The Life and Times of the Plume — Page 243

Mondo Egg

August 7, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

No wonder Rhonda was freaking out this morning.

Regardez les oeufs:

Good thing I don’t have a rooster around here to fertilize these things….I’m sure a fire breathing, earth scourging, baby hippopotamus would have hatched out of this egg! Oof. Poor Rhonda.

And now, I eat les oeufs.

Bon appetit!!!

Filed Under: chickens

The Rumors Are True:

August 6, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

…there’s a new one.

:::::sterling, copper, enamel, pearl, aquamarine, coral, silk:::::

You can see the rest HERE.

Filed Under: rumors of the sea

Speaking Camera Like You’d Speak French

August 6, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Some of you, the Europeans for certain, speak a handful of languages. I know you’ll agree with me when I say the following: You know you’re getting a good grip on a language when you start thinking in that language.

The first time I travelled to France (I’ve been thrice) I was on an exchange and I stayed with a lovely family in the Tours region. My French was mauvais, compared to some, but by the end of my stay I found that I was starting to think in the language thanks to the effect of language immersion on my mind and tongue.

In the same way, I’ve noticed lately that I’m starting to see the world in frames. I’m starting to think in camera! Can you believe it? My brief history with photography began in high school where I took 8 semesters, back to back, of graphic arts — including photography theory, as well as film and image developing. I loved it. It’s like the scent of developing chemicals was a perfume and I was drawn in like a luna month heady with the effect of pheromones. I continued taking photos up until this very day but it’s not until recently that I have starting seeing the world as a jumble of chopped up images waiting to be captured like butterflies in a net. It’s quite a thrill.

Anyway, it got me to pondering about other languages we can speak besides French or Camera. What’s your language (besides the one you speak) and how is it affecting your life?

What do you speak and how does it affect the view of your environments?

I’ll tell you how speaking Camera is further affecting my life, I’ve got a sore shoulder all the time from carrying my rig all over the place…it must weigh four pounds….(???) Things are getting crazy. I rarely leave home without my gun and usually take a minimum of 100 photos a day. That’s a bit obsessive, but I know I’ll regret it if I miss even one opportunity to make an image.

In other news,

Winona says, “What’s up?”

It’s Friday here. I can feel it in the air. Everyone is charging up for the weekend. The sky seems thick with storms. Last night, while at a barbecue, a glorious thunder bumper rolled into the valley and the air was crackling with green light and rainbows and when golden hour struck, I nearly fell right out of my cowboy boots. I thought I’d go blind from the pool of beauty I was sitting in but I’m still seeing the world frame by frame today. Thank goodness.

I was going to try to do a shop update this afternoon but I’m feeling too hurried so I’m postponing it until Monday, August 9.

In the meanwhile, please try to behave yourselves.

Filed Under: camera, chickens, photography

I Step Through

August 5, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Yesterday I drove to Utah.

I don’t know why I went, except sometimes the flickering highway lines open doors and I hoped to have a few doors opened, a few thresholds crossed, a few new rooms with views unfolding before me.

While on the road, with my windows down and the breeze expertly running fingers through my hair, I have a feeling of space. The rain falls against the windshield and the dust is washed away.

Suddenly, I slide into new places and my life is filled with motion.

The cloudy waters clear.

The old falls away behind me.

The light on the other side is fresh and new.

I step through.

I close the door behind me with a soft click.

What did I do in the city? Well city things of course! I have lovely friends I could have shared coffee with, along the way, and in Salt Lake City proper too, I could have met with friends, but I wanted to spend the day alone (right….like I don’t do enough of that already….) blending into the crowds, feeling like as much of a stranger as the person next to me waiting for a walk light. I wanted to sit down with a latte and sketch, loiter in Barnes & Nobel in the art book section, take my sweet time in the change room at Anthropologie. I wanted to selfishly choose the restaurant for dinner. I wanted to lean against my truck, while filling the tank at a gas station, and watch the lightening crackling over the Wasatch Range. I wanted to linger in every place I visited. I wanted to talk to myself as I drove. I wanted to sing, test new harmonies against Karin’s soaring and swooping voice. I wanted to find some motivation in that long stretch of highway between here and there. And on the way home, I wanted to feel my heart soar when I crossed the border into Idaho. Home again. What a relief.

