Things that I do when no one is looking.

I have been interested in making paper mache bowls for many years. Some earlier attempts were dismal but I am much happier with this effort.  Inspired by fellow Etsyians who do a wonderful job of making simple, elegant, paper mache objects, I decided to give it a try.  It is a great project for me since all of my jewelry supplies are still packed away in boxes.  I started the project in NYC with friends and then I got a little bit crazy when I got back to Wyoming. I currently have them all around the cabin and am wondering just what I am going to do with all of them!

  They are lovely and I like to gaze at them. 

 Have a look.

Nights in Italy - or Wyoming

It gets a bit quiet in Wyoming during the long winter months, perfect for reflection and dreaming, and the flow of creativity.  There is no warm sun beckoning nor long dinners on someone's porch.  It makes the natives restless and ignites a desire for foreign lands and other pleasant distractions. Cabin fever is real here.

This leads to all kinds of imaginings 

When I moved back into my little cabin this autumn

-my heart properly broken-

My lovely friend 

-happy for my return to the west-

suggested that I hang my chandeliers from the long log beams of my cabin ceiling and put up mirrors to reflect the lights. "It will be just like Versailles" she said, and that may have been what started our next idea. 

A night of pleasure

art

food

friends

cooking

eating

drinking

Italian style

Easy enough for her, she is an artist, she will paint food and images of Italian life,

but what about me? What kind of jewelry speaks of Italy? I have a limited imagination, partly because I have never been to Italy, so I had to go with chandeliers. In my mind that is the closest I can get to Italy. Besides, it's about distraction and fantasy - we just need some light and romance, (the kind that doesn't break hearts), around here.

So I opened a box of vintage chandelier crystals, (doesn't everyone have one or two boxes of those lying around?), and began to dream a bit of what kind of jewelry would grow from the collection.

Now, where did I put all my tools when I beat my hasty retreat from Chicago?

-of course I have waited until now, when it's snowing heaps, to think of going to my storage shed to unearth my jewelry making supplies-