I’m stocking my shop shelves on July 10 @ 6pm (mountain time zone).  I hope to see you there!

+Of The West+

I think I began using crosses in my work about three and a half or four years ago.  These are not plus signs or x’s.  These are crosses.  They are employed in my designs with intention.  I am drawn to the shape for many reasons and I like my crosses to look a little rugged, imperfect, or to be placed on a surface that is organic (like my SOS nuggets) so that they look like something that is the process of being refined.  Moreover, the cross is a symbol of my faith and every time I place a cross on a piece of jewelry it represents, for me, the Holy, the Divine — Christ in me — me, the untidy work in progress.

It’s my way of giving thanks to God for breathing inspiration into me, for revealing the loveliness of the world to me, so my work can continue, so that I can move forward in my life, in my healing and growth, so I can help translate the beauty of this world for myself and others.  And the beauty of our world exists in everything — in joy and sadness,  in life and death, in suffering, in victory, in survival, in redemption, in freedom — everything I experience when I am out on the land that feeds me and stretches me and nurtures my spirit.

I want my work to be a reflection of the creativity I see all around me when I am outside, the perfection and beauty and dynamic nature of the ecosystems my life is so closely stitched to.  I think all creative work has its roots in the Spirit of God (in the invisible that makes itself visible from time to time) which is all around us, all the time, even when we are numb to it or in the process of rejecting it or denying it.  Even when we feel it has left us, when we feel alone in the heart of the darkest nights of our lives, it is there.  Faithfully.  It is there.

I place tiny sterling crosses on my work because I always want to acknowledge the hand of God in my life, the way I am being changed and molded and reformed like clay, the way the work of my hands shifts and grows as my own heart experiences shifts and growths.  The way I am raised up, time and time again, as the old versions of myself die away and the new versions of myself hatch into being.

I use the symbol of the cross in my work because I need something to tether my life to or none of this holds meaning.  But also, because I think I do believe.

Each cross I saw out is thanksgiving, every cross I stamp with steel into sterling silver is a dedicated prayer, every turquoise cross I employ is the very hue of hope and peace!  When you wear these pieces that bear this symbol, you carry with you my greatest efforts to love, to live — my joy, my sadness, my failure, my redemption, my honesty, my hope, my faith and the pure goodness of grace.  

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I was unaware of the fact that this medium would, in good time, over the distance of a decade, refine the essence of who I am. For every time I have run a hot and tidy flame over metal, an invisible flame has feathered the edges of my self so that now I can finally see true beauty emerging on the brightly burnished bends of my soul. I work for you. I aim to serve you. Somewhere along the way it made me a better person than who I used to be. I owe you all my gratitude, all my thanks, all my love. Your support is making me who I am, who I am called to be.

Thank you.

+Of The West+