors, that were my mother's until she emigrated. At one point cattitude and I were discussing buying stuff for the kitchen, and I said I hoped he didn't mind living with stuff that looked like my parents' house (there are some other Pyrex things, not as precious to me, but also used frequently) and he assured me that he liked it, because he'd grown up with very much the same things, and his mother still has her set.

There's an odd little red and black vase that I told my mother I wanted to get when she died, and she insisted on giving me right then. It will hold three sprigs of lily of the valley, and hasn't been used since my parents sold the house where we had lily of the valley growing in the yard, but I wanted it. (My brother has the cut crystal vases; when Mom offered to divide those among us, I told her he was welcome to all of them. I rarely use any vase, but I wanted the little one, not the crystal that would hold a bunch of roses or lilacs.

I have jewelry that I associate with people (much of it made by elisem), but no one item jumps out as most precious. There are several things that I associate with one or more of my beloveds, and it would be hard to choose. (Fortunately, if I were packing quickly, I could still fit all the beloved earrings and a few necklaces into one small bag).*

Books, many books, but as a physical object: the beat-up, autographed-to-me mass market paperback of Le Guin's Always Coming Home, in the condition it is from being carried around and read so often.

*Those are both jewelry I associate with my beloveds, like the Scrabble earrings, the ammonite earrings Cattitude gave me, and the turtles from papersky, and a few pieces I cherish for other reasons, like "Song of the Lesbian Elephant."

I went back to old botmo postings and found some nice pictures of the inner magpie pendants, such as the one that finally turned up on my doorstep yesterday, and that I am wearing as I type.

This is a question for those of you who know me in person. elisem has posted new work, including a pair of earrings that I like, and am trying to decide whether to get. The question is, do you think I would actually wear them? The name is "Of Violets and Electricity," and has some appeal in addition to the physical and visual attraction of the beads.

ETA: I have just sent email to the "gimme" address to buy these (assuming nobody else has done so since Elise last updated her art log/new work page).

I took out most of my bead collection, and the small supply of tools, for the first time in months.

I now have a pair of earrings that I'm happy with, except that I clearly need more practice, or maybe teaching and practice, in metal-bending stuff, on the basic level of making smooth loops in silver wire. I also have a wandering wire pendant or maybe tree ornament that I'm less sure of--too many of the beads wander to the bottom, because of gravity and how open the pattern still is. I may need more wire per unit area, or per bead. (If I actually wanted to make tree ornaments, I'd probably be going more into three dimensions, and using more bright colors: the darks here would, I think, get lost in the dark green of the tree. )

The earrings basically show off two very shiny beads I picked up at a shop somewhere; the wandering wire piece is a mix of Bead of the Month beads and Swarovski crystals; it's centered on a squarish black shiny bead, with some other black beads, and some shiny dark gray ones, in with the Swarovski.

Now I can consider year 5 BotMo, which I haven't signed up for because I wasn't using the beads I had. This isn't a "use them up before you buy more," it's that if I'm not using any, from elisem or elsewhere, it seemed silly to get more.

I have a pair of earrings made from Scrabble tiles. They were a gift from adrian_turtle; the letters on them are the initials of my partners (their ordinary names, not their aliases here [1]), since the store didn't have my initials available.

When I was in Montreal, papersky asked why I'd picked those letters, and when I explained, told me I was "ridiculously sentimental." I'll grant the adjective.

A lot of my earrings have some association for me, in one way or another, though most of them are less likely to provoke comment. For example, there's a fine pair of paua shell earrings in the shape of turtles, gifts from Papersky (so associated for me with both her and Adrian), but "why do you have turtle earrings?" is a less likely question than "why those letters?" There are several pairs that I got from elisem at haiku earring parties, and the "Song of the Lesbian Elephants" that I won in a contest Elise ran. I like having those bits of connection, along with the visual pleasure of the earrings and the feeling of them hanging from my ears.

I'm wearing the Scrabble earrings today. On our way up earlier, one of my neighbors noticed them, and asked if they were Scrabble tiles. I said yes, and she asked where I'd gotten them, and then whether there was a meaning behind the letters. I answered "My girlfriend found them in a shop in Boston" for the first, and something like "Yes, I picked them on purpose" for the second. My neighbor didn't ask for more details. I'd evaded because I didn't want to try to explain my poly web to a casual acquaintance in the time it would take the elevator to get to the fifth floor, but if she'd persisted, I would have. If I weren't somewhat open to explanations, I'd have said "a friend," though "girlfriend" is ambiguous in that sort of context.

[1] Two of my partners share an initial.