Why You Should Be in Beacon This Weekend...

So, why should you spend your weekend in Beacon? Well, because I am! Oh, and it's going to be a lot of fun if you do...

Second Saturday is this weekend - when the galleries have most of their art openings, restaurants and bars have special entertainment and the Main Street businesses stay open late. And this 2nd Saturday is going be the last Hudson River Market I'll be at. Maybe the last one in it's current incarnation ever, actually. They're looking to make it a "European Style" Market for next year - which means the handmade arty stuff will be pretty much absent.

So.. this Second Saturday will be your last chance to get some one of a kind and handmade jewelry, clothing, bags and fine art from some of the Hudson Valleys local talent. Well, on the street on Main anyway...

Plus, Sunday, Mount Beacon Fine Art Gallery is hosting a Jewelry Party - with jewelry by Andrea N. (that's me...) - from 2pm to 6pm. Refreshments will be served and I will have 4 tables of jewelry set up so there will be even more one of a kind to choose from than on Saturday. Plus, it's indoors, so I can bring stuff I wouldn't put outside... Though, if the weather is as nice as they say it's supposed to be (Fall Foliage anyone?), I'll probably sell quite a few one of a kind jewelry things on Saturday. So, if you want first dibs on anything I've got, you might want to come see me both days... If you can.

Oh, and I just dropped off some new necklaces at Raindance so you can run over to Beacon Friday if you want to be the first to get one of those. I just created a whole new unique-to-the-store design; all with a Vintage bead as the focus and gemstones on the chain. Since I've only made Sterling jewelry for Kathy's store up til now, and Fall is more of a Gold time of the year, I made 4 of the 7 new necklaces in Gold Fill. It went better with the Fall colors. So, if you're more of a gold person and you like one of these:

(the top four are the Gold Fill) you might want to get down there asap before someone else gets the one(s) you like...

Let's see, lots of art and activities plus special shopping opportunities... perfect weather and gorgeous mountain and river sides full of spectacular Fall color... um... the chance to hang out with great people and enjoy a wonderful weekend... um... um... nope, I think that about covers why Beacon NY is the place to be this second weekend in October.

See you there!

Wire Knitting on a Spool

So, if anyone is thinking about buying the book: Wire Knitting... on a spool by Sharon Hessoun, DON'T DO IT! It's a total waste of money and time... unless you want to get so frustrated that you feel like ripping the book in half! Seriously. I came THIS close every time I tried to follow the instructions. And I'm pretty good at figuring things out from books. Almost all the bead weaving techniques I know I learned from books.

Anyway... I got this book with a knitting spool and, even though it's supposed to be for people who've neither knitted or worked with wire, there are almost no illustrations and the actual photos are blurry. Plus, it's $20 for a book that looks like it was put together at Kinkos! Plastic binding through square punch holes and all.

I wasn't very impressed when I got the book but thought I'd give it a shot anyway. I picked it up and started and got frustrated and put it away (for a couple months before trying again) several times over the last 8 months. After about 6 tries to start learning how to do this technique, using the written instructions (that mostly read like jibberish), I once more restrained myself from flinging everything and thought back to when I was 12 - the last time I knitted or crocheted - and finally just figured it out on my own. After a lot of deep breathing.

To be fair, the first couple illustrations make it possible to follow the written directions, but that's just for wrapping the wire on the spool to begin with. After that, there are no illustrations and the written directions make absolutely no sense. Very annoying.

So, I finally figured it out on my own and knitted a few lengths of tubey whatsits and now I have my first necklace using wire knitting (on a spool):

Thanks again to Phil for the watercolor. It's painted to look like stained glass. But you knew that, right?! Oh, and there's some vintage beads and little brass flower links; Quartz, (reconstituted) Larimar, Goshenite, Peridot, and Peruvian Pink Opal beads; and all the wire is actually Gold Fill. [I grabbed the wrong spool for practicing and didn't realize it til I got home and saw the Brass spool sitting there. Kind of hard to tell the difference when the wire is that small, unless there's really good lighting. Good thing I didn't screw it up too much...]

So, whatya think?

I did another couple of banana sections (they really do look like it, only holey and in wire) with beads on them. Still working out the design and bits for using them. Then I figured out I could use wire AND thread. So I did a couple with some Fiber Artist thready stuff. That was actually really hard. I still need some thinking for the design and bits for those too. I'll post pics when I figure the other two out and get them finished up as well.

In case you've just fallen in love with it... I sent an e-mail to Riverwinds to see if they want to add it to my other h2o painting necklaces they have. Just waiting to hear if they want to carry it in the Gallery or not. If so, you can run over and get it there next week. Of course, if you just can't live without it and need it RIGHT now, let me know that (you just have to have it) and I'll make sure you get it. Right now.

Ok.

Back to the book.

I actually did some serious research before I ordered it and only got it because it seemed to be the only one of it's kind. If anyone knows of another wire spool knitting book out there for sale, please, let me know. I'd like to see it but, I'm actually thinking that after a couple months of working on my technique with this, that I'll have Phil take pics while I'm doing it and make my own book. Apparently, if I take it to Kinkos for "publishing", I can still sell it for $20 each, so I might as well give it a shot. Right?

Let me know if you want to reserve your copy now, I think I'll have it finished by Spring. Just leave me a message and I'll put one aside for you. Actually, I'll probably do it as a pdf, buy it online version first. Then, I guess, I'll shop it around to some instructional craft type publishing houses for printing. Since it's said that anything's possible, that means there's always a chance I can get it published by a real publisher too. Right?

You can start crossing fingers and toes for that outcome once I get the online version up. Talk to you more about it then.

No Fuel From Food!!!

