New Jewelry — Page 15

Bloomin’ Heart

September 23, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Well, I finished this darling little jackrabbit a few minutes ago. Look at his bloomin’ heart! Two carved coral roses in red and pink. So delicate. So fine. We should all be so lucky to carry such beauty and growth and life in our hearts!

He perches atop a sterling hollow form platform and rolls a pearl around beneath his front feet. He loves autumn and has been leaping through a beautiful pile of freshly fallen leaves, kicking up his heels, flicking his long ears and all that other rabbit stuff.

100% handcrafted by me!

And built with so much love.

This fellow is darn tootin’ special.

In other news, today, whilst deep conditioning in the shower, one of the orchids I keep in the bath dropped this leaf down into the tub. KERPLUNK. Look at those blending hues of green and red. So gorgeous! I’ve been carrying this leaf around in my back pocket all day long. RW keeps grabbing it and pretending he’s going to throw it out and then I shriek and he gives it back and I tell him to kiss me.

He’s such a brute!

Next time I enamel. I’m going to recreate this leaf and these colors.

And if at first I fail, I’m going to try try again

until I get it perfect.

Today everything is filled with so much life submitting to the seasons, changing colors, fading away… I’m paying attention. All of this shining world, flame throwing and night cool whispers is bound to give way to the stark hush of winter, soon enough. If I keep my eyes and heart wide open every moment between now and then, surely I’ll coast on these colors and textures all the way to spring.

And you. How does your heart bloom? Bloomin’ hearts, each one of you…

Plume

Filed Under: autumn, enamel, New Jewelry

Northern Exposure

September 21, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

A friend of mine in Alaska sent me a few strips of birch bark recently. As soon as I pulled them from the box she shipped them in, I knew they were destined to be pieces of jewelry. Last week, I used a dash of birch bark in a necklace design! Pure, natural, organic, soulful magic.

This pendant features a hollow form sterling structure with birch bark set under resin on the surface. Dropping down from it is one of my sterling twirlygigs with an enameled feather in chartreuse. A bit of pearl appears on a silk cord as well as a wee hunk of coral.

It’s Northern Exposure.

Don’t it feel good?

There’s a chill in the air.

The nights grow longer in leaps and bounds and

up in the sky the northern lights comb neon fingers through the stars.

What does it mean to me, working with birch bark?
It brings me closer to the home I miss so much, my home in Canada, and more specifically, Northern Saskatchewan and the chain lakes and river systems that bury Precambrian shield in icy waters. There, along the shore, grow the jack pine and the birch. In such a silent place of deeply carpeted, dark forest, the birch tree brings lightness; lightness of being, lightness where there is so much dark. And in that light, that delicate filtering of sunlight down to forest floor, is hope, growth and green.

Can you see it?
I can.

xx
Plume

Filed Under: nature, New Jewelry, north, resin

Melancholy, Idaho and Feathers

September 15, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

A new Melancholy Mistress Necklace. I haven’t made a version of this necklace in ages but started this specific design on Monday when I had a serious case of the blues. The main pendant body is a hollow form (!!!HEART!!!) with a sweet flower silhouette on the surface. Dropping down from the hollow form is a sterling spear with a bezel set handsome, teal fluorite which is flanked by a piece of coral on a silk strand and a wee ivory pearl. The piece wears long — just like the originals did — with a 20 inch chain and a pendant drop of nearly 5 inches. So romantic, dark, and kind of brightly forbidden. Right?

An Idaho Ring built of sterling and Prudent Man Agate. I love working with this stone. It’s incredibly unique and is mined from the Prudent Man Idaho claim making this piece 100% Idaho crafted. Magic. Take a look at the first shot of this ring and you’ll catch a glimpse of the depth of the landscape in this stone. Translucent sections of agate give way to swirling dendrites in sage green and peach hues. Amazing. This rock lives. Additionally, this ring is perfectly weighted, balanced and so comfortable to wear. Perfect for a wild thing who doesn’t like her big jewelry to get in the way of the work of her paws.

Feather Feather Meriweather Earrings in sterling, pearl and divine texture. These are simple, classic beauties with a funky and organic edge. Perfect for wearing on your next fishing trip to an alpine lake.

It looks like we’re going to officially do our next shop update here on Friday. I’ll announce the time tomorrow! Thanks for all your warm welcome homes to RW yesterday. Wheeee!!! There’s been plenty of sassy banter around these parts this morning.

Now I’m off to discuss bathroom renovation plans with Robert…something something antique clawfoot tub…….

Plume

PS Today, there were also these:

Sterling, copper and enamel!

100% hand crafted.

The enameled components were fired right here in the Plume Gables kiln.

Sterling, coral, silk, pearl, enamel, and copper!

Hollow form.

100% handcrafted including, again, the enameled component which was fired right here in my studio kiln.

Look at that chartreuse.

Chartreuse makes me drool.

Am I the only one?

Filed Under: New Jewelry

Monday Brings A Throat Flower

September 13, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

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.

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.

________________________________________________________________

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.

Plume

PS Why yes. Yes I do have a new obsession.

Filed Under: hippocampus, New Jewelry

Terrified at 4PM

September 8, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Well for the sake of Pete.

I’m just on my lunch break (yes, it’s a late lunch) and while my quinoa was cooking I decided to finish up another chapter of this book:

The chapter I am reading is number 20 and let me tell you, I’m traumatized. I’m not even finished with it yet but it is by far the worst section I have read in this book so far. I know what you’re thinking, why am I reading this book while my husband is smokejumping the current fire season. In all reality, it is a great book. It’s a compilation of fire fighting stories, some strange love stuff and it’s wonderfully informative when it comes to smokejumper culture. I’ve quite enjoyed it thus far, that is, until chapter 20.

Currently, in chapter 20, a Volkswagen sized boulder has just rolled down the side of a mountain that is on fire, nearly squishing a handful of smokejumpers who just had to run for their lives, through a forest fire (literally, their hair is burning), on the side of the extremely steep mountain the boulder just rolled down. They’re missing men. They’ve lost the fire thanks to a crazy, huge snag that fell behind them and trapped them (hence the running). The missing jumpers are out of radio contact and right now I’m hoping they’re alive. I’m getting to the end of the book and based on the layout of most books, it can’t end too tragically…but one jumper has a huge cut on his neck from where his chainsaw bit him before he had to drop it and run for his life. Another jumper just smashed his knee into a boulder (this is the same fellow who hours earlier hit the trunk of a ponderosa when he was landing his parachute and he was knocked unconscious). I think they might be hungry too (they’re always hungry).

Sigh.

Why do I do this to myself?

I’m almost done eating and then I have a buffalo with a rose heart to deal with out in the studio.

Thank God it’s almost the end of fire season.

And seriously, if you want a rather adventurous read, you should nab a copy of this book. But be warned, if you’re a smokejumper’s woman, perhaps read it over the winter season (or not at all).

xx,

P

PS Here’s the buffalo I’m talking about! By the end of the night he’ll be surrounded by a handful of pearls and a lovely little toggle clasp!

He’s such a darling little guy!

Filed Under: books, New Jewelry