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Archives for September 2017

Song of the Lark Collection

September 22, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Oh friends, long have I waited to make this collection. Turquoise is precious to me. It is come by surprisingly rarely in acquisition quests. And when I do purchase turquoise, it is one piece at a time. Choosing the colors and shapes that strike the heart individually.

But last month, I decided to pull out my drawer of turquoise and create an entire collection around it. Because for what reason have I been curating and amassing, if not to turn them into pieces of jewelry to adorn the hands, wrists, ears, and necks of you lovelies?

And so for several weeks, I have been striking the torch and swinging hammers with generosity in my hands. I used every last piece of turquoise I had tucked away in that warm corner of my studio, and turned them into nearly fifty new pieces for the shop.

The best part of writing here, is being able to tell you about the genesis of each collection. Describe how aesthetics and ideas patiently waited in the corners for me to notice them, tapping their feet to the rhythm of my studio music until I find the time to walk up and introduce myself. Some ideas are shy and require some time to get acquainted. Others clamor around the periphery until called by name and hurriedly transferred to the sketchbook.

This collection was like the former. It began with an afternoon in the arboretum with the fella. He was tromping around in the field with his butterfly net and I was sitting under an alder with Crime and Punishment.

(It took me three years to finish that book because I found it needed to be read on hot summer days only. I started it in wintertime and it took several weeks of anxious dreams and sleepless nights before realizing that the darkness of Dostoyevsky needed to be tempered with the shimmering heat of August.)

It was on this day in the arboretum when I decided I would make a turquoise collection. I was watching the fella wade through the sun-drenched timothy grass and milkweed and thought of the hands that shaped this particular land. Considered the walnut trees planted in a quaint row, the sloping field allowed to grow long for the butterflies and insects, the stone wall following a tiny, trickling creek.

While pushing through the long stalks of burnt grass to join the fella, hearing the cicadas hum in the noon-heat, I thought of those people of the land, particularly the women. All the generations of work-hardened women rising and setting with the sun, pushing and shaping the land alongside their brethren.

After letting these thoughts and aesthetics gesticulate in my mind for a few weeks, it was then that I again stumbled upon a long-forgotten poem by Willa Cather called Prairie Spring:

Evening and the flat land,
Rich and sombre and always silent;
The miles of fresh-plowed soil,
Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness;
The growing wheat, the growing weeds,
The toiling horses, the tired men;
The long empty roads,
Sullen fires of sunset, fading,
The eternal, unresponsive sky.
Against all this, Youth,
Flaming like the wild roses,
Singing like the larks over the plowed fields,
Flashing like a star out of the twilight;
Youth with its insupportable sweetness,
Its fierce necessity,
Its sharp desire,
Singing and singing,
Out of the lips of silence,
Out of the earthy dusk.

With that rediscovery of a poem this collection crystallized.  I do not know what kind of ornamentation those hands would have had, perhaps it would have been too impractical or considered frivolous. But I like to imagine it would have been turquoise. Saturated teals, blues, and greens against deeply tanned hands and arms. Turquoise, dug out of that same earth from which these people gleaned homes and sustenance, worn by the women who had conquered that very land.

And so I created a collection of turquoise pieces for those “larks over the plowed fields” and those young women “flaming like wild roses” amidst the hardship of rural life. I laid out each of my turquoise stones, taking note of which mines they were from, turning them over in my hands and asking each one what they were meant to be.

A side-note on the pieces above:
The stones in these necklaces belonged to a mid-western turquoise gemcutter who was unable to finish cutting these stones into cabochons before he passed away. The stones made their way to me, and now his last work is immortalized in these pendants in their unfinished state. Freeform and beautiful, like little pools of turquoise. The pendants have been oxidized and then polished to give it a dark sheen, like rain darkened stone.

When putting the aesthetic onto paper for this collection, I found barn swallows dipping and gliding at dusk. Horses reveling in the speed and power in their own legs. Mid-summer leaves listless in the heat.

And so with the bite of my jewelers saw and the hot quench of submerged metal, this collection, named  The Song of the Lark Collection. There will be bracelets meant for digging into flower beds to retrieve faithful bulbs and reaching through the brambles to get at the last of the summer berries. Rings that will sit securely on fingers, meant for resting hands on velvety muzzles and closing barn doors in the evening. Earrings to sway amongst wind-tousled braids. And necklaces to rest against chests thumping in time with the land.

You will be able to find these pieces in the Etsy shop
on Saturday, September 23rd at 5:00 p.m. EST.

See you there, larks!

Lately:

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Listening – to a playlist of surf pop and shoe gaze music my fella put together for my birthday four or five years ago. He carefully chose each song, arranged them in just such a way for the perfect flow, and then made me a beautiful astronomy book which he spray painted with shimmering pink and blue constellations. Inside the book he hollowed out a place for the mixtape. He named the playlist “I Love You to the Horsehead Nebula and Back.” Oh my, this fella.

Watching – Stranger Things. Again. And again. And again. The new season will be arriving in about a month, and I am crossing every finger and toe that it will be fantastic. Just thinking about it makes me want to restart season one and throw myself into my Halloween collection.

