Hunting & Gathering

Maybe this should read Gathering & Gardening. This past weekend I was able to enjoy a true Seaglass Sunday along with a Seaglass Saturday as well! The Friday rain was welcome for two reasons. We need rain first and foremost but the rain brought some wind...meaning tides were higher, bringing the gifts from the sea that I so adore possibly into my gathering hands!

With such high hopes for a huge haul of spectacular seaglass it was no wonder I was tricked momentarily by a scrap of blue paper....

Another distraction is my newest genre of collectibles....the "seabrick". Here you see a full size nicely sea worn brick along with a smaller nugget. They have been there on my beach all this time yet I have steadfastly avoided adding them to my pockets. I am admitting now that I in fact, have started a fishbowl collection of these cast off building blocks. Confessions are always difficult.

Distractions while searching for seaglass are not advisable! Stay focused!

And so I almost missed a true gem. A nugget of yellow seaglass! Granted, this may have possibly been made to line the bottom of a flower vase but it is a well worn by the sea piece of yellow glass...and quite the find by my standards!

All praise the yellow nugget. My weekend haul surrounding the prize....geez, what a big head this one little piece of seaglass must have! As tradition, the gathering is laid out on the kitchen counter for all to see. Bits of wampum, my new "seabricks" and one piece of sea pottery along with a nice (but not fantastic) collection of Lordship seaglass. 

Aside from non-edible gatherings, the weekend haul was a success on a different note! 3 different varieties of tomatoes are now ripening. The Cherokee Greens, the Early Girls and the Rambling Yellow Stripes are filling a bowl almost every day. A few more almost ready...stay tuned!

My Seaglass at a Farmer's Market!

A quick post to give a heads up and pass the word...I will be selling my seaglass jewelry at a small but well run farmer's market tomorrow! The Robert Treat Farm in Milford, CT holds a fantastic market on Wednesdays during the summer. Fresh, locally grown produce at great prices, fresh fish, a wood fired pizza oven and various vendors from local areas and just this Wednesday, me!

Check out the website here. 

Come visit and buy your dinner along with a memento of your summer on the shore. Gearing up I have made new earrings, new necklaces and printed out more business cards. Although we need more rain, I am hoping it holds off until later in the evening!

Orange & Yellow

After starting my new job at terrain I am still finding it difficult to focus on what I want to write about these days! I am trying to make my Sundays continue as Seaglass Sundays and I fortunately have that day off every week. Beach walks continue every chance I get all during the week if I have the energy after a long day on my feet! So let me get back to the beach here.....

A joyful find this past week was my first TRULY ORANGE piece of seaglass. It may look a bit amber here but believe me, it is ORANGE! Being one of the rarest colors of seaglass, I was quite excited to say the least.

Another shot of my beach and my find....

Speaking of orange, the common jingle shell is always abundant on the shoreline but sometimes one will catch your eye. Jingles can be white, yellow, orange and shades of black. This one seemed extraordinarily ORANGE! 

Wow....is this as orange as a jingle can be?

The jingle shell and its companion side photographed here. I find that not many beach goers know the other half of our common jingle! It is an interesting bivalve and the less known "valve" or half is affixed to a rock via tufts of threads (through the hole you can see) anchoring the animal. The "pretty" side is the one we all collect or at least admire. Once you recognize the jingle's lesser known half you will be surprised at how many you have missed in your shell searching! And how beautiful they are!

I must give the yellow jingle as much praise as the orange...even though orange is still the color for this 2012 season by design aficionados.

If that is so, this rusty orange forced hot air heating ventilation grate found on my beach is quite in style! My beach is just hip, has lots of orange and thus what can I say?

What is Your Palette?

Seems every place you turn these days you find yourself being asked, what is your palette? What colors do you wear, what colors do you choose in decorating your home or planting a garden? Then the next question...what is your inspiration for each palette? This past week, the seaglass finds were quite plentiful and as usual, I tossed them on my kitchen counter and quite coincidentally, on an open page from House Beautiful.

