Sustainable Seating

Annie: repurposed shopping cart by Reestore Ltd., U.K.

 Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, April 12, 2013

Words like “ecology” and “recycling” have become commonplace and a bit tired these days now that we’ve been separating out our paper and plastic for a good decade, and proudly carrying our reusable bags into even mainstream supermarkets. Popular new additions to the green vocabulary are “salvage” and “sustainability” which imply that new is not always better, even if it is recyclable, and that each of us has an individual responsibility to think beyond plastic and paper.

I wouldn’t argue that every old thing merits salvaging, or that “old” must mean vintage. Instead, we are being called to re-examine the ever-expanding contents of our closets, attics and garages and everywhere else we see unused stuff awaiting the landfill, and question whether these everyday objects have, in fact, reached the end of their useful lives.

Cork Chair: plywood, luan, gorilla glue, pins and 2,700 wine
bottle corks by Aaron Kramer of Urban Objects

We might need some inspiration and a new set of re-purposing goggles to envision the larger task before us. To that end, three recent books showcase reuse in a fascinating range of furniture, lighting, and household accessories, all of which will help make you see that broken lawnmower and rusted treadmill in your garage in a whole new way. To illustrate the point, I’ll narrow my focus to chairs—a piece of furniture we can hardly do without—and show how a chair of uncommonly good looks and clever construction can be made from the most unexpected of materials.

1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse – Remake, Restyle, Recycle, Renew

By Garth Johnson

Crutch Stool: crutches, bicycle wheels, foam
insulation and bicycle innertubes
by Ryan 'Zieak' McFarland

Max: repurposed vintage cast-iron bath
by Reestore Ltd., U.K.

“1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse” enchants us with a padded armchair fashioned from a shopping cart, a stool made from three crutches and a bicycle wheel, and a loveseat carved from a clawfoot bathtub. Over 30 different examples of ingenious seating have been developed from materials you might not recognize without consulting the image directory in the back of the book. A sleek folding chair is made from salvaged white-oak wine barrels. A “Jet Set Lounge Chair” is made from eight skateboard decks and a metal frame. An armchair and ottoman are made from corrugated cardboard and glue.

This enormous collection of household products made by international designers from repurposed materials was put together by Garth Johnson, who admits, “it was hard to limit myself to 1,000.” There are so many ideas in this book you’ll begin to recognize the inherent salvagability in just about everything. Not only have literally tons of cast-offs escaped the cruel fate of the landfill, they’ve been magically transformed into something truly extraordinary, and quite often, beautiful.

Jet Set Loung Chair: skateboard decks with cushions and
metal frame by Gil Delapointe and Pierre Ander Senizergues

Upcycle! More than 100 upcycling ideas for furniture, lighting, products and accessories!

Published by Gingko Press

“Upcycle!” confirms that the term “recycling” is passé by asking, “Why just recycle when you can upcycle?” and defines upcycling as “converting an object into something of greater value without degrading the material with which it is made.” It also features designers from around the world, who transform hundreds of discarded items as pedestrian as a tire, a metal pie pan, a radiator, or a damaged upright piano, into stylish and functional ottomans, stools, lounges or chairs.

UpCycle Cabbage Chair by Oki Sato

One of my favorites is the “T-Shirt Chair” by Maria Westerberg, which gives new life to forty old t-shirts. One by one, the shirts are woven through a single sheet of bent metal grid into a cushy, reclining chair.

Another original is the “Heater Chair” by Boris Dennier. His rudimentary bending technique involves placing a cast iron radiator on two blocks and jumping on it. He then welds on legs reclaimed from old pieces of furniture and applies red enamel paint.

For those drawn to fiber arts, “Tis Knot Ottoman” is made from colorful heavy-duty nylon crocheted around used tires, which are rescued from tire shops or road-side ditches. Each style in the collection is named after a car popular in Australia, where the designer Cindy-Lee Davies lives, such as “Datsun” and “Gemini.” Another designer, Camilla Hounsell Halvorsen, makes a similar floor pouffe from large rubber innertubes wrapped with strips of scrap upholstery fabric.

Pallet Outdoor Loveseat by author Chris Gleason

Wood Pallet Projects – Cool and Easy-to-Make Projects for the Home and Garden

By Chris Gleason

Author Chris Gleason says that pallets have a unique “patina of experience.” They are weathered, distressed and aged and “beautiful in a way that shiny new things can never be.” He believes that incorporating “defects” such as nail holes, stains and the rough board texture can be desirable and appealing.

Pallet Chair by author Chris Gleason:
All of the wood used in this chair
came from a single pallet.

“Wood Pallet Projects” takes salvaged wooden pallets and provides lots of project ideas and instructions, including how to make a “simple meets sophisticated” chair and a backyard loveseat. Pallets are ubiquitous once you start looking for them—languishing in lots, resting behind buildings, and stacked at yard sales. (You can also buy pallets for cheap at Walker Street Pallet in Watsonville or for $2 at Last Chance Mercantile in Marina.)

