September 20, 2011 by

[Honoring Remains Series: sterling, 
Idaho mule deer antler prong and pink coral– lightness
of soul, breadth of spirit]
_________________________________
I ran last night.
I put huge space between the choppy waters 
of life and myself.
I ran a greater distance than I normally run.
Today I can feel it in my legs and my biceps, the pointers have been napping more than usual, I had pasta for lunch — too hungry to face the day without loading up on carbohydrates.
Last night, I passed through a scrub maple stand (already morphing red in the autumn sunshine)
and caught a glimpse of a mule deer doe and her fawn down the mountainside from me, tawny and long legged, sweeping through the sage and juniper.
Down the trail from there, I saw my cow moose and her calf again.
She was ornery.
I ignored her bluff charge and urged my legs faster.
I killed the hills.
I moved like wind.
The mountain took me on as her own 
sweet wild thing.
Living felt better than usual.
Better than good.
All I know is I don’t want to miss a single day on the mountain this season.  Every day brings new color, new atmosphere.  I want to be part of it…the living and the dying.
The growing and the shrinking.
The fade of green into fire.
The light and the dark…
but mostly the light.
Mostly the light.
_________________________________
Something must push us onward,
push us into existence,
push us into brilliant existence
even in the face of trial, persecution and ostracization
(no matter where you are or who you are, it’s there in some form).
I’m finding that thing so easily now,
it’s like second nature.

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2011/09/20/1099/

Filed Under: bless you all, honoring remains series, running, understanding unconditional love
April 12, 2010 by

1. I finished this beauty on Sunday. I started it last Thursday and forgot all about it (it was deep in the acidic depths of my pickle pot, you see). It’s so lovely. And it’s a fair representation of my creative positioning at the moment — I can feel myself rising up into a wave crest and there’s a generous pouring forth of fresh designs at the moment. It’s nearly too much to bear. I’m sleeping with my sketchbook on the bedside table for those moments in the night when an idea jerks me awake and I need to flip on the lamp so I can sketch it down, jiffily (not a real word).
2. I fell down a mountain yesterday. I do this every spring in Idaho. I go running and suffer a terrible wipe out. I’m icing my knee. Last year I couldn’t hold a hammer or bend my arm for a week after falling while trail running. I’m counting my blessings, despite the hobbling.
3. Vesper & Judith. That’s what I’ve named the girls. I had a moment of clarity, right when I woke up this morning. The springtime sun was shining in the bedroom windows and I knew exactly what to name my chicks.
Vesper = Ameraucana
Judith = Buff Orpington
These names suit them perfectly. Their personalities are beginning to emerge and we’ve noticed that Vesper is quite the sass. She loves to leap around, flap her wings like a wild thing and she’ll peck at anything that moves. Judith is quite calm and sweet in comparison and perhaps even somewhat cuddly.
4. Today I feel especially like a bird. Skinny legs. Beaky face. Pointy everything. Soft and wild feathers. If only I could sing like a meadowlark.
I hope you all had a sensational weekend! Mine was bursting with activity, peacefulness, cold mountain breezes and great food!
Open your wings wide.
The wind will do the rest.
xx
PLUME

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2010/04/12/655/

Filed Under: New Jewelry, running

My Doves

February 23, 2010 by
Good morning.
It’s such a gorgeous day here. Blue sky. White mountains. Sun streams.
Can you feel the days getting longer?
My heart strings feel like brilliant green cotyledons pushing up through
the winter darkness.
I feel alive.
Life feels transitionary.
I’m rising up on alabaster wings.
Last week felt like a miry pit of distraction and emotion. I am human, you know. I can feel affected by actions, environment, weather, a pesky itch on the right side of my plume, a soul ache.

Yesterday night, after working in the studio ALL day long, I tied on my running shoes and took to the night with Farley at my left hip. We ran nearly seven miles together, through the dark, under the spangled sash of a night sky. The air was cold and colder still with a wind chill that made me slow to blink. When I stepped inside the front door again, my words were slurred from the cold: cheeks red legs spent.

