OCEAN WAVES

LET'S HAVE SOME FUN!

LET'S JUMP THE WAVES!

The seashore resort you visit may have a calm flat ocean. The beautiful tropics have that kind of water. Smooth, calm, warm and very turquoise.



Here in New Jersey (a great vacation spot) our ocean is more challenging. More greenish, cooler, and the waves....two to three feet....are a thrill ride! You dive under them, you jump over them, you body surf them in! Wow! You play and you enjoy!



Why not plan to do a little wave-jumping now in your imagination, using this jewelry as inspiration. This jewelry was made a stone's throw from the Atlantic Ocean in New Jersey (the "seashore state" with 127 miles of gorgeous, inviting beaches). Look and you'll see the beautiful waves in the designs of the clay pieces. Those waves are not painted on but are the colors of the polymer clay itself, blended, then fired to make it firm and permanent.

View, jump, surf, enjoy!





And visit Art on an Island for more!

Hey! Theater lovers!

Recognize these faces? If you love theater you do. And besides, I wrote about them last week (scroll down).
Sure! You’re looking at none other than Comedy and Tragedy....those classic theater masks from way back.
Ancient times done up contemporary and almost abstract. There’s a reason for the modernization. Those original guys were so goofy-looking you wouldn’t want to wear them on your lapel no matter how much you loved theater. And I’m a jewelry-maker so I want you to look good!
HOWEVER!.....if you’d like the full and interesting story of ancient theater and its masks, etc., take just a moment to check out this great site:
http://http:www.crystalinks.com/greektheater.html
and, at this site you can see more versions of the shapes: http://www.shakespearesden.com/cotrma.html


Now here’s the story about those guys up above in the photo!

The top two...pendant on the left and pin on the right...are sterling silver pins made for me by my talented husband, following drawings I had made on paper.
We both loved theater dearly, seeing many Broadway shows on the real Broadway as well as all the shows presented by the inimitable Surflight summer theater in Beach Haven, NJ. and I thought it would be cool to show that love by wearing a better-looking, contemporary version of those time honored symbols of theater.

Well....I'm a designer...so I designed.

Now, working in polymer clay, a great medium for jewelry, I've made the stylized masks again in several different versions. They're available as a pin or as a pendant from my Website: artonanisland.com.

Also on that site, check out the info about live theater here, on this island, a place you may be tempted to vacation!

 

A Starving Artist

His name was Rob and he was about 19, 20, thin, quiet, shy, and looking totally different from the rest of us professionals in the design/fashion field. But he was one of the most totally creative, original persons I have ever known.

In an era of short hair, clean shaven faces and immaculate clothing Rob had long straggly hair, wore sandals even in the cold of winter, and clothes that barely warmed him, cut out of maybe old blankets and worn like ponchos. But he was one of the most totally creative, original persons I have ever known.

Our lives only touched for a few months in a large department store in Baltimore where I designed the windows and Rob was hired for a short time in the interior display department...I guess because he looked "arty". Store personnel were shook up by this oddity but a few of us soon learned that he continually created art....sculptures, jewelry....from scraps, depris, yes, junk, that he found in the street, gutters, trash cans....wherever. Bits of metal, plastic, wood, glass, bone. Anything that had promise. Promise that most of us can't possible see. But Rob had the eyes of an artist, and they are different eyes.

He wore the necklaces that he created....wild and wonderful....because they were his children. But soon the super-smart, elegant, high-fashioned buyers in the store were buying his work. And he hadn't even been selling. The buyers of coats, of sportswear, of dresses, etc., smart, savvy, high-fashioned people who were tired of the same old, same old, were buying Rob's funky art work. Wow!

What a lesson. Last week I wrote about a shocking event in my life, my childhood..."A sad story". Scroll down and read. How, in the French classic story a young woman wasted her life because she needed to show off by having "fine things"....expensive jewelry and the like. We live in an age of materialism, where people want to show off with expensive things. How is that working?

Rob taught us....some of us....that art is what the dictionary says it is: "An esthetically pleasing and meaningful arrangement of elements, as words, sounds, colors, shapes, etc.". Funk and Wagnalls College Dictionary. Check out your own dictionary. Then go to http://www.artonanisland.com/ and see if it fits!

Art on an Island

That's it...ART on an ISLAND!! http://www.artonanisland.com/.