Although a few of Gleason’s projects use pallets as-is, for most you’ll need a basic set of tools such as hand or power saws, a miter box, and a power sander, plus a hammer or crowbar, to deconstruct and reconstruct a pallet into furniture.

Remake Recap

These three books might help us re-envision what kind of chairs we want in or homes or yards and how their inclusion might transform our environments. Any one of these chairs might become a conversation piece and an invitation to reconsider responsible consumerism. Or they might inspire spring cleaning with an upcycled mind-set, rather than committing more waste to the landfill. Or, they might actually provide a comfortable place to sit, rest our feet, relax and smile.

Nest defense

Decorative birdhouses are usually not weather-tight and don’t allow for easy cleaning.
 If placed outside, the hole should be blocked to discourage house-hunting birds.

Cat vs. bird: how to give birds an edge

Originally published March 8, 2013 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel

Two summers ago a family of Bewick’s Wrens took up residence in my front yard. They chose to nest in a small birdhouse which I had hung from a plant hanger less than 3 feet above the ground. We have two outdoor cats and I couldn’t believe these birds would mistake a garden ornament for a potential maternity ward. I thought about moving the birdhouse to a safer location, but by then I could hear the urgent peeps of the hungry babies and it didn’t seem wise to move the nursery.

A Bewick’s Wren with a treat for its hatchlings, pauses to make
 sure it’s safe, before darting in and out of the birdhouse
 placed too close to the ground in my front yard.

Mom and dad were tirelessly devoted to their hatchlings and they allowed me to photograph their activity from a distance. They would take turns, perching nearby with an insect in their beak to make sure the coast was clear before darting in and out of the birdhouse in a nanosecond. Anytime our cats got near I chased them away with stern words, hoping they would respect the sanctity of the birds. However, our neighbors’ cats are also frequent visitors to our front yard, so I don’t really know for sure if this wren family survived. One day, they were just gone.  I quickly moved the birdhouse to a less vulnerable location, under the eaves of our house.

I was reminded of the wren family during a recent flurry of online outrage over an “Atlantic” magazine interview, in which a New Zealand economist and environmentalist, Gareth Morgan, suggested that cats should be gradually eradicated from his country for the sake of New Zealand’s native birds and other native species. Morgan’s website, “Cats To Go” explains that New Zealand has the highest per capita cat population on the planet (nearly one cat for every two people) and that these animals have already “contributed to the extinction of nine native bird species.” Therefore, Morgan advises, to save endangered bird populations, pet cats should be neutered and kept indoors, cat owners should not replace their pets when they die, and all stray cats should be caught and euthanized.

Back in the US, Steve Homer of the American Bird Conservancy (a cat owner himself) agreed that cats are a very real threat to native birds. He told ABC News that, “about a third of the birds in the United States are in decline, and cats have been identified as one of the more significant factors in this decline.”  Homer said that habitat loss remains the top threat to birds, but predators rank second.

So all this got me thinking about steps we could all take to create safer bird habit in our own yards. To begin with, we need to better understand the nesting habits of birds.

BIRD HABITAT

Different species of birds prefer different types of habitat. Bewick’s Wrens, for example, prefer wooded open forest, farmlands, mixed conifers and deciduous trees. You probably can’t transform your yard from forest to desert, or meadow to marsh, but you can accommodate birds with some simple alternations.

• Plant native species of plants, shrubs and trees—especially ones that provide food (seeds and berries) or shelter.
• Leave seed-bearing plants untrimmed a bit longer in the fall and resist the temptation to be too tidy.
• Sweep dry leaves and branches into piles away from your house for nesting material, and for insect cover, which in turn provide food for the birds.



Designer Birdhouses by Richard T. Banks,
is one of the best birdhouse-building
 books around. Banks gives lots of tips
 for keeping a birdhouse safe from
 predators and provides easy-to-follow
 building instructions for his unique designs.

• Choose organic or natural products for weed and pest control.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD BIRDHOUSE?

In North America, of the 920 known birds, only about 50 will regularly inhabit a birdhouse. “It may sound like a small number,” writes Richard T. Banks, author of “Designer Birdhouses.” “But the sheer volume of these birds and the steady decline in suitable nesting places is what makes building birdhouses so essential to their survival.” Banks suggests three requirements for building a good birdhouse:

1. Adequate box and entry-hole size for the intended species
2. Solid construction for weather-tightness and durability
3. Security for warding off predators

In his book, Banks provides a chart that gives the optimal dimensions and location of a birdhouse for attracting a particular species of bird. A Bewick’s Wren, for example typically chooses a birdhouse with a 4x4 to 5x5 inch floor, a 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inch diameter hole that’s 4 to 7 inches above the floor, an interior height of 9 to 12 inches, and placement from the ground of about 5 to 10 feet. Obviously, birds don’t carry measuring tapes, but these are general guidelines.