I love night running. I feel half animal. When it’s cold, I move swift and steady to survive. Farley’s toenails on stone, concrete, and crunching snow are the only things to be heard for miles. I’m not even sure what I think of when I’m night cruising, but my mind falls open and my heart feels healed over. I pray a lot. It feels like there’s a dialogue sung in retroflex fricative between the velvet sky and I. Tongue tips curled over tooth tips and released up into the air in a solid white plume of sound.

I sometimes wonder why I need to run, why I need to move like a coyote through sage. As an ectomorph, I never contemplate caloric intake, I never set out to burn fat, to elevate my heart rate. I never think of the health benefits. I run because it feels good to have the wind in my face. Running is essential. To me. I’ve been doing it long enough that a day feels unfinished if I go without it. To go without it leaves an ache in my hip sockets, a frown in my knees.

I’ve been a machine lately.
One foot after another.
Tireless.
Striving for the horizon.
My feet will carry me to spring time, and beyond.
So I let them fly.

Yesterday, work was wonderful. Truly wonderful.
I was decked out in magenta, chartreuse, dove grey with silver threads, Capezios, one humpback whale belt buckle and my Rumors Necklace. I felt lovely, I loved the work of my hands and the process therein.
Here, look:

I made you a fleet of Specimen Earrings built of copper and sterling.

There are this many of them. I’ll put them in the Etsy shop in a few minutes!

There’s a new belt buckle to behold.
It’s the Hippocampus Buckle featuring a sea horse, anticlastically double layered leaves, bubbles, a banner and a raven wing pearl.
This buckle states: Swim Gracefully (front) Upon A Current Of Peace (back).
It’s extra special because it’s my portion of a collaboration between Allison and I. I’m shipping it out to her today so she can craft a leather belt that compliments the silver work, soul and message of this piece. When she has it finished, she’ll ship it back to me, en completment, and I’ll photograph it and list it for you! We’ve been so excited about this collaboration, we donned our bikinis and discussed the project while swimming in our hotel pool in Tucson, it’s going to be a finger chilling thrill when we get to share the finished product with you!

One Keeper of the Fields Necklace.
This jackrabbit has an amethyst heart — perfect for a February girl or someone who needs hope that springtime is coming. Hang on!

Isadora Earrings built of fluorite and sterling silver. Long jangly dangles in a gorgeous ocean hue. Neck smooching gifts for your illustrious lobes.

And a whopper necklace (I’ll photograph this piece on my body sometime today so you can get a grasp of the size of this stone) built of three sterling islands, one of which features this incredible desert landscape. Yeesh. Owyhee Junction Jasper is the name of this stone and it’s the only one I have. If you’re especially fond of the desert, this one is for you. I purchased this cabochon recently while in Arizona. I held it in my hands as we drove home, through the Navajo Reservation of Arizona. I wrote as we drove, recording my thoughts about the landscape, the ravens, the reservation, Navajo culture, the red mesas and their steady rising from the desert floor…this stone has soul.

I also worked on, and partially finished a crazy necklace. The design and concept was born from the idea of a cabinet of curiosities. So far, I have the focal pendant finished which is a HUGE portrait of a wood duck in a shadowbox. and parts of the chain which will be built of my sterling bones. I know. It sounds kind of strange. It only gets stranger. I’m thinking of dangling a fabricated antler from the base of the pendant along with two bezel set druzies on the chain or attached to the portrait. Whew. You’re just going to have to see it to believe it. It really will be a curious thing.
I’m hopping over to the Etsy shop now to do a smidge of listing and then I need to run out to the studio and get to work. I hope you’re having a beautiful Tuesday. I love every day of the week for a specific and magnificent reason or two but I love Tuesday for the spelling of the word. Isn’t it a lovely combination of letters? Now say it out loud: TUESDAY….SO PRETTY.
Gros bisous,
Quillian
Filed Under: New Jewelry, running