Introducing my Etsy Shop: Valerie Storey Designs

 

At last! I'm so happy to announce the opening 

of my Etsy Shop: 

Valerie Storey Designs

"Inspired by the past, created for today."

Earrings, bracelets, necklaces and pendants -- I have a brand! Everything is handmade by me, one-of-a-kind, never to be repeated and all with free USA shipping. 

Here's a small selection from the sixteen items I'm currently listing:

 

Although quite a few of the individual beads I've used were purchased right here in Albuquerque, many of them are from all over the world, collected during my travels to places such as Taiwan, Portugal, and Spain. I'm always looking for distinctive, unusual beads whenever possible, and often these are only available in very small quantities, guaranteeing that whatever I make from them will be one-time-only pieces.

Similar to the way I write and paint, my approach to beading depends a lot on the magic of randomness. I start with a handful of color (oh, how I love color!) and let the beads find their own way into a design often inspired by my many years spent visiting museums and galleries. Art history has always had a big influence in everything I do, inspiring my novels such as Overtaken and The Great Scarab Scam, but it's still a huge surprise to me to see how a piece will turn out: Egyptian, Etruscan Revival, mid-century modern: every bead tells a story!

One of the most surprising things to have come out of all this is my new appreciation for photography. Etsy requires a wide variety of product shots, and I have to admit the process was difficult for me to learn--I almost gave up at one point I found it so hard. But after several days of trial and error, I think I'm on the right track to figuring it all out: light boxes, satin drapery, as much daylight as possible . . . confusing at first, but like all creative endeavors, definitely worth pursuing.

Anyway, I hope you like my efforts and that you can visit my shop in time for the holidays! Over the coming weeks I'll be listing new items, so please stay tuned.

Tip of the Day: While I will always consider myself first and foremost a writer, art, beading, and working with hand-built pottery has enriched my life beyond measure. I can't imagine a day going by without at least a few minutes sketching or working on a new design for a bracelet or pair of earrings. The strongest advantage of having these varied interests is that they really do feed each other, especially when I'm stuck or hit some kind of road-block. Going back and forth between, say, a difficult scene in a particular chapter, to figuring out if blue beads look better with gold or silver findings, keeps my imagination active and open to receive the answers I need. Better than working solely on one project until you reach potential burn-out, always try to have another creative outlet ready and waiting. You'll be glad you did! 

UPDATE: Please note my shop has now moved to Valeriestorey.com

Beads, Glorious Beads!

 So . . .  I've been bead shopping . . . 

And I kind of got more than I bargained for!

For the last week or two I've been sorting, bagging, and organizing what must be several thousand individual beads that arrived via US Post in what were called "mixed bags." Initially I thought I had ordered, oh, a few little envelopes of assorted colors. You know, some focal beads, a variety of purples, some blues, some greens. Little things. When I went to the post office to pick up my parcel, I was shocked--the box must have weighed close to twenty pounds. I was staggered--both figuratively and literally; I could barely carry it back to the car.

For the first few hours after opening the box, I just sat at my art table looking at all this bounty in utter shock. A few hours more and I had to make a decision: either I had to pack the whole lot up and store it on a very high shelf where it would remain for the next ten years, or I had to get moving. If I didn't act now, it was never. These beads weren't going to sort themselves into a zillion different categories and somebody had to take control. And thus my plan was hatched: it's time to go into business, kids!

The idea of starting a jewelry business isn't entirely new; I'm sure I've mentioned wanting to do something along these lines more than once on this very blog, but getting up the courage and determination to follow through certainly is. No more playing around with colors and bead shapes and sizes and arrangements "just to see what they look like." Instead, I'm setting up special weekend hours to work steadily on both learning my craft and creating new designs to sell. Yes, sell. It sounds so scary!

The goal is to have by next summer a full inventory of earrings, necklaces, and bracelets priced at affordable levels with enough items to keep some back so that I can replace items as they are sold. In other words--a lot of stuff! 

To make the process and adventure even more interesting, I bought my first packets of silver clay to make my own pendants and charms. I haven't opened any of them yet as I'm not quite ready to begin (our New Mexico climate is so dry that once the package is open, the pieces must be made immediately), but in the meantime I'm studying the steps involved via books and Youtube.com.

