Bambi and Mom

I try to take my dog for a walk twice a day - once in the morning and once again in the afternoon or evening.  One early summer, late afternoon day last year, my dog and I were walking down my driveway through the meadow that is outside of my house.  I stopped as I saw something brown in the grass. I thought it might be an injured animal. Fortunately, my dog was on a leash and since we hadn’t gone far, I took him back to the house so I could investigate.

What I saw blew me away. It was a baby deer. It wasn’t afraid of me at all.  It was curled up in the grass, like a puppy sleeping.  I took a couple of pictures and went back to the house. I did what I always do whenever any problem arises. I Googled it.  I learned that when deer are first born, they can’t keep up with their mom, so she finds a spot that she thinks is safe and leaves the baby deer to go out and do her daily deer mom stuff. Sometimes those spots are in grass like in my meadow. Other times it’s by downed trees or bushes.  Baby deer give off no scent and don’t have any fears yet, so predators cannot easily find them. They just hang out and wait for mom to come back.  This baby deer was probably 3-5 weeks old.

I decided that I needed to keep watch and to make sure that mom came back. I stood on my deck and waited. Eventually the mom returned and the baby deer got up and went with her. 

For the rest of the summer though, I saw them hanging out around my house, surrounding forest and on dog walks in my neighborhood.  It was really cool to watch a deer grow up. 

Something that most people don’t know is that deer are actually fairly vocal.  They make a throaty, grunting sound. It sounds like a cross between a person with throat cancer trying to shout and a bizarre bird squawk. If you ever want to hear it yourself, just Google it. There are a number of YouTube videos of deer making their grunting screech. What I’ve observed is that they primarily make noise when they’re upset or trying to find their friends or family. I hear it most at night surrounding my house.  Sometimes they’re so noisy that it’s hard to sleep.

One day towards the end of the summer on a dog walk I saw the deer mom, by herself in my driveway.  I stopped to let her pass, but she didn’t. She held her ground. I did too. She acted like an agitated horse and started stomping her hoof into the ground.  She made the irritated screech noise and jumped up into the air. Finally she ran away.  My dog and I continued our walk down the driveway and through the neighborhood.  For the entire walk the deer followed us staying at the edge of the forest watching. It seemed clear to me that her deer child was now gone and she was looking to us for answers - like maybe we were the culprits or at least knew something.  Eventually we crossed another meadow. The deer mom came out into the clearing and stared at us.  She raised her head, screeched into the air and ran into the woods.  I never saw her again. 

Now it’s a new summer. This year there is a deer teenager that hangs out around my house. It reaches over the dilapidated garden fence and has eaten all of my blueberries.  All that I got out of this year’s crop has been two little individual berries.  It’s okay. I can buy them in the store.

I Hate Snakes!!

I'm fine with Bambi hanging out in my yard. I've even learned how to live with the ticks. But... I just found a snake curled up in my cordless drill charger in my home studio. This is on a 40" tall workbench, so it's way off the ground. Bears, turkeys, coyotes, weasels & endless mice, chipmunks & squirrels that I see regularly I'm okay with. Snakes climbing up 3.5 feet to hang out next to my pickle pot..,, Not okay!! I'm not Crocodile Dundee. I'm more Indiana Jones. I hate snakes!!

I went into the house. Put on jeans, boots, my heaviest jacket & leather gloves. I modified some barbecue tongs to become snake-catching tongs. Dumped out the ashes from a galvanized steel ash can & looked up on Wikipedia to see what kind of snake it was. It's either a milk snake or a timber rattler. Given that timber rattlers are really rare in NH, I decided it was probably a milk snake, but I wasn't taking any chances.

I procrastinated endlessly, until finally I just decided to do it. Once I got close and slightly touched it, it woke up & moved really frigging fast behind the pickle pot. Now I was totally screwed. There was no turning back. I had to trust in my abilities as a metalsmith with my specially-modified-snake-catching-barbecue-tongs and in my head-to-toe safety equipment. The snake kept moving around as I moved objects on the workbench to expose it.

Finally there was a reasonable amount of snake exposed. I went in with my specially-modified-snake-catching-barbecue-tongs & grabbed it. It was stronger than I thought it would be. It wrapped itself onto a speaker cable, but I used my super-human, Indiana Jones-like strength, tossed it into the ash can and clamped the steel lid down tight. I had to walk around a little bit, to let my heart rate settle. Then I trekked about a half mile into the forest & let my new buddy out in a grassy meadow.

Everyone is afraid of something. For me it's snakes & heights. I took the day off today to work on reroofing my studio roof. Now it's onto the roof. I don’t care though. It's strange, but there is a strong sense of calm after confronting a fear. That said, if I ever find a snake inside any of my dwellings ever again, I’m frigging moving!!

