My Verve Spilleth Over

It’s true.
My verve spilleth over.
My pensiveness hath evaporatethed. Somewhat.
My pesky displaced ribs are feeling miraculously better after a trip to the chiropractor and hours upon hours of tempering wretched muscles with ice packs yesterday and today. I say, one never realizes how important breathing is until every breath pokes a wonky rib into a lung.

I’ve been enameling and constructing for most of the day.
I plan to work late.
The view from the studio is grand, it’s snowing on the West Bench. Low clouds are threatening to drop down into the valley
and water the herb garden I planted yesterday.

Wait.
It’s eerily calm. The gale force winds have suddenly ceased. Perhaps I’ve slipped into the eye of the storm.
Do you ever imagine your house and the land that surrounds it by a mile square is actually up in the air rotating like a vinyl record? I’m performing this very imagination as I type this. For a second, it gave some sort of pseudo logical reason for the calmness outside.

This is a necklace I finished today. It’s an extension of the Rumors of the Sea Series and features an orange peel fired and repoussed copper disc, prong set, as well as a little pearl. There are plenty of details to share about this necklace and I promise to do so in the Etsy listing, when the time comes! I find it rather captivating. Plus, that Scandinavian blue is one of my favorite colors. What a shock! I know. Most people love green best of all. I’m rabid for pretty paraphernalia in hues of cerulean.

And oh dear goodness gosh.
Let’s talk about this little necklace.
It’s the first in a seed series!
I’ve taken a sterling, repoussed disc and fired it with translucent enamel — it’s supposed to be a seed. The necklace is stylistically a drop choker so hanging down from the seed is a repoussed, anticlastically raised and enameled sterling leaf.

So pretty. So lifelike, in some manners.
So organic.

Both enameled components look practically edible. J’adore this piece. How could I not? The colors are bombastic. I’ve three more necklaces in similar design on deck for completion this week and I’m going to be thrilled to show you the other finished products. It’s rather obvious that I’ve been taking more cues than usual from nature these past few weeks. The things I find beautiful and inspiring have been blowing huge and fragrant puffs of springtime wind into everything I touch, write, sketch and construct.

The possibilities are so endless that I’m often overwhelmed by the creative options in my mind.
I’m sure that many of you can relate.

In other news, I’m on the hunt for a Little Red Riding Hood cape.
Send me thine linketh if you knoweth of one!
I am hoping you all had a most glorious Tuesday!
I’ll bet you’re growing tulips between your toes.
Rah rah springtime!
We love you so!
xx
PLUME

The Passing of a Day: In Photos



[sterling, pearl, 14 karat gold, silk, coral]


[sterling, pearl, silk, 14 karat gold]

My favorite thing about these necklaces is how darn delicate they are. Additionally, with the swath of pearls the chains host, they exude femininity. I was inspired by a strange metal object I found at an antique shop last week. I’ll snap an image of it for you, perhaps one of you can tell me what it is!??! At any rate, it has raised bumps in the pattern of a flower shape on the surface of the metal that makes it whatever it is…I bought it for $6 and brought it home. On Friday it stirred my creative fires and today I made my ideas manifest.
I really love them and I might have to add one to my personal jewelry collection — we’ll see if I manage to keep one for myself at the end of the week!
Both pieces feature hollow formed pendants, as you can see in the photos, golden smudges, extraterrestrial looking vegetation, a strand of pearls and some interesting metal work on the reverse of the pieces. I think the warmer temperatures and the promise of summer have me crafting designs that look good against tanned skin, bare arms, tousled and sun bleached hair…I’ll make one or both of these necklaces available on Friday when I update the Etsy shop again.
I’ve ten gazillion things to tell you but I’m not sure where to begin.
So I’ll leave you with this:

I hope you had a glorious day.
xx
Jillian Susan
PS The strange antique implement that inspired these necklaces:

Do you know what it is?

Les Bijoux de la Cuckoo

Well.
I’ve been hoarding it all like a dragon,
running my fingers through it,
draping necklace on my arms like cluster of grapes on the vines,
wearing all of these rings at once while dancing around the living room to Fleetwood Mac.
I’ve been running my fingers over the the earrings on their verdigris rack like a percussionist would a wind chime and now I’m ready to let them go.
I’ll be photographing this pile of work over the next couple of hours, editing said photos and then I’m going to commence listing while consuming a jug of iced tea on the front porch at my cafe table.
While I’ve not shown you everything in these photos, there are:
11 necklaces
16 pairs of earrings
2 bracelets
6 rings
Please do keep an eye peeled for individual shots of these pieces over at my Flickr site and if you aren’t already a friend of mine on Facebook or Twitter (I link new listings with both of these networks), you should be!
Thank you, as always, for your consideration of any of this new work!
Hi ho, hi ho,
it’s off to work I go!
xxxxxxxx
J
PS Have I ever told you how much I miss you over the weekend? Well I do. It’s the truth.
:::EDIT:::
THANK YOU, ONE AND ALL, FOR STOPPING OVER AT
THE ETSY SHOP TODAY! I APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT VERY MUCH
AND AM THRILLED TO SAY (AS DORKY AS THAT SEEMS) THAT EVERYTHING
I LISTED FOUND A LOVELY AND HAPPY HOME!

