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Artisan Jewelry by Michaela Batstone

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Mossflower Collection: Fifth Preview

June 3, 2018 · 1 Comment

And here it is, my friends! The final Mossflower Collection preview. I have been coaxing this collection into shape for about a month and a half now, and it is wonderful to see the pieces all together. Like a little garden that I am able to enjoy at my leisure.

One of the threads that I have trailed throughout this this series (in addition to leaf print and prehnite green) is movement. Many of the earrings and necklaces incorporate movement into the design. Some have a lilting sway like a willow bent over a pool, and others have the stiff, structured movement of oak leaves on a gnarled branch fluttering in the wind.

While trying to figure out how to incorporate movement into a set of rings, I filled two or three pages of my sketchbook with fanciful design ideas, but finally settled on this set of simple prehnite rings with a couple of leaves dangling below. The gentlest flutter of leaves throughout the day.

And of course, I needed to make tassle necklaces to pair with the tassle earrings I shared before. I found the most beautiful prehnite nugget beads with thorny rutiles shooting throughout and an irregular faceting, and I knew they would make perfect, weighty tassle necklaces. Below the prehnite is a swath of chain with tiny leaves built in. There are four, and they come on adjustable chains in order to accommodate whatever outfit you wear.

And with so many requests for these wide band rings with a botanical motif up the side, I knew I had to make a few more. So there will be six of these total in various sizes in the shop update!

I am so pleased to finally be able to share these earrings with you! For this collection, I turned my hand to designing a pair of ear jackets. They are simple prehnite studs with loose leaves meant to be set behind the ear lobe. When I put them on and took them for a test run, I felt as though I had become part tree and had begun sprouting leaves in my hair and behind my ears. I love these so!

 

I also made four comparatively simple rings. I chose four beautiful, high domed prehnite gemstones, set them in a leaf printed serrated bezel, atop a double half-round band. These rings are simple and unassuming.

   And of course, one more handful of dangle earrings. These are lovely double-layered, sterling silver leaves with single multi-faceted prehnite briolettes suspended below. The softness of these gemstones are truly lovely.

What I love most about these earrings, and really any piece that incorporates this leaf print, is how individual each impression is. Since I use real leaves for my impressions, the veining changes over the surface. You can see where little bugs had nibbled parts of the leaves and left holes. Removing the oxidization to reveal the pattern is perhaps my favorite aspect of the creation of the Mossflower pieces.

And last, but in no way least, the Glade Ring.

Usually for saddle rings, I like to have a very thick shank for heft and weight. However for these, I wanted them to feel delicate, like a second skin even with the stone. While sketching these out, I thought of a game I used to play with my sister, where we would wrap beach rose leaves around our fingers like rings, and we would pretend we were ladies of the forest. For these, I wanted to make rings that felt similar to that, light like a leaf wrapped around the finger. And so I used a lighter gauge of sterling silver and made them with one layer rather than two.

For the stones, I went through my prehnite collection and chose the softest gemstones with unique colors and feathery inclusions. I wanted them to feel fresh and new, like a new leaf unfurling. On either sides of the stones are little leaves, splayed open to catch the sun. I wanted the ring to look organic and natural, so I created a dotted pattern around the band to look as though it has been nibbled by little insects.

I made these in a range of sizes up to US 10.5, and a few of them are in petite sizes (US 4-6) for all you ladies who requested it! Many of my other rings are towards the larger end of the size range, but 8-year old me would be aghast if I had not made a few Glade Rings for slender hands.

(Though 8-year old me would have also snapped up that roundish one at the bottom of the stack and requested to be called Nimue for the rest of my life.)

And so here we are! I have shown you everything that will be included in Sunday night’s shop update. I hope something spoke to you.

This collection has been a joy to create, and watching it evolve has been the highlight of my spring. Many hours (we conservatively calculated in the 200’s!) were put into this offering and my hands are a bit worse for the wear, but being able to do this artistic work has been an ever-renewing blessing. Many of you have been with me for a few years, and the continued support I find is staggering and I am eternally grateful for you.

And if you are new here, I hope you stick around for a long time, because I have so much to show you!

All pieces in the Mossflower Collection will be in the Etsy shop on Sunday, June 3rd at 7:00 p.m. EST.

See you there, my ferns!

Filed In: Jewelry / Tagged: art, artisan, artist, artists, creative process, forest, inspiration, Jewelry, metalsmith, metalsmithing, moonspinner, mossflower, naturalist, prehnite, spring jewelry, springtime

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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)
  • Mossflower Collection, Pt. I (First Preview)
  • Just a few more owls…
  • Owls of Feather and Bronzite
  • North Wind Collection
  • A Winter Solstice Collab with Maia Toll
  • November is for Ravens
  • Winter Bee Collection – Part II
  • Winter Bee Collection – Part I
  • Nocturne Collection
  • Honeybee Collection: Last Preview
  • Honeybee Collection: First Preview
  • Light and Citrine
  • Silence, a Beatitude
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  • Mossflower Collection: Fourth Preview

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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.
————————————

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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