pearls

Sterling, Pearls and Getting Pentecostal

June 30, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

I just finished this ring and I am excited to show it to you!

It’s built of sterling, 14 karat gold, chrysoprase and pearl. It’s a simple design (as in it didn’t take me HOURS to create) but it’s loaded with various textures and a quirky pearl setting. The face of this ring is concave so it catches a beautiful amount of quality light that manages to lift the texture up and out of the metal work. I’ve set a delicious little oval cut of chrysoprase off to the side with a brightly polished stream of gold on one flank. I love that little smear of gold. It warms the sterling up so beautifully. On the backside of this ring I’ve bezel set a pearl which makes for a gorgeous ivory glimpse each time you turn your hand. Clever. This piece wears gorgeously on a pointer finger so that the pearl is completely exposed when the hand is turned or upside down as in this last image. Whoever takes it home is going to knock the socks off of people every time she reaches out to shake a hand.

A note about pearls:

I love working pearls into sterling designs. I think they add a refined and classic spirit to most pieces and the contrast between an oxidized and satin finished slab of sterling and a pearl offers this kazZZZzowwa-pow-pow of glimmering and soul lifting virtuosity and ruggedness. I liken it to sitting on the back of a horse on a rocky mountainside while listening to Chopin. There’s a complexity in the pairing. A pearl is a high note! It’s perfume for the eyes. Add a smudge of gold to the picture as well and you’ll see me swooning all over the church floor like an overwhelmed Pentecostal. I get it. Sometimes the beauty in things really is too grand to stay on your feet.

While I’m currently pressing out a handful of folksy designs (think buffalo with me now and feel the thunder of their hooves)out in the studio, it was really lovely to have something moderately modern pour out of me today. Oh boy oh boy.

This morning, something fell out of my pen tip on the topic of fire and fish and Robert — it’s going to romance your socks off — so I have to take myself fishing this evening on the upper Portneuf on the backside of Pebble

just to connect with the spirit of my man

and the story of the moment I first fell in love with him so I can better write it and explore the root of the tale.

Man oh man, it’s going to make you weep.

I wonder what he’s doing right now.

I wonder if the smoke is getting in his eyes

up there on the tundra of Alaska?
Sometimes I think the reason I’m able to fly this summer is because he and I are so darn connected that I can’t help but feel the force of the wind and be lifted up each time he jumps out of a plane…

A most blessed afternoon to you all,

The Plume

Filed Under: New Jewelry, pearls

Springtime Sighing All Along The Creek

March 19, 2010 by The Noisy Plume


Some weeks are good weeks.
Some weeks are great weeks.
This was a great week.
It must be spring.

Bald eagle's back in the cottonwood tree
The old brown hills are just about bare
Springtime sighing all along the creek
Magpies ganging up everywhere...
[Ian Tyson]

I don't think I've ever appreciated daylight savings quite so much!  
The extra daylight in the late
afternoon has been a joyful shot in the arm for me.  
I'm finding the time to do everything I want to do.
Winter tends to feel like a constant crush for time and daylight.  Do you feel that way?
I'm glad for the new season, it's almost upon us, you know.  
When Saturday clicks over into Sunday
our hearts are going to perform a vernal stampede.  
The magpies will drop 
their gold and fly over to our outstretched hands as we stroll 
about commenting on how everything is 
coming up tulippy.

Even the naked lilacs will grin
in the breeze, thinking about the purple and white poofs to come.
Springtime really is sighing all along the creek.

You know, spring really is a mild mannered seductress.  
She makes you forget all about the things
that need doing -- taxes, chores, running a small business.
She makes you go climbing with Sue in the afternoons.
She makes you run four extra miles just because the sun feels so burly.
She makes you whip up pots of iced tea.
She's oblivious and makes you oblivious 
to your responsibilities.
But I say, after a long, dark winter, we're all allowed to lose 
our sensibilities for a stint.
It's only fair.
It's only balanced.

