Good Monday to you all!
I hope your weekends were lovely and filled with long strolls, baking, frothy coffees and baby poodles.
Good grief. I have plenty of things to tell you about but some will have to be spread out over the week so as not to cause you complete and utter swoonage all at once.
First off, Monday brings a throat flower:
I’ve made a couple of Lexical Charm Necklaces in the past and this is the newest darling in the family. This baby is constructed of sterling silver, coral, silk, chrysoprase and pearl. It’s a bit different from the two that went before in the way that the inner petals are actually lifted up on a pedestal of a small hollow form component giving this design even more dimension than the two that came before. The actual pendant drop is HUGE and the movement of the piece is incredibly musical. Love it. Organic. Sultry. When I lean in, I think I maybe smell a bit of jasmine…
On the topic of hollow form, have I told you why I love working with and creating hollow form designs? Well. There’s no time like the present. Allow me to explain with an excerpt from a conversation I recently had with a lovely lady:
A friend I have in California weighs molecules. She has a brilliant mind and is an amazing scientist. She told me one day, in a letter, that everything I do affects the molecules and atoms in the crystal lattices around me. When I breathe, the motion of my breath imprints on those lattices. When I stand still and simply live, the pulse of my heart pushes against those seemingly solid structures and there’s a piece of me in everything I’m surrounded by. She told me that when I create with metal, I really do impress pieces of myself, permanently in the crystal lattices of my materials — including the stones. I was so amazed by this information. I started seeing the world in a new way. I started to feel like I was leaving pieces of myself everywhere.
I started creating hollow forms with the notion that all of the pieces of me that are pushed into the metal and the stones I use need a comfortable home, a place where they can cozily bounce around and echo and reverberate. Likewise, the girls who wear my hollow form pieces will spend a lifetime pushing pieces of their selves into the crystal lattices and molecular structuring of my designs, and I want, as often as I can, for there to be a hollow portion to the jewelry I create so that their heartbeats have a home within the piece.
I started creating hollow forms with the notion that all of the pieces of me that are pushed into the metal and the stones I use need a comfortable home, a place where they can cozily bounce around and echo and reverberate. Likewise, the girls who wear my hollow form pieces will spend a lifetime pushing pieces of their selves into the crystal lattices and molecular structuring of my designs, and I want, as often as I can, for there to be a hollow portion to the jewelry I create so that their heartbeats have a home within the piece.
Does any of this make sense?
I’m kind of rushing this explanation a bit.
But my hollow forms are kind of conceptual. Well. They’re really conceptual besides being curious and fun to make. A lot of my work is that way. I share a description with people but usually the real root of the notion behind the design is unspoken,,,I suppose those are the parts of creating that are just for me…
Just imagine these pieces, and their hollow portions, carrying the rhythm of your heart into the next generation and that next generation impressing a heart rhythm into the same molecular structures and so on and so forth.
That’s magic at its best.
Its very best.
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Wowee. I’m glad to have that off my chest. I’ve been meaning to share why I love hollow form work for ages. Now you know why I love the work! And if you have one of my hollow form pieces already, I hope you find the notions behind the design meaningful and magical.
Now. This Lexical Charm Necklace will be available later this week when I do a grand shop update. As will this fellow, isn’t he charming?
Cheval de la Mere in sterling, ocean jasper and pearl.
What a nearly-mythical little hippocampus beastling!
Pour another cup of tea.
Watch the buffalo feathers drift down from the sky.
This is September and the colors have me doe eyed.
xx
You just always make my day better!!!!! I love reading your blog and learning more about you and the world that surrounds you. Hugs, Sal
Makes absolute perfect magical molecular sense! Of course.
Ever read The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley?
As for your obsession: That now makes two of us. HOOT! There's a webcam in a kestrel's nestbox in Switzerland that allows one to watch the youngsters hatch and grow up each year. I wonder how many of such there are?
YOu crack me up, cheval de la mer…I like to call them horse fish! : ) I always feel that I am in a hollow space trying to push out… xoxoxo
I agree, it makes perfect sense!Many of my handcrafted jewelry pieces have a certain "energy" to them, a definite essence of their makers that is always present. Sometimes it is what draws me to put a new necklace on, or change rings, etc. – it's that little vibrating thumb-print of energy. Very special, indeed!
Love love love the seahorse necklace that's paired with the most beautiful stone! What's not to love about the ocean and jasper?!?
I enjoyed reading your hollow form excerpt…this is something I greatly look forward to doing, of course, when the time is right so I can fully enjoy and appreciate the process.
beverly
I love your description of space (and the necklace is amazing…:)
Perfection.
That is beyond neato. And I must say, I feel rather magical wearing the earrings you made.
just perceiving can change the universe , need to be careful how you look at things. always be positive. speaking of which I took your buffalo live wild and free ring on a hike this weekend to the Highline trail at Logan Pass ,indeed we were quite wild at that altitude haha snow already , well what do you expect at 6600 feet xx
As always your blog is as fantstic as your jewely treasures are. Loved all the pieces you do they are great I am starting to now relize you can't make jewelry for others you have to send out the treasures that are in your heart and in soul creations. I feel this in your jewelry I spent so much time trying to please others when I should have just made my kind f jewelry hopefully out there is someone who will like it as much as I do.
I feel silly even leaving comments anymore, but really…
the magic, beauty, and truth of science. beautifully put.
a kindred brilliance; stunning as usual!!
oh dear. that is the most beautiful and soulful story I have ever heard.
you and the hollow form. the hollow form and you. sometimes things are just meant to be.
when things are meant to be, nothing we can do will stop them from happening. I call this the Forces of Nature, sometimes. or God's Will, depending at how I am viewing at the situation.
conversely, when things are NOT meant to be, nothing we do can EVER possibly make them be. no great effort will make them so. no amount of wanting.
(my favorite is when I can see clearly that things are meant to be) xo
Magical, yes that's the word to describe it.
I love reading about your process, it inspires me to pay attention to the magic that surrounds me.
Gosh, golly, gee!
What a beautifully written post!
My heart also melted quite beautifully as I read this. I feel like printing this out so I can see it up on my studio wall.
I absolutely and wholeheartedly looooove your hollow forms; forever attracted to them.
That's the beauty of creations without words… all the unspoken thoughts, sentiments and ideas can be poured in. The human psyche and heart are such a mystery even for those trained in it's knowledge.
How else can these beautiful (and ugly) mysteries become perfectly manifest if it weren't for our creative spirits capable of crafting tangible objects.
I love you to bits xo
Gosh, golly, gee!
What a beautifully written post!
My heart also melted quite beautifully as I read this. I feel like printing this out so I can see it up on my studio wall.
I absolutely and wholeheartedly looooove your hollow forms; forever attracted to them.
That's the beauty of creations without words… all the unspoken thoughts, sentiments and ideas can be poured in. The human psyche and heart are such a mystery even for those trained in it's knowledge.
How else can these beautiful (and ugly) mysteries become perfectly manifest if it weren't for our creative spirits capable of crafting tangible objects.
I love you to bits xo