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It has been very distracting and busy since New Year’s day. This is the first entry this year and it is already half past February.

I am back at school at FIT and I am teaching at the Art Lab here on Staten Island. There have been orders in the studio that have enormous volume with next to no time in which to execute it. I think I see a break and it vanishes almost immediately when an order for 52 sheets of paper comes in that has to be painted in less than a week on top of orders that are almost finished. The whole process seems so sluggish. Materials and items arrive quickly but getting them out again is very difficult. Long term projects for the future need a little work and requires meetings with new people, it’s difficult to arrange that when there’s so much to do in the studio. I feel like I’m being held hostage by my hand work.

This is one of the events I have recently attended. A lot of photos, I will not add too many captions. Enjoy the photos, I enjoyed  a break taking the day at the show.

 

Some bright campanulas at the cash register.

 

Judges

Looking toward the sales area from the displays.

Judges

Judges

 

Judging as visitors begin to arrive.

Amy shopping at Ecuagenera.  Michael Riley on the right.

Colman with noted author and grower, Ray Rodgers.

The Staten Island Orchid Society display.

Our friend Tibor  arrived with Leah,  he took the photos of Colman and me.

Colman with Jimmy Chu.

More Judges

I think this aerangis is my favorite in the whole show.

The sales area.

I like these bright little cats.

And back to the orchid displays.

Back at home with the one blooming plant we bought. Colman got a few orchids and I added two new anthuriums with long leaves to my collection.

 

 

 

 

Friday we went to what is becoming an annual event, The Shore Orchid Festival, in Neptune,  New Jersey.  there’s an album of about 50 photos taken at the festival on my facebook page. Here’s the link.    The Shore Orchid Festival 2011

A broad view of one of the vendor’s displays. There were a lot of unusual  plants to see and buy.  We took Amy Troutwein went with us, she’s  also a member of the Staten Island Orchid Society.

At Home

Colman’s stanhopea  embreei has bloomed. The plant is growing 3 flower spikes. The first one has finished blooming but I took photos of its progress. This particular orchid’s flowers don’t last as long as other orchid flowers, they deflate in a few days. The buds seem to take forever to grow and open. When they do open, the fragrance is overpowering, we can smell it outside of the greenhouse. I really like the sculptural quality of these buds.

It took about a week for the buds to spread and open.

Finally open.

Lc. canhamiana ‘Azure Skies’  is also blooming. These flowers last a lot longer.

Henry keeps company  outside the greenhouse.

Our rodgersia has put on a real show this year. In the past there’s never been more than  a couple flowers. Their leaves get filled up with the petals from the enormous tulip tree’s branches overhead.

 

This  year has been exceptional for the number of blooming plants in my collection.  The dracena cuttings have bloomed. This plant has three flowers at once. Two are open in the photo and a third  with its ‘back’ toward us. 

Colman’s Vanda orchid “coerulea “, a species orchid, has opened.  It’s a very good ‘blue’.

At the last shows I was asked to make longer necklaces, necklaces that would go over sweaters and around turtle neck tops. I made these new  sterling findings to carry multiple strands of beads, the frog type hooks can carry 6 to nine strings. this shot was taken before thry were tumble polished.

These are some  of the first pieces. Multi strands of iridescent glass on  my hand made sterling hooks.

These are some shorter necklaces in glass. one comes with matching earrings. 

I was commissioned to make a ring and setting for a special beach stone  about two weeks ago.  It was challenging to set a stone in its natural shape making a kind of basket with a high bezel.  This is a new pendant to go along with earrings of the same design. 

Thursday morning we left Staten Island for the Silva orchid open House. I think we were the second and third people to arrive just before  10 AM. It’s always better to arrive early, you can see all the plants and flowers before any have been carried away. 

A very nice yellow miltonia.

My photo doesn’t do this miltonia justice. In person these flowers are impressive for the richness of the red and the flower’s velvety texture. 

