I followed my bliss....until it wasn’t my bliss anymore..... Now what??????

I followed my bliss of making jewelry which led to making beads, which led me to every Saturday at the farmers market for 8 years along with almost every Port Townsend craft fair, and some in Tacoma and Seattle. Then I, along with my family, followed our other bliss of snowboarding to Bend, Or.

I followed my bliss to bigger and better craft fairs throughout the west coast and even as far away as Baltimore and Chicago. 

It’s amazing what being fueled by passion can do. It was a lot of planning, packing, money, work and time. Overall it was a great and extremely rewarding experience....peppered by a few sketchy situations. Both the artists and customers (and sometimes artists were customers) I met along the way were so inspiring, and encouraging.

But one day, I found myself saying the words ‘I’m starting to loathe’ packing up for craft fairs, and setting up and taking down my booth. Loathe is not a word I use, maybe ever, especially not to describe anything I do. That is when I knew, even though at first I didn’t want to admit it, even to myself, that it was time to take a break from craft fairs.

At first the idea seemed crazy, like there was no way could I do that. But then it became easy. It was really simple. I just didn’t apply for the craft fairs. I let the deadlines pass......every time I would get an e-mail telling me about a  craft fair application deadline approaching I would delete it. Honestly, it was actually really satisfying.

So here I am, towards the end of my first summer in at least 13 years that I haven’t participated in one craft fair or market. Not one. It’s no wonder I’ve felt a little confused about what I’m doing lately. Now it’s time to apply for next years shows. Some of the deadlines have already passed, and guess what? So far, I’ve continued let them pass and haven’t applied to one.

I’m not saying I’m never going to do a craft fair again. I already felt a twinge of wanting to do one when I saw Art in The High Desert is happening this weekend. But for now I am taking a break. I’m focusing on the other areas of my art and business, the ones I do still enjoy and feel motivated about. At first I couldn’t even see any other possibilities, but now I’m seeing a lot.

The really good and very relieving to me news is that I am still completely and passionately in love with making glass beads and jewelry. When I sit down at the torch I feel like I am in exactly the right place and making even the smallest most basic bead makes me really happy. The other day, I sat down to make some large circles and flowers. They took me more than an hour each, but I was so engrossed that it seemed like only 10min. must have passed. 
One thing I do know is that I feel really good and am happy right now. I’m at peace with how things are and the uncertainty of not knowing how things are going to work out. It’s kinda fun and exciting that way. I’m open to the possibilities and hoping for the best :)

I've been working on some new designs for a while and here are some of my favorites.

 

 Here are some pictures that show how they were made

Glass rods, silver wire and gold leaf are made into beads

 

                                 
Various gauges of recycled silver wire become circles, links and ear wires.

                             Circles formed from wire ready to be soldered.

                           
             Circles after soldering and hammering, before being polished.

I made a little movie to show you how my earrings are made

Hearts

We don't really make a big deal about Valentine's Day around here. Mainly because we have our very own special holiday to celebrate this time of year. It is the anniversary of our very first date. Honestly, we don't remember the exact date, but do know it is right around my friend Kerri's birthday on Feb. 6th. This year was our 16th first date anniversary!!!!!!!!!!!! It just so happened that Robbie's mom was visiting so we were able to go on a dinner date without the kids. I really like celebrating our love on our own day.

I've only made hearts one time before as a special request from a friend. Other than that, I've never really wanted to until this year. I don't know what gave me the idea that I could just sit down and make awesome hearts right off the bat, especially after a two week break from bead making. It didn't exactly work out like that. These were a new challenge. I almost quit a few times, but I'm happy I didn't because I like how these turned out.

Being Grateful & Giving Away

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. The reasons are pretty simple. We spend time with people we love. We take time to think about what we are grateful for. This makes us feel happy and good. I like being happy and feeling good, and I like it when the people around me are happy and feeling good too.

I also really like eating yummy food. And snowboarding. I'm grateful for snowboarding. It has become our family's tradition to go snowboarding/skiing every Thanksgiving. Actually now that I'm thinking about it, it has become our family's tradition to go snowboarding/skiing on just about every holiday that falls between mid November and June 1!

I do my best to think about what I am grateful for every day. Lately, it's been first thing in the morning, before the sun comes up as I groggily drag myself out of my warm snuggly bed after hitting the snooze button three times. I'm not a morning person by nature. I usually feel like I could sleep for hours more. When I think about how grateful I am just to be here, that excites me to start my day. And large amounts of coffee. I am very grateful for coffee.

