Summer is . . .

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. . . for visiting grandchildren! A very brief break took us out of state this week to visit our grandboy and his family. It was a real treat to see how he had grown since our last visit and watch his developmental progress. I’ve forgotten how you can truly observe physical and mental growth at this age. I can hardly wait until he is ready for play dough (the eatable kind, of course), finger paints and colors, although I’m reasonably sure that his Dad won’t let him help me design jewelry for a while.

The picture below indicates just how pleased “Sir” (grandpa) is with this little treasure.

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Listen to Your Mother

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I heard this repeatedly as I was growing up, but thought I was past it since my Mom is 88 and I’m . . . growing out instead of up. Last week, however, I realized my Mom still has her bluff in on me. During a nursing home visit, I mentioned that a group of beaders was coming to my house the next day to work on some things. Mamaw immediately said, “what are you going to feed them?” “They’re not coming to eat.” I said. “They’re coming to work on jewelry.” “Well,” she replied, “I’ve found that things always go better with food.” I left the nursing home determined not to pay attention to her suggestion, but in the end . . . I could say the pictured brownies just happened to be left over from the group of men I fed at lunch that same day, but that might be a big story. I guess I’m still doing what my Mother says.

During the same visit, several folks stopped by to speak to us at the table where I was working on some copper neckwires. I noticed Mamaw was real quiet and after everyone had moved on she reported, “I didn’t want to tell anyone, but those really aren’t very comfortable.” I truly disagree and love to wear my neckwires in various shapes, but I didn’t argue and won’t be making her any more in that style. Perhaps she will prefer one of the pieces pictured below.        

Today, while discussing my upcoming trip to Atlanta to visit our first grandchild who is 4 months old, Mother said, “hug that boy for me.” I DO plan to listen to my Mother about regarding that suggestion!

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How Many Ways?

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Working on another chain project today, I kept asking myself “how many ways” can you curl the wire to make links? This phrase came from my mouth hundreds of times as a teacher, professor, and consultant trying to get others to think creatively. The question is basic to both fluent and flexible thinking. When working on creative fluency, we try to come up with as many answers as possible to the problem posed, in this case the straight piece of wire that needed to curl. During the fluency stage of problem solving, it doesn’t matter whether or not the posed solution is plausible or far fetched. The goal is simply to produce as many ideas as we can. Since I didn’t want my chain necklace to look uniform or to have a pattern, I continually asked how many ways I could produce the links. Once I had completed the links, I then asked which ones could actually be used and eliminated the others. This is one of the judgment stages of problem solving when convergent thinking is required. If we judge too soon, however, often good adaptable ideas are thrown out without being given a chance to develop.

The top link in this first photo is the regular S shape common in wire work. The middle link ended as an S, but began in another shape and the bird shape at the end happened accidentally. I used variations of these shapes through the rest of the necklace as shown in the picture of the entire necklace. I needed some good flexible thinking to make variations in the bird shape and you can see that some have upturned tail feathers while others are plain. The beads on this piece are also interesting. The vendor who sold them to me said they were made by Monks. They appear to be some type of clay.

The lower picture shows a different necklace with more variations on the shapes of the links. It has various shaped coral, tiger eye, or carnelian gemstones in some of the links. This necklace is made of heavier, recycled wire while the necklace in the upper pictures is made of 18 and 20 gauge wire. If you make any of these, I suggest doing it in stages. I made most of the links in one day and my sore hands are not at all happy. That said, the fluency stage should happen all at once due to the natural production of ideas. Usually, there is a burst of ideas in the beginning (often the most common solutions), followed by a brief slow down and then the production of the most unique ideas. You wouldn’t want to quit right before those great ideas hatch!

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