August 5, 2011 by
1.  
The Small Bodies Ring has already been claimed, but I wanted to share it here anyway.
It was inspired by the Weston Pepper, one of my very favorite photographs of late…so sensual and smooth.
___________________

what is this small body 
compared to the good and holy works of god
the rustle of distant thunder
the vast curve of an egg

what is this small body
this ether home
this other world

weather runs beneath my skin
these eyes are for setting sail
ample hide
delicate bones
tectonics beneath the surface

and the smooth meeting of hip and waist
2.  
Oh this day, on this amazing day, I fell on my work so ravenously.
I thought I’d devour the metal and stone 
like some wild thing fresh out of a pit.
Now that I read that last sentence, 
I’m convinced that it’s not far from the truth.

I am a wild thing.
I ate it up.
I was wild with recklessness, sawing huge portions of silver without a thought or care for metal prices, 
without a thought or care.
I whacked at it all with hammers and wood while 
singing at the top of my lungs.
And when the work was finished, 
I declared it good.

3.  
Currently, it is pouring rain outside.
Thunder is shaking the turquoise beads I have in a small bowl on my office desk.
I can feel my pupils constrict a tiny fraction with each strip of lightning that laces the heavens.
I think.
I think.
I think the 104 year old stone foundation of this house might crumble.
Sometimes I think my foundation might crumble, but then I remember, I have built my house upon The Rock. 

Farley has curled up around my left ankle.
His animal warmth spreads from there
and encircles my heart.
He knows he is so good for me.
4.  
Today!  The mail! 
Incredible!
I have been in a postal drought.
Today, five packages and one letter 
(and a tidy handful of crap that I promptly recycled).
My evening will look like :
and THIS — which was recommended to me by a dear friend who said Temple Grandin reminds her of me (which isn’t the first time someone has implied, or asked, if I am mildly autistic — take that as you will..as I’ve said before, I can get a bit focused on things…).

5.  
This afternoon I crafted a fertility “talisman” for
one of my dearest friends.  It was such an honor to be asked for such a thing in the first place.  When it was finished, it resonated with hope, comfort, contentment, fullness, love, grace and a dash of the divine (there’s so much divinity in conception). I realized how deeply personal it seemed to me (for her) so I did not photograph it but let me tell you, boy howdy, my fertility talismans never fail.  My friend will have a bun in the oven in no time!  If it’s a boy, I hope she names it Gino…because I like that name lately.


The End

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2011/08/05/1064/

Filed Under: New Jewelry, randomness
August 4, 2011 by
 
Honoring Remains Neckpiece 
(or in this case, exalting remains)
[sterling, 22 karat gold, chrysoprase, green quartz, Idaho mule deer antler]
It makes your face look like this when it’s hanging around your neck and over your heart.

Let me just say,
I love this piece.
I wasn’t sure of the idea while building it.
Bit by bit, it came together so beautifully, so organically…right now, it sits beside me at my office desk because I know if I let it out of my sight, it will haunt me like a gentle, long limbed ghost.  So I’m staying close.  Real close.

When I set the last stone in this piece, I took it to my friend Amy, because I had to show it to someone.
 I put it around my neck and drove across town.
As I drove, I could feel strength and light and fleetness welling up in me.
When I strung it around my friend’s neck, she felt the same way.

I view nature as:  joyful, creative, perfectly constructed, complex, intertwined, dreamed up by Light Goodness & Perfect Love, holy, beautiful, freeing, serene, quiet…

While it can be violent, snarling, biting, heaving and disastrous…this piece holds the tranquil and beautiful parts of nature.  The parts of nature that are restorative, healing, kind…

This piece is built of enduring components,
but also,
of something eternal
and hopeful.
It is stalwart.
It will not be spooked.
It stands strong and affirms lightness of being.
Mercy.
The rhythm of bare feet on a dirt path…