This morning the world has a little more sparkle than it did yesterday,

and not just because I have a new sweater.

My stargazer lilies are starting to open!

The possibilities of everything feel wild and untethered.

There’s banjo playing on the stereo.

The breeze seems cooler than usual for this time of day.

I suppose this is all to say,

the door opened up,

I stepped through,

I brought you with me,

and it’s going to be great.

Filed Under: driving, utah

The White Buffalo Et Al

August 2, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Two pairs of bigtastic earrings for a momma with a big and bright shining soul!

These are a set of Dying Full of Jangles Earrings and are built of sterling and pea green glass beads. There’s a lot of music to be heard with this set. I used a lighter gauge of sterling to form the sterling body of these babies so their lighter than one would expect but they do necessitate a set of stalwart lobes.

Claim them and rock them.

Hard.

A sweet baby darlin’ set of Dying Full of Jangles Earrings built, again, of sterling & pea green glass beads. These are smaller in stature than the big ladies featured above but they’re of the same soul. Made for a broad with big spirit.

A Glitz Ring built of sterling and a gorgeously teal hued slice of druzy agate. Gosh. I really loaded this one up. It has my usual anticlastically raised leaves as well as all the other bells and whistles BUT it also features one of my sterling bones as well as a three dimensional butterfly perched on one of the textured leaves. So sweet. So powerful. This ring is for any day of the week though not for shy women…any time I wear my Glitz Ring out and about I’m constantly accosted and it’s my great pleasure to claim it as my design and work when a gal (or guy) asks after where it came from. Be prepared. This one is an attention getter.

A new Idaho Ring. This darling knuckle buster features a gorgeous cut of Prudent Man Agate — one of my favorite Idaho sourced rocks to work with. I’ve set it simply but the setting is loaded with texture and the band is of the tapered persuasion. Yum.

Oy vey. This stone. This is a ring that features a beautiful cut of Madagascar dendritic agate. The dendrites in this cut look just like the drip technique some oil painters use in their work. It’s a modern setting. A simple setting. But it’s loaded with texture. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this ring. It feels magical on — if you believe in that sort of thing….if you’re an oil painter, this ring is MEANT FOR YOU.

I promise.

Holy crap. Against my better judgement, I fired up my kiln out in the studio yesterday….I don’t do that very often in the summer time since it raises the temperature of my studio space up to about 114F. At one point I was wire wrapping a bead while sitting at my window bench and positively soaking with sweat, but all that sweat was worth it when I finished up THE WHITE BUFFALO!!!!!! I had a vision and I managed to bring it to fruition yesterday. This white buffalo features a bison silhouette that has been enameled white and fired multiple times to the point of perfection. I’ve prong set it on a sterling baseplate from which a wrapped sterling pendant drops down and terminates at a single, luminous pearl. OH FOR PETE’S SAKE. It’s beautiful. This piece is pure magic. Magic magic magic. It feels incredible on. It has a beautiful weight. It represents the spirit of the Great Northern Plains and is so totemic that my hands blister when I hold it (figuratively).

Today is also the debut for this pretty baby.

I blogged about it over HERE if you need a refresher on the details surrounding

this belt and buckle!

And in case you’re wondering how I spent Saturday,

here’s the other buckle I finished this weekend. I haven’t started the belt for it yet but it should make its way into the shop sometime this week.

Whew!

That’s all she wrote!

Sorry this preview has taken so long to post today! I had an out of town friend drop in before noon and I adhered to my notion that maintaining human relationships is more important that the business side of life, on most occasions.

I’ll be heading over to the Etsy Shop in a jiffy to get this update rolling!

See you there!

And thank you for your consideration of any of these pieces.

You rock the flock.

PLUME

Filed Under: New Jewelry