[Prairie Soul Ring::turquoise & sterling silver]

I had the most astounding weekend!  It just ended this morning.  We had friends in from Portland here at Plume Gables and life was a riot.

Katie and Sean are engaged to be married in August and the main reason for their visit (besides seeing RW and I and cuddling Penelope to the point of death-by-smothering) was for me to do a little workshop with them out in my studio.  Yesterday I spent many happy hours helping them craft their wedding bands from scratch.  I was very busy trying to prevent disaster and was not able to photograph any of the work BUT luckily, Sean is a professional photographer (he shoots people doing stuff outside for all sorts of outdoor gear companies and magazines) so he managed to record, en images, the entire experience which I will be glad to share with you in the near future.  It was so fun and SO fulfilling.  The rings and the entire experience were our wedding gifts to them and I tell you, they were very easy and happy gifts to give!

I’m settling into work today and will be banishing myself to the studio in 15 minutes.  I hope you’re all having a lovely week so far!

I’ve got to fly!

I want to tell you these things:

1.  I love LOVE love what I do.  You might think you know what I mean.  But the love I have for silversmithing is unfathomable.  It’s like God’s love for His children (even though I, as a human, am not capable of such a pure thing).  When I take a day off, all I can think of is getting back in my studio and making jewelry.  I do not leave home without at least ten cabochons and a sketch book.  I am obsessed with my work.  I love it so.  I dream of designs.  I wake in the night and sketch.  I start to twitch if I cannot work.  When RW and I drive somewhere, I bring a bag of wire, beads, pliers and other odds and ends so I can make jewelry while we drive (just ask Emily about this).

2.  I do not throw things together to make a quick buck.  I carefully plan my designs.  Each of these rings was designed, sketched, components were cut, filed, sanded, stamped and soldered together one by one.  I’m not a machine.  I have to make what’s in my heart.  Many of my designs cannot be duplicated not just because each stone is one of a kind, but because when I made them, I was feeling something particular…more than anything, I often find it difficult to transport myself back to a certain mindset or emotional state.  I can spend hours on an idea before it actually comes to fruition. 

3.  I work really hard.  I value my time.  I value the abilities of my body.

I’m proud of these rings.  Because the designs are entirely mine.  In every way.  And because I can feel my skills growing.  And because I made these pieces with love.

It’s true.  When you love what you do, it shows.

I want to tell you these things:

1.  I love LOVE love what I do.  You might think you know what I mean.  But the love I have for silversmithing is unfathomable.  It’s like God’s love for His children (even though I, as a human, am not capable of such a pure thing).  When I take a day off, all I can think of is getting back in my studio and making jewelry.  I do not leave home without at least ten cabochons and a sketch book.  I am obsessed with my work.  I love it so.  I dream of designs.  I wake in the night and sketch.  I start to twitch if I cannot work.  When RW and I drive somewhere, I bring a bag of wire, beads, pliers and other odds and ends so I can make jewelry while we drive (just ask Emily about this).

2.  I do not throw things together to make a quick buck.  I carefully plan my designs.  Each of these rings was designed, sketched, components were cut, filed, sanded, stamped and soldered together one by one.  I’m not a machine.  I have to make what’s in my heart.  Many of my designs cannot be duplicated not just because each stone is one of a kind, but because when I made them, I was feeling something particular…more than anything, I often find it difficult to transport myself back to a certain mindset or emotional state.  I can spend hours on an idea before it actually comes to fruition. 

3.  I work really hard.  I value my time.  I value the abilities of my body.

I’m proud of these rings.  Because the designs are entirely mine.  In every way.  And because I can feel my skills growing.  And because I made these pieces with love.

It’s true.  When you love what you do, it shows.

It snowed here yesterday.

I’m back.

With a creak and a moan in my cold bones.

The poppies seem to have whiskers enough to keep their greening and growing.

I on the other hand am cursing this faffity weather. 

Little Mac came home to me this afternoon with a hard drive wiped clean and a bunch of updated programs that I do not understand.  Humph.  No wonder I feel standoffish.

There’s more than the weather though.  My friend Kristen said it best when she mentioned that she was witnessing growing pains with The Noisy Plume.  I don’t know whether I should succumb to the sale of my entire soul or just keep parting it out, piece by piece, to you wonderful ladies who guard it so safely.

I’m getting too big for my britches.  What does that even mean anyway?

A teaser sneak peak of the goodness I’ll be putting in the Etsy shop tomorrow!  Plenty of mookaite, turquoise, chalcedony, fossilized coral, chrysoprase and imperial jasper…among other things.

Jeepers.

I feel a bit dorky.

I’ve been told I’m a bit dorky.

But today I’m actually feeling like a giant dorkazoid.

It snowed here yesterday.

I’m back.

With a creak and a moan in my cold bones.

The poppies seem to have whiskers enough to keep their greening and growing.

I on the other hand am cursing this faffity weather. 

Little Mac came home to me this afternoon with a hard drive wiped clean and a bunch of updated programs that I do not understand.  Humph.  No wonder I feel standoffish.

There’s more than the weather though.  My friend Kristen said it best when she mentioned that she was witnessing growing pains with The Noisy Plume.  I don’t know whether I should succumb to the sale of my entire soul or just keep parting it out, piece by piece, to you wonderful ladies who guard it so safely.

I’m getting too big for my britches.  What does that even mean anyway?

A teaser sneak peak of the goodness I’ll be putting in the Etsy shop tomorrow!  Plenty of mookaite, turquoise, chalcedony, fossilized coral, chrysoprase and imperial jasper…among other things.

Jeepers.

I feel a bit dorky.

I’ve been told I’m a bit dorky.

But today I’m actually feeling like a giant dorkazoid.