Since April 20 and the announcements that there was oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico and that the oil companies had no idea how to deal with it all, I have been working on beading projects. I am extremely upset about this spill and the devastation that is being brought on the environment and the people who struggle to make their living from the gifts from the sea. I am totally apalled at how the compaqnies involved are dealing with this mega disaster. I know that alot of my anxiety goes back to a time when I was a uyoungster on the beaches in Santa Barbara California, during the oil spills in the Santa Barbara Chanel. I walked those beaches and we helped to rescue birds and sea life from the devastation. I have never forgotten coming home after a trip to the beach and having to clean the oil tar off of our feet with gasoline or kerosene. That spill was a drop in the bucket compared to this one. They say that things that happen early on in your life, can greatly impact your adult life. In my case this spill has brought on a huge wave of anger towards the oil companies who are doing all they can to make money and cut corners to get what they want. It has also reinvigorated my energy to fight any forms of offshore drilling anywhere along our shores as it is totally obvious that the Oil companies are not to be trusted.
I also have extended family members who make their livings as fishermen,, who work on the sea and care for the animals and fishes who inhabit it and who depend on the pristine beaches of Cape Cod , for their livelyhood, through tourism and summer rental properties. The oceans give us so very much and there is a very definate limit as to how much we can perturb the environment, before we are left with an empty lifeless pool.
In my state of stress I have turned to the rhythmic activity of creative beadwork, in the evening. I am working on projects to encase my own treasured gifts from the sea.
This first attempt at bead weaving around glass, turned out better than I had hoped. I found this piece of coke bottle glass at the mouth of the Potomac river. The color is wonderful and I love the grid texture. The piece is bigger than most pieces that I have, at about 2 by 3 inches. I am planning on making it into a focal pendant for a glass necklace combined with some of my treasured african recycled glass beads.
This is a piece of an old blue glass canning jar that I found in the surf at Nauset Beach on Cape Cod , last summer. This will also be a focal pendant.
This teardrop shaped piece is a lovely sea green color and it is so very smooth. I love creating these pieces and I hope to create several to offer as pendants, in my Etsy shop. If anyone of you has a special piece of glass or a stone that you would like to be able to wear as a pendant , feel free to contact me! (for email see my profile on the right hand border of this blog)
I would love to do some custom pieces for those who might be interested.
I really did not intend to rant about the oil spill situation, I guess that I really did not know the extent of my anger about this situation till I began to write about it!
Once again I have come to realize how very important my art is to my state of well being and to my abilities to manage various stressors that can arise from the most distant of events.
Art heals, art is therapy, art is very important.
Art heals, art is therapy, art is very important.