…and this path leads home.
__________________________________________

I’ve been wanting to tell you for some time, if you are a metalsmith and you don’t know much about cold connections you need to get a copy of Susan Lenart’s book:
Not only will you support her by claiming a copy of this book (and she is so wonderful….so wonderful in person), but you’ll have the cold connection bible in your studio and it might change your craft.
I cannot recommend it enough.  
It has taught me so much — pinned settings are the least of my learnings.  
Truly. 
_____________________________


I must add here, before this post grows old and cold, 
that one of the reasons I like working with antlers is because I believe they are hugely symbolic:
Every year, a mule deer buck grows his antlers.
Each year he sheds them, simply drops them in a sage brush on the side of a mountain after they’ve been used up and bashed to bits in the rut.  Then he grows a new set, a new, pristine set.  He carries his new rack until it is rendered useless once more and so the cycle continues.


Antlers are about shedding, decay, regeneration, growth…
which I recently talked a bit about over here.
A bone or antler or horn carries the memory of a life (and perhaps death too) the same way a sheet of sterling carries my heartbeat due to arranged molecules and impacted crystal lattice.


Likewise, on some small scale, we’re all carrying our story and the stories of others in our own bones — the vibrations of broken hearts calling out for hope.  The musical joy of a glad soul, drumming like it’s a timpani!  Whether it’s a story of light or darkness, I think all the carrying we do — the shedding [the memory of our bones], the regeneration — is a beautiful thing.
Such a beautiful thing.



https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2011/08/04/1063/

Filed Under: New Jewelry

Oeuf

July 28, 2011 by
[Sterling, pearl, Kingman turquoise, half an egg shell (located on the shore of Gray’s Lake, Idaho whilst recording the trumpeting of sandhill cranes with Lang), resin, lichen and vintage paper.]

Oh.
Well.
You know.
This little ditty came from all sorts of places.  
Some dark.  Some light.  
Which is essentially the sum of life.

The most beautiful part of this necklace is the egg shell I’ve bezel set.  It’s been back filled with resin, neon green lichen and vintage paper that says “the truth” — just for the non-heck of it — I’d love to tell you all about it but it’s locked up in the center of my chest for the moment.  


I’ve been secretly doing a few things with eggs lately.  I might show you the byproducts some day.  In the meanwhile, someone please come by for a basketful of farm fresh eggs — the ladies are laying double overtime!

Cluck cluck,
J
Filed Under: eggs, New Jewelry

Hear me. This too.

July 15, 2011 by
[sterling, ocean jasper, pearl, Methow River rock & carved turquoise]

There was a maelstrom.
When I sat down to work in the midst of that maelstrom, I felt something stronger rise up.  Something stronger than all of the whirl and heave of waters and gravity.  And then some beauty fell out and I knew I’d make it through.

I’m drinking fresh air.
I’m cleaning out my junk drawers.
I’m going to do a better job of choosing wisely.

Here’s a ring for you.
It won’t stop bullets
but it’s massively totemic.
Let it remind you to always rise up.
Rise up.
And rise up again.

Your wings may be tattered, but your heart is whole.
I promise.
Filed Under: New Jewelry, ring

Mamma made a batch of biggies:

July 14, 2011 by

Small Collections Ring:  beach pottery from Mendocino County, ocean jasper, river rock from the Methow River Valley & sterling. 

Small Collections Ring:  ocean jasper, pearl, river stone from the Methow River Valley & sterling.

Arpeggio Ring:  Kentucky agate & sterling.

Arpeggio Ring:  Imperial jasper & sterling.

Waif Ring:  Sterling & 22 karat gold. 

I’ll be listing these rings in the shop on Friday! 

Fact:  
I really miss enameling.  
For months, it’s been too hot to run my kiln in my studio.  Boy howdy.  I’m going to go berserkers when October rolls around.


::TO THE WOMEN WHO CLAIMED THESE RINGS::
Thank you.
You don’t know.
You won’t EVER know,
what your support means to me.

Filed Under: New Jewelry
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