Confessions of a circles, dots, rounds, spheres - aholic

I am having the BEST time with this. I have always wanted to learn how to make my own beads and viola! - Thanks to Robin Epstein of Bunny Huggins - I am making all my dreams come true. Really, if you live in Portland you can contact Robin and she will give you some lessons on highly detailed metal-smithing and time saving techniques.

You will see that I have produced a beautiful bead made from my bead caps - and I have created a new simply beautiful earring that I think I'll call "smashed dot". I love making little dots and adding them to links, etc... this is could get way out of hand! Look forward to more of these - hopefully - this holiday season, but I'm not promising anything. My standards are very high and I have to make them to a certain level of quality before I will sell anything in my store. What can I say I'm a perfectionist:)

- Pink

Leveled to the ground - one of my Favorite Portland Landmarks

The Union Pacific Building always reminded me of home. Yes, on the way to the Peninsula of North Portland. Well - now it's completely leveled and the only landmark left is the big smoke stack. I'm so happy I chose this landmark as one of my photo projects in a photography workshop I took last year... so glad:)

I wonder what "they" did with that big Union Pacific sign and the letters... there was just something about that building - the industrial-ness of it all. It looks so empty there now... what are the plans I wonder, as I watched them disassemble it brick by brick and as one metal sheet after the other came down. Bye-bye.

- Pink

Thank you JMKAC Midsummer Festival of the Arts

I did find some time to make a few new things for the last show I did. I really wanted to do something unusual with my beads and found a secret stash of disk cores ( I had made these in the past many years ago). I was only able to make one pair of earrings and one pendant - and they were some of the first pieces to go, as was the new pendulum necklace.

So, this was a very successful show for me and as some of you may have heard already, I came away from this show with an Award: based on professionalism, originality, display, and quality of work (see, here I am in my booth) - and my husband did a beautiful job getting it exactly how I envisioned it I think:). Anyway, I have to say I was STUNNED! I wasn't at all expecting to be given an award - which allows me to come back to the show next year without being juried in or paying the fee. I'm excited already for next year... and I hope to get into a few other shows in the Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan area next summer - what a great part of the country! I had a spectacular time, the people were fantastic and I especially loved Milwaukee - it looks like it is in the midst of a resurgence and what an exciting time it must be to live there...

Thank you so much to the Judges at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center - I'm so glad you were able to see my vision of story telling through color and metal - it means so much to me. And thanks to all my loyal supporters out there - your words of encouragement and support are always appreciated and welcomed... really. xo

- Pink