A couple years ago, when I heard about the new fuel they were making from corn, I was happily surprised that they finally figured out how to and started making fuel from the wasted corn stalks. Which is what any normal person would have assumed right? Who in their right mind would make ethanol fuel from the actual corn? Which is, as I read further and found out, is exactly what they're doing. Plus biodiesel production from Soybeans (now one of the leading illegally denuding farming culprits in the Amazon rain forests) and Palm Oil (plantations of which are now destroying the forests of Indonesia, Malaysia and Borneo) is becoming such a huge industry that it's affecting people in other parts of the world too. With the millions of extra acres needed to grow food plants for fuel, that also means billions of fewer trees to absorb the problem they're being cut down to solve. Which also leads to other problems, as most of us know, such as lower biodiversity and water issues.

But, with the new flex fuel cars, other straight alcohol burning cars, electric and hydrogen fuel cell cars being designed and developed; plus lots of scientists working on ethanol from non-food sources and lighter, stronger materials to use in basic construction and longer lasting batteries; it looks like a move is being made in the right direction. 

Wrong. The flex fuel cars are only available on a limited basis and mostly sold in the corn belt, where E85 is available all over. Surprise. Not really, since the government actually gives huge subsidies to farmers to use their corn crops for fuel and virtually no money to research and production of other non-food sourced ethanol; with absolutely no discernment between processes that cause more pollution in the production phases and ones that don't. And, E85 flex fuel efficiency is already way lower than regular fuel. Oh, that and the production process of corn based ethanol is actually polluting more than the end result saves, so it's actually making more of an environmental problem. It's a lose/lose product. Can you say: "Greedy scam!"?

With all the hype, you'd also think the move to hybrids is a good thing. Which it is, if the technology is optimized. Did you know that the newer "more efficient" electric with gasoline back up hybrids actually get worse gas milage than the discontinued gasoline with electric back up ones did? Honda Insight was the first of the later type and it got lower gas mileage as it was rereleased right up until it was discontinued but, still gets better gas mileage than the newer hybrids of the same size! Actually. It got about the same gas mileage as a Geo Metro. Hell, I get the same gas mileage on my five year old non hybrid Hyundai as a friend does with a similar sized, brand new, Honda Hybrid! As for the other hybrid options, well, they aren't even options until they start making them. 

So, even though over use of mass produced food based biodiesel is becoming a definite problem, current ethanol fuels are still the worst of the "environmental" helpers here in the States. Besides all the other problems, most of the ethanol from corn is going into our regular gas tanks - none of which are made to run on alcohol - which actually makes every tank of gas "up to 10%" less fuel efficient (I get up to 10 miles a gallon more on gas without ethanol or very little ethanol added!) which means we're all buying more gas so it defeats the purpose. Not to mention the production process for the corn ethanol they're spiking our tanks with is actually more polluting over all than if we didn't use it. 

So, how does this directly relate to jewelry makers and other crafters? 

Well, more food being used for fuel is mostly what's driving up food prices - even when fuel costs are lower - so more people are spending otherwise disposable income on necessities. Worse gas mileage while prices are so high means more of that same income is being spent on gas. Which means less money being spent anywhere else. Which is why fewer people are coming out to the fairs and shows. Crafters and artists and designers, of course, are all in the same boat: paying high prices while trying to make a living, while no one can afford to help them out in that respect. Plus, with delivery costs being so high, all of our basic necessities for our crafts are increasing in cost as well, so we have to charge more to make a profit. Not a good thing. 

It all effects everyone in some way, and this particular "It" is a doozy! If this race to make food based fuel keeps up, it's only going to get worse. Even when gas prices go back down. 

Eliminating corn, and other food crops, as fuel will lower the prices of ALL food products. Eliminating ethanol from our fuel will increase efficiency (and actually reduce the pollution the corn ethanol production makes), and so require less gas while the prices are so high (so does keeping your car tuned and regularly maintained by the way). Changing over from gas to fuels made from waste products, or to electric, will strengthen the country's economy over all. That in turn will mean more money goes back into the regular economy and everyone wins. It's really simple economics. 

So, what can you do to help change this current abuse and get us all moving to the win/win situation we'd all like to be in? Lobby to have the 10% ethanol requirement removed. Write your representatives and tell them you want a ban on using food for fuel and the subsidies going to pay for that food based fuel rerouted to people producing switch grass, algae, corn stalks and other waste product fuel. Tell them you want research grants to go to people working in these fields so they can speed up the research process to get viable mass production from those sources in the next couple years, not ten. If you can afford it, invest in companies that are investing in more sustainable fuel production (GM, surprisingly, is one of them). Tell the major car companies that you will buy their cars IF and WHEN they run on non-gas, non-food fuels; ask if you can reserve yours now. Plug in hybrids are a good idea too; and those are currently  much more feasible for a quick turn around for change; so encourage the companies that have put that technology on the shelf to bring it down. Tell your representative you want extensive tax breaks for switching over to non-gas powered transport now. 

If we all encourage government and commerce to invest in the infrastructure necessary to publicly provide these alternative fuels, now (most companies won't even start production until the fuels are widely available), things will start changing as soon the new government is in. You have to let them know that's a priority though. The more people who speak up, the more they will listen. You can even suggest that the government make these types of changes first. Starting with their own fleets! Hello, Post Office!? No lip service required. Telling them this now, and implying that making these changes is implicit in getting your vote, is key. 

Most people think this is going to take YEARS. In fact, the only barrier to the problems we have are more social and psychological - and governmental. If we speak out and demand products that are possible now, then the companies and government will change quicker. It would be economically better for everyone, so if everyone wants it... and makes a lot of noise about it... it will happen sooner. That's how California almost changed over to electric cars in a just a couple years. It's completely feasible and completely reasonable. As long as we all speak up and ask for it. Demand it. NOW!