Viva Mexico - The Frida Edition

Mexico brings to mind many images: The warm sun, beautiful beaches, kind people, palm trees, and color, but for me, nothing says Mexico more than Frida Kahlo (1906-1954).

Most of you know that I have long been accused of reminding people of the notorious artist, so one day I decided to dress up like her, augmenting my eyebrows in the process and the rest you could say, is history.

Kimmmm bought me a Frida finger puppet to match hers from Nick and Prestons Imaginarium when we went to New York together in 2008. At this writing, we are supposed to go there a week from today, but with all the ice and storms, we have no idea if it will happen. It’s a nail biter…

But back to Frida. For the last three years, little Frida has traveled in my purse, going on various adventures together. How could I deny Mini-Me a trip to her homeland?





Frida hangs with her peeps.

Sombrero rooftop view of the Malecon.

Hmmm, check out all the hombres in this place, Que Lindo!

Uh-oh, it didn't feel like I had too many...at the time.

More images of me, me meeeee!

Banderas Bay, baby.

"You are the wind beneath my wings..."

Frida made a fun friend with Aqua Junko Artworks

Frida is overcome by Sascha's hommage necklace.

Mwa ha ha, Frida with Lori's skull. 

Love love love love love love love this!!!!!!

Frida getting into more trouble at Le Bistro Jazz Club

A Frida inspired necklace Cindy made in the "Fun with Dick and Jane" workshop at the Hacienda Mosaico.

Frida sunbathing with new amiga at the Villa Del Palmar Resort in Puerto Vallarta.

Viva Mexico - Fun with Dick and Jane

There are not many, if any, comments on the blog itself, but I receive quite a few emails from readers personally, through our website and on Facebook, and the next thing most people are interested in hearing about is the jewelry workshop. So that is where I’ll start today.

We had the privilege of studying with Richard and Jane Salley, two incredibly talented and innovative artists at the mind-boggling artful retreat, The Hacienda Mosaico. I say mind-boggling, because everywhere a person looks, there is a thing of beauty, either designed by the owner Sam (pictured here with me) or designed by God, i.e. natural beauty.

I say Sam is the owner, but between us, I really think it is Estela, her adorable puppy-child.

While the soundtrack in Mexico, at least in the parts where we were, was a lively mixture of dogs barking, workmen singing and playing traditional tunes on static-ridden radios, hammers banging, saws scritchin’, lots of yelling, horns a honkin’, the gas delivery truck’s megaphone jingle, and one, loud very persistant fan belt, inside the walls of the Hacienda Mosaico, we were in our own little world.

Groom and I arrived each morning, Monday through Friday, at 9am to eat breakfast with the other participants by the pool. The food was so delicious and bountiful, there is not room enough here to show you, so I’ll wait for another time. Food in Mexico is an entire topic unto itself.

The first couple of days, when we didn’t know where we were yet and my sliced toe was swollen and painful, we taxied. After that, we walked the rest of the time and enjoyed noticing the regular routines of the locals. Again, that could be a whole other posting.

The Hacienda Mosaico offers two complete studios. The first day we spent in the one located inside on the second floor (aren’t these steps leading to it stunning?). The remaining four days we worked in the second studio outside, under an awning.

Including both instructors who were from New Mexico, there were about 15 of us. The participants came from all over. Three lived in Mexico, at least two from Canada, Montana, Chicago, North Carolina, Florida, Maine… we were the only ones from the west coast.

I can’t even begin to describe to you the synergy and inspiration that develops in such an environment. Working in a tropical atmosphere, with talented people who share similar interests (travel, jewelry design, art, food), is a dream. Everything we wanted or needed, in terms of fresh mango juice, coffee or tea, and the right tool and helpful instruction came together to provide the most nurturing experience.

We all shared found objects, Milagros and images to incorporate into our design pieces and then took turns using the torch or whatever equipment was in high demand that day. At the end of the class, Jane commented that our group played particularly well together. We even took a field trip to the hardware store one afternoon and shared a dinner together in downtown before the Art Walk.

I get all moony just thinking about it. Our cold, dark basement studio is, let’s face it, just not as inviting. So while I am inspired to take what we learned and translate that into our style of jewelry, I am more motivated to start visualizing a studio like that of our own…

Hasta la pasta, baby!