A functional birdhouse is basically a weather-tight box made from cedar or redwood, held together by galvanized nails or screws, with an entry space or hole, and easy access to the interior for annual cleaning. The outside can be painted or stained to help preserve the wood. A good how-to book such as “Designer Birdhouses” or website such as http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-the-bird-house/ will provide plans and directions for building a sound, attractive birdhouse.

This simple birdhouse—one
 of dozens placed along trails
 in Christmas Hill Park in Gilroy
—is mounted 8-feet above the
ground on a metal pole which
 is difficult for predators to climb.
 (photo by Suzi Ortiz)

Trees and fence posts are not a good choice for supporting a birdhouse, since cats are good climbers, says Banks. In fact, a safe birdhouse should be placed at least 10 feet away from trees, houses, fences or other jumping-off places. Most birds, except wrens, don’t like the movement of a hung birdhouse, so mounting your birdhouse atop a tall pole or post is the best strategy.

• Metal Pole:  A ¾-inch threaded, galvanized pipe allows you to screw a matching threaded floor flange to the top of the pole and then attach the birdhouse to the flange. Use a metal fence post spike to hold up the pipe, or dig a hole 18 to 24 inches deep and secure the pipe in quick-set concrete.

• PVC Tube: A 3-inch-diameter PVC tube can also be fitted with a PVC floor drain flange that fits snuggly inside the tube and serves as the underside mount for your birdhouse. PVC pipe is inexpensive, slick and difficult to climb. Pour about 18 inches of gravel into the tube to make the bottom more stable and attach it to a metal post for stability.
• Wood post: A 4x4 pressure-treated post will require a baffle to make it secure from cats. A baffle can be a saucer, cone or tube which makes access from the pole impossible. Set the post in a 24-inch deep hole with gravel at the bottom for drainage and add concrete.

And lastly, here’s one my own birdhouse placement tips, taught to me by a family of Bewick’s Wrens: if you have a birdhouse in your yard that’s not in a safe location and you don’t want to move it, cover up the hole to discourage house-hunting birds from settling in.

The Dutch Mona Lisa Superstar comes to San Francisco

Johannes Vermeer, "The Girl with a Pearl Earring"

The Girl with a Pearl Earring

Also: The Columbarium—a quiet trip back in time

Originally published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel February 1, 2013

You know her. Tracy Chevalier wrote a captivating, best-selling novel about her. Scarlett Johansson played her in the movie. She’s been compared to her iconic rival, Mona Lisa, but she’s much more exotic, enigmatic, and strikingly gorgeous. And yet, despite her extraordinary popularity, she was never real. In fact (scholars believe), she’s a “tronie”— a painting exercise created from the imaginings of the brilliant Dutch painter, Johannes Vermeer.

 No matter. The “Girl with a Pearl Earring”—a superstar in oil on canvas—has come to the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and this might be your only chance to see her, since she rarely leaves the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis in The Hague, South Holland. Despite her diminutive size—the painting is just 17.5 x 15 inches—she won’t disappoint, with her glinting pearl, frozen-moment-in-time gaze, and simple beauty—all of which invite speculation and adoration.

To see an original painting by Vermeer is also a rare treat. There are only 35 (give or take) in existence, and their rarity makes them so highly prized, that their owners (mostly museums) rarely let them out of their sight. Vermeer initially painted biblical and mythological scenes, but around 1656 made the fortuitous switch to more intimate scenes of contemporary life in Delft, where he lived and worked all his life. For the next 20 years, he made unprecedented paintings that galvanized viewers, even to this day.

“Girl with a Pearl Earring” is spotlighted in its own darkened room at the de Young exhibit. The guards allowed
 me to get close to most of the small painting in the exhibit, however “Girl” is protected by a railing.

What makes Vermeer’s paintings so special—what “Girl with a Pearl Earring” so aptly demonstrates—is his ability to elevate the common place. He infused “modest images of ordinary middle-class experience with the imposing gravity and monumental seriousness traditionally reserved for history painting,” writes Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight. “His pictures captivate in part because they give value to the mundane—namely, you and me and the utterly ordinary things we do—endowing it all with quiet grandeur.”

Besides Vermeer’s masterpiece, “Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis” also features other exceptional works—35 paintings in all—from well known painters such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Frans Hals and Jan Steen. The exhibition highlights the artistic genius of the Dutch Golden Age—a fascinating time in history with many parallels in our own century.

In the Netherlands 350 years ago, technology, foreign trade, banking and the stock market ruled the day and led to an explosion of wealth. (Sound familiar?) But this remarkable prosperity was not limited to the uppermost strata of society. Peace and religious freedom allowed the rise of a healthy middle class who, for the first time ever, had the opportunity to buy things that were less practical and more pleasurable. They ate imported foods, collected exotic plants and animals such as tulips and parrots, and purchased small, original paintings that would fit into their compact urban homes.