Mice In The Mailbox

I don’t get a lot of mail at my house. I live in the woods and it’s easier to get my mail delivered to my post office box in town. Most of the mail that does get delivered to my mailbox is junk mail.  Because important mail rarely shows up, I don’t look inside the box regularly. Not long ago I checked the mailbox to clean it out and to my surprise there was a family of mice in there.  How did they got in? I have no idea, but there were at least three or four mice. They had chewed up my junk mail, brought in some leaves and other natural debris and made a snuggly little home.

I didn’t want to do anything dramatic to kick them out, so in the morning on the way to work I opened the mailbox door, left it down and drove away.  I figured that they would get the hint and go find a new home.  When I came back at the end of the day, the mailbox door was closed.  I looked inside. The postman had delivered more junk mail and the mice were still there. I don’t know what the postman thought? Maybe he didn’t even see them? I left the box door closed so they could have a night of peace and quiet.

The next morning I tried again. I left for work with the mailbox door down. This time when I came home at the end of the day, the mailbox door was still down.  I was excited thinking that the mice had to have moved out, but when I peeked inside they were still there, all huddled up in the corner. They didn’t seem bothered by me looking at them.  It was pretty interesting to watch them run around.

This went on for a week. They didn’t care if the mailbox door was open or closed. This was their home.  Finally in the morning before work, I decided that I had to up the ante and got a stick.  I pounded on the mailbox a little.  No effect.  I gently put the stick inside the mailbox. That freaked them out and they all ran away.  I used the stick to scrape out their nest. I closed the mailbox door and went off to start my day. I figured that it was finally resolved and the mailbox was mine again.

When I came home at dusk I looked inside the mailbox.  The mice had moved back in. Only now they didn’t look happy. They looked very sad and confused, piled on top of each other in the corner where their nest used to be.

I decided at that moment that the mice had won.  I went to the hardware store and bought a new mailbox. I put some junk mail in the old mailbox and carefully moved it onto a stump in the forest by a stream.  It seemed like a good place to live to me. I hope that they’re happy there. I’ve never looked inside. It’s not my mailbox anymore.

Back in the Land of Slugs and Starfish – Trinidad, CA – Labor Day Weekend, 2014

I’m in Trinidad, California this weekend. Trinidad is about 6 hours north of San Francisco. It's a small fishing town that's about 20 miles away from Redwood National Park and the tallest trees in the world. I lived here for almost 30 years before I moved to New Hampshire.  While I spent my youth in the SF Bay Area, Trinidad is where I feel like I grew up. I moved to Trinidad fresh out of high school to attend Humboldt State University. I was 18 years old and stayed here until I was 49. There are more memories and friendships in this little town than I can count.  Probably everyone has a place where they feel like their soul resides. For me, it’s here.  This morning I took a long run and ended up at Trinidad State Beach.  I saw some true Pacific North Coast images.  Banana slugs and starfish.  In my crazy, convoluted career where I’ve done whatever I’ve had to do to keep the ship afloat, at one point I made a low-end jewelry line that I called, “Pacific Icons.” My concept was to highlight quirky North Coast Images like Big Foot, salmon, redwood trees, salamanders and of course, banana slugs.  I’m slightly embarrassed now to say, that at many a craft fair, slug jewelry saved the show for me. 

 It’s going to be a great weekend.  I’m staying at my old college buddy, Bryce’s house here in Trinidad. Another old college buddy Bill, is driving up from L.A. today.  We’re having a reunion of sorts. Bryce is a passionate ocean fisherman.  Tonight, it’s a fresh salmon barbeque.  Mmmm!!

Pacific Icon Series - Jeff Georgantes

Grapes, Earthquakes and Wood-Framed Houses - August 25, 2014

On August 24, 2014 there was a big earthquake centered in Napa, CA, which is right in the heart of California’s wine country.  The quake was about 6.2 and was the biggest Northern California earthquake in 25 years.  It caused a lot of damage and injured about 70 people. Fortunately, as of today, no one has died.  Thousands of bottles of wine were destroyed and a lot of old brick buildings were damaged.

 As crazy as it was, the plan after teaching at Mendocino was to drive to my friends John and Theresa Frei’s new home.  John is co-owner of Otto Frei Jewelry Equipment in Oakland, CA. He and Theresa recently purchased an 18-acre vineyard and remodeled the old house on the property. Their new home is just 7 miles from Napa.  As soon as I heard about the earthquake I texted John to make sure everything was okay.  He said the house shook like crazy, but that absolutely nothing happened. Not even a glass fell over.

