Garden Grows Wild

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Foxglove next to my workshop

About three months ago, I wrote a brief blog entry rejoicing at the first little bit of color (other than our year round green) in our local forests. The post was about the first salmon berry blossoms, and I call it A Little Color (other than green!) is Nice. Well look what I have next to my workshop now— Foxglove galore!

Very pretty, but also very poisonous. From the Wikipedia: "The entire plant is poisonous (including the roots and seeds), although the leaves of the upper stem are particularly potent, with just a nibble being enough to potentially cause death."

It's not all bad, though. First, it is simply beautiful. Many of the plants stand around seven feet tall. Secondly, the bees just go nuts for these blossoms, as do the humming birds. And finally, while poisonous it is also it is used for making a heart medication, digitalis.

It's worth both looking at the flowers from a distance where they create a landscape of their own, and close up as the details are pretty neat.

New Smaller Works

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Beach glass inspired cobalt blue suncatcher
with three handcrafted copper chimes

A month or so ago, I realized that my new website could give me the option of placing a few less expensive works online. That has not been an option with eBay, for me, for quite sometime, both because of the fees, and because of the US dollar now being worth less than the Canadian.

See, back in the good ol' days (yes grampa), I could put something for, say, $65 on eBay, and when I traded in those US dollars they would magically turn into $100. Now I would get maybe $60.

Anyway, people really seem to appreciate having some less expensive works available, and I suddenly realized that almost everything on both my under $75 page and my under $100 page was marked sold. That's a drag, if you are shopping!

So I've just made some neat new works this week, and this morning got them all put on the site. Fresh start. Enjoy!

Windsails, Cold Forged Copper

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Cold forged spiral windsail on my mixed-media
beach glass inspired kaleidoscope wind chime.
See all my work on my website: www.coastchimes.com

Sometimes I feel almost as though I am verging on craft rather than art. This happens primarily when I make a series of some standard popular wind chime, like my kaleidoscope style. I know crafters, and they are perfectly happy making the same thing day in and day out, year after year. I consider what I do art, because there is no way I can stand still and just let a design be. I always need to play with it, from small changes to big.

That's what got me working on my cold forged copper windsails: something different, something that changes the whole look of the wind chime.

It's fun to play with elements, to explore. For me, change is not just good, but essential.

Windsails

Click on the image to see it largerNew Windsails!
This mixed media beach glass inspired wind chime
is this weeks (june12) featured sale item
on my website.

Usually $187.50 -- now $145

For a long time I have been planning to design some new style windsails. Nothing at all wrong with the tung nut oiled red cedar sails I have been using for years. But I thought it would be fun to explore some other directions. I've cut a tone of cedar windsails-- time for a bit of copper.

So I have several new styles made from cold forged copper, and I plan to develop a few more in coming days. I think the ones I have made so far are pretty jazzy. I won't be discarding the cedar style, though-- those are tradition.

Iron Chimes, Wind Chimes

Pacific Natural Beach Stone
Smooth and Rounded
With Heavy Iron Chimes ~ Beach Stone Clapper
Details Here (my website)
(you may also click on the picture to see it larger)

The more I make, see, hear these large iron chimes, the more I like them. And I started out really liking them! They are heavy, solid, sound absolutely beautiful, and they look gorgeous. What more can I say?

Well, recently I started a Craigslist campaign. This has worked pretty well. I've had for the first time quite a few people coming to my home to see my work. I never advertised or pushed for local sales before, so this is a new experience. Everyone so far has really liked what they see and hear, and everyone has bought at least one work, and often several.

It's enjoyable meeting customers face to face. And interestingly enough, most often they choose the rusty iron chimes. Of course, copper is terrific— very beautiful. But there is something about the iron that is truly stunning. And they are so heavy, they have a nice, solid feel, too.