I really hope someday to be
The crafter that I want to see
Take on the world with nothing more
Than pearls and wood, shells from the shore
Some abalone, glistening bright
A few Czech crystals, sparkling light
Lampwork bead or two, three or four
a bit of chain, jump rings and more
Perhaps some lucite flowers-bliss!
Or gold and silver earwires, this
Would all be lovely fantasy
If I were anyone but me
Cuz certain as the sun will rise
I'll almost finish, and then - surprise!
The last damn bead I cannot find
And once again I'm in a bind
The last bead order, sent away
Did not include this one I need TODAY.....
*sigh*
Showing posts with label beads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beads. Show all posts
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, October 25, 2009
"It was 39 years ago this month..."
I found a blog, very early this morning, that features obscure locations in San Francisco- on Boing Boing-by the way, a great site for anyone who is creative in a nerdy kind of way, or the rest of us, who are simply obsessive makers-
I went looking for some photos of the 60's San Francisco that permanently stole my love, and ran across a site that was honouring Janis Joplin, my onetime favourite singer, dead 39 years ago this October, in 1970, a few blocks down the street from where I lived...so very sad at the time, didn't even know she was there...
It got me reminiscing about San Francisco, the city that always breaks my heart...I first went there (hitch-hiked) in 1967, and oh my, what an amazing street scene it was-Haight-Ashbury, musicians hanging out on the street like everyone else, drugs flying, the air redolent with the smell of pot and incense and, usually, dogshit...everyone hung out either on the Street, at the Panhandle, a strip of parkland that extended from big, gorgeous Golden Gate Park, or within the park itself, listening to music and bongo players, or various speakers, ranters, and comedians who would go there and do their thing, passing the hat afterwards....
I loved it! Crowded, noisy, architecturally astonishing after the cement skyscraper aesthetic of Southern California, and way too wonderful to go back to smoggy, groggy ol LA-but, I did, because I couldn't find any legitimate work, and even then, San Francisco, that beautiful pie in the sky, was far too expensive for a poor ol' hippy chick. By panhandling til I had enough money for some beads and fishline, I managed to make enough necklaces to sell to tourists, who drove slowly by through the Haight, gawking at us all like some alien zoological forms. Between the necklaces and the underground papers we hawked, I made enough to get a bit of a stake together (probably $5) to get back to my LA job/home...working in a communal coffee house and living upstairs in a tiny room just big enough for a twin bed mattress and an upturned paint can for a side table...funky, but home...
Even then, I relied on my wits and creativity to get me by..retired now, nothing has changed much, besides a few decades of experience and a degree of crafting sophistication not really evident in my late teens. This is what I always wanted, and it took me many years to get back to it, but here I am, and all I really want to get across with this little meander down memory lane, is that we may think we know what we want-we may even be convinced that we know how to get there-but life, if you let it, takes some interesting detours that help to enrich the experience of living, if you are open to it. I was, and I'm grateful that I got to experience San Francisco at that time in history, and many times after that initial foray, always with pleasure, like visiting an old and treasured friend, but always, always, having to say goodby.
I went looking for some photos of the 60's San Francisco that permanently stole my love, and ran across a site that was honouring Janis Joplin, my onetime favourite singer, dead 39 years ago this October, in 1970, a few blocks down the street from where I lived...so very sad at the time, didn't even know she was there...
It got me reminiscing about San Francisco, the city that always breaks my heart...I first went there (hitch-hiked) in 1967, and oh my, what an amazing street scene it was-Haight-Ashbury, musicians hanging out on the street like everyone else, drugs flying, the air redolent with the smell of pot and incense and, usually, dogshit...everyone hung out either on the Street, at the Panhandle, a strip of parkland that extended from big, gorgeous Golden Gate Park, or within the park itself, listening to music and bongo players, or various speakers, ranters, and comedians who would go there and do their thing, passing the hat afterwards....
