Surfs Up!

My boy has always been a water soul. From way back when he was a teeny little thing.  He is happiest, most at home with himself and to use his words 'the most free' when he is swimming, snorkeling, body surfing, or getting tumbled by waves.  I have zillions (well, probably hundreds) of pictures of him in water, whether it be beach, pool, water park, sprinklers, or puddles.

I signed him up for surf camp this year, and I believe he may have found his core, the thing that may ground him and help sustain him in his life. A place like we all need, to go and recharge our minds, spirituality, and bodies.

He proved to be a natural at surfing, up and walking the board both ways, and DANCING on it, within 20 minutes or so.  He caught waves all morning.  When I picked him up, tousled blond and a bit sunburned, he was different than he was when I dropped him off, something fundamentally had changed, for the good. He had completely connected with the experience of riding the waves, the freedom, the autonomy, the abandon and the Zen spirituality of it.   I am grateful to my core that he had such connection with this experience.

And the bonus, as if he needs one?  The counselor assigned to him is a Parkour competitor, which makes him close to a superhero for my boy.

When I watch my boy on his incredible journey, I am struck by his innate sense of who he is, his ease at living, his confidence with new things, his courage in the face of things he may be unsure about and his joy at overcoming those things.  I am fortunate that he still speaks to me of his heart and of things that many kids keep silent about. Our conversations give me a window into his heart and mind, and it is at these times I know he is going to be a good man, a strong, honest and happy man, a courageous in so many ways man.  And I am so grateful for that.

From Start to Finish for AbigaleR86

AbigaleR86 contacted me via convo on etsy and asked for an Autism necklace, I thought she might like to see how it was done.

It was made with Art Clay which is a malleable form of fine silver, you make what you want, let it throughly dry, then fire it to burn off the binder and get the silver particles to sinter.  Its a pretty cool process and the result is 99.9% pure silver, otherwise known as fine silver.

This is the puzzle peice in damp clay. It is very rough around the edges at this stage.  Sorry about the glare ;(

 

After it dried for 48 hours it was filed, sanded and shaped.  The it was put to the torch (the fun part).  The picture on the left is the refined piece just starting to burn off the binder particles.  The image on the right is showing the piece coming up to 'glow'  It has to stay at that color for approx 10-15 minutes in order for the silver to completely sinter.  It's a tricky business, just a skooch too much and you have a melted mess on your hands, too little and the silver won't sinter, leaving you with a piece that will not stand up to any wear.

Once its fired and cooled, the piece is actually white, silver is a white metal in its pure state, the silver color comes from the molecules being aligned by prolonged rubbing/polishing.  The best way to do this is in a tumbler with absolutely sparking clean steel shot, some soap and a bit of water.  Being tumbled also 'work hardens' the metal, making it a bit tougher.

You can see in the tumbler, that the work appears white, then below on the steel block after the tumbler, how beautifully polished it is!  I love taking the gasket off the tumbler and seeing how sparkly the work is!  Then a little texturing with a small hammer.....

 

add some sterling chain and a clasp, and TA DA!

 

I hope she likes it!

 

And I am so grateful that she trusted me with her request. 

Stepping into Greatness

I spent the weekend at a pretty intense seminar revolving around the premise of  'Stepping Into Your Greatness'  It was a lot of hard work, letting go of past resentments, deep dark ugly hurts, and turning those things into positives.  All in all pretty freaking awesome weekend.  E and husband stayed home, hubby rose to the occasion mightily, really and truly.  E had a birthday party to go to, and hubby took him.  It was a laser tag party, and E was sooooo excited to be there with his friends.  I came home last night E was fast asleep (GO HUBBY!!!) and hubby tells me that E was bullied in the laser tag arena, ended up sitting at the cake table with tears in his eyes struggling not to cry.  I went and laid down with him a bit, just being with him, letting him sleep and covering him with love from my heart.

When we woke this moring, he showed me the cool house he had built out of the cardboard from the new bathroom cabinet (it was AWESOME), and after a while I asked....

Me- I hear you had a rough time at the party....
E- yeah
Me- wanna talk about it?
E- I was on a team with... & ... & ....  and we went in we were having so much fun and this big mean kid from the other team grabbed my face and pushed me up against the wall and starting shooting my target to get a bunch of points, and then my team abandoned me.
Me- Did he hurt you?
E- not really
Me- So what did you do?
E- I told him he wasnt supposed to do that, and he said something mean
Me- so what were you thinking?
E- that I should do the same thing, since nobody was playing teams anymore
Me- Did you?
E- NO, I really wanted to, but I didn't because it would have been cheating.
Me- yeah that revenge stuff feels good for about how long?
E- only a minute, then you feel pretty bad
Me- are you and your friends from the team OK or are you angry with them?
E- We're OK, they just got excited about points and forgot to be a team, but when they gave the big mean kid his prize for the most points, I stood up and told him he didnt win, that he cheated.
Me- so how do you feel about how you played?
E- Good, really good
Me- Because you kept your integrity?
E- Yeah, pretty cool
Me- yes you are

I spent the entire weekend learning to 'Step into Greatness' and the reward was waiting for me at home, he already knew how.

And I am so grateful for that

Really, I have been working, really...

Since we moved and started renovating the house, I haven't had time to blink, much less keep up with posting. Its finally under control (well, sort of, almost....sigh...). But I had a few minutes to post new work, so I thought I'd share here too. I like it, what do you think?

Gypsy Silver Earrings

Dual Disc Copper

Dual Disc Copper

Dual Disc Copper

HOOPS!

Fancy Hoops!

Sea Glass and Copper Coils

Turquoise and Sterling

That felt good!  And I am so grateful for that ;)