Reading – Anne of Windy Poplars by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I am very slowly doling out the Anne books to myself. I read Anne of Green Gables as a little girl, and didn’t realize there was a whole series of them until I was an adult. I could have gobbled them up in one bite, but after learning of their existence, the thought of not having another Anne book on the horizon was unbearable! And so I allow myself to read another installment every five years or so.

Appreciating – friendships with like-minded people. These people who are generous of soul, constructed of the best sort of fiber, and share a warmth and vibrancy of spirit. My people.

Inspired by – gemstones, in all their spectacular colors, unusual formations, and seemingly impossible locations. Beauty born of twisting, melting, cracking, and grinding. Always inspired by stones. Always.

What has this summer

Filed In: Inspiration, Jewelry / Tagged: artisan, artists, creative process, inspiration, Jewelry, lifestyle, metalsmith, metalsmithing, moonspinner, poetry

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I am pushing through drifts of snow and snapping i I am pushing through drifts of snow and snapping ice from pine boughs, all to gather up enough winter for my North Wind Collection!

As you may remember, I decided to move the North Wind Collection (as well as the Mossflower Collection) to a biannual schedule. I love these stones, these palettes, these seasons so much that when I work with them, I want to honor them with as bounteous of offerings as I can muster. And so they take months and hundreds of hours to conjure.

Therefore, to make space in my year for all the new collection ideas I have had tucked away in my sketchbook and gemstone cabinet, I decided to make those two seasonal collections every other year, rather than annually.

All of this to say, this will be the last North Wind Collection until 2023, but it is going to be SUCH a beautiful one!

Oh! Quick little poll for you, I am feeling pulled in two different directions in my earring creation. Which do you prefer: light, lilting, dangly earrings with small stones and perhaps a fringe OR bold, drop earrings featuring slices of stone?
After asking you in a poll and in the comments of After asking you in a poll and in the comments of a recent post, it looks like you would much prefer an early March release, rather than a February one, for the North Wind Collection.

This will allow me catch a bit more winter, create more pieces, and give me a bit more time to share the stories behind these designs.

I have so so so much to share with you. If only I could tear myself away from the bench to snap some photos of everything I have finished!

I haven't settled on a date in early-mid March quite yet, I need to see how long things will take me to finish. But you will be the first to know!
The surprise collection from yesterday is all sold The surprise collection from yesterday is all sold now, but garnet will return!

I have been collecting garnet, redder hessonites particularly and some almandine, for about four years with the intention of a big collection.

I am a bit like a crow with my gemstones, I find a little handful of beautiful turquoise or agate, and I tuck it away in my gemstone cabinet.

I have another little surprise collection planned for sometime next month. What stones would you like to see in an upcoming collection? Do you have a favorite that I havent worked with yet? One you'd like to see return? I would love to know!
Edit: Sold Out (Just three left! Sizes 6, 9, and Edit: Sold Out

(Just three left! Sizes 6, 9, and 11.)

As I mentioned before, I am hoping to do semi-frequent surprise collections throughout this year to offset the fluster of my scheduled and long-anticipated collection releases. These surprise collections will allow for serendipity to carry my pieces to their intended owners.

For some of the collections, I will give a slight heads-up on the blog, since I know social media algorithms can be really problematic. I will put up a blog post announcing the date and time when the previewed collection will be released.

Other collections will be true surprises, and I will announce on social media the moment they land in my shop.
Surprise! The very first of my surprise collection Surprise! The very first of my surprise collections just landed in the Etsy shop. 

Valentine Rings. 

Sweet, romantic rings featuring natural, faceted hessonite garnets. The January birthstone, and a wonderful representation of love, I think. They range in hue from deep cherry to magenta to brick red. Set in ornate inverted heart bezels with beaded circlets to accent them, romantic and regal.

They are set atop half-round hands for comfort and fit true to size. 
The sizes available will be 6, 6.75, 6.75, 7, 7, 7.5, 8, 8, 8.5, 9, 10.5, 11.
My hands are flying over sharp sterling edges and My hands are flying over sharp sterling edges and a color palette that reflects the world outside my studio windows. I am enthralled by blue this year, and you will be able to find a lot of it in this year’s North Wind Collection. There will be the deep, crackling teal of moss kyanite, magical shimmer of moonstone, the soft liquid blues of aquamarine, and the dusky snow-squalling blues of dendritic agate. Deep winter ice and shadows on snow, all encased within stone.

(Here is a sneak peak at a new necklace design!)

I am oscillating between release times for the North Wind Release, the last week of February or the first week of March. Do you have a preference? I would love to know!
✨A call for ring sizes!✨ With my recurring co ✨A call for ring sizes!✨

With my recurring collections, most designs don’t make an appearance in every iteration. Some designs I only make once, others I revisit every now and again. A few weeks ago I asked which designs you’d like to see return from last year’s North Wind Collection. And I heard a resounding call for Winter Current Rings.

And so, I have scoured every drawer in my gemstone cabinet, and was able to gather the sweetest little bowl of teal kyanites for the rings. Nearly two hundred people raised their hands when I asked who was hoping to claim one during the release, and I am afraid I wont be able to make that many. But I will have a good offering of them! A few dozen with the sweetest, wintery gemstones.

