GODDESS CEREMONIAL NECKLACES

Dusty’s Fairy Woman

Beth’s custom Goddess necklace

The craft show circuit is exhausting. When I started on the circuit, I exhibited in about thirty shows a year. . As I got older, however, the constant travel was too much, and I reduced my participation to about twelve shows a year. It was at that time, about 20 years ago, that I joined the Sugarloaf Craft Shows. I exhibited at shows from as far north as Detroit Michigan to as far south as Atlanta, but most were in the D.C. area and Pennsylvania. In 1995, I met Beth Pollins at a show in Ft. Washington, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Beth purchased a few things from me and asked if I would create a special piece for her that included her late Aunt Gloria’s fur coat. She was happy with the sculpture I made for her, and I frequently saw her at succeeding shows during my years with Sugarloaf.

I retired from the shows in 2000 and had not seen Beth since. I was very surprised, then, to see her name pop up on Facebook one day asking to be my friend. Of course, I was delighted.

In August, I had a contest asking my blog readers to send ideas I could use to create a sculpture from a lifeguard chair that had been left on my front porch. Although I received many wonderful suggestions, the winning idea, the one that spoke to me most vividly, was from Beth Pollins. She envisioned not only a sculpture fashioned from the chair, but a beautiful, imaginative story to go with it (to read Beth’s story, please see my August 26, 2009 blog post). Needless to say, Beth won the contest.

While viewing my blog, Beth noticed that I had begun making custom Goddess Ceremonial Necklaces and asked me to make one for her. I’m always amazed at how much I learn about people when I begin making one of these necklaces. Even though I had known Beth for years, I gained a completely different perspective on her life from the information she gave me to guide my design. It was clear from her contest entry that she has a talent for creating magical stories. Only when we began talking about the necklace, however, did I find that her fondness for these tales originated with her grandfather, apparently a superb storyteller. He also seems to have been a bit of a transcendentalist in the mold of Thoreau or Emerson as you can see from one of his essay at the end of this blog post. Even though he died when she was very young, she clearly remembers being captivated by his tales. Apparently, her fascination with these stories was obvious to everyone around her as well, and the neighbors nicknamed her “Dusty’s Fairy Child.” She has carried his memory and the love he gave her for the spiritual, the mystical and the magical with her throughout her life.

I also found that she and I share a fondness for labyrinths as both art forms and as spiritual tools. And, I also learned that she has undertaken some serious spiritual quests. She sent me some special tokens from one of her spiritual retreats, The Spiritual Midwife Project, and I used several of these in her necklace. I also found two eleven-circuit labyrinths that seemed just right for her necklace. But still, I just didn’t feel that I had the one key item I needed to tie everything together. And then, one day, I found that I had had it all along: a pewter fairy that had lain forlorn and unused in my jewelry box for years. It was an item that was given to me several years before I even met Beth. What better icon for Dusty’s Fairy Child than a beautiful fairy. (This became even more obviously appropriate when I later learned that Beth had taught classes on fairies at a new age bookstore and at a farm in Lancaster county, PA.)

Fairy found in my jewelry box.

Below are the items Beth sent me to use in her necklace.

Medicine bag earring created for Beth by a shaman friend

Holy stone Beth found on the beach

Replica of a “priestess” bead from a community talking stick

The remaining spiral from a pair of Beth’s favorite earrings

To these items I added two pewter labyrinths and spiraled purple/blue stones.

Pewter labyrinth

Purple/blue stone

It was a pleasure working with Beth and learning so much more about her. I hope she gets as much pleasure from her necklace as I got from making it.

Dusty’s Fairy Woman

For centuries, spiritual seekers have regarded labyrinths as symbols of spiritual pilgrimage as well as tools to encourage meditation and contemplation. On your necklace, Beth, the labyrinths represent two of your most meaningful spiritual quests, the Harner shamanic training course and the Spiritual Midwife Project.