 I lived in California for almost 50 years and have experienced countless earthquakes.  While there certainly are exceptions, for the most part, rural, single story, wood-framed houses do really well in earthquakes.  It’s the multi-story unreinforced masonry structures that are packed together in cities that are super dangerous.  John and Theresa live in a wood-framed house in the middle of a farm. The night I spent at their house there was a 3.something after-shock in the middle of the night. It was a tangible reminder that Mother Nature is really in charge. It’s also a reminder to not have a big aquarium next to your bed in California!

 It was super fun hanging out with John. Within minutes of being there we jumped on tractors and drove around the property. I was fascinated by how good wine grapes taste and I couldn’t stop eating them.  John gave me a bag of freshly picked pinot grigio grape clusters and a couple of bottles of his pinot grigio wine. Next, I’m headed to Trinidad, CA, my old home town, to have a reunion with some of my oldest friends.  I’m really excited to have a fresh grape & wine tasting combo with some well-aged college buddies.

Mendocino Art Center – Susan Elizabeth Wood Jewelry Studio, August 23, 2014

In August, I flew out to California to teach a stone setting workshop at the Mendocino Art Center.  That’s the place where for about 15 years, I helped run the jewelry program with my good friend Susan Wood.  Susan and I went to college together and years later came together again to make something magic happen - a vibrant jewelry program in one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Mendocino is about 3 hours north of San Francisco. It’s on a small peninsula that juts out into the ocean, which makes it feel like you’re on an island.   Lots of movies & TV shows have been filmed there over the years because it’s so exceptionally picturesque.

 Susan died of cancer in 2006, not long after I started my Dartmouth position.  She was from Mendocino and pretty much grew up at the Art Center.  It was a central part of her entire life.  She truly loved the place.  It was a very fitting gesture that after she died, the school named the jewelry studio after her.

 Over the past couple of years, the Mendocino Art Center has completely remodeled and expanded the Susan Elizabeth Wood Jewelry Studio.  It’s an impressive transformation with an expanded space that more than doubles its size and has bucket loads of new equipment. It’s nothing like the funky jewelry studio with a dream that Susan and I made happen with our little $5000 loan. It’s a real kick-butt facility.  Huge kudos goes to Nancy Gardner, the new Jewelry Studio Director, Lindsay Shields, the Executive Director, John Cornacchia, Board President and everyone else who contributed to this magnificent transformation.

 Because it is a radically new space, the Art Center wanted to have a rededication ceremony to Susan Wood and they timed it to happen during my workshop time.  About 20 artists created handcrafted letters spelling out Susan’s name to create one of the most imaginative signs that you’ll ever see for the studio front door.  Lots of people came to the ceremony that have been supporters of the Art Center and also of Susan.  Jack and Marilyn Da Silva, Cheryl Rydmark, Tara Turner, Jima and Carli Abbott, Dennis and Mariana Toth, Dana Driver, Irene McGuckin are some of them. It was a fantastic toast to a new space and to Susan Wood, an amazing woman whose spirit will live on with every hammer blow, file stroke and melted chip of solder in that jewelry studio by the sea.

Dartmouth's Radical Jewelry Makeover: December 2013 - August 2014

Without a doubt the biggest project that I’ve led this year has been the Radical Jewelry Makeover (RJM) at Dartmouth College. RJM is a project imagined by Ethical Metalsmiths, America’s only artist-based non-profit devoted to sustainable mining practices of precious metals and stones. The project was funded by Dartmouth’s Hopkins Center for the Arts’ Community Venture Initiative.

 For two months, the Hopkins Center for the Arts’ Outreach Program collected unwanted jewelry of all kinds from across our region in a process Ethical Metalsmiths calls “community mining.” They collected about 5 large storage bins of jewelry!! From there the students and instructors of the Hop’s Donald Claflin Jewelry Studio took over to sort and categorize the jewelry into raw materials that could be reimagined into new objects in a variety of events. 

 The first event in April, 2014, were two days of free jewelrymaking workshops open to community members.  Registration for the workshops filled in just one day, which caught everyone off guard! Over 100 people from ages 8 to 80 came to the Claflin Jewelry Studio to make jewelry from the community mined materials. Participants were encouraged to donate some or all of what they made for a jewelry sale in May.  It was a huge success.

 The next event was to coordinate a professional exhibition of jewelry made from the community-mined materials.  Specially chosen packets of materials were sent to about 20 professional artists across America all who had a Dartmouth connection. These included Dartmouth alumni who became professional jewelers, past Claflin Studio guest artists, past and present artist in residents and instructors. The artists had almost two months to interpret their packets of materials however they were inspired to.  Some artists made work that looked nothing like the original pieces by melting down the metal, casting new forms and resetting the stones, others captured the reimagined essence of the found materials in remarkable ways.

