Work in progress = my entire life…not just what’s on my studio bench.
April 8, 2018 by
March 9, 2018 by
I am stocking my shop shelves at 10AM (mountain time zone) tomorrow. For a couple of weeks, I have had a sickly, wavering WIFI connection so hopefully there will be no glitches tomorrow. If my new listings fail to load, you’ll know why! Apologies in advance…in case they’re needed.
XX
Ode To The High Desert
February 22, 2018 by
The high desert is for people who don’t require immediately obvious beauty. We’re willing to wait for beauty to emerge and quietly stun us into awe and wonder. We see it in the buck rising from his bed beneath the bitter brush. We catch a glimpse of it when we see the golden eagle in the gale, sketching concentric circles with her wingtips. It comes to us in the steady, blond rattle of the bunch grass in the canyon winds. It touches us as the sage turns to pale violet in the gloaming. This piece speaks for that simple beauty, that easy solitude, that fearless and inhospitable and redemptive place I call home; the place that claims me as its own.
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Malawi agate, sleeping beauty turquoise and one other American turquoise — though I am unsure of the claim, so too is the lapidary artist who cut it. I’ve incorporated a cast jackrabbit vertebra (which I found in the sand country of New Mexico while bird hunting), fabricated sagebrush, one of my SOS nuggets, a golden eagle and a spangling of dimensional feathers. While working efficiently, I made just shy of 150 solders to build this piece — some tiny and some very large. The stones I chose to include in this piece speak to the palate of this river canyon and the agate itself looks like the sun popping up over the canyon rim. This design is burnished with intention and understanding: if you know the high desert, then you know.
I’m proud of this piece. I feel it is inspired, that the vision of it was breathed into me while I was out in the sage running, riding my horse and seeking treasures that my animal friends leave for me in life and death. Most importantly, it is true to my life and that is the greatest measurement of all when it comes to what I make:
Is it true and is the work original to me?
Yes. Yes it is.
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I am planning on making this piece available in my shop tomorrow. Before then, all inquiries are welcome if anyone is interested in purchasing it outside of Etsy. Please shoot me an email if you’d like pricing details.
thenoisyplume at gmail dot com
If it sells before tomorrow at 10am, I will post it as sold in this space.
Thank you all for claiming my more diminutive (but no less special) designs so that I can have the time, space, momentum and support to build these larger scale narrative pieces.
Thank you.
+Of The West+
:::EDIT:::
Bevy of Baubles
February 22, 2018 by
These dendritic agate rings run sizes 6-9.5 (as always, they’ll fit slightly smaller than they measure).
This batch of rings runs small, size 5.5-6.5. I have four more partly built. I hoped to have them ready for tomorrow but unexpectedly, I had to haul my horse to and from the vet yesterday and it cost me the entire day. I simply cannot get these other rings made in time for Friday morning. They will be larger sizes so hold onto your ponies! They’ll eventually make their way into my shop — your patience is appreciated.
I will be stocking my shop shelves on Friday February 23 @ exactly 10AM (MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE). Thank you all for your consideration! It’s always my joy to create for you.
XX
Ivory
February 8, 2018 by
My birthday is next week! Something I always do on my birthday, without fail, is wake up early and go out alone to catch the sunrise from a beautiful place with a thermos of tea and my journal. I watch the day begin and I think about the new year of my life as it literally dawns on me. My reason for beginning my birthday with the sunrise is simple — if everyone forgets my birthday and Robert doesn’t dream up anything special to do for me, and the day is mundane and we eat leftovers for dinner…at least I had that beautiful moment at the break of day and I have a sacred memory attached to that specific birthday of my life.
The other thing I do for my birthday every year (for the past decade) is I sit down and take the time to make myself a piece of birthday jewelry. Today I made these outrageous post earrings for myself. They have all the magical stuff — wapiti, crosses, fringe, nuggets of Castle Dome Turquoise and most sacred of all, the elk ivory I pulled from the elk I harvested this year. This is magnificent, hallowed material that I hold in high esteem and I always said when I harvested my first wapiti, I would honor that animal by making myself an adornment with its ivories.
There are only two animals in North America that have ivory — walruses and elk. Walrus ivory appears in actual tusk form while elk ivory is a tooth that is set in the upper jaw of the animal, a remnant of tusks. What I like about elk ivory is its smoothness, the swirl of caramel coloring that can occur in the chewing surface of the tooth and also, the actually energy the material holds. Elk are beautiful, yes, but they’re so much more than that. They live in utterly insane country yet they move through it and over it like it’s a city sidewalk. They are a phenomenon of the high country. On my elk hunt this year, Robert and I watched a herd take fifteen minutes to cross a section of mountain slope. When we followed them, it took us over an hour to cross the same terrain! For those of you who have watched them in National Parks or on public lands, I’m sure you’ll agree that they are awesome animals, but to hunt this animal for sustenance brings on an entirely new appreciation for the species and plants the seeds of obsession in a person.
This is all to say, I’m so happy I took the time to make these eccentric little earrings today. A friend of mine once said, “If it’s in my heart to celebrate, I’m going to celebrate.” Those words stayed with me and I practice them as often as possible.