Most people who stroll the beautiful beaches of Michigan’s Great Lakes see nothing more than a mixture of nature’s debris along the sandy shore. Robin Serrano, the owner and creator of Two-Track Mind Jewelry, is seeing things differently and turning that vision into something unique.

It all started with Robin’s deep passion for Lake Michigan. She tries to spend as much time as she can on the shore, vacationing at her cottage. “I don’t know what it is, it’s just so soothing and comforting, and I love my connection with the lake,” Serrano said. It was during her regular walks on the beach that she began collecting different items she found in her path. At first she didn’t know what to do with the things she collected.When asked by her children, Sophia and Sam, what she was going to do with the things she was collecting, she came up with the idea of making jewelry, and Two-Track Mind was born.

Serrano enlisted the help of her children, Sophia and Sam, and they began to hunt for these natural treasures as a family. Her children became very involved in the process and helped in the discovery of the beach glass, driftwood, and other natural findings that she uses to handcraft her pieces of art. They also help to construct the jewelry.

Spending time creating these pieces with her kids is something Robin loves to do and is one of the most rewarding aspects of Two-Track Mind.

Collecting and constructing these unique pieces turned into a new hobby for Serrano, and it wasn’t long before friends and family took notice. Due to the interest she was receiving, she began to sell her handcrafted suncatchers to friends, and that’s when things began to take off. What started as a small hobby, is now gaining a big reputation for quality, creative, handmade goods, with a local connection to Michigan’s incredible Great Lakes.

But jewelry isn’t all she does. Robin’s day job is at Bubble & Bark, a pet grooming company located right here in Ferndale. She is a senior groomer there, and has been grooming for 28 years. Robin is a very creative person and her creative nature is evident in the grooming expertise she shows at Bubble & Bark. “I was working for Cadillac Auto Plant and I got laid off for a while. By the time they had called us back, I had started grooming. I worked one day at the plant and said, ‘No thank you’.” She was happy where she was, and continues to love what she does for a living.

Outside of her day job, Robin has strong ties to the Ferndale community. She has a best friend who lives in the area, and she met her boss here, too. She has been a frequent visitor for many years, and she has tried to get her jewelry creations into some stores in the city. So far, she mainly sells her jewelry to family, friends, friends of friends, and anyone else who is interested, thanks to her great word-of-mouth reputation and home parties. Robin’s jewelry is also available at Tootie and and Talullah’s in Berkley, which is currently carrying a full complement of Robin’s work.

Two-Track Mind Jewelry has turned from a hobby to passion for Robin Serrano. Her favorite items to make are suncatchers and earrings, though she said that it is always a challenge to find pairs of beach glass that are close enough for a matching pair. A big portion of her business is custom orders and she looks forward to continuing to use her creativity to create one-of-a-kind pieces for customers. Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far, with about 90 per cent of first-time customers returning to make another purchase.

With that kind of success, there is no doubt that Robin Serrano, and Two- Track Mind, will be continuing to make beautiful, nature-inspired pieces of jewelry for as long as the tides come in on the shores of Lake Michigan.

If you are interested in contacting Robin or checking out her wonderful creations, you can check out her page at artfire.com/users/twotrackmind. She also has a Two Track Mind Beach Glass page on Facebook, but she admits that she tends to keep more up-to-date things on her personal Facebook page. You can “like” her TwoTrack Mind page and you can also send her a friend request on Facebook. Her personal page is at facebook.com/RobinAllenSerrano

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Shannon McCarthy has had a lifelong passion for crafting and making art. Although she has worked as a journalist, an artist, a nanny and an educator, creativity has always come first. She says that regardless of where she was working or what she was doing, she would have to do something creative every day.

An interest in recycling and repurposing led to the creation of her online shop called Comfortably Lovely. It’s through this shop that she sells unique, handmade pieces of art, combining vintage goods and her trademark creativity. Buttons made out of old maps are her most popular selling items. These buttons feature different cities centered in the middle with little hearts surrounding them (a perfect way to show off hometowns). Fashion and music themed buttons and magnets are also popular items, as well as her custom wire-bound notebooks. Constructed of handwriting practice paper, graph paper, coloring book pages, and decorated covers, no two notebooks are alike.

