August 21st New Moon Total Solar Eclipse - My Experience Under the Belt of Totality August 31, 2017 08:24
This New Moon was unlike any I've experienced before in my lifetime! It fell on a total solar eclipse which happened to be most visible just a 30 minute drive north of my home town, Kansas City, MO. This was a highly anticipated event here as you might expect. This was the first Solar Eclipse to be viewed from the Continental US since 1979 and the first to cross America coast to coast in 99 years. The next viewable eclipse here won't happen until 2024.
I was invited to participate as a vendor at an event in Weston, MO, right under the Belt of Totality. I made a few new pieces in honor of the eclipse and decided to blog about my experience.
Before I do so, I must apologize for the tardiness of this blog! I have been keeping myself a bit busier than usual with trunk shows and traveling. Even though these reports are also tardy, here is what some of my favorite astologers had to say about the eclipse:
This gorgeous time lapse composit photograph of the Great American Eclipse was created by Ken Geiger.
One of a Kinds
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I was invited to participate as a vendor in "Black Sheep in the Shadow", an event hosted by Green Dirt Farm. Green Dirt is a sheep farm and creamery. They are well known in Kansas City and surrounding areas for their delicous cheese. My favorite is the Dirt Lover but there are so many wonderful options to choose from.
For this event, Green Dirt teamed up with The Rieger, one of KC's best known restaurants, to create an amazing meal for the event. They offered 370 tickets and the event sold out in no time. The entire staff of the farm, restaurant and all of the vendors got to participate and attend the event.
This old John Deere is located by the creamery, where they make all the cheese. You don't get views like this in the city!
Everyone who participated was allowed to camp the night before on the farm. I invited two of my best friends to help me out and we chose a secluded spot up a hill.
This selfie is courtesy of Stephanie Summers, one of my best friends and also the graphic designer behind my business cards and Gigi Moon branding. She is currently helping me with some new designs that I am excited to role out for the holidays. Check out her website to see her work! Tara Milleville, one of my best friends, is to the left. Tara helps me fabricate some of my designs and she is a very talented Jane of all Trades. We drank wine while I did some last minute show prep. The oweners of Green Dirt Farm made a huge communal meal for everyone who camped out. They literally rang a bell to tell us all the food was ready.
The next morning, people started to arrive by the shool bus load at 8:30am. This photo shows a view from the top of the field looking down towards the Green Dirt Event Space. The moment of Totality was to start at 1:06pm so everyone wanted to beat the traffic and get to the farm ASAP. This field is normally full of grazing sheep and this was the most people who have ever been to the farm at one time.
Side-Booth shot!
We got to ride in the back of a pick up truck after we re-parked our cars. This is one of my favorite fellow makers here in Kansas City. Tara Tonsor has a genuine heart of gold. She is the real deal! We are constantly finding ourselves in endless conversations about maker life, creative inspiration, intuition and more. Check out her beautiful work on her
Hands down, my favorite part of the experience (besides the moon completely blocking out the sun, of course) were these three baby lambs. They were just over a month old and so adorable!
Howard Hanna, Chef Owner of the The Rieger, was hard at work the entire time making sure the makers, Green Dirt employees and volunteers were fed. They made breakfast for us all and then went right into making lunch for the guests. A sacrificial lamb was roasted, I was told it was incredible by my meat eating friends. The crew from Ca/Va was also there selling hand crafted cocktails during the event.
Everyone who attended got a pair of Eclipse glasses. These bad boys were selling for a rediculous price the day before the eclipse. This shot was taken right before the eclipse started.
It unfortunately started to get cloudy right at this time. We were all getting a little nervous about not getting to see the Eclipse. No matter what, you could definitely feel it starting. It made me feel dizzy and drousy but charged and excited at the same time. We all caught a glimpse of the sun sliver leading up to totality.
Unfortunately, the sky got cloudier as we got closer to totality. When the "360 degree sunset" occured during totality, it started to rain and it stopped the moment the sun became uncovered.
During this time, I sat cross legged on the ground and meditated under the rain. As New Moons are a time of new beginnings, I was focusing on my intentions but mostly sending love and light out as our world desparately needs it right now. This was one of the most amazing, intense meditations of my life thus far. I've never been able to tune out so many human energies around me and tune in like this before. It was an experience that I will never forget. Although we didn't get to see the ring of totality, the rain added an intense healing energy that I feel Middle of America needs desperately.
Back to the lambs. Of course. Their handler, Elise, told me after the eclipse that these babies were making sounds she has never heard lambs make before during the moment of totality. We also heard a chours of crickets begin to sing during the black out. Even after totality, nature seemed to stand still for a bit. Every living thing was affected by the energies of the eclipse.
This is the best shot I got of the eclipse. I was able to see a glimpes of the Sun crescent before and after totality and took this shot with my cell phone through the glasses. Sort of anticlimatic, I know. To see some of the best eclipse photos, check out this gallery of eclipse photos from National Geographic.
Incredible photograph of the moment of totality
After the totality, Quixotic started their performance. It was absolutely beautiful.
In conclusion, I was thrilled to be a part of this epic, once in a life time event. I want to say thank you to Green Dirt Farm for hosting and opening your homestead to us all for this experience.
See you next time, Solar Eclipse! 2024 is around the courner-ish.