rag and stone

I am soooo excited about this piece! THis is just the cutest little piece of turquoise, and I love how this turned out. I can't tell you how giddy I have been getting back to my desk, having the time to work this fall has been an amazing breath of fresh air....And there's more to come. The cloudy and cool weather is a great time to be inside, creating fun stuff...

I love turquoise. I love the color, the surprising subtlety of brown and black, and sometimes red. I love that some of it is almost a white colored blue, some a really dark and deep teal. My beef with turquoise JEWELRY on the other hand....here it goes. My first blog rant.

I can't say I HATE traditional turquoise jewelry, stuff with casted feathers, and textured wires, cutouts of coyotes, and side portraits of indians looking into the far distance...But I can say that I really don't like a lot of it. I feel like it all looks the same, everything looks like it will eventually end up in a pawn shop window, or down in the dregs of somebody's jewelry box. A LOT OF IT looks like it belongs in the Loaf n' Jug convenience store, alongside the wolf tee-shirts, and lighters that have pictures of cowboy boots on them. This style of jewelry has become the iconic western souvenir, unfortunately ESPECIALLY in Montana. It's sad, because there are a lot of contemporary artists who have brought the navajo and southwest style out of the dark ages, and have put a little of themselves into their pieces....It's time western jewelry does the same! There's nothing more sad to me than jewelry being made to fit a niche, instead of the artist making it putting their own flair to the memento they are creating. STOP the SOULESS KNOCKOFF TURQUOISE NICHE! Turquoise can be contemporary, playful, new, and just plain ol' pretty....no need to decorate it with haphazard cliche themes folks.

So big shout out to the artists out there who are making jewelry with their own eyes, their own flair, and the confidence to make what they like!