From Kate, stereographs as animated GIFs.

And from Dave, a collection of “Ghost Mother” child portraits.

Y’alls are the wind beneath my wings.

Also, I swear that this is the last time that I change those snakey headbands… at least for now!

I swapped out the lighter crystal eyes for smaller, darker green ones. That’s all. It’s a small detail but, hey, sometimes it’s the little things that keep you up at night.

I love the green but I’ve been considering making versions with different colored gems. Like red and purple. Does that make sense? Green just seems so logical…

And, while we’re on the topic, please!, send in any photos you may have taken of you or your friends modeling this or any other With Care joolz! I’d love to post them up here as well as on the Faceypage. Now’s your chance! Get internet-famous!

I’m sure that you don’t spend your days bopping around the With Care Etsy shop, furiously looking for any minute changes that I may have made. In fact, if you were, I think I would feel more-than-a-little uncomfortable. I’d be doing that thing where my lips are smiling but the rest of my face is clenched. You know the look. I know you do.

I’ve spent the last few days trying to develop something of a new product photo scheme. I like well styled photos but, dammit, I also love the look of items photographed against a simple seamless background. Daily Memorandum, I’m looking in your direction.

So, if you do stop by the With Care shop you might notice that I’ve added more by adding less. Simple styling with lots of white space for items to float in. I even went as far as building a light box and curating a small collection of neutral props from the detritus of my studio.

A few weeks back, one of my friends called my aesthetic “pristine”… which kind of knocked me on my ass, knowing myself and my habits for as long as I have. But I’ve decided to roll with it. I’m aiming for something that straddles “pristine” and “production”. And there’s always the third p, “Providence”: my kind host and unwitting inspiration.

Yay? Nay? Discuss.

(PS- a fourth p- “Philadelphia”. I’m so into things coming out of my ancestral city these days. Daily Memorandum, Blood Milk, and Laplander Bags to name a few. Is it something in the Schuykill?)

It really seems to have my number. I’ve spent these past two weeks doing very little, if anything at all, productive.

The pendulum swing towards inadvertent sloth and complete avoidance.

Since it is all in Italian, I have only various internet translators to rely on. Google Translate gave me this great snippet:

I also like many of these fans are junk and I believe in the magic that occurs rousing little treasures in some remote spot of the globe. Elizabeth is also obvious.

If you want to talk shit on me, please, do it in Italian. I’ll never know. “Obvious” my ass!

POST SCRIPT: Cecilia, the author of the article, added to the comments below with a much more logical translation:

“the price (of your jewels) is low, but the result is high, as always happen with things you find around street markets. i am a fan of this little stuffs and i believe in the magic that occurs when you rouse little treasures in some remote spot of the globe. Also Elizabeth evidently believe in it (the magic).”

Thank you so much, Cecilia, for your kind words!

 This whole topic hits near and dear to my heart for a few reasons. Initially, when faux-vintage instant photography first dropped into our social networking consciousness, I couldn’t help but remember the stack of photos that my mother gave to me: a 1970s road trip through the Badlands, a similar journey through the American southwest. She was saddened and disappointed because the vibrant colors had faded into browns and creams. The non-longer blue skies were something of a harsh reality. A physical manifestation of the passing of time and youth. But, man, they were cool looking! For a teenager who lacked any real camera skills, these spoiled photos were something rare and precious. I could take a photo of grass and, sure, it would be green. But, what kind of photo wizard could make that green grass brown and purple?

Many years later, I was spending one of my first nights getting to know Dave. I think we were huddled in the shark-shaped novelty tent that took up most living floor in my apartment. He told me that he was “into noise music” but quickly buffered that statement by say that such an art form was really more of a treat for those who make it and less for those who listen to it. The distinction of pleasurable creation versus pleasurable consumption is one that I try to keep close at hand.

Now, I make jewelry. I make it from old things. I make it to look old. I make it because I like to; because it is fun (sometimes!). But, I work hard to cultivate and control a reality that isn’t and a nostalgia for what never was. Maybe, like simulated vintage photographs, I also cannot help but celebrate a “nostalgia for the present”.

