Whole Earth Festival

In our lives as jewelers we've made our living for almost 45 years selling our mixed metal jewels at art fairs & festivals in California, the southwest and the northwest. The show we have the most history with is the annual Whole Earth Festival at UC Davis which happens in May of each year, usually mother's day weekend which is May 11-13 this year. This will be our 36th year of participating in this event. It's always one of our favorites being fun and colorful with interesting music, dance, speakers,
characters, costumes and people.

It's a photogenic event and each year for the last 10 or 12 I've taken several hundred pictures  with one of my digital cameras. I like to make collages with those images for my own enjoyment and memory and to send to the young people who organize the event each year.

Here are 5 of the many collages I've done over the years, each being a slice of the life at Whole Earth each year.

We get inspired each year by exhibits and speakers at the festival focused on sustainability and being good humans on the earth.

Sometimes I do larger collages with themes such as:
Dogs of the Whole Earth Festival

Tattoos of the Whole Earth Festival

Kids of the Whole Earth Festival

Hats of the Whole Earth Festival

Not sure what my theme might be this year, I'll be collecting pictures for whatever it might be.

It's a unique event and we really enjoy reconnecting with many friends and customers each year and because of our long history there it's also one of our best money making shows with a very high percentage of our business coming from people who have bought jewelry from us before.

It has been interesting to see jewels passed down from the original buyer to a daughter and then in some cases down again to a grand daughter.

Friday, the first day of the festival is kind of a warm up day, Saturday is the busiest and most crowded day, Sunday is mellower and more relaxed, especially early in the day.
Stop by and say hello if you get to the festival. Check out some of the new jewelry we'll have there at our jewelery blog at:

MIXED METAL JEWELS

The creatures in my life

 The creatures that we share the planet with have always fascinated me, even when I was very young. As well as taking lots of photographs of them, at various times in my life I've also been attracted to painting and drawing images of them. In my life as a maker of jewels their forms have popped up from time to time in
the form of pins and pendants.

To the left is an image of a colored pencil drawing I did of a young giraffe that I took a photo of at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco on a visit there with my grand kids. Part of me was horrified by the thought of this creature being killed so it could be stuffed and displayed in a museum and part of me was entranced by it's beauty and the opportunity to see it up close. Size of drawing is 8x12 inches.

 Lots of people that I meet have negative feelings about insects but they have always interested me. In my jewel maker persona I sometimes think of them as beautiful, little jeweled robots. This is an example of an intricate kind of pen drawing I have spent a lot of time with at various times in my life, there's is something calming and meditative to me about putting each little line on paper one at a time. Of course, some people look at that and think that I must be crazy. Well, perhaps. I can identify with this Bug on a Bubble, I've felt like that before.
Size of drawing is 8 1/2 x 11 inches.

 I have a jewelry customer in the bay area that has iguanas and has several times shown me photographs of them. This is a colored pencil drawing of a fantasized hybrid version of one in a ambiguous landscape. The abstract rock forms on which it sits I developed after a visit to Joshua Tree National Park many years ago when I became fascinated by the rock forms there and could not stop doing drawings inspired by them for about 6 weeks. Size of original is 18 x 24 inches.

 I did a series of black and with drawings combining intricate patterns with insect forms back in the early 1990's. This is the grasshopper version. Size is 6 x 9 inches.

I'm entranced with this photographic image. A week and a half ago my wife Carlie and I walked north of Ft. Bragg along the ocean to see if there were any harbor seal babies. We didn't see any but some of the 30 or so adults we saw looked pregnant so I think soon there will be young ones. I couldn't get too close to the seals because they are skittish, so I took a lot of shots using telephoto capabilities on my camera. I didn't actually see this wonderful smiling one until I looked at the images blown up on my computer later. I laughed out loud when I first saw it and it still brings a smile to my face as well as to the faces of friends to whom I've shown it and sent it in emails.

The Flying Buzz

 I grew up part of the time in central Texas and buzzards didn't get very good press or much respect there. I've grown fond of them here in the country of the California  coast though. They are such great gliders and who else would clean up the dead ones on the ground? A week ago before the Caspar breakfast and my book sale as I was unloading books at the Community center I spotted these guys on the fence at the back of the property drying their wings on the fence after the heavy rains of the day and night before. There were actually about  a dozen of them coming and

going. An interesting aspect of the scene was a flock of about 20 plus starlings that seemed to be hanging out with them. They came and went as the buzzards came and went. I haven't a clue as to what this means but noted it.

 This was taken last fall as I was taking a walk with my daughter and grandkids down in Sonoma county. A group of about 5 vultures were flying about low to the ground. I never did see what they were after. I just pointed the camera up and shot hoping to get an image.

A little later we spotted several of the group sitting in trees and on housetops adjacent to the trail on which we were traveling. This guy was really giving me the eye. I tried to tell him that I thought my time hadn't really come yet but he seemed sceptical.

Flutterbyes

 On the deck outside the kitchen door each summer these creatures come to harvest nectar from flowers I planted in a half wine barrel. They seem fairly oblivious to my presence as they focus on their task. Their wings are constantly moving so it's sometimes difficult to get a non blurred picture. I set the camera to burst shooting so that each time I press the shutter it takes several shots so I can find one that isn't blurred.

 A different perspective on the same visitor.

I just couldn't resist putting this one on the blog.
A friend of mine in Marin county grew this tomato. The nose was actually there and I just couldn't resist adding the eyes and mouth that I borrowed from another image. Photoshop can be fun.

Up the Haul Road

 We're gradually walking up the Haul Rd. that goes north from Ft. Bragg and was once the road used to haul logs in earlier lumbering days. We're walking it in increments along the ocean and finding lots of little treasures some of which are pictured here. To the right is a sparrow hawk also called an American Kestrel, one of the smaller hawks that lives all across the country, sweet coloring. I tried to get closer but it was skeptical of my intentions and flew off northward.

 At Mackerricher State Park there are harbor seal rookeries, this one was just north of the park and contained about 25 seals. This is the time of year when they have babies. It's important to not get too close to them as they are skittish and the mother seal, if scared by people or loose dogs, might escape into the ocean losing contact with her pup which is then in danger of starving to death. Volunteer monitors are on hand to try to get people to maintain their distance and to take care of abandoned pups. I was happy that my telephoto lens helped get this image.

At little Lake Cleone at Mackerricher Park the water is high and coming up over the visitors parking lot. On sunny days the starlings take baths in the warmed shallow waters. This fellow was standing contemplating bathing I guess. I'm really happy with the shadow image which, of course, I didn't even see when I snapped the picture.

An Albatross

 An albatross. It had been hurt and was a guest of the Monterey Aquarium while it recovered it's strength. They brought it out into a small courtyard each afternoon so that people could see it fairly close up. The woman talking about it warned people around it to not get too close because it could be a little aggressive if it felt threatened, although she was able to touch it and it responded positively to that. It was a large and impressive bird. The 2nd picture is the actual one, I couldn't get any pictures that didn't have various people in the background so

 I extracted the albatross from that background and overlaid it over a background of Marin Headlands skyscape. I'd rather remember this bird like that. I collect pictures of clouds everywhere that I go, the incredible variety of cloud forms amazes me.

 I never tire of taking pictures of flowers, and most especially roses. Roses are so varied in color and texture and have so many visual moods that it seems endless. They become even more magic when I get in very close to them, sensual and exotic and yet familiar too. Can't wait for spring so I can go out and capture some more images.