Maridadi photoshoot

My bags are packed, I'm on my way ... leaving for South Africa today.

A quick blog before I head out the door.   I've been beading up a storm -- had two jewelry shows in the past three weeks. I was so honored to have some talented young photographers and a lovely model come to my house and take photos of  a few of my Maridadi necklaces.  

The photos deserve a wider audience, here is a selection.

Photo by Justin Peele

Deep indigo glass and Indian silver.

Photo by Tyree Cheatham

I found these remarkable vintage clay beads at an antique show in Cape Town a couple of years ago.  They are actually spindle whorls from Mali (used to weight spinning shafts).  I have paired them with black coconut shell discs from Nigeria and hand-cast powdered glass beads from Ghana (possibly started life as beer bottles!) .  A very exotic and elegant necklace. 

Photo by Samantha Potter

These rich looking beads are known as Cherry Amber -- highly esteemed in Ethiopia.

Photo by Samantha Potter

 Baltic Amber (millions of years old) and African Malachite.  I found the 

unusually large bead in Nairobi years ago and have been saving it for something special. 
  This necklace looks stunning on Autumn skin tones.

Photo by Lauren Hawkins

The focal bead is from India with lapis in the center.  The blue beads were hand-cast in Ghana from crushed glass (possibly old iodine bottles)   

Photo by Lauren Hawkins 

I named this necklace "Zen". It has a fine old Baoule Bronze, Chinese turquoise and Jasper.

Photo by Shanita Dixon

A dramatic long necklace with a large old Baoule Bronze made in the ancient lost-wax
 casting method,  and a wonderful irregular cow bone bead from Kenya. 

Photo by Tyree Cheatham

A collection of handsome Cherry Amber necklaces I've made and paired with 

old silver and bronze beads from Africa and India 

Many thanks to Michelle for encouraging her talented photographic students in this project

Must run to catch my plane --- oops my carry-on bag is awfully heavy --- 

 WAY too many necklaces.

 

Flower Power

Spring!   The early flaunt of  pink and  white suspended in the naked woods.  It’s greening around the dogwoods and the redbuds now, denser by the day, and color is moving to the ground -- ephemeral spring blooms -- Easter pastels, delicate and brief  -- scattered through the forest.

Prosaic suburban streets are transformed.  I adjust my driving route to get the best show.  The dense drape of wisteria high in trees at a street corner, the brave stand of tulips at the base of an oak, the exuberant mass of orange azalea tumbling down a slope with a foreground of white spirea, a sidedrop of forsythia fading.

And turn into my own driveway and look across at the profusion of azalea, a kaleidoscope of color bursting  beyond the float of dogwood, set in the  smooth emerald of freshly mown grass and weeds.  The joy springs up, swollen in my chest. Even at times of worry and uncertainty, the power of this beauty feeds the soul, lifts the spirits.   Spring – aptly named.

 We lost a giant Water Oak last July.  The space it occupied still shivers with memory but now the added light, the added rain nurtures my azaleas.  They are exuberant, proudly giving their all. 

Last month I was at the Philadelphia International Flower Show.  It is the oldest indoor flower show in the world (began in 1892) and is also the largest.   So big that, even though we were there for many hours, we still didn’t get to see everything.   

The theme was  Hawaii, Islands of Aloha.  Orchids and anthuriums and other tropical plants  in their thousands,  a 25 foot high waterfall,  a Fire Goddess dance, a glowing blue digital wave.   Crowds queued for tickets ($30) and pressed in a human wave alongside the displays, digital cameras extended from almost every arm (mine included).  

Despite the press and density of humanity the air was fragrant with floral scents, the atmosphere one of awe, almost reverence.  I looked around me at people of all ages and sizes, at families, at tattooed men, old ladies. They had spent all that money and were forced to shuffle patiently through the show,  and yet their faces were suffused with wonder and a sort of calm and joyful happiness.

And it gave me great joy and a surge of hope to think that all of these people  (270,000 this year)  were prepared to spend that much time and money in the honor of flowers!!!

Here are a few of my pics – all of floral displays. (Wish I’d also had the nerve to photograph faces of strangers being nourished by this transient living beauty.) 

a little table arrangement!

All out Hawaiian

made from petals and leaves

God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.   

Francis Bacon