Chanticamp!

Sorry, too busy with my singing workshop - "Chanticamp" - this week to blog about one of my followers!  Will be back tomorrow with regular blog posts again.

That's me - far left at the front, waiting for rehearsal to start at Chanticamp

The concert is this afternoon.  Fingers crossed it all comes together!

Weekly bird in the hand

Here is this week's things that I am grateful for:

• Singing

• Singing

• Singing

• Singing

• Old singing friends

• New singing friends

• Singing

• Singing.........

I've spent most of the week singing in a workshop with Chanticleer. It's been great seeing friends that I've sung with at the workshop at previous years; meeting new singers; and being able to allocate all that time to singing.  The music has been challenging - and continues to be challenging, but we are getting there! We end the workshop on Sunday with a concert.  It'll be an accomplishment, I'm sure it'll be fun too, and hopefully it'll also be entertaining for our audience!

You know that feeling when you've been able to indulge and just immerse yourself in something you enjoy - well that has been this week for me!!!  How nice is that!

I hope you've been able to indulge in something this week too, even if it wasn't for 5 days.

Why do birds sing?

I had a wonderful time at the Chanticleer workshop last week - singing, singing, singing...oh, and a little partying too!

I wore my "reminder" necklace there too - so thought I'd introduce him to you. I made two - one for me and one to sell. He' s called "why do birds sing?" - a little bird with his beak open, singing his heart out.....


I often get a little obsessed with the technical side of my singing. I take voice lessons and learn all these things and what I should be doing - but sometimes, my brain is so busy with all that, I forget to enjoy myself and think about the music. I'm concentrating too much on getting all the mechanics correct.


So I made this little bird for me as when I wear it, I think of "why do birds sing?" - and the response that comes to my head is because they can, it makes them happy and they love it. So then I ask myself "why does Ruth sing?" and it's the same reasons - because I can, it makes me happy and I love it!


The necklace worked well. I enjoyed the music and didn't fret (too much) about voice production. Good little birdie helped me out! He's now my singing mascot. Do you have little reminder pieces of jewelry?

Singing instead of silver

Not much silver time this week as I'm participating in the Chanticleer workshop. If you don't know Chanticleer - you should! 12 male voices singing a cappella. They are "based" in San Francisco but tour all over the world. We have 5 days of making music with them. This is their 4th workshop and I've been to them all. It's lots of fun and has started that way already. But it's busy, busy, busy....


We will be singing some lovely music....more later!

PS I did make one little necklace for myself yesterday just for the workshop...I'll take a photo soon and tell you why I made it.

Anyone can fly

"Anyone can fly" is a necklace made from fine silver (.999). It shows a little bird about to make his first flight - but he is a little scared so is still hanging on with his feet. But his wings are spread and he's ready to take that leap........This little bird's story is:

I made this piece in the summer of 2007. I had just finished participating in a Chanticleer workshop. Chanticleer, as you may know, is a wonderful group of 12 male singers - "an orchestra of voices". They are a great ensemble, not only to listen to, but to get to know. At the Chanticleer workshop in Sonoma each year. a group of auditioned singers have the opportunity to sing with, learn from and become friends with the members of Chanticleer, their music director, Joe Jennings and other singers from around the world. It is such a inspiring experience and the summer of 2007 was no exception.

One piece of music that was selected for this workshop was "Leonardo dreams of his flying machine" by Eric Whitacre. The text explores Leonardo da Vinci's dreams of flying and Eric Whitacre has a great use of music to create visual images of flying...using not only words but also "noises" from the singers to conjure up the sound of the wind etc. At one point we sing about Leonardo watching the pigeons and figuring how they do it...and then he builds this machine...and the climax of the piece, with the notes rising is that "he leaps!" - and the air carries him and he manages to fly, despite his own and everyone else's doubts....

So after this uplifting workshop, where the singing and friendship was just incredible...I sat down one day to create something, not having any plan at all...and a bird came first with his wings outstretched and then "anyone can fly" was born. It is a piece that I hope inspires people to take that leap - to have courage and just try. So it seems a perfect piece to being my blogging experience with. I'm taking that leap today with my new blog "inside the artisan" - listening to the stories behind our creations - and believing the anyone can fly!