What I Made Today - Hammered Brass Bracelets with Charms

I've been teaching non artists to solder simple nickel, brass, and sterling silver rings this week.

In between classes, I soldered and hammered ten brass bracelets that I joined in fives with a small soldered jump ring. I added the charms later. Yes, brass is the poor man's gold, but I love how the hammered brass catches and reflects the light.

The bracelet are for a friend, but I intend to make five set, at the very least, for myself.

Rapidwrite - September 7, 2010 1:19 A.M.

It is not the darkness that is to be feared. It is the sound of darkness. Each of us lie seperately in our own darkness, listening to its low rumble fill our ears. Here in my own darkness I listen to the voice filling empty space and think to run, but know the voice is constant, ever present, that there is no escaping it, just as there is no escaping the face in the mirror. The bones inside this body hold the knowledge of all that has been or ever will. This, the darkness knows. This the darkness must speak, the words spiraling into the soft coil of our ears, spinning, insisting, until they are heard.

prompt:
Mary Olver poems -
Wild Geese
White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field
The Kookaburras

How to Deal with a Difficult Situation - Strategy Four: Disguise Yourself

ImagineStudio.etsy.com

If all else fails, disguise yourself so that no one recognizes you. This will buy you a little time, and incidentally, may be fun, although, there is a possibility you just might create more difficulties for yourself and then you'll have to start all over again with strategy one.

A caution: Use judgement when choosing a disquise. Wearing a costume or a mask into a public place, unless it's Carnival or Halloween, is going to cause problems. Think about pinning your hair under a hat and wearing dark glasses, instead.

How to Deal with a Difficult Situation - Strategy Three: Carry the Weight

Carry That Weight - Edison Rex edisonrex.etsy.com

If denial or power animals fail you, retreat.

It's probably better to just sit with the problem, so get out your favorite comforter and curl up on the couch and think deep thoughts, examine your issue from all angles to the point it feels that one more thought just might crush you.

Don't you dare do anything to feel better. Stay away from the ice cream in the freezer, do not go shopping, stop channel surfing or any kind of activity that distracts you from your problem. Just sit there and take it.

Do pet the dog and be kind to those who live with you. No need for everyone to suffer because you're miserable.

More than likely, you'll carry the weight until you decide you don't need it. For all our sake's, let's hope that's soon.

How to Deal with a Difficult Situation - Strategy Two: WWPBD?

Pink Bunny by Nicole FitzGibbon NicoleFitzGibbon.etsy.com

What Would Pink Bunny Do?

If denial or simply putting aside today's troubles for tomorrow, doesn't work for you, another fine strategy is to look to our animal friends for answers.

Today I chose rabbit, a.k.a. Pink Bunny, as my guide. Perhaps it seems primeval to look to animals, especially a bunny, for answers, well, you would be correct: Psychoanalyst Carl Jung made extensive use of primeval symbolism in understanding humanity

A quick google search will provide an avalanche of information. I typed in 'rabbit symbolism" and found that bunnies range from the sacred to the profane.

Research an animal that appeals to you and learn how its positive and negative aspects may serve you with your present dilemma.

I culled the following from Terri Windling's The Symbolism of Rabbits and Hares:

In many mythic traditions, these animals were archetypal symbols of femininity, associated with the lunar cycle, fertility, longevity, and rebirth. But if we dig a little deeper into their stories we find that they are also contradictory, paradoxical creatures: symbols of both cleverness and foolishness, of femininity and androgyny, of cowardice and courage, of rampant sexuality and virginal purity.

In one old Chinese legend, Buddha summoned the animals to him before he departed from the earth, but only twelve representatives of the animal kingdom came to bid him farewell. He rewarded these twelve by naming a year after each one, in repeating cycles through eternity. The animal ruling the year in which a child born is the animal "hiding in the heart," casting a strong influence on personality, spirit, and fate. Rabbit was the fourth animal to arrive, and thus rules over the calendar in the fourth year of every twelve. People born into the Year of the Rabbit are said to be intelligent, intuitive, gracious, kind, loyal, sensitive to beauty, diplomatic and peace-loving, but prone to moodiness and periods of melancholy

In Egyptian myth, hares were also closely associated with the cycles of the moon, which was viewed as masculine when waxing and feminine when waning. Hares were likewise believed to be androgynous, shifting back and forth between the genders—not only in ancient Egypt but also in European folklore right up to the 18th century. A hare-headed god and goddess can be seen on the Egyptian temple walls of Dendera, where the female is believed to be the goddess Unut (or Wenet), while the male is most likely a representation of Osiris (also called Wepuat or Un-nefer), who was sacrificed to the Nile annually in the form of a hare.

In Greco-Roman myth, the hare represented romantic love, lust, abundance, and fecundity. Pliny the Elder recommended the meat of the hare as a cure for sterility, and wrote that a meal of hare enhanced sexual attraction for a period of nine days. Hares were associated with the Artemis, goddess of wild places and the hunt, and newborn hares were not to be killed but left to her protection. Rabbits were sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, and marriage—for rabbits had “the gift of Aphrodite” (fertility) in great abundance. In Greece, the gift of a rabbit was a common love token from a man to his male or female lover. In Rome, the gift of a rabbit was intended to help a barren wife conceive. Carvings of rabbits eating grapes and figs appear on both Greek and Roman tombs, where they symbolize the transformative cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

How to Deal with a Difficult Situation - Strategy One - Attitude

blueskycloud.etsy.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/ralexandra/sets/

Attitude is everything.

No, this is not the typical Pollyanna solution where you think happy thoughts and your problems will dissolve into pink cotton candy air. Nor is it the standard realist mantra that you cannot control what is happening, that you can only control your reaction to what is happening.

Whatever. What if you are faced with barbarian invasion chaos? Pink thoughts will not stave off a barbarian horde. Nor will reacting calmly or logically. Yes, there are instances when both of these strategies will suffice, but in the majority of difficult situations, you really must paint yourself blue and go berserk.

Yes, attitude can be everything. But not today.

My solution for dealing with the current difficult situation is to go into full denial and just not worry about it, today. My mantra for the day is: Why Worry!

Exclamation. Not a question mark.

I'll think happy thoughts and focus on what is in my power to control...tomorrow.

Why Worry!

Rapidwrite - September 2, 2010 1:19 P.M

Hajif and Maufouz knocked on the door of my chest and asked for entry, assuming they would be granted their request, because of thier twinned lung shape, however diminuitive. They stated their purpose as karmic. They are here for payment. I have always known they would come, so it is no surprise, even though they are small, white beans that rest nicely in the cup of my hand. They were men in thier former lives, subject to the whims of the gods, but in this life, they act as intermediaries. Their mouths are full of sand and when they speak I smell their homeland. They are far from home and are sometimes meloncholy. Maufouz is the sad one. He refuses to speak. Hajif has words enough for both. He delights in life, regardless of the form it presents itself. He remembers the sweet taste of fig and longs for one last cup of hot tea and honey.

prompt:
lima beans
suspended disbelief
character