Blooming Arts & Crafts

Beautiful, inspiring textiles

2011-12-13T00:23:00.001-08:00

Been a while

2011-08-30T20:44:00.000-07:00

Other than that mention of a new line of jewelry I put up online, I haven't felt inspired to share thoughts here for some reason.

The Twitter/Facebook/Blog/Personal Website conundrum continues to stymie me. Why micro-tweet your every notion? Why Facebook your every move? Isn't the point of writing to connect with others in a more meaningful way than you could normally do in your day-to-day life--maybe in a manner that offers the opportunity for more reflection and consideration of what you might say off the cuff in a face-to-face interaction?

Seems like the opposite of micro-blogging to me. But that's just me.

There is always the joy of sharing music or photos that inspire. That can happen at any one of those outlets.

I'm still working this all out. Call me slow...

Poesia by Yvette Doss

2011-08-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

New jewelry line,

Poesia by Yvette Doss

online at Smashing Darling.

Take a look:

http://www.smashingdarling.com/store/poesia-by-yvette-doss

Tweetdeck? Blog? Facebook

2010-01-14T09:17:00.000-08:00

Decisions, decisions, decisions. I need to simplify.

Sea-foam chalcedony bracelet

2009-11-03T18:00:00.001-08:00

Just finished this. Donating it to my daughters' school for an auction. It's part of a set.
Sea-foam blue chalcedony and quartz jewelry set
Faceted sea-foam blue chalcedony and lemon quartz gemstone bracelet in sterling silver with tiny Czech glass beads. Extender chain included.
Matching faceted chalcedony briolette drop earrings, also in sterling silver.

La Milagrosa

2009-10-29T13:52:00.001-07:00

"Currency" -- recycled glass and shell money bauble

2009-09-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

Women's money (vintage Papua New Guinea shell currency), rough-cut recycled glass, brass, steel.

Profile published

2009-09-13T19:21:00.001-07:00

I have a profile of jewelry artist Jennifer Morris in the current issue of Bead & Button Magazine. Pick it up!
--Yvette

Made Some Stuff

2009-01-30T10:14:00.000-08:00

New jewelry, freshly baked. Here are some pics.

Playing with yarn

2009-01-18T16:10:00.001-08:00

I'm drawn to yarn today. Thin cotton yarn in vibrant teals and serene sages. I'm building sculptural forms from the yarn and thread, stringing it to chain and beaded strands, and playing with lovely stones. Will post photos soon.

A political statement on your arm

2008-12-05T20:13:00.003-08:00

I ran across these oh-so-stylish clutches featuring a snippet from a news story stating "Obama Wins."

Nuff said. (Don't you want one?)

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=sr_list_4&listing_id=18111396

Love this

2008-12-05T15:30:00.000-08:00

I love this chandelier by Alabama Chanin, handcrafted from found items.

http://www.alabamachanin.com/?q=node/1689&gridpath=store/35

Every leaf speaks bliss to me

2008-10-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

A lovely sentiment from Emily Bronte...
Y

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night's decay
Ushers in a drearier day.
--Emily Jane Brontë

Did I just "Blog"?!?

2008-08-20T10:53:00.001-07:00

Just a few days ago, I saw a note in Facebook from one of my Facebook acquaintances stating simply, "I'm going to start blogging."
The note caught my attention. Why, I wondered, have I been so hesitant to take on that verb, the act of "blogging," even though I have a blog (here it is.. you're reading it!) and I have used it to post thoughts and musings and links to music I like and photos of jewelry I've made every once in a while.
And yet... I never really promote it or mention it to people in casual conversation. I never say, "I blog. Read my blog." I have been reluctant to do so.
Why is that? I believe it's that I'm an old-school journalist. (I am old-school on a lot of fronts, I've realized, but that's another story..) I have published a zine. I have worked for a magazine, written for large daily newspapers, published an alternative weekly newspaper. All print projects, some with web components. But print.
And now, when I think about written output, I still think in terms of magazines or "projects" of that sort. (Ex: I want to launch a new web magazine.... etc etc.)
But what of this blog? Why am I ignoring it, neglecting it, relegating it to the basement along with the redheaded stepchild and bart simpson's evil twin?
Not sure.
Something I need to think about.
But in the meantime, here's a link to David Byrne's website, with a free song from his latest lovely album, a collaboration with Brian Eno. Definitely worth a click.

http://journal.davidbyrne.com/

Wait.. Did I just Blog?

My Music Playlist

2008-08-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

I've just discovered Music Playlists. You get to be a DJ for yourself and your friends by choosing a playlist that you can access online at any time. Here's mine, which I started fiddling around with yesterday.

http://www.playlist.com/node/44578585

Today I'll test it out while I work to see what kind of mood it puts me in ;)
YD

The Power of Philosophy-translated into ...

2008-08-11T06:58:00.001-07:00

Here's that same radio essay translated into Dutch, I believe:

http://www7.tranexp.com:2000/Translate/index.shtml?from=eng&to=dut&type=url&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2Ftemplates%2Fstory%2Fstory.php%3FstoryId%3D93192093

I Believe in the Power of Philosophy-online

2008-08-11T06:54:00.001-07:00

Here are some links to my latest radio essay. This one aired on NPR's Weekend Edition on August 3, 2008. It is part of the "This I Believe" radio series.

On NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93192093

On This I Believe's project website:
http://www.thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=12393&topessays=1

Radio Commentaries-All together now!

2008-07-24T08:50:00.001-07:00

Someone asked if I could put links to all my radio commentaries in one place, so here they are.
I've got a radio essay coming out on NPR's Weekend Edition soon, as part of the "This I Believe" series. I'll post that once it airs and gets archived.

Listen online:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5546809

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5536169

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=26260

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=19396

My latest radio commentary-Chicago Public Radio

2008-07-07T12:40:00.001-07:00

Here's one I did about bad bad girls!

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=26260

New jewelry

2008-06-19T13:11:00.000-07:00

Yew Tree poem by Sylvia Plath

2008-04-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd post a poem by Sylvia Plath called "The Moon And The Yew Tree"

This is the light of the mind, cold and planetary
The trees of the mind are black. The light is blue.
The grasses unload their griefs on my feet as if I were God
Prickling my ankles and murmuring of their humility
Fumy, spiritous mists inhabit this place.
Separated from my house by a row of headstones.
I simply cannot see where there is to get to.

The moon is no door. It is a face in its own right,
White as a knuckle and terribly upset.
It drags the sea after it like a dark crime; it is quiet
With the O-gape of complete despair. I live here.
Twice on Sunday, the bells startle the sky --
Eight great tongues affirming the Resurrection
At the end, they soberly bong out their names.

The yew tree points up, it has a Gothic shape.
The eyes lift after it and find the moon.
The moon is my mother. She is not sweet like Mary.
Her blue garments unloose small bats and owls.
How I would like to believe in tenderness -
The face of the effigy, gentled by candles,
Bending, on me in particular, its mild eyes.

I have fallen a long way. Clouds are flowering
Blue and mystical over the face of the stars
Inside the church, the saints will all be blue,
Floating on their delicate feet over the cold pews,
Their hands and faces stiff with holiness.
The moon sees nothing of this. She is bald and wild.
And the message of the yew tree is blackness - blackness and silence.

##

My Chicago Public Radio commentary

2008-03-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

A commentary I recorded for Chicago Public Radio about crafting and economics aired today. It's archived online at

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=19396

Simple linen & gem necklaces

2008-02-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of designs I threw up on the online store today. Just linen, silver-wrapped gems, and silver dangles. Simplicity itself.

snow snow snow

2008-02-26T12:08:00.001-08:00

snow everywhere. white. thick.
i'm having a fargo moment.

New online jewelry store/new men's & women's jewelry

2008-02-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

So rather than go through paypal, I decided to set up an actual online store featuring my new work.

It's online now at:

http://www.smashingdarling.com/store/yew-tree-by-yvette-doss

The necklace shown here features a handmade silver bird pendant, peridot gemstones and vintage jet beads on an oxidized silver chain.

Take a look at the other items in the store if you have a few minutes.
Yvette

My article in Ms. Magazine on newsstands now

2008-01-29T08:31:00.001-08:00

Hey guys,
I’d like to let you know that the Winter issue of Ms. just hit newsstands, featuring a National News piece I wrote—“Labor Pains,” about the Hotel Workers rising campaign, designed to raise awareness about the health perils connected with hotel housekeeping, and to apply pressure on hotel chain operators to improve workplace standards.

As I write: “The rate of injury among housekeepers is almost double that of other service workers, yet housekeepers often can’t afford employer-provided health insurance and go without. At unionized hotels, in contrast, no-cost insurance is a benefit of employment for workers and their families.”

Also in this issue:
-the effects of punitive U.S. family-planning policies including the “global gag rule”—which restricts health providers in developing countries from even mentioning abortion if they want to keep their much-needed U.S. funding.
-an investigation of the big-money interests behind the so-called civil rights initiatives initiatives sponsored by Ward Connerly, which are really intended to wipe out affirmative action programs for women and minorities.
-an examination of threats to our voting rights in 2008—and profiles two feminist secretaries of state who are setting new standards for protecting voters from fraud, purges and defective voting machines.
-one feminist scholar’s take on the women in hot sitcoms (Tina Fey, Wanda Sykes, Sarah Silverman, etc.)
-an analysis of the never-flagging interest in Jane Austen
and more.

Visit http://www.msmagazine.com

Only from the heart

2008-01-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

Only from the heart can you touch the sky. -Rumi

Jeweler's Row District-a photo

2008-01-16T15:42:00.001-08:00

Here's a nice, gritty picture. Now that's a city.

Chicago's Jeweler's Row District

2008-01-16T15:35:00.001-08:00

Today I took a trip over to Chicago's Jeweler's Row District, which is full of significant historical landmark buildings by architects such as John Mills Van Osdel, Adler & Sullivan, D. H. Burnham & Co., Holabird & Roche, Alfred Alschuler, and Graham, Anderson, Probst & White.
My goal was to visit some of the supply centers and get a feel for what the city has to offer.
But I made one little mistake. I drove.
Next time, I hop on a train and avoid the insane downtown traffic and astronomical parking lot fees.

