5.19.2025 I Want to Know, Where Does the Time Go?

Engraving Bench at ACC

I can't believe how quickly the spring semester (or a whole year since our daughter's PhD graduation) flew by. 

I've been taking classes at ACC for 18 months - engraving was my fourth class. I finished last week, and in just a couple more I'll be starting summer school.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating - I have always loved jewelry - and learning about the craft behind it enhances that feeling.

I have very early memories of watching my Mom choose her jewelry when she and my Dad were going out, or in the mornings when she was getting dressed for work.  

I started buying my own (silver, but real jewelry - not cheap, plated stuff) in my early teens with my babysitting money.  I've kept it, too.  My daughter has several of my silver rings, I still have some really old earrings, including silver and turquoise ones from the same shop as the rings, the small gold piercing studs from my first holes fifty years ago, and of course the things that belonged to my Mom*.

Now, about this past semester...I think engraving might be the most challenging class I've taken so far (I said that about stone setting, too) - but this was all new - including the tools.

I'd never held a graver until January of this year, and certainly didn't imagine that I'd be able to create engraved pieces by May...but I did!

Both of these pieces were done with a square graver on titanium, and then heated to create the patina (color).  My plan is to make then into pendants, eventually.

That said, I would never claim to be an engraver. I've taken one class and even becoming proficient takes years...skilled, that takes a lot longer.

In addition to teaching us about the tools - including how to sharpen the gravers - and techniques, our instructor, Chelsee Sandaker, introduced to one or two master engravers every week. It was interesting to me that some engravers are also fabricators (they make jewelry, too), others are not, and people engrave all sorts of things that are not jewelry!

I confess, that not only am I following a whole bunch of new folks, I've added A LOT of engraved jewelry to my wish list!  Like every class I take, engraving has enhanced my appreciation for what it means both to create and own jewelry.

Next month, I'm excited to be learning another new skill and making things in class again. I'll be back at ACC starting the first week of June, taking advanced enameling with my wonderful friend and teacher, De. 

*While looking for something else, I came across this enameled pendant that belonged to my Mom. It was one she wore a lot.  I'm sure she bought it at an art show or on vacation - I don't remember its origin - just that it was a favorite piece.  It has a pair of matching stud earrings, but I'm not a studs person, so I'm thinking about creating my own pair to go with it in class this summer.

Stay tuned for updates. Until next time.

05.15.23 The next chapter

They took my gallbladder and gave me socks

Last month I turned 60...and for the last 21 years I've wondered what it would be like when I became the age my mom was when she died in 2002.

There's a whole lot wrapped up in that...especially after a trip to the ER and a few nights in the hospital for emergency gallbladder surgery at 59 and 11 months.  It undid me more than a little. 

Fortunately, I'm headed for a full recovery, and except for losing a few weeks in the process, it appears I am going to be no worse for the wear.

As for being 60, here's what I can tell you so far...

Mom - in her late 50's

I look more like my mom than I ever expected to (I always thought I looked like my Dad)…I regularly catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror, or even a reflection in a window, and there she is looking back at me.

I'm healthy (gallbladder aside, I am in good health - or so my doctors tell me); I eat well, I exercise regularly...and while there are no guarantees, I don't expect this to be my last year...

…so, I'm trying to figure out who I want to be for the rest of my life. 

Covid changed all of us - but it's much more than that - and the transition started before the pandemic.  

In 2019, purely by coincidence, I closed my consulting firm (anticipating more travel and time in the jewelry studio...oh, well). 

It's been nine years since I was a full time parent - our youngest child left home in September 2014, leaving me lots of free time to start a blog and learn to make jewelry; and ten years since I was a daughter (my dad died just before my 50th birthday).

Life was going to be different; I was going to be different.  I just didn't know how...but I'm starting to get the idea...

The pandemic brought a lot of darkness, but it's also given me an extraordinary amount of clarity. 

I won't allow my time to be wasted. I no longer have patience for anyone who doesn't value my time, and I want to devote that time to things and people that matter. 

I've re-engaged with politics, but in a much more positive way.  Instead of writing angry Resistbots to my Senators who have no interest in my thoughts, I've been writing Postcards to Voters - over 1,500 of them - since I started in January of 2020.

I've continued volunteering and mentoring - much of it virtually - while things were really locked down.  It's been wonderful to grow and sustain those connections now that we can do things in person again.

I've also figured out what - beyond my family and friends - brings me joy.

Texas Farmers Market haul including flowers from Petal's Ink

Flowers bring me joy - I love having them in the house, especially knowing that every week when I have them delivered I am supporting a small, woman owned business. 