That's the address where you'll get all the info about THIS art and THIS island.


The art is working in polymer clay to form pieces interesting enough to use to create jewelry. Funky designs. Designs that show the waves and swirls of the ocean and the curves of the sand dunes. Because you can do that beautiful nature stuff with clay. You can't do that with strung beads or setting gemstones. Clay almost has a life of its own and it can take on the grace and movement of nature....the nature it finds in its own environment. View and enjoy those designs at http://www.artonanisland.com/.

And the environment in this case is an island 18 miles long but only a few blocks wide six miles off the coast of New Jersey. Yes! New Jersey of all places! But not the Jersey you've been hearing about! If you've never been here you can't picture it. No problem! For a yummy description and some great pictures go to http://www.artonanisland.com/this-island/ and do some clicking. Be surprised!

How's this for atmosphere: I live in on old (over 100 years) Victorian cottage here and when I look east I see the dune grasses swaying in the ocean breeze. And when I look west there may be sails gliding by on a bay that is six miles wide. And beyond that? Over the shimmering bay? Wetlands, pinelands....a dotting of small towns. Not what you thought you'd see a two-hour drive south of New York City or a one-hour drive north of glittering Atlantic City. Right? For me, the sun comes up over the Atlantic Ocean, golden on the waves. And it sets, sparkling into the bay. And the ocean plays its lullabye in the stillness of the night.

IF THERE'S A CHANCE YOU MIGHT BE LUCKY ENOUGH TO VACATION HERE SOMEDAY..Check out the addresses above! Do the clicking and enjoy! And you talented people who do arts and crafts, check out The Clay Store at http://resources.theclaystore.com/polymer-clay-jewelry. They make your creative juices flow!

A Sad Story (or, an enlightening one!)

My own particular taste in jewelry may have started when I was in 4th or 5th grade and a classic story was read to our class. I think it knocked my socks off!

The Necklace" is a short story by Guy de Maupassant first published in 1884 in a French newspaper. The story has become one of Maupassant's most popular works and is well known for its twist ending.


"The Necklace" tells the story of a middle class couple, Monsieur and Madame Loisel, who are invited to a distinguished party. Madame Loisel, however, is hesitant to attend, complaining that "there's nothing so humiliating as looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women." In addition to acquiring a new dress, at her husband's suggestion she borrows a necklace from her friend, Madame Forestier, who had become rich since they were schoolgirls together. She chooses an impressive diamond necklace and attends the party. Distressingly, Madame Loisel somehow loses the necklace during the evening.

Monsieur and Madame Loisel decide they must buy an identical diamond necklace from the jeweler as a replacement for Madame Forestier. Unable to bear the shame of this, they do not inform Madame Forestier of the change and spend the next ten years of their lives paying off the debts from the new necklace, which costs them thirty-six thousand francs. Both Monsieur and Madame Loisel are forced to take on extra jobs and live in abject poverty. At the end of the ten years, looking old and shabby, Madame Loisel is finally able to tell her old friend of the change. Madame Forestier is shocked and informs Madame Loisel that her original necklace was, in fact,a mere imitation and not real diamonds, "...worth at the very most five hundred francs!... ".

My heart ached for the plight poor Madam Loisel put herself in and I think I remember Madam Forestier's words as being: "But my dear....it was only paste!" Those words put me in a state of shock for some time! I've always felt sorry for people who "needed" expensive and impressive things and wonder if that story did a number on the rest of my class also.

"Paste" was a synthetic material from which jewelry could be made at the time and it must have looked like the real thing. Only the loss was the tragedy, not the paste. Just think! Until it was lost humble material did what was needed and presented beauty and brought happiness! Interesting.

theatre

Recognize the faces on this pendant? They are the classic theatre masks, comedy and trajedy, done in a contemporary style. Want to know how important theatre is on a small island 6 miles off the coast of New Jersey? Then click on: http://www.artonanisland.com/ and then on Other Artists in the menu bar. Amazing!!!

I have two great interests....art of all kinds and the Jersey Shore! My own art is funky jewelry but there's loads of other types of art here on this island just of the coast of New Jersey!

I'll be passing on loads of info....and pictures!... on these subjects but just now, for starters check out this gallery where my jewelry in on display along with some really terrific artwork! It's the Solstice Gallery at: http://web.mac.com/solsticegallery/iWeb/site/Home.html.

Enjoy! More later!