It's a Fascinating Life

The plan or lack thereof, was to skip this month's post. The December air, besides being cooler and stormy, vibrates with joy and madness: a discordant crescendo of goodwill, obligations, shameful consumerism, overindulgence, stress and bad driving. Last week, we were possibly facing what seemed to be a heavy cream shortage on the islands, caused by a combination of delayed shipments from the West coast due to bad weather and the increase in eggnog intake. These are some of the unexpected challenges of living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Due to my marginal activity on Facebook, friends occasionally take pity and post on my timeline. The most recent addition was a great tongue-and-cheek quote "You have your own blog? Your life must be all kinds of fascinating", with a photo of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. Indeed, not counting my secret room where everything is edible and barring the use of hallucinogenics, my life is fascinating! Isn't everybody's? Let's look at what fascinating really means. I took the time to google the definition. Its Latin origin, "fascinum" means spell or witchcraft. Ironically, usage of the word as an adjective has risen significantly since the 16th century, peaking not around the centuries of witch hunting but strangely around 1925 and from the late 20th century onward. Are people becoming more self-absorbed, spellbound by their own greatness or is it that they have the means to put it out there for everyone to see? Let's go back to Willy Wonka and his world of imagination and creativity. Moments of life are not relentlessly and continuously captivating, that would be exhausting. There is a difference however between valuing extreme or thrilling experiences over the seemingly mundane, such as teeth brushing. Somewhere in between lies everyone's fascinating life, a life in which the individual is present, thoughtful and appreciating of how the natural world offers us its often inexplicable, marvelous beauty. If you are reading this and know me, you must also realize your good fortune of living in a part of the world that allows walking the path of self-indulgence instead of the one requiring sidestepping land mines.

As we bid farewell to 2014, let us remember and sort out what is important and what is not: this process is truly fascinating.

I leave you with a link to another writer/blogger, one of millions with fascinating lives:
http://thehumanist.com/commentary/left-behind-an-agnostics-christmas-carol

Hello 2015!

White Elephant

"Be running up that road, be running up that hill, be running up that building if I only could..."

-Kate Bush (Running up that Hill - Warning: tacky 80's video)

This song is playing on my iPod, and I'm am running on a stationary elliptical machine, getting nowhere naturally, and looking at the same white building, week after week, year after year. Like a Jedi knight, I see my goal, the lurking, gargantuan mechanical white elephant, manifest yet forever out of reach...To illustrate, please compare my view (from 24hr Fitness in Hawai'i Kai) to that of the Imperial Walker (The animators who brought the AT-AT Imperial Walkers to life in The Empire Strikes Back based their movements on elephants). What can I say, I'm kinda nerdy.

See? Naturally, its stomping legs are hidden by the trees. Stealth move.

I have for you yet another completely delightful piece of trivia: the white apartment building is featured during the last 3 minutes of the original Hawaii 5-0 Episode 21 "Nightmare in Blue", Season 6 (1973).

Focusing on the metaphorical white elephant facilitates the burrowing within the [my] continuously degrading network of neurons. Due to the vivid nature many dreams, taking the time to conjure up details in order to decipher any meaningful communication is often a futile and frustrating exercise. On the rare occasion when done so successfully, they reveal nonsense of comical proportions. I am here to tell you that further distillation may start the cascade required to kick start the creative process or a realization. This is indeed a thrilling moment to stumble upon effortlessly, to be yours alone to savour and without relevance to anyone else.

However, I am writing to share and this part is fun, at least to me. Awakening from a dream in which I have neatly arranged boxes of thousands of bamboo chopsticks on a sidewalk: a public protest of forced societal compliance or feeling secure about my place among many? Despite the philosophical premise, I am suddenly hungry, my appetite nudging towards devouring an assortment of sushi, with chopsticks of course. I love sushi. In Hawai'i, we have a local delicacy called Musubi, which consists of SPAM on rice held together by a strip of nori, or as I like to affectionately call it, heart disease tied up in seaweed. Regardless of the somber analogy, the colour combination is esthetically pleasing: black, white and pink. Classic.