Stories of the magical and the mystical have been among the most important influences in your life. These first took root when you heard the tales of your grandfather, C. Richard Rhoads. A lover of nature as well as a teller of magical, spiritual stories, he once wrote that “No temple in the world can excel the beauties of the forest; and there is nothing that will bring you closer to God than a prayer beneath the solemn pines or the sturdy oaks.” The spiral at the bottom of the pendant represents your spiritual journey as influenced by your grandfather. This form has been an important symbol to cultures from prehistory to the present. For some, it has represented the journey of life for an individual or for the entire culture. For others, it has represented the evolution of consciousness or of spiritual understanding. The spiral is also the shape of a wide variety of entities in nature, from tiny sea creatures to galaxies.

Echoing your spiral, the swirled violet discs between the labyrinths represent the dual aspects of your grandfather’s consciousness – his magical, spiritual stories and his love of nature – that have played such an important role in the formation of your own consciousness. The fairy represents you, “Dusty’s Fairy Child”, laying a bouquet over one of these to honor his memory and his gift to you.

The tiara forming the base of the figure’s headpiece is your aquamarine baby ring. This stone was credited with healing powers by many ancient cultures. The medicine bag amulet and the holey stone suspended from the bottom of the figure represent items that have long been reputed to bring the owner protection and prosperity. I have included these talismans with my sincere wish that the powers ascribed to them may always be present in your life, Beth.

The key reflects your ongoing quest for knowledge through spiritual training and your more conventional academic pursuits. May you continue to gain understanding through both.

~Cheryl Dolby~

Here is the article written by Beth's grandfather, C.Richard Rhoads. (Click on each image to enlarge the page for reading.)

HALLOWEEN!

HALLOWEEN!

Linda Jo

If you are looking for a face painting artist, I can tell you exactly who to go to. Her name is Sally Edelman of Face Painting FANTASY. Sally is responsible for painting all of the faces I will be showing you on my Halloween post of the Roanoke City Market.

Cat and dog?

Who let the dogs out?

Demented Kyle

Sally and apprehensive friends

Sally can be seen painting faces on the Roanoke City Market at various times of the year. Her website is www.facepaintingfantasy.com and e-mail is fantasyfacepaint@aol.com Of course, not everyone had their face painted today. Some people just put on cute costumes.

Hot Dog

Ann and Fionna

Ann and Fiona

Chloe and Katherine-bubble wrap queen

Gene and Cheryl-that’s me

On The Rise bread store serves brownie treats

After a very long, yet fun day at the market, I met some friends and we headed to Grandin Gardens in Grandin Village for the bi-monthly drumming ceremony given by Polly Branch.

Bonfire

There was a beautiful bonfire lit and we drummed until our hands were numb.

Drums and fire

As I think back on Halloween’s past, I remember the way that we celebrated in my home town of Warren, Ohio. Children trick or treated for a week before Halloween and a week afterward. Woa be it to the the poor families who didn’t have something in the way of candy or cookies to give out each night. Their fate was sealed. It was give treats or pay the penalty of having your house completely covered with toilet paper or even soaped! Sometimes the families got even though. Those glorious days of “Life in the 50’s “ that you so often read about were not as perfect as sometimes presented. I remember one night I received a candied apple on a stick only to discover when I got home that it was really a raw potato covered with red nail polish! Cruel? Well maybe, since a person could get sick by ingesting that ‘treat’ but it doesn’t compare with recent Halloween tricksters serving up needles and poison.

Halloween is still one of my favorite holidays, even though the number of tricksters coming to my door has diminished. This year, for the first time ever, I decided to shake my Halloween celebration up a bit. Drumming by a bonfire and giving homage to the “Day of the Dead” or “Samhain” will be my new tradition!

HEE HEE HEEEEEE HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!!!

HOMEMADE PASTA

HOMEMADE PASTA

The perfect pasta

After working to perfect homemade pasta for many years I think I finally got it! I experimented, took classes everywhere possible, including Italy, and tried many different kinds of pasta machines. The one I found to be the best is a simple hand roller type. You can adjust the rollers starting at 0 or 1 and work your way gradually up to 7. This gives you a thin even thickness pasta.

