The Life and Times of the Plume — Page 248

One Gazillion Images

July 8, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Holy crow!

Once I started photographing the new pieces, the hours started slipping by! Here are the items that will be included in the Etsy shop update today!

The Bliss Ring

Built of sterling, resin and poppy seed pods! Delightfully pink and, you guessed it! Delightfully blissful!

Bison Rings built of sterling, gold and pearl.

These babies are small bowls of light, loaded up with texture and feature my sterling bones on the backside of the setting. Made for women with the prairies in their soul.

Two Gold Fire Rings!

These rings are beautiful, minimal, textural, and somewhat otherworldly. They’re built of sterling gold, chrysoprase and pearl. So elegant. A bowl of light for your fingertips.

Two Papillon Rings.

I cannot say enough beautiful things about this design. These are HUGE rings in terms of surface area but regardless of size, they are elegant, light, ethereal and dazzling. They’re built of sterling, gold and TWO pearls each (one is set on the backside of the ring face). They’ll make you want to sing opera.

A Cabinet of Curiosities necklace.

This one features a corvus corax specimen with a seed dropping off the bottom. Entirely hand crafted from scratch including the enameled component — fired right here in my kiln at The Gables. Ruggedly wrought of sterling, gold and glass. The toggle closure on this piece is also hand crafted and features one of my sterling bones. Love this piece. It’s kind of creepy and cheery, all at once.

Two resin and poppy pod necklaces (Sorry the leaf is flipped in the third image, I must had hiccuped at the last second!). These darlings are hefty and handcrafted from scratch. The poppy pods come from the zany poppy bed here at The Gables. Enjoy my gardens with me. Please!

A new belt buckle and please do forgive me for teasing you! I don’t quite have the belt finished yet so I’m going to have to hold onto this piece for a couple more days until I can finish up my leather work!

The bison command you to:

RUN FREE STAY WILD.

And they WILL be obeyed.

Three pairs of these earrings which are something like music for the wearing and hearing. Beautiful sterling discs loaded with detailed texture as well as my tediously hand coined edges are hosts to the mintiest green magnesite beads. LUSH. Gorgeous against a tan (though I wouldn’t know since I don’t have one of those…). This design is the perfect weight for earlobes. Not too heavy and just heavy enough.

Two pairs of these beautiful, leafy earrings. Highly textural (I’ve got a thing for texture…can you tell???) ; built of sterling and gold. These earrings are huge but I used a lighter gauge of sterling than I usually do so they’re remarkably airy and enormously organic. I love them. You should too. Not to be bossy or anything…

Lastly, a poppy jasper ring. I pulled this cabochon out of my personal stone collection. For some reason, I’ve always found this cut to be extraordinary. It doesn’t even feature the regular blossoms that poppy jasper is famous for but the color combination is a zealous one and so I hoarded it for 2.5 years before setting it yesterday.

This setting is textural (Yes. Texture obsession here. I’d go to therapy but I don’t actually think it’s a negative thing…) and simple. I’m faffing about on the topic of keeping this ring so if it doesn’t make it to the shop today it’s because I’ve claimed it or I’m still faffing about when it comes to making the decision to keep it or not.

POPPIES FOREVER.

Alright, I mentioned I have a handful of leather and stone cuffs as well but they aren’t quite ready to hit the market place yet! I hope to have them finished within the day though if listing goes smoothly.

Thank you so much for your consideration!

May every piece featured here go to an incredible woman

and a perfect home.

The shop update will commence at 3PM, Mountain Time!

I can’t wait to see you there!

Love,

The Plume

Filed Under: gosh that's a lot of rings, New Jewelry

Finger Licking Good

July 8, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

I’m just in from the studio and I am utterly exhausted, filthy, sweaty, hungry and exhausted.

Did I mention I’m exhausted?

I love that feeling. It’s the aftermath of hard, honest work.

I’m going to take a tasty snack of MORE crackers and cheese into my system and then head out for a run in the hills before I tuck myself in for the evening.