One unexpected benefit to all this abundance of shiny glass baubles is I am seeing color in an entirely new way, noticing how shades interact with each other whether I'm admiring autumn leaves or a friend's new jacket. It's a nice complement to my painting and drawing, and I'm sure it's going to spill over into my writing, too. As they say, one thing always just leads to another . . .

Tip of the Day: I don't think I'm alone in saying sales and marketing have always been terrifying concepts to me. But it's something I have to conquer and to that end, part of my "bead education" has to involve studying what's needed to become a selling artist. Thank goodness for artist and teacher Mary Gilkerson! Lately I've been taking the time to watch her excellent videos on art marketing and creativity at https://www.youtube.com/user/marygilkerson. The videos are fun, informative, and applicable to more than just art--how about book marketing too? Two thumbs up from me!

How to Solve any Problem with Beads

Some of the beads I've gathered abroad,
or just from a trip to the craft store.

How to Solve any Problem with Beads. Really? Well, that's the title/theme I've just been given from my latest discovery: a blog post generator! 

Back story: I was scrolling through Twitter (when I was supposed to be editing my poetry manuscript) when I read a tweet that totally intrigued me, a reference to using a blog post generator. Naturally, I had to check it out, mainly because I've never come across a creativity generator I didn't like. Whether it's been to name a foreign character, find a setting for my National Novel Writing Month plot, or match a profession to a villain, generators are fun. 

The blog post generator I found was no exception, the only difference being that I had to enter three nouns before the generator could assign my topic. My choices were: creativity, beads, and writing. I then clicked on "go" and ta-dah: How to Solve any Problem with Beads. 

I had a good laugh, and then thought, hey, why not? That's a great topic! The only trouble was, I didn't know whether it meant how to solve big problems, like, how to bring about world peace, or how to get your neighbor's dog to stop barking; or did it mean, how to solve any problems you're having with beading, such as how to correctly fit those pesky crimp covers used for finishing the ends of necklaces and bracelets. If so, I have to admit I don't have any solutions for crimp covers (the bane of my beading life) other than try, try, try again, but I also know that in the trying I've been able to zone out and solve (or at least meditate upon) quite a few day-to-day challenges including writing and painting problems.

My (tiny) bead table.

I know I'm not alone in my fascination with beads. Beads in all forms and shapes have a long history of decorative and spiritual use, from Buddhist malas to Christian rosaries and burial relics in ancient grave sites.

5000-year-old beads I saw at the National  
History Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.

I've always been particularly intrigued by a story I once heard on NPR about the tradition of making rosaries from actual rose petals. The petals are boiled, rolled and formed into beads for drying and stringing. Holding the finished rosary in one's hands supposedly emits a strong scent of roses, something that must be quite heavenly to experience.

Unfortunately, I can't get a rose bush to thrive long enough to bloom, let alone think of gathering its petals for bead-making. On the other hand, finding beads while traveling, even if it's only to the next town has solved the  "what to bring home as a souvenir or gift" dilemma nicely. 

More than anything, beading has been a way for me to take a break from writing or painting, although there are some nice parallels to the visual arts, especially when it comes to working with color. I often like to start with a single shade and then search out whatever in my collection matches or complements that choice. Once I have all the beads I think I might want to use, I rarely settle on one design; I change, rearrange, or completely re-think the entire scheme several dozen times before I'm satisfied with the outcome.

Works-in-progress! Note the tiny gold crimp
covers lying there all on their loathsome lonesome. 
I'll get to them . . . soon . . . 

Right now I'm doing my best to solve my bead storage problem. It's amazing how many little containers and boxes are required to keep everything in order. For a born-minimalist like me, it's a nightmare. To make more room I've decided to use up all the beads I have before I buy anything new. Part of this clean-up effort has been to toss the less-attractive beads I've been hanging on to for no good reason other than they were part of my favorite way of buying beads in grab bags--random assortments that suit the puzzle-solver in me to a T. Now if I could just get those crimp covers to work . . . 

