A Hook to Save Your Hand!!

A young man in Austin, Harrison Richards, has started his own company by creating a unique line of hand turned exotic wood crochet hooks that allow your hand muscles to totally relax while you are "hooking".  As a massage therapist concerned with my own hand function, as well as that of many of my carpal tunnel clients, I am just totally taken aback with the elegance, simplicity and form/function design of these beautiful polished hooks.

Using a hook specifically made to rest in the palm of your hand, your hand muscles relax, a far cry from what happens when you try to hold and work with a skinny metal hook for lengths of time.

I received mine this week, and yesterday had a glorious lazy day re-learning my dusty/rusty crochet skills. I have been a long-time knitter, but I also have experienced some repetitive motion issues with that craft... so this idea totally intrigued me when I was recently invited to an event to try them out. Because this hook was so comfortable to use, I started and completed a small basket (pattern on Ravelry) in no time at all.

People that know me well, know that I value things made by hand (as well as the artists who support themselves entirely by their own hand).  A Furls Crochet Hook is a piece of art, and - the BONUS:  a tool to actually preserve and extend hand function for fiber artists.   Amazing.  Check it out!!

Furls Crochet

Compartmentalize. or NOT!

I have recently become aware that I have had a lifetime obsession (fixation??) with making containers.  Useful, or "un-useful" (but touchable, beautiful... textured).  Quilted, knitted... crocheted..

and now, moving on to crochet...

What does it mean?  It's (as usual) about the process, the joy of making them, but it is also about the object.  the vessel, the bag, the basket.  The container.  To contain something.  One thing.  Many little things.... or nothing.

While trying to find my way in the making a living department, and the "living my life" for the first time department, and also the "starting" of a new series on the wall (hello,  procrastination!), what does this container obsession mean about who I am?  It's not a new thing; I have always been drawn to making something... that holds something else.

So I think - Is it that the making of these containers is a way to let the "control" genie out of the box?  I would like to envision that the "making" process... whatever is going on, is an expression of the "controlling" me... and if that part of me can be released each time a container is finished, can the"other", more free side of me, just let go and GET A MOVE ON?

Meanwhile, I watch and wonder at the color in the skies, every day... finding peace, absorbing changing color...

Marblehead, MA, Sept 2012

Pond sky, at home in Austin, November

Coots, Mallards, Austin, December 2012

Peeling, Shredding... shedding...

November 2012 themes:  

Stripping away to the base elements... peeling paint, stripping bark layers... the textured layers on the way to the core...

The studio space is now more spare (yet more furniture giveaways), to allow for a 100 x 100 work wall which is now in place.  I am quite itching to get to a series of larger works again, once the Blanco Holiday Open House this Friday November 23rd concludes.

A note of interest which I should have spread the word about, but haven't:

For another 2 weeks I have work on exhibit at the newly reopened Santa Anita Gallery in McAllen, Texas; Linda Lewis being the new owner/curator.  Lisa Kerpoe's fabulous art is also featured.

Linda Lewis Gallery Santa Anita Gallery Building 1500 Pecan Blvd. McAllen, TX  75201 lewis1997@hotmail.com 956-332-3544 Facebook The show is up through end of November;  Hours:  Tues - Thurs 12 --6pm ; Sat 10 - 5 pm or by appointment

So it's been a while...  But I'm back...

During this past year of many life transitions, I have finished school, opened my business, sold my house and most things I owned, downsized to a 1 Bedroom apartment, traveled to the northeast and midwest for P Lowe Studio Massage Therapy, and followed my nose to some simply beautiful scenery during the fall season.

Had I seen this sign before I arrived in Ohio, I might not have thought so much about its significance - but now, it just makes me smile - and reminds me of all the challenges and highlights - of an extraordinary conversion. To - slowing down my life!  (Hey, if I can do it, you can do it, too...)

Rippling Stream Campground, Baltimore, OH

I will be home in Austin in a few weeks, but right now I am savoring the reflection time; to process what has gone on; living in the NOW in the variable weather conditions; sketchbook time from New England photos; sewing in the van!  Knitting overdue projects for friends and family.  Productive but calm and meditative time.  Yay for that.

I also want to talk about Peru, and the overwhelming and lush textural imagery from that trip - but we will save that for another time....

Understanding the Healing Process || Massage Therapy Articles

This is a great article describing the tissue healing process after an injury to skin or muscle or other underlying tissue.  I've had my own struggle recently with a minor surgical repair that busted wide open and then I needed to have a re-stitching of the same area, long after tissue granulation.  Now it's time for the value of massage to help the  healing along, and reduce the scar tissue and adhesions!

Understanding the Healing Process || Massage Therapy Articles

When to Ask for Help! (4 weeks to go...)

So, as you can see, it took at least 4 people to hoist me up on a very small donkey (Maras, Peru last fall).

I hate asking for help (it runs in the family). Most comfortable doing things myself.  Learned that early on.  Can't seem shake it. 

But, as with most things, sometimes it takes a massive switcheroo to change your thinking.  Same with school. For the most part, the past 8 months I have toiled away, alone. But increasingly, I realize how important my small but (critical) personal support circle is to me, and I will be leaning on them even more, these next few months.

Hooray for good friends!!!  I need you all to keep propping me up!