The Summer of Twenty Twelve

It's hard to believe the summer of 2012 is over. My travels took me Oregon & California where I did some rock hounding with Jeff Guild. Later I headed to the San Juan Islands to do some crabbing & fishing with Jim Dunn. It was nothing short of a miracle that I landed the king salmon. It was nearly stolen off my line by a harbor seal.  After that I managed to get over to Montana where I did some Sapphire mining. Then I spent time at Coeur d' Alene Lake where I did a little fishing and and hanging out with my family. Oh, and I turned 60 this summer.

My Mother's 97th Birthday

Yesterday our family celebrated my mother's 97th birthday at the Cedar's Restaurant in Coeur d' Alene. No that's not a typo, Marien is really is 97.

Please...Forget Me Nots

New Wind Chimes & More

I've designed and created some new obsidian wind chimes using ceramics instead of the using driftwood or copper. It adds a splash of color to the obsidian needles. They have such a beautiful glass sound to them.

 

I also made another birdhouse, this time for myself .  It finally warmed up enough recently where I could get back out in the studio and do some pottery. It's wonderful to have springtime again.

New Baby Sea Otter

The Seattle Aquarium has a new baby sea otter. It's just too cute for words. The mother Aniak, gave birth to a baby girl Jan. 14th. The video show the sea otter pup nursing as Aniak floats on her back. It's well worth the trip to the Aquarium to see the new addition.

The Jeweler's Bench

It's been sometime since I've made any jewelry. So with the cold, wet weather & the fact I was snowed in for a week, it was time for me to return to the jewelry bench. I cut some new stones & created some settings using reticulated silver. The pieces with stones are set with sterling silver bezel. Here is a little description of the various stones in the photos. Larimar is a light blue gemstone which comes from the Dominican Republic, an island in the Caribbean. Morrisonite jasper, with wonderful patterns and various colors, comes from Idaho & is getting hard to come by. Botswana agate is from Africa & has such beautiful lines.