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Silence Amidst the Owls

December 11, 2020 · 1 Comment

I have been saving my precious Laura Mears porcelain owls for quite a while now, and had originally planned to revisit them sometime next year. But after much hemming and hawing, I decided to tuck away those last two prehnite designs (Tending Necklaces and Oak Rings) to be finished next time around with the Mossflower Collection. And instead decided to gather up my last creative moments of this year and spend them with these owls.

2020 has been such a year of noise. Some that was powerful and thrumming leading into great, snapping cracks in edifices designed to elevate some and oppress the rest. There was a bit of sweet, grateful noise towards those who have risked so much recently in the service of others. There was other noise that was sharp and insidious: political bluster, cruel insults, and power posturing. And if you leaned in a bit, you could also hear the steady harmony of kindness underneath all the other crashing and bellowing: the buoying of people who are struggling, the supporting art and small business.

Here at the end of this year, after months of listening and feeling and not turning away, I crave a bit of silence. Silence like a cool stream on aching feet.

Perhaps you remember, my first porcelain owl collection was created as a meditation on silence. In these owls, I look for the grace that can be found in a moment of silence in a dark, wintry forest, wherein stars are close enough to touch and owls are your brethren.

Nighttime Forest Necklaces: $375 each

These necklaces are bold and sturdy. Studded with shimmery gray moonstone, jet black onyx, sterling silver pebbles, delicate curving leaves, an alder twig cast from a real branch, and a double layer for weight and substance. And resting above it all, a porcelain owl sculpted and painted by Laura Mears Designs.

They are asymmetrical in shape, curving and undulated around the various stones and silver elements, like a cool current of night air tracing its way around a tree. On the backs of all the pendants are the imprints of tiny stars, small pieces of the night sky to press upon the heart.

And on the backs of these pendants, an inscription. A long time ago I read an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and there is a quote by him that was the original inspiration for these pieces and feels particularly relevant here at the end of 2020: “Let us be silent that we may hear the whisper of the gods.”

This was a line from an essay about friendship, and contextually it is about not sullying the pure connection between friends with unnecessary words. But I chose to consider that sentence apart, and took a simpler meaning: the divinity of silence.

Tiny Owl Rings: $250 each

These rings are such a joy to wear, I kept one for myself years ago. Whenever I wear it, I feel as I though I have a tiny familiar accompanying though the day. I love to glance down at it and feel as though I have conjured him out of the forest.

Above and below him are a icy moonstone with a flash of blue and a jet black onyx, dark like a forest dipped in midnight. And on either side of his face is a tiny branch cast from a real twig.

What sweet little fellows to wear upon the hand.

There will be a few available in the collection release in the following sizes: 6.25, 6.5, 6.75, 7, 8.25, 9.25, 10.25

Silent Owls with Grey Moonstone Bellies (Larger Size): $310 each

Perhaps my favorite design in the entire offering are these simple little owls, a few of them tiny.

Silent Owls with Grey Moonstone Bellies (Smaller Size): $245 each

Each studded with two tiny sterling silver pebbles, a faceted gray moonstone custom cut for this collection, and a double layer for weight and substance.

And resting above it all, a few different types of porcelain owl sculpted and painted by Laura Mears Designs.

On the backs of the pendants are the imprints of tiny stars, small pieces of the night sky to press upon the heart.

These pieces, particular the ones with the deep gray bellies, give me the feeling of silence I was trying to capture. The owls looks so patient and still.

They embody that silence I seek, that is both overwhelming and empty: a place for unfettered thought, a moment of beatitude. And then the smallest sound brings you back into the regular flow of being.

With the noise of this year, those moments of divine silence feel rare, but such a welcome balm. And these pieces are my attempt to capture those quiet moments.

The smaller ones are so sweet, don’t you think?

Barn Owls with White Chalcedony Drops: $335 each

And the final two designs, the full-bodied owls. These cabochons were always the hardest for me to claim during Laura’s shop updates.

Barn Owl with Onyx Drop: $360

They are the rare, full bodied version of her much loved barred owls. They are is set simply atop two layers of sterling silver. Understated to show off the detailing of the porcelain owl. Below them below them swing single gemstones, some with pearlize chalcedony, and one with a multi-faceted onyx.

And again, on the backs of the pendants are the imprints of tiny stars, pieces of a silent sky to carry with you.

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✖️Night Owl Collection Release: Sunday, December 13th at 3pm EST in the Etsy Shop✖️

Filed In: Inspiration / Tagged: forest jewelry, Jewelry, laura mears, moonspinner, owl, owl jewelry

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Recent Posts

  • Be My Valentine
  • Silence Amidst the Owls
  • The Ravens Are Flying In
  • Beren’s Shield Necklaces
  • Mossflower Collection, Pt. I (Fourth Preview)
  • Mossflower Collection, Pt. I (Third Preview)
  • Mossflower Collection, Pt. 1 (Second Preview)
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  • Just a few more owls…
  • Owls of Feather and Bronzite
  • North Wind Collection
  • A Winter Solstice Collab with Maia Toll
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  • Winter Bee Collection – Part II
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  • Honeybee Collection: Last Preview
  • Honeybee Collection: First Preview
  • Light and Citrine
  • Silence, a Beatitude
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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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