And now, if this is a design you’re hoping to scoop up during the release, let me know in the comments below your ring size! (They fit true to size.) I want to try to have the best spread of ring sizes possible, and I will make the most requested sizes.

I hope you are weathering 2021 comfortably. Perhaps by catching snow squalls and spinning magic out of ice, all while holding a steamy mug of something warm.
❄️ Winter Oak Earrings ❄️ I made a versio ❄️ Winter Oak Earrings ❄️

I made a version of these for my very first Mossflower Collection, featuring a round shape and little prehnite gemstones. My initial vision for these were of sturdy oaks, rough in texture and bold in their size. And those earrings reflected that.

While I smith in the studio, I can look out towards the slender, leafless birches and tremendous trees beyond them, thick and sturdy. And what a thing to see a tree in winter: weathered, bare, still. To run hands along branches slick with ice, touch the coarse bark in its hibernation. But in that same moment to know that they will soon shake the ice off their arms, kick the snow off their toes, and then toss on their green, glowing mantles.

And so, these earrings are for them. The winter version of my Oak Earrings. Emulating the beauty of great, frozen trees, lovely in their roughness and glowing with winter. Earrings for walking through frozen oak glades and filling your pockets with winter.

They are sawn in a marquise shape, seemingly spilling below the ear. The surface is textured, weathered, and oxidized. And at the bottom of each earring, a beautiful kyanite. I have sawn a window behind the stone so these gemstones truly glow below the ear.

So far I have only made this pair of Winter Oak Earrings. I wanted to put out a call so I could get an idea of how many I should make. So if these earrings are calling out to you, and you think you’d like to claim a pair during the release, let me know in the comments below!
Friends! I have decided that I am going to start s Friends! I have decided that I am going to start sprinkling surprise collections throughout the year. Since the long-scheduled shop updates can be a bit hectic and frustrating, I think a few small, surprise ones will allow for serendipity.

I will let everyone know about surprise collections in posts here that will be simultaneous to when the pieces appear in the Etsy shop. Since the algorithm can be a bit of a bother for some people, I will try to put a blog post up the day before. So if you are signed up for the newsletter, you will get a collection preview and the timing of the release slightly in advance. (You can find the signup on my website.)

First surprise collection coming soon!
❄️ February Rings ❄️ The companion design ❄️ February Rings ❄️

The companion design to last year’s January Rings. They will feature shimmering white moonstones and icy aquamarines, varying in surface cut.

Some of the aquamarines are the deep blue of an arctic lake, and others the softest blue, like early morning blue skies above a winterscape. The variations of blues and the different ways in which they shimmer and glow will be so splendid to see all together.

I finished these just as the fresh snow arrived, and I was able to catch a few snow crystals and place them daintily around these gemstones. I tucked a few frosty pebbles around the stones, and set them all atop a heavy-weight half round band. I have lightly textured the surface of the bands to look like a lightly trod footpath over fresh snow.

I am in love with this design, I have been wearing the aquamarine ring all morning, tilting it into the light to look down into its crackling depths. These are truly rings made for queens of winter. Made for holding snow squalls in the palm, and reaching into frozen pools towards the deep undercurrents.  Rings for February.
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The rest of the February Rings are unfinished and waiting for bands, there will be a few dozen made for the collection. If this design is calling to you, let me know in the comments your ring size and whether you prefer shimmering white moonstone or icy aquamarine! (These rings fit a smidge snug as the bands are about 6mm wide, but I think ordering your true size is just fine.)
I am positively thrumming with excitement about my I am positively thrumming with excitement about my upcoming North Wind Collection! I only have a few designs that I will be revisiting from last year (thank you to everyone who weighed in on the polls!), which means my bench is covered in brand new sketches, prototypes, eager piles of gemstones, and tools just itching to be used.

This morning it snowed a fresh blanket, cedars dipping under the weight and the pond all but swallowed up. And it arrived just in time, because I was able to reach my hand out the window and pluck some snow crystals from the air for these February Rings I am making. Shimmering white moonstones and deep, icy aquamarines will be set beside some daintily resting snowflakes and mounds of snow.

Keep an eye out here because I am going to send out a call for ring size requests so I can know how many to make for all you snow queens and winter walkers.
Goodness it is dark these days! I am so thankful f Goodness it is dark these days! I am so thankful for the solstice, what a relief to be walking into light. I have been steadily tinkering away on a beautiful North Wind offering for you, often in near complete darkness. The shadows of winter will be tucked under all the stones, nestled around mounds of sterling snow, above drippy icicles, and around gently resting snowflakes. A winter collection infused with the longest night feels perfectly fitting, does it not?

I recently put up a few polls on the type of jewelry you are most hoping to catch in the North Wind Collection. Looks like you dear souls are looking forward to rings and earrings, of which there will be a bounty!

If you have something specific you would love to see, let me know below!

I am going to be posting photos of the first new designs soon, and I hope to hear from you so I can get an idea of how many to make of each. So keep an eye here so you can raise your hand when you see the design that makes your winter-loving heart sing. 💙❄️
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