chickens — Page 2

Speaking Camera Like You’d Speak French

August 6, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Some of you, the Europeans for certain, speak a handful of languages. I know you’ll agree with me when I say the following: You know you’re getting a good grip on a language when you start thinking in that language.

The first time I travelled to France (I’ve been thrice) I was on an exchange and I stayed with a lovely family in the Tours region. My French was mauvais, compared to some, but by the end of my stay I found that I was starting to think in the language thanks to the effect of language immersion on my mind and tongue.

In the same way, I’ve noticed lately that I’m starting to see the world in frames. I’m starting to think in camera! Can you believe it? My brief history with photography began in high school where I took 8 semesters, back to back, of graphic arts — including photography theory, as well as film and image developing. I loved it. It’s like the scent of developing chemicals was a perfume and I was drawn in like a luna month heady with the effect of pheromones. I continued taking photos up until this very day but it’s not until recently that I have starting seeing the world as a jumble of chopped up images waiting to be captured like butterflies in a net. It’s quite a thrill.

Anyway, it got me to pondering about other languages we can speak besides French or Camera. What’s your language (besides the one you speak) and how is it affecting your life?

What do you speak and how does it affect the view of your environments?

I’ll tell you how speaking Camera is further affecting my life, I’ve got a sore shoulder all the time from carrying my rig all over the place…it must weigh four pounds….(???) Things are getting crazy. I rarely leave home without my gun and usually take a minimum of 100 photos a day. That’s a bit obsessive, but I know I’ll regret it if I miss even one opportunity to make an image.

In other news,

Winona says, “What’s up?”

It’s Friday here. I can feel it in the air. Everyone is charging up for the weekend. The sky seems thick with storms. Last night, while at a barbecue, a glorious thunder bumper rolled into the valley and the air was crackling with green light and rainbows and when golden hour struck, I nearly fell right out of my cowboy boots. I thought I’d go blind from the pool of beauty I was sitting in but I’m still seeing the world frame by frame today. Thank goodness.

I was going to try to do a shop update this afternoon but I’m feeling too hurried so I’m postponing it until Monday, August 9.

In the meanwhile, please try to behave yourselves.

Filed Under: camera, chickens, photography

From Garden and Coop:

July 25, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Two fresh eggs, peas, rhubarb and a spaghetti squash!

Yum.

Filed Under: chickens, garden, plume gables

Atta Girl!!!

July 20, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Let’s put our hands together for Rhonda,

shall we?

Filed Under: chickens

Les Bijoux!

July 17, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Firstly, I must let you know that RHONDA LAID AN EGG THIS MORNING!!!!!! But I discovered it while moving the ark and it rolled right out of the nesting box and onto a pine cone where it shattered. It was still warm. Beautiful and brown. And a little bit pointy. YAY! I knew she was going to lay an egg! I’m the chicken whisperer!!!

Next. The work of this week! I didn’t feel like I was able to get much done in the studio these past five days but now that I’m looking at the collection on the jewelry platter by my right elbow, there’s a heck of a lot of stuff there! I accomplished a lot! That feels good to say. Here. Take a peek!

A Picking Pods Bliss Necklace built of sterling, resin, poppy pods, and some flowers I picked off a weed that was growing on the street.

Perfectly sultry.

Galadriel Earrings built of sterling and tiffany stone!

These earrings make me crazy. Not only did I use one of my FAVORITE stones in this design but because these pretties are double jointed the movement is like a musical dream filled with hummingbirds and dark chocolate.

Delicious.

Simply delicious.

Gosh. I know. I haven’t made post earrings in ages.

These are little Specimen Earrings. Dainty. Pure sterling. I think I have five pairs ready to go to good homes.

I don’t even know what to say about this piece except it’s beautiful. It’s really beautiful. It’s large but it’s so delicately built of sterling, roughly cut amethyst and 14 karat gold.

This piece is hollow formed and is replete with fantastic detailing including a wee butterfly that perches on one flank of the pendant. Pure magic. I’ll chit chat with you, next week, all about why my favorite things to create and wear are hollow in one way or another. I’d keep this for myself except I’ve been doing so much of that lately that it’s not particularly justifiable at the moment.

May she go to a good good home.

This jangly little beauty is positively symphonic. It’s built of sterling & parral dendritic agate.

The stone itself is a wonder. It looks like a northern winter scape — perhaps it’s meant for a woman who’s heart is somewhat boreal? Positively wonderful. And while I’m showing this necklace in a low cut dress I tried it on yesterday over a crew neck t-shirt and it looks fabulous against fabric OR skin. Mind those draping jingling chains, they’re going to draw some glances…

FINALLY!

I used some of the detritus I found on the beaches of Hawaii whilst honeymooning with RW last Christmas! HOORAY! This necklace has such spirit, such soul.

It’s built of sterling, resin and a small piece of coral I found on one of our favorite beaches on The Big Island. Funny enough, the coral sort of looks like an anatomical heart forever preserved in an electric swath of resin. This piece is romantic and was built with even more love than usual. The toggle clasp also hosts a hallmark charm and one of my Memento Mori sterling bones. Special special.