The focus of artwork changed utterly in 17^th century Europe, from religious to secular. But maybe even more ground-breaking at the time, Dutch painters embraced subject matter that was not only secular but also mundane. The burgeoning middle class wanted art that mirrored their lives, featuring their simple, domestic routines, and brilliant artists like Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Hals gave them what they wanted.

Jan Steen, "As the Old Sing, So Twitter the Young"

 Most of the paintings in this exhibit are small, domestic-sized works. But one of the larger paintings (probably a commission), “As the Old Sing, So Twitter the Young” by Jan Steen, says a lot about the excesses inevitably resulting from prosperity. It features three-generations of a family, raucously laughing, smoking, singing, and celebrating the baptism of the youngest offspring. Apparently the artist had an ironic sense of humor, as well as a moralizing message, since he included himself in the group of merry-makers, who are blithely setting a bad example for the young children in the room.

Studio copy, "Portrait of Rembrandt with a Gorget"

Rachel Ruysch, "Vase of Flowers"

I also loved the lush-but-passed-its-prime still life “Vase of Flowers” by Rachel Ruysch (a gender phenomenon in her day) and “Portrait of Rembrandt with a Gorget,” a studio copy of an early self-portrait of the famous artist, with its flattering shallow depth of field, as if it had been painted from a modern day fashion shoot.  A companion exhibit, “Rembrandt’s Century” with works on paper largely from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s collection, sheds further light on the Dutch Golden Age and its remarkable artistic achievements.

Carel Fabritius, "The Goldfinch"

***

The Columbarium is tucked away at the end of a
 cul-de-sac near Geary Blvd., with free parking for visitors.

While in San Francisco for the day, I also visited the Columbarium, a hidden gem I’ve wanted to see ever since I heard about it. A repository for human ashes, this impressive Neo-Classical building is not far from the east end of Golden Gate Park. Built in 1895, the Columbarium was once part of the Odd Fellows Cemetery which spanned 167 acres of prime Richmond District real estate. When the city passed an ordinance in 1902 prohibiting the further sale of cemetery plots, the Odd Fellows established Green Lawn Cemetery in Colma and began the momentous task of transferring bodies beginning in 1929. The Columbarium (now owned by the Neptune Society) is the only remaining structure from the original cemetery, and I’m sure it was spared because of its enchanting, anachronistic beauty. 

Niches from floor to ceiling line the rotunda and the circular hallways
 that follow the circumference of the building on three separate floors.

The three story domed building contains 8,500 niches, of which a few are still available. The niches are placed floor to ceiling in circular hallways and small rooms. Beautiful stained glass windows grace the vaults and dome, and the niches range in size to accommodate the great variety of urns and chests containing ashes. Some niches are sealed, but those with glass windows allow you to view not only the urns, but various other remembrances of the dead, including photographs, personal belongings and other memorabilia. Many of the niches were purchased and sealed 100 years ago, but others were more recently acquired.

Lovely stained glass windows grace many of the vaults.

At times, because of the circular, symmetrical nature of the building, I lost track of where I was and how I entered—a metaphor for the never-ending fate of the ashes themselves. Notable internments (or memorials) include Chet Helms (music promoter and father of San Francisco’s 1967 “Summer of Love”); Dorothea Klumpke (astronomer and mathematician); and Harvey Milk (first openly gay man elected to public office in California).

***

After writing about my online family history research last month, readers Bill Delaney and Susan Alland filled me in on some local genealogy resources. The Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County has a library, located on the ground floor of the Santa Cruz Public Library, 224 Church Street, which houses microfilm of local newspapers back to the early 1800s; close to 10,000 books; computer access to Ancestry.com library edition and Heritage Quest (available at all branches); and volunteers to assist patrons in their searches.  The Genealogy Library is open during library hours and staffed with volunteers from 10:00-12:30 and 1:00-3:30 each day to assist patrons with their research. Go to www.scgensoc.org for information about the Genealogical Society’s monthly meetings with expert speakers open to the public. The Watsonville Library has an upstairs history room with many of the same resources.

Tina Baine

For an archive of my columns go to www.tinabaine.blogspot.com

The Neptune Society Columbarium of San Francisco

One Loraine Court, San Francisco

Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. 
Saturday - Sunday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m

www.californios.us/columbarium/

Girl with  a Pearl Earring

Dutch Paintings from the Mauritshuis

de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, 20 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco

Tuesday – Sunday, 9:30 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

Friday (beginning late March) 9:30 a.m. – 8:45 p.m.

deyoungmuseum.org

415-750-3600

It's all in the family

My aunt and I had genealogy in common

Originally published January 18, 2013 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel

My aunt Georgy was a Christian in the best sense of the word. She lived her faith by example, always kind, generous, and interested in others. She remembered me, my brother, my husband and my kids every birthday and Christmas with a card and a gift. You knew that her cards were carefully selected, because she gave all the kindest words and phrases emphasis with her liberal underlining. The same abundant emphasis also appeared when she sent hand-written thank you notes. “Thanks for the wonderful birthday card, note, and PHOTO!!!  I love it all!!! Especially the PHOTO!!!”

