Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011 - 12:10 p.m.

It's a time of great frustration. I've been looking at the sculpture magazine, and I've been looking at this graet art jewelry blog I found (artjewelryforum.org). On one hand, it does me good to see so much beautiful and thought provoking work. On the other hand, it makes me feel distinctly substandard. I'm going to keep at it, though. I have to. I always get discouraged when I encounter difficulty, or when I see someone else's good work, as if that detracts from me. In this case, I think it shows how much better I'd like my skills to be than they are. But that's a matter of hard work, nothing else. I can get there if I ignore my lazy voice.

This morning I pried some pebbles off the front steps (they're disintegrating anyway), and am wrapping them in string. I want to eschew silver. I want to work with my bookbinderly techniques, but paper and string doesn't have much heft on their own. The solution? Rocks, of course. Well, maybe. Not 'of course'.

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