If men had wings and bore black feathers,

few of them would be clever enough to be crows.

- Rev. Henry Ward Beecher

Today after walking the beach, I came upon two of the most beautiful ravens. The raven is my favorite bird, and I always get overjoyed when I see one. This one in particular interacted with me and kept making direct eye contact. It was unnerving and beautiful at once. Then he moved closer and sat just in front of my car window making eye contact before flying away. I managed to catch some photographs of them, these raven friends who hung around and made my evening special and touched with the certain magic only crows can bring.

I’ve been so busy lately with the 5 million projects I have going on at once. Lately, I am overcome by the frantic feeling that comes with realizing that I will never be able to execute every single creative idea that pops into my head. Ironically, this realization propels me and pushes me to at least try. So, I am sitting in the middle of a heap of ideas, some executed and some not. Many abandoned and many of which have jumped ship and died….and of course, way too many laying in wait and bothering me to work some voodoo and bring them back from the dead.

I have been really hung up on the sea glass lately. I think primarily because the process of finding and transforming them is a very peaceful and cleansing one. Spending several days a week walking along the seashore and finding the most beautiful little pieces of glass is not something that I think I could abandon anytime soon. This week, I finally bought a Dremel to drill pendant holes in the glass. The thing scares me to death (I am not a fan of power tools that could potentially cause harm…and my balance and steadiness are not good at all!), but V has perfected the pendant drilling process, so she is really helping me out. I’ve also settled on hand making the bails out of tiny seed beads. I think it matches the style and the spirit of the pieces. Not to mention, I am tired of spending way too much money on pre-made silver or silver plated bails. The more “handmade” that goes into them, the better.

Of course, selling these are important too. I have a shop on Etsy, but I need to market to local boutiques and shops in order to have any degree of bill-paying success. This is where I get stuck because I end up splitting my energy in too many directions. If I started focusing on marketing the sea glass, I would never be able to devote my time to my art photography and the marketing of that. I manage to squeak by on my EBay and other auction sales, but I really want to move my life in the direction of being able to get by on handmade and art alone. The creating part is easy, and the marketing part is where I get stuck.

I’m also feeling a bit irritated that I have not done a photo shoot in so long. I was having such success with my art, and I dropped the ball so hard. I have not had a new series since the Resurrecting Ophelia series, which was way too long ago. Lately, I’ve been feeling so restrained as I realize that there is not enough time or enough me to do everything I want to do. I wish there were a way for me to discipline my time and give myself a schedule. I tried that once not too long ago, but it didn’t work. I thought I could work solely on the photography one week, solely on bill-paying auction stuff another week, and totally on handmade things the next week. It doesn’t work, because I cannot create or do anything unless the muse is there. If it’s forced, it’s not real and it won’t reflect in the result.

I’m off to the beach before it gets dark. Maybe an answer will come from the sea.

In the meantime, here are two pieces that I made last night:

I also found a way to upcycle a lot of small silver plated bails that I have. They are too small and flimsy for pendants, but they hang the smaller pieces from a ribbon very well. So, I am using them in conjunction with the smaller, thinner sea glass pieces and offering a line of wine bottle charms. I wanted to have a series of items with a lower price point, so it looks like these are it.

I also have more new pendants posted in the Sea Glasserie.

I’ve started my newest Etsy shop. It’s for my new little sea glass inventions.

I’m fortunate to live in an area with some amazing beaches, and this new venture is forcing me to visit them more often. I am not a beach, tan or sunshine fan (the fact that some people actually “lay out” in the sun is astonishing to me.), so I usually go in the early mornings. This works out, because the tides have rolled out a whole blanket of untouched treasures in the dawn to early afternoon hours. I’ve always enjoyed scouring the beach, but now that I have actually found a little art form to project on my finds, it’s giving me more of an impetus to get out there.

I love sea glass and sea pottery. They are like little gifts from the ocean. Scouring the shore for perfectly smoothed shards of glass, china, pottery and who-knows-what is such a meditative practice. Not to mention, I have such a huge love of all things old, worn and ancient…as well as the “treasure hunting” aspect of the process. Last week I found a HUGE pottery shard with a fairytale looking wolf carved into it. Judging from the design and pottery, it’s probably from the 1920s. When I finally get around to learning wirewrapping, it’s going to make a really stunning piece of jewelry.

I also love this process because with the near extinction of glass bottles, sea glass is a dying breed. I like being able to take something that is washed ashore and to give it new life. I’ve mainly been experimenting with these ghostly images of vintage women, because I like the effect that is achieved. They look like little ghosts of the ocean trapped in glass.

The ones I am posting here are the transparent ones. They tend to look very three dimensional in person because of the nature of the glass and the dimensional finish that I use on the front and back. I have other ones that are opaque, or part opaque and part transparent. I am just experimenting with different textures and images.

One thing I want to change is the hanging process. I don’t like that the bail can be seen through the glass. This week I hope to practice drilling, this way I can have a drilled hole with an attachment rather than a n adhesive bail.

The Sea Glasserie is at http://www.seaglasserie.etsy.com !

