Reef Collection 2.0

I'm finding that one of the best places to find new ideas is by re-thinking my old ideas. (Recycling at its best!) The pieces from my Reef collection are still selling but I knew the designs could be pushed further. Apparently customers weren't getting bored (which is good of course!) but I was and I think eventually that feeling is going to show, right?

Three new necklaces and new drop earrings will post to my main shop site on Tuesday at noon.

In other news...I was so honored to write for the fall edition of The Polymer Arts Magazine out this month. You can find me all the way at the back, in the Muse's Corner, where I talk about how my Graves disease diagnosis affects my work and process.

Its amazing to me the number of people I've met in the past year and a half who also have some sort of autoimmune disease  - people from all walks of life and very notably, quite a few artists. Camaraderie is a powerful thing, you know, because disease of any sort can feel very lonely. (Art History side note: Not that this is one of the artists that I've met obviously but Pierre-Auguste Renoir was diagnosed with painful rheumatoid arthritis in 1892 and suffered with the disease for the last 20 years of his life but...he continued to paint.)

This is a self portrait of Renoir from 1909.

As I am learning, autoimmune diseases can be very personal and the same disease can produce differing symptoms for different people. (Which I suspect must be one of the problems in treating them.) But I'm hoping that other people with any kind of disease or physical limitation will be encouraged to take care of themselves and to look for their own adaptations in work and life.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Self-portrait, 1910 Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Renoir au XXe siècle : catalogue de l'exposition à Paris, Galeries Nationales (Grand Palais, Champs-Élysées), 23 septembre 2009 - 4 janvier 2010 , à Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 14 février - 9 mai 2010 et à Philadelphie, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 17 juin - 6 septembre 2010, p. 275. ISBN 9782711855872 Public DomainFile:Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Autoportrait 5.JPG Created: 31 December 1909 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir#/media/File:Pierre-Auguste_Renoir_-_Autoportrait_5.JPG