1 a : turning on an axis like a wheel b : taking place about an axis <rotary motion>
2 : having an important part that turns on an axis <rotary cutter>
3 : characterized by rotation

Yesterday I had to purchase a new Dremel rotary tool. I think my deceased Dremel was 20 years old. I purchased it after college, an all purpose tool for drilling, polishing… I had concentrated in metals and painting; on my way toward mixed media even then…

Over the last few years the Dremel has become even more essential in the studio. Drill beach glass – Dremel and diamond tip drill bits. Holes for a Coptic stitch book binding? Stitching elements into a collage on canvas – and the wooden stretcher bars are in the way? Reaming glaze from the hole in a ceramic pendant? Grinding a spiral shell into a nubbin to set in a bezel? My new Dremel was initiated today – cleaning up holes in pendants for my Trunk Show at the Shepherdess in March…

Although I selected the word for one reason, it has been rattling around in my head… I had an extremely productive day in the studio today – moving efficiently from task to task, lost in the timelessness of work that is nourishing to the soul… In a way I was the axis, reaching out to the tasks and tools spread around me, completing a shrine, turning to cast new pendants in a plaster mold, then handles on mugs, then turning again…

So much better than the days when you feel you are spinning out of control, or cycling through one thing to the other, without satisfaction, results, pleasure. And there is a welcome routine to a cyclical routine, a comfortable fit of work, chores, play… I for one, treasure the routines I have created for myself, and treasure each day that my work is… what I love.

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.”   Rumi