Tip of the Day: Try beading! A simple way to dive in is to visit your local bead or craft store and buy not only a grab bag but a few "focal beads," the larger, flashier beads meant for the center of a necklace or bracelet. You don't have to make jewelry or buy expensive tools to get started. Instead, string a few beads together to tie on to gift packages, the ends of bookmarks, or to decorate your journal. After that, you might want to carry on to the real thing, thereby giving yourself all kinds of interesting problems to solve. Happy Summer!

2015: It Was a Very Good Year

No doubt about it, 2015 has been one of the best years of my life. And as I usually do around this time of year, I like to look back and see what events or turning points made the previous twelve months so special. Not that it's always been easy to do so. Some years the best I could say was, "Well, I survived!" Other years have been so filled with goodness it was difficult to keep my list down to a manageable number. 

2015 definitely falls into this last category, with the top twelve being (and in no particular order):

1. My trip to Taiwan. I can't say enough about how much fun this trip was, or what it meant to me: Life-changing, to say the least. I wrote several blog posts about my trip, starting with my Taiwan Trip Diary, Days 1 and 2. For the holidays I recently was sent a link to this lovely little video about a group of young people traveling to many of the same Taiwanese sites I visited and I can't stop watching it. I hope you enjoy it too!

2. My trip to Portugal. I never really expected to travel to two countries in one year, but somehow I got there! Portugal couldn't have been more different from Taiwan, but in retrospect I find myself remembering the trip with an equal amount of fondness. In case you haven't seen them, my Portuguese blog posts start here.

3. Finding a new direction in my artwork. Until Taiwan, I pretty much was what you could call a major "dabbler." In other words, I rarely found an art supply I didn't want, or a technique I didn't want to explore and experiment with. I had enough materials and sketchbooks and papers and brushes to open a small store. My only goal seemed to be "do it all!" Now, eight months later, I have donated 90% of my "stuff" to the library and an art center for the disabled. I've been left with what really speaks to my heart: a small set of watercolors and my favorite pencils in graphite and pastel, as well as limited sets of colored and water-soluble pencils. Pencils and drawing seem to be "it" for me and where I want to stay. I also discovered that I resonate the strongest to an Asian-Expressionist style, something I never would have known had I not gone to Taiwan and "found my art-self."

4. Keeping a daily sketchbook habit. Another great benefit of traveling. I took sketchbooks with me to both travel destinations and now I can't go anywhere without one in my purse. A day without a sketch of something is a day lost to me, and I've come to love daily sketching as much as daily writing.

5. Blogging. I wasn't as frequent a blogger as I had hoped to be this year, with long gaps in between posts, and many of my posts being about travel rather than writing (which is really meant to be the focus of this blog . . .) but, hey, I hung in there! I did have fun writing my posts when I had the time to sit down and write them, and it has been a pleasure sharing my adventures with you all. Thank you everyone so very much for reading and being there for me. Next year I'll try to get back on track with more posts on writing and creativity (although I must say it's gone through my mind how much I'd enjoy being a dedicated travel blogger, too! Maybe sometime in the future??)

6. My wonderful groups: writers, artists, sketchers . . . I don't know what I would do without my inspiring and helpful groups. I have a schedule of five to six meetings a month with all of these talented people and I couldn't be more grateful. 

7. Reading Paul Scott's entire Jewel in the Crown series, including the sequel: Staying On. For some reason in January, I became obsessed with this series and had to read every single word--sometimes twice. It dominated every minute of my limited reading time to the exclusion of not reading very much else this year. The particular volume I bought had ALL of the books in one gigantic paperback that just about broke my wrists holding it upright, but I was glad I stuck with it. 

8. Beading at last, with lots of new beads from Taiwan and Portugal. Last Christmas I was gifted some professional-quality beading tools and this year I made good use of them, resulting in some new and original jewelry for myself and others. I've still got a lot to learn, but it sure helps to have the right tools and supplies.

9. Finishing my novel, The Abyssal Plain 101% to my satisfaction and submitting it. In many ways this was probably my most important achievement. I had hoped to have had the manuscript finished last year, but then kept seeing changes I wanted and/or needed to make every time I thought I was through with editing. Well, now I am finished and I've even sent it out to some agents. Let's see what happens!