Some of Jim Rose’e dendrobiums. They have an interesting scent.

Joe Silva with a white cattleya.

This is a large plant of Lalia anceps, beautiful, elegant flowers.

A brilliant velvety masdevallia.I really like these green flowered plants. Colman got both of them for our greenhouse. They’re hanging in the kitchen above the sink right now. With all the snow we have had and the threat of more, if we took them to the greenhouse, I might not get out to see them for awhile.  Epc. Siam Jade on the left and  Epc. Landwoods ‘NN’ on the right.

A beautiful white Lycastes.

Goldenzell

Two enormous flowered  Lycastes. Colman got one to try, it may be difficult in our greenhouse.

Jim Rose, owner of Cal Orchids in California brought  plants to sell.

A complex paphiopedilum

There was a time when we were hybridizing lilies that a lot of flowers were turning brown and beige. I never liked it in lilies and these brownish cymbidiums while elegant  in this photo, were less pleasing in person. I can imagine that a decorator will  find  or make a perfect setting for flowers this color. 

A wilsonara?

These buds are very attractive, I’d like beads like this for a piece of jewelry. 

An oncidium hybrid

I always take a photo of this wall, the lighting here is very good for the plants and the photograph.  

Logedesii alba

The backs of these flowers are good compliments to the fronts.

This is a very nice orange cymbidium.

Jim Rose talking with some visitors.

Another exquisite  bloom. 

A fasciated stem of buds.  

Slc hybrids – I love the colors of these next two. 

Paphiopedilum probably  from Golddollar

We have had  lights installed in the greenhouse, they are only on a few hours at the end of the day to extend the daylight hours for the plants.  That and a lower humidity seem to have made a real difference in how the plants are growing.  There is a lot of root growth on the orchids and some plants that have refused to bloom for years are in spike.  

My begonias, that in the past hav simply over wintered in the greenhouse, are blooming.  This is Cathedral , a plant I have had only since the beginning of summer. 

Blc. mem Vida Lee ‘Limelight’

Part of thehe shelf of Phalaenopsis.

I’ve had this begonia for years and it never bloomed,  we just kept it for the glossy green leaves. The flowers are nothing special but they add atmosphere to the plant. 

This Phalaenopsis, baldan’s Kaleidoscope, has never bloomed sop well, it has branches of buds  on this stem too.

Phalaenopsis Sogo Vivien MP9398

Colman with a neofinetia, Hawaii Pine River. Vanda, Pachong Blue.

Phalenopsis, Leopard Prince is just opening.

This is is a hybrid paphiopedilum.

Walking across town last week I came across this event on Christopher Street. It was surprising to see that the model was a large red furred rabbit.  There was a tent further down the street and a trailer.  There was a computer set up with monitors too. The only thing missing was the sidewalk buffet .

It’s been a lot drier and warmer, plants are finally responding. This sanseveria bloomed, a rare occurrence.

High Voltage has been performing admirably, three flowers at once.

And two of Colman’s orchids

Henry  met a beautiful feral kitten  and they had words about trespassing. . . he must have been passing through, haven’t seen him since this encounter.

We took Henry to get some booster immunization shots yesterday. In the morning we played a little. Here’s the link to a video of an almost airborne 10 pound cat.

Jumping Henry

This morning as I entered the greenhouse, this blossom greeted me. It’s a hibiscus hybrid that Byron gave us the last time we visited Logee’s in Danielson. It is named High Voltage.

The plant has two flowers on it now, hibiscus flowers usually last only a day or two, on this one the flowers have lasted 3-4 days.

here’s a last shot in the green house, Colman’s phalenopsis are doing very well.

Last Thursday Colman got us up and out of the house to drive to the annual open House at Silva Orchids near Neptune, New Jersey. It was perfect weather and we got there in record time, early but we weren’t the first to arrive.
Here’s a shot of Colman talking to Jim Rose of Cal Orchids who had brought a number of special plants to the open House and sale.