In a moment of clarity, I knew I had found the perfect use for the vintage rice beads purchased many years ago. Voila the Musubi necklace, with Web Jasper filling in for nori and pink Rhodonite for...you know what. It's all about making connections.

May the Force be with you. Strong the Force is.

Design and content copyright by Andrea Corwin ©2014. All rights reserved.

Going Postal

This is a story: no links, no photos.

A trip to the post office is not usually eventful. I wouldn't even have made it to the post office had the online service not been able to complete my PO Box renewal payment. Spending the morning by myself, this was to be my first human interaction of the day and was least of all prepared for an assault.

An older man was the sole customer in line as I walked in, readying his envelope on the counter. As a gesture of politeness I waited for him to complete this task and go ahead of me. He responded equally and signaled for me to go ahead, adding that he had more time than money. Feeling the need for a witty response in uttering my first sentence of the day I countered by saying "so do I". He quickly moved a few steps closer, gave me the once over and asked if I would be interested in earning a little extra money. Clearly, I appear to need more money, and here I thought that I was relatively well dressed for a simple errand. Whoa! Was I being solicited standing in line at the post office? I declined politely yet he continued by offering two CDs for me to watch. I quickly glanced at the tellers hoping that I would be called to the next available booth, but no such luck...yet. I was kicking myself for engaging in a conversation with this man. Since I told him that I was not interested in making money (ha, right) he changed his approach, and I quote "What would you do if you needed a lawyer, let's say the shirt you're wearing today came back from the dry cleaner with a spot on it?". Really, this is your hook? Any reasonable person would ask the dry cleaning service to try removing the spot and if they were unable to do so, to offer amends. I'm not sure what disclaimers these businesses have, but I'm sure to look into it now! In any event, I would hope that there would be less drastic solutions to resolving this matter than involving a lawyer. Instead of articulating this response, I simply counter with "Nothing", believing that brevity was the solution to shutting him down. (Perhaps I should consult a lawyer and sue this guy for unwanted solicitation? As always, these thoughts come long after the event.) With a look of incredulity, he continued to hypothesize, "if you were given a ticket for some traffic violation, would you pay?". "Well, yes (hesitantly)" say I. Again, he appeared flabbergasted but unwilling to give up. Unfortunately, with my adrenalin on the rise, I snapped and started on a tirade about how accidents happen and everything that was wrong with this country was due to people's unwillingness to accept some personal responsibility and litigation being a chief evil, clogging the system, wasting time, energy and money that could otherwise be used more productively. Mercifully, I was interrupted by the post office teller: "Next"!

Do I need to go out more often so I don't appear like a deer in headlights, an easy target? As irritating and surreal as this entire episode felt at the time, I look back on it now and appreciate the unpredictability and random drollness of societal exchanges. How is this helping with my creative energy? Next time, I must find a solution to paying my PO Box fees online...

Content copyright by Andrea Corwin ©2014. All rights reserved.

Blogger's Block

Blogger's Block, sounds like some urban Lego kit don't you think? It is with this premise that I plan to approach the topic. Upon seeing the title, what was your first thought or interpretation, if any? Will she be writing about a street housing bloggers exclusively? Is it like Writer's Block, a commonly recognized term for staring at a blank piece of paper/screen? In this case, "block" implies something negative, preventing you from moving forward. Indeed, we all experience "blocks" in all facets of our lives. What if we thought of "block" as a piece of Lego, which would allow us to build or piece together ideas, just as I am doing right now?

I am painfully aware that the introductory paragraph is littered with question marks, but also note that each question is followed by a statement, if not necessarily an answer. What I am trying to say in a less than erudite way is the following: when faced with an obstacle, your body/mind identifies a stressor, and with that comes the fight or flight response. Ah...is it possible to choose? Not always in the physical sense, but certainly intellectually. I will be the first to admit that I gravitate towards flight, such a lovely word, implying levitation and movement. Fighting sounds aggressive and not altogether pleasant, unless that's your thing. In an ideal world, I would like flight to meet fight.