Viva Mexico - A Bloga-novela

Wow, where to start? Groom and I have just returned home from Mexico after taking a week long workshop studying new jewelry-making techniques with Richard and Jane Salley. I wrote about the magical way this trip unfolded in the blog entry Woo Hoo! Goin’ to Mexico…Thanks in Part to the Kalliope Artist Fellowship just in case any of you are interested in catching up.

We took 2,252 photos during the nine days we were gone. Within the first 24 hours I had used up my camera’s memory card and had to purchase a new one. So it is with great difficulty that we’ve been sorting through our photos, wanting to post the ones we feel might be of interest to you.

My tea bag came with the perfect wisdom tag this morning, “The purpose of life is to enjoy every moment.” Well, let’s just say that we definitely lived our purpose on this retreat.

To tell you that the expedition south of the border was amazing would be trite because it’s such an overused word, but from start to finish, this experience has touched on all the superlatives. It wasn’t just great, it was the greatest. We didn’t just have fun, we had the most fun. Well, you get the idea.

But who wants to sit in the January chill reading about somebody else’s tropical adventure? Even though we are giving this the big thumbs up, there were a few exciting moments here and there, like some blood and guts, our traveling companion falling on the rocks, slicing my toe and having it get infected (I had terrible visions of losing it, or my foot, or my leg…), seeing the immediate aftermath of two serious wrecks (uh-oh, we were riding the bus and one of the accidents involved a bus. Boy, did I ever have a Frida Kahlo moment…), and leaving my purse with everything in it – cash, credit card, passport identification on a bench along the Malecon, and not getting any sleep.

And as long as I’m in the confessional, we also met Jesus, and this next part is so embarrassing to admit, but what I learned about Mexico’s geography comes from watching The Love Boat as a teenager in the 70’s. I remember the Pacific Princess docking in exotic Puerto Vallarta, one of the cruise liner’s port o’calls.

Most of you probably already know this, but it was a new fact to me. Apparently Puerto Vallarta became a household name because of John Huston’s famous movie Night of the Iguana, starring Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr. It became a symbol of Hollywood glamour.
 

Puerto Vallarta is located on the Pacific side of Mexico about half-way down the coast, mas o menos (more or less). If you drew a straight line on a map from this resort city in the state of Jalisco to the United States, you’d run straight into New Mexico, so we had to move our watches forward two hours.

Situated on Banderas Bay (or Bahia de Banderas if you prefer), and surrounded by the Sierra Madres, the ideal location can boast, depending on who you talk to, that it is either the largest bay in Mexico or the second largest bay in the world. But no one seems to have the final word on that either. Poking around, Bengal Bay in the Indian Ocean claims numero uno while Hudson Bay vies for second place.

But whatever the case, it’s spectacular.

There is no way we can write and post everything in one day. So the plan is to make it simple; for you and for ourselves. Today was just the introduction and we intend to post more photos and episodes in the coming days, a bloga-novela if you will, so stay tuned.

Until then , que tengas un buen dia (have a good day!).

Woo Hoo! Goin’ to Mexico…Thanks in Part to the Kalliope Artist Fellowship

I’m writing this on 1-11-11, although it’s starting to look like it won’t be finished until tomorrow. But how cool is the date? And here’s some extra alignment. This morning, I open the book I’m reading and the quote for the day is “Pack my bags, going to Mexico.” – Steve Miller Band.

Why is that alignment, you might ask? A few entries ago, I mentioned that Groom and I were dreaming of a white Christmas…in Mexico, and that there would be a story to tell at a later date.

Today is the later date.

Let’s just say that Santa Claus was verrrry generous to us for Jesus’ Birthday and slipped an all-expense paid trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in our stocking. A friend’s humorous response to us when she heard the news was, “Well, it’s obvious you have a much better relationship to Santa than we do.”

I laughed and thought that’s not exactly Whom we have the relationship with. I know I’m a bit of a maverick believer, but it puts a smile on my face and a giggle in my heart when I think to myself (or say aloud sometimes), “Jesus wants me to have this new pair of shoes!” or “Jesus would like me to have a trip to Mexico,” and naturally I’d hate to disappoint Him.