Although she had not been feeling well, nor able eat much for quite some time, she died quickly after only a week of home hospice care, right after Thanksgiving and three weeks shy of her 87th birthday. As my cousin described their goodbye in her Christmas letter, “We saw her off with loving words and recorded hymns played on piano and organ, which she always loved.”

My aunt lived near Sacramento—a three hour drive away—and over the years we didn’t see each other more than once or twice a year for family gatherings. So I wouldn’t say we were close in a day-to-day sort of way. But reflecting back on who she was, I would say we shared a common passion that is/was very dear to both of us: family history.  Her hallway was a gallery of family photos, hung at many eye levels, up and down the walls. Family photo albums were always close at hand in her living room. And she always asked that we take family photos whenever we assembled for a holiday or wedding. I would oblige, getting out the tripod, lining everyone up in a shady spot, and making 8x10s for everyone in our small family.

I had this photo but didn't know who the people were until I started
researching my family tree.

Like her sister (my mom), she didn’t own a computer. But if she had, I’m sure she would have gotten as caught up in family genealogy as I have. Researching one’s family tree has gotten so much easier due to the abundance of online resources, and it’s addicting. In a sense it reminds me of assembling a jigsaw puzzle: you know the pieces are out there somewhere, but you have to know where to look, and be able to recognize when a found piece still doesn’t quite fit. With practice, you get better at searching, the puzzle starts to take shape, and you make some remarkably satisfying discoveries along the way.

The US Federal Census is a primary source document that will provide lots of information about your relatives,
including names, spouse, children, ages, street address, birth place, parents birth places, and occupations.

I unintentionally started my genealogy research three years ago when I took a history class from a great professor named Laura Guardino. I learned that good historians value primary sources. A primary source is an original artifact, document, recording, or other source of information that was created at the time under study. For creating a family tree, primary sources include censuses; birth, baptism, marriage and death records; draft registration and military records; photographs; and immigration, citizenship and travel records.

Generally, accounts written after the fact without firsthand experience are considered secondary.  Secondary sources may support primary information, but are one step removed since the writer or recorder was not actually an eyewitness to the event.

1863 draft registration for Lewis Hunsicker, my great great grandfather, found on ancestry.com

Although primary sources may be preferable, they are not necessarily accurate. Selected census enumerators knew the citizens in their area and penned the lists, but didn’t necessarily know how to spell the names or write legibly. For example, my great great grandmother’s first name was Levina, or Lovina, or Lavina—I’m still not sure because no two censuses agree.

And some sources are not “primary” in the strictest sense of the word. My grandfather wrote a six-page account of his family’s move to New Mexico in the early 1900s and their struggle to make a living there as ranchers. He was an eyewitness to the events, but wrote his story many years after the fact.

It helps if pedigree charts are printable on standard-sized
paper.  I had to blow this one up to write on it, and then
back down again to print it all on piece of paper.  I like
this format, because it tells the whole story at once, but
detailed pedigree charts keep track of all the details.

Although there are many websites to choose from, I started my research using ancestry.com. It’s a monthly subscription service that allows you to look at primary documents and the family trees of your fellow researchers. You can save your findings on an ever-expanding family tree template which shows every possible connection you can discover, or as a pedigree chart which shows only direct lineage, i.e. parents and no siblings. No matter your source, you’ll keep your information better organized if you start with paper and pencil and a pedigree chart.  Google “pedigree chart” and pick one that will allow you to record names, birth/marriage/death dates, and birth/marriage/death places, and make notes.

Gather information provided by your family: photos, memoirs, interviews, wills, birth certificates, family Bibles, etc. From there, look at the U.S. Federal Census. The U.S. has taken a census of its population every ten years since 1790, and, with the exception of the 1890 census which was largely destroyed by fire, the original hand-written pages can be viewed through the 1940 census. (More recent years are protected by privacy laws.) The early censuses listed only the heads of the household, but starting in 1850, every member of the household was listed. So, if you can find a child’s name, you can also learn their sibling and parents’ names, ages, occupations, birth place, neighbors, and other data.

Besides the federal census, many states and counties also had censuses. On ancestry.com, I was also able to find my relatives on original documents such as draft registrations, baptism and marriage records, ship passenger lists, church membership rosters, death certificates and city directories. Fellow researchers also upload personal documents to share, such as portraits, wills, and cemetery headstone photos.  This is how I came across my grandfather’s six-page New Mexico memoir, and photos of him in his WWI and police uniforms.