For your consideration, I have finished:

9 rings

5 pairs of earrings

3 necklaces

1 belt buckle (though the leather portion of this may not be ready by tomorrow)

2 cuffs

I plan to update the Etsy shop tomorrow after I finish up a couple of leather details as well as photograph and prepare my descriptions for my new pieces. I’ll be doing a proper preview here on the bloggie-pie…I’m so excited to share with you. I’ve been working on this batch for a few days now and it was so lovely to see everything come to fruition this afternoon and evening.

Sometimes I can’t believe what I fit into a day.

It can be rather astounding.

Did I tell you I also made it to the salon this morning. I love a fresh trim. I dearly do.

Sending you peacock feathers, sunbeams and gluten free crackers (so finger licking good),

The Plume

Filed Under: New Jewelry

The Bliss Project

July 6, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Good Tuesday to you all!

It’s a beautiful morning here.

I had a bit of a sleep in because I wound up on the phone with my smokejumper around 2AM this morning. The conversation started like this:

RING RING

J: ROBBIE?!!!

R: Hey babe! I love you. I’m just leaving the Albertson’s in Fairbanks and my hands are full of chicken but I wanted to catch you just in case I’m out again tomorrow. Can I call you again in a few minutes.

J: YESssssSSSSsSSSSSssssSSSSSS!!!!!

_____________________________________________________

I haven’t talked to RW for a really long time. My heart about jumped out of my chest when I heard his smiling voice. And if you know RW, you know his voice DOES smile.

So then he called again and we talked for an hour or so and I was exhausted and I had to whisper because my house guests were slumbering in a nearby room but it was so lovely to finally talk to him. He made me laugh. He made me feel lucky to live in Idaho.

He made me feel proud of him, of me, of us.

And I knew, and I do still, that we’ll make it.

And then, when we finally hit the off buttons on our phones, I tossed and turned and thought about jewelry for a while. I always know I’m coming into some really good work when I can’t sleep at night for the flood of design ideas that are flying through my mind. It’s a double edged sword. I’m always so afraid that if I don’t turn on the light and sketch and write about my dreamy-in-the-middle-of-the-bewitching-hours-ideas that I’ll lose them forever. Last night I was so tired I had to lay there in the dark and trace the details of the ideas with my mind, hoping they would imprint and stay with me until the morning. Sometimes I DO find that the ideas are lost when morning comes but I reckon, as long as I don’t lose my head, they’ll surface again sometime, since they belong to my mind and soul.

Since they belong to MY MIND AND SOUL.

Talking to RW really energized me. I’ve been missing him like something else. I can’t help but feel like that missingness is permeating everything I say and do. Sometimes it makes me get in my truck in the middle of the afternoon so I can get on the highway and drive with the windows down and the breeze in my hair with the music on loud. Just to fly. For a second. To let the missingness zoom out behind me like a cape while I chase that yellow line towards the horizon.

No one makes me laugh until I cry quite like him.

In other news, I’ve embarked on a bit of a project here.

One of my dearest friends asked me if I had made something for myself lately. I realized I hadn’t. I have kept things for myself lately but I haven’t taken a moment to design and create something especially for ME. It’s so good for an artist to do this from time to time. It’s so good for the soul to intentionally design, create and keep a piece of work.

So I started this project.

It’s The Bliss Project.

It looks like this:

I made this piece for myself.

It wears most phantasmagorically

I encased a couple of poppy seed tops in green resin. From the base of this focal pendant drops a bezel set and pinned section of aspen branch that I harvested HERE. I encased it in resin as well and attached a sterling branch that swings down from the bezel cup to a pendulous sterling leaf. I know what the entirety of the design means to me. What do you think of when you see it? How do you define bliss? Pure joy. Pure delight. A cat laying in the sun. Standing hip deep in wildflowers. However you define it, I always reckon bliss is addicting. Bliss is a natural high. Rapture. The calm awareness of The Divine in a sweet and perfectly beautiful moment…like Annie Dillard’s tree of lights.

Working with resin has been a delight. I’m always looking for ways to completely and entirely create a piece of jewelry from literal scratch. In point of fact, I love that enamel has allowed me to say, “This piece is 100% handcrafted. Zero prefabricated components build it. I dreamed it and I built it from the ground up with raw materials…” How awesome is that? Anyway, resin is one more way for me create jewelry that is entirely made by me. The very thought makes my mind fly. There’s so much exploring to do with this medium. I’m beside myself with dreams. My mind has wings. My heart drums. Just because of the possibility of it all.