You probably won’t believe this
but you can ask RW if you want,
he’ll testify,
every time something leaves the shelf over at the Etsy Shop
I let out a little scream of disbelief. I’ve even been known to leap
out of my seat and dance a little bit. The thrill hasn’t worn off. Not one bit.
It makes me feel so happy and deliriously shockified when you take something home with you, be it a pair of BonBon Earrings or a belt buckle. It all means the same thing to me.
And that is: you are magnificent.
100% magnificent.

Anyway.
I RAN OUT OF STEAM THIS EVENING AND DIDN’T FINISH LISTING THE ENTIRE HOARDY PILE OF DRAGON TREASURE BUT I’LL BE STOCKING THE SHOP AGAIN ON FRIDAY AND BETWEEN NOW AND THEN I’M GOING TO BE YOUR BEST FRIEND HERE IN BLOG LAND! I HOPE YOU ALL HAD A BEAUTIFUL ,LOVELY, DELIGHTFULICIOUS MONDAY!
XX
THE PLUME

1. I finished this beauty on Sunday. I started it last Thursday and forgot all about it (it was deep in the acidic depths of my pickle pot, you see). It’s so lovely. And it’s a fair representation of my creative positioning at the moment — I can feel myself rising up into a wave crest and there’s a generous pouring forth of fresh designs at the moment. It’s nearly too much to bear. I’m sleeping with my sketchbook on the bedside table for those moments in the night when an idea jerks me awake and I need to flip on the lamp so I can sketch it down, jiffily (not a real word).
2. I fell down a mountain yesterday. I do this every spring in Idaho. I go running and suffer a terrible wipe out. I’m icing my knee. Last year I couldn’t hold a hammer or bend my arm for a week after falling while trail running. I’m counting my blessings, despite the hobbling.
3. Vesper & Judith. That’s what I’ve named the girls. I had a moment of clarity, right when I woke up this morning. The springtime sun was shining in the bedroom windows and I knew exactly what to name my chicks.
Vesper = Ameraucana
Judith = Buff Orpington
These names suit them perfectly. Their personalities are beginning to emerge and we’ve noticed that Vesper is quite the sass. She loves to leap around, flap her wings like a wild thing and she’ll peck at anything that moves. Judith is quite calm and sweet in comparison and perhaps even somewhat cuddly.
4. Today I feel especially like a bird. Skinny legs. Beaky face. Pointy everything. Soft and wild feathers. If only I could sing like a meadowlark.
I hope you all had a sensational weekend! Mine was bursting with activity, peacefulness, cold mountain breezes and great food!
Open your wings wide.
The wind will do the rest.
xx
PLUME

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2010/04/12/655/

Offerings

For your consideration:

Rumors of the Sea Ring
[copper, enamel, sterling, pearls]

Fortress Ring
[sterling, moonstone, amethyst, chrysoprase, ravenwing pearl, ivory pearl]

Rumors of the Sea Ring
[copper, sterling, enamel, pearl]

[tube agate & sterling]

Fox in the Snow Necklace
[sterling & amethyst druzy]

Limu Ring
[sterling & red jade]

Glitz Ring
[sterling & bartlett jasper — mined in Idaho and cut by a local lapidary artist in Pocatello]

[sterling & pearl with custom chain]

[sterling & agate]

Throat Flower Lexical Charm Necklace
[sterling, pearl & coral]
You know, to be quite honest, I am really struggling with letting
one or ANY of these pieces go today. It’s ridiculous. I’ve had them in my home for a handful of weeks now and I should feel like I’ve bonded with them sufficiently (I do that, you know, I bond with these pieces when they are finished…I put them on and sometimes wear them for a few hours at a time so that when the moment comes, I’ll feel like I can let them go…). But not today. I’m feeling a little of heartache, at the minute, when I think of listing them all for sale.
I love each one of these pieces.
Each one.
They’re a part of me.
Thank you, eternally and exponentially, for your consideration, for looking at these photos and enjoying the aesthetic of these designs, for reading what I write and for supporting me as an independent artist.
These are my offerings.
Love,
PLUME
:::EDIT:::
THANK YOU!!!
MOST OF THESE PIECES HAVE FOUND WONDERFUL HOMES!
HAVE A BEAUTIFUL WEEKEND, ONE AND ALL!
xxxxxxxxx