I also visited with a member of the Chicago Craft Mafia (yeah, be afraid. be very afraid), and will let you in on how that turned out at a later date.

Learning new techniques-knotting

2008-01-11T07:58:00.000-08:00

For the past few days, I've been conquering some new techniques to add to my jewelry/crafts repertoire, including leather and linen cord knotting.

I also bought a new digital camera because my old Kodak digital was on its last leg. So here's an example of my knotting work (which I am going to be using for men's bracelets).

This one is knotted with waxed cotton cord, but I'm leaning toward using different weights of suede and leather cord, instead.

New work-writing and other

2008-01-08T11:00:00.001-08:00

You can find my most recent journalism in the upcoming issue of Ms. Magazine, where I write about the Hotel Workers Rising labor union campaign in a story called Labor Pains.
It's about hotel maids coming together to demand more humane (less painful) working conditions, and other basics such as employer-provided health care.

The new issue should be on newsstands soon, if it's not already.
The Ms. Magazine website still shows the fall issue's contents:
http://www.msmagazine.com/

I also contributed to a Los Angeles Times Magazine package on Los Angeles Entertainers, ie "regular" people who like to throw parties.
That's online at the LA Times website:
http://www.latimes.com

On the jewelry front, I'm working on a Spring line of new mixed-media pieces that incorporate crocheted cotton, leather, shells and other great stuff. I'll post soon.

Happy 2008! "Love One Another," a poem by Khalil Gibran

2008-01-02T11:26:00.001-08:00

Love One Another

Love one another, but make not a bond of love
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup, but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping;
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together;
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
##
Poem by Khalil Gibran (aka Kahlil Jubran)

Counter Couture picture

2007-12-27T23:25:00.001-08:00

Here's a link to her work, which I just found out is not online at Etsy at all, rather just through special order. Visit her and take a look at her work at Myspace:
Here
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=149172265&albumId=867088
and here:
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=149172265&albumId=865930

Did I mention Counter Couture?

2007-12-27T23:20:00.000-08:00

My dear friend, Linda Gamboa, has a line of fabricated fashion accessories, notaby Calvera-themed pillows, pins and punky handbags, available online at her Etsy shop:
http://www.stylehive.com/save/Etsy--Counter-Couture-Fabricated-Fashion-Statements-842945

And when you're done checking out her work... well, I'll tell you about her multi-talented siblings, both of whom I love, later.
Love,
Yvette

A recommendation by Prince

2007-12-27T12:44:00.000-08:00

And, while we're on the subject of brilliant songs, here is one of the most heartbreakingly lovely love songs of all time. Prince chose this song for a collection of Joni's hits. His recommendation goes as follows:
" 'A Case of U' by Joni Mitchell is one of my favorite songs 2 sing because the melody is so heartbreaking. The lyrics read as tho the writer is xtremely enamored with the subject and yet the melody sounds as if they are about 2 break up. Joni's use of the dulcimer, her style and technique give the original recording such a haunting feel that it would make even the hardest thug shed tears."
--Prince

Here is a link to the song online,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6voJjexENok

and here are those amazing lyrics:

A case of you

Just before our love got lost you said
I am as constant as a northern star
And I said, constant in the darkness
Wheres that at? If you want me Ill be in the bar
On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue tv screen lightI drew a map of canada
Oh canada
And your face sketched on it twice

Oh you are in my blood like holy wine
Oh and you taste so bitter but you taste so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you
I could drink a case of you darling
And I would still be on my feet
Oh Id still be on my feet

Oh I am a lonely painterI live in a box of paints
Im frightened by the devil
And Im drawn to those ones that aint afraid
I remember that time that you told me, you said
Love is touching souls
Surely you touched mine
Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time
Oh you are in my blood like holy wine
And you taste so bitter but you taste so sweet

Oh I could drink a case of you
I could drink a case of you darling
Still Id be on my feet
And still be on my feet

I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said
Go to him, stay with him if you can
Oh but be prepared to bleed
Oh but you are in my blood youre my holy wine
Oh and you taste so bitter, bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still Id be on my feet
Id still be on my feet

##

Brilliant song by indie artists

2007-12-27T12:41:00.000-08:00

I just saw an indie film starring these two singer/songwriters as... singer/songwriters. It's called "Once," and it was wonderful. You can rent it at all the major video places. Or at least THE big one, which shall remain nameless here.
Here they are singing a beautiful song at Sundance, standing out in the snow. That's Glen Hansard playing his tattered guitar, accompanied by Marketa Irglova:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YAKOnt68D8&feature=related

The New York Times on the Handmade Revolution

2007-12-17T09:44:00.000-08:00

My buddy Stephanie gave me the heads up on this New York Times magazine article by the consumer guru Rob Walker. Peruse away:

Handmade 2.0
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/magazine/16Crafts-t.html?ei=5070&en=20381eaba8654190&ex=1198472400&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1197828116-lqA7g3Qf7mPPnud2rstWdA

Pocharte Mexican Revolution Pillows

2007-12-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to discover that La Pocha (aka Sandra Peña-Sarmiento ) has been up all night stitching pillows in the theme of the Mexican Revolution. More on the artist and her crafts coming soon. In the meantime, buy your own at her Etsy shop.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5417933

A younger me

2007-12-15T06:25:00.000-08:00

I found this photo of me in my early twenties. Oh, the thoughts that were going through my mind back then!

