New for spring and summer...
Sometimes something simple just fits the bill perfectly. I'm lovin' me this brushed gold double chain with one elegant olive glass cylinder with gold foil embellishment. My model Jewel-lie is rockin it.
$26 and shipping is always free!
How do you say 'ahoy' en francais?
I'm was working on some samples for a seaside gift shop in Massachusetts when my friend Susan Meyer stopped by with these delightful penwork drawings she glazed onto little china pendants. She found her inspiration from antique pieces of scrimshaw. We were so excited to combine them with my glass and this chunky new rope link chain that mirrors the nautical feel of drawings. Pretty sweet, right? Or should I say, n'est-ce pas?
Heaven sent bracelet...
John had to have a second eye surgery adding up to a grand total of 7 and a half hours of surgery in 6 days. Last weekend he was restricted to laying on his back and this weekend to his left side. Thankfully his macula was still attached. I guess if that detaches you have to lay on your stomach on a bed rigged with one of those massage table head rests. He has his 5th round of chemo on Monday.
I snapped a bunch of pictures so that I could work on my web site while I waited. I'm beginning to worry about myself because I find working on it strangely soothing. This picture of my Heaven Sent bracelet has stayed in my brain. I just love the colors. Now I need to make a necklace and earrings to finish out the collection. Otherworldly, don't you think?
Three bird night...
Put this fun piece together tonight and now am trying to decide what to name this pendant: Migration, Family of Three, or Family Tree... I think I like the elegance of Migration but it doesn't have the sentimental pull of the others. Hmmm maybe that's why I like it. Thanks for helping me decide.
$42
Spelling easy peasy, new collections, and emergency surgery...
I've had more fun changing the content of my website though I feel like I haven't gotten the house quite ready for company, but come on over!
All new couture copper and silver collections and I have even figured out how to sneak surprise pieces that aren't in the collections into the bracelets, necklaces, pendants, and earrings categories.
For my less expensive everyday line (under $50), I have uploaded a bunch of pendants with earrings to follow as I continue to add pieces to the site.
FREE SHIPPING SITE WIDE. (Oops, I hit 'caps lock.') I figure it makes shopping on my site more like coming over to my house, which is my goal. Since I am the packaging maven, the pieces will arrive in lovely boxes or pouches, so ordering gifts is easy peasy lemon squeezy (not sure how to spell 'peasy.' Actually, there is no correct spelling for 'squeezy' either.)
I had extra time to work on my site becau
se I spent the night in the hospital with John who had emergency surgery for a detached retina. It looks like he is going to have to have another 2 hour surgery on Wednesday. I guess I should get busy loading up my computer with more inventory to post.
So, the actual and virtual houses are a mess but you are welcome to browse either one. The virtual one may have glitches but no dust bunnies. The actual house has both, hence I am off to vacuum.
Lost in cyber-space...new employee, and NEW COLLECTIONS!
If you have missed me, it is because I have left the planet. I figured out the coding to my website which has led to too many ideas for improvement. Let me introduce you to Jewelie, our model. Her hourly rate is very reasonable and she never talks back, though from time to time she does cop a 'tude. I thought she might prove useful to show the length of the necklaces.
She just started working for me so I only have a few pictures of her modeling necklaces and pendants, but bright and early tomorrow we'll get right to work. (I hope she makes coffee.)
Check out my updated site! All new collections are up. More is on the way! (click on any of these photos to link to their collection. How clever am I?)
Website updates and birthday blessings...
One of my favorite things is to be commissioned for special occasions. I was so honored when a friend requested one of my pieces as her group gift. My friend Susan came over and we had a grand time creating this necklace. I love it! These are the matching earrings from me...
I've been working like a maniac updating my website and switching over to Pay pal. Hope you enjoy the new collections! More on the way...
All Saints gift shop & more thoughts on snakes...
I'm excited that my crosses and pendants (under $45) are available in Winter Park at the gift shop at All Saints Church on Lyman. I wrote little snatches of verses to let the wearers know what was on my mind when I was making the necklaces. Sometimes my thoughts are quirky (surprise) and the little tags communicate something unexpected. I especially like this piece. It's tag reads: "If your son asks you for a fish will you give him a snake?" and on the reverse side: "How much more your Heavenly Father ..." I hope the implied "He cares for you" is understood.
looking up to see the sea...
A friend loaned John a blue BMW convertible for the weekend so we took off for the beach for the day yesterday. No, that is not where I found these darling seahorses, though it may have given me the inspiration to dangle them from my chandelier.
This afternoon while I sat with John for his 4th chemo treatment I reviewed my day and I felt discouraged. I hadn't really accomplished much of anything other than shopping at Home Goods for an hour. I wanted a little table to put on my front porch next to my turquoise chair and ended up leaving with nothing. I couldn't make up my mind and I felt too tired of stuff and of spending money. (Come to think of it, leaving empty-handed is quite an accomplishment for me.)
So, while reviewing my day, I realized the highlight was hanging these bronze seahorses from my chandelier while I chatted with Natalie. When John and I got back from the cancer center, she had made us chicken parmesian with peanut butter pie for dessert. As I was enjoying the meal and the company, I looked up to see the seahorses hanging from bubbles of chain and my heart did a ever so little leap of joy. Maybe I accomplished more than I think, or maybe accomplishing a lot isn't all it's cracked up to be. For now I'm glad for another reason to look up.
New pet trending: Seahorses!
