There hasn’t quite been a summer in the Bay Area this year. It has been mostly foggy in the mornings turning sunny and pleasant later in the day until the fog rolls in again and usually produces a glorious and multi-colored sunset. It hasn’t been hot, just pleasant at times and gloomy at other times. Weather affects my palette, I have learned. If the day is without sun, my colors brighten. I lean on more transparencies and darker colors which eventually will glow when the sun finally comes out.

It has been a busy few weeks with crafts fairs almost every 2 weeks and widely separated by geography. I hope to have a relatively calm October that allows me the space and time to replenish my work and nurture myself and my surroundings.My enameled light switch covers are still available for sale on Etsy. I will be putting a few at a time online. Remember, when they are gone, they are gone! To see current offerings, visit Etsy. Or contact me to find out about remaining switch covers.

There seems to be contraction and expansion simultaneously in the broader world of enameling. The few manufacturers of enamel that still exist might not exist 10 years from now. These businesses are mostly family-owned and have elderly patriarchs who haven’t successfully passed the businesses on to a younger generation. Only one of the manufacturers that has ceased to exist in the last 15 years was able to disperse some of its enamel formulae to another manufacturer. Behind the scenes I have been talking to people to assess what resources are out there in the future. In contrast to the contraction of supplies there is a growing contingent of new and younger people on the scene who seem to want to embrace the medium. There is a dialectic here that will resolve itself eventually.