Pasta machine

I use 00 Farina flour. I’m not able to find it locally but a friend brought me some from an Italian grocery store in Maine. I use one cup of the farina and two cups of semolina flour to make one and a half pounds of pasta.

00 farina flour

The eggs must have a deep yellow yolk and be placed in a well in the center of the flour. I use a large wooden pasta board to knead the dough on. It is perfect for this job. It also is just the right width to accommodate the pasta machine’s locking device.

Oops! One egg got away

The sauces I use vary each time I make my pasta. So far, my favorite sauce is a simple one that I learned to make in Italy. It is just a matter of sautéing butter and adding sage leaves to it. It is ladled over the cooked and drained pasta. If I have a truffle on hand, which I usually don’t, I will slice it and sprinkle over the pasta.

Gorgonzola cream sauce

The sauce I made for last night’s pasta was a gorgonzola. It is just as simply made. I placed about 6 oz. of crumbled gorgonzola into about 2 cups of whipping cream and sautéed until the cheese melted.

Gourmet salts

Sometimes the pasta and sauce still seem a bit bland to me. I have come upon a wonderful solution for that. Recently, while shopping at Provisions Kitchen Store here in Roanoke, I found a beautiful display of gourmet salts. In a later post I will be visiting the store and show you the salts as well as their remarkable salt blocks. I added Himalayan Pink Rock Salt to the pasta and “ La pasta perfetta.” I was back in Italy.

Here is my recipe:

Egg Pasta:

1 cup 00 Farina flour
2 cups semolina flour
1 t. salt
4 eggs
2 T. water and 1 T. olive oil

l. Combine flours and salt on a work surface.
2. Make a well in the center of flour and add eggs
3. Work flours into the eggs with hands to form dough and add water and olive oil.
4. Dust work surface with flour and knead for 10-12 minutes or until satiny.
5. Place dough in refrigerator for about 30 min – 1 hour
6. Break off a handful of dough, roll smooth with rolling pin
7. Run dough through the pasta machine starting with 0 on the dial and ending with 7.
8. Continue with the rest of the dough.
9. Let dough dry on counter for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, boil water with about 1 t.salt
10. Cut pasta according to what you are making, I cut mine in wide ribbons
11. Boil for about 2 minutes
12. Pop in a bowl of cold water and then put in strainer
13. Place pasta in bowls and add sauce of choice
14. Sprinkle with a gourmet salt

Homemade pasta! Yum!

YARN EXPLOSION!

YARN EXPLOSION!

Marilee Williamson and Susan Davis, two of three owners of Yarn Explosion

Yarn purchased from Yarn Explosion

Look at this beautiful bundle of woven yarn! I purchased it two weeks ago from Yarn Explosion, a unique yarn shop located at 5227 Airport road here in Roanoke. I took it to the market, where I sell my sculpture, and worked on it in-between sales. It was extremely cold last weekend so I popped into the outback clothing shop adjacent from my booth and bought a cute knitted hat to match…or sort of match.

Here I am, working on my purple scarf

I had been searching for a yarn shop that carried high quality yarn of an artistic nature. I had no idea one existed in Roanoke. While swimming at Carter Atheletic Club, several members of my water aerobic group mentioned that they had been to Yarn Explosion and that it definitely would have the artsy yarn I was looking for. One of the swimmers, Pamela, said that she was told she could work on her project in their classroom. A throw she had for many years had a small hole in it, She said that when she arrived with all her knitting gear, everyone was sure she had moved in for good. They were very helpful to her. She was shown exactly how to repair the hole.

I was sold. Off I went that very afternoon and was so glad I did. One of the owners, Jane Jones, was ever so cooperative in helping me find exactly what I was looking for, even though I wasn’t sure of that myself. With so many choices, it was hard to make a decision as to what to purchase. I wanted everything!

