I love witnessing the seasonal shifts. I get pretty quiet in the Winter. Besides the general and constant moving and shaking that a coupla kids & a coupla jobs requires, I tend to stick close to the woodstove, try to catch up on some reading, and percolate. It can be a dry time of year, but I try to keep the creative juices flowing. Scheming, drawing, dreaming, reflecting, reconnecting. It's slow going, but it goes.
In the studio I've been working on some custom projects, some fun custom horsehair pieces (with hair trimmed from the family's horses), a few very special rings for very special lovers, and then some sketching and experimenting with some ideas for new designs. I've fallen in to a pit of sand casting glory. By that I mean I've been stuck on it. Playing, experimenting, guessing, going, experimenting more. I've been using the process/materials to invite an element of the unknown, of suprise, of the potentially unexpected to my work. Metalsmithing can be a prettycalculated and exacting craft---so I revel in finding ways to subvert that a bit. We'll see where it all leads...
(winter reading included She of the Mountains (Vivek Shraya), Americanah (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements (Compilation), A Queer and Pleasant Danger (Kate Bornstein), Briarpatch Magazine, Chani Nicholas horoscopes and the usual smattering of self-help books re: chronic pain/mental health, etc.)