Rules

My oldest daughter claims she will not link me on her blog because I am a "loser" and haven't blogged in a while....guilty. So Alishka babushka let it be known that I am blogging.

Last week at dinner our #2 daughter Breezy Boo was telling us about her business english class at school. She mentioned that her teacher had taught them the "comma dance" She began doing it at the table with moves reminiscent of the Macarena. I had no idea there was a dance, (let alone rules) for commas. I personally like parenthesis and quotation marks. (I use them quite liberally.) I wander if there is a dance for parenthesis? Is a bracket different? (Do I care?)
I tend to be on the slightly rebellious side. Rules challenge me at times, and yet there are other times, like when I drive, that I think "If I have to obey the rules so should everyone else."

In jewelry there are rules. Rules of design and composition,rules of manufacturing, etc. For instance if your solder is "dirty" (or your metal) you will not get a good join. If you use too much solder it will look messy. If you get the torch too close to your wooden bench pin it will catch on fire.

I guess sometimes I am a trial and error type of person, other times I like someone to tell me before I mess up. But if I were to follow a "rule" in jewelry every time someone told me too, where would be the self discovery? There are times I hold back because I am afraid of failing. I only have a small piece of silver left and I don't want to create something that might fail because then I would not have any silver left, so I stagnate and don't create.

Several months ago I tried making a woven wire bracelet. It was my first piece and even though I was told to experiment with cheap copper wire first I chose not to listen. (My husband is rolling his eyes as if to say "what's new".) It was bad. I used a lot of wire. So I did what I do best, I went about creating two pieces of jewelry from a (what we call in the weaving world)a "dog" piece. They turned out quite interesting. (If I do say so myself).

Frustrations

My husband was so frustrated over me not providing a Shipping & Return policy when we first created BriarlyDesigns.com, that he decided to take matters into his own hands. Enjoy his humorous version of the policy that I've copied below for you.

Shipping
All of our jewelry is sent via llama, direct to your door. When the llama arrives, simply untie your package from the pack saddle. If you would be kind enough to provide a little water and a bit of hay (he won't eat much), the llama will make his own way back home after a good night's rest on your front porch.

Returns
Should you be unsatisfied with the product you've purchased (though we can't possibly imagine why you ever would be), simply step out your front door and whistle a "B flat" (that's just slightly off key)three times. Our specially trained courier pigeons, which fly all over the country all the time, will immediately swoop down upon you and be happy to return the product back to us. Just insert the product in the small container around the pigeon's neck, provide a few bread crumbs for the pigeon's flight back and we'll have the product back in no time. Once we've calculated how much all of this cost, if there's any money left from your purchase price, we'll donate the remaining few pennies to the local orphanage. We'd send it back to you, but we know you wouldn't want to deprive these poor children of their next meal.

Hike to the Grotto

A few weeks ago our family took a day hike up to the "Grotto". Pleasant, short little hike.

While sitting there eating granola from Walmart I looked at the package & thought what cool colors. It starts off at the bottom with green trees, moves on into indigo mountains, then a purple sunset with a golden sun. Cool necklace or bracelet idea. So, if you eventually see "Granola Necklace" pop up, remember this blog.