Shannon’s favorite items to make are unique greeting cards. Perfect for fans of sending and receiving
mail, these cards are made individually and each is truly uniquely beautiful. She makes cards with collage art or custom cards using maps of any city the customer requests. Shannon loves custom orders and her work has been featured in many different craft shows and festivals, including Ferndale’s DIY Fest. She has also previously organized shows on her own, with some shows featuring over 40 crafter booths. While she loved getting to personally meet her customers and interact with other crafters, she is no longer able to feature her work in shows.
Fifteen years ago, Shannon was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a disease that affects about two percent of the population. To this day, not much is known about fibromyalgia, what causes it or how to cure it. It is a disease trademarked by a constant pain and dull ache that feels like burning muscles. These symptoms have made creating very difficult for Shannon. The pain leaves her unsteady with shaky hands, making it difficult to use a knife or thread needles. This also makes it extremely difficult for her to make the detailed collage art she once specialized in. Her vintage materials are one-of-akind, and tearing them can ruin a whole piece.

Although this is a rare disease, Shannon’s case is especially worrying. Diagnosed at an extremely young age, the last fifteen years have seen her sickness get progressively worse. And, although this disease has had a profound impact on her life, she feels she would be completely lost if she stopped crafting and creating. Comfortably Lovely is a link to her past life, and she wants to continue sharing her talent with the world. Knowing she made somebody happy with their purchase and receiving positive feedback on her items keeps her motivated.

Though the amount she produces has gone down, Shannon still gives each item she makes love and attention to detail. She refuses to trade quality for quantity and believes in making only the best for her customers, even when they purchase online (a less than ideal medium for purchasing detailoriented handmade goods).

While she misses the interaction with customers she got at craft shows, she still goes out of her way to thank each individual customer by putting items in decorative packaging, including little notes or even small gifts.

Shannon says she doesn’t want pity or special attention for having fibromyalgia, but she wants to raise awareness about the disease and its effects. She wants people to appreciate the effort and time she puts into her items. Although Detroit is lacking on a supportive crafting community, she has found support from her customers and friends and hopes to continue to find new people and places to inspire with her beautiful work.

Shannon McCarthy’s handmade goods are available at www.comfortablylovely.etsy.com. Her vintage goods shop, which includes clothes, letterpress words and accessories can be found at www.comfortablylovelyvg.etsy.com. Comfortably Lovely items are also available at various indie boutiques in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee and Kentucky. Shannon’s work is available locally at Found Sound and Detroit Comics. For more information visit www.comfortablylovely.com.

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(Pub. Note: To avoid confusion, we’d like to clarify that until recently there have been two Keith Warnicks recognized publicly in Ferndale. Mr. Warnick, the former President of the school board, is very much alive and with us.)

The city of Ferndale lost its beloved “music man” this past January when Keith J. Warnick, long-time Ferndale musician and teacher, passed on in his apartment home at Withington and Planavon at the age of 64 after a battle with terminal cancer.

Born May 9, 1948, Keith became an important figure in the Metro-Detroit jazz scene of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and was an influential and beloved teacher to the many who studied under him. Later in life, he became a fixture in downtown Ferndale, often found with his guitar in hand. He offered much to the surrounding community through his creative nature, genuine courtesy, unique sense of humor, kind thoughtfulness, and extreme passion for knowledge and study.

Warnick’s many accomplishments include serving as the jazz guitarist for Michigan State’s orchestra and jazz ensembles, contracted teacher with Southfield Public Schools, and private teacher for a variety of subjects including magic, music, and business. He is also noted for being a wonderful brother to his sisters and brother, a loving son to his father and mother, and a true friend to the many who knew him.

“Keith was as fine a person anyone would ever want to know,” said A.J. O’Neil, the past owner of A.J.’s Cafe. Keith was often found on A.J.‘s patio playing his guitar or giving a lesson in one of its booths. “He always took time to pen well-wishes on a piece of scratch paper,” said O’Neil, commenting on the kind notes and letters Keith would write to his mother when she became ill. “He is truly a character who made Ferndale a special place to live in or visit,” said O’Neil.

