'The little space within the heart is as great as the vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun and the moon and the stars. Fire and lightning and winds are there, and all that now is and all that is not.' -The Upanishads.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

nature ...

I have a big butterfly bush in my garden.  In the summertime, I love to sit out there and watch the monarchs balancing on the delicate purple flowers.  I am not the only one watching; birds line up on the fence opposite the bush and find the nectar satiated butterflies a sweet snack. "Nature, red in tooth and claw" right here in my own backyard.  The wings are left discarded on the ground beneath the bush, in perfect pairs. One of those wings is encased in Ice Resin, along with watch gears, sequins, and a fragment of an artemesia vulgaris root, in a bronze bezel at the heart of this necklace.






I hung an assortment of beads and amulets from the bezel: a tiny copper pinecone; a mother-of-pearl spirit bear fetish; a vintage carved bone bead on a copper chain; a honey-colored lampwork bead, a carved bone bead and a little copper charm with a spiral set in clear resin.  There's a pen knife that is functional and opens, a brass protective hand hanging from an old Nigerian raised-dot bead, and a faceted citrine. My intent was to call in air energy - inspired by the butterfly wing and the pen knife (a stand-in for an athame), but it's all about balance after all, and it felt too ungrounded to me, so I added a deer antler tip that I drilled and lightly polished to anchor the East/Air energy.  The photos really don't do the colors justice.  Maybe I'll reshoot it on a white background.  Maybe not.  It was pretty cold out there yesterday.


And another necklace of vintage bone, carnelian, lava, black garnet and copper.  Very earthy. Another shed deer antler tip.  I really am obsessed with them.  My husband made me drill them outside because he said the bedroom was smelling like a dentist's office.

And a very light, almost ethereal piece by contrast - white jade, citrine, mother-of-pearl and rhinestones, hanging from an Dutch East Indies copper coin.


One more - a piece that I made early on from a broken necklace that belonged to my grandmother. I frequently wear it but had never photographed it before.



Thursday, November 7, 2013

Back in the groove ...

My freegan (please note: that's not friggin') brother-in-law has been out clamming lately and brought home a treasure which I immediately claimed as a jewelry picture taking prop:


It's part of a whale vertebra.  Great color and interesting texture, but after I was posing it and trying to find its best angle, I realized that my hands stunk to high heavens.  I'm hoping that the fishy smell will disippate a bit after it's been sitting out on the picnic table in the sun and fresh air.  I'm also hoping that the dogs won't decide that it's a very big treat for them and get sick on it.

So here are some pairs of earrings that got photographed far away from the stinky whale vertebra.








Notice please how minimalist these last two are.  Some people think I have no self control and don't know when to stop adding dangly things.

Sometimes when I'm doing an Ice Resin pour, I do not know when to stop.  I overfilled two of those lovely rectangular bronze bezels from Susan Lenart Kazmer and couldn't figure out how to get the excess off.  I have trouble keeping my grubby little hands off the resin while it's setting (three days?  You've got to be kidding me), so I hid them from myself and by the time I saw what had happened, they were already set up and hardened.  So since I can't sell them like they are, I made them into necklaces for me.  And since they're meant only for me, I blatantly ripped off a design by the amazing Dawn Wilson-Enoch.