:::EDIT:::
The rings featured in this blog post are fulfilled custom orders from the custom request listings I posted this week! More rings are on the way and they WILL be up for grabs in the Etsy shop very soon
(INCLUDING RINGS FOR PEOPLE WITH SHORT METACARPALS)
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
I’ve been wearing bright blue, pink and magenta for the past 3 days straight.
It’s because it is spring that I choose to dress like a flower.
I am heliotrophic after all.
I turn my face towards the sun.
I walked home from classes this morning and felt bathed in peace. The sun was bright and strong. I hardly needed my jacket at all. I crossed the overpass that spans 24 sets of train tracks, in the distance the mountains were cloaked in a fine haze and the pigeons on their roosts cooed at me as I sauntered past. My creek was flowing fast. The mountains shone bright in the strong spring light.
The days grow longer.
My soul grows brighter.
I want to push myself up out of the sleepy earth, dressed in frilly yellow petticoats and blink happily in the bliss of this new season.
Oh me oh my,
I’ve got spring fever and wings on my heels.
[agate druzy, 14 karat gold & sterling]
[turquoise & sterling with a durum wheat motif built of 9 separate sterling grains]
:::EDIT:::
This necklace has now sold and is flying it’s way up
to Saskatchewan! Thanks to EVERYBODY who inquired about it!
I’d actually like this necklace to go to someone who lives on the GREAT NORTHERN PLAINS. I will not be listing it on Etsy. I’m going to wait to hear from YOU. If you are interested in purchasing this piece and you are from THE GREAT NORTHERN PLAINS please contact me via Etsy or use my email button on the right panel of my blog!
ADDITIONALLY, I DON’T KNOW IF YOU NOTICED, BUT THE CABOCHON I DESIGNED THIS PIECE AROUND IS ACTUALLY THE SHAPE OF SASKATCHEWAN, MY HOME PROVINCE IN CANADA. SPECIAL SPECIAL!
[Migration Ring: Montana agate & sterling silver]
[Peafowl Ring: Kingman Arizona Turquoise & sterling silver peacock tail motif built of 6 individual pieces of sterling]
And on an entirely unrelated topic, I wanted to let you know that IT happened.
I always said that when IT occurred, I’d faint from the surprise and delight of it!
Well, here’s what happened:
A total stranger walked up to me last night while I was out celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with friends at a local-beer-serving-establishment. Here is the conversation that ensued:
She: Do you make jewelry?
Me: Um. Yes (surprised that a total stranger is asking me such a question). Did I meet you at the show I did at First Friday?
She: No.
Me: Oh. I’m sorry. How do you know of me?
She: Oh my boyfriend randomly purchased me a ring by you last year and I found your blog and I recognized you. I love the ring!
Me: (in my head I’m screaming because FINALLY I have bumped into a total stranger, rather randomly, who owns a piece of my jewelry). Yay!
This probably does not seem like a big deal to you but for me it’s a HUGE deal! I’ve been hoping and wishing and dreaming of and for the day when I’d see a piece of my jewelry on a perfect stranger while out and about in the world and it finally happened and let me tell you, it was very satisfying.
RW is whipping up a scrumptious stir fry so I’m off to twizzle some noodles.
Tweet-a-leet,
PLUME
It certainly is springalicious. I am happy for you that IT happened. The new pieces are a treat for eyes, and I am sure for fingers and other parts too. I am happy you are exerting yourself to stand out.
Meanwhile I am loving all of my Jillian pieces.
I’m so excited for you that you finally got to see someone out in the world wearing one of your pieces of plumage. It’s funny, now that so many people network over blogs…we know SO many people…there’s always this chance we’ll run into someone some day. I think it’s exciting.
Enjoy your springtime in Idaho. It’s nice and springy here in Cali too.
Enjoy your stir fry!
That’s pretty cool, lady.
Don’t worry honey, not too long from now I’ll bet you can’t swing a cat without hitting someone who wears your stuff.
Oh I WISH I could purchase that wonderful necklace, but things are so tight right now, it just can’t be done. Dang, and I met the qualifications and everything……poo.
But I’ve been walking to the post office every day with Chloe to see if my little minxy is waiting for me. So far not yet, but I realize I’m jumping the gun a bit. But it gives me a great excuse to get out of the house and go for a walk in my nice little town. I love Virden, it’s great.
Keep up the good work champ.
That is SO EXCITING! It’s a big deal to us too — you = famous now ^_^
JSL – I AM FROM THE GREAT NORTHERN PLAINS AND AS YOU KNOW AM VERY FOND OF MY HOME. AND YOU JUST KNOW I LOVE THAT NECKLACE!!!! so send me an email girl…
and that first ring is amazing as well. LOVE the druzy stones.
These pieces are gorgeous, Jillian! I love all the latest embellishments to your rings. And lucky be the Northern Plains claimer of that necklace. It is amazing!
