Carla M Fox Metalsmith

Off the subject of jewelry, I am happily wallowing in the leftovers of a wonderful, way-too-busy summer, happy wedding memories, and some gorgeous Fall weather.

Our dot is now married to a most wonderful man, who brings with him a great family. The Fox Fam has been enlarged and enriched! This was an unexpected bonus to marrying off the kid. I had only thought in terms of her being married happily and moving all her stored stuff outta my house, finally. To have her find a man with a great family is an unexpected delight. Extra bonus, our son-her brother & the groom’s sister were the officiants for the wedding. And as the son told people all summer, “I’m going marry my sister this September.” And that he did, sorta, while wearing his beloved grandfather’s re-tailored summer “ice cream” suit.

Friends were married the next week in Napa/St.Helena, California. They did so to give all us guests a present of being in Napa during the crush (when the grapes are picked and smashed for wine) and to let us discover this most amazing area. A most sublime-dreamy wedding it was.

Art in the Pearl, Portland. Wowsers! what a show. Its always our best and such a great way to end a summer. Its nice to finish a season with such an appreciative audience. We must jury into the show each year, so we cross our fingers and put our best images out there and hope the jury likes us, so we can it all again next year.

And speaking of the Art in the Pearl. What is wrong with this  picture?

This would be my broken right arm. Not a good thing for a right-handed metalsmith. I was running to a porta pottie switched directions quickly and my feet got way behind the rest of me. A curb & I met rather abruptly. Damn. Not my best move. It would have been so much better if I’d been in a bar fight.

I am one-armed for a few more weeks. And I must say its a raging bore. Each day tho’ my right hand and arm sneak in to do more things that the left arm has been doing, so I should be back up to full strength soon.

My next show is a ways off, Local 14 in Portland, Oregon; October 14-17. I’ll be there, with a reduced inventory, but there.

Whatta summer. Its been 5 months of all out hurrying as we went from one show to the next, to 2 weddings, one at our home! First things first. We have recovered from our Des Moines blow-out.

I am again humbled and grateful for the friends we have. They supported us in all ways as we set about returning our booth to its full form. Without these friends we would have never made it through this summer. Here we are a mere 2 weeks after losing our booth in Des Moines back up and running at Salem Arts Festival here in Oregon.

My rings were even part of the massive I-5 freeway billboard. It’s quite a surprise to see one’s rings so BIG.

From there we went immediately to the Bellevue Arts Festival in Bellevue, Washington. This is a wonderful show, with some of my favorite artists. Extra bonus for us weather weary is that it is inside a parking structure that provides shade and protection from rain, hot sun, and winds!

Then it was on to Art in the High Desert – the show we put on with a group of local artists, here in Bend, Oregon. This is our baby and we had 3 weeks to put the final touches on it before welcoming this year’s artists. We in our 3rd year and it gets better each year.

Tom Hassler-photographer

A week after Art in the High Desert we were at Art in the Pearl, in Portland, Oregon. This proved to be an eventful show in many ways for me. But more in the next blog.

Happy Fall, all. Sign up for my newsletter. Once Fall is well-under way I will be starting online sales and discounts! just for my mailing list clients. If you signed up at a show, you can wait for me to add you, or add yourself. My program, MailChimp eliminates all duplicates.

Thanks for a great summer!

Carla