Whoa! I missed seeing this write up on the One Way Gallery blog until right now. I love the copy on it. Just the kind of plausible half-truths that I can get behind!

From "oldyankeemag.com". Click to enlarge!

It is getting colder and bike riding is becoming less and less appealing. However,  my enthusiasm for sitting on the couch and thinking about bicycles is never-waning.

Favorite comic writer and fantasy best friend, Kate Beaton, just published a great little sequential which I have accidentally published in full.

Going to her website and reading her other offerings is highly advisable but only if you have an hour or two to spare.

If you have never trusted me before, please, trust me now.

Please, be good to us.

But first, some 2011 business:

One: some treats picked up in Western, CT. Slim study books with dreamy colors and a plastic anchor buckle.

Two: some teeny vials. Seriously. Teeeeeensy.

Three: I discovered one of my new favorite stores, Summerhouse, in Point Pleasant, NJ.

If my studio had a lineage, I think that Summerhouse might be its mother. (An old timer’s garage would be its father.) Point Pleasant has many vintage and curio shops but they almost always skew towards the “shabby chic” vibe that reared its round-aboutly cute head in the 90s. Summerhouse is probably in some interior design vein of that but… wow. It really is a place that is impeccable. I could feel the curatorial eye in the best way possible. The owner allows all of her wares some room to breathe. No effin’ ’round here. Finally, a beautiful wooden spool is allowed to just sit on a (similarly beautiful, old, metal) shelf, being a beautiful old thing of integrity without having some crazy jerk decoupaging an inspirational saying onto it.

So yes, pristine, historic, minimalist aesthetic married with religious icons, a very, very impressive collection of old fixtures and display units and peppered with just enough French items to feel rarefied. And you can touch everything. And most everything is for sale. And the prices are really good.

Fouthly: Obviously this-was-the-place because I found this box of silk military ribbons just waiting to come home with me. Other treasures included 2 tiny American flags (made in Japan), little spoons, a ceramic “e”, Virgin Marys and a scapular because, well, why not? If you are going to love Catholicism, you might as well live your love. (In addition to this, my new favorite scents are frankincense and myrrh, so in addition to being arrayed like I could be struck down by the divine power of God, I also smell like a funeral. Ecclesiaste not ecdysiast, friend.)

What I failed to notice until I arrived back in RI was that the box came from only a mile or two away from where I was currently standing. Hurray!

Now for the 2012 stuff.

Last year, I had a long list of intentions to parade before you, the court. I think that I did a fair deal at tackling them. In fact, I even went out today and bought a nice night cream. Because I care about hydration, fine lines, and wrinkles. I also kept up my PMA (except for when I didn’t) and I read all of the books on my nightstand as they appeared in this photo from 1/1/11.

This year, I’m going to try and get better about working out and exercising on my own. I’m very good about it when I have to be accountable to others (like the Co-ed Fight Club for Girls Wednesday work out group) but I’m really shitty at it when I only have myself to disappoint. Truthfully, this is really just a microcosm of the rest of my life. No denial here!

My second intention for this year is to learn how to take a compliment. It’s hard! I can get very awkward! Sometimes, it has been pointed out, I will end up saying something inadvertently mean. That is a shame because I wish to be only overtly mean.

Also of import in 2012 are these:

Dig on these great little trinkets, they might be my last update for a while.

Not that With Care is going away. Hardly! But I do plan on making good on my threats of “upping my game” and, to do so, I’m going to have to reduce my efforts in certain areas. Like, rapid product development. But rest assured that, by the end of this year, I really want to have a true “line” with handsome jewels and accessories that are both good looking and well constructed from quality materials. I want to fine tune my photo style (with slightly more stylized photos, as some of the above are hinting at) and develop a press kit and a website and all of that good stuff. I might not want With Care to be my main source of income but, I do want it to be my main source of infamy.

Thank you for helping my past year be “good”, friends. Here’s to a new year that ends even better.

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