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Hi there! I am trying to get a blog post out before we leave for the Tucson Gem Show… It’s 0 degrees here right now so Tucson is going to be a bit warmer but it’s usually not super warm, not a warm ya up, vacation warm anyways. Everyone tells me to have a great time when we go and don’t get me wrong it’s great but we work out butts off hunting down the stones we want to use for the entire next year. Last year we actually looked through trays and trays of tourmaline for almost an entire day. We had our phones playing music for us and finally we couldn’t move our necks anymore so we decided to quit. These are some of the stones we look for in Tucson… Garnet, Ruby, Tanzanite, Rough Diamond, Natural/Rough Sapphire and Tourmaline to name a few.

Hey, besides Tucson, which is in the future… I want to say thank you for Christmas. It was wonderful. We made many wonderful things and The Party On The Prairie was the best one to date!!!!! If you came I hope you loved it and we do it because we love you!!! It is our customer appreciation party and we try really hard to make sure you know you are appreciated… and it’s just fun. So, thank you from the bottom of my heart for just showing up! Below is a diamond bracelet restyle for a customer and a friend.. who was at the party and picked up her bracelet that day. You know who you are and maybe catch ya later on the Florida/Bama shores!!!! I am pining away to go there, maybe this Spring when Winter is still dragging on here.

Now for some serious discussion. AI.

I was listening to a blog and reading some Instagram posts on AI. All of it is pretty amazing and I think it’s going to be fairly overwhelming… not only think but know it’s going to be overwhelming. I do find it somewhat telling that Virtual goggles/glasses have not done well. The sales for Virtual Reality gadgets are in the tank and have not taken off like predicted… AI is going to change that because it wont’ be weird and computer looking… it’s going to look real. We will not be able to tell reality from fiction. One artist I was listening to was accurately stating that AI art is plagiarism and she’s right (Molly Crabapple). If you ask AI, “Paint me a picture like Molly Crabapple”, and it collaborates instantly all the work that she has ever thought up…. it’s the ultimate in plagiarism ~ all your thoughts, all your effort, all YOURS….. and ‘click’ here is a computer vomiting it out on to a screen without any consequences? Yikes! Another Artists’ post on Instagram, they are planning on tossing in the towel, stating AI would just put him out of business. We are a few months away from telling a machine your dreams and it spitting it out in a plastic or maybe metal 3-D printed item. Does this sound appealing? I beg to differ. I can go to McDonalds (sorry McDonalds) and get food out of window in a matter of one minute that is a hamburger, a weird stick potato thing, and an apple pie but is actually those things? My own hamburg, my own potato stick thing and my own apple pie are 1,000xs better and actually real… So AI is McDonalds for Brains 😂😂😂😂😂 I also refuse to use AI to create ideas for me. Are you an artist without ideas???? That’s your job… to have ideas. Looking up someone else’s ideas or asking a computer to do it, is not creative thought. Asking a computer to make my handmade thing, with love is ridiculous. I think AI is NOT going to put Artists out of business. I am not useful any more unless I am doing this thing I love so much so does it even matter if AI is my competion? I would do what I am doing under a tree, living like a squirrel because it’s what I was made to do. It is what my brain, hands and heart were put on this Earth to do and I will be doing it until one of those doesn’t work any more. Bring on the AI. Question? Do you ever taste food made with love? Tastes better doesn’t it? We have emotional energy that gets passed through each of us, to each of us. How in Gods name is that going to be replaced with a robot? It’s not. McDonalds or Mas cookin? McDonalds art or art from an artists? McDonalds thoughts or actual flawed human thoughts that have been writhing in turmoil? hmmmmm ? I like humans, especially the flawed ones.

AI this… cuz this is love. A young couple, I have known the bride since she was just a little girl. I was honored to be able to make their rings. I hope they have many years together.

