I made these for you.
You can find them all in the Etsy shop tomorrow morning!
PS
November 6, 2009 by
Cheesecakealosity
November 3, 2009 by
Zoinks. I feel like I’ve started most of my blog posts of late by saying:
Can you believe it’s ___________?
Well, I’ll spare us all the silly platitude today because I don’t want to risk becoming redundant or God forbid, you should begin to consistently skim my first paragraphs. That would be awful. HA. As you might have noticed, I’ve been on a slow and weak decrease lately when it comes to blogging. Not for lack of writing drive but simply because I can’t find the time! Frankly, I miss you quite a bit on days when I fail to write, or share images from my life so I’ll buck up and get back on the wagon. Ok? Ok.
Details from the weekend are as follow:
I did an enormous amount of domestic goddessing. As you know, I am an exponent of baking and cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients. Dinner on Sunday consisted of gorgeous tilapia fillets baked in lemon, garlic and white wine sauce; bedded on an al dente patch of fettuccine, asparagus and button mushrooms. For dessert I made the raspberry cheesecake you see above. If you’d like your own little slice of heaven, follow these directions:
I like to make a traditional zwieback crust for this cake which I tend to bake in a spring pan. Also, I don’t actually use zwieback, I use graham crackers but I really like saying zwieback so i pretend it’s what I’m using just so I can say the word over and over again.
Zwieback Crust:
Blend 1 1/2 cups of zwieback until the substance is quite fine
Stir the crumbs with
1/4 cup of icing sugar (or confectioners sugar as the Americans like to say)
6tbsp of melted butter (please use the real thing and not margarine)
Pat the crust into the spring pan to the desired thickness and then pop it in the fridge or freezer to chill.
Next we make the cheesecake filling. I used a sour cream cheesecake recipe which turns out gorgeously. Whilst the crust is chilling I like to preheat the oven to about 375F.
I mix together, very well:
2 beaten eggs
3/4 pound of cream cheese (if you’re watching the circumference of your thighs, you can use a lovely Neufchatel cheese which boasts 1/3 less fat than regular cream cheese and tastes just as well, in my humble opinion)
1/2 cup of sugar
1tsp lemon juice OR 1/2tsp vanilla
1/2tsp salt
Pour this mixture on top of the chilled zwieback crust and then bake it for about 25 minutes. Upon removal from the oven, dust the top with cinnamon and let it cool to room temperature.
Once this layer has cooled, heat the oven to 425F and whip up your second layer for the cake:
1 1/2 cups of sour cream
2tbsp sugar
1/2tsp vanilla
1/8tsp salt
Blend it all smoothly and pour this on top of the first cheesecake layer. pop it in the oven for about 8 minutes so that it glazes nicely. When you remove it from the oven let it cool to room temperature again before chilling it in the fridge for 6 to 12 hours.
Ok. My twist on this recipe is that I like to make a raspberry sauce for the top of the cake. It’s really simple. I whip fruit sauces up all the time to top ice creams or to put between cake layers. The fresher the fruit the better, of course but on the weekend, I used frozen raspberries I purchased at the farmer’s market in the summer.
My raspberry sauce:
3 cups of raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
1tsp lemon juice
Throw these ingredients in a saucepan and heat it up. Once the berries are broken down, I like to add one table spoon of flour to thicken the sauce up a bit — not so important if you’re pouring the sauce over ice cream but I want the sauce to sit thick on the surface of the cheesecake. Once it has thickened, let it cool and pour it on top of the cake before you serve it.
Easy peasy.
Besides the cheesecake, I baked bread, cleaned half the floors in the house, eradicated a schwack of kitchen junk, planted tulips, washed a few loads of laundry and did a 5 mile run and a 9 mile run…I’d sometimes like to do something thrilling that takes me out of my home every single weekend, but I ignore so much house work during the week that the weekend is really the best time to round up the dust bunnies.
Now, onto the business at hand:
These are some of the jewels I’ll be listing in the Etsy shop today. The stones I used are: Picasso jasper, turquoise, imperial jasper, Montana agate, green quartz, fresh water pearls, Burro Creek jasper, Willow Creek jasper, purple chalcedony and enameled copper! Ring sizes range from US size 6 to 11. I’m quite entranced by a number of these beauties and can hardly wait to see where I ship them off to!