More poetry by ee cummings

2007-12-08T22:32:00.000-08:00

And, since we're on the subject, here is a link to a handful of my all-time favorite poems by the prolific Mr. Cummings (out of many), including this one, below, which Woody Allen featured prominently in the movie "Hannah and Her Sisters":
Read select poems here:
http://www-scf.usc.edu/~thier/ee/

[somewhere i have never travelled]


somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands

the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands

Little Tree--a poem by one of my favorite poets

2007-12-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

There is no one who can express the joy and wonder of life better than ee cummings. Here, a season-appropriate poem, in honor of the little tree:

little tree

little silent Christmas tree

you are so little

you are more like a flower


who found you in the green forest

and were you very sorry to come away?

see   i will comfort you

because you smell so sweetly


i will kiss your cool bark

and hug you safe and tight

just as your mother would,

only don't be afraid


look   the spangles

that sleep all the year in a dark box

dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,

the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,


put up your little arms

and i'll give them all to you to hold

every finger shall have its ring

and there won't a single place dark or unhappy


then when you're quite dressed

you'll stand in the window for everyone to see

and how they'll stare!

oh but you'll be very proud


and my little sister and i will take hands

and looking up at our beautiful tree

we'll dance and sing

"Noel Noel"

La Pocha online

2007-11-08T11:38:00.001-08:00

And how could I forget to mention my dear friend Sandra Sarmiento Pena, aka La Pocha. She's now blogging at pocharte.blogspot.com about chicanismo, politics and life in San Antonio. Please pay her a visit.

All the Saints of L.A. blog

2007-11-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

Been meaning to post. Check out this great new blog by J. Michael Walker, artist extraordinaire.
http://allthesaintsofla.blogspot.com/

Two more for today

2007-10-22T12:45:00.001-07:00

This is another kind of enamel pendant I'm playing with. These are basic shapes, and the experimentation is with the enamel work--the colors and patterns. I like the black one with robin's egg blue flowers.

Little tree

2007-10-22T12:36:00.002-07:00

Me and trees. I can't figure it out, but they call to me. Here's one I pierced with a jewelers saw and enameled transparent brown.

New work

2007-10-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here at last are a few new items I've been cooking up. This first one is a simple dangle piece with a geode, a gold-dipped ginko leaf and a citrine drop.
The enamel work is coming...

If I can get some design help with my website, I'll be getting a store up and running with a shopping cart that's hooked up to Paypal for safe and easy online ordering.

In my workshop today

2007-10-12T14:01:00.001-07:00

I found the energy to saw some metal in my workshop today. Also doing some enameling in the kiln. I'll display the new pendants here before the end of the day, damnit!
Life is good.
Y

A vintage button bracelet

2007-09-26T16:30:00.001-07:00

Buttons are so cute--they're as cute as, well, buttons. OK, this one is so sweet it's giving me a tootheache.

Another vintage bead bracelet

2007-09-26T16:29:00.001-07:00

This one has vintage fabric beads and a brass coin pendant.

Vintage bead bracelets=Green bracelets

2007-09-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

I've broken into my stockpile of vintage beads and charms with the idea that old=green. No new beads were harmed in the making of these bracelets.

This one has an enamel bird charm I made in my workshop. The orange flowers and green beads are from vintage stock.

New vintage-bead bracelet photos coming soon

2007-09-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

I've begun making some new charm bracelets using vintage beads and enamel charms on brass. I'll post photos soon, and let you know where they will be for sale soon.
Hope you have a great weekend.
Yvette

Quoth the Child...

2007-09-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

When asked what she was daydreaming about, the 3-year-old Emily, who had been staring off into space, replied:
"My brain was having a party and I was invited."

Time for serious Campaign Finance Reform

2007-08-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks for indulging my need to reference Pink Floyd songs. Now I want to talk about ... a serious call for Campaign Finance Reform!!!
Come on people! It's crystal clear ... Our elected officials are so beholden to moneyed interests they can't even see the forest for the trees.
I think we need a grassroots movement for a MAJOR federal overhaul of campaign finance rules. It's the only way to even the playing field and get our current elected officials off their lazy, overfunded butts, and new elected reps to actually represent the populace's interests: affordable healthcare, environmental protections, clean air and water, a livable wage, and on and on.

My New Line of Enamel Pendants

2007-08-05T15:16:00.001-07:00

Flora & Fauna Line

2007-08-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

Flora & Fauna Line

2007-08-05T15:13:00.001-07:00

Flora & Fauna-more pendants

2007-08-05T15:12:00.001-07:00

Flora & Fauna line of pendants & earrings

2007-08-05T15:09:00.001-07:00

Finally, here are some photos of the enamel pendants and earrings I made a while back. I strung them with gold chain, crystals, and some pretty gems (citrine, etc), and dropped them off at a shop in Eagle Rock called Heathers. Most of these have already sold, so I'm busy making more as we speak!

