Flip-floppin' toward the river

Flip-flops. To my generation, they're pool shoes. When I was little, they conveyed this message: "I'd be barefoot, if I weren't protecting the soles of my feet."

In recent years, flip-flops have become standard footwear, worn to work or to church. They may cost as much as other shoes. Designers design them. People are as likely to wear Crocs, or Keens, or many other types of footwear to the pool or the beach. Flip-flops are not pool shoes any longer.

When I was a child, my mother bought me a new pair of flip-flops at the beginning of each summer. She threw them away at the end of the summer. Today, flip-flops are worn all year round. With or without toe socks.

I made this pair out of Sculpey, and wore it today to my first day of end-of-the-school year faculty meetings. I wore them because I'm ready to be sitting barefoot, with my feet dangling in the water. Soon I will. The river is calling.

The Puzzle of the Cheshire Cat

I was thinking of making some earrings out of Sculpey today, so I googled, "Sculpey earrings" for inspiration. I clicked on an Etsy site that offered a long list of Sculpey earrings. A list, with no pictures. Lousy marketing... But then a pair of jigsaw puzzle-piece earrings caught my eye. Aha!

I headed down to the basement, storage zone for games and puzzles. I eyed the puzzles, looking for stray pieces. I opened a few boxes, hoping to see pieces that inspired me. But of course I could not take pieces from a complete puzzle. It's a character trait, perhaps a flaw. I could never ruin a puzzle.

So I wandered back upstairs and found a tiny cheshire cat puzzle in a tiny box. And it was missing a piece. Perfect! I love the Cheshire Cat!

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree.

"Which road do I take?" she asked.

"Where do you want to go?" was his response.

"I don't know," Alice answered.

"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter.”

“I’ve often seen a cat without a grin, but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!”

The grin without a cat is on one earrings, and the cat without a grin is on the other. Perfect!

Bears amidst the Blueberries

I wandered out to our berry garden and discovered that blueberry season has begun! My son Will--who browses through this patch like a hungry bear when he is home--is away this summer, and the berries ripened in the last few days without anyone noticing. What a bounty!

I made this pair of earrings yesterday as I sat watching Matt Damon living out a liberal's fantasy in Iraq in The Green Zone. I wore them today because they matched my aqua shirt and teal capris. As I photographed them among the blueberries, I was sorry that I hadn't worn the pair that reminds me most of blueberries, as I'd planned to do to pick the first berries. It wasn't until I wrote the previous paragraph that I realized how appropriate these totem bear earrings are for today.

In many cultures, bears symbolize awakening from the quiet contemplation of hibernation to seek sustenance and opportunity in the warmth of spring. My son, this garden's resident bear, is not here to nibble his way from bush to bush, blue-tongued and happy. He is off experiencing new challenges. I'm glad I wore totem bears to take his place.

On Thursday, my husband John will drive down to see Willem in North Carolina. We'll have eaten this bowl of berries by then. But John already promised Will some blueberries from home. Blueberries were a staple of our family's summer diet long before antioxidant research showed how beneficial they are to our hearts and minds. For us, they are food for the soul.

Dancing, even without power

Last night as I finished my post, thunder rumbled. Soon afterwards, hail pelted our house, a river poured down our driveway, and the power went out.

As darkness fell, my husband John started the generator that we bought several years ago. Our power fails frequently, and sometimes stays off for days at a time. It's a consequence of living on our own little mountain in the woods.

After dropping my car off at the Waterloo Service Center this morning (air conditioning on the fritz, among other problems), I spent my first day of summer in our basement, making earrings and watching action movies. I made this pair, and posed them on the arm of this dancing woman. She may look like she's climbing the walls. But she's not. We were just where we needed to be today.

The power is still out. We're going to pick up my car and head for the movies to see Midnight in Paris. Ah, summer!

Popsicle Summer

The 2010-2011 school year ended for me today. I wore my popsicle earrings for our final half day, and for the class party at a roller rink. To me, popsicles say summer. 

The thermometer climbed to 90 degrees Fahrenheit, in the shade. I took my popsicle earrings out on our deck to photograph them with our thermometer. As soon as I moved if off the window and into the sun, the temperature began to rise toward 100. I was really wishing for a popsicle on this the hottest day of the year so far.

 

My daughter Phoebe bought me this pair of earrings at the Delaplane Strawberry Festival a few years ago. I've worn them on the last day of school ever since. They attract a lot of smiles. And comments about something red dripping onto my neck. But if they were to melt, I could replace them. Sculpey, a toothpick, and wire are all I'd need to make a replacement pair.

I felt a bit like this dog today, stuck in the heat with no popsicle within reach on this very hot last day. But I am blessed to work in an air-conditioned school, drive an air-conditioned car, and have an air-conditioned bedroom to come home to.

I think back to my childhood, when we had no air-conditioning at all. Maybe that's why popsicles say summer to me.

Wishing and hoping

Last summer, I wandered through the shops on the main street in Franklin, PA, a town that remained vibrant for many years, even while manufacturing jobs disappeared from this northwest corner of the state. But many storefronts now stand vacant. Those that remain are dollar stores, thrift stores, antique shops, and a few crafters coops.

I bought this pair of cranes at one of the craft markets. As I recall, they cost $7.00. Handmade cranes hovering above handmade dipyramids (aka triangular bipyramids, or hexahedrons). Whatever it was that I paid, it was not enough to pay for the materials, to pay the craftsperson a living wage, to pay the rent and utilities on the shop. I worry that this shop will be gone when I return this year, along with the jewelery and stationery and book and shoe and clothing and housewares shops I saw just a few years ago. I hope it will still be there...

I wore them today for my last full day of school, a day full of hopes for the future and a few "what might have been?" wonderings. We never got around to building models of Platonic Solids this year. (These earrings are not quite Platonic solids... but close!) Today disappeared as we watched the Fractured Fairy Tale movies made by our 2nd grade, as next year's students visited our classroom, as my class played their stringed instruments for the 2nd grade. My students packed their bags full of notebooks, time capsules, puppet show scenery, beading looms, and assorted other memories of our year together.

Maybe next year when I wear these earrings, we'll make those Platonic Solids. Next year...

Innovation, like it used to be

Today was a huge day in 3^rd grade: our colonial Living Wax Museum. My students set up their exhibits, dressed in costume, and shared the knowledge they had gathered over the past few weeks. Their parents, fellow students, and teachers traveled through the museum for an hour, listening to the 5 cent facts, 25 cent stories, and $1.00 speeches they had prepared. The gunsmiths, blacksmiths, silversmiths, and glassblowers worked at their forges. The apothecaries offered to cure visitors with leeches and nostrums. The printer published news, the wheelwright built a wheel, the candlemakers dipped candles, and the weaver wove with wool. George and Martha Washington and a runaway slave told tales about their lives. The wigmakers and milliners sold their wares. Today was huge in 3^rd grade.

I chose to wear these

striking spiral earrings today. They are not like any other pair that I own. They are simple—probably like those worn by ancient people. But from my modern perspective, they offer a novel approach to a familiar aim. Pierced earrings made from a single wire? What an innovation!

That’s what I suggested to my students today. Think in new ways. Use your imagination. Make old ways seem like innovation!