April 20, 2011 by
…because the first was lonesome.

The Quiet Ones No.2
[sterling, copper, enamel, silk, pink coral and silk cord]
This is my current soulscape.
Did I tell you before?
Oh.
Well, I’m telling you now.

I can’t stop thinking about this series.
I’m even dreaming about it.

I find myself laying in bed longer than usual in the morning, aligning my heart with bird chant and the wind in the Austrian pine out back.
There’s a stone cold emotional purge, the hopscotch of springcoming, the bowing forth of honesty — so silent in its truth.  Gosh!  Life can feel so thick with goodness and vitality even in the most crushing moments.
Mine is the dumbest tongue in all of North America right now,  sometimes these things need their quiet and their space.  

Did you ever learn to be patient with your self?
I’m learning now.


Post Scriptus:
Silvery Cotswold arrived here again today.
Ain’t she a beaut?


https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2011/04/20/969/

Filed Under: art jewelry, body cavity series, cotswold, enamel, sometimes beauty just spills out all over the place, the quiet ones
April 14, 2011 by

From The Body Cavity Series:
The Glad Whale
[sterling, copper, enamel, pink coral, sari silk, resin, carved ivory flower and one willow twig collected from the bank of my creek here in Idaho]
One of a kind.
All components hand crafted by me.
Beautiful on the inside (and the outside).

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2011/04/14/966/

Filed Under: body cavity series, humpback whales, whale

Body Cavity Series: The Whale & The Tundra Swan

January 28, 2011 by
A swan in the belly of a beast!
Built, from scratch, entirely!  
Crafted from sterling, fine silver, copper and enamel.

I suppose the idea here is:
I am who I am, on the outside.
On the inside, I’m even more who I am.

…or something.

For more on the notions behind this series, please click HERE.
Filed Under: body cavity series, humpback whales, New Jewelry

Body Cavity Series Part 3

January 7, 2011 by
For the original written word on this series, please go here!
The initial notion for the Body Cavity Series was actually this whale design.  I even talked to a handful of people about the idea before actually creating this piece and beginning this series…but the whale, the whale was the first.  The whale was the first, delicate seed of an idea.  I finally finished him a few moments ago and man oh man it feels good. I love the thrill of seeing one of my ideas come to fruition; there’s nothing quite so addicting (and healthy)!

I wasn’t sure I could do it!  This is the largest piece of metal I’ve hydraulically formed so far!  The whale form has been taken from my own sketches and templates which makes him 100% mine and one of a kind and being able to say such a thing feels so, so good to this artist.  A bit of repousse work around the actual body cavity created some fantastic and organic glass patterning around the actual hole in the side of this creature.  Wowee!  I love how it turned out!  It almost looks like a cannon shot a hole in the side of this big fish…or he ate a huge tuna one afternoon and simply (violently) ruptured right open.  I don’t mean to gross you out.  But the opening on this whale is simply fantastic.  Totally organic.  Lovely!  This piece is built of sterling, copper, enamel, pink coral, carved ivory, velvet and bits of me (of course).   

And now I’m exhausted (I have a feeling I’m not making any sense as I type this).  I’ve been working since Saturday morning (well, I slept a bit at night) and I’m going to go try to relax and lay about in the living room sun.  Perhaps I’ll take a nap even!  Can you imagine?

Have a beautiful weekend, one and all!

Lovelove,
The Plume
Filed Under: body cavity series, whale

The Body Cavity Series

December 5, 2010 by
Disclaimer:  
Inner beauty isn’t about not taking care of yourself.  I mean, we ladies still have to attract mates, right?  We aren’t luna moths with heady pheromones that do all the work on a fellow nectar drinking night flying flapper and besides, there’s something to be said for feeling beautiful on the inside as well as the outside.
I’m just saying that something important is within us and neglecting the care of that inner stuff of the soul affects our wholeness.

And now:

The Body Cavity Series
I recently (as in, within the last three months) dreamed up this idea of creating a series that features animal forms, enameled, with open body cavities one can gaze into.  I gathered myself, last week, and set upon the creation of the first piece in this series.  I wasn’t actually sure if I could bring these ideas into being in a beautiful way…because surely, when you hear the phrase “body cavity” you don’t think of beautiful things — which is why I especially love calling this series as such…it’s somewhat disconcerting to read, isn’t it???  

The first piece in the series features a jackrabbit form I hydraulically pushed into being from one of my original press templates.  I opened his form up and placed carved ivory blooms in his core.  The entire notion of the body cavity series is to bring to the forefront the importance of inner beauty and the possibility of the beauteousness of virtue — something so often overlooked in a North American society that pushes us so hard to have a prettier face, prettier hair, perfect breasts, long legs, thin and fit arms, flawless skin, manicured nails, immaculate makeup, a busy and successful career, a competitive nature, a charming and extroverted personality…the list goes on and on and on.

What about the core of our being?
Is the core of your being suffering from neglect?
Do you wear your body like a mask over your stunted heart and soul?
I love meeting women.  More specifically, I love meeting women who are blooming beautiful on the inside.
I’ve found that don’t really notice what my best girlfriends look like anymore.
Yet, when someone asks me about them, I start out by saying:
My gosh.  She’s so tremendously beautiful.

I’ve come to realize, I’m talking about the insides of those women.
They’re blooming beautifully on the inside.  If I were to sit down to draw them or paint them, I’m not sure I could remember a truly cohesive likeness of their facial features or bodies…beyond vague details:  blond, green eyes, tall, short, wide hips, narrow shoulders, full lips…..
The funny thing is, I can sometimes fail to see the beauty and potential beauty that is within myself.
I can fail to cultivate that region of my being.
I can focus, to a fault, on the surface things.
I can neglect the development of my virtues.
I can forget that this body houses something more important than the flesh and bone that makes it;
it is a home for my conscience, my character, my personality, my soul, my spirit…..my essence, my verve…
the real me.
The me I want people to see and remember when they look at me.
The me that My God loves and cherishes.
The me my husband respects and serves (and vice versa).
The me my friends comfort and confide in.
 I want people to remember me for how I responded towards others in tricky situations.
For the way I treated others.
For compassion.
For the way I could laugh with reckless abandon.
I want to be remembered for: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.* 
 Those are the attributes that grow ivory roses in the soul.
The way I see it, when your heart, soul and spirit get big enough, bright enough and beautiful enough no one notices what you really look like anyway…they can barely see you because of the ethereal glow that spreads itself across your skin and beams out of your eyes and open hands.
I have a lot of work to do when it comes to cultivating inner beauty in my self.
It’s something I want to encourage in other women.
In my best friends.
In ladies I hardly know but feel a connection with.
You.  She.  Her. Them. We.

To commit myself to that work, I dreamed up this series and concocted the first of what I hope will be many!
This necklace is composed of sterling, copper, enamel, coral, carved coral flowers, carved ivory flowers, sari silk and green quartz.
It took five days of work, months of daydreaming and sketching and a studio full of tools to create.
It’s delicate.
It’s massive.
It’s vivacious.
It’s beautiful.
I poured my heart and soul into it.
It’s festive.
It’s cheerful.
It’s serious.
It’s calm.
It’s merry.
It’s strong.
It’s one of a kind.


And lastly, this lipstick is called Sephora Rouge (0127B RO6).
In case anyone was wondering.
GUFFAW!

xx
Jillian Susan

*I’ve not mastered any of these things…I openly confess…but I’m working on them every day…two steps forward, one step back.
Filed Under: body cavity series, inner beauty, New Jewelry