Why do we have plans to visit Mexico? Last October, Groom and I attended a class with jewelry-guru Richard Salley. At the end of the day, Richard invited us to the inaugural workshop he’s teaching with his wife, Jane, who is also a talented artist. The name of their week-long class? “Fun with Dick and Jane.” Love it.

We immediately wanted to say Yes! and join them. The thought of spending time in warm Puerto Vallarta during the chilly month of January, learning new jewelry-making skills delighted our sensibilities.

But how??

Funny enough, I was listening to Mike Dooley’s audio book, Infinite Possibilities, gifted to us by God’s Minion and he says, “Don’t worry about the how.” Oh, okay.

The phone rings. A friend tells me about a grant opportunity. A woman wants to give money to an artist for “for travel, enrichment or the development of new ideas.” Shazam! Going to Mexico to thaw out winter bones and learn stuff certainly qualifies. We filled out the paperwork and jumped through hoops. Then it was time to wait.

In the meantime, I’m still listening to Mike Dooley. He suggests “acting as if.” Well, I could act as if we were going South of the Border. I purchased a 20!! calendar and marked out when we’d be gone. I looked up flights and took note of the routes. I went shopping, sifting through racks of clothes, imagining a wardrobe that would be perfect for both torch enameling and sipping margaritas on the beach at sunset.

Groom and I created a vision board, photoshopping ourselves in the tropics and included a picture of Richard Salley and his wife Jane, with descriptions of the workshop. We oohed and aaahed over the online images of the beautiful hacienda where the class will be held. We booked a housesitter.

The day of the grant award arrived. Alas, we were not the recipients (it was a basket maker). From the moment I heard the news until a coffee date with a girlfriend, I had 15 minutes to process the loss, as I did not want to bring my disappointment to the café with me. So during that 15-minute walk downtown, I had a conversation with myself in which I made peace with it. By the time I was sipping a cup of French roast, I had released it.

The next day, I receive a phone call from a friend. The first words out of his mouth were, “Boy, is it a good day for Cindy.”

It is?

Oh yes, he continues, and what follows is the rest of the story…

It’s at the end of the year (December 2010), and his business is just about to close for the Holidays. He receives a phone call from a vendor wanting to unload a bunch of raw materials. Our friend neither wants or needs it, especially as it will just sit there without purpose and count as inventory.

A few hours later, the vendor calls back. The guy really really wants to sell his product and offers it at a discount and throws in an “incentive.” Our friend gets a sudden “gut feeling” and agrees. Within minutes of buying it, his office phone starts ringing off the hook. He receives four, last minute orders that eats up everything he just purchased.

If he had received the orders first and then bought the goods to fill them, he would have paid full price and not been bribed. There was only one hang, he said. The incentive, a beautiful condo, was only available for one particular week in January, but did Groom and I want to go to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico? Oh, and he had more than enough frequent flier miles to get us there from buying all that material.

Hmmm, let’s see. We were invited to Puerto Vallarta in January. We didn’t know how. A grant opportunity arose. We applied. We listened to Infinite Possibilities. We acted “as if.” We did not receive the grant, but kept a positive attitude. We were invited to Puerto Vallarta in January, all expenses paid the NEXT day.

Oh, we’ll have to think it over, I told him. NOT. Ha, there was certainly a lot of whooping and thanksgiving and joyful celebrating in our household that day. Thank you Jesus!

“Pack my bags, going to Mexico.”

Salley Forth

I received an email this morning containing the following message:

This October is very special. It has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays all in 1 month. This happens once in 823 years. These are known as money bags. Pass this along to 8 good people and money will appear in 4 days based on the Chinese feng shui. No pass backs. Those who stop it will experience none.

Really? I opened my calendar and counted, and sure enough, five Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. But I also happen to have my 2004 calendar open to October and guess what? Also five Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I did the math and came up with only five years since the special, lucky “money bags” month occurred, not the reported 823. Wanna know something else? If any of us are still breathing, it’s supposed to come ‘round again in 2021, a mere egg short of a dozen years from now.

Of course, I do love fun numbers and alignment and had one of my heart’s desires come true last Sunday, on 10-10-10.

