[sterling and 23 karat gold]
Last night the wind was really screaming while I was laying awake in bed. Anytime it’s windy I find the night is very unrestful for me, but last night, I felt a bit anxious too about general life things that are happening here. So there I was, laying awake in bed, listening to the dogs yap in their sleep and the wind screeching through the blue spruce when I suddenly remembered something, quite out of the blue. A few years ago I was passing through Vancouver on route to Squamish, on a climbing trip. My climbing partner and I stopped off at Stanley Park for a stroll and while walking along the sea wall we came upon a fellow who was balancing stones — building precarious cairns. We sat down on the bulkhead and watched him for quite some time. I remember thinking to myself, “Look at that fellow. He lives his life stone by stone. No more. No less.” I watched him scrabble through the rocks, carefully selecting the next large stone he would add to his cairns. At some point, I spoke up and asked him how he managed to balance rocks as he did, for some of his stone sculptures were tremendously high and rather impossible looking to me: they looked so tipsy but held so staunchly. He looked at me and gruffly stated, “Oh, each stone has a special patch of crystals it will stand on. It’s just a matter of finding that special place of balance and then using it.“
Indeed.
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I don’t know why I remembered that experience last night but I’m glad I did.
This current obsession I have with cairns is continuing and I don’t mind one bit.
It’s like I’m out in the studio performing my own balancing tricks, one stone at a time, as each day passes.
Working on this series has been very cleansing and some of the poisons that plagued me last year are finally finding their cure.
These forms and colors are such therapy. This mind space is such calm.
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These are some simple little rings, elegant and minimal, built of sterling and festooned with 23 karat gold in some cases. When they aren’t singing their jangling song, they’ll be reminding you to take things one stone at a time.
All day. Every day.
Those are absolutely STUNNING! I can just imagine the joy they will bring to the wearer!
Ah… that special place of balance and then using it… that is what my life is all about right now as well, girl…. and the wind: I remember, living in LA as a child, the Santa Anna winds always made me restless and anxious. What is right for your life will find it’s way to you, always…
Lovely pieces, lady.
~I find myself doing my own balancing act as of late.
~May balance and cleansing be yours.
~I hugged my mail gleefully to my chest as I walked back from the mailbox last night.
Be well, Jillian. Enjoy the day.
These are so so lovely. And if you’re ever heading up to Squamish again, let me know! It’s been awhile since I’ve ventured over there, but I love climbing those big granite walls.
Lovely! 🙂
fabulousness. and a wonderful memory too 🙂
oh sweet sigh.
what a perfect balancing act
you lovely woman
you
every time i think i have everything in the world i could possibly need, you make something else staggering that i must have. but i’d trade a long drive in the big rig for all the silver in the world right now. proud of you as always…what you do, who you have been/are/will become, all of it.
You know I frequently come across stones piled up…saw them while hiking in AZ and always, always by the sea shore…fascinating. I love living among the elements…here I don’t, I only live among challenges and try so hard to remain whole. Your new rings tickled my heart. So lovely I had to smile. xx
lovely story.
you are really something.
and the cairn rings?
beautiful…
simply, glorious, playful!
love
Squamish! What a perfect little town. Fantastic climbing, great farmers market, rivers and mountains and that sparkling aqua water. I’ve spent many happy summers there. Once, on a rest day, my partner and I hiked to the top of the chief to have a picnic and lounge in the sun. We picked a spot well away from the rest of the hikers, on an outcropping of granite overlooking Howe Sound. It was only after we had been there a little while that I noticed a small brass bird, bolted into the very edge of the mound, gazing out at the water and mountains beyond. I wondered who put her there, and why? Was she a monument for someone lost? A small piece of art? A cairn, of sorts, marking a special place? I’ll never know, but I loved seeing her. I’ve never found her again, though I’ve been back many times since. I haven’t thought of her in ages!
Anyway. Love your work- both prosaic and metallurgic. Always lovely and thought-provoking.
clattering tinkling cairns of silver and gold: reminders, indeed.
so lovely….so….
you can do no wrong, jillian. I’m slightly exhausted falling head over heals with every single batch and unable to indulge in such goodness… le sigh.
love, always.
P.S.
“As with all my work, whether it’s a leaf on a rock or ice on a rock, I’m trying to get beneath the surface appearance of things. Working the surface of a stone is an attempt to understand the internal energy of the stone.”- Andy Goldsworthy
Oh, how gorgeous rings! I wish there was one 6,5 left… I guess 7 would be too big for my wedding ring finger as your hands look approximately the same size as mine.
Hey all you beauties!
Thank you for your comments on these rings and this post. I love having you here. I was just telling a friend yesterday about why I like this series and continue work on it. I think more than anything, it just feels so peaceful to work on these designs. They’re so minimal and tranquil in their arrangement and forms. When I build them, I feel a peacefulness in myself that extends into the work. There hasn’t been space for any sort of poison in my studio lately — we all know how it feels to be crowded out by the mind’s noise. There’s just me and quiet metal and a quiet heart. I think I’m addicted to calming nature of this series so I keep working on it and the work keeps unfolding and taking on new shapes and dimensions and that feels good.
What a beautiful entry and beautiful rings!!!!!
When I lived in Vancouver I used to often cycle the perimeter of Stanley Park!
Oh man what joy!
I’d often see those cairns right by the water. Always same guy creating those stacks- Wonder if it’s the same person???
xoxoxo
Might be the same guy!!! 🙂
Nice, Jillian!
Thank you, Helen.