The Shape of Things to Come

I've been organizing my new blog, which will be different from this one, won't replace it, but will be more of an art gallery for my work of all kinds, ranging from paintings to sculpture, to mixed media, to artists books, to handmade jewelry, and handmade beads available separately. The establishing pic in this post is a collection of the necklaces.

And interestingly the one thing that's been holding it up opening the new blog all this time is the choice of a title! blogspot requires the name of the blog before it will let you proceed to create it. Which shows what happens when the left brained try to cater to the right brained...whoever heard of having a title before you've written or created the piece? you don't know what will work until you've dived in and tried it and got responses, from yourself and others.

Oh well. But, you say, why not just have a provisional title, like a knitting provisional cast-on, which you can then slide out and insert the better title later? ah, because despite its airy promises, blogspot will not forward your mail.

Your readers get an error message if they click on the old name saying it doesn't exist any more. More than one blogista has bewailed this problem to me, having found a much better title that works and had to start from scratch rebuilding the whole architecture of the blog accordingly, and their readership. Soooooooo, I've been faffing around, taking pix of art and jewelry and cogitating over the title. Which will come soon, honest.

Anyway, the pix today will appear in there with more explanation.



It's a group of my handmade necklaces, many with beads of my own making, from paper and vegetables and other substances



some with a wax finish, some with a varnish finish, some found beads, some shells, some amber, all nice to wear, none too heavy.



I like this about these necklaces, since I hate heavy weights around my neck, but these are light enough to wear more than one without having to hold onto the furniture to get around. And I do create beads separately, available in groups.

And, in case you wondered, in art everything is for sale, unless otherwise noted. Where a piece is already in a collection, I say so, and in the case of the jewelry, one price fits all, this is sheer laziness on my part. But otherwise the descriptions will indicate size and price and all that stuff. Two dimensional art is shipped without glass, but with frame if you want, but it's easier to just have it shipped without either then you get it framed to your liking. It's practically impossible to find a hardware store that cuts glass any more,so you need a framing shop.

Most of the knitting, other than wallhangings, is created as gifts for friends who need a little present, or family, and that will be clear, too.

So I hope soon to come up with a blog title that's not a hopeless cliche nor a totally misleading title that I like but nobody else gets!

Oh, this reminds me of a great tiny event the other day. You know how sometimes you go on for ages, years even, trying to remember a given word, with no way of researching it, nobody around you who would know, and it drives you nuts? well, perhaps it's only me.

Anyway, there has been a word traipsing around in the silt at the bottom of my mind for years and years since I worked in broadcasting, and it described the statutory meetings the law required that public broadcasters held at given intervals at locations near their transmitters. And then, blessedly, someone mentioned it on the radio the other day, and my mind is at rest: Ascertainment. That's what they called the process.

It was complicated for the state network I worked in, having very few people available, and four transmitters in widely separated parts of the state, and the timing being close to identical for all of them. So sometimes I was conscripted to act above my pay grade and attend an ascertainment hearing, ready with answers for the masses of the public confidently expected to come in with questions.

Aie, save me. What with people saying why had we fired our sports commentator, and after I'd explained we'd never had one, the asker realized he thought we were a totally different, commercial, station, and people demanding to know why we didn't have programs for the Hispanic community, and I explained that we had one of the first in the country, still going strong, Hispanic producers, writers, directors, award winning, etc, but they hadn't recognized the name of the show. Then people saying why were there NO programs for older people, and we explained there were, and these were their names, etc. etc. you could set it to music after a bit.

But it taught me that cute and clever titles will lose the majority of your audience, unless you plan on being rather exclusive and posh. Also, interestingly, that for every call, or comment, or person showing at a public meeting, statisticians estimate there are at least 25 other likeminded people you don't hear from.

Anyway, I'd like people to actually find the new blog, hence the naming angst. Ah well. I'll get it. And then I'll tell you about it and invite you to wander about and enjoy.