The Moment is Now

I spend so much time thinking about what next that I often don't notice what I am doing at the moment. I am working on relaxing my mind so I can be open to the flow. Seems like when I am creating something the hours in my studio fly by.

My creative process, great learning resources, and ways to help the planet by repurposing are the theme of this blog. You are about to enter "the world according to Jan." Hope you find it a-musing.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Wire Weaving Madness Brings Success

No posts for a long time because somehow summer doesn't seem the time to be sitting at the computer.  With the garden, sunshine and just  the wonderfulness of being outside, who wants to write or even read a blah, blah, blog.  Now the rains are upon us and the holiday festivals are beginning so here I am writing again.  Also, I went to a baptism for my great niece a couple of weekends ago and my sister commented that she checked my blog and I had not been writing anything.  So here I go again.

The summer festival season was really a downer this year.  Seems like after buying food no one had any money to spend on jewelry.  The Scandia Festival in Junction City was bloody hot and I am giving up on that fair.  On the upside, I decided to take my basket weaving skills and try my hand at wire weaving.  There is a really good website http://www.gailavira.com/tutorials/  that has free wire weaving tutorials.  I practiced the basic weaves and made a number of bracelets to sell.  I also bought a few of her tutorials through her Etsy shop and was busy each night madly wrapping wire.  The instructions of the tutorials are wonderful and I highly recommend this site if you want to expand your skills.

Unlike beading not everyone can or even would want to do wire weaving.  But for me, it is a meditative practice that helps me focus on the moment.  If  you lose your focus, you will be ripping out the weaving. One of the great things about wire wrapping is you can do it while sitting in front of the TV.  After completing several different projects, I  felt confident to weave this Art Clay Silver Face I made a couple of years ago.  It was just sitting on my bench waiting for an inspiration.  I called this piece Elf Prince and someone snagged it up right away at the Alpine Holiday Festival yesterday.  Nothing like "beginners luck" to inspire me to keeping on wrapping.