New Jewelry — Page 23

Unduly Feminine

March 2, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Unduly feminine.

A focal pendant crafted of filigree agate and sterling silver grabs a glance from strangers. Their eyes focus on the stone, delicate and deep, and then their line of sight trails down the pendant to the anticlastically raised leaf that lingers, somewhere near your navel (they can only imagine) beneath the layers of fabric that cover your skin.

This piece is crafty.

Built to draw and hold gazes.

Made to raise questions and daydreams into thin air, like smoke signals in broad daylight.

It’s not meant for women who are overly modest.

It’s not meant women who are less than womanly.

It’s powerful when worn with intent:

I liken it to a pair of four inch heels with a flirty skirt.

This necklace is made to draw attention to the best parts of a woman: bust, torso, waist, legs, soul and beyond. There’s a shimmer of inner beauty attached to this piece. Expound upon it. Please.

The Unduly Feminine Necklace is built of sterling silver, filagree agate and sexy as hell verve. The stone is set simply in a straight bezel atop a coined baseplate. From the stone setting hangs a length of chain at the end of which is a anticlastically raised leaf, complete with dew drops. A hand crafted toggle closure seals this deal around your swan neck. A hand crafted memento mori, attached to the toggle loop, reminds you to live it up before you go to heaven.

Filed Under: New Jewelry

I’ve been searching for a heart of gold…

February 24, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Built of sterling & agua nueva.

I started sketching designs featuring Raven forms while visiting Hawaii in December. I’m not sure what made me think of them, while in the tropics. In my mind this bird is such an iconic character of the red rock desert of the Southwest and the Pacific shorelines of the Northwest. I designed a belt buckle first with a set of double banners stating:

I’ VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR A HEART OF GOLD.

Iconic words constructed by Canadian rocker, Neil Young.

I’ve yet to build it, but I can feel it coming on. Coming on strong.

I can be neurotic about music. I’ll play a song on repeat in my studio, ten times in a row, I’ll swing my hammers to it. I’ll throw my head back, shake my feathers and sing out those words. Lately it’s been this:

I’VE BEEN TO HOLLYWOOD

I’VE BEEN TO REDWOOD

I CROSSED THE OCEAN FOR A HEART OF GOLD

And each time I sing it, hear the guitar and the melody line, the raven comes to mind.

February 9th, 2010

JOURNAL ENTRY MADE WHILST CROSSING THE

LANDSCAPE OF THE NAVAJO RESERVATION, ARIZONA

Under a faint sunset, amidst an isolated flurry of snow, above the rumple and ripple of red rock, a cluster of ravens wing their way into substance from the fine line of a distant horizon. I watch the ink black grace of their wind riding. I blink. I lick my lips; tuck a loose strand of hair behind an ear. I look in the rear view mirror at the pink plume of dust rising up from the pull of nobby tires on vermillion rock.

We take the road less travelled.

We go where we please.

That’s the joy of wearing wings.

What is that heart of gold, anyway?

The love of your life?

Pure intent?

Courage.

Merit.

An awareness of life span and the ability to make the most of all possibilities.

I think the ravens are searching for a heart of gold.

But not for the reasons the magpies do.

There’s no greed involved.

No need to hoard treasure like dragons.

Just the quest, the realization, the testimony at the end of it all.

This piece makes me want one.

A heart of gold.

Ringing like a bell in my chest.

Filed Under: neil young, New Jewelry, raven

My Doves

February 23, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Good morning.

It’s such a gorgeous day here. Blue sky. White mountains. Sun streams.

Can you feel the days getting longer?

My heart strings feel like brilliant green cotyledons pushing up through

the winter darkness.

I feel alive.

Life feels transitionary.

I’m rising up on alabaster wings.

Last week felt like a miry pit of distraction and emotion. I am human, you know. I can feel affected by actions, environment, weather, a pesky itch on the right side of my plume, a soul ache.