Here are some Papheopedilums with a lot of substance to the flowers.

And some other flowers near the front of the greenhouse, this is a really nice yellow cattleya.

 

 

More people began to arriving filling all the greenhouse walkways. 

This is Carol, who belongs to our Staten Island Orchid Society. 

Colman talking with Carol and her husband Pat.

 

This claret colored lycaste  was blooming  high on a shelf toward the back,  an unusual color, it’s not for  sale.

 

 

About halfway down the main house  there’s a doorway to  another greenhouse ;  I took this shot through the doorway.

Patti Lee arrived from the New York Club, it was nice to see her again.  

This Maxilleria was hiding on a top shelf in the very back of the cool greenhouse where the Silvas grow their Masdevallias. I really like this flower.

This is a nice C. loggedesii.

I like this plant just for its leaves; it wouldn’t have to bloom at all. The flower  is yellow and rust colored  and it blooms about 2 feet above the leaves. 

 

 

This plant was hanging from the ceiling in the sales area.  It is very pretty and has lots of flowers,  the lighting made the photographed colors paler than they are in person. 

This last shot was taken in another greenhouse next to the main show house.  Some plants with tall sprays of flowers. 

Last night Colman went to the annual auction at the Staten Island Orchid Society.  He came home with a number of plants, this cattleya is particularly striking. 

I’ve just finished a few new pieces of jewelry. Purchasing the tumbling mill last week has given me the ability to finish, polish and harden metal at home so I don’t have to go into the studios at FIT to use their machines. The tumbler uses steel shot instead of the steel pins in the magnetic polishers at school. The pins shined and hardened the pieces but left a finely marked surface that wasn’t always appropriate, the steel shot takes a lot longer but gives the pieces a brighter, burnished surface that I like better. the pendants were pieces that I made a long time ago but never finished for one reason or another. The bracelet is all new, made with cast bezels and finished with a forged toggle of my own design. I’ll be putting these pieces up on my Etsy store in a day or two. Here are the pendants. This ‘Moon and Earth’ pendant is about 2 inches wide. 

The oval is large,  about 3 x 4 inches.

All the stones in the bracelet are 10 x 12 mm, marbled khaki turquoise alternating with oval Jade cabochons. It’s about 7.75 inches long 

I made several stops in the Diamond District before heading downtown, here’s a progress shot of the foundation for the new Diamond Building. Since I’m in the area about once a week I’ll take progress shots as the building goes up, I haven’t heard how tall it will be yet and am not sure I will like having all the dealers in a vertical arrangement. It’s so much more convenient to walk the street like a Mall to see all the dealers displays, it will change the street dramatically if they are all contained in a tower. 

 

After delivering and shopping at to New York Central Art Supply I decided it would be easier to walk up to 20th street to see Marge at Talas and then on to visit Weldon Design.  As I approached Union Square from Fourth Avenue the skies darkened as a storm was passing threateningly overhead. Sunlight was still getting through and it lit the New York Life Tower as if it were set in an opera. I took these shots just before crossing 14th street and entering the park.  

 

Crossing into Union Square I was surprised to see that the market has expanded to practically encompass the park, it was teeming with shoppers and all kinds of fresh produce, baked goods, art, plants and peoples pets.

I was out in the greenhouse checking on my seedlings and I noticed that Colman’s Stanhopa had opened.  The plant had put out an enormous spray of buds which I thought would open soon,  I didn’t expect them to open all at once, but there they were.  Here’s Colman with the plant (the label reads Stanhopa nigroviolacea, but we’re not convinced that is the real name).

 

 

 Colman says this is the first time it has bloomed,  he got it from Santa Barbara Orchid Estate in June 2004. Here’s a close up. 

 

 

 There’s another plant in bloom among others in the greenhouse.  It is hard to photograph because it is difficult for the camera to focus on flowers that have narrow petals and the flowers are so far apart. But this is one of my favorite plants with its brown and green flowers.