complete - 


and in its new home at 'eyes of the world', cookman avenue, asbury park, nj... 


waiting on some large tile to do some proper images... necklaces are challenging to photograph on a good day, but extra long focals take it to another level... saw a great dress mannequin at an antiques shop but it was nfs... 


so we keep experimenting - 

'... with intention'

clay thai amulet


tibetan double terminated quartz crystal (not a herkimer diamond, they are double terminated  as well but mined only in the area of herkimer, ny, usa) with a bit of rainbow trapped inside... 


red is an auspicious color in tibetan culture offering protective qualities...


muslin stamped with 'thoughts, words, actions'


if we choose them with intention, our inner and outer worlds come into harmony... 

hidden messages

mary jane dodd - 'portals to awakening' triptych 2011

this post is a continuation of my last... 

i find it interesting when one is guided in a project by thoughts that have so permeated your being that you don't even realize it... until you are done... 

while connected to 'nascent',  i am ready to leave it behind... i thank it for the pregnant forms and the word 'emerge' in the first piece...  

i knew this series would go further - 

'evolve' comes rising up and out of the void... the backplate is opened up so that the light may come through... 

i felt the pull to use a butterfly wing gifted to me by a friend... the word 'fly' from an antique dictionary... and at the last minute the fibers were calling - i am so grateful i decided to get up from the bench and go for a walk on the morning they did... 

the resin is filled with air bubbles in the final piece - as if these thoughts, these desires come bubbling out as you open... 

but when i began to shoot the images, to take the close up pictures, i recognized that my new word was participating as well as someone else's -  

rumi... 

'we come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars like dust.'
(the first closed form with the spiral)


'you were born with potential
you were born with goodness and trust
you were born with ideals and dreams
you were born with greatness
you were born with wings
you are not meant for crawling, so don't.
you have wings, 
learn to use them and fly.'

(the final form)

and my word?

transcend... (yes, it has been tweaked from 'daring'... thanks to conversations with a friend)

no matter what happens with the submission to the exhibition, i am well pleased with the lessons learned in regard to craft and self... 

does your work reflect back to you things you don't realize you hold?

wishing you all abundance of love, happiness and good health in the new year... and may you always find the balance in any situation you face... 

changeling

'things do not change, we change.'

~ henry david thoreau

we bend but do not break... becoming all the more strong and beautiful for it... our lives intertwining with those of others and the fate of the earth by the choices we make... 

promise broken

'to love, honor and cherish' 

was the promise broken to you? or did you neglect to love, honor and cherish yourself? thereby getting yourself into a position that was less than workable... that took more than it gave... we are human... we grow, we learn... luctor et emergo... 


thank you to my fiber maven friend lisa jurist for the lace, silk fiber and beautiful little button used here... 


honor thyself -

unconventionally you...

'dwell in possibility.'

~ emily dickinson ~

another one -

finished - and the ideas are still coming... 

rings are very addicting to me - now if i only had the sense to make myself multiple bands, base discs, etc ahead of time... instead i do them each time... but then, i don't even have head pins made up ahead to use... maybe some day... 


in the comments on the love my art jewelry blog, it was mentioned that i must have been in my happy place... and it's true... it felt so very good to be working like that... the kids were off of school but entertained with friends... 


this ring is now available in the my mom pattie etsy shop - a fundraising boutique in memory of marsha neal's mother... 

'happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued,

is always just beyond your grasp,

but which,

if you will sit down quietly,

may alight upon you.'

~ nathaniel hawthorne

vibrant

'autumn turned brightly,

a running flame through the mountains,

a torch flung to the trees.'

~ faith baldwin

'vibrance' bracelet... like looking up through the fiery leaves into the crisp blue sky... 

'balancing act' earrings play upon the idea of fragile strength... soft, hand dyed fibers wrapped around fused, weathered and hammered copper rings... 

'the invariable mark of wisdom 

is to see the miraculous in the common.'

~ ralph waldo emerson

like wisdom buried in the depths of your being, yours to know if you lay down your fears and open yourself to it... earrings made from copper discs, hammered, textured, patina-ted and wrapped with sterling wire and pearls... 


don't forget to check the love my art jewelry blog on monday for our next giveaway...  

a journey

'the soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty,

to think, feel, do just as one pleases.'

~ william hazlitt

and so i entered susan lenart kazmer's metalsmithing class yesterday - i had been plaguing myself with wondering if i should plan ahead or just go with the flow... i knew the outline of the class and so could have had a personal project in mind, but i decided not to... instead to see where i would go if i dropped the anxiety over 'looking stupid' and decided just to be... 

an incredibly giving teacher, she shared so much of her work style, her self, her TOOLS! i got to use a flex shaft (never had - and needless to say, loved it)... she taught her prong style settings and i chose to do a ring first (thinking that in 7 hours i would make more than one thing... some people did, i didn't)... 

so where to start when one is given sheets of metal, access to fabulous tools, a table full of found objects, beads and fibers & a new technique to pull them together with? well, the first piece naturally... 