A simple bloom

2007-08-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

A simple bloom
Appears before my eyes, white, translucent
And doors that were closing in my mind begin to open
One by one by one.

A simple sound
Strains against my ears, soft, persistent
And the music of a thousand violins fills my head
One by one by one.

A simple smile
touches me with its warmth, deep, true
And all the souls in the world envelope me with their comfort
One by one by one.

In a Dark Time--one of my all-time favorite poems

2007-07-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

I first found this poem in a musty old book of poetry by Theodore Roethke at the library of ab all-girls dorm at UC Berkeley. I was an undergrad studying philosophy there, and for some reason, this man's words about that other reality really touched me. My favorite line? "What's madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance?" Can words be any truer?
I think Roethke has had a profound effect on my idea of what a poem is. I haven't read this in a decade, yet I think it influences everything I write (see Stalking Happiness).
Who was Theodore Roethke? He was an American poet who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1954. Spent a lot of time in a greenhouse as a kid. These famouse words of his, from his Pulitzer-Prize-winning poem and self-titled book, "The Waking," are often quoted:
"I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go."
YD

In a Dark Time by Theodore Roethke

In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood
--A lord of nature weeping to a tree,
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.

What's madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall,
That place among the rocks--is it a cave,
Or winding path? The edge is what I have.

A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is
--Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.

Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.
My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind.

##

Animated Poetry-A Must See

2007-07-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

I was going to paste the text of a poem that put a big grin on my face, The Country by Billy Collins, our former U.S. Poet Laureate. But then I found this Animated Poetry version on YouTube of all sites, which includes Mr. Collins (I believe it's him) reading the same poem to animation. Very cool.
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xovLpim_1s

On Sicko, and why I love Michael Moore

2007-07-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

Ah, Mr. Moore. How I love thee. Let me count the ways:
1) Conservative Republicans hate and fear you. 'Nuff said.
2) You dragged a contingency of 9/11 volunteers in need of health care--and denied same by their U.S. Insurance companies-- to socialist Cuba. Where they were promptly treated.
3) You are obnoxious, but honest.
4) You have made the American health care crisis THE topic of discussion.
5) You continue to thumb your nose at the-powers-that-be, despite their high-profile smear campaign against you.

Not sure why I'm on a poetry kick right now...

2007-06-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

...but this is a nice one by one of the true optimists of all time, Mr. ee cummings:

(once like a spark)

if strangers meet
life begins-
not poor not rich
(only aware)
kind neither
nor cruel
(only complete)
i not not you
not possible;
only truthful
-truthfully,once
if strangers(who
deep our most are
selves)touch:
forever

(and so to dark)

A Poem

2007-06-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

Stalking Happiness

My great great grandfather was a Yaqui,
Or an old-religion sage descended from Stonehenge.
Hard to tell these days with everyone claiming knowledge of the Old Ways.
I claim no such knowledge. Only questions
And a family of fibbers, perhaps, and murderers with mouths full of American cigarettes and sweet bread
Sold much more cheaply across the border--same ashes, same diseases.

What's more is that there are things we must discuss, you and I,
Of conquests and the conquered left behind
Of the price of taking for free that which was not freely given
And of the gashes in the earth, the scars deep, brute.

There's still time to pull your head out of your favorite coddled orifice.
Time to sing in the fields with those who dig and tend,
Whose coarse toes daily touch the soil we take and take and take.
Time to feel the red behind your eyelids and its calming warmth,
Its warning, its assurance.

I'm stalking happiness, and you are, too.
Layers upon layers of reality collapse before my eyes
In all your squalor you are brilliant as a crusted sapphire,
Blue and luminous, luminous and blue.
And all you see is the dirt, the dust, the speck.

A mind too hard at work grinds to a halt,
But its fruits can be the difference between walking through your life half-asleep,
Or living a life awake. What to do?
Why not give in to the constant humming, synapses skipping, neurons blowing,
Feel the buzz of life's current fill your head with its simple noise
And let it be flashes of bright white sound, the scent of red, the taste of sorrow?

I'm stalking happiness and you are, too.
And someday soon I may find I don't need to keep looking anymore.
The world will unfold itself for me like the petals of a crisp new bud, I know.
You and I will stop parsing, dividing, judging, naming,
And at last we will be home.

**

I wait for clues.
For the possibility of knowing god, peeking behind the curtain,
Lifting the veil, smiling at the silly elephant
with the world balanced on his leathery back,
meeting the laughing Buddha at last.

My eyes adjust to the light, and I wait for
The secret missive which I would gladly decode
If I could only stop searching for just one more sign,
One more smile, one more glance.
The unspoken, unnamed, unclaimed universe
In the eyes of a stranger.
The life force come unbidden, unsurpassed, raw and pure.

The filters could come off and its truth sting
With its stark beauty, unbeguiling and true.