Enough with the battle of words (i.e. fight) and allow me to present my simple solution. Choose your flight behavior in such a way that it allows you to clear your mind but not stop thinking about what is personally meaningful. I can't tell you what that looks like for you. Maybe it means trolling or posting something on social media or the internet, a shameless plug for what I'm doing. Seriously though, my top two flights which invariably lead me to fight are exercise or a glass of wine, sometimes both but not at the same time. Then I do something silly with my bead inventory as Halloween is just around the corner. So that's how it went for me yesterday and why I decided to write on the subject. The exercise was the catalyst, not the wine, in case you're wondering...

Design and content copyright by Andrea Corwin ©2014. All rights reserved.

Egyptian Goddess

It all started quite innocently. I have always been interested in Egyptology and as a teenager; I used to devour books on Archeology, Art and Mythology. So it should come as no surprise that as a jeweler I would be interested in creating designs inspired by ancient Egyptian jewelry. I already have a piece in my collection named Cleopatra. Gold and the highly prized Lapis Lazuli are a distinctive combination that was favored by the ancient Egyptians. The idea led me to contemplate the very long era of Ra's worship (the Sun God). Within this polytheistic culture, one of his offspring, the Goddess Isis, represented the virtues of motherhood and childbirth. It is thought that the image of her holding her infant Horus gave rise to the iconography of Mary holding the infant Jesus.

I have no desire to delve into politics with my blog post, but it is part of life and a reflection of the moment. It has the ability to fuel creative inspiration or stunt it (under an oppressive regime). For now it remains unclear how this particular incident will affect my process. All I know is that I feel ornery. You can take a guess why I cannot name my new necklace after the Goddess Isis. Most people would immediately recognize it as an acronym (even though all the letters would be capitalized) for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Not a strong selling point. I wish that more thought were given when politically charged acronyms are coined by Judeo-Christians in power. It shows a lack of respect for history which includes ancient belief systems.

Some time ago, my wonderful husband surprised me with a bag of tiny glazed ceramic beads. I know that doesn’t sound too exciting, but these happen to originate from Egypt, circa 716 – 30 BCE (see photo right). I am still mesmerized that such delicate items survived for so long, and I continue to ponder how best to use them. Isis has re-awakened my interest, and that at the very least is positive!

In the meantime, I've made peace with Queen Nefertiti. I too can appreciate irony, as under her rule, the Egyptian's were forced into monotheism, which incidentally didn't last long. Ra returned and continues to shine in this necklace.





Design and content copyright by Andrea Corwin ©2014. All rights reserved.

Color me Crazy

Sometimes I have too many ideas and that’s not a good thing. To quote Theodore Roethke, “A mind too active is no mind at all”. It leads to frustration and the inability to focus. It’s the reason I haven’t written anything in the past couple of weeks. I’m certain that all of you are affected by this as it relates to your interests, abilities and aspirations.

I love color. We are surrounded by color, or to put it in more scientific terms - stop reading this paragraph if you do not wish to revisit your basic science class - when light shines on an object some colors bounce off the object and others are absorbed by it; our eyes only see the colors that are bounced off or reflected. Therefore, to see color, you have to have light. White light is all the colors of the rainbow mixed together, so it appears white to us because it absorbs no color and reflects all color equally. When you see black, it means that the object absorbs all colors equally and reflects none, so it looks black to us. While artists consider black a color, scientists do not because black is the absence of all color. I take the artist’s view of course. If you care to read further, here’s an interesting link to the world of color.

We all have varying needs, sensibilities and comfort levels for and with color whether it may be for attire or our surroundings. Color has the ability to elicit and evoke feelings, memories and sensations which can range from the negative to the highly pleasing. One can argue that some colors have intrinsic qualities (such as stimulating, calming, etc.), but most of our reactions to color come from our associations with life experiences and symbolic/cultural references. While it can be visually interesting to combine discordant colors, prolonged exposure can result in madness. I’m kidding. However, most people do look for balance and harmony when it comes to color combinations. The more colors used, the trickier this gets.

