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I was out on Long Island a couple of weeks ago.  It was a beautiful day and I was going out to visit with Gennady  and dress my new stake.  After  a few hours in  his studio my stake was in perfect form and I left so he  could get back to his own work.

On the way home I stopped at Country Critters in Patchogue, a pet store that I knew about from Martha Stewart’s show. (They don’t have a web site so I can’t link to it for you.) I had been there on a previous trip and had stopped in to see if there were any kittens. That was, of course before we got Henry from a neighbor here in Staten Island.  The most surprising thing about the store is an incredible collection of salt water fish, not only fish but corals, sea anemonies  and baby giant clams.

The building itself has an unimpressive warehouse shape,  you park in a treeless lot and enter through double glass doors near a loading dock. On the right is a large store that looks like a specialty grocery store, that’s where the birds, puppies and kittens are  with all of their supplies and toys.  In front of  you  and slightly to the left is what appears to be a grotto with a waterfall.  As you peer over a rocky ledge into the pool you see enormous fish, about 4 or 5 feet long. There are signs warning you not to extend anything over the water’s surface. I imagine that these fish can jump and pull you in for dinner.

Immediately to your left is a ramp about 10-15 feet long that rises about 3 feet to a wonderland of colorful aquariums.  On your left is a brilliant blue, 3000 gallon tank with small sharks in it, on your right there  are large tanks with rays  and large fish in unusual shapes.  Beyond that and to your right there are a vast number of tanks with an incredible variety of sea life in them.   It’s almost like being in the stacks at a fantastic library where all the books have been replaced with colorful animated creatures.  I took a long movie as I entered  Country Critters, you’ll get a taste of what it’s like to be there.  Click on the PHOTO below.

 Here is a britannica link to information that includes a short video of an anemone eating a small fish and one for Animal World.

Anemone Article

Animal World

Here are two really nice sea anemones in one of the tanks in the store.

Here’s a short Video  of this fish moving in the fast currents of this tank. Or click on the photo.

Here’s a movie of the red shrimp tank followed by one of the lion fish in the next photos.

Lionfish Video

There’s also an article on the invasion of Lionfish in the Carribean, the introduced species is decimating the coral reefs. Apparently the Lionfish is a voracious carnivore introduced to the Atlantic by hobbyists in the 90′s.  They have no predators in the Atlantic except themselves.  In the Pacific where they are native , large groupers eat them and keep the population down.  There’s more in the article.

Lionfish Article

Lionfish News

On the last visit I was pleased to see a small octopus in a tall tank near the ramp. It was interesting because I knew ‘he’ could see me, he’d change color or move toward my finger if I touched the glass. He wasn’t there this time, but there was this large eel. . .

It has been an interesting week of rest and work. Binding work is in a stage of waiting for materials to arrive, I have been able to move ahead on some metal projects both in and out of the studio. I went into the city Wednesday to meet with a couple of companies that do large scale metal work to talk about costs and techniques for making some larger bowl shapes that I would chase and assemble before returning it to them for finishing. As I was leaving their shops, I passed by a storefront that had mirrors in the entrances. It reminded me of a self portrait I took one late September afternoon in Croydon over 25 years ago.  I was struck by the similarities of the mirrors and lighting and had to make the portrait again.

  I also visited my caster on 46th street because I noticed there were problems with the last mold I had them make for me, the silicon deteriorated while they were injecting the waxes and the insides of the bezels that were cast, were marked with excess silver that prevented me from setting the stones inside them. I spent part of Saturday cleaning a new master for them to make another mold with a new orange colored silicon that should be stronger and provide cleaner castings. 

 Colman and I had tickets for Carnegie Hall Thursday night for the last in our series of Virtuoso Pianists.  We left Tysen Street around 5:00, entering the Ferry terminal, we saw that the sun was casting long, low rays into the terminal, lighting the new aquariums in a way we hadn’t seen them before. In the bright light the gaudy, fake coral reef looked better than it had before and it was reflected on the inside of the aquarium. 

 Here are some of the fish I was watching while we waited for the Ferry. 

 This fish is about 8 inches from nose to tail, its blue markings couldn’t be brighter if they were electrified neon. 

 Once were on the Ferry we began to see the effects of the high winds the weathermen had forecast, the water was brown, with whitecaps and deep wells between the waves. The ferry windows were spattered with sea spray.  As we passed Governor’s Island, we could see that the Queen Mary II was in her Brooklyn berth.  I am astounded by how large the ship is, even at this distance it towers above 5 story buildings on the island. 

 On the return trip after the concert we met our neighbor Denise in the Manhattan Terminal,  she was with her sister Leslie and a friend, Spencer who was visiting from New Hampshire. It was Spencer’s birthday and Denise had planned a small party for the trip back to Staten Island.  Once we were settled on the boat, she brought out two exquisite, small cakes from a Lower East Side bakery (whose name escapes me for the moment) plates and forks.  The conversation and cakes made for a pleasant ride home after another disappointing concert.    

 Friday morning we awoke and found that more large branches had fallen in the fierce winds Thursday night. A smaller branch had  fallen right in front of the green house, the large branch broke our only rose bush in the back yard. Gary will help me saw the branch into pieces that will be picked up later this week. The chain link fence prevented real damage to Gary’s azalea.  

 These are the silver pieces I have finished building this week. First, there is this piece, intended to be used as a decorative element for hat bands and belts. Here it is with some of the idea drawings. I have decided to have a mold made without attachments, that way the castings can be used as belt pieces, pendants or pins by adding the appropriate attaching hardware. The surfaces are unmarked as I intend to personalize each casting by chasing textures, lines or small circles to enrich the cast pieces. 

 These are the other pieces I have finished building; a pair of cuff links, a new scarf slide with a ‘safety’ stick pin, a seven stone bracelet and the belt piece square.  There’s also the cleaned piece for the new mold which is intended for necklaces and bracelets and a shield shaped piece that I will make a mold for in my class next Thursday. While making the scarf slide, I got annoyed with not knowing which gauge of metal and what length of wire would produce the size of silver balls that I needed. So, I cut wires in specific lengths ( I have a cutter on which I have engraved marks to an inch, in quarter inch increments, for ruler-less snipping) from each of 4 gauges of wire, then I made the balls and soldered them to a piece of copper sheet for a permanent reference, that’s in the right side of the photo.  Three of these pieces these pieces will go into a polishing machine for a starting polish, then I’ll set stones, burnish the bezels and give them a final polish with some rouge. The other three are intended for mold making.

While in the city I often pass by an oriental antique store on Fifth Avenue and 27th street.  The windows currently have two Lacquer screen panels decorated with fish and waves made of mother of pearl, abalone and tortoise shell.  Each panel is about 4 feet tall and about 2 feet wide.  Here are some photos of  them taken through the windows, complete with some reflections of the street.  Couldn’t do much about the reflections.

In the second panel, the carp is made of tortoise shell.  I was surprised by the effective use of the natural mottling of the turtle shell to represent the coloring of a spotted carp.  Changing the color of the fish made the panel look completely different even though , as I see them again on my screen, the composition is nearly identical in both panels. 

We have been in a process of matting and framing a number of Colman’s paintings.  We entered three into the  annual Small Works competition at NY University about two weeks ago,  one of the two you’ll see below was accepted. In the show all works have to be 12 inches or less in all dimensions including the frame. This one is called Evening’s Advantage.

This one is Recovering from Prophesy.