Priority

The Best Thing You Could Ever Teach Your Kid

Teach your kids to be the one who can get along with others, the one who is generous, the one who is kind and happy for others, the one who does the right thing, the nice kid. 

What a great message, shout it from the rooftops!

Have a great week!

 Laura

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs

Article, images, and designs copyright ©Laura Beth Love for Dishfunctional Designs™ 2018

all rights reserved

My Dollar Store Reading Glasses Disaster

Last week I ran to the dollar store to pick up an extra pair of reading glasses to keep in my studio. If you follow my blog and my jewelry adventures, you probably already know that one of my biggest jewelry making hints is to keep a pair or two of reading glasses on your workbench to help you see what you are doing when you are working with tiny components. This tip is especially helpful if you are like me and don't wear prescription glasses. A pair of reading glasses can be a great help when making jewelry. 

You can get them at any drugstore or grocery store, but I didn't want to pay the twenty bucks for yet another an extra pair, so I figured I would snag a cheap pair at my local dollar store, since I had noticed them there in the past. 

So I spotted the reading glasses display, found the magnification I was looking for, tried a pair on, and checked out at the register. All within about three minutes. 

Wow, only one dollar for such an important tool! Of course at this point I was feeling pretty great about myself and my amazing cheapskate shopping wizardry. Until....

...Until I got home and wore them for the first time. I sat down to solder some jewelry, grabbed my new reading glasses, put them on, and started to work. But wait, what was that smell? 

Within just a few minutes I started to notice a strong chemical smell coming from my glasses. Well, I thought, they are cheapie reading glasses, so I guess they smell a little bit like new plastic. I tried to ignore the smell and kept on working. Within a few more minutes, it seemed like the smell was getting stronger and stronger. And not only that, my eyes were starting to burn! 

Could these reading glasses be giving off toxic fumes that bothered my eyes? They had to be. There was no other explanation.  I tried to wear them one more time, to see if the smell was fading. Nope. It wasn't going away. But these glasses weren't just smelly, they actually made my eyes burn. Something was really wrong with these glasses.

I googled "dollar store reading glasses smell" and up popped a few articles about things NOT to buy at a dollar store...  the first article I read was from Woman's Day magazine and was about the 10 most toxic items at a dollar store, and though reading glasses weren't on the list - lots of other plastic things were - such as plastic kitchen utensils, silly straws and window clings, and these items had some pretty scary descriptions. Some included cancer-causing chemicals in plastic, toxic levels of DEHP, PVC and chlorine. (read it here)

After realizing that something was really wrong with the glasses, I didn't know what to do with them. I didn't want to throw them in the trash because I didn't want their toxicity landing up in the Earth. Do I send them to the EPA? Return them to the store? I'm still not exactly sure what to do with them, but I'll figure it out soon. 

But my whole point is this:  Remember, anything that you are putting against your skin you are also putting inside of your body. I read that years ago, and it always stuck with me. 

I don't dye my hair or use tons of cosmetics or beauty treatments. I worry about toxic chemicals and fumes. I imagine people going through cancer treatments due to exposure to toxic, cancer-causing substances. Situations that maybe could have been prevented. It happens every day. 

There are labels on so many products warning us of dangerous substances. People use those items all the time without a second thought or safety precaution. They only think of the here and now and well I need this treatment for my skin/hair/nails/for cleaning/what-have-you right now. 

It's such a self-contradiction when people fuss about buying and eating organic foods and yet in the same breath they get chemical based beauty treatments put onto their bodies...which land up inside of their bodies, in their organs, in each of their cells, etc. 

Okay so I'm kind of passionate about the subject and get a little carried away, but it's important. Isn't it? 

What do you think?

Have a great week!

 Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!

Article, images, and designs copyright ©Laura Beth Love for Dishfunctional Designs™ 2017 all rights reserved

In Grace and Love

I just love this quote from Heather K. O'Hara and I wanted to share it with you. Hope you have a great Thursday! 

Have a great week!

 Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Those Sunday Mornings

I don't know if it's because of the changing light of autumn or just because I got a full 8+ hours of sleep, but there's something magical in waking on a Sunday morning — coffee cup in hand — and being completely inspired to make art. 

Do I paint with watercolors, or maybe acrylics, or do I create some ink drawings? I go back and forth, deciding on my tools and my medium — my mode of transport to get whatever creative magic from inside my being, out — and into the world. 

It's my raw drive, my spiritual push into the universe. At least, that's what it feels like. 

