GALLE' COBRA SCONCES

A friend gave me a pair of bronze Cobra Sconces that she found at a flea market, 30 years ago.....I found an identical pair for sale on EBAY....for $2500.....when I asked my friend about them, she said....."I was looking for something you'd like....for under $50......and got you the "snake" sconces......beauty is relative, I know......but when another friend found a Tiffany Studios Nautilus Shell Lamp for $150...in an old shoe box at a junky antique store in Shaker Heights, the dealer just said...."you can have it for $135!" The lamp had been there for years.......

Opium by Jesse Manno

THE UNUSALLY VIVID ORCHID CLUSTER

Late January.....It is a surprise to see the prolifically blooming orchid in the garden room producing such spectacularly colored blooms......and lots of them! Likewise, the African violet and shamrock are profusely covered with intense color and one of my odd, aloe plants..which has never bloomed, has produced enormous flowers.......

SOAPSTONE COLLECTION

the carvings in this collage are all from a series of laquered panels that I purchased from John A. Davis in 1973, after whetting my collecting appetite in college, having acquired many small, carved soapstone ashtrays, which I still have...I have continued to collect all kinds of soapstone sculptures, boxes and decorative objects........