this is faux bone, able to be engraved, cut into, etc with great ease... i chose an ancient tibetan symbol that i found by way of nancy schindler... 

i picked my way through the piles of goodies she had brought and came upon some resin paper - on it i found the words 'have a good journey'... hmmm, this was coming along well...

prong setting created with cuts in the edges for our journey often feels interrupted, but the pauses are where we learn some of the great lessons or just regroup to take them on... i used the word 'sisu' also come to me by way of nancy (who i happened to see with lorelei, kelley wenzel and cassandra procopio as i bolted in from the rain on the way to the class) ... 

please note the mistakes on the bottom, those holes are not supposed to be there - i misjudged the size of my conus shell... luckily they are covered up... and yes, i know that sisu has a '1' in it... the 'i' was missing - in fact, i am glad that it was... i like how it reminds me of class... and besides, i am a deep follower of wabi sabi... 

susan has an affinity for conus shells as they are symbolic to the women of new guinea, i used one that she offered to us... and why the crazy looking little wonky square? functionally it was needed for the rivet, compositionally it repeated the shape of the bezel, and symbolically it represents many things that come in fours (elements, seasons, directional points)... 

end of class projects - she very nicely gave a big break at lunch, some people ran to shop for things to finish their projects with (smart)... i really just wanted to work, so i ran down, grabbed 3 cabs for home and came back... 

one prong was left up in philly, knowing i wanted to add my own fibers at home... which i did!

this is just to show that the faux bone was raised off of the conus shell... 


a huge thank you to susan for a wonderful class... it was good for me in so many ways... one of the biggest was getting over fears i had... this was the first project for which i completely used a saw ... and using her power tools with her guidance... 


the journey continues! so i am left wondering, if she is sharing this information then she has moved past it - and i wonder what is new to her? and what will i do with this technique that is new to me?

rounding corners

'still round the corner there may wait,

a new road or a secret gate.'

~ j.r.r. tolkien

i doodle in spirals... and while i did just figure out how to fuse copper wire, the bracelets i am making are open, unraveling, breaking free...

padre bead from the 1800s was used as a trade bead... raku by mak at maku studio... old and new, experiences gained, paths taken and yet to take...

resin paddle with 'love' on it... blue encased glass that pulls you into it's depths by mika at pinocean... 

they say you should put out into the universe that which you want... 

calder

'i paint in shapes.'

~ alexander calder

blue feather c. 1948

this is the abs challenge piece for july... and since being announced it has been dancing around in my head... turns out it is at the calder foundation in nyc - but not for public viewing... darn... my goal was to see it because that top piece of sheet nagged at me the whole time - what color is it? what shape?

i wanted to create movement in my piece, to create something that was 3 dimensional, sculptural... my first thought was enamel for the sheet - but i switched over to resin... 

for the first time i tinted resin and was happy with the result... calder is all about movement and so this focal is made of 2 pieces that are riveted together but with a spacer so that the triangle swings... it has vintage paper that reads 'blue' 'feather'... the black paddles move and there is floss to add to the idea of movement as well... at the same time i attempted to keep this simple and clean, allowing shape and color to speak... 

'my whole theory about art is the disparity that exists

between forms, masses and movement.'

~ calder

happy earth day!

'i only went out for a walk 

and finally concluded to stay out till sundown,

for going out, i found,

was really going in.'

~ john muir

earth day earrings are created of sterling hoops, resin paddles and soft blue/green fibers... the sterling has been fused to represent the bond that exists between all living things... the paddles have paper from an old shakespeare text - the words 'flowers', 'tree' and 'earth' can be seen on them... 

check out google's picture for today on their web search page... for the second year in a row, disney is releasing a special film in honor of earth day... 'oceans' looks breathtaking... and 'avatar' is being released on dvd... not that commercialism has anything to do with earth day, i'm just saying ... 

'if we don't change, we don't grow.

if we don't grow we are not really living.'

~ gail sheehy

'living life to the fullest' were created in mixed metals - annealed steel wire shaped into paddles for resin paper depicting sections of butterfly wings from a vintage dictionary... encouraging you to take flight... etched nickel with the words 'to live is to grow', subtly highlighted with color and sealed... sterling silver ear wires and wire wrapped blue quartz stones... to release fear and increase courage... soft grey green fibers... 

'we have to do the best we can.

it is our sacred human responsibility.'

~ albert einstein

'on being human' - the words 'being' and 'human' are again chosen from an antique dictionary and intended to be read as such - not as 'human being'... for in being human we try at the risk of making mistakes, but with the guarantee of becoming more... ametrine chosen for its dual properties - it is a combination of citrine and amethyst  and as such is believed to dispel negativity and open one up to fill the void with light... 


thank you for all of the very kind comments you left on my last post... it was so nice to be able to share and celebrate with you!

i'm here...

'inspiration exists,

but it has to find us working.'