Patrick of Professional Guitars on W. Nine Mile knew Keith for the past 30 years. To him, Keith was a teacher, fellowmusician, and a friend. Although their relationship began around music, to Patrick, Keith was much more than a musician. “Keith identified himself as a teacher, and being a philosopher was a big part of his personality. Keith had a certain way of thinking about things, and you could learn a lot from him.”

Musically speaking, Patrick saw Keith as having almost everything it took to be a big player in his day. “He was very talented early on,” Patrick said. “He had almost everything one needs to be successful in the music world. But the one key essential element he didn’t have was luck.” Keith struggled with mental illness that affected many aspects of his professional and personal life. However, those struggles that Keith endured from an early age were a significant part of who he was. “Keith didn’t ask for his mental illness,” Patrick said, “He struggled very heroically to maintain dignity and intelligence through it all. He was a lovely man.”

Other fellow musicians remember Keith as not just a great player, but someone who loved to help others discover their musical soul. “He stood for music, and all the hard work behind it. Keith is the best teacher I ever had,” said Tara Corrado, a Detroit jazz musician and student of Keith’s over the past ten years. “He was very uplifting and made me feel important in many ways especially in the world of music.” Steve Shepard, a Ferndale musician and physicist, echoes the same sentiment. “Keith loved to discuss the guitar, its history and its possibilities,” Shepard said of Warnick’s “encyclopedic” knowledge of jazz guitar history: “He took a great deal of pride in the many students he mentored over the years. He influenced a whole generation of local players who knew him. He certainly influenced me.”

Mickey Stein, another prominent Detroit jazz musician, considered Warnick an “authority in authenticity” in jazz guitar. Stein is one of dozens of musicians who Keith helped find their musical path. “He was very encouraging and invited me over to his house, so of course I immediately got his address and phone and set up a date for the get-together,” Stein said. “It was the start of a big and important phase in my life and almost entirely due to Keith.”

Keith Warnick will be remembered for his encouragement, extreme generosity, and for his talent, passion, and love for music. While the beautiful music and kind nature Keith brought to this world will be missed, may his music and teachings that he so passionately and generously shared live on in all of those that knew and loved him.

A memorial will be held in Keith’s honor on the 25th of July. For more information please contact his sister Sally Warnick (575-776-7832) who remembers and appreciates her brother’s sense of humor, his brilliance, and deep belief in her no matter what.

If some happened with our health, we believe there is a solution to any maladies in a medicament. What medicines do patients purchase online? Viagra which is used to treat impotence and other states coupled to erectile disfunction. Learn more about “sildenafil“. What humanity talk about “viagra stories“? The most vital aspect you must look for is “sildenafil citrate“. Such problems commonly signal other problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong heartiness problem such as heart trouble. Causes of sexual dysfunction include injury to the penis. Chronic disease, several medicaments, and a condition called Peyronie’s disease can also cause sexual dysfunction. Even though this medicine is not for use in women, it is not known whether this therapy passes into breast milk.

Picture a painting of Van Gogh in your head. Colorful and crazed, right? That sums up the sound of The Audionics pretty effectively.

The Audionics are loosening the constrictions of rock ‘n roll music. Instrumentally, they present an oud, a double-octave baritone saxophone, and a trapezoid-shaped hammered dulcimer (or “santoor”). There are vibes of Middle Eastern folk mingling into a danceable psychedelic style — but, as drummer Kerry Gluckman insists: “We’re trying to be a rock band.”

Only, unlike most rock bands, they’ve “removed the bass,” as lead singer Leo Gillis II says, and changed the typical 4/4 time signature of rock music to more unconventional meters. “Cerebral, visceral meters that fool you into thinking you’re listening to straight-rock when you’re really not,” says Gillis. “We’re trying to make a 7/8 time swing a bit.”

The group (with multi-instrumentalist Djeto Juncaj and saxophonist Sheldon Santamaria) still have their feet firmly in the campgrounds of rock ‘n’ roll, but their collective talent, experience, their meticulous approach to music, and their unique inventiveness in songcraft allows them to “go far out,” as Gillis says, “without crossing the line of only appealing to a small niche of musicians or people who want that experimental edge.”

