Briarly Hill

Blog moving

2012-02-15T08:39:00.002-05:00

Due to my web host vanishing and leaving me "high and dry" last fall I am moving my blog to my new website at:

www.briarlyhill.com

Thank you! Hope to see you there. Koni

My sheltered children

2012-01-25T18:39:00.005-05:00

Tonight, I ventured into cuisineland and served my family homemade French Onion soup. A recipe I snatched from Susie at Juniper Moon Farm. (I left out the wine and the cognac.) The comments ranged from A.) son C- " What's in it?" Me - " onions" (duh!) C- "nothing else?" "what am I supposed to eat?" He was frantic! funniest thing ever! B.) daughter D- "This isn't soup" Dad... "why not, it looks like soup." D- "no, soup is water, seasoning and chunkies" I give up. It was delish and I was pleased with how it turned out. Try it if you're up for a yummy soup!

What I did this week

2012-01-20T15:32:00.010-05:00

What i did this week...

Took some very old and sticky black wool yarn and put it on my loom...

In a twill pattern...six yards of it...

Put together a Valentine swap package...with pink

hearts...

and buttons...

I put away more Christmas...

and saved the day, by turning failed pumpkin sludge (ie fudge) into a very yummy pound cake.

2012-01-09T19:35:00.002-05:00

Remember the "Push me, Pull me" from Dr. Dolittle? Well, that's kind of how i have felt lately.
Torn between, designing jewelry and my fiber addiction. I have a wonderful opportunity to be in on the "grassroots" development of an art venue in Dayton, Virginia. I love the fact that it is outdoors in a beautiful park-like atmosphere. Probably will regret that when the elements torment me, but for now it seems ideallic. Sigh, I really want my muse to hit me on the head with a 2 x 4. ummm, maybe not. Theoretically, at least. Do I do both? Tell me what you think.

Lichen

2012-01-02T17:43:00.003-05:00

Back in December, (it sounds so long ago) I entered a naming contest for Cladia's hand-panted yarns . Low and behold I won! Their new color-way will be called "Lichen".
Over the holidays i knitted and knitted, completing my first lace knitting project since learning to knit in April. Thought i would share a few pics graciously modeled by my gorgeous red-haired daughter.

Dare

2011-11-29T19:21:00.004-05:00

I dare you to try something out your comfort zone.

Recently, whilst slogging through the blogging world came upon the cheery blog of Flaming Nor a. A Brit and a avid sewer/crafter I took her up on reducing her "scrap heap"dilemma and added to mine. Now I am an avid sewer and crafter, but my challenge was the color of the scraps. I love color! but when i sew, knit, spin or weave I am a very neutral/ fall colorway type person. WOW!

Talk about bright colors and all of them taffeta and duponi? silk? What to do? Luckily the shape and texture of the black saved my day.

I'm thinking Moroccan lights similar to this one. A purse perhaps? I have started and hope to finish before Christmas takes over my life. Try something out of your comfort zone!

Rust

2011-11-07T10:49:00.007-05:00

mmmm, how I love rust!
From rusty bolts,

to the color of my youngest daughters hair.

spin it,

Weave it, dye it!

Love it!

View from my window

2011-10-18T08:02:00.006-04:00

I really do love the views from my windows, especially now with fall in the air! The pics are a little blurry because I literally took them through the "window". Hope you enjoy my little piece of Virginia!

South - ish, My little shed!

West- Giant pine in the middle of the yard. complete with creeper squirrel.

East - ish, better view because it's of my garden!

North- ish didn't want a picture of the neighbor's house.

This week...

2011-09-29T15:28:00.006-04:00

I wove "something"...light brown, didn't like it, so i over-dyed it brown(er).

I made a shawl pin...

Dyed....anything that was laying around.

and... found a huge garden spider, who fortunately for me is a good guy!

Flowers to dye for.

