New beachcombing photos

Oops! I've posted 5 new Beachcombing photos on the new blog site and completely forgot to put links here. So sorry! Come on over to see them: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/ (and don't forget to subscribe to the new blog instead of this one.)

New post: Barcelona No.3

The latest post on the new blog site: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/barcelona-beachcombing-no-3-just-the-sea-glass/

New post: Eye Buy Art

New post on the new blog - custom collection-portraits and limited edition prints available: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/eye-buy-art/

New Post: Platja San Sebastià, Barcelona, Spain; May 20, 2014

New post on the new blog: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/platja-san-sebastia-barcelona-spain-may-20-2014/

New post: 21 Broad Street

New post on the new blog: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/21-broad-street-nantucket/

Frozen Charlotte

New post here: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/frozen-charlotte/

New post: Rabbit Rabbit

New post on the new blog: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/rabbit-rabbit/

New post: La Boqueria market, Barcelona

New post on the new blog: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/la-boqueria-market-barcelona/

(warning, though, it's a market of butcher shops and fishmongers, so lots of dead animals)

New post: Basilica de la Sagrada Família, Barcelona

On the new blog: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/basilica-de-la-sagrada-familia-barcelona/

New Post: Palau de la Musica, Barcelona

On the new blog: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/palau-de-la-musica-catalana-barcelona/

New post: Festival of San Isidro, Madrid

New post about our adventures in Madrid over on the new blog: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/fiestas-de-san-isidro-labrador-madrid-2014/ 

New post alert

New post at the new blog: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/work-in-progress/

Another new post

I've just finished a new post on the new blog site - this is Beachcombing series No.74. Come on over and read all about it! http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/manset-town-dock-maine-april-22-2014-beachcombing-series-no-74/

I'll keep posting links like this for the next week or so, in case anyone has trouble updating their blog feed. If you don't see a way to follow that you're familiar with, let me know and I'll add that format if I can.

New blog site!

Hi everyone! My new blog site is up and running, and the first post there has just gone live: http://jenniferbooher.com/wp/

I'm still working on the design over there, and haven't quite figured out how to automatically point this web address to that one yet (but I will!) so for now, I hope you won't mind an extra click to get there. The new site connects beautifully to my website (which was the whole point of moving), so it's simple now to see my portfolio. The whole Beachcombing series on one page!

The latest post is about this baby, No.73 in the Beachcombing series:

Come on over and say hi!

New beginnings

This will eventually become No.73 in the Beachcombing series: Hulls Cove, March 6, 2014.

This is how the Beachcombing pieces start - sorting the debris from a day of beachcombing, looking for patterns, colors, likenesses. This one seems to be leaning toward warm greys and off-whites. 

And for another new beginning, I'm going to be moving this blog from the Blogger host over to Wordpress this month, and I'm not sure how that will affect the feed. Cross your fingers that it goes smoothly. I'm digitally literate but not fluent!

Beachcombing Research

I don't know how many of you have discovered Pinterest, but I find it very useful for storing research projects - places I will be visiting, rooms I am decorating, and even identifying things I find while beachcombing.

The link above is to the Beachcombing board, where I've stashed all kinds of fascinating sites dealing with stuff found on beaches: everything from clams of the Pacific Northwest to drift seed identification to explanations of sand formations. There's even a Feather Atlas! Fabulous stuff, so I figured I'd share it with you. If you've got some favorite sites, let me know in the comments - I'm sick in bed this week and could use some virtual exploration...

Ice Fishing on Eagle Lake, March 1, 2014

There's a wonderful colony of ice shacks on Eagle Lake, not far from my house, and I love watching the way their owners change them every year. You may recognize some of these from my last post about them, but keep an sharp eye out - some have been painted:

Some have had structural changes:

Some have been accessorized:

And this one is just plain new to me:

My favorite shot of the day:

They did eventually let him in.

Moose Island, October 12, 2013 (Beachcombing series No.72)

Sea glass, Dog Whelk (Thais lapillus), Smooth Periwinkles (Littorina obtusata), Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis), feather, Rock Crab (Cancer irroratus), and fishing rope. I wrote about this field trip back in October, but only recently finished the still-life.

This winter my husband and I built a new lighting support for the light box, and this was the first photo I shot on my new rig. It's much less cluttered than the six mic stands I used to borrow from him, and simpler than re-setting them every time he has a performance. 

It's pretty simple - the base and the four uprights are screwed together, and the top square is clamped on so I can move it up and down as needed. The design flaws are already becoming apparent. The front piece is annoyingly in the way when I move from arranging pieces to looking at them from above: I bonk my head every time. Must figure out how to remove that but keep the frame stable.  I still want to prop the foam core boards around the outside and lay one over the top, but that has also gotten more complicated. I'll need to trim some to fit within the frame, and tape others together so they are tall enough to rest on the floor. It's a work-in-progress, that's for sure!

Beachcombing series No.71 (Hulls Cove, August 14, 2013)

Beach stones, Blue Mussels (Mytilus edulis), driftwood, U.S. penny, acorn cap (Quercus sp.), sea glass, barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides), Waved Whelk (Buccinum undatum), stoneware fragment, Moon snail (Lunatia heros), paper scrap, beach china, aluminum soda can fragment. The red paint on the rock is left from last summer, when the schooner Margaret Todd was hauled up on the beach to repaint her hull.

A wonderful and surreal thing about blogging is that you can become friendly with people who you have never met, and they can live anywhere in the world. You feel like you know a part of them through their posts, and another bit through commenting on each other's work. Anke and Ariadne and Diana, if I ever end up in Germany or Greece or Montana, for sure we will meet up over coffee or cocktails (depending on the time of day) and talk! 

Every now and then, all the planets line up and you get to meet someone you've only known through blog posts and emails.

Back in August, Justine Hand (of the so-beautiful Designskool blog) was vacationing in my part of the world and we finally got to meet face-to-face. And because we are quirky this way, instead of meeting for lunch we went beachcombing with her family. (My teenagers won't come along anymore.) Check out the hoodie her son wore:

 Even better accessorized with seaweed and attitude:

Justine's daughter is the best beachcomber I've ever met. Maybe it helps that she's so much closer to the ground, but she has an eagle eye for sea glass. That gorgeous blue piece in the center of the top photo? I didn't find it, Solvi gave it to me!

If you'd like to see more photos from the day, Justine posted some lovely ones on her own blog.

Hulls Cove, August 6, 2013 (Beachcombing series No.70b)

Remember back here I said I had too many finds for one photo, so I was working on a second? Finally finished it!

Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis), fishing rope, beach stone (might be rhyolite), Green Crabs (Carcinus maenas), china fragment, lobster-claw bands, Common Periwinkles (Littorina littorea).