arctic temperatures = productivity!

So looking forward to sharing with you these new pieces...kind of a sneak peak because I haven't added them into my etsy store yet....

here's some more glass cabochons, and oh man the depth they have. It's like looking into a flourescent pool of paint. (parker...a cabochon is a stone or glass or whatever with a flat bottom and no holes so you can put a really thin piece of metal, called a bezel, around it, solder it to a base plate, and squish the "cab" into the bezel really tight so it doesn't move : )

THese are a part of a theme that lately I have been loving. Even in the very cold north, where lately it has been sub-zero temperatures, G R O W T H is challenging. We have a very short growing season and you must take into consideration that it can freeze in august, or rain in february. And I am not just talking plants here folks.

I live in a smallish town, Whitefish, MT. There are about 8,000 year round residents and if you get the chance to stick around long enough, you will start to realize that everyone knows everyone, you walk into the bar, grocery, gas station, post office, and usually always see somebody you know. Which is part of the reason I love where I live. Also the part of my life that gets very itchy feet, very impatient, and always ready to drop EVERYTHING and do something else, be somewhere else. Lately, I have been in G R O W mode. I love what I am doing, I love my job that pays my bills (bartending at the local brewery) and I love my job that doesn't pay my bills (rag and stone). The goal is to G R O W from one into the other. The trick is to breathe, be patient, and DONT BUY PLANE TICKETS WITH THE CREDIT CARD!

in lieu of all this awesome snow we have had in the past few days up here north......

and all the great studio time this weekend.....

and since it is the time of year we give thanks for all things wonderful.....

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see something you love? something someone else will love? Enjoy 15% off through thanksgiving!

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Type in this code: SNOWMONTANA and receive 15% off any purchase made through my etsy store! Happy thanksgiving folks!

I have a lot to be thankful for. One of these is my jewelry, and this little business I run through my living room...I could not do it without the support of fellow etsy shoppers, the friends and family who support me, the stores downtown who CARE about LOCAL GOODS, and the lovely local craft community in the northwest corner of MT... THANK YOU ALL!

child of the earth

ooooh yay! I have been wanting to make these for some time now, and they turned out much better than I had hoped! Great little cabs that came from merlin are just the thing for these paddle-style earrings, they are shiny little grey-green stones, wild horse jasper from oregon/idaho.....funny thing....I don't have real-deal stamping tools except for the little typewriter style alphabet. So today I got creative with my tools, so that texture you see is actually the capital letter "I" all over. HAH! when you are broke, you find ways to get around fancy tools...

The back of these earrings say "A child of the earth, no more...no less". I love this statement, it's sometimes what we all need to hear. And today, it was a good meditation sitting at my bench. Saying it lifts a few invisible boulders off my shoulders. It's a good reminder that we have sometimes too many expectations of ourselves, or others pass on their own expectations, ending up with heavy weights that can drag us down and bury us.

I have always loved the poetry by Mary Oliver, and I have read this poem over and over to myself, finding it in my tattered journal from what seems like a different life, and it always gives me comfort in being small, and just plain 'ol being. It is definitely one of my favorites.

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

© Mary Oliver

"the wobble ring"

butterfly wing earrings....

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So here's a few pieces I finished this week, (got the cabs from etsy seller smartbirdstudio!) and I hope you love them as much as I do.

I have been wanting to make fun and brainless stuff in the studio lately, something that is just easy and requires not a lot of thinking or planning. There's so much into building jewelry that is all planning, measuring, exactness....otherwise your stone won't fit or your piece will melt. I feel like that has been happening to me a lot lately, So these babies are all about instant gratification. Hammer 'em and wear 'em, that's the idea.

I regretfully do not know who bid and won my bob marshall piece. Jesse and I left in a bit of a blur, and didn't realize till we both got home that neither of us knew the home of my necklace! SO if you are out there, first thank you for supporting such a cool organization, and second, congrats! I almost kept it for myself, but would have been ridden with guilt knowing I really did build it specifically for the Bob. What a great night, and one hellofa turnout.

I also have been, as my mom would say, "marinating" on a certain word and theme that seems to keep sneaking up in my life lately. I have had some really lovely conversations with some of my favorite people, and cannot shake this word.....in fact it really won't leave me alone.

Fulfillment.


And maybe its so profound because of the connection between that and craft, or just my life, or balancing them.....I am still marinating as to why this word is so profound lately, and would love to pour it into a piece of jewelry, but honestly, I am still trying to figure out why this is hitting a nerve with me, in a good way. Thoughts?