Friends on Both Sides
My sister, Maria Artemis & I are helping our Papa celebrate his 100th birthday on September 16, 2012. He is healthy, has few aches, no walker, no pain and a great deal of sweet equanimity as he meets each day in his assisted living facility. In answer to a query about growing older, he said he did not worry much about getting old (and dying) because, as he explained, “I have friends on both sides.” Wow! I love that and know just what he means.This has been a strange summer imposed by a health-enforced separation from Atlanta and time apart from my beloved husband. Physical frailty, solitude, sadness and dazzling creativity intertwined after losing my third close girlfriend within five years to cancer. In response I turned toward the stones for solace and designed “The Firefly Dance” in honor of Andrea Blitzer Coby Riddle, continued the “Alaska Series” and began the “Fingerlakes Prayer Stones.” These pieces are now in production and will emerge in the coming months. Check the website for updates, and if you can, visit us at a show. A trunk show in Seattle will be hosted by Kathryn Daughhetee in her lovely hilltop home on September 30. Details to come.
Left: Andrea Riddle. Center & Right: works in progress, detail of a Firefly Dance Orbit Necklace & Pendant
In June, the Green Door Barn Studio show in Ithaca was a resounding success. The Juneau show in July, hosted by Anni Stokes, was another fantastic gathering of great food & old friends. Many happy women are now wearing beautiful handmade Elaina Designs jewels! Many thanks for the friendship and continuing support. It all means so much.
Trunk Show in Juneau.
Left: David Hudson and Anni Stokes gathering fireweed to decorate for the show.
Right: Alice Cyr pulling beets in her new Orbit Earrings, Yukon Territory.
Right: Alice Cyr pulling beets in her new Orbit Earrings, Yukon Territory.
Orion & Lainey on Dorothy Brady’s front porch in Dyea, Alaska.
Emerald Lake, British Columbia.
Alaska Series Orbit Bracelet in progress.
After the shows, David and I went on vacation to Dyea, Skagway and Gustavus, Alaska to celebrate his 60th birthday. Along the way, we visited my son Orion Hanson, who recently moved to Alaska to work alongside his Dad and then we traveled to the Yukon to visit dear friends Alice and Paul Cyr. The trip back to where my artist voice was born nearly 40 years ago was exquisite and deeply inspirational. For the remainder of the summer I blessedly lived beside the rejuvinating waters of Cayuga and Seneca Lakes (thank you Leslie Carrere and David Granish!) while working at my studio in Ithaca, NY. I traveled back to Atlanta once a month to receive the life-giving immunoglobulin infusions (yippee!…not one respiratory infection!). Finally I am home in Atlanta for the winter, nestled in the loving embrace of David, with deep gratitude for Aalia, who has kept clients happy and the underpinnings of Elaina Designs structurally sound. My body is stronger, Elaina Designs is plumping up, and I am looking ahead to a radiant fall season, which I hope to share with you.
There is a bouquet of accelerating activity out there, yet balance arrives from within.With friends on both sides,
Lainey
Lainey
David and I hiking in British Columbia
Recent Posts