It was only time before IT happened 🙂
you honestly keep outdoing yourself. these latest pieces are birthed of some newly-jogged corner in your sweet daffodil soul.
i want every single one of them.
i am also fat on the pride i possess for this extreme validation.
your silver speaks the song of all women and i am content, oh so content, to watch (adorned my own plume-creations, bien sur).
news of great work spreads like rapid fire so ’tis not surprising that, your esteemed encounter, fine job lady…
and fine taste man for bringing such quality home to the little woman wife of his… hint-hint Karl, my man… Maybe he will be the one to purloin for me this wheat embellished adornment… I don’t ask for much but I think this is a worthy exception… Our back yard is a field of grain… this is so fitting for moi!
Sundown in the Paris of the Prairies,
Wheat kings have all their treasures buried,
And all you hear are the rusty breezes,
Pushing around a weather vane Jesus… (Wheat kings by the Tragically Hip)
sittting around a bon fire on a warm Canadian summer night, singing to soft strum of the guitar. The Great Northern Plains reminds me of these carefree moments…
i don’t know how you do it, but i’m satisfied to let it remain a mystery. you are flying high and the breeze from your bejeweled wings lifts my raven hair. in fact, i believe i’m flying alongside you, a little lower perhaps, but the colors of your soul filter down through the sunlight and give me something to flap my wings about. higher and higher…
what am i even talking about? i don’t know. but this stuff you’re cranking out is gorgeous. at least i know THAT.
all my love,
she.
how exciting that "it" happened 🙂 & that peafowl ring is to die for!
M: I’m glad you are loving those Jillian pieces:) They were made just for you with love!
Marina: It truly is a small small world! Stir fry was scrumptious! XO
Miss C: I like your new avatar (random but true).
Jenn: “swing a cat” GUFFAW! I hope the ring arrives soon! I wound it up extra tight before I set it free to fly your way:) XO
Fawn: Hardly famous…just touched with a pinch of serendipity me thinks!
Jordan: I’m on it:)
Elaine: Thank you thank you. XOXOOXO
Mme: Well the thought of this:
“your silver speaks the song of all women”
…is almost too much to bear! Love you.
Michaela: I wish you lived next door. We could perch and preen our skinny wings together:)
Forsyth: Oh The Hip. Even the wheats in the fields wave their arms in the air when they hear The Tragically Hip strum a tune. Thanks for your remembrance of prairie times!
She: I know what you’re talking about. I’ll be so close soon that I’ll be able to pinch you when you say lovely things like this. All my love right back at you, XO
Goodgirls: It’s quite a different embellishment scheme than the first peafowl series. I’m with you though, I will be sad to see it ship out to a new home!
Ah, I just re-found your blog thanks to Etsy. Was I really as awkward as your account makes it seem? I hope not, perhaps I am just self-conscious 🙂 Regardless, I am glad that I could make IT happen, though I was just such a small part of it. It was wonderful to meet you!
Danielle: No you were not awkward at all! I wanted to pop you in my small red clutch and take you home for ice cream and cookies and then ask you to trim my bangs!!! LOVED meeting you. And am secretly hoping you’ll come for tea!
Will you?
Ohhh, SForsyth just lyriced my most FAVE song by The Hip!! LOVE it!! Love the necklace too and sorta wish that I, too, was from the Prairies…does it help that I’m currently living here right now for 4 more weeks?! hehe 😉
Man, I shoulda got that buffalo pin while I had the chance! teehee!
That “great plains” necklace is driving me nuts…I’ve also been madly lusting after your Comanche necklace (sadly, my student budget doesn’t accommodate my cowgirl jewels taste. It seems that my homeland (Minnesota, Iowa) doesn’t quite nick the Northern Plains, but I definitely feel the spirit.
And that turquoise ring – yowza! It’s amazing how the style of your work has changed so much in just the few months that I’ve been “following” your site.
IT happened?!!!? IT HAPPENED!!!!!
Oh how I can’t wait for “it” to happen to me 🙂
PS Western Iowa doesn’t count as “Northern Plain” does it???
Shucks.
As in CORN “shuck”ing??????
XO
Oh, I would love to come to tea! The next week or so is crazy for me, I am off to Austin, Texas. But, when I return I would be honored!
YAY!
I have your number…I’ll actually save it and ring you up!
‘Till then!
Corn shucking indeed, potato girl 😉
Ha! Saskatchewan. Love it. I’m in Manitoba, relatives in SK.. used to go and visit a whole lot as soon as the snow melted. Pelly and Kamsack. Farms as far as the eye can see. I miss the land but not the people 🙂
**sending out some vibes to a hip farm girl in SK needing a piece of plumage**
yeah for petites rings!
i love them~none in my size this time so please keep making them.
they are beautiful and just what i have been wanting.
smiles.
when i saw that beautiful cabochan with the wheat next to it i thought of my mom..and then upon reading read that you had made it in the shape of Sask…and that is why i was fascinated by it cause my mom’s from there and she loves the references to the wheat and such. just wanted to let you know! loved your work. its gorgeous
WOW! Your work is unbelievably stunning! I took 2 years of jewelery in college, never made a decent grade, but still kept signing up because I loved working with metals. Having spent 2 years doing so, I can certainly appreciate what goes into creating your work.
Idaho? Iowa? Ohio?
Most people can’t tell the difference.
I don’t remember wheat fields in Iowa … maybe you an make a corn necklace next? EmeliaRo and I can fight over it.
A shucking contest, perhaps?