Happy New Year

It had snowed all night and was still snowing when we left last Friday morning.  We cancelled our rental car and added more miles to our Subaru, safety first.  And of course, the biggest dump of snow was right here where we live - close to a half foot.  We didn't get to Agua Dulce until after dark.  Melissa and Ron love to decorate for Christmas, indoors and out.

Morning dawned clear and cold.  They solved decorating cactus.

Ron let Alexia help him make breakfast and boy was she bossy.

I was sad to say goodbye the next morning but we're already planning our next visit, maybe a camping trip at Big Sur?  Check out their his-and-hers hats I brought them.  I think they look great.

The next morning we stopped in Whittier to visit Ian's father-in-law's brother.  We haven't seen Armando or his wife Alice in way too long.  Mando is a well-known sculptor.  This is his son Raul, also an artist, at one time an assistant to Viola Frey, and now assistant to his dad.  Alice is a weaver - note the loom under the piano.

Mando's bronze sculptures are exquisite and way out of my price range, but I'm a huge fan.  We had the big treat to be given a tour of his studio.

He forms the figure from plasticine then creates the mold from the figure.  The mold is filled with wax and then it goes to the foundry.

I know he uses the traditional lost-wax method but I don't really understand it.  Less traditional is the wax melting in a turkey roaster.

It was great to chat with Alice.  She owns four Gilmore looms, a woman after my heart.  She also turned me onto Eva McCracken who creates and sells weaving kits.  Then she called Eva and I got to talk to her about what I need for a baby blanket kit.  It makes sense to me to buy her kit rather than buy multiple cones of yarn and try to design my own.  I brought them some soap and as we were leaving Alice gave me a beautiful Christmas hand towel - a treasure.

Their daughter Anna Maria was home for Christmas.  She too is an artist and teaches clarinet in a private school in New York.  She's also earthy and warm, allowing Alexia to help her make Persimmon cookies, fruit from their yard.  Note Alexia's scarf.  She loves it so much she keeps it in her school backpack. I'm planning to make more this spring.

We left with reluctance as we still had to drive across Los Angeles.  We had two wonderful visits back to back - the drive was already worth it and we still hadn't reached our final destination to celebrate New Years Eve with family.