Stars

A peek at a necklace series I am working on for you — there will be five in lariat style featuring this speckled, old stock turquoise. I’ve been hoarding these stones for a full year. They’re precious to me. I’d actually like to keep hoarding them but I believe (I might be superstitious) that when I let go of really beautiful gems like this it makes space for another batch of wonderful gems to come my way.

I have been spinning my wheels a bit in the studio, unsure of my direction, and I said to myself, “Jillian, what is something you have enjoyed lately that has given you a feeling of freedom, spaciousness, quietude…” The answer was simple. Lately, on nights when the sky is clear, I load Penelope and Tater in the truck, leave Ernest to guard the homestead, and drive out to the canyon rim a few miles from the farm to camp for the night. It’s milky way season. I brew a cup of tea to ward off the cool of night and I sit out in the sagebrush for a while. The dogs root and toot around in the brush and I watch the galaxy spill out above me — wise, ancient, pure and enduring. When I crawl into the camper and sleep, coyote packs wake me through the night as they yip their roll call in the canyon. Their voices are magnified by the basalt cliffs and a pack of ten becomes a pack of one hundred as the echoes bounce and crash and reverberate. It’s glorious. It sounds wild enough that I wonder if they’re going to come and eat me. In the morning, I brew another cup of tea and sit in the sun, on the graceful skin of the earth, and I ponder on things for a while. When my tea is finished I return to the farm and take on the day.

This necklace is those nights under the stars in my home canyon.