~ pablo picasso

i have been busy lately getting ready for 3 rather big deadlines that will arrive within a week to 10 days... this is not said to solicit sympathy - i made the choice to go after them all... but the timing is tricky... and the anxiety is building... i have been reading your blogs, though i may not be commenting... am trying to limit my time on the computer... because while i sit here and wonder at times what i will do, picasso is right - the best inspiration can come when we are actually at the task... 

this piece is for a festival that i am in and it is going to be auctioned... i thought that using words like 'imaginative' (there was no word 'imagination' in the dictionary from 1877 that i used for the paper), 'passion', 'create' & 'art' were fitting to the occasion... garnet, pearl, amethyst and raspberry amethyst are used... 

i also did another set of the almond blossom earrings from the abs challenge last month... as i didn't have any more emeralds, this time i used green garnet... 

there is one more in the works - we enter an inventory which is able to be edited... turns out the system went down - ok, yikes... while i know i should have printed it out, i did not... and i now cannot do my tags! but i know there is time until monday - so i have my fingers crossed...

on the home front, we got down to the beach on sunday - i needed that so bad... the sand was warm on our feet and there were piles of sand that have been created to prevent erosion from storms... 

and what is it about the water that pulls at you?

in addition, em is back to posting and has updated her blog... i really like to read what she has to say and how she says it... to see that individual who i have lived with for 18 years standing on her own... and to know that i am a part of it... 

these things are fun and fun is good - and so is making the deadline

erin at treasures found chose dr. seuss for her march challenge... in my last post i discussed my planning stages a bit... and as the project grew in complexity, it also grew more daunting... i get nervous and excited... and nervous... until finally last friday i just had to start... where? at the beginning... how did i pick? resin has the longest prep and set up for me, it also would create the whole structure of the story... so i started there... 

and i ended here tonight - you can ask my kids how much they have seen me since then... ok, they have seen me, i am home... but my daughter let me know my hair looked like it could be washed... thanks em!! and they heaved a collective sigh of relief when the hammer was put down... i flattened and textured practically ever piece of wire i used... 

one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish... books by dr. seuss have been some of my children's and my favorites... and this book in particular could at one time be recited by me in the car or on walks from memory... one of the things i love so much about theodor geisel is how he makes so much happen with self-imposed limitations... a set number of words used to create wonder-filled, memorable rhyme... a limited palette of 7 colors - white, black, 2 shades of yellow, 2 shades of aqua/teal, red, pink & green (which appears only on the cover) - used to create images carried in our minds for a lifetime... line drawing with so much movement and whimsy... 

the challenge for me was to create this style of necklace (inspired by the incredibly talented susan lenart kazmer) and honor his sensibility simultaneously... 

i ordered a used book off of ebay so that i knew that the pages would have been touched - turned over and over again... and wouldn't you know the little boy wrote his name in it? and his name is alex? 

i love the sound it makes... and for having at least 2 dangles per loop, it is pretty lightweight as well due to the use of resin... i did use 3 metals - sterling, annealed steel wire and nickel... the fabulously patinated star in the focal comes from shannon at missficklemedia and the colorful ceramic beads from keith o'connor... the fiber links not only tie in the main teal color to that piece on the focal, but also made me think of the worn corners on a well-read hardcover book... 

left side

right side

chain

i wonder what april will bring?!

transitioning into spring

clouds filled with spring rain approaching - their beautiful texture overlaying the bright blue sky behind them...

'earth laughs in flowers.'

e.e.cummings

playful lampwork glass from mika at pinocean contrasted against the pearly sheen and natural look of mica... soft earth and colorful flowers... 

** a note:
my last post received a comment in chinese... 'how cool!' i thought... so em and i ran it through google translator... NOT so cool - it was spam for an adult chat room... i reported the blogger but found the means to be a little lacking... you check off what the 'offense' is - so i had to check spam... there was nowhere for me to mention the adult content... hmmm... 

the zen of earrings ~

'when you seek it

you cannot find it.'

~ zen proverb

truth...

i wanted to make a necklace because i needed to make a necklace... but it just wasn't there - the flow, the inspiration... but the little pile of earwires and resin paddles called to me... and i was actually able to get into a stop-start, mom kind of flow... 

here is what i found:

'to thine own self be true.

~ william shakespeare (hamlet)

with pearls for wisdom and amethyst to connect you to your higher spiritual self...

'the meeting of two eternities - the past and the future...

is precisely the present moment.'

~ henry david thoreau

be mindful of it, grown in it... with small gaspeite stones which are believed to bring spirituality to into every day life... 

love deeply, love daily

green pearls for the beauty and wisdom of adapting a loving attitude... soft fibers and pink petals to connect to nature, flowers, growth... 

'tenderness and kindness are not signs 

of weakness and despair

but manifestations of strength and resolution.'

~ kahlil gibran

fragile strength - opposites coming together in beauty... antiqued grey wire, soft fibers, translucent blue-grey iolite... delicate and not... practice loving kindess, show that caring exists... 

'yes mother. i can see you are flawed.

you have not hidden it.

that is your greatest gift to me.'

~ alice walker 

we keep wrapped up tightly, guarding ourselves... and not usually even sure against what... to open up, to present oneself honestly... to share with our children, our friends, our family our humanity... is a gift... unwrap yourself and share...