Back to the stuff.  I was highly distracted, all week long, 
but I managed to finish up a handful of projects
yesterday afternoon before I closed my studio up and took to the hills:

I made a new Saddle Ring. Well, two of them actually. One is mine, one is yours. There’s something so sweet and strong about this piece. It’s incredibly organic to the touch and to the sight. The main body of the ring is actually anticlastically raised making it beautifully tactile and very appealing to the sight. It catches the light in all the right places. Feminine details detract from the bulk of this piece — a fresh water pearl and the faint face of a poppy on the surface of the silver make this ring so delicate for the wearing. This ring is a larger size. I believe it’s around a US ring size 9.75 or 10. Perfect for a pointer finger which is where I have been wearing and loving my Saddle Ring.

A new set of Isadora Earrings for a woman who is cuckoo for teal. I haven’t anything but the very best adjectives in mind when describing these earrings. They are romantic, dark, light, a force of nature, tarnationally organic (NO. TARNATIONALLY IS NOT A REAL WORD.), musical in their movement and somewhat bold. They are quite long and the shank that the stone is connected to is beautifully bound up in sterling ribbon which is so romantic and Swan Lake and ballerinas.

I finally made a Rumors of the Sea Ring. I’ve talked at length about this series in the past so I won’t bore you here but I will make mention of the fact that this piece DOES have a freshwater pearl set inside the enameled dome. Also, all of my enameled pieces are fired multiple times and counter enameled for strength and durability. Gosh. I love this ring and this series. I may never grow tired of it.

Lastly I made a Raven Necklace. I know. You thought I made it through, free and clear of my raven obsession. Nope. Here’s another one! This beauty is built of sterling, 14 karat gold, fresh water pearl and ocean jasper. The pendant actually drops off an incredibly long, hand fabricated sterling bone that I’ve wrapped with sterling ribbon. I’ve balanced the asymmetrical nature of this piece using ocean jasper and leaf which makes for a lovely amount of independent movement within the structure of the pendant. There are so many details to this piece that I’m not sure what else to share with you. Look at the photos! I wanted this pendant to look like a specimen box, of sorts.

On the backside of the pendant is the Latin name for the common raven: CORVUS CORAX

And I’d consider this piece to be part of my Cabinet of Curiosities Series. It’s a bit creepy, a little bit dark, a little bit E.A. Poe (nevermore nevermore) and soooo unique. I really love this design. It feels great on. Musical and heavy.

I’m not sure how many of these pieces I will get listed in the Etsy shop today.

RW and I have a shocking amount of packing and shipping to do which will probably carry

over into Saturday. If you don’t see them for sale today you’ll be able to find this new work up for claiming on Monday!

I hope you are all having a beautiful, Turkishly Delightful

Friday. I want to hop in Talulah and drive up the side of a mountain

with a cup of mint tea and a book about the American Buffalo

but I’m going to work instead.

Because I kind of need to.

Love to you all!

xxxxxxxxx

THE NOISY PLUME

Filed Under: fluorite, New Jewelry, ocean jasper, pearls, raven, rumors of the sea

For Your Alabaster Bones

January 15, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

I like to pretend my bones are made of gypsum, laying stalwart and slender beneath my skin, like cattails in deep ditches alongside country roads. I imagine, when I was knit together in my mother’s womb, the hand of God carved delicate roses into my femurs, poppies on the wings of my pelvis, the profile of a horse of joy drawn carefully on my anvils, deep in my ears. Creeping up my tibias are curling and unfurling ferns and across my ribs, nasturtium; bright eyed and unfolding. It only seems right to see the alabaster bones of my body as art, created with imagination; dreamed up by divinity.

For your alabaster bones, I’ve created a necklace of organic decadence. It’s composed of sterling silver, pearls and enameled copper. The pendant is composed of a pierced and enameled cabochon, in the palest pink, that has been bezel set. Inside this bezel setting is a second bezel set pearl that peeks out through the pierced portion of the main cabochon. The pendant hangs from wire wrapped pearls that terminate at a hand crafted toggle clasp. The entire piece has been oxidized black for maximum contrast and the back of the pendant bears my maker’s mark.

Demure.

Ladylike.

The perfect accessory to your alabaster bones...

Filed Under: enamel, New Jewelry, pearls

The Light Will Pierce The Darkness

October 27, 2009 by The Noisy Plume

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.