I’m off to get a coffee and perhaps I’ll blaze a little trail on the highway before coming home to settle into work today. I’ve a pile of beautiful things here that I’m waiting to list later on this week. I’m so focused on studio work right now that I can’t make myself set aside a day to photograph and list these pieces until I have a few designs out of my system. Mark my words, beauty abounds here and I’ll make it available soon.

I hope you’ve all had a lovely lovely week so far! I’ve been so busy with company, I’ve hardly had time for life! I’ve really missed you all. I was telling RW last night that I’m so glad I’ve always viewed this blog space as a community instead of a marketing tool (while it does market my work, that’s not the main reason why I’m so dedicated to the upkeep of this space).
I want you to visit this space and feel joy, see beauty and feel amazed by life!

You really do continue to lift me up this summer.
And I appreciate you ALL so much.

Thank you so much for being part of my world.

Your souls really do ring with beauty.

Always.

The Plume

Filed Under: bliss, New Jewelry, smokejumping, whatever it is i like to do it first

With The Lupins

July 5, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

To my American friends:

Happy Independence Day!

I hope your view was just as grand!

PLUME

Filed Under: idaho, independence day, lupins, sunset, wildflowers

How does your garden grow?

July 2, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

I try to sleep in a bit this morning but can hear Rhonda, around 6AM, cackling like a banshee. I stay deep under the covers for a moment before I realize that she could very well be laying an egg so I run out there, into the quiet cascade of yawning blue morning light, to check on the ladies. They look stir crazy so I put the sprinkler on in the garden and open the ark so they can have a good range about the yard without eating the last of my radish patch.

I am tempted to get back into bed but the hoop of dawn and the promises of morning are so wide and thick that I cannot help but grab my camera instead and take you on a garden tour.

Things are growing here.

The early summer rains seem to be finished; the flowers, vines and vegetables are bolting for the sky. It’s a small space that I tend, compared to the ranch I hope to have one day, but it’s impressive when it peaks.

We planted twelve new roses in the rose garden this year after removing some diseased plants from the patch. They’re coming on now in hues that please the chromaphile in me. White, yellow, neon salmon, hot pink, blue…

I tuck into a new book. Well it’s sort of a book. Kind of. It’s perfect for mornings like these when the whole wide world is a distraction and I can only take a page at a time.

I pull weeds. I take my coffee so slow that it goes cold in the cup and simmers softly like a spinning bowl of silk under the sun.

Winona and Judith clean up the raspberry patch, near the back gate, near that secret and magical door RW installed in this section of fence. The compost is on the other side and I see that darn weenie dog from down the street is in there eating my future dirt. Darn him. Darn that fat little dog with an appetite for moldy avocado skins and mango pits.

The ladies see him too. I command them to go peck him on his bottom until he runs away, but they ignore me; they ignore the queen of the chickens and go back to their bugs and weeds. Good work ladies! Get all the earwigs please!

I check on the grapes, all 6 or 7 of them — the concords and the whites. They reach for me as I stroll by and I carefully tuck their arms and legs back into the fence. It’s like there are too many kids in the bed and the jumble of limbs look like spaghetti in a colander. The wind will blow them free again this afternoon and tomorrow morning I’ll tuck them back into place. I love those grapes. The fruit is young and tiny now, the clusters look like dainty deposits of minute, curled and sleeping babies.

I love tending my gardens.

I really do.

Especially this early in the morning when my feet are bathed by the dew in the grass and the neighborhood is still quiet and sleepy.

How does your garden grow?

Please, do tell!

Happy Friday to you all.

Wind yourselves down for the weekend.

Roll up your pant legs and step into a spring creek for a stint.

Lay on your backs and watch the clouds roll by.

It’s summer.

PLUME

Post Script:

While we’re talking about summer and magic….watch this (thanks Dorothy):

Filed Under: chickens, garden, plume gables, summer