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

Just One From the Herd

July 1, 2010 by
Tatonka.
American Bison.
I love them.
You should see my wide open heart when I travel to Jackson and watch them mill about at the base of the Tetons.  I love this animal, this beast, this hunk of woolly flesh.  I was born in Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada when my parents were stationed there.  My father worked with wood bison and we even had an orphaned bison calf named Georgina who lived in our yard for a stint.  I consider this animal to be one of my totems (my older sister does as well).  I’m amazed by their size which is proportionate to the legends that surround them.  They practically became a mythical beast and were brought back, slowly, from the brink of extinction and are now raised behind bars, for the most part, in North America. I think they represent the vastness of the great plains as well as the majesty of the boreal forests of Northern Canada.  They’re a symbol of the wild West (and it’s still wild, to a certain degree).  A symbol of final frontiers.  They were killed by the thousands by the native tribes of North America as well as the white man for their meat, bones, hide and horns.  They’re victims of poor stewardship by men of every color and they used to kill themselves by the hundreds while crossing riverbeds. 
Their story, their natural history, is colorful and complex. 
Their hooves make thunder.
Their breath is wind.

I refer to the buffalo constantly in my every day speech.
I say things like, “thick as a bison hide” and “Robbie, quit acting like a wild buffalo…”
There’s something about this animal that belongs to me, some unspoken understanding.  
And while I’m small I be mighty.  
And while they be mighty, they be small.

I craft them out of sterling, fairly often.  I cut, with my jewelers saw, their careful shape.  Humped, bearded, with that skanky little tail rising of of sturdy haunches.  I set them with amethyst in their hearts, or pearls.  They remind me to stay wild and run free.  No matter how many other sterling ideas I come up with, I always return to the bison.  I can’t help it.  They call to me.  

This ring is meant for a woman who feels the same way about buffalo.  If it’s one of your totems, it’s meant to be yours.  I’ve taken an concave sheet of sterling, textured it, and applied a bison form to its surface.  This fellow wears a heart of pearl and a slash of gold across his back.  The back of this ring face features more textural detail and patterning as well as one of my sterling bones.  It’s rich with soul and something bigger than that as well — perhaps ghosts.

This ring is sizable.
It’s big and wide, just like the spirit of The West.
May it go to the perfect home.

xx
PLUME


I wish we would have handled them gently from the beginning…
Image from HERE.

Filed Under: bison, ring