Rock Stars Wanted

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Have you ever listened to a lecture or sermon and wondered how in the world the speaker knew just exactly what was going on in your life? The message seemed directed right at you. I wonder if others in the audience felt the same way, but for very different reasons. Thinking humans have a way of sorting messages into our current context and applying them to our personal issues. This sometimes leads to an apparent apathy about our situation when we try to tell someone about an experienced hardship and the listener turns it into their own story. The listener probably isn’t really uncaring about our situation, but simply views it through their own contextual lenses.

Once in a while, we go out for dinner and I am intent on NOT discussing business. Yet, it seems we can’t quite leave all those cattle at home and I just can’t help but notice the jewelry folks have on. No matter how we try, our lenses are colored by the context of our daily existence. For example, while driving through town the other day, I noticed a big sign in a store window. It read “Rock Stars Wanted.” I almost pulled right over assuming that they needed jewelry designers who work with “rocks”. A second look, however, straightened out my thinking. The new bar on the square wanted bands to play at happy hour. Hmm . . . I guess that isn’t me.

Recently, my daughter found a pattern for a toy ball that used different types of textured ribbons. My daughter thought it would be great to make for her 8 month old and I, of course, wondered how to convert those marvelous textures to metal work. (Shame on me!)

I believe that contextual thinking is good for creativity. Man has traditionally borrowed ideas from seemingly unrelated sources for problem solving. The entire body of work in Synectics (purposeful connection making) is based on this principle. We might still be riding on bumpy metal tires were it not for a man making a connection between his son’s situation of riding his bike with metal tires on bumpy cobblestone streets and the garden hose he was using. The literature indicates that the first rubber tires came from a garden hose wrapped around the metal tire rim of a bike. Putting things in our own context can make for improvement.

The point here is that contextual thinking can work for us. We do it all the time and find connections to use in problem solving and design work. Let’s just remember that some connection just DO NOT work. I wonder what that bar owner would have thought if I’d brought my designs in and applied for his Rock Star position.

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Wear Your Courage

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I was driving my car today and mentally complaining about how dirty it was when I remembered that drought conditions here have warranted NOT washing your car. Our area is 40 inches of rain below normal for the last two years and one need only go for a short walk or drive to see the ramifications of this phenomena. Driving down the hill from our house, with smoke dust rising in big puffs, I’m reminded of tales of the Oklahoma dust bowl and know things could be worse. So, I drive my dirty car like a red badge of courage, thankful for the problem solving skills by husband has utilized to care for several hundred animals during dry times. He manages to keep our animal’s flourishing and never compromises the quality we strive to maintain. With a production sale coming up in October, I’m amazed at how he prepares our offering even knowing that this year will probably be a financial winner for the customer. His continual emphasis is on the customer. What would the customer need and expect? He could be breeding cattle for what he likes, yet, he is always looking to the customers to see what would enhance their herds. Surely there’s a lesson in that for me.

Since I’m known for stretching a story and making unusual connections, what is that lesson that might pertain to design work? I believe moving forward during stressful times is key for any endeavor. Even if there is not a show or customer immediately around the corner, I work just as diligently on my designs and maintain the same quality. A lull in business provides a great opportunity to try something new whether it is a technique, material or style. If nothing pleasant hatches, there’s nothing lost. As my husband does with the ranching, I continually problem solve and consider what a customer might want. A color, size or style might not be what I would wear, but the customer is the real boss.  One of my favorite ways to determine the potential of a design is to wear it while I run errands and observe whether people notice the piece. For example, I like the piece shown on the left, but I wore it and no one acknowledged it. The piece below, however, is another story. Folks looked twice at it and guess which one had sold. The one below is already gone.

  This is the piece that I strung at least four times before deciding it was fit for the public eye. I could have just left it alone the first time, but quality maintenance is important here at Dreamcatcher and I don’t want to give it up.

My dirty car, however, is something I’ll be happy to give up. I look forward to the rain and the return of green grass.

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Lingering Women

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A chat with Mother at the nursing home today, brings to mind a phrase I often use for the women in my family. I call them “lingering women”. It seems the females in my family outlive the males by a considerable number of years. When my mother commented on missing my father who has been gone 9 years, I mentioned my thoughts about lingering woman to her. She said she’d rather be a malingering woman, commenting that she often hides out in her room to avoid activities. Earlier in the week, she remarked that she had been very unproductive and idle in the three days since my last visit. I tried to explain that I thought that was what she was meant to do at her stage in life, but I don’t think she bought it. She had two novels out that she is reading in tandem. One big book is for her room, and another skinny book is for hauling to the dining room to read while she waits to be served. Her organ music sits near the door so she can go to the living room and play and her crochet is at the foot of the bed ready for action. She doesn’t look at all like a malingering woman to me.

I may age to be a lingering woman, but I don’t think I can ever malinger either. I, too, have a couple of books going at once at well as multiple other activities aside from the ranch work. In terms of the design work, as do most other beaders, I keep multiple designs going at once. The current seed bead project fits well with listening to TV, hammering wire and metal is readily on tap for relieving frustration and stringing projects, organized into small groups on the work table, wait for this human to arrive. While yesterday’s blog showed the copper Pascal’s necklace I completed yesterday, today’s picture shows a seed bead collar finished the same day. Diversity is good or as the saying goes, “variety is the spice of life.” 

So whether we linger or malinger, I choose to believe that barring unforeseen medical complications, the strong survive. The men in my family would probably say that the strong-willed survive and looking at my mother, grandmother and great grandmother, I might have to agree.

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Pascal’s Necklace

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When I was a consultant providing training for teachers of gifted students, one of my favorite workshops to present was on mathematics. I used Pascal’s triangle during the workshop and it provided the basis for the necklaces shown here. If you’re interested in knowing more about Pascal’s triangle, you might go to the link that follows: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal’s_triangle where you’ll learn that it’s basically a geometric arrangement of the binomial coefficients in a triangle. The link demonstrates the process of number development in the triangle and I’ve provided only the first six rows below.

The copper necklaces are obviously inverted from the triangle above, but you can see how the number of links are based upon Pascal’s work. The links for both necklaces are made from 18 gauge copper wire and the neckwires are from recycled wire from the San Marcos Green Guy. The necklace with colored stones seems to lay the best due, I believe,to the wider curve of the links. The plain necklace, composed of more links, is more delicate looking, but made from the same gauge wire. I’m hoping this design holds possibilities for further exploration. It’s one of the few pieces I’ve made that doesn’t take too long to complete.

Hmm . . . I wonder what else I used in that math workshop that could stimulate a design idea? I knew I shouldn’t have thrown away all my notes!

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