Saturday, May 23, 2009

A Beautiful Day

The weather here has been beautiful - great weather for the Memorial Day weekend. This morning, I decided to go to "Maxwell Days" in Cedarburg. It's held 4 times a year, and has been an annual event there for many, many years. It opens at 6:00 a.m., but I didn't arrive there until around 10:30 a.m. In years' past, I would get there when the gates opened to look for the 'best pickings.' It never changes -- the same old man's voice announcing stuff over the PA system...kicking up dust and dirt walking around the track...the unmistakable smell of brat grease and smoke billowing from the grills in the early morning hours...just about stumbling into people's wagons and carts when they stop dead right in front of you... the list goes on and on...


I didn't get much there this time. I only found a few little medals and some small, junky tools.


My friend Kim has been coming over to my studio on Fridays. She wanted me to teach her how to make jewelry, ala Thomas Mann style. So I've been showing her how.

(Kim busy sawing out her piece)


I've got a benchpin all set up for her on her side of my workbench. It's fun to have her over, because we are usually chatting away while we're working. Kim is a big "rummager," and she brought over one of her 'finds' from last weekend. It was an old leather jumprope that boxers used to use. She took off the wooden handles to use in an assemblage piece that she's working on at home, and generously gave me half of the leather cord...(probably because she could see that I was eagerly eyeing it up to use in my jewelry)!
This is the neckpiece that I was working on, complete with the jumprope cord.
(My latest Neckpiece)

I'd like to get some more earrings made. But now that the weather is getting nicer, the lawn has really been growing. I've been having to cut it twice a week already, and the yard takes me 2 hours to cut with the riding mower.