Nothing else will do. I can go downtown on Sunday morning and walk around our charming little farmer's market and pick up an amazing pastry or maybe some apples or locally harvested honey—but my mind is like the transcendental silver string that connects me to—and never leaves—my place where I create art. 

I want to choose the brushes, the colors, I think about watercolor painting and I imagine the movement, the flow and spread of color in the water, the bloom, the transparency, the drying, the contemplation of the next layer.

Without any formal training, thoughts of rules—and fear of not following them—try to push into my mind. I push them away.

I want to create something new, to pull it out from inside myself - I know that it's there, I can feel it all the time. I think about how I can get it out of me and into the world. But even that's not really enough for me. I want to make something beautiful. I try. 

It doesn't have to be fantastic or amazing — it only has to be.

Have a great Sunday!
love,

 Laura

article, images, and designs copyright ©Laura Beth Love 2017 all rights reserved

Look! Mom's Dishes! ...Connections To Our Past

I've shared this blog post before because it's one of my favorites, and I thought today would be the perfect day to share it again, this time a little bit revised. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Sometimes I think I have the best job in the world, getting to work with beautiful china pieces day in and day out...sometimes it actually feels more like a privilege than an actual profession. 

There are sometimes moments when I stop and think, wow, this is what I do for a living, this is what I've been doing for so many years - and for that I am so fortunate. 

After all, each of these plates and cups and saucers and other dinnerware pieces all have history behind them. They come from many different countries, from all around the world, and their beautiful patterns and colors give them a unique appeal that brings them to life unlike other ordinary household objects. 

They're used in the kitchen, which I've always felt was the heart of the home. They're filled with cooking - which is in itself an effort of love. Once filled, they are handed to you, passed along, as we sit around a family table and pass the dishes from hand to hand, sharing what they hold. 

We see them and touch them multiple times a day, every day. We use them and we take care of them, washing them carefully so that they don't break, and then putting them away in a safe place. We sometimes even have special ones that we bring out only for special occasions. 

But often we treasure the most humble ones. 

Who doesn't have a favorite coffee mug? Or one plate or bowl or other piece of dinnerwear that once belonged to someone else in their family?

We remember dishes. 

They're a part of our family in some ways, a part of each of our own personal histories. Have you not once in your life been somewhere, maybe an antique market or thrift shop, and come across an orphaned plate or cup that you instantly recognized from somewhere in your own past? 

At that moment of recognition, it isn't just "a plate" or "a cup," but "mom's plate," or "grandmother's cup." There is a connection. Often when that connection is made we find ourselves flooded with memories of family from long ago, or of our childhood, or of holidays and times past. If you're the sentimental type like I am, it can be a comforting experience. 

I've been working with dishes for so long now that I know all the patterns by name. No, I don't talk to them, but in a way, they speak to me. I see them as valuable, not monetarily valuable, but valuable in a way that fills your soul with warmth and peace just as memories of loved ones do. 

This was, after all, someone's grandmother's plate. 

Someone just like you. 

I hope you have a great week! 

Love, Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!

article and all images copyright ©LauraBethLove 2017

where I create, I am absolute

When I was a little girl, I remember my dad spent much of his time at home in his office, which we all called his den. My father was creative, and he had many artistic and creative pursuits. He liked to write, he wrote some short stories, he had a love for languages and I remember him teaching himself French. He loved all types of music, playing guitar, singing in the Ukrainian Millennium Choir, and he liked to draw and watercolor paint and of course build things in his workshop.

In his den were bookshelves filled with books about art and writing, ancient Egypt and the one book that would always catch my eye because it had a bright red dust jacket - his old dictionary. I used to hang out with my dad in his den all the time. I don't think a day went by from kindergarten to college that I didn't visit my dad's den, plopping myself down in the big cushy chair next to his desk, or in the small sofa behind where he sat, just hanging out and talking about this and that. But it never was small talk.

He would always be working on some type of project, and our conversations would often start with him telling me some random but interesting fact about something in history, or something about a famous artist, or how a certain hue of a certain color got its name. There was so much inside of those four small walls, it was like he was so many lives in one. That's how I think of people who do a lot, people who have great varied interests and a great quest for learning things. Those kinds of people are truly living their lives, and it's almost as if they are fitting the interests of many different lives into their one single span of time here on earth. 