2011-07-30T16:45:00.003-04:00

As many of you know i love to dye! Once i have a pot brewing, i dye anything i can get my hands on, (barring the husband, children and pets.) Needless to say i usually make a mess leaving splatters everywhere all over the counter, floor and myself. I had this strange notion over the dyepot on Friday to drop some of those splatters on a piece of watercolor paper i had in the other room, mostly to see how the color was progressing. Later that night as i vegetated in the living room i started doodling around the blobs and making flowers.

I am quite impressed if i do say so myself! What do you think?

TDF

2011-07-28T11:41:00.005-04:00

Well, such is the end of TDF. I won a really cool shirt from Wonder why gal. Girls camp in the middle threw me for a loop and i took a week just to get back on track. In the end i didn't spin as much Wookie as i would have liked, but i did make a dent and also found that i like it blended with a fleece that i purchased at the Shenandoah valley fiber fest. Still slapping myself for not getting the venders name or the type of fleece. More care this year.

TDF

2011-06-29T16:29:00.003-04:00

You may ask what is TDF ? I mean in this world of blogging, texting, and other achranms why would i be blogging about TDF?
TOUR DE FLEECE of coarse!
What else would Mamma LLama blog about? I am so excited to get motivation and friendship out of spinning. We start Sunday, July 2 just like the bikers. I have an entire Alpaca fleece to spin, and since i am on Team Wonder, the Alpaca loving team what a better time to get that puppy spun, uh i mean that 'paca spun. LOL No, it is not a Wookie!

Morning Song

2011-04-13T08:32:00.004-04:00

The day breaks cool and refreshing after day(s) of rain.

As i let the minture sheep, aka my dog out for her morning ritual, i hear the birds, beautiful birds.

Suddenly gray skies and wet, wet, wet don't seem so bad.

Scarfing

2011-03-10T21:19:00.008-05:00

Spring, rain need i say more?

It has been positively dreary here the last couple of days.

I finally got the nerve to try knitting again, and if i do say so myself i did quite well. I found out that for being predominantly left-handed, i knit right handed. No wonder i struggled trying to turn it around! So i took my first handspun, yeah I know, 20+ years laying around.

Well it took weeks but now i have a scarf! Just in time for....spring!

I am making progress on my 50 list, i promise! Less than three weeks left!

Silk Part Deux

2011-02-14T20:03:00.015-05:00

So onward through the silk experience! Today we have rods, bells and cocoons! Oh my!

Silk Rods

Silk Bell

Cocoons!

After trying to spin the silk rods i here by declare that they aren't worth the time or the money spent on them! The silk bell was interesting to spin kind of like a cob web. The silk cocoons were just cool to say "yup, i did it". Plus they have the grossest little worm that you have to extract.

And...this is what i spun from the silk bell and the cocoons, not much, but it was fun!

Thank you Mr. Webster!

2011-02-07T16:52:00.002-05:00

This is in response to my last post. Which, given the responses on FB, this definition would duly apply. No comment on the last definition.

wool·ly also wool·y (wŏŏl'ē) Pronunciation Key adj. 1. Relating to, consisting of, or covered with wool. 2. Resembling wool. 3. Lacking sharp detail or clarity: woolly television reception. 4. Mentally or intellectually disorganized or unclear: woolly thinking.

Purple armpit

2011-02-04T12:55:00.002-05:00

Ok, funny and yet embarrassing story. I was sitting in a meeting this morning with two women. I was explaining something when i lifted my arms over my head, both of them burst out laughing.
" You have something purple in your armpit!" one of them exclaimed. Lifting my arm up again and peeking tentatively i noticed a purple haze. On closer examination i found it to be a piece of purple mohair that i was spinning last night. How i love fiber! i don't care if it is all over me!

Adventures in silk, part 1

2011-01-06T14:01:00.005-05:00

So, one of my goals is to learn how to spin silk. Honestly one of my first questions was; who stood by a mulberry tree in Japan, saying " i wonder what this white thread is coming out of this worms butt, i think i will spin it and make a shirt." Seriously! I decided i wanted to spin silk from several different methods; cocoon, roving, and rods. Over the last several months i have acquired some silk. The roving i bought at the Shenandoah fiber festival in October from The Flock Bransonas www.bransonas.com Beautiful colors of blue, green and purple. It was a dream to spin, I probably shouldn't have started with it, i don't want to spin anything else!

