I spent today as arbiter between my two housemates, a former couple - both of whom have serious issues left from abusive childhoods. 

He had been very rude and used some horribly inapropriate sexually insulting language.  Ii finally shouted in his face that I never wanted to hear those words out of his mouth in my house again or he was on the street at that very instant (both will be gone soon as daveguitarman moves in the next 4 months or so) 

Later he was helping me hang damp sheer curtains and fell, having hung the last one, and lacerated his privates with a table corner.  In a somewhat hysterical mode, probably postponed hysteria - I should have been hysterical hours earlier when she, maintaining that she didn't like him any more, paraded through the house in a small towel, post-bath, she who is built like a tall endowed goddess and for whom the towel barely sufficed, and tried to tell me that he didn't notice her and she hadn't intended for him to - I began to cackle in a raucous voice, louder and louder and finally squeeked out between guffaws, as he rolled around on the floor, "I knew all along god was a woman....." 

love from

pearlbamboo

copyright   ep hodges 2008

And so I finally get it right, more three dimensional, colors really singing...  This adventure began with a little celluloid bird that needed  a bower, a little celluloid strawberry and some tiny pale opaque mauve flower buttons that looked as if I could make them into a wreath....

Happy New Year to you all

pearlbamboo

pics and text copyrighted  2008  ep hodges

Benazir Bhutto was killed yesterday by persons as yet unknown for reasons that may never be known,   Her death is yet another stark example of what happens in a country that never managed to develop a political culture that went beyond two modes - enrichment of one's family and extended family and Islam - to a genuine commitment to the  nation.  There are historical reasons for this tragedy and my as yet unfinished book takes a good stab at telling why, but it is a ways from publication and may ultimately be posted in its entirity on the web, bypassing academic presses entirely.

I'll have something to say about Begum Bhutto's murder later.  For now, I will leave you with glorious music by two of Pakistan's greatest singers,  Begum Abida Parveen and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan,  both masters of Sufi qawalli, both singers of ghazals, a form of urdu poetry, though Nusrat Fateh Ali took a lot of flack for singing popular music....

and  one when he was younger -object width="425" height="355">

Thanks all. 

Having cogitated upon your answers, I came up with something like this - They
would be nose to nose on a listing page (a little too big to do that 
here and after 2 straight days of processing and redoing photos, we
shall just have to imagine it here because I can't sit another minute
without damage.... to something.  

The fan-shaped earring begins with a vintage yellow enamel flower removed from an old earring, then adds a little
bouquet, itself a vintage Austrian earring, a contemporary brass fan
with the shape of the fan emphasized by wired on 2mm garnets plus the
usual Swarovski crystals, in lavender opal and siam satin.

A Staffordshire British porcelain rose from the 50's is the star of the other earring.  It's bonded to a contemporary
brass filigree finding from which hang contemporary and vintage flowers
and leaves in lavender opal and cranberry.  The jonquil navette is
vintage Swarovski, the other crystals are contemporary Swarovski.

And
so, would  these pics give you enough information to make a decision, a
choice?  Anything you particularly like about them, or dislike?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all. 

lily

Yesterday, while photographing clothes, on impulse I put some earrings on my manni, Laural Avril (yes, we name them....).  The light changed on me suddenly and I didn't get a picture from the front or of the other ear that was usable, but assuming I added them to an online presentation of the earrings.....

Thanks,

pearlbamboo

     My friend, Marilyn Campbell, is an actress and playwright.  She cofounded the Writer's Theater in Glencoe when she moved to Chicago and has seen it become a deeply respected part of Chicago's cultural life. 

We met when she and I lived across the street from each other and, like almost everyone else in the hood, she stopped to admire my Japanese Chin.  I've watched her grow and expand her horizons, she's done the same for me.  We've agonized together over our children and our lives as creative women.  The children have turned out just fine and we both have held on to and expanded our creative lives, but there were those days when things seemed to be in doubt. 

Her true gift, and an unusual one, is in transforming works of literature into works for the stage.  She did it with the poetry of Ann Sexton, the writings of the Beats and others. (Here's a description of some of her projects and here's a list of her credits.)  Her 2003 adaptation of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, with Curt Columbus, won a Jeff award and has received very good reviews, not only in regional performances, but also out in the big time, inWashington, D.C., and New York.

I've not gotten to see much of her work.  When we first met, I was way too agorophobic to go to the theater. Later the tiny theater was sold out to season ticket holders and there was no place for me.  

But I did manage to make it to Estrogen Fest, which she produced, two years ago, and saw this marvelous little duet she wrote and performed with her daughter, Maria.  I love it.

and that's it for today from Pearlbamboo,

who has trouble walking at the moment from what I sincerely hope is arthritis in one hip and is as stiff as all get-out after sitting at the computer for a little while.

i'm really out of it today and won't even try to write, but will leave you with three pics -

the first of a little vintage mexican silver butterfly i beaded on with freshwater pearls and a chinewe silver filigree bead with more sterling chain and little pearls the colors of dawn.  

The next is of a wonderful howlite turquoise blue ring  upon which it perched a little pink shell flower from the 50's when seashell jewelry was popular. 

