Not Selling in Chico this Year

We've been selling our jewelry at craft fairs in the Chico/Paradise area every year since 1976. This will be our first year not to sell there since then. In the earlier years we sometimes did 4 to 6 fairs a year in that region. We have a lot of customers and friends there and are really saddened by the fire caused devastation that has happened there in the last week. The fair that we hoped to do this year is now being aimed at helping people who have lost there homes in the fires there and that seems like an appropriate thing to us. We hope to able to participate again next year.

We have decided to try a little selling closer to home, in Caspar, where we used to live, at the community center there. Information on the flyer above. Caspar is located along Highway One halfway between Mendocino and Ft.Bragg.

Jima will also have a great selection of books and CD's for sale. For 10 years he did book sales in conjunction with the monthly breakfast 7 or 8 times a year. For many years he has harvested large numbers of high quality books as we have traveled to art fairs all over the west. Harvesting from thrift stores, flea markets and yard sales along our route.

Had a GREAT first day at the Sacramento Art Fesival

We are very happy after our first day of selling at the Sacramento Arts Festival. The doors opened at 10am and 2 minutes later there were several customers at our booth and it was like that for most of the day, got a little overwhelming a couple of times but we were able to handle it and are relaxed now back at our motel room for the night. Looking forward to the next two days at the festival.

Here are some more new jewels that I finished and took pictures of just before leaving for the show.

Thanks to all of our loyal Sacramento area customers for making it a great day at the fair.

We'll be Showing our work in Sacramento next weekend

For the 20th time we'll be showing our latest jewels at the Sacramento Arts Festival this coming weekend, October 26-28 at the Convention Center in midtown. More details and a link to the shows website on our Show Schedule page. I'll try to post some additional pictures of new work before we leave for the fair on Thursday.

The Kings Mountain Fair this Weekend

We'll be selling our work this weekend at our favorite fair, the Kings Mountain Fair on Skyline Drive south of San Francisco. Details on our Show Schedule page. The collage at the right shows a selection of the bracelets we have been making. In the last couple of months we've made more bracelets than we have in a long time. We'll have more bracelets at the fair than we've had at one time in probably well over 30 years.

New Jewels for the Mendocino Fair

We will be doing our only local showing of our jewel work in Mendocino this weekend at the Mendocino Arts Center's 59th Annual Arts and Crafts Fair. Here are a few of our new jewels that I just finished taking pictures of. Still more to finish and I didn't take time to get pictures of everything yet. It's looking like pretty nice weather for this weekend which is a good thing. Looking forward to a good fair and reconnecting with some of our customers and friends.

Leaving in the Morning for Our Los Altos Fair

We've spent the last few days putting the final touches on quite a few new jewels. The collage at the right features some of the newly finished ones.
We are looking forward to connecting with a lot of old friends and customers at the Los Altos show as well as other artists, some of whom we've done shows with for many years. We've done fairs in the area since 1971.

Our Los Altos Fair is Coming up Fast

The Los Altos Fair is coming up fast. Our first showing of the year. In some years in the past we would have already done 3 to 5 shows by now. I like being semi retired. We will have quite a good selection of new work to offer at the show. Here are a few more pieces just finished. Many more are in the pipeline to be finished by the fair. I'll do another collage of new work to post before we leave for the bay area.

Our First Show of the year will be in Los Altos in May

As has been true for the last few years the first showing of our work for the year will be the Los Altos Rotary Art show on May 19th & 20th. It's always a nice way to start out our sales year, weather is usually pleasant and business good because we have so many customers in that area.
I'm enclosing a collage of the few things that we have finished in our studio, mostly simple and familiar designs. I have an odd way of working sometimes, especially at the beginning of the year as I get started. I tend to start a lot of designs before I really get into finishing them so I probably have 40 plus pieces started right now from this year that are in various stages of completion. I'll get one started and then I'll have another idea that I want to get into some sort of form before the idea gets lost and I'll start it and work on it some and then another idea and another and another and another and another.
You get the gist. Some of the most interesting designs are still in process. Another odd aspect of the way I work is that some of these ideas won't get finished now, I'm not sure what to do to finish them. They'll go into a little cigar box of which I have dozens around the studio full of partially finished pieces, hundreds of pieces, some of them decades old. Periodically I go through a box and find a piece that rings a bell and I'll bring it out and finish it. Sometimes two pieces will actually join together to make the finished one. There was once a time when it bothered me and I felt some kind of guilt about not finishing pieces but finally realized that it is just the way that I work and it's OK. Some will turn into interesting jewels and some will never be finished. That's OK too.