There was my palette! Many of the colors seemed very similar to my home decor choices....hmmm, I wonder why! Considering how much time I spend walking the shore, it is logical that those colors from nature would be of interest to me. But how to "extract" a true sampling?

Enter the web site pictured here!  I could upload any image from my endless supply in iphoto and this site will generate a palette for me! I was hooked. One after the other photo was uploaded as I sampled this new toy! Then, I can save the custom palette as Photoshop swatches as an .aco file a.k.a. Adobe Color file.

   

For example, here is the kitchen table with its bright and colorful color scheme....

And voila! A full range of colors pulled from the image is now mine to use. Not sure what rocks your boat, makes you smile or gets you a little excited but I find this to be just crazy fun.

Next, I wanted to translate these web colors into a Pantone Swatch so I could use that color in a paint store or most importantly in a garden. Photoshop allows you to replace the preset swatches with that aco. file saved from the Color Palette Generator. Then you select one color, double click to chose which "library" you want to use....and there is my Pantone number.  Got it?  

That's OK....it may not be fun for some but now as I roam my home and garden looking for more color palettes I am sure I will find a few more to show you. So now the question,  

what is your palette and where do you find your inspiration?

Beauties and the Beast

Gifts from the sea. Some a bit surprising at times, some breath taking and some are curiosities. This past week I received a gift from another source but ultimately it was also from the sea. My Aunt Anne searched her attic space for a jar she knew lay hidden...full of seaglass from many years ago. Possibly gathered with her mother, my grandmother and my first seaglass mentor!

Some of the most beautiful pieces I have ever seen were contained in a huge jar she presented to me, knowing my addiction to collecting seaglass was a family trait, a tradition and I would cherish the contents. 

But this treasure chest of beauties didn't mean my seaglass walks could take a breather....quite the opposite. It fueled me!

And quite the curiosity I did find!

A rusty appendage attached to its very worn and stained wood spine.

I question, where could this be from, what did it support and am I holding a little piece of history?

Is it a beast or is it a beauty?

Prehistoric, fossil like and with such a personality, I had to bring it home. Maybe it will go back to the sea, maybe it will become another garden ornament, but for now it is telling me a story.

Some of the "beauties" from the sea are nearby. The lavender piece a gift from my daughter and the aqua green are yet another story. So thick & old and luminous, where are they from? Nuggets of this size and color are certainly not from recent times!

Beauties meet the Beast. But what is the saying? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

They are both beautiful in my mind and especially together. All are gifts from the sea!

Won't You be My Neighbor!

Garden Expo weekend was quite an experience. I give the Expo Committee a huge congratulations for  job well done. Being a local yocal, I saw many Fairfield people that I had not connected with for many years...and that was an extra bonus for me! I did not run through the halls of my high school, 

but I could have :) sorry, I couldn't help saying that.

Sitting all weekend at the expo could have been long and lonely had it not been for my fellow vendors! So I want to thank my neighbors at the Expo. First, Bruce David Photography.  He is an extraordinary photographer and it was great sharing the space with him!

 What did Mr. Rogers say....won't you be my neighbor? Well, Bruce would "bee" an awesome neighbor. He is a beekeeper, raises egg laying chickens, works full time and then still follows his real passion, photography! He can be found at Bruce David Photography.

My other neighbor was the lovely Ellen Hoverkamp.

 I have been a fan of hers since I visited the Expo a few years ago and came upon her unique scanner photography. I bought a tomato print and love it to death! It lives in my hallway looking out towards my back yard. 

Ellen's botanical photographs appear in a new book, The Natural Companion, written by acclaimed garden writer Ken Druse. I bought a signed copy and can't wait to sit down and read it! Ellen's website is entitled My Neighbor's Garden, quite coincidentally! You can find it here.