So we’re talking about why we do this? Above is why. We don’t do it to spit a piece of jewelry out of an electronic door. We don’t do it to look up endless styles of other people work and have a computer pop up an image. We do it because we were made to do it. We do it because it’s a part of our DNA. We do it because our energy best flows out of our hands into a torch handle, into a piece of metal, involving a stone, morphing, our brain, hands and heart into a physical object for you. Now, take that away from me. I would rather die. As an artist my very very very best work, I know each piece, I can’t recall even making it. It was like it just poured out of my hands and into its finished form and those pieces take place fast. They just roll out of your mind, out the ends of your finger tips like you are in a trance. One particular piece was a Coyamito Agate necklace (shown below). It’s one of my favorites… and a good customer owns it. I had the collection of stones for years and one night as I was closing up the studio I looked at them and knew what they needed to be, next thing I knew the piece was finished, I shut off the lights and went to bed and thought, “Where did that come from?” There are many theories consciousness/unconscious thought (where does thought come from?) good luck with that. I am just saying that my thoughts become wearable art. If I can’t do that then I am a goner and I want to be gone. The flip side of that…. is you. Guess what? You don’t want that either. You don’t buy jewelry from an artist because it’s cheap, easy, convenient, and spit out of a computerized door. You buy jewelry from an artist because you want something different. You want something with a human touch to it, with love, energy and flaws. You don’t want, a stamped out piece of bullshit from a slave labor market. So, thank you, you keep me alive.

One of the pieces I will never forget….

Human Squared / Talk about human… this is a set of 18k gold stacking rings… made with breastmilk.

Me just sizing a ring with a stone in it… That is why the flame is so big.. yikes!

I made this today 🙂 It is not online yet and this picture sucks cuz it’s with my phone… but this is one of those pieces… all stones sitting here and BAM! They just came together like magic. I don’t have this necklace online yet. If youre interest in it I can send more pics/on a person. It is going to be pretty expensive… 23 stones: text the studio 1-920-365-6341. The triangular stone at the back is a two way clasp, so the stones continue all the way around the neck. It’s gorgeous on!

These two are the cutest… Taz and Leo

Necklace made with a piece of coral that the customer found in the Caribbean on vacation. She just went back there and I told her to find some matching coral for earrings 🙂

Breaks? Do you need a break? I see this all the time.. just saw a post on creativity needs time… please wait, while I take a rest and drum up some creativity. Creative people need quiet and downtime breaks… etc.. things like this. Yes, people need breaks. All people do, creative or not. We all need a break, but do we? If you are taking a break, fine, if you need it, but really ask your self if you need it. Breaks create bad habits, not necessarily creativity. Ask yourself, “Am I making today count?” You only have so many days on Earth. I am 49 years old. I don’t have time for nonsense. I have a lot to learn, do, create and time is wasting away as I am “taking a break?” I was at workout class and one of fellas said it perfectly, “Breaks (brakes) are for cars.” 😂😂😂 I could not agree more. Breaks (brakes) are for cars. Most artists I know don’t have time for a break but they are always on a break. Are you afraid to succeed? GO! GO GET YOUR ART DONE!!!! DO MAKE GO!!!! #1 rule for an artist: keep a work schedule and stick to it. (it can be full time or part time just have a set schedule) #2 if you are not feeling creative have an entire list of other things to do on those days and do them… for example I will make chain, jump rings, earwires, head pins and have a stock pile of them #3 you work for yourself… would you hire yourself? #4 schedule your bullshit stuff (haircut) like you would if you worked an 8-5 job with no more than 2 weeks of vacation days a year. #5 yes take a vacation, if you can afford to take one or a staycation… book that time, work hard and look forward to that planned time off #6 take care of yourself with good people, good sleep, good food, some exercise and I hear people can survive on good coffee alone… hmmmm… I might be preforming that experiment right now but yes it makes me happy and yes…. drinking coffee is my mini vacation within every minute of every day 😂

Last but not least.. I wanted to share with you my Little Red Tractor… I have been shoveling for so long that I told my husband I just wouldn’t/couldn’t do it any more… This is a blessing. The cab is heated with a coffee cup holder which makes smile right down to the tips of my toes!!!! No more windy cold snow storms taking my face off!

Bye for now! Wish us luck gem hunting in Tucson, we need it! I will post some pics on Instagram/Facebook and send some pics in the next email. Love to you all and let’s look forward to the rest of 2024.