New Jewelry — Page 16

This too:

September 8, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

A heavy Artichoke Heart Necklace built of sterling, silk, a neon wedge of chalcedony, amethyst and pearl; the 20 gauge sheet sterling, hand sawed, filed and formed, is 4 layers deep in some areas. Rich. Decadent. And so symmetrical that I threw a cheeky little pearl on one side of the chain just to give the piece some balance!
100% hand crafted and constructed.
One of a kind!

Tuesday is looking fine here.

Farley and I are running for the hills in a matter of minutes.

The wind is cool.

I’m going to run with my hair down.

Plume

PS I’ll be listing this little artichoke in the Etsy shop tomorrow around noon, mountain time! See you there!

:::EDIT:::
You know, I just put this piece on before eating breakfast this morning and when I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized that one of the best words to describe this piece is elegant. It is large. It is cleanly designed but retains an organic nature (something I aim for with all of my work). It is almost royal looking. But all of that said, despite size and weight, it’s tremendously elegant.

Filed Under: New Jewelry

Artichoke Heart Ring

September 6, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

I made this ring the other day!

It was inspired by Amelie.

That Amelie.

She’s so smart. And she speaks such truth.

To have a heart.
To feel compassion for others.
To fill the universe with the love of God, to empty yourself, to be filled up again and then to pour that out into the world around you once more. To give with a rhythm, with a beat that makes the action a softly drumming habit that blesses others.
There’s no greater calling than to have a heart and to give it freely.
To give.
To give.
To give.
“..even an artichoke has a heart…” [Amelie]
And if a vegetable can comprehend the reason for our existence surely you can too. May the woman who claims this ring be reminded to love and to rain compassion on others. Always. This ring is built of sterling, 14 karat gold, Coyamito Agate, amethyst and pearl. All the components that build it were hand sawed, filed and fitted by me — it’s 100% hand built. The design comes from my original sketches and embellishment templates. It features a rich, rich weight and boasts a pure soul, the joy of my heart, the sweat of my brow and the patience of my hands. It’s one of a kind in every way.

Salut,
La Plume
x

:::EDIT (vulnerability at its best):::

It’s been so hard SO HARD to let things go this summer. I find myself hiding designs for weeks before I can part with them — a good sign of sturdy soul work. I want to keep it all for myself, wear it, push a bit more of my spirit into it, have it resonate with the space I’m in before I let it go. Do you care that I often wear a ring or necklace around my home, for a few days, before I let you claim it? Do you care that it’s heavy with me when it arrives in your mailbox, shining and singing? Do you prefer these pieces more astringent? Lighter? Without the prickle of lightening and tonic? I have to be part of them. It doesn’t seem right otherwise. It’s like having a child and never knowing her name….never knowing the color of her eyes. I need to be familiar before things leave my hands, my home, my heart.

Does any of this even make sense?
Does any of this even make sense?
To me. It does.

It’s cold here. Already. Tonight it will freeze at -2C (28F).
Already I have cursed the Rocky Mountains for these early frosts.
I’ve covered the most promising parts of the gardens, hoping for warmer nights this week and the further ripening of tomatoes, squash, pumpkins…
My grapes are still on the vine, almost ready, so plump and juicy; I can smell them on the air as I walk about the yard.
The plums are fat, intentional, bending the branches and trunks of the trees from which they hang.

I miss the snow geese in the wheat stubble. The chatty resting hours of the Canadas in the prairie sloughs. RW, when you come home, why don’t you take me home, home to Saskatchewan. Just for a bit. You’ll be here in seven days. I’m going to hold you tight. Forever.
If a fire burns on the 12th in the North Cascades, ignore it, just come home.
I miss you. This place misses you.
There’s a broken branch on the catalpa tree that needs to be removed.
Farley needs to be hunted.
And I need to be kissed.

Filed Under: New Jewelry

This Neon Bit Of Intergalactical Nature

August 9, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Let’s talk about this insane thing:

…this intergalactical piece of spacedom…

…this oozing green piece of vegetational detritus…

…this martian stun gun…

…this gold tongued venus fly trap…

…this fruit blossom of supernova melon…

…I’m not even sure what to call it.

What does it remind you of?

I think it’s part alien, part lily.