I’m off to properly photograph everything and should begin listing around noon! See you then chickadees!
XO
Plume
Weekend Ahoy!
October 31, 2009 by
Gosh! It’s Saturday.
This week I tried to focus on a schwack of custom work I’ve had on my plate for a couple of months now and it was really difficult. I tried to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday but found it impossible to settle into a rhythm in my studio. I’ve pondered on this quite a bit and have come to believe it’s because I was feeling hugely overstimulated and needed a few days to decompress from the hurry of the past few weeks. With the end of fire season we have had a tidal wave of people in our home at all hours of the day. Pair that with my wonderful girlfriends who stop in frequently and I was feeling pressed and stressed for some peace and quiet. I ignored my phone all week long (which isn’t much different than usual), I didn’t do much computer work, I took some hot baths in the evenings and read through my mountain of Lapidary Journals. Again.
As it would happen, I hit my stride on Thursday and finished up most of the custom work that needed desperate doing. Of course, Mister Pinkerton was present for moral support and a chinny rub.
Isn’t he getting enormous? We’ve put him on a diet. Well. RW has put him on a diet. I still sneak him treats. That’s why he loves me best.
Here’s a quick view of a handful of goodies I finished this week:
Two are custom orders and the other two are for the update on Tuesday. I hope you don’t all have candy hangovers on Tuesday. Which reminds me, what are you doing for Halloween?!! RW and I are headed across town to the Fussleman household where we shall gallivant about in costumes, eat some tasty food, and hand out bonbons to the little’uns. I don’t know what we are dressing up as yet. I suppose I should make some sort of plan.
RW is very good with costumes. Whilst in New Zealand he managed to rig up a horse and rider costume from scratch. It was very impressive. He was always impressive back then. He’s always impressive now as well. Kristen will testify to his costume-a-bility. You should have seen his pirate costume in 2001. Picture him fresh off a Seeley Montana fire crew in a piraty peach shirt unbuttoned to his waist and billowing in the New Zealand breeze. SWOON.
I’d tell you about the rest of the costume but all I can remember is that unbuttoned shirt.
Oh. And some huge clip on gold hoop earrings.
I tell you, it’s not easy on the blood pressure to be married to something so bodacious.
Alright. I’m off to do my packaging and shipping
and coffeeing and cleaning and cooking and shopping.
SMOOCH,
The Plume
The Light Will Pierce The Darkness
October 27, 2009 by
I know I’ve been making a couple of unconventional pieces of jewelry lately.
It’s all for the sake of inner beauty. I love making jewelry. I love sitting down and designing around a stone, I love the process. It’s how I grow as an individual and it’s how I express myself. This ring is fiercely beautiful (to me). It holds light and darkness. It holds a space within (it’s hollow formed). It holds a message. I fought with it while I crafted it, persevered when the making was rough and finally finished it. I learned life lessons in the process. And the light really did pierce the darkness. I want pieces like this to intrigue you. I want you to be attracted to the design but to also be a witness to the inner beauty of the object you see here. I wrestled with this piece, I howled at it. I coaxed it into shape, I wooed it. I set out to prove something when I made it, to send a message, to conquer some unarticulated portion of myself. I don’t want you to always be comfortable with the things I make. Sometimes, I want you to meet each other and to feel a bit awkward for the first second of knowing each other. Is that strange? I love the idea of growing in love. I also like the concept of love at first sight, but the depth and understanding and TRUE love comes with time and the understanding of what something means to you.
Whoever wears this ring will grow with it.
She’ll love it at first. She’ll have to learn how to wear it.
And as she gets to know this ring more, she’ll begin to understand the depths of it, respect the message it holds, and she’ll slowly draw more understanding of the dichotomy between light and dark each time she slips it on her finger.
At least that’s what I hope for her. Some jewelry is just jewelry.
Some jewelry offers a sensory experience.
Some jewelry twinkles just so.
Some jewelry is for the soul.
7 hours
2 freshwater pearls
sterling silver
14 carat gold
and a filthy rich weight
Each and every component that makes this ring
was cut, sawed, soldered, formed, forged, stamped, textured and filed by me.