Yesterday night, after working in the studio ALL day long, I tied on my running shoes and took to the night with Farley at my left hip. We ran nearly seven miles together, through the dark, under the spangled sash of a night sky. The air was cold and colder still with a wind chill that made me slow to blink. When I stepped inside the front door again, my words were slurred from the cold: cheeks red legs spent.

I love night running. I feel half animal. When it’s cold, I move swift and steady to survive. Farley’s toenails on stone, concrete, and crunching snow are the only things to be heard for miles. I’m not even sure what I think of when I’m night cruising, but my mind falls open and my heart feels healed over. I pray a lot. It feels like there’s a dialogue sung in retroflex fricative between the velvet sky and I. Tongue tips curled over tooth tips and released up into the air in a solid white plume of sound.

I sometimes wonder why I need to run, why I need to move like a coyote through sage. As an ectomorph, I never contemplate caloric intake, I never set out to burn fat, to elevate my heart rate. I never think of the health benefits. I run because it feels good to have the wind in my face. Running is essential. To me. I’ve been doing it long enough that a day feels unfinished if I go without it. To go without it leaves an ache in my hip sockets, a frown in my knees.

I’ve been a machine lately.

One foot after another.

Tireless.

Striving for the horizon.

My feet will carry me to spring time, and beyond.

So I let them fly.

Yesterday, work was wonderful. Truly wonderful.

I was decked out in magenta, chartreuse, dove grey with silver threads, Capezios, one humpback whale belt buckle and my Rumors Necklace. I felt lovely, I loved the work of my hands and the process therein.

Here, look:

I made you a fleet of Specimen Earrings built of copper and sterling.

There are this many of them. I’ll put them in the Etsy shop in a few minutes!

There’s a new belt buckle to behold.

It’s the Hippocampus Buckle featuring a sea horse, anticlastically double layered leaves, bubbles, a banner and a raven wing pearl.

This buckle states: Swim Gracefully (front) Upon A Current Of Peace (back).

It’s extra special because it’s my portion of a collaboration between Allison and I. I’m shipping it out to her today so she can craft a leather belt that compliments the silver work, soul and message of this piece. When she has it finished, she’ll ship it back to me, en completment, and I’ll photograph it and list it for you! We’ve been so excited about this collaboration, we donned our bikinis and discussed the project while swimming in our hotel pool in Tucson, it’s going to be a finger chilling thrill when we get to share the finished product with you!

One Keeper of the Fields Necklace.

This jackrabbit has an amethyst heart — perfect for a February girl or someone who needs hope that springtime is coming. Hang on!

Isadora Earrings built of fluorite and sterling silver. Long jangly dangles in a gorgeous ocean hue. Neck smooching gifts for your illustrious lobes.

And a whopper necklace (I’ll photograph this piece on my body sometime today so you can get a grasp of the size of this stone) built of three sterling islands, one of which features this incredible desert landscape. Yeesh. Owyhee Junction Jasper is the name of this stone and it’s the only one I have. If you’re especially fond of the desert, this one is for you. I purchased this cabochon recently while in Arizona. I held it in my hands as we drove home, through the Navajo Reservation of Arizona. I wrote as we drove, recording my thoughts about the landscape, the ravens, the reservation, Navajo culture, the red mesas and their steady rising from the desert floor…this stone has soul.

I also worked on, and partially finished a crazy necklace. The design and concept was born from the idea of a cabinet of curiosities. So far, I have the focal pendant finished which is a HUGE portrait of a wood duck in a shadowbox. and parts of the chain which will be built of my sterling bones. I know. It sounds kind of strange. It only gets stranger. I’m thinking of dangling a fabricated antler from the base of the pendant along with two bezel set druzies on the chain or attached to the portrait. Whew. You’re just going to have to see it to believe it. It really will be a curious thing.

I’m hopping over to the Etsy shop now to do a smidge of listing and then I need to run out to the studio and get to work. I hope you’re having a beautiful Tuesday. I love every day of the week for a specific and magnificent reason or two but I love Tuesday for the spelling of the word. Isn’t it a lovely combination of letters? Now say it out loud: TUESDAY….SO PRETTY.

Gros bisous,

Quillian

Filed Under: New Jewelry, running