After you’ve created pedigree charts as far back as possible, check your data against the charts of other researchers. Many of America’s founding families have been exhaustively researched, and their descendants proudly share their heritage on a family website. For example, if you Google “Addington family in America” you’ll discover the Addington Association’s website, which provides histories, descendant lists, wills, photographs, and family reunion information. Whenever you discover conflicting information, look to see if primary sources are listed as references. There are also plenty of books, YouTube videos, and other online sources that will give you help with finding, charting and preserving your family history.

For a more personal presentation, I decided to make a scrapbook from scratch using Peter and Donna Thomas’s great book “More Making Books by Hand” as a guide. The hardest part of the project, however, was forcing myself to stop the research and start the book. I always wanted to do just a little more digging, try a new avenue, look for more corroboration. Tracing your family tree is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle that never ends—but in a good way.

***

My aunt was many more things beyond a family historian: a loving parent and wife, a devoted sister, an artist, camper, traveler, dedicated pray-er, and many more things that I will probably never know. But I do know she loved her family very fiercely, and I was fortunate and blessed to have been her niece.

ALL AGLOW

9 creative ways to make your holiday more brilliant

Originally published Dec. 2012 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel

“And God saw the light, that it was good.”  Genesis 1:3

 My own family lights tea candles each year to count the days
 between our daughters’ birthdays, from Dec. 17 to the Jan. 1.
 I made this candle-holder for the tea lights with the sides of a
 spring form baking pan and heart-shaped dessert molds
 attached with pop rivets.

Add the goodness of light to your December with one of these nine super easy projects. Whether you celebrate with the glow of incandescent lights, LEDs or candle flame, light can be a powerful symbol for all that is good and sacred about the holidays. Make these projects as gifts, as a family get-together, or to create a new candle-lighting tradition. My own family lights tea candles each year to count the days between our daughters’ birthdays, from Dec. 17 to the Jan. 1. Bring more light into your home, and may your holiday be the brightest and the best yet.

1 Wad-of-lights lamp

Make a fun, inexpensive lamp with a string of white Christmas lights stuffed inside a large glass bowl, vase, bottle or glass brick. To hide the cord, use a diamond tipped drill bit to make an exit hole in the back of the glass container. Add layers of potpourri, and the warmth of the lights will bring out the fragrance. (from “Christmas Light Wad Lamps,” www.instructibles.com/ by Istram and Misthula)

Supplies: Large glass container, string of mini LED lights, diamond tipper hole saw or drill bit, potpourri

2 Honey-Scented Candles

One of the simplest ways of making candles is to roll a sheet of wax around a wick. Beeswax sheets have an impressed texture that simulates honeycomb, and are available online in many colors—the best of which is its natural golden hue. Warm the edge of beeswax with a blow dryer to begin, rolling tightly around the wick. Continue warming the beeswax and rolling slowly, keeping the edges even, until you achieves the desired candle width. (from “The Encyclopedia of Candle Making Techniques, A Step-By Step Visual Guide” by Sandier Lea)

Supplies: Beeswax sheets, primed wick, scissors

A sconce is a type of light affixed to a wall.
 This candle sconce uses a reflective spring
 form pan, a Christmas tree candle clip, and
 an embossed pewter candle cuff to
 catch melting wax.

3 Baking-pan sconce

Martha Stewart recommends vintage pans with an intriguing shape and aged patina for her baking pan sconces, but I used a shiny aluminum tart pan right off the Target shelf. To add the candle, clip a candle-holder made for a Christmas tree to the bottom edge of the pan. The sconce can be hung using a plate holder or by tapping a nail through the pan. (from “Parties and Projects for the Holidays, Christmas with Martha Stewart Living” by Amy Conway)

Supplies: Vintage (or new) baking pan, candle clip, plate hanger or nail, small candle

4 Luminiaria

Go southwestern, and use a series of luminaria (a small paper lantern) to line your front walkway, a fence, or indoors on the mantel. For outdoors, use a small, brown paper bag and add enough sand to hold a 3-inch candle upright. For indoors, start with decorative paper, fanfold the paper and cut several notches into the folded edges (like making a snowflake). Unfold, weave ribbon through the holes, wrap the paper around a glass candleholder, and tie the ribbons to secure. (From “Paper Illuminated” by Helen Hiebert; also see Punchy Plaid Luminaria in “Paper Made!” by Kayte Terry)

Supplies: Paper that’s not completely opaque, scissors, ribbon, glass candle-holder with candle

Candles can create a lovely ambiance at holiday time.
 A safer form of flickering candle light is also available in a battery-powered version.

