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Moonspinner

Artisan Jewelry by Michaela Batstone

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Spring Giveaway (A Moonspinner Care-Package)

April 1, 2017 · 2 Comments

Oh friends, I am so excited about this giveaway series I am planning for this year! There will be four sprinkled over the course of the year, and will inevitably be somewhat seasonal and a little bit themed.

Giveaways are wonderful because it allows me to give back to those who support my work. I’ve done a few, mostly in collaboration with my fella and his photography work.  But when trying to decide what to feature in the giveaway, I tend to default to “what do most people seem to like?” as the qualifying question.

But this year, in an effort to connect more personally with those who have been championing me with kind words, recommendations to friends, and generous orders, this giveaway series will be made up of a few of my favorite things. Things that sustain my soul. I cherish your support, so I want to give you some things I cherish. These are the sorts of care-packages I would send a long-time pen pal if I wanted them to know me better. There will be beloved books, gemstones to place about your home, edible bits, and of course, artisan jewels and baubles to adorn yourself.

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This giveaway features:

* A selection of rings

– For you and others! There is an onyx “Shieldmaiden” talon ring (size 6), a dendritic agate ring with a rope accent (size 7), and a marquise labradorite “Fortune Teller” ring (size 8). These are a few pieces that feel definitive to my work as of late.

* The Spell of the Yukon by Robert Service

A duplicate copy of one of my favorite poetry collections, if not my favorite. (I own several editions of this book, and can’t bear to leave any on shelves in antiquarian bookstores if I see them.) This book is so intrinsically linked to my childhood, I can hear Service’s words at every stage of my life. My mother loved this collection because she spent much of her early adulthood aboard a fishing boat off the coast of Alaska. My father loved it because it spoke to his young days spent camping and hitchhiking hither and thither in the Midwestern United States. Also, there was this wonderful documentary that my father used to have us watch when we were kids called Alone in the Wilderness about a man who spent 40 years alone in Alaska. He filmed himself building his cabin by hand, carrying out daily chores, and ruminating on life. I have this memory of him sitting by lamplight quoting “The Cremation of Sam Magee” and being so pleased that I could recite much of the poem with him. This collection speaks to my soul and I ache with familiarity every time I open a copy.

* A few botanical offerings

A hemlock cone (my favorite of all the evergreen cones) and a sprig of dried gypsophila

* A few crystals and minerals

An amethyst cluster, a cracked geode, a quartz point, and a hunk of pyrite.

* A little antique amber bottle

This is likely an apothecary bottle used for pills or powders. I have an unmanageable collection of little, antique glass bottles – umbrella inks, botanical scents, Arnold’s Balsam, ague antidotes – they are just so sweet and small, but formidable in large numbers.

* A hand-rolled beeswax candle

Because is there anything more pleasing than the glow of a candle? And better yet, a hand-rolled, honeycombed beauty to light during soaks in the bath or springtime gales.

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To Enter:

Follow my Instagram account and repost the giveaway picture of the care-package contents I featured on my Instagram page. Regram it to your own account, and tag @moon.spinner and #msspring2017 in the description.

That’s it!

I like doing repost giveaways because it is such an honest way to participate in a giveaway. Those who enter are showing they are proud to support and share my work, and to those people I would give all the things! That is also why this giveaway is such a generous one.

I will draw a winner on April 8, 2017.

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These gifts are in honor of you and the support you continue to give. To have my work encouraged by so many is humbling. Truly. And I can’t wait for you to see what is in the summertime care-package giveaway!

Filed In: Gifts for You, Jewelry / Tagged: artisan, giveaway, Jewelry, metalsmith, moonspinner

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I am sorry it has been so quiet here lately. My st I am sorry it has been so quiet here lately. My studio is a flurry of blue gemstones and hammered sterling silver, I have so much to show you, but I just keep saying "I will photograph tomorrow!" and then run back to the bench to make more. I am en fuego creatively, swirling from one design to the next. I promise I will snap some photos soon!

In the meantime, Winter Oak Earrings. What do you think? Do you like them?

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✖️North Wind Collection Release: Early-Mid March in the Etsy shop✖️
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.
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