New Jewelry

Berry Stained Fingertips

September 15, 2017 by The Noisy Plume

Fabricated ferns, cast New Mexico jackrabbit vertebra, satin polished Snake River rock and cobalto calcite druzy (cut with my rock saw and polished on my lapidary wheel — feels good to be using those tools again), one of my SOS nuggets and a trail of soapy finish, natural rubies. I call this color palate “berry stained fingertips” and I’m sure you find it appropriate!

Organic elation! The seen, the unseen, the living and the dead and the cycles in-between!

I’m so glad I had one of these in me this week. I started this fern and bone series over a year ago and each one has been such a joy to create and a beautiful truth to build.

Thank you to Idaho and New Mexico for making this piece possible. My lands of love. My inspirations. My greatest gifts of place.

+OF THE WEST+

Uplifted

July 29, 2017 by The Noisy Plume

Uplifted Necklaces in sterling and chalcedony with wonderful little rosary-esque connectors and delightfully dimensional birds in flight…because I never take my wild without a dash of the holy.

Filed Under: New Jewelry Tagged With: jewelry

Winter Fire

November 12, 2011 by The Noisy Plume

I’ve been doing a dash of enameling here! ‘Tis the season for it! I find that enameling in the summertime is utterly intolerable in my un-airconditioned studio space, as I have shared before. In these cold months, there’s nothing like hunkering down in the studio with a hot cup of tea while my kiln burns bright and my work space is merry and cozy. In the winter, the days I enamel are the only days that my studio space is warm enough to work without a down vest or jacket and a thick set of fingerless gloves. I can even go without long johns if the kiln is running! Delightful! This morning, when I sat down to finish the chain on one of these necklaces, the snow was falling thick and fast outside while a blustery wind was busy pulling the last of the leaves from the trees and grapevines. I felt perfectly rosy looking out my big studio window and up into the snowy mountains. Perfectly rosy. I was playing soft, soulful music on the stereo and for the first time in a long while, my mind was as quiet as my hands while I worked. I have a gentle, white dove on each shoulder and creative work has been simple, intuitive and murmuring these past few days.

Sometimes the rankled details of the world build a thick wall, as though with russet bricks, between the easy click and whir of the mind and the ability of our hands to plainly and gracefully reach for space.

This is the happy snapping of chains, fires enough to fuse glass to metal, the ever rising.

And before I go, a tune for you!

Filed Under: enamel, New Jewelry

October 31, 2011 by The Noisy Plume

Ever since Plumbelina perished, I have thought a lot on the topic of the lightness of being and the weight of existence — these earrings spring forth from those musings which I look forward to sharing with you sometime in December. I have been on the brink of resupplying my metals here for numerous weeks now and so there has been plenty of copper in the shop these past few days. The warmth of the metal has been comforting. I think these little dandies wear so elegantly I will probably go ahead and make a few sets in sterling with a dash of keum boo across the surface of the wings.

Oh, I don’t know, a million things are happening here. I’m feeling a thousand emotions course through my heart chambers like some sort of wind whipping, hoof stomping stampede. There’s a rush and then the suddenness of dust settling and always the wondering of the why of it all. Humans are complicated — this isn’t about anybody, this is about everybody. I was just telling someone today that living with a thyroid disease has taught me to be a compassionate person. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, is dealing with something invisible. Me included. We all need to be loved, no matter what. We all need to give love, and all other nuances of that word, with broadness of heart, no matter what.

I sat down to write, two days ago, and three poems came out. They have the potential to be good. They were all sad. When I read them aloud to myself, in the echoing purity of The White Room, out in the studio, I had the realization that there is a deep, trembling sadness locked up inside me right now. I want it gone. But I can also recognize that its presence is part of my process as a human, as a creative human, as a child of God. That sadness is there for a reason and I will be its student and the life lesson that comes from the existence of it will bring light to my bones and my soul. This is living, the sum of dark and light. This is living, these honest attempts.

:::Post Scriptus:::

You may have noticed that my blogspace is looking different. I have left Blogger and moved my posts over to WordPress with the help of a dear friend who has been smithing my website these past couple of months (THANK YOU, Q). The easiest way to locate this blog now is to go to my official website where you can click on BLOG and be brought directly here to this new space! There is an RSS feed button available to you on the right margin here if you’d like to know when I’ve published new blog posts. The option for commenting is now found at the top of my posts. As always, I’m so thankful that you take the time to read and encourage me. I hope you continue to be a bright and beautiful part of my world! xx

https://www.thenoisyplume.com/blog/2011/10/31/3274/

Filed Under: New Jewelry

Fossils

October 17, 2011 by The Noisy Plume

While in Alaska this summer, my

girlfriend and I went fossil hunting on the coal

cliffs near her home. I happily whacked away at stones with a little hammer and let out a blissful OOHHHhhhHHhhhh

whenever I found a particularly

lovely (and intact) fossil. It was a simply sinful amount of fun.

I brought my favorite fossils home from Alaska and have them displayed on one of the end tables in the living room here at The Gables.

They’re magical little ancient things. Aren’t they?

I haven’t stopped thinking about fossils since I returned from Alaska and have been pondering for a few months now how to make my own versions of fossils with silver, of course.

(Wo)man made fossils!

Can you imagine?

Then! I had a eureka moment and, voila!