The Sagebrush Sea!
There’s so much inspiration here, right under my nose. I never feel like I need to escape my habitat, my home.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
March 23, 2023 by
I love to offer you a floral design when springtime has the edges of the world turning green and the meadowlarks start casting their song across the steppe. Wearing flowers feels beautiful this time of year, it’s a way to rejoice in the changing of the seasons, in the shift to light and warmth and abundance.
This eye shaped pendant holds a flower at its center reminding you to see beauty everywhere you look. It’s there, we must train our eyes and hearts to seek it and find it. It’s up to us, the way we choose to view the world.
Fresh Off The Bench
March 9, 2023 by
Here are a few pieces that rolled out of my studio over the past couple of weeks. I’m holding some aside for my show at Old Salt Festival in June and the rest is headed for my shop shelves. It’s been such a joy to show up in my studio space again, to tie up all the loose ends I couldn’t get to in December, to comb through my cabochon collection and select stones for new design ideas. Just an absolute joy. I’m managing to fit in about 20 studio hours a week right now while Robbie tends to Matilda, she’s keeping us busy and she’s such a good little baby, beloved by all. Being back to work is something that has helped me to feel like myself again, so has wearing my normal clothing, riding my horses, doing chores, and walking and hiking with my little family. It’s almost mid-March and the steppe is wild with squalls and tyrannical winds which always make me feel wonderfully alive and wild and free.
I hope you can see springtime beginning to tint the edges of the world, wherever you are, even if the only sign is the lengthening daylight hours…boy howdy, are we ever grateful for every extra second of sunlight. And if you keep hens, we hope they’re back to work for the season, providing you with nutrient dense sustenance and chicken-comedy. Nothing makes me laugh as hard as watching early spring unfurl in the barnyard.
Good hunting, sister.
February 21, 2023 by
This was supposed to be the last big narrative piece to roll lout of my studio in 2022 but I ran out of steam at 41 weeks pregnant and couldn’t quite finish the job. No matter! It is the first big narrative piece to roll out of my studio in 2023 which is just as sweet.
I designed this necklace around an uncommon piece of black druzy and I wanted the design to look like a wolf leaving her den to hunt under the night sky. All my wolf designs are inspired by the backcountry basin we hunt elk in each fall where our main competition for food is the resident wolf pack.
I will be creating another necklace, a sister design to this black druzy necklace, that will feature a white druzy I found on a spur that drops off the main ridge on the North side of the basin we hunt — I call this spur ridge “Elk Agate Spur” because it’s littered with agates and druzy. When we hike up this spur to the main ridge I find myself terribly distracted by the ground beneath my feet. I’m supposed to be looking for elk sign and critters on distant slopes but I wind up watching the ground with each step looking for beautiful agates. I always find a few amazing pieces of rock to stuff in my hunting pack and bring home with me.
This necklace and the sister piece (and 50% of the jewelry I create between now and June) will be coming with me to Old Salt Festival in Montana this June where I will be presenting my work alongside a bunch of my talented friends — musicians, chefs, writers, artists, hat makers, bag designers…the list goes on and on. I invite you to purchase tickets to the festival which are available at the Old Salt Festival Website. Come join us! It’s going to be an amazing time with incredible people, you included (we hope).
Until then, good hunting.
Winding Down
December 7, 2022 by
I’m somewhat sad to see 2022 draw to a close. In the grand scheme of things, there’s no difference between being in my studio in December 2022 and being in my studio in January 2023 except for the time stamp — the work in there will still be quiet or accompanied by music or a podcast and my files will still sound raspy as they rub against precious metals and my hammers will still do their tapping and my torch will still light with a hiss-and-poof. Sure. But there’s a conclusive feeling to December as I wind work down for the year and create the final pieces of jewelry and tie up loose ends. I wish I had another month or two to dawdle in there. I can sniff the changes that are coming on the breeze and I know these last few weeks will be my last purely selfish studio days of my life (maybe…probably) and I guess I’m little pre-nostalgic for these years of my life that I’ve had to freely squander hours and hours of my days, weeks and months in my creative space. I don’t mind things changing — I think we are built to crave change. We need it for growth, mental and emotional maturation and it’s probably in the tousled aftermath of change that seeds of wisdom are planted and all of these things are worthy of anticipation. I look forward to seeing how being a mum changes my work. I’m not afraid of the changes that are coming.
My last big scheduled shop update of the year will happen on
December 8th @ 5PM MST.
I’ll probably continue to tinker in my studio between now and Christmas, mostly working on some prototyping for springtime designs and exploring a couple tools and ideas, but I need to slow down now and rest now. It’s been a huge year for us between my studio work and our farm developments and we’re relishing these long dark nights in a big way. We earned the quiet and the rest, the fires in the wood stove, the hot apple crisps after dinner, the relaxing herbal teas, the epsom salt soaks, the wool blankets, the books, the favorite movies and a little hibernation. Some nights I do nothing at all except lay beside Robbie on the sofa with my head on his chest, listening to the quiet thump of his heart and soaking up his warmth, letting all my strong little muscles relax while he reads a book…doing absolutely nothing at all.