 All of this culminated on May 12, 2014, with a talk by Christina Miller, Executive Director from Ethical Metalsmiths, a panel discussion with Christina Miller, local jeweler Paul Gross ’73, Earth Sciences professor Mukul Sharma and moderated by Paulette Werger, the professional exhibition preview, sale of the community-made jewelry and a reception. About 120 people came to Dartmouth’s Alumni Hall for the event.

 The following day, the exhibition entitled “Radical Jewelry Makeover - Beyond the Blue Box” moved to its location in the Harrington Gallery, a space generously lent to us by the Hood Museum.  In all honesty, I think that exhibition was my greatest accomplishment in my time here at Dartmouth.  Nineteen professional artists participated. All of them making new work for just for this exhibition.  It was a spectacular display!

 It was so spectacular we needed to give it some more life. I arranged for the exhibition to travel to Hanover’s Designer Gold Gallery where it’s been on display all summer. It’s up until the end of August 2014.  If you can check it out you won’t be disappointed!

 Special thanks goes to Stephanie Pacheco, my co-conspirator, Ann DiLalla, Erin Smith, Becky Bailey, Sara Morin, Ashlee Robinson, Paulette Werger, Kerstin Nichols, Suzanne Jones, Case Hathaway-Zepeda, Paul and Peggy Gross, Mukul Sharma, Revolution Boutique, Marga Rahmann, Margaret Lawrence, Jeff James, Joe Clifford, the students from the Claflin Studio, Suzie Ganch, Christina Miller, the Hood Museum, the Hop’s Community Venture Initiative, all the members of the CVI Task Force and to all of the artists and community members who participated and donated jewelry to help make a magnificent moment that lingered for a long while happen. 

 More Info:

·      Hopkins Center’s Radical Jewelry Makeover Info Page (including lots of pictures): hop.dartmouth.edu/Online/rjm 

·      Ethical Metalsmiths: ethicalmetalsmiths.org

·      WCAX Burlington, VT, TV spot, (including a Jeff Georgantes interview) http://www.wcax.com/category/166239/video-landing-page?clipId=9725975&autostart=true

·      SEVEN DAYS, Interview, Burlington, VT: http://www.7dvt.com/2014hopkins-center-links-campus-and-community-radical-arts-initiative

·      Designer Gold Gallery, Hanover, NH hosted the RJM Exhibition July-August, 2014 designergoldjewelry.com

Haystack - Super Moon Eve

The day after Jim Cotter was finished with his Dartmouth duties, I drove him up to his workshop at Haystack School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine and spent the night.  Haystack is where I took my first jewelry workshop back in 1976. I was about 20 years old and drove across the USA with my high school friends, Tim and Tom Finger. That summer and everything that happened changed my life and put me on the path that I have followed for more years than I can count.  It was really fun to watch the sun set and the moon rise over the ocean. The next morning at this exact same spot I saw a small pod of dolphins about a stone's throw away from where I stood.  An unbelievable moment!!

Jim Cotter, Dartmouth Visit, August 8, 2014

Jim Cotter, a legend in the jewelry world, came to Dartmouth for a day and night that was jam-filled with activities.  Jim is from Vail, Colorado, where he owns two galleries.  He's been making innovative jewelry and sculpture for about 50 years. Jim gave a two-hour demonstration to both Dartmouth's and Hanover's League of New Hampshire Craftsmen students on entrapping objects for jewelry making with expansion cement.  In the hands of an artist, cement can look like stone and is about as durable.  Then Jim gave a public presentation open to the community about his long and diverse career.  I found myself thinking all throughout his slide show, "Damn! That's where I got that idea!", over and over again. Jim has been so frigging innovative and influential for so long it's easy to forget where some ideas have come from. For instance, Jim was probably one of the first contemporary jewelry artists to combine rough found rock with diamonds and gold.  Many people, myself included, owe a creative debt to Jim Cotter.  Immediately following his slide presentation, everyone was invited to Hanover's Designer Gold Gallery for an exhibition and reception of Jim Cotter's work. It was frigging awesome to spend the afternoon hearing him Jim talk about his process in his workshop, then to see a cross section of his work and the stories behind it and finally to witness a fairly comprehensive exhibition of his recent work face to face. The Designer Gold exhibition has about 35 pieces of Jim Cotter's work. It's open for the rest of August. If you're in the Hanover area, do yourself a favor and check it out. You won't regret it.  designergoldjewelry.com