I loved it! Crowded, noisy, architecturally astonishing after the cement skyscraper aesthetic of Southern California, and way too wonderful to go back to smoggy, groggy ol LA-but, I did, because I couldn't find any legitimate work, and even then, San Francisco, that beautiful pie in the sky, was far too expensive for a poor ol' hippy chick. By panhandling til I had enough money for some beads and fishline, I managed to make enough necklaces to sell to tourists, who drove slowly by through the Haight, gawking at us all like some alien zoological forms. Between the necklaces and the underground papers we hawked, I made enough to get a bit of a stake together (probably $5) to get back to my LA job/home...working in a communal coffee house and living upstairs in a tiny room just big enough for a twin bed mattress and an upturned paint can for a side table...funky, but home...
Even then, I relied on my wits and creativity to get me by..retired now, nothing has changed much, besides a few decades of experience and a degree of crafting sophistication not really evident in my late teens. This is what I always wanted, and it took me many years to get back to it, but here I am, and all I really want to get across with this little meander down memory lane, is that we may think we know what we want-we may even be convinced that we know how to get there-but life, if you let it, takes some interesting detours that help to enrich the experience of living, if you are open to it. I was, and I'm grateful that I got to experience San Francisco at that time in history, and many times after that initial foray, always with pleasure, like visiting an old and treasured friend, but always, always, having to say goodby.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Because They Asked...
Online sellers who have never entered a Farmer's Market, Craft Fair or Holiday Market are often confused about where to start, so in an ongoing, when-I-feel-like-it blog about Craft Markets, my do's and don'ts, and dids, based on my own experience of several years of misfires, disasters, successes and near-misses, I'll be discussing this kind of off-line project, for the meek and discomfabulated.
We all start somewhere...I started my jewelry and crochet carreer pretty simply-like the rest of the hippies on the West Coast, I used to buy tubes of beads and make huge strands of them to be wrapped several times around the neck. My first "sale" came to a biker friend of mine, who wanted one with lots of green, to match his Norton Commando...and as far as I was concerned, of course, he could have any colour he wanted...this was Southern California, circa 1968 or thereabouts...
He really liked it, and so did several of his friends, who of course all wanted one, but didn't want to pay for them...finally, one of the biggest and meanest of them, (who I had patched up once, after a fight, with homemade butterfly bandages, before he went to the hospital) took out a ten dollar bill (a days' wages for many of us then) handed it to me, and sat there glaring til the others coughed up various amounts...
I decided that there might be a future in this beadery stuff-but of course, as was the hippy way, I usually either traded them or gave them away..
Quick forward to 2009 and here are pictures of my current "set-up" for selling at the Saturday Farmer's Market In the Square in Duncan...just got the banner (big props to Wilson Graphics, on Etsy!), and need to find a way to properly store and pack/unpack, but so far, it's working...
In future installments I'll talk about the more practical pros and cons of craft fairs, by jumping around in my own history with crafting...in the meantime, happy creating!
We all start somewhere...I started my jewelry and crochet carreer pretty simply-like the rest of the hippies on the West Coast, I used to buy tubes of beads and make huge strands of them to be wrapped several times around the neck. My first "sale" came to a biker friend of mine, who wanted one with lots of green, to match his Norton Commando...and as far as I was concerned, of course, he could have any colour he wanted...this was Southern California, circa 1968 or thereabouts...
He really liked it, and so did several of his friends, who of course all wanted one, but didn't want to pay for them...finally, one of the biggest and meanest of them, (who I had patched up once, after a fight, with homemade butterfly bandages, before he went to the hospital) took out a ten dollar bill (a days' wages for many of us then) handed it to me, and sat there glaring til the others coughed up various amounts...
I decided that there might be a future in this beadery stuff-but of course, as was the hippy way, I usually either traded them or gave them away..
Quick forward to 2009 and here are pictures of my current "set-up" for selling at the Saturday Farmer's Market In the Square in Duncan...just got the banner (big props to Wilson Graphics, on Etsy!), and need to find a way to properly store and pack/unpack, but so far, it's working...
In future installments I'll talk about the more practical pros and cons of craft fairs, by jumping around in my own history with crafting...in the meantime, happy creating!
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