I’d keep this one too, for myself, forever…..but I shouldn’t. And I have plenty more coral in my beach combing box!

Lastly, another Bliss Necklace built of sterling resin, poppy pods, a section of aspen branch and some flowers I picked off a weed that was growing out in the street. This piece has such a gorgeously organic lilt to it, like I picked the entire thing off a tree trunk while out walking in the forest. Meant for elves, fairies and women who like to canoe.

Now. About the update. I was going to try to do the entire thing today but I have run right out of time. I must clean my home before I leave to pick up She at the airport. Seriously. If she walked into the house right now she would turn around and take up residence in a hotel for the week. It’s not nice. Not nice at all. But the wait isn’t a bad thing. Is it? It gives us all time to ponder a bit, and it takes the furious rush out of things AND if I decide last minute that I can’t part with one of these pieces I have plenty of time to think about it!

So. I plan to pop the Specimen Earrings in the shop right now and the rest will have to wait until later this evening or tomorrow!

Thanks for your patience and thanks for considering these pieces for your personal jewelry collection!

Have a blissful Saturday!

Lawn croquet, mint juleps and all that….

PLUME

PS This is a poll: If I wrote a book, would you want to read it?

:::EDIT:::
I HAVE MADE AN EXECUTIVE DECISION!
I’m going to update the shop on Monday morning at 9AM MST.
SEE YOU THERE!!!

Filed Under: chickens, New Jewelry

Six Things and The Zany

July 15, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

1. It’s raspberry season!

My black raspberries are ripening at a lovely rate that affords me ten or so berries every morning for my cereal, warmed by the sun, fresh off the vine. I walk out to the raspberry patch, sometimes barefoot, and fill up my hand with my favorite little aggregate fruit of numerous drupelets. They are so sweet and sleepy looking. I adore the action of raspberry picking. It’s so satisfying to pull the fruit from the plant. One has to grasp the berry gently, so as not to squish it, but firmly because it takes a bit of force to separate the fruit from its stem. This fruit is so squashable. So vulnerable without the protection of a thick skin. No wonder they hide so well under broad leaves amidst the prickles.

What’s your favorite fruit?

I’m the queen of the raspberries.

2. Mister Pinkerton, the railway cat, throws you the stink eye.

I love to nestle my feet under under Mister Pinky, wherever he lays, because I like the feel of his paws on my bare feet. He has killer claws but he never pushes them into the tops of my feet. He just rests them there, soft and warm and if I get to feel his warm little pink and black pads on the roof of my foot, it’s pure heaven. Try it. It’s a glorious sensory experience — like petting baby grass.

3. My sweet peas are blooming. They boast the sweetest smell of all. I linger by the section of fence they are clambering up and I breathe deep. I hope the flowers last forever. When they are close, I feel cradled by their lanky tendrils and long legs.

4. Judith is the silliest chicken. I love it when she looks straight at the camera with this goofy expression on her face. Chickens are always so wide eyed. They’re never lazy looking. They’re all bright eyed bird, beak and wattle.

Winona is looking especially pretty this morning and was willing to pose for a photo. Rhonda is always quite camera shy so I failed to capture a shot of her but I’d like to point out that I DO think Rhonda the resilient red will be the first to lay an egg. She seems like the most physically mature out of the three ladies. She has the most developed wattle and comb. See Winona’s wattle there below her beak? It’s just been developing this past week and a half or so. Judith doesn’t really have a wattle yet even though she’s the largest of the three girls — she is, after all, six weeks younger than the big girls. Every day I check the nesting box expecting an egg. I think I’ll find one any day now and Rhonda will be the one to give it.

I love chickens.

Even if my radishes don’t.

5. Meanwhile. Out in the studio I’ve been hard at work on a handful of resin projects. There are two Bliss Necklaces featuring poppy pods, resin and aspen branches that I am hoping to finish today as well as a zany ring design I sketched up a couple of months ago that is taking AGES for me to finish. It’s quite sculptural, somewhat otherworldly and it involves resin. The resin work on this ring is taking me ages to finish since each layer needs about a 6 hour cure and it will probably take me 8 resin treatments to complete the pod filling. Whew! Resin is not for those who require instant gratification! That’s for certain. This ring will be zany if I can carry the design off without wrecking it! Keep your fingers crossed for me. This design is unlike anything I’ve made in the past! I can’t wait to show it to you!

6. I really like it when I line my fingers up wrong on the computer keyboard and then I look away while typing and when I glance back to the screen I’ve typed a paragraph of jumbly garble that doesn’t make any sense. I always laugh out loud, delete the nonsense and then start again. But I think it would be fun to type someone a letter with my hands shifted slightly to the right They’d have to sit down at their typewriter and figure out what the heck I was trying to write by translating my typing shifted back over one space to the left.
Wouldn’t that be infuriatingly glorious?

Happy Thursday.
You zanies.
xx
PLUME

Filed Under: chickens, chores, pinkerton, plume gables