It rained.

The last week has been super wet.  To say the least.  These aren't my photos, but this is my town.  This is the street above mine.  I can't believe this was happening a block away.

photo credit

This picture below was the first photo I saw of the flood the morning it happened.  I could not believe my eyes.  Now, it looks so mild and tame compared to other photos I've seen since.  

photo credit

photo credit

This one above is not my town; this is 5 minutes-away-Herkimer.  Of diamonds fame.  A dude is paddling a canoe on the streets of Herkimer. I cannot believe this happened.  Boats.

Our house was spared--we're on a hill.  We had a leak in the basement that had to be manned round the clock, but it was containable.  This all started in the wee hours of the 28th.  I was up making beads with the side patio door wide open, and all I heard was rain, rain, rain.  I had no idea what was going on around me. I had a weird feeling about the basement, went down, and discovered the puddles, and tended to that for several hours. My husband left around 8:30 or so after he woke up for Lowe's, to get a shopvac.  He called when he saw the post-apocalypticness of the town.

I can't imagine what the recovery is going to be like.  

My jewelry shop is back open, and I'm getting ready to reopen my supply shop within the next couple days. My son's shop is also going to be opening this week.  We're running about a week behind on everything.  But...I've been working.

But not that much.  All I have to show of mine is this pair of earrings.  They're listed.  They feature my son's paper tube beads.  

It is so fun to see what he makes.  It's loaded for me.  He has never been interested at ALL in art--all his childhood art projects from school were done with the least amount of spirit and enthusiasm possible.  He simply had zero interest in drawing, painting, or even coloring.  And this is a kid who went to an Arts Academy charter school.  So I never really got to see much of his inner self expressed or translated through a visual medium--didn't really see his 'style' develop in that kind of way.  

And I love that kind of thing--I feel like there can be some form of profound communication involved when you can survey the way people project physical forms and objects into the world.  So I am beyond charmed by the things my son has made so far.

He's very detail oriented and has a natural inclination toward the notion of craftsmanship.  I suggested making some paper beads--it's a project I have been meaning to do myself.  I have made several paper pulp type beads--which is kind of a diy paper clay thing.  A little time consuming, and I'm not so sure it trumps the final product of polymer clay beads, which are so much easier material wise.  

I've only made rolled paper beads a few times--and I think all those times were in the 1970s.  But I thought it might be something worth trying, because it would be a good base for further embellishment.  His first ones were pretty much perfect.  So he just continued, and then he and I experimented. It was amazing.

 A regular rolled paper bead, manipulated and shaped, color embellished and gloss glazed.  It's really sturdy.

 Same deal but in a rose form.

I love them.

 Tube shaped rolled paper beads

A set of animal stamps on vintage book paper scraps

 Dragons (did I show these?)

 And look what my husband found down by the river.

 It's a glass-covered rock.

With bits of copper or some golden metal.  You can see the glass is like a crust.  It's so cool.  I looked it up and it seems it might be 'slag.'  Any ideas?

I'll make sure I post here when my son's shop is open--and mine too!

Update:  I just found a video taken in Little Falls--this is the same street/block shown in the second flood photo above.  It's about 20 steps downhill.