Then comes another of the vintage glass pearls with  oxidized brass findings layered on so that they embrace and encircle the soft, alluring object within.

 and here's the turquoise - over the top, it is and i love it.

as i do all of you.

later,

pearlbamboo

images, design and text copywrited  e.p. hodges

I loved Chinese famille rose porcelain the very first time I saw it and I still do.  I found it first while still in high school brousing, for the only time in my life until I left home at 22 for good, for hours in a junk shop, bringing home a pair of yellow iridescent glass vases, next to me on my Thai cabinet as I write, and a cut glass perfume bottle with a rose glass fan at the top, now on my dresser some fifty years later, and still loved.  There was what I now know was a famille rose rose medallion pattern plate in that dusty old shop.  I can still see it, remember being afraid to pick it up and my utter sorrow when I found it was $2.00 more than I had to spend.  The good stuff has always been a bit out of my price range and the only piece I've ever had was broken in a move years ago, but even now, seeing a piece or even a good picture makes me melt.  I love it.    

 In the Kangxi period (1662-1722), Chinese potters added opaque rose overglazes, pinks and carmine, to their family of colors used in decorating porcelain, its use at first limited to vessels for the imperial family.  Applying the new colors to export ware, they developed new designs and patterns.  The French named this group of porcelain objects famille rose and the term now signifies Chinese porcelain decorated with this color scheme, without regard to motif or date.   

You can find some more information here and here. And there is a totally wonderful pair of alter pieces here.

As many of you know, I spent several years in Asia, some in Bangkok with its large Thai  Chinese population, and took frequent trips to Hong Kong, in addition to falling hard for asian art the moment I encountered it in my late teens.  So, my eye sees things a little differently from someone who has lived only in the US, allowing me to appear to push the envelope when I'm only drawing on a different country's arts tradition. 

When I found the nine porcelain beads, one of which I've used in this pair of earrings, for  a momement I thought "famille rose," and then lost the thought.  It wasn't until I was typing a description for ebay that "famille rose" came back to me and I realized that I had stuck to the pink and jade green color scheme for a reason.  There is teal in the porcelain bead, the oval one at the top on the left, and I could have used that, riffed off that, but didn't even consider it...  My subconscious was working at famille rose; that was my unacknowledged visual reference all along, even though I wasn't consciously aware of it.

Etsy's out for the moment.  Apparently, without a better search function, many designers simply don't get traffic or sales unless they bring their own buyers with them - no one can  find them.   Ebay, with all its faults, and they are many, seems the best way to proceed for the moment and so my little ones are leaving me and joining up with that part of the world wide web.

You can find them here.

Photography remains an issue, but things have improved a bit in the past couple of days.  A Nikon digital camera would be nice....  yeah.

Meanwhile, we make do with pics like these -

This is one of my favorites and really needs a better picture, which I will try for tomorrow.  The clear plastic triangle and circle are 50's vintage lucite buttons.  On them are small bouquets of flowers made from annodized aluminum, like the drinking glasses with their rich iridesence that I drank Kool Aid from at my grandmother's house wbefore I even started to school in the late 40's and still remember with delight. The pink bead under the triangle is also iridescent aluminum.  The other beads are all crystals, multifaceted, in elusive colors.  The over all effect is that these are not quite tangible, as the iridescent and faceted surfaces break up, fracture, the light and keep things from looking solid.  

In the end, my work is about light, often about iridesence, always about movement.  Sashi, the artist ex, used to say that my designs brought the viewer closer, often made her want to get inside the design itself.  A 25 year old woman was here last night and fell in love with the butterfly earrings pictured below.  She turned them this way and that in the light, moved from element to element, asking about each one, then said she had to look closer and closer, that they drew her in.  I've not lost my touch.

your friend,

pearlbamboo

images, designs, text copyrighted 2007

This vintage Chinese cloisonne enamel pair of earrings, a love of mine from way back, is  now almost done - I'm not yet satisfied with the little turquoise on the oval bead , the color is too strong - and haven't found exactly the right thing to replace it with.   Continued excavation in the bead room produced an old broken apart lapis lazuli fan necklace, one piece of which is now the pendant on the earring on the right.  It's hard to find good lapis now in my price range, so this was a lovely surprise find.  

The oval bead's hanging from plump garnets and that's blue iris carnival glass in the facetted drop hanging from the little over-eager turquoise. 

If you look closely, you'll see elaborabe oxidized/blackened Balinese silver beadcaps embracing both ends of the closionne beads and the bottom  of the little lapis-colored handmade glass bead in the earring on the right.  Since the cloison's, or little wire enclosures on the surface of the beads into which different colors of enamel are applied, are oxidized silver and I just don't see the new owner polishing the beads frequently, and since I love the look of oxidized silver, I decided to go with mother nature and make the beadcaps match the bead.  To keep the long lapis rectangular drop from being too strong a line, I added a chain ending with a garnet and two garnet colored Swarovski crystals that hang just below the end of the drop and add even more movement to the earring (how they move! always something I'm paying attention to).

Then there are these - ready to go out into t he world.  I'm quite fond of them and will hate to let them go, but go they will.  A vintage enamel butterfly, little round lapis beads, jade glass beads, little lapis twisted glass dangles, very vintage, lapis and jade glass wavy wafers, from broken 30's necklaces, on the right, with a filigee bead topped by Chinese cloisonne enamel beadcaps in green.  On the left, a transparent green glass bead with trails of golds at the top, with a little daisy in 24 carat gold plated sterling, vermeil, it's called, on top of the bead.  Add gold chains and stir.... 

Ready to go, eh?

Question?????  etsy or ebay?  which shall it be?

I'm dealing with difficult health problems at the moment, including possible early heart failure, so keeping up even day to day things at the moment is difficult.  But I think of you, even if I haven't the strength or organization to get to your blog to post a comment these days.

pearlbamboo

copyright images, text & designs  e.p. hodges