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The Blogging Corner

The Importance of Community

5/23/2017

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PictureWith my friend Anne and woodworker/author Nancy Hiller.
If you follow me on Instagram, you've been hearing me reference an event called: Handworks.  Handworks was a gathering held in Amana, Iowa, honoring woodworking tools and traditions.  Am I a woodworker? Not really.  However, this event was very important for me to attend based on the relationships I have built through social media.  
Last fall, a tool maker from Australia whom I follow on Instagram, mentioned Handworks and suggested my husband and I consider attending. If he was coming all the way from Australia, we had little excuse not to drive 8 hours and check out what all the fuss was about. As the months leading up to Handworks passed by, I found myself increasingly excited to meet up with other makers of handcrafts.  I wanted to know about their personal experiences, how their businesses got started, what tools they most enjoyed using, and what inspires them.  
Many of us in this group of makers have admitted that we are a bit introverted, some are downright shy. We share our work daily or weekly on social media but we spend most of our time drawing ideas, planning projects, building things in our workshops, often alone in our thoughts. I wondered if it would be awkward to be the new kid with some of the people who already had forged "real" relationships. I wondered if we'd have much to talk about.
Upon arriving at the Handworks grounds on Friday morning, my husband and I headed to a little brick building to start making our way through the venues.  When we opened the doors, there stood Instagram's @anneofalltrades and @toddnebel.  Without really thinking it through, I threw up my arms and said, "Hey!! It's my friends!" They turned around and laughed and we all shared a group hug. 
As we visited and toured the rest of the grounds together, meeting up with other friends along the way, we laughed, ate beef jerky and swapped stories.  By the time evening rolled around, we met for dinner and the volume in the pizza parlor was uproarious. I joked, "Who knew that introverts could make so much noise?" The truth was, we all shared a common ground.  Even though many of us were meeting for the first time, we were invested in each other's journey. In some cases, we had already spent years encouraging each other, offering motivation to one another, even collaborating on projects across state lines and across oceans.  
Community, as defined by Google is, "a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals." I returned home grateful for the time spent with these friends, recharged and ready to make new things, happy to have forged lasting friendships in a community of makers.
​**Shown below are some of my favorite photos from the weekend. Click on them to read a bit about each maker**

Links to the makers in the photos above:
Anne of All Trades - www.anneofalltrades.com/
PrezslerWoodshop- www.preszlerwoodshop.com/
Todd Nebel - www.instagram.com/toddnebel/
Matt Eich - muleresophonic.com/
Konrad Sauer - sauerandsteiner.blogspot.ca/
Kieran Binnie - overthewireless.com/
Chris Vesper - www.vespertools.com.au/
Jason & Sarah Thigpen - www.txheritage.net/
Handworks - handworks.co/

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A Brand New Heirloom

5/8/2017

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These rings may look old but they are handcrafted and brand new with a bit of a story behind them.  My mom loved antique jewelry and would sometimes take pieces to a local jeweler for cleanings and repairs. I remember going into the jewelry store with her and watching the jeweler polish rings on the buffing wheel while I surveyed the myriad of tools and wax molds on his workbench. There was also a book I would thumb through containing engraved rings with ornate designs. Eventually, the shop closed and I had no recollection of who the jeweler was.  However, I never forgot the unique look of his work.  

About five years ago, my husband heard of a tiny jewelry shop that someone recommended we check out. When we walked in, I immediately recognized the jeweler's face and the style of work in the case.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I got a little bit choked up as I was remembering my visits to his earlier shop. My mother had recently passed away and I inherited her diamond ring.  I asked the jeweler, Mr. Ken Olsen, to make a new setting for her diamond, but the story doesn't end here.  

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The ring in the photo is not the ring using my mother's diamond, it is made with the stones and gold from my own wedding ring.  Fourteen years ago, my husband proposed with a classic, ideally cut diamond, with six channel set diamonds flanking each side. It's a sturdy ring but I still remove it when I work and generally tuck it away in a safe place.  Recently, I thought I had lost it.  I looked everywhere for it.  Unbenounced to me, my husband had taken my wedding rings to Ken to have reset into the rings above.  On the anniversary of when he originally proposed to me, he took me to the restaurant where we had our first date and proposed again with the ring Ken had created.

As someone who is a craftsman, I am even more enamored now with Ken's work than I was as a young girl.  I understand the amount of time it takes him to create a mold, to make the ring, and to add the intricate engraving.  It was visiting shops like Ken's, and my mother's love of vintage jewelry, that planted seeds of interest in engraving that didn't take root until many years later. These rings are a meaningful heirloom treasure with a  layer of unique history. 

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Jeweler, Ken Olsen, at his bench in the studio of Old Way Heirloom Designs. Ken's work can be viewed on his website http://www.oldwaydesign.com/ (Click on the photo to be routed to his website).
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    Just a crazy creative lady with a few ideas.

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