Work in progress 1

Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. ~ Roald Dahl ~

In my last post, I showed you the diverse treasures I discovered at the flea market. This is one of the pieces I am currently working with. An art nouveau style key hole escutcheon made of brass is the starting point for what will become a necklace. I have been playing with various colour schemes and have finally decided green and violet will be the colours. They seem so in tune with spring (which I wish was not so far away). Now I will decide how the focal piece will be accented by the glass beads. This means trying different combinations of bead stringing, wire wrapping etc.
I will post more pictures as the piece develops.

The flea market

He got out. The inner critic, I mean. Asking me who I think could be interested in what I have to say.
That is just like him – always knows just where to stab with his pointy remarks. Suddenly, I had no idea what I was doing. Why do I want to keep a blog? Who could be interested in any of my ideas, thoughts? What should I write about?
I have been avoiding even the thought of writing …

But, enough already. I am going to give it another try. Ignore him – as best I can. It really isn’t easy to break a life long habit.
Even if he should be right and nobody is interested, I will continue, because I am doing this for myself.

I was at the flea market this morning. I love to go to the flea market. The anticipation is just exquisite. What treasure will I find today? Have I mentioned that I am a notorious collector? I even love to visit the flea market when I really don’t have any money to spend. I love the atmosphere, love to watch the people there, pick up snatches of conversation (which can sometimes be quite hilarious) and just see all those beautiful objects. There is the whole world in a relatively small area. Furniture, paintings, photographs, vintage linens and clothing, household items, garden accessories, books, appliances, junk and junque, tools of all sorts, jewellery – the list could go on forever. It is fantastic!!!
At the moment, I am sort of concentrated (as much as that is possible for someone who collects and collects …) on vintage jewellery (or just parts of vintage jewellery), watch parts and odd bits and pieces. It takes me longer to look around, because I spend so much time poking around in little boxes and bowls and what have you, to see if I can find something that will inspire me.


These are some of the pieces I found today.

Sometimes I come home feeling like I have found a treasure. Of course, there are days when I don’t find anything I would like to have (at least not for the price that was asked). But I do usually find something. I hope to show you what I have created from these vintage treasures soon.

The journey's beginning

A pheasant has been visiting the bird feeding area in the back yard lately.

I have always loved to create. And I have always been certain that anything I create is not good enough. So, for a long time, my creativity lay dormant or found its way into channels that I did not judge so severely.
Last year, I found myself at a point where I could no longer put the desire to create on the shelf “for later”. What if later never arrives? I believe that we all have messages to share through our creativity. I was beginning to worry that I might never share my messages. My inner critic has always been my greatest obstacle. I suppose everyone has one. Mine is very selfconfident, unlike myself, and very harsh in the criticism of everything I do. I have decided to ignore him as well as I can (which he doesn’t approve of, as you can imagine) and to just go ahead and try.
These last 9 months have been an adventure. I have discovered a whole new world! So many creative people are out there …
I started making jewellery; which is an old passion of mine. I have also reactivated my painting and started with new approaches, such as collage. Allowing myself to be inspired by the artists I have encountered in the numerous books that have found their way into my life, learning new techniques and just creating for the fun of it. I am learning and learning.