5 Shiny candle cuffs

Candle cuffs around the base of a candle can be both functional (to catch dripping wax) and beautiful. Draw a simple flower-shape onto a sheet of paper, then add lines for details. Polish the soft metal with soft wire wool, place on cardboard, then trace the pattern into metal using a ball tool. Turn the cuff over and push with the tool between the raised lines to emphasize them. Cut the center hole and perimeter with old scissors. Bend the cuff at regular intervals to add dimension.   (from “The Encyclopedia of Candle Making Techniques, A Step-By Step Visual Guide” by Sandie Lea)

Supplies: Metal embossing sheet, fine wire wool, old scissors, cardboard, ball tool, paper

6 Tin can lanterns

Any soda can can be cut into a
 silvery candle holder with a snowflake
 template and an old pair of scissors.

Soup cans can be transformed into gleaming candle lanterns with a hammer and nail. Soak can in hot water to remove label residue. Fill the can with water and freeze so that the ice inside supports it when you hammer the holes. Wearing a glove, hold the frozen can stationary on a towel in a plastic bin (to catch flying and melting ice chips). Cut four 12-inch pieces of galvanized wire to attach to the top edge of the can.  Add beads to the wire, then twist the wires together at the top to create a hook for hanging. (from “The Encyclopedia of Candle Making Techniques, A Step-By Step Visual Guide” by Sandie Lea)

Supplies: Soup can, freezer, old towel, hammer, large nail, galvanized wire, pliers, beads

7 Snowflake candle holder

Turn any soda can into a silvery candle holder with a few household tools. To create a template, cut cardstock as long as the circumference of the can, and as wide as ½ the height of the can. Fanfold the paper into sixths, and draw a ¼-inch line along the bottom. Draw one arm of the snowflake shape (see photo) then cut it out through all six layers, allowing the ¼-inch at the bottom to hold it all together. Trim 1/8-inch off each side to separate the snowflake arms. Open up and tape the template around the bottom half of the can. Trace the design onto the can with a permanent marker, then cut out with a pair of small scissors.  Be careful since the cut metal edges can be sharp. Bend down the arms of the snowflake and add the candle to the center. (from www.instructables.com by canuckgirl)

Soda can, paper, tape, small scissors, pencil, Sharpie, ruler

8 Giant house star

You can make a large 5 or 6-pointed house star several ways. Use PVC trim board and glue the angles together with PVC glue. Or use 8-gauge wire bent into the shape of a star, wrapping the ends together with 24-gauge wire. Or use long redwood stakes and screws. Attach ultra-bright LED string lights to the PVC boards by drilling holes in the boards to accommodate each light. For the wire or wooden star, attach LED or ceramic string lights with zip ties. (from www.instructables.com by dlampe—PVC version; or by gonzolo—wire version)

9 Birch branch menorah

Celebrate the Festival of Lights with a handmade menorah. Saw a thick branch long enough to hold nine candles. Keep a short perpendicular branch or two attached to the larger branch to keep the menorah from rolling. Drill the holes along the branch the same size as the diameter of the candle, making sure they are perfectly perpendicular to the branch. If the holes are a little oversized, set the candles in place with melted wax. (from www.instructables.com/id/Hanukkah-Chanukah-Meorah/ by flippingpuppy)

Supplies: Birch or oak branch long enough to fit 9 candles, power drill, candles

I made my simple menorah by sawing a limb off
 an oak tree in our front yard and drilling
 3/4-inch wide holes for the candles.

Life lessons from Georgia O'Keeffe, letter-writer

Ditch the digital, handwritten is better

Originally published November 16, 2012 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel

I know I sound like your mother, but you need to write more letters. I don’t mean to guilt-trip you, and yes, I am more than old enough to be your mother, but just hear me out.

Many would argue (correctly) that the increase in the use of digital media is a good thing for the environment. Ecards, Evites and email are obviously much greener than paper. I do value trees, but is digital communication always appropriate?

The letters of O'Keeffe and Steiglitz were published as a book in 2011, "My Faraway One:
Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz: Volume One, 1915-1933," which
included a letter from Stieglitz with a photograph of him and O'Keeffe kissing at Lake
George in 1929." (from www.theatlantic.com)

Judith Martin, author of the syndicated Miss Manners column, offers guidance on dealing with the evolving protocol of expressing sincere sentiments in an increasingly impersonal, digital world. Generally, she says that email and texting are okay for casual events and occasions, but formal events and intimate expressions require, at the very least, a handwritten note. Formal weddings, words of sympathy, and love letters should never be digitized.

I hear your excuses—chief among them is that you don’t have time to write letters. You also think your handwriting is too messy, or too illegible, or too inelegant. Or that greeting cards are too expensive, or too tacky, or the U.S. mail is just too slow, or you wouldn’t even know where to buy a sheet of stationery (do they even still make stationery?). And so using digital media is a much more practical choice.

I would counter that the very act of handwriting a letter sends volumes more content than pushing the “send” button, no matter how many words you type. By its very novelty, a handwritten note says that you really care about the person you are writing to. It says that they have a high priority in your life. And it says that your words were chosen carefully and meaningfully, since backspacing wasn’t available.