I must have some sort of creative disorder, and it’s only getting worse as I get older. I find that lately, it is at it’s full boil, and I have been taking on more projects than I could ever possibly follow through to completion. I just have all of these ideas in my head, and I throw myself full force into so many of them at once, that I find myself ridden with anxiety and stress of my own making. I end up dropping things and picking new things up so frequently that nothing can move ahead. In order to fixate on the creative-whim-of-the-moment, I end up dropping all of the other projects that I’ve worked so hard to build up. I want to channel all of my passion into one outlet, but I have always found it very difficult to do this. As a result, I have never really been able to stick with something long enough to develop it into a permanent fixture in my life. I want to do everything, but I am only one person. I am perpetually possessed by a bunch of different muses who all want to do different things, and it’s impossible to tell them no. It’s always been this way, except that now there are more of them.

For the past few months, I have completely abandoned my self portrait work. This makes me mad, because it was such a passion of mine, and I was really starting to get the work appreciated and accepted into and by some really wonderful situations. But when I turn my energy and passion away from something, it ends immediately. There have been few opportunities and acknowledgments of my work lately, because I turned of the switch. I stopped putting energy on it and it ended. I’ve totally forgotten about it. I want to go back and turn the switch on again, but there are too many other inspirations pulling me in other directions.

Last week, I was completely obsessed with craft-related projects, and was particularly stuck on making Scrabble tile pendants. I must have made 200 or more of them. I thought it was something I would continue to do, but now it is completely out of my system and I have no desire to make any more. Thank God for Etsy, where I will just keep them listed for 6 months or so and just hope that at least half of them sell (hell, if I can sell 20 I’ll be happy). Now, I am hung up on making these ghostly images out of sea glass, and I have been making these day and night since Friday. On top of this, I am trying to learn to wire wrap jewelry, and I want to make theatrical masks out of paper mache. I also am trying to compile a small book of poetry. Not to mention, I find something nearly every day that I want to make, learn, or start. I need to STOP. I have terrible sleeping issues because of all of this. Lately, I have been sleeping about 2 hours a day, and often I will go 24 hours or more without sleep. Since Sunday, I have been a total craft zombie…even though I have been suffering the flu.

Obviously I have some weird obsessive creative/art karma. However, thinking back I realize that this sort of thing also runs in my family. My grandfather was an insomniac because of his inspirations, and I remember that he would often stay up for days on end composing and recording music and writing stories. Sometimes he would record an entire album in one night. He was also fond of inventing things, and this also contributed to many of his creativity-induced insomniatic sprees.

I feel like maybe I should just drop everything and force myself back into conceptual photography mode. Or at least limit myself to the photography and one other thing….like the sea glass project, for example. Oh, then there’s the faux desserts. I might stick with them too, just because they are a good niche and can be developed for more income. I’ve just realized that I’m spinning out of control and getting unreasonable. I cannot possibly do all of the things I am compulsively pulled to do and keep my sanity in order. Lately, I just do not feel big enough to house the impulses and inspirations that bombard me. I know that I am swimming through an illusion (temporal existence), and the water around me sometimes looks so beautiful I can drown trying to taste it thoroughly. I cannot possibly learn, do, or create every single thing that I feel passionate about.

This week I have been salivating over so many of the deliciously brilliant handmade items on Etsy. So far, I think I have spent everything I’ve made on Etsy ON Etsy. I’ve made myself a promise to try and buy handmade wherever possible, and this won’t be hard to do with all of the incredible handmade offerings out there…from clothing and decor to soap and tea and everything in between. Buying handmade is just another way for me to drop out of the loop of my big box consumer society and support independent sellers who are trying to make a living off their craft. There is no reason for me to drop money in the machine, when I can get BETTER quality clothing and supplies from actual human beings. What I love about Etsy is the absolutely eclectic selection of offerings. My tastes lean toward the unusual, and I have found so many things lately that I could not find anywhere else.

Here are some recent finds, that I’ve fallen in love with:

Elegant Victorian inspired black lace neck corset

by kvodesign

(visit her shop for more breathtaking designs)

Victorian-Civil War-Goth-Riding Top Hat

TopsyTurvyDesign is my absolute FAVORITE seller, and I am gearing up to buy one of her hats

And I am head over heels for Gobbolino hats. I am especially mad about this one…

AMERICAN INDIAN FAUX FUR GOBBOLINO HAT

I recently placed an order with Lollibomb, and her products are great. She started off small, and her products are HUGE now.

I bought this last week from sweetheartsinner. I love her jewelry.

I REALLY am in love with this skirt, even though it is out of my affordable range at the moment. This designer does amazing work. Click to visit her shop.

Jabberwocky — patchwork skirt

THIS is fantastic…

Chai Tea Kit

from purposedesign

(and her whole shop is awesome)

I love altered art, and there are some wonderfully unique pieces to be found. Some of my favorites…

FORGET ME NOT Altered Tin Keepsake Box SHRINE

by glimmeringprize

Altered Art Treasure Box Roses ACEO collage

by bohemiart

I will end with one of my FAVORITE ARTISTS, artandghosts. I first discovered her work on Flickr, and recently saw that she has a shop on Etsy. I am madly in love with every single one of her images.

Penny Farthing by artandghosts

Miette (first version) by artandghosts

**** A note to my dear friend Sibyllae (if you are reading): You would knock every aromatics and mystical wares seller right off the map with your magickal creations (hint, hint). ****