10. Our first year in the new house we spent all of 2014 renovating. Can't believe I lived through this episode, but here we are with nothing left to paint, repair, or replace. The back yard is still a bit of a work-in-progress, but we're regarding that as a "hobby for fun and entertainment" rather than "We can't move in until (fill in the blank) is fixed/finished." It feels good to now only have routine housework on the to-d0 list, as opposed to things like "buy new doors."

11. Cleared out my bookshelves to an absolute minimum. In the same manner I de-cluttered my art supplies, I emptied my bookshelves down to the bone. They're now very bare, very lean, and hold only some pottery and the books I refer to again and again. Anything else I want to read comes from the library. 

12. Discovering that I want to concentrate on writing short stories. This has been a very new discovery, like only about a month ago. And it's also been a "homecoming." When I first decided I wanted to be a writer, many years ago, I wanted to write short stories. Then I learned two things: a) I tended to write very long pieces. In fact, they were so long they weren't short stories at all. They were novels.  And, b) print magazines were disappearing at a rapid rate with very little openings to publish short stories. 

A lot has changed since then. Not only has the Internet provided hundreds if not thousands of new opportunities for publishing short pieces, but I have reached a point in my life where I'm ready to be more succinct. It may have something to do with the fact that I have four more novels in first-draft mode ready for editing and rewriting and I'm in no mood to write a fifth.  Yet I don't want to stop writing altogether just because I have manuscripts to edit. Short stories feel like the perfect answer: a good way to keep my creativity flowing, and a good way to stay in touch with publishing while I continue to revise one novel at a time.

So that was my year in review. How about you? Any special highlights you'd like to share? Leave a comment! In the meantime, Merry Christmas and I'll see you next year. Stay warm!

Taiwan Trip Diary: Days 11 and 12

Dharma words and stamps from our monastery stay.

Here we are at the end of our trip. I've been dragging these posts out in the hope I'd never reach this point. But, yes, all good things must come to an end (I've never really known why) and we were sure to cram as much fun into the last two days as possible. Starting with breakfast at The One and these coffee cups. I loved them so much I had to buy a set for home:

I don't think my husband is as impressed with them as I am, but I thought they were cute. And they're definitely a fine example of "splash ink" technique.

After leaving The One, we headed back up toward Taipei and a village famed for its ceramic work. We were running a bit behind schedule so we decided to forgo a sit-down lunch in favor of exploring what the street vendors had to offer. They were especially plentiful thanks to the ongoing national holiday. My choices included a steamed spinach-green onion-and-cheese bun, a fried doughnut, and a huge cup of iced lemon tea that lasted me most of the day.

Loved this tunnel kiln! I need one at home.

Bought chopsticks for home, too. 
Finally learned how to use them, LOL!

The afternoon took us further into Taipei:

Taiwan's "White House."

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial
(unfortunately covered with
scaffolding.)

. . . and the National History Museum. I thought this little pagoda was perfect painting material:

Before studying any artwork we needed afternoon tea in the museum cafe:

The view from the cafe windows:

Someone actually gets to live in this building.

These beads date from 403-221 BC.
Still so modern. I'd buy them!

After the museum we found ourselves in a busy part of downtown where I had the opportunity to investigate some of the backstreet shops. Thanks to having bought the pig teacups I needed a larger carry-on. I found just what I wanted in a small suitcase store: bright pink canvas and made in Taiwan. A great souvenir for future travels.

Which store first??

Dinner that night was once again "family style" when we met up with some of Ming Franz's cousins, former high school classmates, and teachers in a downtown restaurant. It was a genuine reunion for them all, and wonderful for us to be part of such a special evening.

Then we were back to The Grand Hotel for our final night. By now we had traveled in a huge circle, seeing three coastlines and parts of the interior too. We also arrived back in time for  the start of "frog season." Right outside our windows: croak, croak, croak all night. As I noted in my journal: "These frogs are VERY disagreeable!"

A grand entrance, indeed.