Last year, I bumped into a photo of a necklace that made my heart skip a beat. For years, customers have been requesting that I design necklaces and all I could imagine was taking one of our finished postage stamp pieces and stringing beads and the thought made me queasy.

You see, I didn’t want to make matchy-matchy and got stuck in my own mind’s quagmire that that’s all I could do. But when I discovered this photo of Richard Salley’s art, it broke something loose in me and like a warm summer rain, washed the mud away. When the rain stopped, my internal atmosphere cleared and I found a path to my own designs.

The term “sally forth” means to begin an adventure and for those of you who have recently discovered our blog, Groom and I set out on a new adventure this year in designing our 2010 collection, taking metalsmithing classes and setting up a working studio in our basement.

In the jewelry world, Richard Salley is known as a rock star. In all the time of staring at his work published in books and magazines (I’ve been carrying around this particular photo in my purse for over a year), it never once occurred to me that I might meet him, much less take a class from the metal genius, or even, hold my breath, ever have the opportunity to own a piece of his original artwork.

All I knew, while meditating on his stunning artistry, is that I desired knowledge and felt if I stared long enough, I would summon it to me somehow.

About six months into our new journey, led by the brilliant star of Mr. Salley, it finally occurred to me to see if he had a website. Duh! The first thing I noticed was a tab for “workshops.” I clicked on that page first and was thrilled to learn that this Santa Fe jeweler would be teaching a class, “Skulls, Wings and Rusty Things” at Art & Soul in Portland, Oregon during October. Groom and I immediately signed up, postponing our trip to New York until February 2011.

The highly anticipated day finally arrived last Sunday and we couldn’t have been more delighted (except for the getting up at O’dark-thirty and driving two and a half hours in the rain), but Richard Salley’s teaching style was relaxed and my hunch that he’s a bit of a rogue cowboy proved true in my eyes.

Taking his inspiration from wrought-iron work, he has such a high level skill set and knows intimately the rules of design, that he can bend them at will with fantastic results.

Not only did we have a chance to meet him, but we learned several valuable techniques including the very specific one I had hoped for all year, and I had the opportunity to purchase a necklace from him directly. Jackpot!

While planting seeds in the pure fields of possibility, we also learned that Richard, and his brilliant wife, Jane Salley, are co-teaching a week long workshop in sunny Mexico in January of next year. Oh shazam, would Groom and I like to attend…

The magic continued. For our anniversary last August, a photographer friend of ours in Portland, Miss Bee Bugg as we affectionately call her, gifted us with an overnight stay at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, which included the $12 a night parking fee and a lovely complimentary breakfast. We decided to use it after the class Sunday evening.

So on 10-10-10, we stayed on the 10th floor in a beautiful suite with a sweeping view of the City of Roses.

The artist Tim Lord (that I wrote about on August 4, 2010), and his wife, Mary Gayle, on their way home to Spokane after another opening for his artwork, this time in Astoria, met up with us.

We had a chance to see a fresh print from his latest painting, Day of the Dead at the Deadwood Cemetery, a companion piece to his Wild Tea Party at the Deadwood Cemetary Alice in Wonderland themed painting.

We toodled up to Northwest’s Trendy-Third neighborhood and all agreed on the Chinese restaurant August Moon because of the red lanterns hanging in front. As you can see from his paintings (just click on them to enlarge), Tim Lord likes red lanterns.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, but it had to be done. Saying goodnight, Groom and I spent a lovely evening in our fancy digs and enjoyed breakfast the next morning in the Crowne Plaza’s restaurant. As we were leaving, the server brought us to-go cups and filled them with fresh coffee - what a thoughtful gesture.

What trip to Portland is complete without a stop at the famed Powell’s Bookstore in the Pearl District? Touted to be the largest new and used book store in the world, it’s always a thrill to saunter through the maze, drooling at the sheer volume of books, suddenly in need of titles one never knew existed.

We finished our mini-working vacation with a mango bubble tea from Boba Tea and a bit of a shopping spree at Dazzle and Galore before heading home.

To close this interesting week, Saturday, October 16th is Sweetest Day. The purpose of this holiday is to make other’s feel special. It is a time to acknowledge family and friends who make your life special. I want to take this opportunity and wish all of you the happiest of Sweetest Days.