About

Hello! My name is Jola Gayle Herring, and I am your average, opinionated, middle-aged American woman with multiple interests, joys, problems and issues. I have a husband, Max, and an adult son, Joshua. I've had the luck to have traveled somewhat, work various jobs, and pursue many interests.

By different turns I can be excruciatingly shy or extremely outgoing - go figure. It just depends on the environment and my determination. Like many, I find it's easy to be more outgoing on the internet. I can also put my foot in my mouth with appalling ease. My husband says my lack of tact is genetic and the result of being an only child. I tend to agree but am working terribly hard to be better. There are less moments of, "I take it I said something amiss?"

I've learned a little about a lot of things and haven't mastered much at all. Although I'd love to be a master of something, life is simply too interesting to stand still. There have been a few things, however, that have been in my life seemingly forever: fiber and food. In the last decade, working with hot glass has jumped in there, particularly lampworked beads. Present circumstances prevent me from playing with glass, but fiber and food are still present.

JG at ISGB Gathering 2005

A tablecloth I crocheted
for Julie & Andy

Currently, I'm living with my elderly parents as their caretaker. This is a recent development, and we're all coping as best we can.

In my past, I've majored in art in college, been a linguist in the US Air Force, been a stenographer, a legal secretary for attorneys and in admin for geologists specializing in karst. In the last job, I was lucky enough to help edit a couple of scientific books, plus go out in the field. How fun is that!

I hate cleaning, but love the results. Most times I love cooking but have lately been having a problem with taste and texture - dental appliances be cursed. I've gotten way out of shape for heavy gardening but always try for some food plants in containers or beds each year. I've painted and woven. I love spinning, weaving and crochet and do a bit of knitting. I am happy and content at the torch melting glass into beads.

Fawn angora rabbit
named Tom Paris

For a time I raised angora rabbits for fiber. Then we moved, and the new house, although a Victorian dream house, didn't have a good space for it. The poop detail in the new house became too much to bear, and I sold them off one by one. My moment of fame was when the Knoxville Zoo came to me for an Angora for a new exhibit.

I've never been a survivalist but have always felt being pretty self-sufficient isn't a bad thing. My background is a suburban gal with slight access to farming. I've enjoyed such things as canning food, making soap, and clothes. The interests have waxed and waned over time.

Shearing at Carol's

The state of our food and food industry is bothering me at the moment - too much processing, too many chemical ingredients, too cruel conditions in the meat and poultry businesses. A period of allergy with, of all things, potatoes, a decade ago raised my consciousness of the ingredients in processed food. Try cutting potatoes out of your diet!  It's as bad as a gluten allergy. So although I'm not an extremist, I've changed a lot of eating habits. Now if I can just find something that hits the spot as well as soda! Water is just so, um, blech.


You can contact me at jolagayle @ gmail.com  (Remove the spaces.)