I lived for 26 years on Vashon Island, Washington in the Puget Sound coming from Northern California. I'd made a change in the bell business & was moving to be closer to the business and foundry in downtown Seattle, while enjoying a major change of viewpoint.
A mutual California friend had wanted me to meet Stephen Silha, a long-time resident of Vashon. I invited him to my 50th birthday-costume-fete & we clicked ... beginning a long-distance courtship until my move to Third Avenue between Pike and Pine, which continued easily, with just a ferry ride between us. After a few years & a remodeling project, I became a full-time Islander.
We remodeled a house built on a cliff facing Tahoma, the native name of the mountain white folks called Rainier. Over more than two decades it became a sweet home with a custom-built writing cottage for Stephen. I had a generous garden-level jewelry & bell design studio, in which I worked... all surrounded by a well-gardened series of terraced beds of vegetables & blossoms protected by a good fence... long known for its gentle hospitality.
Stephen named it Soundcliff -- as both a description & a prayer for stabilizing its precarious situation. He is a writer/filmmaker, I am a visual artist. We both worked creating the garden. We've forged our several vocations into our own history.
"Our" Island was a great bailiwick for this unique pair of creatives... bridging worlds of travel with well grounded stability. Islands have unique ways to collect such adventurers! We each developed separate as well as shared identities within a large community of acquaintances & deep friendships near & far.
A large collection of small wearable jewelry bells became the public aspect of my life. I quickly joined a very active group of artists residing on the Island who organized to host two annual Open Studio tours--one in May, when spring is blooming & the other on the first two weekends in December, during the holiday celebrations. Those have become very important rare opportunities for the artists in their studios to meet patrons in important, more intimate connection.
Vashon Open Studios were very useful for the bells' visual intricacy to become evident at close inspection, and also their unique sounds. Busy or quiet, I had time to talk about my processes & to meet so many interesting, often stimulating minds. That tradition is part of the richness Vashon engenders.
Soundcliff's garden gave rise to many conversations about plants & landscaping & ecology, as well. (Some people may have come just for the garden and the abundant pu-pus [snacks] for which we became known.) The studio also functioned as a "garden shed" between these open studios, so the GRB studio profited immensely for being well cleaned twice a year!
Another Island event useful for GRB Bells was the mid-July Strawberry Festival, with the livelier atmosphere of a fair including numerous vendors & information booths. It also for long provided a somewhat quieter area of spaces for artists to set up shop under their canopies. Easier for the bells to find space for their voices, while adding to the celebration... also one of their historic roles of joyful sound.
Now the bells are evolving again as I am retiring & transferring the GRB Bell business to Monica [Momo] Street, who has been working with them for a decade at the foundry, as well as developing the amazing GRB Bells.com social media posts. They are still ringing out into the future... while Gordon & Stephen have moved from the island to Tacoma & the wide world the bells have moved back to Seattle to live in Momo's studio.
The news now is that the bells are returning to Vashon for Strawberry Festival this year! All three of us will voyage to staff our canopy in the Village Green... we invite you to return to the soundscape!
Of course the Bells are always available from the website GRBBELLS.COM & plan to pop-up in an increasing number of art shows, including Proctor Arts Festival August 1 and Maryland Renaissance Festival September 19 & 20 (only).
We look forward to seeing you there, online, or in the ether...
I lived for 26 years on an Island with a rich history longer than the European one which ignorantly presumed they had discovered what had been occupied for eons by numerous cultures since the ice shelf retreated from the continent into the stone age. So, our geography & maps have it named for some guy named Vashon... who never saw it. Ah... vanity!
I came to the Island when I met Stephen Silha, who lived here 43 years. We are married. We've forged our several vocations into our own version of a vanity history. He as a writer, I as an artist.
We remodeled a house built on a cliff facing Tahoma, the native name of the mountain called Rainier by yet another of those vanities. Over more than two decades it became a sweet home with a sculptural jewelry & bell design studio in which I worked, & a custom-built writing cottage surrounded by a well gardened series of terraced beds of vegetables & blossoms protected by a good fence... long known for its gentle hospitality. It was called Soundcliff -- as both a description & a prayer for stabilizing its precarious situation.
Our Island was a great bailiwick for a unique pair of creatives... bridging world traveling with well grounded stability. Islands have unique ways to collect adventure! We each developed separate as well as shared identities within a large collection of acquaintances & deep friendships.
A large collection of small wearable jewelry bells became the public aspect of my life. I joined a very active group of artists residing on the Island who, for two annual open studio tours--one in May, when spring is blooming & the other on the first two weekends in December, during the holiday celebrations. Those have become rare very important opportunities for the artists in their studios to meet patrons in important, more intimate connection.
Those events were very useful for the bells' visual intricacy to become evident at close inspection, and also their unique sounds. Busy or quiet, I had time to talk about my processes & to meet so many interesting, often stimulating minds. That tradition is part of the richness Vashon engenders.
Soundcliff's garden gave rise to many conversations about plants & landscaping & ecology, as well. The studio also functioned as a "garden shed" between these open studios, so the GRB studio profited immensely for being well cleaned twice a year!
Another Island event useful for GRB Bells was the mid-July Strawberry Festival, with the livelier atmosphere of a fair including numerous vendors & information booths. It also for long provided a somewhat quieter area of spaces for artists to set up shop under their canopies.