For these reasons, color is a powerful tool for the fashion industry. Grey (not orange) is the new black. Every year we are presented with “it” colors, playing with our emotions, our sense of frivolity, our need to stay “current”, which implies vigor and youth.  Take 2014’s color of the year: Radiant Orchid. This color symbolizes joy, love and health, and it is thought to encourage creative thinking (Pantone’s description, not mine). Who wouldn’t want all that? I need to repaint all my walls! I need to make jewelry in this color! Oops.

The good news, 2014 is almost over: stay tuned for 2015’s color of the year. Preview here.

PS: Here’s how the Butterfly turned out.

Papillon Necklace

 

Design and content copyright by Andrea Corwin ©2014. All rights reserved.

Butterfly

The past couple of weeks have been relatively uneventful except for an emergency room visit, a process I’m well familiar with so I wrote a small story titled “Emergency Room tips for the novice”. This was censored by my husband as inappropriate for this blog, so if you wish to read it (424 words), you will need to let me know and I will email the PDF to you.

As someone who works predominantly with Sterling Silver, I am always concerned about tarnish and oxidation of the jewelry pieces I create. In Hawai’i, this is even more so predominant thanks to our sulfur-spewing volcano. Shortly before hurricane Iselle hit the Big Island earlier this month, I visited the Volcanoes National Park wearing lovely silver earrings, which by the end of the day had turned completely black!

Minimizing the effects of oxidation of your silver-containing jewelry (unless it is a deliberate part of the design) means limiting exposure to air. I keep all my pieces in plastic zippered bags, along with anti-tarnish-tabs, but any enclosure is helpful. I want to share with you an informative video on how to clean your silver jewelry.

That’s all for now, I mean to take this Labor Day weekend serious and take a break to clear my thoughts, a need to which this blog attests to. Here are a couple of photos from my studio, a design focusing on a beautiful silver butterfly clasp. Since it will only lay flat when hanging sideways, it will end up as an asymmetrical necklace, which is so much more fun and challenging! I’m still not set on the overall color scheme, so next time, I will write about one of my favorite subjects: color.

Papillon…you will be released soon.

Design and content copyright by Andrea Corwin ©2014. All rights reserved.

Adaptability

As he sits there every morning eating his dry Cheerios, banana and a glass of milk, my husband often likes to tease me about being “high maintenance” and making reference to dinosaurs, that is, if I were one, I’d become extinct. Hey, I just had leftover tuna salad for breakfast, so how’s that for being adaptable? I’m just very particular, as we all are, about certain things: maybe some of us more than others. You can’t outrun change, or evolution for that matter. You can try, but that actually means that you’ve adapted to being a fast runner!

This is my first “blog”, so bear with me. If I recall, this process began way back when we lived to Columbia, SC and I started writing commentaries, sending them to friends via email. I was encouraged to continue writing but I didn't. I went off Facebook, now I'm back on. I went to LinkedIn. I built my website. It's a lot to keep up with in this Brave New World.

What has changed? Adaptability: creativity’s kissing cousin. I've decided that all this is no longer a chore. When there's too much information, I tune it out, selectively. You can too! Ignore this blog, I won't be offended but secretly hope you won't. Throughout my encounters and exposure to artists/art school, it was always highly recommended to engage in journaling, so I forced myself to do so but not without feeling like an impostor. What was wrong with me? Was I not “artistic” or creative enough to embrace this process? Lack of confidence? Yes. English is not my first language but unfortunately I have never truly been proficient in my first languages, which leaves me to obsess about possible errors in spelling, grammar, idioms and colloquialisms. Truncated sentences. More about obsessions in a future blog. For now I'm letting go, ready to embrace the unknown. What will I have for breakfast tomorrow?

Deep breath. Here I go, in a public forum no less, “journaling” in cyberspace like millions of others with a healthy dose of self-consciousness and with a firm belief that it will be interesting (at least to me). It can be interactive. People can comment and I'm finally doing something fun: applying my personality and creativity to mixed (social) media. It's as simple as that. I'm pressing the BIG orange "publish" button.

A (b)log is like a tree falling in the forest. If nobody reads it, does it say anything at all?

I have adapted to the 21st century. Sort of. Stay tuned.