Unbearable, this fix.

One more time, please—before we forget for good
And find ourselves forced to begin the hunt anew
Each morning upon abandoning our sonorous dreams,
Heavy, addictive, and terrible.
Each morning driven to begin anew.

##

Promised photos of messed-with metal

2007-06-19T23:36:00.000-07:00

OK, finally, here are two images of my apple-tree-in-copper. The one with little holes in it is the original piece of copper I carved and punched and otherwise messed with when using the Foredom flex shaft machine. The other is the rolled impression on a blank piece of copper. Notice the raised areas where where there were holes. Instant baby apples. Next I plan to get some green and brown transparent enamel over the raised piece, which will become a nice little pendant if it turns out OK. Not that impressed? I completely understand. Would you believe it looks better up close?

Enamel-Love love love it!

2007-06-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

OK, I have been a bad blogger. No new pictures of work in progress as I promised. But I have plenty of new work, I'm just dealing with a few technical difficulties, like my new wireless service not quite working all the time.
I have enamel pendants to show off. Woohoo! It's been sooooo much fun slaving over a hot kiln for hours on end, big fire-proof gloves covering my hands and arms (sooo sexy), sweat on my brow, the smell of sizzling glass in the air. And then, glorious color, all over copper pendants in any shape I want. Too cool.
I promise, I will post pictures soon.
I may even take a few of the new pendants and use them in new necklaces, and put them on my jewelry website, which I will soon upgrade to include a Paypal shopping cart for online sales.
Promise.

In praise of that which is free

2007-06-10T00:16:00.000-07:00

I've had a bit of a lull in my online musings lately because of some technical difficulties, namely that my free wireless Internet disappeared into the ether when my nextdoor neighbhor, who hadn't bothered to password protect his Internet access, moved out. Did I feel guilty for enjoying free wireless Internet for a while? Not in the least. It was great to wake up, turn on my computer, and find that I could get online, communicate with the world, and get all the questionable and not-quite-fact-checked information my little heart desired for NO COST WHATSOEVER. Sure, I own a computer, and the table it sits on, and so so many objects and paid services associated with said table, and said house in which said computer sits. My bills, which once consisted of nothing more than a biannual dorm-room/cafeteria bill, have become so plentiful and so hard to keep track of that I often dream of getting myself and my family completely off the grid--you know, solar panels and septic tanks and windmills. Kitchen gardens. Livestock. Spinning my own wool for warm winter sweaters and coats. Etc. Sounds idyllic, doesn't it?
Like hell it does.
Imagine how much of your day would be spent just lighting a fire for breakfast, or hauling water for cooking lunch, or for your evening bath. And don't even think about how much wood you'd need to chop to accomplish those mundane tasks, the ones we take for granted each and every day.
Do I really want to live off the grid? No, of course not. But I would really like to stop giving so much of my hard-earned money to major conglomerates that have absolutely no sense of responsibility to their employees, on whose grossly underpaid and under-insured backs their companies were built, and who have no sense of good customer service anymore to boot. Why spend hundreds of dollars a month on phone and cable TV
service? Add Internet service to that, and you're giving away hours and hours of your limited life energy for the privilege of gabbing on the phone about absoluletly nothing with your pal while the grocery store cashier tries desperately to get your attention to get paid for the overpriced produce in yourbag. Or for the privilege of watching Tony Soprano bang some babe in Vegas, or to be able to google your old high school pals and watch innane homemmade videos of people bitchslapping each other on YouTube.
Not that there's anything wrong with that in and of itself.
Just something to think about.

A productive day

2007-05-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

Today I took a class at Farrin O'Connor Design Studio with Carl Stanley, a jewelry artist based in Santa Barbara. I practiced different techniques using a Foredom flex shaft machine, which comes with an endless variety of doohickies and attachments for grinding, drilling sanding, cutting, and otherwise messing with metal, glass, stone, and other hard materials.
I carved a stencil out of masking tape over copper sheet in the shape of an apple tree, then distressed the exposed tree shape by carving out the trunk, puffy foilage and even little round apples. When that was done, I rolled it in a rolling mill with another piece of copper (a blank one), and impressed the design, now in reverse, onto the new sheet. That left me with a finely detailed, slightly raised tree design on the copper. I think it'll make a cute pendant, with transparent enamel in greens and browns over the copper. I'll post a picture tomorrow showing my hand-made "plate," the roller printed design pendant-in-progress, and maybe soon, the enameled, finished product.
Later!
Y

Memorial

2007-05-28T02:25:00.000-07:00

While we grieve the lost soldiers sent to fight a war in the Middle East, we also choose to mark the day with celebrations. We come together with friends and family and remember how fortunate we are to have each other to share a beautiful afternoon with.
So we've take back the day, in a sense, as a strike against war, in the name of peace.
For those who have lost a loved one in a war, I am truly sorry. I wish we could do something to alleviate your pain.
And yet we can all imagine a better solution than violence.
As Mahatma Ghandi once said: "Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected"

2007-05-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

Success! A nice little peace sign pendant with robin's egg blue enamel on it.