New

2011-01-01T18:39:00.002-05:00

Ah, nothing like getting something new. New year, new socks, new yarn...yes! Last March i made a list of 50 things to do before i'm fifty... i have completed 5...sad days. I am such a procrastinator. Now it's January and i have 12 weeks until my birthday. I can do this... yes?

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

2010-12-15T11:28:00.003-05:00

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, just doesn't seem to cover it this week. I am so cold and very grateful for my little propane stove in my studio. I did a show earlier in the month, JMU artisans fair. Over half of the booths were jewelry. All in all i did remarkably well, which made my heart happy! I can't wait until January so i can get back to playing, (preparing for my girls right now). Warm thoughts!

Even the birds are recycling

2010-10-18T06:53:00.006-04:00

Last week we had some fairly strong winds. Strong enough that a sizable branch came down from the maple in our front yard. My son, Kabob inspector general discovered a nest in amongst the leaves. We marveled at the workmanship that one of God's winged avians had so brilliantly constructed.

Upon closer look we discovered that the bird had haphazardly woven in a plastic bag. Maybe he was helping us recycle or maybe he was just trying to waterproof the nest

.

Grandfather

2010-09-30T14:51:00.003-04:00

During the early 1900's and through the Great Depression my grandfather, Fredrick McQueston was a machinist by trade. Later he became a farmer then when he moved to Arizona he became a lapidarist. I was fortunate to inherit so many of his beautiful gemstones, cabochons and jewelry. I recently dragged out the tub of earrings and pawed through the masses to find a few to show tomorrow night when i display at First Fridays, downtown Harrisonburg. Most of them were clip-on earrings so I updated them to pierced. Thank you grandpa for sharing your talent with us.

Two new necklaces!

2010-09-13T07:12:00.003-04:00

I have a habit of not finishing projects for one reason or another; bored, not the right materials, design flaw, you name it. Last week i decided to grab a couple of necklaces i have been putting off finishing because i just couldn't come up the right chain to go with either one. Not bad if i do say so myself!

Penguins

2010-08-25T13:20:00.002-04:00

"penguins don't have disposable thumbs"... really, does anyone? My teenagers make me laugh! I think that at almost 15 it is a good thing that our youngest daughter D is back in school. And what are disposable thumbs anywho?

School Daze

2010-08-23T13:30:00.002-04:00

My youngest daughter started high school today, while her older brother already a pro at the sport and a senior starts tomorrow at another HS clear across town. Open enrollment, oh no it couldn't be that easy,then they would be at the same HS. You see we had to move in December do to problems with the house we were leasing. We tried to find a house in the school district but to no avail. So now here I am with two HS students in two different HS. NOT FAIR!! Different days off, different starting times and ending times and my son no longer qualifies for bus service so we have to take and pick him up everyday. ARGH To top it off my daughter knows a whopping 4 people at the HS. It is a good thing that she is a flamboyant red head who is outgoing. It may prove to be what pulls her through. I on the other hand need chocolate.

What's in a name?

2010-08-20T16:09:00.001-04:00

Changed the name of my blog today... I don't know what that means just yet, but it felt good so I did it.

I am an artist

2010-05-03T09:28:00.002-04:00

It is a beautiful morning here in north-western Virginia, the early morning rain has left the lush green fresh and vibrant.
I am astounded that over the last month or so i have explored more fibre art forms than i have in the past several years. Silk, alpaca, purses and grocery bags. It felt good. My studio bulged with fabric, fibre and frustration as I realized that it all can't fit in my studio as it exists now. I also realized that in throwing my energy and time into fibre i have not explored jewelry or silver at all. This has led to reflective thinking on my part. I need balance. Knowing this, i have decided to be more haphazard in my flow of creativity, today silver lids for vintage glass bottles, tomorrow... spinning? I am empowered that I have choices, I can be creative every day!

