Celebrating 10 Years in California

Over 11 years ago, I made a decision that changed my life in a most profound way. After a trip to sunny Los Angeles for my very first sci-fi convention, which was actually my 5th trip to California, I had an epiphany: I wanted, needed, HAD to move to California.

The news wasn’t that well-received by my family, life-long friends or even my neighbors – and in a small town like my hometown – population under 2,000 at the time of my epiphany – the whole town was virtually my neighbors, family and life-long friends (for the most part anyway).

I spent the next year planning my move, doing massive amounts of research on California, checking into jobs, looking at housing options, selling nearly everything I owned and explaining and re-explaining to my bewildered family, friends and neighbors why I wanted to move 3,000 miles away from home; going to a place where they felt only the craziest of the crazy lived (which I knew wasn’t true, but convincing them of that was absolutely impossible).

After all that work and planning, the big day finally arrived – June 21, 2000. I left my little hometown of Apollo, Pennsylvania for sunny Burbank, California. The first few weeks were spent learning “the lay of the land,” finding a decent apartment (which I didn’t have before I moved) and landing a job (which I also didn’t have before I moved).

I was very fortunate to land a job pretty quickly at the very place where I wanted to be: Warner Brothers. And, I eventually found a, let’s say suitable, apartment in Burbank. I may not have been on my way to the big time (far from it actually), but it was a good beginning.

As the years rolled by, I made wonderful friends, gained valuable work experience, discovered the endless possibilities in California and attended some of the greatest concerts, events and TV-related conventions on the West Coast. I cannot imagine what my life would be like without having moved here.

And now that it is 2010, it is hard for me to believe that I celebrated 10 years of living in California as of yesterday. The epiphany I had 11 years ago was a Godsend; it came at the right time and, as fate would have it, all the pieces fell into place so succinctly that I could not have planned it better if I had tried.

I look forward to spending many more years here, attending as many great events as I can afford and fit into my schedule and discovering more of this great state.

Yavanna

Artist Spotlight: This month’s artist spotlight is on Dawn Anton, a talented jewelry maker from Ocean Beach, California, who offers three distinctive styles in her collection, but her favorite and most creatively rewarding pieces are fashioned using natural brass filigree, vintage glass, Swarovski crystals, and gemstones.

Her artistic and creative inclinations began in childhood through painting, sketching and writing. Some of her other interests included geology, rocks and minerals, leading to a love of gemstones, and European and American history, which – in a round-about way – lead to a fascination with antique and estate jewelry, as well as a secret tiara fixation.

Thanks to several books she found at the library, her self-taught hobby of beading began around 2002-2003; she then took a wire-wrapping class at a local bead shop and in 2004 she narrowed her interest to making jewelry with sterling silver wire especially after finding a better supply of gemstones. Soon enough, friends and co-workers were requesting custom designs and Dawn was spending countless hours in the happy pursuit of designing and finishing pieces without getting tired.

Her inspiration comes from what she sees and reads and thanks to her love of movies and books, her jewelry is deeply influenced by those interests. One of her favorites is The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the books of J.R.R. Tolkien, including The Silmarillion, which was edited and published posthumously by Tolkien’s son Christopher in 1977. Her fascination with those characters and the important role jewelry and gemstones played in the history of Middle-earth gives valuable inspiration for much of her creations. Dawn’s featured piece is one of her favorite necklaces called Yavanna, which is inspired by a character from The Silmarillion.

You can contact Dawn at info@asilomarworks.com or via convo through her Etsy shop, which can be found at http://asilomarworks.etsy.com.