Thursday, June 21, 2012

Father's Day...

Not only was the weather fine on Father's Day weekend, but both the girls were home with us. We took a drive south, through the Willamette Valley towards Stayton in search of Shelburg Falls. Oregon has great places to hike and this was a good one.

First, some refueling at the Java Stop on Hwy 22.


Daisies, and foxglove were lining the edges of the fields as we began the hike along the road toward the forest. The temperature was in the 70's all day, perfect as far as I'm concerned!


and Flores found a mud puddle within the first 5 minutes...


 then had to suffer the indignity of being carried over several cattle guards.



The lower falls were not far into the forest


we then began to follow a trail toward the upper and larger falls


Taylor spots it in her trendy hiking gear...


The trail continues behind the falls, which is pretty cool and pretty muddy.

walking under a humongous ceiling of basalt...

 lots of maiden hair fern growing in this area.

Slugs everywhere of course...

But there were also wild roses along the trail


and in the patches of sunlight, wild iris were popping out in various shades of purple.


The dog jumped into every body of water we came across. We kept him securely on the leash around the falls...

All in all, it was a great way to spend Father's Day


and it makes me wonder why we don't do this more often...






Thursday, June 7, 2012

my new love...

Well, maybe not that new, but ever since I was offered some Hell's Canyon herringbone petrified wood a couple of years ago, I've been smitten! 



Discovered in the Hell's Canyon gorge in the late 50's and a portion of what was there was removed just prior to the construction of the Snake River's Brownlee Dam, which subsequently flooded the area. So there's a limited supply, which helps with the mystique, but it's lovely herringbone pattern and vugs, or voids filled with druzy, makes it stand out all on it's own! The wood has been since identified as sequoia, and I'm happy to have a few pieces left and am soon to have more,yay!  

this ring is just the most recent piece to come out of the studio, below are a few previous ways I've used the material...

Cufflinks. These were given as a graduation gift.

A beautiful treasure ring which also features a freeform pearl and raw diamond.

currently available...
And I'll soon be doing my best to see that I have a large supply for lots of future work!  Anyone interested in having something made just contact me through my etsy shop!