It’s built of sterling, gold and resin. I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks, on and off, resin takes time to cure…and the resin work with this design was a bit of a wretched chore…

It was designed to be worn on a pointer finger so that it can rest across four fingers, like a napping flower. The resin I used to fill the petals, or leaves, I colored an acidic green hue. It’s crazy looking. Psychedelic. The petals (leaves) were repoussed before they were forged so when you look down through the resin, you can see the trail of texture on both sides of the metal. It turned out better than I expected it would.

I love it when that happens…

Filed Under: New Jewelry, resin

What are you looking at, Swan???

August 9, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

:::EDIT:::

WOWWEE!!!!

Thank you, everybirdy, for coming out to the shop update today.

I love you for it and my sails are billowing right now (not just because there are gale force winds outside).

I’ll be having a second update this week, on Friday. I have three cuffs, one belt and buckle, one necklace and one ring that are ready to go.

We’ll preview then, ok?

Ok.

Filed Under: New Jewelry

The White Buffalo Et Al

August 2, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Two pairs of bigtastic earrings for a momma with a big and bright shining soul!

These are a set of Dying Full of Jangles Earrings and are built of sterling and pea green glass beads. There’s a lot of music to be heard with this set. I used a lighter gauge of sterling to form the sterling body of these babies so their lighter than one would expect but they do necessitate a set of stalwart lobes.

Claim them and rock them.

Hard.

A sweet baby darlin’ set of Dying Full of Jangles Earrings built, again, of sterling & pea green glass beads. These are smaller in stature than the big ladies featured above but they’re of the same soul. Made for a broad with big spirit.

A Glitz Ring built of sterling and a gorgeously teal hued slice of druzy agate. Gosh. I really loaded this one up. It has my usual anticlastically raised leaves as well as all the other bells and whistles BUT it also features one of my sterling bones as well as a three dimensional butterfly perched on one of the textured leaves. So sweet. So powerful. This ring is for any day of the week though not for shy women…any time I wear my Glitz Ring out and about I’m constantly accosted and it’s my great pleasure to claim it as my design and work when a gal (or guy) asks after where it came from. Be prepared. This one is an attention getter.

A new Idaho Ring. This darling knuckle buster features a gorgeous cut of Prudent Man Agate — one of my favorite Idaho sourced rocks to work with. I’ve set it simply but the setting is loaded with texture and the band is of the tapered persuasion. Yum.

Oy vey. This stone. This is a ring that features a beautiful cut of Madagascar dendritic agate. The dendrites in this cut look just like the drip technique some oil painters use in their work. It’s a modern setting. A simple setting. But it’s loaded with texture. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this ring. It feels magical on — if you believe in that sort of thing….if you’re an oil painter, this ring is MEANT FOR YOU.

I promise.

Holy crap. Against my better judgement, I fired up my kiln out in the studio yesterday….I don’t do that very often in the summer time since it raises the temperature of my studio space up to about 114F. At one point I was wire wrapping a bead while sitting at my window bench and positively soaking with sweat, but all that sweat was worth it when I finished up THE WHITE BUFFALO!!!!!! I had a vision and I managed to bring it to fruition yesterday. This white buffalo features a bison silhouette that has been enameled white and fired multiple times to the point of perfection. I’ve prong set it on a sterling baseplate from which a wrapped sterling pendant drops down and terminates at a single, luminous pearl. OH FOR PETE’S SAKE. It’s beautiful. This piece is pure magic. Magic magic magic. It feels incredible on. It has a beautiful weight. It represents the spirit of the Great Northern Plains and is so totemic that my hands blister when I hold it (figuratively).

Today is also the debut for this pretty baby.

I blogged about it over HERE if you need a refresher on the details surrounding

this belt and buckle!

And in case you’re wondering how I spent Saturday,

here’s the other buckle I finished this weekend. I haven’t started the belt for it yet but it should make its way into the shop sometime this week.

Whew!

That’s all she wrote!

Sorry this preview has taken so long to post today! I had an out of town friend drop in before noon and I adhered to my notion that maintaining human relationships is more important that the business side of life, on most occasions.

I’ll be heading over to the Etsy Shop in a jiffy to get this update rolling!

See you there!

And thank you for your consideration of any of these pieces.

You rock the flock.

PLUME

Filed Under: New Jewelry