50 Things to do before I'm 50

2010-04-09T12:23:00.003-04:00

For the record i am not a day over 29, but i thought this might be fun. Anywho, I learned some important things about this little exercise.
a) It was really hard coming up with 50 things.
b) I am very conservative. (Yes, I would like to put going to Ireland on my list but lets face it, financially it's not going to happen and i want only things on my list that are doable.)
c) 52 weeks is not a lot of time to do 50 things...I might have to double up.

Here is a sampling; five of my 50.

1. Try 50 new recipes that are not all deserts.
2. Learn how to make a hinge on a piece of jewelry.
3. Create a dragon mask.
4. Learn 10 words in Gaelic. (i am hoping Breezyboo will help me with this!.)
5. Wear something pink for a day. (you have no idea how hard this is for me!)

So, there you have a sampling of my list. I still have four more to come up with and with any luck I will be successful!

Goat pee

2010-03-24T15:11:00.003-04:00

I dyed last week. No, i did not misspell nor am I speaking from the grave. You see in my alternate life i am a fibre artist. (Yes, i prefer the European spelling, as in theatre and fairie) I bought some fresh mohair from Tralfarm and anxiously brought it home. Stuck at home do to transportation constraints I decided to dye. I had never dyed mohair before, and given the freedom to save time and dye "in the grease" (not washing first) I dove in. Here are several things i learned :
1. Do not dye fresh mohair on a rainy day when you can't open the windows.
2. No number of candles can cover the ripeness of goat in your house.
3. Watching your 17 yr old son run from the house holding his nose while screaming "what smells like goat pee?"...priceless!
Now i have beautiful colored mohair, ready to spin and a house thankfully that has been aired out.

Blog with fail sauce

2010-03-03T14:13:00.005-05:00

Blog with fail sauce...
Or, fail sauce on my biscuit as my son Kabob would say.
I have been meaning to write something epic since January. I am not a writer, daughter Breezy Boo is. But, now that she is in Happy Valley going to college I have no one to edit my atrocious grammar. So, I have to do this all on my own. Spell check I love you!
We had to move in December, not my favorite thing to do, or to do in a snow storm… make that blizzard. The upside is I have a bigger space for my studio; the down side is it is in the basement and is a throw-back from the 70’s, I guess for that matter so am I.
So, I have begun the gutting of the studio. Ripping out the grungy carpet, plastering the brown paneled walls and giving the 1960’s asphalt tile found under the said grungy carpet a face-lift. Slow process given that I have a quick start personality. If I can’t complete a project in short amount of time I lose focus and interest. (My husband hates this; he is a one project at a time guy.) I find I have this same problem in jewelry making. I usually have no less than five projects going at one time. With so many projects going at once, I can work on any piece I choose whenever it suits my fancy. It all works out until I have non-jewelry projects like fixing the studio, spinning, felting and sewing taking over my studio space. Alpaca flying, beads and paint everywhere. When all this chaos hits in the very thick of things, what happens? You guessed it… I usually get an idea for a new jewelry piece.

2009-11-07T15:05:00.004-05:00

I was checking out from Barnes and Noble last week, when I noticed some magnets hanging on a rack and started reading them. One caught my eye that I had never seen before.

“Do something scary everyday” Eleanor Roosevelt.

I don’t think it meant looking in the mirror; however that did cross my mind. Walking through the halls at my son’s high school? No? ok, I get it.

Today I did something scary, I soldered a difficult part to pin that I have been putting off for a very long time. I hate to fail, or worse waste materials. This is not good I am told, as an artist I need to take chances and try new things if I want to be creative.

So, I had this cool idea for a pin. Take apart a less than stellar (I refuse to call it failed) piece of jewelry, add a freshwater disk pearl encircled with 14K gold and wind a wire around like a safety pin. Easier –said- than -done. I have a habit of not drawing things out first, instead liking to create as I go. This can be problematic if you accidentally do an irreversible step before a more functional one. I drew a basic idea, and thought, and pondered and, it….sat, for weeks. The simple step of soldering a 14K gold bezel onto a base was excruciating, but I did it! And then the piece sat again. I didn’t know how to make the catch on the back. Several reference books later, the make do part of me took over. I came up with the idea of two tubular pieces soldered to the back, one of them would be joined to the bottom stationary wire and the other, with a piece cut away, would hold the pin part. I have no idea why I agonized soldering those two tubes in place, in the end it wasn’t very hard and “bless my soul” it works!!