I don't know how some people could not have any interests. That's what makes life, well, interesting. But maybe it was just the way I was brought up. Dad's life style of learning, and his love for the humanities sure rubbed off on me. I think tomorrow will be 16 years that he is gone. Time sure flies. After my father died, my mom cleaned out some of the things in dad's den and had some stacks of books set aside for me to look through to see if I wanted any. She had picked out his art books for me and asked if I wanted anything else. I took the dictionary with the red dust jacket. I remember how he used to say to me, "Laura reach over and hand me my red dictionary," and now looking back, it seems like we pulled it out of that bookcase 100 times to look up this or that. I treasure it.

But what use is a dictionary now? In this age of the Internet we literally have everything at our fingertips, and checking the spelling of a word is only a few keystrokes away. So when the day came that I wanted to try out creating some book page art, I knew that inside the pages of my father's dictionary would be the perfect place to create and keep my art. I can sketch and draw on the pages and then one day, I can pass it down to my own daughters. Maybe one day they will add their own mark to it too, and then pass it down to their own son or daughter. 

There is a certain magic in my red dictionary. Filled with words about everything that fills our world, it lived for years surrounded with books about all the things I love, and all the things that stir my passion to create. 

And swirled within the space of those four walls, where stories were written, music played, and languages discovered, it now offers itself to me as a canvas - but not a blank one, bare and untouched, but a lush and joyful, spirited palette that with it's smooth pages offer me the memories of each lesson taught and story told by my father. And when I smooth down a page with my hand and touch my pen to the page's surface, through me flows the confidence and joy to create, and within that, I am absolute. 

I hope you have a great week! 

Love, Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!

article and images ©Laura Beth Love 2017 all rights reserved

Painting Doughnuts. Or is it Donuts?

I've been having a lot of fun painting doughnuts. Or is it donuts? I'm not sure which spelling is correct, but it seems that donuts are suddenly all around me. There's a TV show about doughnuts, and in my local newspaper yesterday there was an article about a new "design your own doughnut" shop opening in my town. Phish is doing a 13-day concert run at Madison Square Garden in NYC this summer, calling it "Baker's Dozen" - yet another doughnut reference. Coincidence? Conspiracy? Hmmm. 

Tote bag

T-shirts

Phone case

Floor pillow

What's your favorite kind?

I hope you have a great week! 

Love, Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!

article and images ©Laura Beth Love 2017 all rights reserved

Artists Who Mingle In Different Mediums - Spare Time Illustration

I noticed that I've been spending an extra bit of money on art supplies lately, and yesterday I told myself that I would not buy any more paint!  I just needed a last few watercolor colors, and they were on sale, and well, I might as well buy the professional grade paints just in case - by chance - I land up creating something of merit. At least that's what I told myself ha ha...

But I'm drawn to drawing. I like to not just sketch out images, but I like slow, semi-intricate creative drawing, like the feathers in the photo above. These are things that come directly from my own imagination. I create them for fun and for relaxation, and I just started drawing a few on watercolor paper so that I might be able to add color to them if the mood strikes later on.

A few months back I shared this photo on my Instagram and laughed when I realized it looked like I was drawing wire and bead jewelry designs in my drawings. You can join me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/laurabethlove/

I like to use black pens and different types of black ink, and pencils too. When I draw or paint, it's like a break from the constant jewelry making that is my day to day effort. 

You might think that when an artist takes a break from their artwork that they might participate in a completely different activity - and I'm sure this is often true - but lots of artists find great relaxation and rejuvenation in playing around with and experimenting with different creative mediums. 

I think that's why you often hear of illustrators who were once textile designers, or potters who like to play with paint, or painters who like to work with jewelry. 

Sometimes our hands and minds need something else to do, something new to try. The stream of colors and shapes and designs and ideas never stops coming, but sometimes it's like my hands and brain want to organize them - and give them to the world - in a different way. 

Ink and paint illustration 

There is something magical about a fresh new pack of paper. Maybe it's the possibilities. No matter how you plan, you never quite know exactly how things will play out.

I like the small tubes of paint and the power that they hold. It's almost electric, and you can feel it all inside you if you just give it a chance.

I like what I draw. I like to see my imagination and personal creativity on paper instead of always in metal, wire, and gemstones. It makes me happy, and I think this is because I draw only for myself, without much concern of what other people think. There is great difference of freedoms between creating for yourself - for the sake of just creating - and creating to impress. I think you forsake your freedom in the latter.

What are your favorite creative endeavors? 

I hope you have a great week! 

Love, Laura

My broken china jewelry is always available for purchase at https://www.etsy.com/shop/dishfunctionldesigns

Check out my new jewelry instruction books and DVDs!

Learn how to solder and make unique jewelry!