2007-05-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

This one was coming along nicely, until I dropped it in the kiln's nether regions and it picked up some fiberglass or whatever the firebricks are made of. It got all mucky. Hmmmm.. Not sure if I can salvage this.

2007-05-24T19:38:00.000-07:00

So, last night I decided to go back to the beginning, take baby steps and teach myself basic enameling over solid metal, in which you just try to cover copper or silver with a layer of opaque glass. I spent a few hours in the afternoon and a few hours in the evening sifting enamel powder (finely ground glass) over some simple copper pendant forms. Then I placed them, very carefully, in a hot kiln (1500-1600 degrees Fahrenheit--pretty darned hot) to melt the glass particles and fuse them to the copper. I checked on them a couple of times until the glass melted to orange peel bordering on smooth consistency, then I pulled them out to cool.
Rinse. Scrub. Repeat. Rinse. Scrub. Repeat.
Here are a few in progress. The mottled look in the center pendant is from firescale adhering to the bare copper after I baked enamel on the reverse side (not shown). The other two have one coat each of a dark blue-black and a pale yellow. One or two more coats on these and they should look great.

My first forays into enamel=disaster followed by mild success

2007-05-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I spent some time in my workshop (read: garage) teaching myself how to enamel over copper and silver. I began a few weeks ago by hand piercing and sawing out shapes in thick copper sheet (about 18 gauge), and trying my hand at one of the most difficult of the enameling processes, plique a jour. In this method, you leave little windows to fill with transparent glass. The work I've seen is gorgeous, so I dove in. The results were ... disastrous. Here they are.
Not so good.

Creative Endeavors-In the Air/Online

2007-05-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

My friend Stephanie rocks! Watch this video she produced for the Associated Press that features her good old Dad:
http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_moneyandgadgets/lifecoach/

And here are a couple of NPR commentaries I recorded a while back. You can listen online:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5536169
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5546809

A long-lost friend, found

2007-05-20T19:46:00.001-07:00

I want to share a little something that happened to me today because I just can't contain myself, I'm so goddamned giddy. A long-lost friend--one that I had completely lost touch with-- just Googled me, found my blog, and got in touch after about eight long years.
Over the years, I sent random emails to various news agencies where I thought my friend worked, asking if anyone knew where I could find her, if they could please forward my information to her. I knew she was working as a reporter for a major news agency, and that she was probably in China. That was all I had to go on, but I thought someone would know who I meant and put us in touch. Did I hear back?
Nope. Nada.
And then, a simple email in my Gmail in-box today. From Stephanie, asking if I remembered her. I wanted to strangle her (but of course, only figuratively).
Yeah, Google!
(Stephanie, those pictures below are for you.)

Some nods of appreciation for my work

2007-05-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

A couple of lovely bloggers have given my work a thumbs up.

I was reading The Greener Side, a great site about sustainable living, eco-consciousness, etc, and I found a plug for my own jewelry, for which I use a lot of recycled materials, there. Here it is.

I also got a nod at a jewelery and accessories blog called See Pretty Things. It's a very nice review, actually.

Thanks, guys! I'm linking to your websites in appreciation. Anyone else who wants a link, let me know. Maybe we can work something out ;)

Status Anxiety, me?

2007-05-16T19:49:00.000-07:00

There's a brilliant fellow by the name of Alain de Botton who writes about philosophy in a very accessible, charming manner, even putting his own love life (and heartbreak) under the microscope in the name of philosophical inquiry. He's got a theory (which he wrote a book about), that modern man is suffering from some major Status Anxiety, falling all over himself to keep up with the Joneses above and beyond all else. He says we are all terrified that we are in danger of failing to conform to the ideals of a success laid down by our society, partially because we rely on signs of respect from the world to feel tolerable to ourselves.
Gotta love him, right?
So I was thinking about this, and I was looking at my life these days, which is filled with small children and dirty laundry and sticks and stones and godforsaken bodily adornments, of all things, that we wear around our necks and wrists, and I thought to myself, where is my status anxiety? If I had any, I would be out in my best suit pounding the pavement with briefcase in hand, trying to convince the man to give me another shot at executive stardom.
The truth is, I'd rather pound on metal with a big mallet all day, dig my hands in clay and squish, bend wire to my will, or string rocks in pretty ways.
But there is some status anxiety, because I am anxious to use my gray matter in a real way again (it's been a few months), and I do wonder if my love of crafting means I've lost my powers of reason.
OK-did I just insult anyone there? Sorry. I do that sometimes.
More on this later, as I work out what exactly I'll end up doing with all my time. But in the meantime, I just might have to do some more freelancing again after all. Just to keep limber, you know. The lady doth protest too much, no?

BUT--On the jewelry front, I've got a date with some solder and bezel wire and the torch. Oh, and my kiln, some transparent enamel, and copper. I'm working on some new pendants. Time will tell when they're ready to see the light of day.

