Linda's Magic Workshop - Linda Britt Design

The stone I selected for my class project is a Plume Agate.   I did not realize how healing the process of setting it into silver metal clay would be.  As you know, Prescott had two fires close by this summer – the Doce Fire and the Yarnell Fire.  It is not possible to have a fire close to your town without being affected.  It is not possible to lose 19 firefighters in one of those fires without being affected.  When I selected this stone, I saw plumes of smoke with the sun setting behind them.  I saw the burned ground with the lacy texture at the base of the stone.  I saw the beauty and the destruction of fire and I knew this was going to be my commemorative piece.  As I sketched the design for the setting, I wanted to emphasize the texture at the bottom of the stone.  I wanted to keep the main part of the setting simple so the eye would go to the plumes and I wanted to continue a flame from the front to the back.    The fine lacy texture at the base of the stone contin

There are so many amazing places to explore in the Southwest and so many surprises.  I had never been to Cedar Breaks National Monument (near Cedar City, Utah) and in fact, I was not even aware of it.   Peter had been there and wanted to show me the area and we both wanted to take photographs.  As we drove up the mountain to 10,000+ feet, the trees thinned to a few.    It was a surprise to step out of the car, walk through the bristlecone pines, juniper trees, wildflowers and grass to look out 3 miles and down into a half-mile deep natural amphitheater.  Breathtaking actually!    This monument is open June thru October (snow in the winter precludes travel) and I understand that the fall colors are incredible in September/October.  The rock colors come from iron and manganese in a varity of combinations to produce reds, oranges and yellows with some purple.  My colors!  The Indians used to call this area the ‘Circle of Painted Cliffs.’  Again the repetition of shapes capt

Bryce National Park is fascinating.  As I walked to one of the overlooks I saw such variety of rock colors and formation shapes. I was spellbound and if it had not been so hot, I could have stayed for hours. The repetition of shapes, shapes that reminded me of pictures of Angkor Wat Cambodia from my long ago art history course, had me imagining ancient cities with ancient gods guarding those cities. While man made the Angkor buildings, nature used wind, water and temperature (freezing) to create these shapes.     The ‘hoodoos’ are tall and slender spires that rise from the arid basins.  They range in height from the height of an average man to the height of a 10 story building and no place has as many as the northern part of Bryce Canyon.  30 to 40 million years ago this was a lake bed.  You might enjoy reading more about them at   http://www.nps.gov/brca/naturescience/hoodoos.htm   The vast array of hoodoos and combination of colors is almost overwhelming.  There are