One of my new favorite words is Hiraeth [hee-REY-eth], a Welsh word that I learned this past spring. Hiraeth lacks an exact English counterpart. It refers to the a yearning for or missing of a space or geography. It comes with a mixture of wistfulness, sadness, grief, and nostalgia for an ideal place of the…
Like so many things that I’ve watched struggle to evolve over the last 15 months, June, Juneteenth, and the holiday’s recent official, federal status have brought new light and some long awaited changes. Thinking about my posts from June of 2020, we’re a ways away from the National Guard driving tanks through my residential neighborhood…
As spring gently glides into summer, I’m thrillled to report that for once in over a decade, spring has actually been spring with only a handful of scorcher, orange alert days here in “Hotlanta.” Spending 99% of our time at home as we do, it has been nothing short of glorious. My shaded back yard…
I was three or four years old, and the climb up on the piano bench seemed like Everest but worth the adventure. Roddy Noll was a teenager, and, if possible, even more mischievous than he’d been as a child. He knew exactly how to stir up trouble and fun in a heartbeat: Play boogie woogie…
Currently, I’m in the middle of teaching an Eastern Repousse and Chasing workshop for Silvera Jewelry School. Like Metalwerx and Rio Grande, Silvera is fast becoming one of my favorite places to teach, even though I’ve never been there. I might not be teaching with my feet up, but to help each student I’m still…
For decades I’ve advocated the importance of playing in other media or learning new things in a different field from your primary one. Sherlock and his dubious violin playing are a prime example, but seriously, how much longer would the world have waited for Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (General or Special) if it weren’t for…
As part of my learn-everything-I-can-while-house-bound Shiny Online Workshop Syndrome, last winter I took a workshop designed to draw calligraphers outside of their boxes and touch on the world of text art. What’s the difference in calligraphy and text art, you might ask? I could give you an in depth answer, or I can distill it…