Another thing I am grateful for is you!!!!!  You who are reading this right now. Each and every one who has 'liked' my Facebook page, followed me on Twitter, looked at my Etsy store, joined my e-mail list and read my e-mails.

I am grateful to each person who has ever traded money for something I have created. For most people, this is trading your precious time. It all started with one person buying a few beads from a little dish that sat on our table in our apartment. I am grateful for each and every one.

I am grateful for each person who has ever come to my table or booth.Weather it was at my card table on the sidewalk in Port Townsend, a booth at a street fair, a Farmers or Saturday Market, a high end craft fair, or a shop or gallery.  I'm grateful for each person who has taken the time to look, ask questions, give compliments and smiles. At times smiles and true appreciation mean more than money. I am even grateful, though it can be hard to hear, for criticisms. 

I am grateful for my teachers. For workshops, classes, books, or just by the right person answering the right question at the right time. I am grateful for my students who are teachers too. Among other things, you have taught me how to teach. 

I am grateful for each and every person and every thing that has helped me on my way to where I am right now. 

All this gratitude makes me feel like giving something away. So, I am going to write each persons name who currently 'likes' my Facebook page (Larissa Spafford Designs) on a little piece of paper. I am going to put them all into this vase. 

Then I am going to randomly choose a name and give something to that person. I'm going to do this once a month. Each time a new person 'likes' my page I will add their name too. I'm not sure when I will get everyones name added, but I will let you know when I do! I'm hoping to do this by Thanksgiving. 

What are you grateful for?

Crayons & the Water Collection

I remember being a little girl and loving boxes of crayons. I especially liked the new boxes. There was something magically enticing about all those beautiful colors. Of course I had to line them up in rainbow order. Coloring was just a reason to smear those beautiful colors all over the page. I vividly remember an early homework assignment of outlining and coloring circles. I liked that one.

I remember liking their names as well. I would notice when they came out with new colors and names. Somehow, even then, I knew that there was a person who had the job of naming the colors. I thought that would be the coolest job. I kinda still do, so if anyone from Crayola is reading this, and in search of your next color namer, I would take that job! Another dream job would be creating colors. Beautiful colors of crayons, glass, or paint. That would be really fun.

Well so far I haven’t grown up to name crayons, but I do get to name colors of my beads!

Right now I’m coming up with names for my Water Collection. So far I have juicy tomato red, juicy pear green, fresh snow white and lavender dewdrop. I still need to come up with names for the grey and turquoise.

This is currently my favorite necklace. It is going away to it’s new home tomorrow, so I had to take pictures of it before it leaves. My beads and jewelry are like my babies. I got the idea for this one while sitting out in my yard this summer...or was it spring? Anyway, I wanted to make something that was inspired by water. I started with blue but could not resist making other colors too. The idea spawned a whole collection of jewelry in many colors that is still continuing to grow.

 

“...and when you want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”   Paulo Coelho

I recently came across this quote somewhere and wrote it down because I agree.

Last month I went to England and Paris! It was a short trip for a wedding. I was in England for 4 1/2 days and in Paris for 2 1/2. When I was contemplating going it seemed pretty crazy to go so far, and such a big expense, for such a short time. Now I think it would have been completely crazy to not go. I had the best trip ever!

How the whole trip came together was pretty serendipitous.

As soon as I received the save the date card I knew I wanted to go and was determined to find a way. The date was getting closer and it was just not looking like I would be able to pull it off. I had pretty much given up and accepted that I wasn’t going to make it and was ok with that. Or at least I had myself convinced that I was ok with that.

Then in Feb. my friend called me to say that she and her wife were going to try to go and I should come too. This made me want to go all over again, even more now. I remember saying “sometimes things have a way of magically working out when you want them too” as I hung up the phone. I decided to give it a few days before I said no for sure.

Monday rolled around and I still hadn’t had any massive sales, or won the lottery. I just really wanted to go and felt so determined that there must be a way that did not involve credit cards. I was driving down the street and remembered the quote. I pulled into our driveway and the second I walked into the door I grabbed a marker and wrote this quote largely in dark pink ink. I put it on my desk where I could see see it throughout the day and went about my business.

Just a few hours later, completely out of the blue, my mother in law calls me. She has decided to give me enough air miles for a ticket!  Woo hoo! I was going. Just like that. Good things continued to happen to help me on my way. When I went to shop for a dress to wear, as I was waiting in line to pay, a lady next to me gave me a $20 off coupon. I received just enough extra bead orders to fund my trip. And at the last minute I received a check, completely unexpectedly, from my sweet grandma. She was as excited for me as if she was going herself. So in just a few short months I went from not thinking I was going, to having everything I needed, pretty effortlessly. I am very grateful!