Sacramento This Thanksgiving Weekend: Stories from the Road

     I will be showing my work this weekend at the Crocker Art Museum fundraiser, at the Scottish Rite Center in Sacramento. The show starts Friday at noon, and ends Sunday at 5:pm. There is an entry fee that of course benefits the museum, and the artists and craftspeople give a hefty commission to them as well, so your dollars are getting spread around.

     I wanted to write about a recent story I heard of a home invasion robbery in the Bay Area. It seems there is a new "run, smash and grab" method of home invasion. The theives smash into the house, run into the bedroom and focus on drawers and of all things, shoe boxes. The theory here seems to be that the valuables are most likely to be hidden in drawers and shoe boxes.  In the specific case I heard of last weekend, there were no electronics or other items stolen, and the speed of the incident seems to be important due to all the alarm systems in the houses these days.

     But the most unbelievable story of home invasion that I heard this year happened 20 years ago. My customer's sister was married to a man in the "gold, diamond, etc" jewelry business, and she had quite an extensive personal collection. They were leaving,  and she didn't want to take it to the safe. ( I am unsure of the details here. Perhaps the safe was in a store, and not in her home?) So she decided she had found the perfect hiding place for her million dollar collection of jewelry. She emptied out her vacume cleaner bag, placed the jewelry into it, and put dirt back on top of the jewelry. I think the jewelry was in a bag of some sort.

     You probably know how this story ends. Of course the house was robbed, and of all things, the vacume cleaner was stolen. Can you even believe it? And in all likelihood, the theives didn't realize what they had, and that full vacume cleaner bag probably went into a landfill somewhere. Who knows?
But this has made me think twice about where a good hiding place is, or is not.

Jasper and aquamarine teardrops. 16". Yes the jasper is not intended to lay flat. I can do that if desired, but this is a " 3-D" piece.

Orinda Holiday Bazaar this Saturday

     Well I imagine many of you are in shock, as I am, that we are looking at the holiday season already. I was at the Sacramento Art Festival two weeks ago, and it didn't really have a holiday feel about it, so the shock didn't really register then. But this show is a HOLIDAY bazaar, so there is no getting around the fact that it is indeed the Season.

     Orinda's bazaar is not a totally handmade event. There will be imports there as well, but a lot of handmade in the "U.S." as well. It is in the Community Center on Orinda Way, and the proceeds funds a lot of Orinda's summer outdoor concerts.

   

My booth this year is in the front lobby, so it will be hard to miss me as you come up the front steps into the Center. I am on the left as you walk in the front door.