But Audionics are wary not to cut too deeply into that “experimental edge,” so as to come off too prog-rocky (imagine the overly heady/theatrical ‘70s stuff from Pink Floyd or Yes or Rush). They consider themselves not avantgarde, but avant-rock; somewhere between Led Zeppelin’s spaced-out blues and psychedelic-folk styles, and King Crimson’s maverick melding of art-rock and jazzy mutations of aggressive post-punk. “I think Detroit may be the only place where a band like this could be created,” said Gillis, who grew up in Southwest Detroit playing music with three of his brothers.

Gluckman elucidates that it’s abouteach player having what he calls a, “Detroit attitude.” “We’re going to do it our way. But it’s not like we’re going out of our way to be weird, we’re going out of our way to be less weird.” At that, he chuckles warmly.

The band was born in March 2011, during that year’s Metro Times Blowout in Hamtramck. Gluckman’s wife, bassist Raquel Falcon, was performing with a band that no one in the crowd had ever heard of; it was Jeecy & the Jungle’s very first show. They were spinning heads, dropping jaws, and getting the whole house to shake instantly. Song one wrapped, the crowd went wild and Gluckman smiled with wide eyes. This was a wilder reception than he’d ever seen out of any audience. Something was in the air, and it was spurred by the special energy being conjured on the stage that night.

Juncaj, who Gluckman has known for years but never collaborated with directly, was standing right nearby having the same epiphany. Soon after, when they caught up, they decided they wanted a piece of that — to strike a similar creative fervor.

Gluckman, an architect by day, teaches Interior Design at Wayne State University, where he soon tapped the young talented music student Santamaria, extending an invitation to come join him, and Juncaj, for a jam session. After a year’s worth of experimenting in the basement, honing their craft and exploring the free-jazz-tinged possibilities of psychedelic rock, Juncaj sent some demos to Gillis and inquired if he’d be interested in contributing.

Yes, but, only if his primary role could be singing, Gillis recalls stipulating. Gillis had been playing bass (and singing) in various groups for years but felt an itch to return to being a solo frontman styled vocalist. He was also particularly drawn to the idea of maintaining a bass-less format and wrote songs in advance of their first practice tailored to such an unconventional rhythmic formatting.

Juncaj’s invitation arrived just in time, as Gillis had recently attained his masters in library science, and was looking to leave town to find work. “After that first rehearsal,” Gillis says, “I knew that this band really had something special and a lot of potential.” So Gillis stayed and continued writing with the band. After four rehearsals, they had nearly enough songs for a full-length release. Mere months after Gillis had joined, they were finishing their debut album The Big Note (recorded and mixed right here in Ferndale).

Gluckman and Gillis bring a wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to rock, ambient psychedelia, and even a bit of jazz, while Juncaj, of Albanian descent, provides insights into eastern European folk music (he also happens to be an excellent flamenco guitarist, by the way). Then there’s the youngest but perhaps most studied player, Santamaria, currently working towards his masters in ethnomusicology, (lately he’s been quite taken with experimental 20th century composers like Philip Glass).

With an eclectic mix of talents and backgrounds, varied hues and pigments, The Audionics are stirring together a provocative blend of pop-music paints to spill and layer across the rock ‘n’ roll canvas. Avant-Van-Goh-Rockers.

More information can be found online at www.theaudionics.com. Their debut album,

The Big Note, can be purchased at CD Baby and other fine internet retailers.

If something happened with our health, we believe there is a solution to any maladies in a medicament. What medicines do patients purchase online? Viagra which is used to treat impotence and other states coupled to erectile dysfunction. Learn more about “sildenafil“. What people talk about “viagra stories“? The most substantial aspect you should look for is “sildenafil citrate“. Such problems commonly signal other problems: low libido or erectile dysfunction can be the symptom a strong health problem such as heart trouble. Causes of sexual disfunction switch on injury to the penis. Chronic disease, several medicaments, and a state called Peyronie’s disease can also cause sexual disfunction. Even though this medicine is not for use in women, it is not known whether this medication passes into breast milk.