Raku

I have been having fun with raku again now that it has gotten cold in the garage. Here are some from yesterday.

End of Year Jewelry Sale

I am listing lots of jewerly on ebay starting tonight and adding a few pieces daily for the next two weeks. The gallery that I have been with for 4 years is going out of business this month, so I am reducing my inventory through ebay at huge savings.

Have been having the usual dilema, to make jewelry or make lampwork beads to sell on ebay. Today I decided to spend awhile making beads, and worked with only one selection of colors, black and raku with clear. Can't wait to open the kiln and see what I have.

Here is a photo of a bracelet listed on ebay.

Tropical Madness

Today I put my banana trees to bed for the winter. They are really a blight on the yard, wrapped in silver insulation with black garbage bags over their heads, but hopefully it will save them for further glory next summer.

When I moved to Seattle after gardening in the Rocky Mountains for my whole life I was blown away by the variety and beauty of the plants that would grow and thrive here. Somewhere along the line I got sidetracked by Tropicals which are all the craze. Well they do grow here, but not without a lot of TLC which seems sort of foolish considering the plants that are available and love this climate.

After wasting lots of money on plants that had one season on beauty and bit the dust somewhere around Jan 1, I have only the bananas left that need extra care. I really love how they look in mid summer, and they are listed as hardy to zone 8, but that means they need to come back from the root every year and never get very big.