No shortcuts.
No cutting corners.
No cheap, dirty tricks.
Just the sweat off my brow and honest jewelry, crafted from scratch
from my original sketches and soul.
I HOPE YOU LIKE HER!
SHE WAS A JOY TO CREATE.
XO
:::EDIT:::
I’m not ready to sell this ring yet.
I need to have it around to hold and touch and look
at for a while longer.
Please pardon the delay.
Da Wings!
October 23, 2009 by
I’ve been in a ring making mood of marathon proportions.
Unfortunately, I ran out of metal on Tuesday.
You ask: Didn’t you run out of metal a week ago and place a huge material order?
I answer: Why yes. Yes I did.
Apparently I didn’t order enough. I’ve been crafting some whopper designs and ran through my supplies more swiftly than I thought I would. I’m watching for UPS as I type this. Once again, I’ve used this time of silverlessness to work on some leftover projects I’ve had laying about. Finishing up or working on tweaked pieces I’ve set aside for weeks, months or years feels good. Sometimes I pick up a handful of ideas I pushed aside and combine them all into something zany and fantastic. Here are the simple spoils of Wednesday and Thursday! Enjoy!
Mexican fire opal & sterling silver.
This ring is amazing. I’ve been hoarding this Mexican fire opal for an entire year. The dome on it measures 20mm high! WHEW! It shows exceptional fire in the right light and features a light amount of the mother stone it came from. Magic. Pure magic.
Peruvian pink opal and sterling silver.
[FOR GIRLS WHO LIKE PINK]
Owyhee Jasper & sterling silver.
Oh Owyhee Jasper.
How I love thee.
You hail from the state of Idaho.
You are lit with shades of teal and rust.
When I touch you my feet leave the earth.
How I love thee.
You hail from the state of Idaho.
You are lit with shades of teal and rust.
When I touch you my feet leave the earth.
Labradorite & sterling silver.
This stone is lit with blue, green and gold fire and is cut with a huge dome. Perfect for the lady who wants a simple stunner.
Green quartz & sterling silver.
A little porthole with the promise and hope of green land on the horizon. A little piece of calm and beauty for the girl who feels like she’s been lost at sea half her life.
Enameled copper, turquoise, amethyst & sterling silver.
One more Focusing on the Inbetweens Ring! This one features an awesome color combination. Look for a lovely weight to this baby. She is tres riche but not so tres riche that she’s pretentious.
Green quartz & sterling silver.
AHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Look at this ring!
It’s a Fortress Ring. It’s tall. Inside the tower are the sacred words “ever bold” on two small sterling strips — a mantra to live and die by. More importantly , no one knows that these words live inside the vessel of this ring except for the wearer. The mantra makes music each time you move your hand (a tiny jingle), a steady reminder for you, tucked away in a safe little stronghold.
It’s a bit impractical for everyday wear, but good gracious does it ever pack a serious punch on the days when you do decide to sport it around town.
A ring for an eccentric woman who needs a message of boldness on special occasions.
Lastly, I whipped up a couple sets of Phospholipid Hoops. These guys are pure sterling silver and are meant to be a semipermeable membrane layer of metal that you wear near your ears — for filtration purposes of course. Pop them in whilst you’re on the way to your local coffee shop so you don’t have to listen to the first year college students talk about the quantity of adult beverages they consumed on Friday night (SO ANNOYING). Gosh. If these babies really did what I dream they can do, I’d wear them everywhere I traipse. I like the quiet.
Come join me!
And please have yourselves a deliriously decadent Friday.
Take a bath with lavender essential oil this evening
XO
The Plume
:::EDIT::
To all the truly astounding people who read this blog
and support the work of my hands:
Thank you.
Forever and always.
You’re the most loving and sweet and kind people I’ve
ever had the pleasure of knowing.
Your delight is my delight and I’m trying NOT to, but I WILL work myself to the bone for you…I can’t help it…you just make my heart overflow and I want to parcel myself into pieces and ship myself over land and sea to you.
And now I’m going to go get an expensive coffee because I have worked hard this week and I deserve it and the sage brush across the street is making me sneeze.
XO
Happy weekending!