I'm so excited with these darling carved bone seahorses I imported from China. They arrived yesterday, so I immediately incorporated one into this design and wore it to the store. Even though I was just running errands, I confess I felt pretty snazzy as well as happily accompanied by an underwater friend. My dad loves to tell the story of going to the Chicago World's Fair where he was allowed to purchase a souvenir. He chose to buy a little lizard on a leash that he pinned to his shirt, his new pet riding his shoulder all the way home to Greenbay Wisconsin. My little seahorse buddy is so cute it felt like a pet, though I resisted talking to it. If I decide to carry on a seahorse conversation I need to put wear a Bluetooth earpiece so that people will think I'm on the phone.
How do you spell unconditional love?
I donated this bracelet to an auction for the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center. I was so tickled to find a kaballah charm that's Hebrew letters symbolize 'unconditional love.' Since part of the center's efforts are focused on anti-bullying it seemed the perfect addition.
BIrds on the brain...
I'm still in bronchial battle mode puffing on inhalers, downing prednisone, and posing for the Xray lady today. Even so, I've snuck in some time in the studio. I've been chilaxin', bird and butterfly watching from the chair I painted turquoise and placed on the front porch. I don't think I would be sitting in it everyday with my tea if I hadn't spray painted it turquoise one day on a whim, or I should say 'lark.' I'm in love with the look of these tweeties on the nest.
I'm trying to find time to update my website inventory. Email me if these interest you and I can post them with a shopping cart. 30 inches long, $50. Shipping is free.
Wholesale to the public this Saturday!
Since I am moving in the direction of wholesaling to local shops I figured I'd treat my customers to 50% off of all that I have in stock. Here are the details.
I've been playing with some new designs for my sterling earrings. I am guessing they will be as much fun to wear as they were to make... which is pretty darn fun. The pair below feature heishi peal chips and a pink pearl making a little blossom on top. I think the colors are dreamy.
and these dangles are a party in and of themselves...
Ash Wednesday: snakes, crucifixes, and the eyes of Love...
My friend, artist Susan Meyer, came by yesterday with some lovely porcelain crosses she hand-paints. In brainstorming how to hang them, we came up with this chain. We love the look of the descending dove hanging over Jesus' shoulder. I kept the one pictured to the right since it accidentally blurred a bit in the process, lending a kind of mystical shroud element to the design. Susan gets her inspiration for the penwork drawings from ancient icons.
I've been thinking a lot about Jesus on the cross lately. Up until recently, I recoiled at the sight, maybe a harkening back to my Lutheran upbringing. Lutherans don't have Jesus on the cross since He is risen. As for me, it hurts my heart to see anyone that exposed and vulnerable, which I suppose is the point.
This week a dead snake on our sidewalk both repulsed and attracted me. It was grotesque yet beautiful, not unlike a crucifix. In the book of John, just before the famous 3:16 verse there is an odd reference that used to give me the creeps. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." The story John is referring to comes from the Old Testament. After being rescued from Egypt, God's people sin against Him and Moses by complaining that they had no bread or water in the wilderness. I guess they forgot God was their bread and water. God sends fiery serpents and His people were dying from the bites. Moses confesses their sin and God tells him to sculpt a serpent, put it on a pole, and raise it up. To be healed, the poisoned people had only to look at the bronze serpent. What a strange story and not the tactic I would use to win back friends. Not that I know the mind of God, but I wonder if He was making the choice they had already made more clear, to choose His way or to choose sin.
Jesus, a serpent? May it never be! (As previously blogged, Peter and I are of like mind. He said similar words when Jesus predicted the crucifiction.) I used to avoid the serpent story obsessively for fear of the snakes in it, which to my mind have everything to do with evil and nothing to do with Jesus. But one day I forced myself to read it, not unlike those folks in the wilderness turning their eyes toward the bronze likeness on a pole, and I realized that it is fitting for the image to repulse. In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he writes: "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." So if Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin, as far as symbols go, a serpent fits the bill pretty perfectly.
Bear with me as I ramble. I have been musing on this for days. What astounds me is that when I have the nerve to fully face my shame, to turn my head and gaze into all my failures, meanness, faithlessness, anger, greed, lack of compassion, (the list goes on), turning fully, not stopping short to focus on my guilty feelings, when I am really brave and am ready to see my sin in all it's ugliness, what I am met with is the face of Love.
This is what Christians all over the world remember today, some of them bearing a smudge of ashes on their foreheads. As for me, I'm going to find the perfect spot to hang my cross.
Virtual bead store, Italian appliances, and peek-a-boo flowers...
Wouldn't it be fun to have a virtual bead store? I was imagining customers making appointments on skype and then accompanying me to the studio to choose colors, charms, and chain. With that fantasy in mind I found myself sorting my newest color combinations. I've been playing with transparent pale aqua with crushed glass embellishments. The crush glass is called 'frit' deriving from 'to fry' in Italian (like frittata.) The crushed glass is made by heating the glass, squishing it thin, then shocking it in water so that it crumbles to bits. I wish I spoke Italian beyond glass terms and menu items. I accidentally set our Roomba to Italian and now I don't know if it needs to be emptied or charged.
Sunflower playing peek-a-boo...
TS Eliot, St. Therese, and shirts of flame...
"The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.”
― T.S. Eliot,
I am reading Heather King's Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Therese of Liseux. Therese originated the phrase "shirt of fire." King opens the book with the portion of TS Eliot's poem I have quoted above.