You probably know who Georgia O’Keeffe is—her flower and skull paintings are as popular and ubiquitous as Freda Kahlo’s face on tote bags. But you may not know much about the woman herself, and that she and her photographer husband, Alfred Stieglitz, were avid letter writers.

"How Georgia Became O'Keeffe, Lessons
on the Art of Living" by Karen Karbo. (from
http://fashionismymuse.blogspot.com)

Georgia O’Keeffe, the letter-writer

Over the course of their 30-year romance, Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz “exchanged more than 5,000 letters—roughly 25,000 pages—on everything from the rich detail of their daily lives to the breathless angels and demons of their passion,” according to Maria Popova in a recent review of a book about their letters. They met in 1914, when O’Keeffe was a 28-year-old nearly penniless student at Columbia University, and Stieglitz was a long-married 54-year-old gallery owner, who famously introduced America to modern art. According to O’Keeffe’s latest biographer Karen Karbo, in her lighthearted book “How Georgia Became O’Keeffe—Lessons on the Art of Living,” their passionate letter-writing began in 1916, when she was teaching in West Texas.

“Every thought that entered their heads was fit to be part of their communication,” writes Karbo. Their correspondence “was so lively, consistent, and increasingly intimate that it could have only ended in bed.” At his bidding, O’Keeffe returned to New York and they lived together but didn’t marry until Stieglitz finally got a divorce 1924. They continued their letter-writing—sometimes two or three letters a day—whenever they were away from each other, until Stieglitz’s death in 1946.

Karbo—whose non-traditional biography explores Georgia O’Keeffe’s life for its teachable moments—in her glib, wisecracking-in-the-footnotes writing style, wonders how we can “develop this kind of rich, multifaceted attachment to someone…now that letter-writing is dead and e-mails are on life support.” She acknowledges that letter-writing was “fun, 1916-style,” which has now been supplanted by “Angry Birds and ‘I Can Has Cheezburger’ and ‘American Idol’ and retail therapy, and everything else we moderns like to do.” But at what cost? (For one thing, we wouldn’t have such wonderful source material for writing biographies about iconic role models like Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz.)

Christine West's workspace for making cards is her desktop.
Supplies needed for decoupage card-making include a
self-healing mat, tweezers, paper-cutter, small scissors,
bone folder, dimensional silicon glue or foam pads,
computer and printer, and cardstock paper.

O’Keeffe and Stieglitz occasionally illustrated their correspondence, which undoubtedly enhanced their message further. Greeting cards can add another dimension to your message, if you avoid tacky or cliché. Take the time to find artwork that is special and personal, or, better yet, illustrate your own messages.

Christine West, greeting card-maker

Some artists make greeting cards from their original artwork. But Christine West’s greeting cards are her artwork. In her native England they call her technique “decoupage,” but it has nothing to do with Mod Podge or varnish.  West takes cut-out images, either found or purchased, duplicates them over and over, then uses dimensional silicon or tiny foam pads to glue them into 3D stacks, sometime 7 or 8 layers tall.

The technique doesn’t require a lot of workspace or materials, and the results are quite extraordinary. “I like to think that people who buy my cards are a little more caring and discerning about what they’re sending. And recognize the art and the work that that goes into them,” says West. “I love to see people look at them and go ‘Oh wow!’ because they are really unique. And it’s very gratifying to have someone love what you do.”

The English version of decoupage is all about making multi-layered, 3D images.  This card made by West, features a
seven-layered image of a bouquet of flowers.

Many of Christine West's designs are whimsical, like turning the
poster art from the Santa Cruz County Fair into a decoupage image,
for which she won a ribbon at the fair.  But she also makes get well,
sympathy, thank you, thinking-of-you, Easter, and Christmas cards.
"You name it, I've got it," she says.  Give her a theme such as mermaids
or golfing, and she'll even make you a custom card.  "If you think of
it, I'll make it," she says.

West sells her cards at Just Baby in Capitola Village, The Dragonfly Gallery in Aromas and more casually at Body Zone in Watsonville, where she goes for exercise. Through YouTube tutorials, you can also learn to make your own decoupage cards, and variations including pyramage (a pyramid-shaped stack), invertage (the opposite of a pyramid, with a deep center) and trinitage (a pop-up card with a foreground, middle ground and background). Google “decoupage cards” and you’ll find examples, supplies and design sheets for making 3D cards on sites such as www.joannasheen.com, www.lapashe.com, and www.imag-e-nation.com.

To create holiday cards, you can reuse artwork from last year’s cards, if you’ve saved them, using your scanner to duplicate images for the 3D effect. Or search for websites with free downloadable decoupage sheets such as www.3dsheets.com. E-How suggests using Christmas coloring worksheets, printable from various websites, so your kids can color the multiple images with crayons or markers. Or, if you want a truly original card, start with images of your own artwork or photographs.