It’s a very simple idea, but one that’s surprisingly difficult for me to implement- spending more time enjoying little pleasures. It’s been a long journey in my life of gently extracting myself from survival mode and learning to relax. I thought I was doing pretty well at this, until I got a nice reminder from my dear tarot card reading friend Marcy saying I could try choosing joy, and that my motto has pretty much…
Continue readingI tried reading the Artist’s Way many years ago to learn better habits about creating the ideal creative brain space. The only thing that stuck from reading that book was morning pages: you journal for twenty minutes as soon as you wake up before your brain starts going into analytical planning mode. I’m not sure if it’s made me more creative, but it allows me to order my thoughts and helps me be a little less word…
Continue readingWhenever I go to an art fair to sell my work, customers come into my booth exclaiming how many artists are at the show from Asheville. I joke that we should all rent a bus and drive to the show together. But seriously, there are a lot of great artists in Asheville! But since a lot of them work from home, or sell their work mainly outside of town, a lot of visitors to Asheville only know…
Continue readingWhy go to the jewelry store when you could commission one of a kind custom rings just for you? I get lots of questions about the process of designing and creating custom wedding and engagement rings, so I thought I’d share! The photos above show the making engagement ring from the first thoughts to the final piece. For this ring, the client wasn’t sure what he wanted, but knew the ring needed to fit in with…
Continue readingRecently I’ve been enamored with the Victorian era. I’ve collected books of jewelry from that period, and read histories of the era to find out more. Now the jewelry I’m making is influenced by my researching. But lately, I’ve been asking myself, what is so inspiring about Victorian jewelry? I think it’s the way they celebrated sentimentality. I really resonate with it because I think it is needed in our own world which feels ever more impersonal. The…
Continue readingThis year I spent a lot more time reading. A big reason was that I started reading books just for pure enjoyment instead of trying to learn something from them, or seeing them as important works of art that I should read as a well-educated human. Much like friendships, I feel like I ended up enjoying each book a lot more when I didn’t have an agenda in the back of my mind, and picking books…
Continue readingFor my 30th birthday I spent a few days being silent by myself. It was the perfect time to go, because I’ve been feeling overwhelmed a lot recently-like everyone else in America- with the ever-rising tide of technology to respond to, trying to be a good person, trying to be a good friend. Having the time to disconnect from everything for a bit showed me that that I had been suffering from a lack of magic in…
Continue readingMy whole life I have loved symbols. I collect sacred hearts, Tibetan endless knots, and prayer flags. But I don’t feel comfortable using them in my work. As someone without a religious education or upbringing, I don’t feel like I know enough about the context or meaning to throw in a Tibetan Endless knot into a jewelry design. Also, these religious traditions have had thousands of years to perfect their designs. They don’t need…
Continue readingI’m slowly emerging from self-imposed isolation as a maker the last few years and remembering that one reason I moved to Asheville was to be around so many inspiring artists. Yet I so rarely leave my studio nest to go meet them and see their work. And I so rarely spend time admiring the art of makers I love and talking about it. In the excitement of making new things of my own, I forgot…
Continue readingThis summer we took a trip to the pacific Northwest to visit friends. We started in Seattle and then got whisked off to a little lake house on the Olympic Pennisula. It was wonderful to spend some more time with my friend Alena of Calliope jewelry and her partner. And I finally learned the delights of lake houses! This little hut didn’t have running water, so no flushing toilet either, and minimal space inside. But…
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