Accompanied by the frog serenade, our packing lasted well into the early morning hours. We had become so spoiled in our big bus, a vehicle designed to sit 30-40 passengers when there were only 10 of us, that our daily habit was to load up the empty seats with our purchases from each stop and then forget about them. Now was the night of reckoning and everything had to find its place or get left behind. First to be discarded were all the beautiful shopping bags--so lovely but way too bulky. 

The next morning, packed and ready for our night-time flight, we still had a full day to spend in Taipei. First stop was a visit with Welsh paper artist, Tim Budden, now a Taiwan resident, who led us to his studio through this interesting neighborhood:

Hot spring water flows right through town.

Mr. Budden explaining the
intricacies of paper art.

Following our studio tour, we were off to Taipei 101, regarded to be the world's highest completed building. We were booked for lunch on the ground floor at an Anthony Bourdain-recommended restaurant specializing in xiao long bao, steamed soup dumplings. Yum.

Before lunch we had 30 minutes to ride up to the 89th-floor. 

Next and final stop: The Eslite Book Store. The best bookstore in the whole world. Several stories high, filled with treasures I'll never see here in the USA, I could have moved in permanently. I bought more brush pens (black, forest green, gray, and rust red), a book on painting cats in the Chinese style, and a book on French shabby chic. In Chinese. Don't judge.

And then we were off to the airport. Our superb and talented tour guide gifted us all with special little items to remember our trip. For me it was a wooden key-ring carved into the shape of a horse complete with saddle, bridle, and tons of intricate detail. She told me she had chosen a horse so that I "may keep traveling, and go far." She also gave me a postcard of a Taiwanese kitten, "Because you love cats!" 

On the way to the airport . . .

After dinner on the plane I think I slept more soundly than I did at the monastery. I don't remember much about the flight home except for the movie I watched before falling asleep: The Crossing--a recent film set in Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. It was excellent, and a real tear-jerker, but then it suddenly ended with the words 'To be continued." Apparently Part II comes out this summer, but I wanted to keep watching!

Along with two of my travel companions, I had decided earlier to stopover in San Francisco before going home to Albuquerque, and I'm glad I did, but it sure seemed strange (and lonely) to be on our own without the group or my roommate.

A room of my own.
New pink Taiwan travel bag in the back there.

My version of my cat postcard:
"This kitty is sad to leave Taiwan."

And then we flew into Albuquerque, and . . .  that's all, folks, 12 unforgettable days of Taiwan. I hope you've enjoyed reading my trip diary; I certainly enjoyed sharing it with you. May you one day travel far and wide, too!

(Next post: A review of my travel sketch supplies, what worked, what didn't. Stay tuned.)

Taiwan Trip Diary, Days 3 and 4

Dawn breaking over Taipei's Grand Hotel.

Hello, Everyone! Where do the weeks go? Despite my best intentions, it's been nearly two whole weeks since my last post. I need to catch up, so let's just start with Day 3 dawning over Taipei:

Sunny and mild, Day 3 found us traveling to the Tamsui Bay region where we explored the ancient Spanish Fort San Domingo, with its classic old Western-style architecture, garden, furnishings and views of Guan-yin Mountain. For some reason I didn't take any photos--probably because I was concentrating on the views:

Tamsui Bay--looking forward to painting this.

Going through the various rooms of the fort's living quarters, displayed to resemble the way the house appeared during the time of the last British Consulate, I came across this intriguing message on the wall: "One may ask, From which angle will the mountain look like the Goddess of Mercy most?" 

Hmm. I found the answer fairly soon when I turned the corner and entered an exhibition of mid-century modern Taiwanese art focusing on scenes of Tamsui. Cubism, Fauvism, 1950's "primitive," so many different techniques but all with an Asian flair I loved--a little too much as I then had to run to the gift shop to buy the exhibition catalog/book. And there went "traveling light."

After the fort and a drive along the coast, we lunched (feasted) at a seafood restaurant. Being a vegetarian I was given my own special selections, but I couldn't help but be impressed with the artistry of the fish presentations--fish as food sculpture was a new one to me! Better still was the fact that I started using my chopsticks with serious proficiency. I can only thank the Goddess of Mercy for such kindness.