I recently read a bio of artist Michael Boyd in the September 2009 issue of Art Jewelry magazine who said” if he went out to dinner and spent $50, he gave himself the same permission to trash $50 worth of material.” He went on to say, “If you can’t take that $50 pearl and cut it in half, you will never expand beyond.” I am expanding, “ to infinity and beyond” I think if I did do something scary everyday, then perhaps it might just get a little easier and maybe I wouldn’t be afraid of ruining a wad of silver… Maybe

Change

2009-01-10T13:56:00.001-05:00

In this mortal existence of turbulence and joy we find ourselves in a constant state of change. Change is inevitable, whether it be physical, political, or environmental. You don't realize the rut you're in until the road changes.

Our family recently moved from Utah to Virginia. It's not a bad place. It's very green with lots of trees and wonderfully friendly people. It's just—different. My life changed in other ways as well, my Mother passed away in late April.

I have been living in a sea of creative blandness for more than six months now. My mom's death and moving 2,000 miles away from "home" impacted me far more than I want to admit. Theoretically, one can create anywhere or any time. I have been unable or unwilling to create. My muse—lost, broken, and dejected seems to be sulking in a remote corner. (Or never got unpacked from the sea of monotonous brown boxes in the first place). I went into my studio for the first time in a very long while. It's a space—my space; it's just much smaller and, well, different.

From my "studio" I have a beautiful view of an old farm with a smattering of cows; my dog is determined to make friends with said cows. I know this won't happen, but she is the epitome of hopefulness. Sometimes in the morning, the fog rolls over and through the grass and trees. I love that view, it has been a balm for my torn soul.

So, out comes the silver, the stones, and the torch. I piddle around, not doing much of anything. I become distracted and start to look at catalogs. Then, I rummage through beads and string some insignificant bracelets. Make 20 pairs of earrings. I realize how much I have spent on beads and silently vow not to be persuaded by the shiny objects ever again.

This is not working.

Several weeks later my husband and I were at a work related Holiday party. All were invited to bring a gift to exchange so, I chose to bring one of my beaded bracelets to exchange. The excitement that ensued when the bracelet was unwrapped was completely unexpected. "Did you make this?" "Can I come to home?" I cannot tell you how much I needed those comments; it was just what my muse needed to be coaxed from her dark little corner.

It is a new year. I am ready. I can be creative.

Passion

2008-06-26T15:45:00.002-04:00

My husband and I have been discussing the topic of passion lately.(Don't worry this is G-rated.) He is having a mid-life crisis, wanting to change careers to teaching leadership, something he has always been passionate about. I my self am finding that after 40 some-odd years I have finally found something to be passionate about-making jewelry.
So, the age-old question has recently surfaced as I contemplate the direction my jewelry should go. Do I design jewelry for the "general" public; something boring that sells at a cheap price? Or do I design jewelry that would cost more but that I am passionate about, running the risk of having fewer customers? Is one completely without the other?
I feel as though I have two different personas sitting on my shoulder; an angel and devil if you will. Angel says: "Be safe; make things that people will want." "Be conservative." "You realize you only have so much silver." Devil says: "Who cares if you want to experiment? Take a walk on the wild side, let your hair down, be brave." "Silver is still relatively cheap." Is there a balance?
I suppose I could wake up in the morning and flip a coin. Ahh, tails; watch out, sweety, Artista is feeling the muse today. Flow with the moon? New moon, boring. Full moon, woo hoo!! I only know that for me personally, I haven't followed my passion enough lately.

Rules

2007-10-05T11:11:00.001-04:00

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

2007-07-05T15:14:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-30T11:23:00.000-04:00

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.