How the sale went

2007-05-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

I strung my little heart out, I struggled to come up with designs in a lower price range, I stocked up on Two Buck Chuck, and when it was all over, I had a pretty nice first home jewelry sale. A bunch of friends came out to see my jewelry displayed in the living room of my craftsman bungalow, on the fireplace mantel, on a low square coffee table, on necklace displays and metal racks of all kinds. In the end, I sold about $500 worth of jewelry, which was exactly my goal for the day. I should have gone with my initial goal of $1000, which I quickly scrapped as too ambitious. Bad idea. You do get what you ask for, it seems, at least some of the time.
The nice thing is I got to see what drew people (there was competition on a couple of items, and requests for items from my website by multiple buyers--alas, only the first one there got those particular necklaces and bracelets).
Here they are: my arts & crafts-inspired bracelet, bottom, and this necklace, which I call storm, at top.
I invited two friends to come out and sell their wares with me, the talented Linda Gamboa, creator of Counter Couture whimsical hand-stiched handbags and cushions, and Denver Bon, a great local photographer.
The major conclusion is: I had a great time, but I'm a crappy salesperson. I kept lowering my prices when I could tell someone really wanted something. It's hard to make money off your friends.
In the future, I think I'll stick to selling through boutiques, where someone else does the selling. Except for maybe a Christmas sale. Or is that just asking for trouble?

My first home sale

2007-04-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

I'm gearing up for my first home sale, which I'm staging with two friends, a purse designer and a photographer, both of whom will also be selling their wares. I'll have jewelry in all price ranges, from the slightly painful to the breezily affordable. It's the weekend before Mother's Day so I'm hoping friends and their friends will be feeling inspired to buy someone special a piece of jewelry. I have no idea what to expect, so it'll be an adventure. I could sell nothing, I could sell tons. We'll see. I'll post an update.

A necklace

2007-04-26T10:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a necklace I made from labradorite gemstones and sterling silver. I think the paisley clasp is adorable.

Backsliding

2007-04-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been getting the urge to write ABOUT crafters. But I'm taking a break from all that. You know, observing and commenting rather than participating. I'm spending all my time absorbing new techniques, new crafts, new methods of working with silver, with clay, with fabric and with leather. I'm a one-woman crafts university, the only student, with occasional instructors and lots of books and hands-on trial and error.
So I'm fighting the impulse to put on my journalist hat when I see a cool artist or jewelry designer or silversmith whose work I admire. I'm just enjoying. It's hard, but I'm going to stick to it for a while.

Hands

2007-04-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

For years I worked with words, stringing them together as a writer and reworking them as an editor. I sat in front of a computer for hours on end and configured text for newspapers, magazines and the web. My arms ached. My head ached. My heart... didn't feel so great all the time. My mind would wander and my fingers would itch for something more.
Don't get me wrong. I love being a journalist. I love having conversations with fascinating people about what they do and why they do it. But while I was busy talking about what people were doing and writing about it and editing stories about it, I wasn't really doing a whole lot myself. At least not artistically.
I have always had a burning desire to create. To make things. To bring new things into being.
So now I'm exploring all the different ways I can create beautiful things using my hands rather than just my mind and words.
There's stringing beautiful stones.
There's metalsmithing--forging, hammering, soldering, drilling and otherwise working with silver and copper.
There's glass/enamel work.
And there are the fiber arts. Embroidery on linen. Crochet.
I feel like a kid in Disneyland when I see a book about a new craft that I have already begun to look into. Felting? I could do that. Dying natural lambswool felt and forming it into a purse? I could do that! How fucking amazing.

The bead who loved me

2007-04-02T14:45:00.000-07:00

One day not too long ago, I was minding my own business, doing a little shopping at a big-box store, when a bead winked at me. I kid you not. Out of the blue. Just curled its finger at me and said, "Yoo-hoo."
I stopped. I picked up the box of beads it was in--it was wood and shell beads in a "natural" kit--and was hooked from that moment on.
I don't know what it was about that bead, but it wanted me, and it got me. I took it home and had a disasterous first attempt at beading. How the hell do you fasten your necklace when you're done beading? No one had bothered to tell me, and it didn't occur to me that there was something I had to learn how to do before I could string a simple shell and wood bead necklace. I tried tying knots in wire. Uh, no. I tried tying knots on that clear elastic stuff they give you for bracelets. Uh, no. They wouldn't hold. So now what?
Get a book, that's what.
And so began my newfound love.
Have I mentioned I make jewelry now? Full-time? I was an out-of-work journalist, just laid off from a magazine editing job, and now I make jewelry all day long. I bead. I play with silver. I have even begun to do emroidery!! Why, because I like it. No, I love it.
I have always been a fan of the Arts & Crafts movement--you know, William Morris, Gustav Stickley, etc, etc. But now I, too, make things. Simple things. Sloppy things. But they're getting better every day. Some are pretty good, actually. And I simply adore it.
After over a decade as a journalist chronicling the creative works of others in newspapers, magazines, and an the web, I finally stepped into the ring to do my own creative work. And I couldn't be happier. I'd love for you to check out my jewelry designs. Every day I learn a new technique, how to work with a new medium, how to solder better, how to hammer silver--it never ends. And every day I grow a little closer to my true self.
There's a bead who loved me, and I loved it back. This is the result:
http://www.yvettedoss.com