Scooters!

One of my favorite things was seeing all the family businesses in action.
So many just like this.

After lunch: the wild and crazy Yehliu rocks, a coastal phenomenon unique to Taiwan. The rocks are truly unbelievable, shaped like chess pieces, dogs, mushrooms; whatever you can imagine there's a rock to match. Climbing up and down the walkways got a tad slippery for me (especially with my uncanny ability to trip whenever possible) so midway along the tour I stopped to rest with one of my fellow travelers, a lovely woman and new friend from the UK. While we were happily chatting in the shade about how difficult it is to get Americans to call a bathrobe a "dressing gown," we noticed people taking our photo, not once, but several times, only then to be asked if the photographers could be in the photos with us. It turned out that tourists from mainland China had never seen an American--or English--traveler in person before. They were thrilled, and I have no idea how many family albums we'll be appearing in over the next few months. 

Yehliu mushroom rocks--incredible!

Straight out of Alice in Wonderland.

Day 3 ended and Day 4 began in the port city of Keelung:

From our hotel room window!

Night view from the hotel restaurant.

Early morning stroll along the docks.

The sidewalk was narrow . . .  but I was on a mission . . . 

. . . to buy these. Delicious.

And then we were off to gold mining country, waterfall viewing,

and a terrifying bus trip while standing (I had to keep my eyes closed) into the romantic and exceptionally steep village of Jiufen. Once we arrived we still had to go further uphill, climbing, climbing, and climbing to the very top of the village accompanied by the pervasive scent of what's known as “stinky tofu," a local delicacy and a taste I'm embarrassed to say I never tried. I’m a bit disappointed at myself for being such a coward, but it was just too . . . stinky. 

The streets of Jiufen filled with happy strangers. 

No clue what they're selling here,
but it looks like something fun!

"No, it's your turn to buy the stinky tofu!"

Unbelievably, it was lunchtime again (the meals never stopped appearing). This time in a delightful open-air wooden tea room with the usual abundance of delicious offerings. Good thing we were forced to walk down to the bottom of the village to catch our bus. Calories, calories!

Before leaving the village we were given an hour or so to sightsee on our own, so my first choice was to visit a natural stone store I remembered passing on the way up and where I was able to buy beads for jewelry making. I came away with jade, aventurine, and citrine (so, so pretty), and at a bargain, too. (BTW, in case there's any doubt, let me just remind everyone that shopping IS sightseeing. It's very educational to learn how shopkeepers in foreign parts write up receipts, display their goods, etc. etc. I highly recommend it.)

After shop-seeing and some more much-needed walking, we then learned how to shove our way onto the shuttle bus. Being a Sunday, the place was crowded to capacity, so we had to be aggressive if we wanted get down to our tour bus waiting at the bottom of the mountain. So all together now: Shove, shove, shove! I felt terrible. Sort of.

Safely back on our home bus again, shins and elbows intact, we again followed the coastline, this time to the tune of soul-soothing classical music, before we stopped at this architectural wonder of a museum:

The island-shaped Langyan Museum.

Inside the museum I was able to learn more about the Aboriginal people of Taiwan, and the history of the Chinese settlers. My favorite moment was sitting inside a replica of an Aboriginal thatched hut to watch a movie (the big screen TV was something of an anachronism, especially as I was sitting on a log) about their daily lives, arts and crafts, and hunting methods.

After the museum: another spectacular hotel doubling as a spa (complete with deep stone-tiled spa tub and hot spring water right in our room) and known as "A Spring Full of Indulgence and Comfort." Taiwanese pajamas were provided for our comfort, that is if you were the size of a small teddy bear, but the cute free flip-flops fit like a dream--I'm still wearing them as I'm writing this post!

Tea for two.

Highlight of the Day: Shove, shove, shove! Nah, just kidding. Fortunately, we never had to be so ruthless again. Instead, I found the majority of the trip to be extremely calm and restful, a mood I'm celebrating with my new Pinterest board: I Love Taiwan! I'd love for you to take a look when you've got a free minute or two. In the meantime, stay tuned for my next post, Days 5 and 6.