The store is brimming with unusual artsy yarns

Jane wound the large skeins of yarn I purchased into balls so that I could manage them better. She then showed me a terrific trick. She said that whenever I use a thin or silky yarn, the best way to handle it is to place it into a bag and cut a small hole in the end of the bag and pull the yarn through. I did what she said and my yarn stayed smooth and did not tangle for the entire project.

Bag with hole cut to keep yarn from tangling

Large assortment of buttons

Needlepoint display

My kind of yarn!

Racks of knitting needles and equipment

I have to admit that even though I know how to knit, I do not use needles. Last year I came across a very unique tool called, The Knifty Knitter. It definitely works. As you use it, you feel as though you are weaving rather than knitting. You wind the yarn in and around the pegs and pull the bottom layers over the top to secure. It probably takes the same amount of time but you do not need to worry about dropping a stitch.

Knifty Knitter

It’s good to know that I no longer have to rely on internet shopping for my yarn. I love the visual and tactile experience of seeing and touching the yarn before purchasing. I think my scarf turned out pretty knifty ( if you'll excuse the pun) and I’m happy to have such a luxurious item for my winter wardrobe. I think I’ll make a lime green one next.

Finished art scarf

Yarn Explosion offers many exciting classes and can be found at 5227 Airport Road in Roanoke Virginia. Their phone number is (540) 206-2638 Website is www.yarnexplosion.com

FRIENDS AND ENEMIES OF THE KITCHEN

FRIENDS AND ENEMIES OF THE KITCHEN

My beautiful four year old ovens

Most people probably wouldn’t be as upset as I am about having their oven go on the blink. BUT I LOVE TO COOK AND BAKE AND THE HOLIDAYS ARE ON THE WAY! The repairman looked at the blueprint, I guess you call them that, of my beautiful, only four years old, stainless steel double ovens.

This certainly is easy enough to read. Right!

He told me that there are two relay circuit panels, one for each oven. Since the top oven went out four months ago, (I’ve been working with one, just like I did for most of my life prior to four years ago) that means it is not the electrical wire because if it were, they both would have gone out at the same time. He said that it is not the coils. That definitely leaves the circuit relay panels and those cost a bundle. He also said that most ovens of this brand have only one circuit panel but mine has two! If I had only one, repairs would be a lot cheaper.

I was given the horrendous number of about $1,000. to repair my ovens. This of course really threw me into shock. Repairing these ovens seems like a mistake at this point. I could get a second opinion. To purchase the same brand again would be a mistake. Purchasing another electronic oven could bring the same problem a few years from now. There just doesn’t seem to be a good solution.

The previous oven I owned, which lasted over 25 years, was not electronic. It was easy to use and the few times I had to have it calibrated for temperature, it was a breeze to repair. Most of my appliances are electronic now. My friend, Trish, asked me why it is that everyone who enters my kitchen begins to talk to my refrigerator when they want a glass of ice water. Of course, they are trying to figure out the control panel.

Ice? Water? Purified? Crushed? Cubes?

There are small appliances that I must say, have saved me tremendous time in the kitchen. I do not know what I would do without my hand blender. I used to drag a large pot of soup over to my food processor and ladle potatoes and other ingredients from the pot to the processor and back and forth. Now, I simply use the hand held blender, and before I know it, all the contents in the pot are pureed instantly.

Hand blender

Vegetable and fruit washer

I also love my ozone vegetable and fruit washer. No longer do I need to worry about what pesticides or toxins might be lingering in my fruits and vegetables. In about 10 minutes this machine will completely sterilize and disinfect them by ozone. While my vegetables are being purified, the air has the refreshing smell of an electrical storm. Just look at how clean and beautiful these leeks look. Not a drop of soil left in them.

Purified leeks

Now, back to the ovens. I am sure there is a lesson here somewhere. Perhaps I should just accept the fact that if I am going to rely on technology, then I must be willing to pay the price….literally. I think that often times we bring possessions into our homes and then become slaves to those very items. I am so dependent on many of them. And that brings up the computer. What will I do if my computer ever goes on the blink?

My precious computer

Ahhh, life in the age of technology!