Ellen also had a fantastic display. She is a true professional at these things and gave me some great pointers going forward. I know I will invite her to my neighborhood Seaglass Jewelry Party! (TBD).

This was my display on the first morning...sun streaming through the gymnasium windows really made the seaglass and sterling sparkle. I was very happy with the entire look but learned that location, location, location makes a huge difference.

The second day of the Expo we were fortunate to be able to move our table to a better location (thanks Alex!) and business picked up a bit.

Next up, possibly a neighborhood Open Studio or in my case, open kitchen table? Who knows, but there are plenty of beautiful necklaces still available and they are safe and sound until I decide how to progress from here!

Gearing up for the Garden Expo

I have been meaning to create a link here for the upcoming Garden Expo at which I will be finally selling my seaglass creations! 

So here it is. The Garden Expo 2012

I am "undercover" though. My decision to embark on this adventure was quite serendipitous. I LOVE that word! I did not plan on making my gems into jewelry...but had it in the back of my mind for forever. Sometimes life changes in the blink of an eye though. Thus, Carol Roche, Seaglass Designs was created and I have been working hard on creating a look, using my graphic design background, my love of seaglass, obviously and much more! To explain though, "undercover" just means my entry for the expo was late and I was asked to share a table with a friend. You will not see my name on the list of vendors but my "tablemate" is Bruce David Photography. Look for us there!

The studio, if you can call it that, has been all about earrings this week. How do you pair one of a kind pieces of seaglass up with each other to create earrings for two ears? I can't call in a dating service! So I have to let my sense of color, and shape relax a bit. Taking a few deep breaths this week anyways!

The earring display was created from a garden piece of driftwood. Had to do a little bug eradication first though! Quite the "Matterhorn" of earring displays...funny, that word serendipitous comes into play again but only a few will make that connection.

Staging, pricing and all sorts of projects seem to emerge from my basement studio to end up in the kitchen. The natural light lets me see what I need to see! I promise I will clean it all up soon!

 

My marketing and design background kicks into gear when given the right opportunity. This time I couldn't pass up the chance. The Garden Expo starts on Saint Patrick's Day! So, how many people put their noses up at the most common green seaglass pieces? Not I.

I drilled a little too fast and a few too many today. One piece just exploded! The drill was quite bent out of shape, literally. I put a quick order into Gesswein, conveniently for me, located in Bridgeport! I hope to be back up and running tomorrow. Then, on Saturday, selling my seaglass to people who will wear it and cherish it!

Cruisin with my Camera

Lordship is waking up! The air is warming and our little hamlet (as I call it) is all abuzz. Walkers, runners, cyclists and in-line skaters are beginning to multiply. Because the flat seaside hugging roads are perfect for all these activities, many old fashioned type bicycle riders enjoy the social, slow, foot brake only models called "Cruisers".

I brought out our newest Cruiser, a Tommy Bahama owned by my lovely daughter for the inaugural ride of the year. This one didn't need its tires pumped so sadly, I left my old favorite in the garage until I had time to do some work on it. Of course, the camera came with me and there was a purpose....as usual.

I have been eyeing these old wooden beach boardwalks for some time. Something about them intrigues me. So graphic, simple and naturally worn by time and weather.

I guess I am an Ansel Adams wanna be! But at the same time, my new venture into jewelry is forefront in my mind right now. So, back to the house to retrieve my newly made seaglass earrings! Ideas starting to take hold.

The idea was to incorporate the earrings into this post about the beach boardwalk. Sometimes though, ideas fail. Nothing popped other than the weathered wood. Hmmmm. Moving right along to the next idea!

Wind fence, rust and shiny sterling silver & seaglass earrings...what a perfect  combination! I think I have found my spot for many more earring and necklace "beauty shots". I feel like this is my laundry line...where I set them out to catch some rays and dry off.

 

From to their beginnings at the beach, and now re-purposed as a tribute to nature, I think my seaglass pieces have completed the circle of life!