Finishing or Sanding Adverse

3:00 AM - A load waiting to be sanded and polished

The last few days have been very busy ones. The classes at Seymour Art Gallery this week-end were fun and well attended. Thanks to the organizers and participates ( a couple of you were both.) I am looking forward to more classes in that lovely setting.

And if the rain lets up, and even if it doesn't, the garden calls at this time of year and I must attend. Get my outdoor gardening fix.

This does not mean that I have not been making things. My problem is in finishing things. I have decided that the solution is to finish things in the middle of the night when I can't sleep, which is quite often. I once read that if you can't sleep you should not do anything you enjoyed, like reading , sewing, or making things with polymer clay. The suggestion was to do something like cleaning the grout between the bathroom tiles. The equivalent for me is sanding and polishing. It is not that it is such a loathsome job, it is just that I don't like doing it. I am not sure at has to do with committing to inventory and packing way items or I just find it too boring.

Out of the Farmers's Market

Rain Free Inside Granville Island Market

I spent the week end making a decision. I have decided to cancel my Farmer's Market dated for Vancouver this year. I was waiting till I found out how Granville Island worked out for me before I made this decision. This will give me a year of not living in fear of to many rainy weekends. People will go to a rainy farmers market for carrots and bread, but they seldom stop for craft, besides I love Granville Island and I see many of the same farmer's market customers there.

So far, I will still be doing Ladner Village Markets. That will give me 5 out door markets in the Lower Mainland this summer, and I will still be going to Vancouver Island for Filberg Festival.

Some times I have to remember that just because I can do markets, it doesn't mean I should.

I will enjoy going to the Farmers Market as a customer this summer.

Scrapes into Kaleidoscope

   What to do when you wake up at three in the morning and you want to be a quite as a mouse? If I was good I would go and file papers because that would not reward me for getting up so early, but some times I just have to play with clay. The goal here was to clean up my table. Part of cleaning is it get rid of scrapes. What better excuse for a mini kaleidoscope a cane.

Bead Boxes

The tip of the beady iceberg

After a day of sorting I have 13 boxes of beads to sell on Etsy. I am hoping that someone can benefit from the hours that I took making these beads. It is always exciting to see what use others use my beads for.

I know that many of the people that look at this blog are making beads themselves, but I thought that I would blog about my beady build up. Perhaps it is a cautionary tale for other bead makers or maybe there is someone out there that needs more beads.

A Day of Sorting

Trillium and Dogwood.

Not a lot to report today. I spent the day sorting old beads at the studio. Sanding and polishing some of the things I produced over the week was the high light of the day.

I have been trying my hand a some of our native wild flower.  The Dogwood is British Columbia's provincial flower.

And yes I do live on the Trans Canadian Trail after all.

On the Trail Again

This way to the Trans Canada Trail?

Monday finds me working at home again.

When I walked over to the studio this morning I noticed a sign pointing to the  Trans Canada Trail that looked for all the word like it was pointing to our modest little street. I am not sure that we are on the Canada trail but I will have to look into it. We are on the bike way and I guess that is cool enough.

While I was at Granville Island Market this time I did a lot of production work, which means that I have a lot of little bits to sand today. Production aside, I let myself cut loose Sunday afternoon and start a batch of bowls. I will have them all finished when I return to Granville Island at the end of the month.

Sunday's treat but not near complete.

One of the World's Best Commutes

Yesterday I walked from home to Granville Island. It must be among the world's best commuted. Once across Main Street and away from Science world, the traffic noise becomes a distant roar and I get a whiff of West Coast spring forest, roses blooming along the seawall and a hint of creosote that takes me back to childhood memories of playing on the docks.

We are having spectacular weather at the moment. I will walk to the market again this morning and bask in my luck to be living here on the West Coast in this May.  

One of the other artists in my *pod is Michelle Vulama. Michelle finds the most wonderful things in rocks and brings them to the surface for all to enjoy.   "Though her work is diverse in form and content, she is chiefly recognized for her original and distinct style of rock-painting."

* the artists at " Granville Island are arranged in groups of 4 or 6. It is a delight to see what other artists are doing. There is an energy that one misses working in the studio alone.