Cooking and baking bring me joy, again - before Covid, I'd pretty much given up (after doing it on a schedule for twenty years) - helps, too, that I'm shopping at the farmers market and have significantly upgraded my kitchen equipment.

With my friend Alaine at a recent WJA event
both wearing our Social Justice earrings

Even though I'm not making it right now, jewelry brings me lots of joy...so much so, that I am still a relatively active member of the Women's Jewelry Association in Austin...and of course, I keep buying it.

I didn't know what I would find when I started my journey down the jewelry path...it has turned out to be so much more than just shiny things.  I found a creative outlet - both at the bench and on this blog, incredible new friends, and with one of those friends made my children's wedding rings.

I don't know what else I'll be doing - but I'm looking forward to making, buying, wearing and writing about life and jewelry for the foreseeable future.

Until next time. 

01.02.17 In with the new...

No "real" post today - just enjoying having our daughter at home for a couple more weeks of college break, and remembering my mom, from whom I inherited my love of jewelry.

Happy New Year.

Until next time.

11.28.16 Thankful

My mother in law's beautiful Thanksgiving table

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  We spent it at my mother in law's with all three of our children, and both our sons brought their girlfriends for the weekend.  It reminded me of all I have to be grateful for...







Let's start with my husband, who has supported and encouraged me for nearly 25 years.  Without him there would be no blog, no jewelry, no opportunity for me to make art and support the work of others.

My children, my daughter who will turn 21 in just a few days and my (step) sons, I've written about them before - I call them my "gift with purchase" for marrying their dad.  They are the source of limitless joy and pride, and have grown into some of the finest adults I know.

My mother in law, boy did I hit the jackpot.  Not only is she the best Mimi any kid could ask for, but she has been there for me - especially in the years since my own mother died.  She also puts out an amazing holiday meal year after year.

My friends, old and new, real life and virtual.  You have cheered me on, read my blog (almost 10,000 times), and bought my jewelry.

Creative Side - the staff, teachers and my fellow students and benchmates.  I learn something new every time I walk through the doors - and look forward to being at the bench for a long, long time.

I try to get up and count my blessings - which are so many - every day.  It seemed appropriate to take a moment and share my gratitude with all of you.

Until next time.

12.21.15 What's in a name (or a monogram)?

"mom" tags - with kiddos birthstones

My husband and I just celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary.  Coincidentally, someone asked me recently why, even with all three of my kids out of the house, my husband refers to me as "mom"...and not by my name.  My response - that IS my name .

My full given name is Debra Suzanne Haas.  Debra, from the biblical judge Deborah – but my mother didn’t like the spelling of longer version.  I can’t really remember using my middle name much, for as long as I can remember I’ve been Debra S. Haas legally and professionally.  It’s what has always been on my driver’s license and business cards.  It’s how I sign my name. My mother, father and husband have always called me Debra.  My parents’ friends still call me Debra, but since high school, my own friends have called me Deb.

I’d never given my first name a lot of thought, probably because for those of us born in the 1960s it was a perfectly common and normal name.  As for my last name, I didn’t realize quite how attached to it I had become until the night before I got married.

James Avery disc earrings

My husband’s last name is Hood.  All three of our children are Hood.  I remain Haas. At our rehearsal dinner, someone asked if I was planning to change my name and I answered that I wasn’t sure.  My mom, who had a wicked sense of humor, said “well, you could hyphenate it and be Debra Haas-Hood, but if ‘haashood’ is the state of being a Haas, I don’t really see the point”.  That was it, I got married, my life changed, my name did not. 

When I got married, I became a stepmother to two wonderful young boys (now fine young men).  While I insisted they treat me with respect, and as a parent, I never asked them to call me anything other than Debra, because they have a mother who loves them very much.

Chicks Picks acrylic monograms

When I became pregnant with our daughter, my younger stepson, then three, became concerned.  “What should we call you after the baby comes” he asked?  “Why would you call me anything other than Debra?” I answered.  He told me he was worried that if he and his brother called me "Debra", that the baby would be confused and stated authoritatively that starting at that moment, he and his brother would call me “Mom”. (That baby just turned 20, and arrived home from college for the holidays over the weekend).

Even now, twenty years later, I kvell when I think of that day, because since then, I really have been “Mom”.  It’s what both the boys call me, it’s what my daughter calls me, even my husband uses Mom when he refers to me, or we are talking to each other.  So, while the name my parents gave me may be the one I use out in the world, it is “Mom”, the name my children gave me, that I cherish the most.

Stella & Dot "mom" and "D" charms

Until next time.