enamel — Page 3

Round Two

November 4, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

This is round two of the Host Series.

These necklaces are composed of sterling, copper and enamel.

The design series has evolved to a new place. Now the lichen-ous pendants are actually built of two enameled components that come together as a toggle closure. Nifty.

I over fired two sets in robin’s egg blue and tallow pink and the third piece is in solid, over fired white.

Beautiful.

They look like this on:

That texture makes me crazy — makes me totally nuts.

These pieces are:

Totally weird.

Totally organic.

Totally titillating, for those who operate on a cellular level.

For the original whatnow on this series, please go here and here.

Protoplasmically and licheniferoussly yours truly,

The Plume

Filed Under: enamel, New Jewelry

Oh Those Heavenly Hosts

October 23, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

A few more Host Necklaces before I take the weekend for myself:

These pieces are so weird, so me, so heavenly, so extraordinary, so organic…I would be quite content to keep every one for myself.

I will be gladly tidying up my interwebular correspondence spaces this weekend as well as canning grape jelly (concord and white). It’s going to get pretty hot in the kitchen! OH! And I have the most incredible pumpkin soup recipe for you — it will feed your soul.

And now I must pull an apple crisp from the oven and feed some firefighters. Again.

Happy Friday, sweet dreams and be well,

The Plume

:::EDIT:::
I’ll be listing these pieces on Saturday around 1PM – mountain time.

:::EDIT:::
THANK YOU TO THE LADIES WHO CLAIMED THESE PIECES!!!
xx

Filed Under: enamel, New Jewelry

Playing Host

October 22, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Lately, whilst out and about hiking and running in the mountains, I’ve been getting down on my hands and knees to get closer looks at mosses and lichens. My favorites are the lichens — those old fuzzy looking growths in fantastic hues that have found hospitable rocks and twigs to grown on.

One day, I found myself thinking about how many different kinds of hosts can be found in nature and I started to ponder on what I’m a host of in this life. I’m talking about those invisible things that take up space in me. Those things that turn my heart, soul and mind into a host. Those things that feed off my energy or energize me. Those things I live in symbiosis with. Those things that are parasites that attach themselves to me and feed on the brightness of my spirit.

Those things.

Nature isn’t so lucky, those rocks, those tree limbs, those hillsides that grow the wildflowers and the noxious weeds — they don’t get to choose what they host — they just do.

I, on the other hand, have the right to choose, over and over again, what I allow to take up residence in me. Out with the dark. In with the light. I will host goodness, love, mercy and light. I will shed off those layers of unkindness, anger, hate, abuse and darkness. I shall not play host to anything that is unwelcome. I shall not give space to any of those dark things. I’ll keep a candle lit in the windows of my soul. I’ll welcome the good promises in from the cold and I’ll keep the door barred when the bad things come knocking.

And so, with this in mind, I created the host necklace. A textured slab of copper that has been forged, repoussed, pounded (oh how I pounded, annealed, pounded, annealed and then pounded again…) and shaped into a lichen-like form. I’ve enameled (and counter enameled) this piece, fired it multiple times here in my studio kiln and strung it simply on sterling chain.

You will be its host.

May it always remind you that you choose what you let in, what you keep inside you.

May it always remind you to welcome the light.

It’s in the Etsy shop now.

Plume

Filed Under: enamel, host series, New Jewelry

Killing Frosts

October 14, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

It’s getting quite cold here. The weather forecast calls for hard, killing frosts every night this week. Today, we spent the better part of the day harvesting the rest of our gardens. I have tomato vines loaded with fruit and hanging in the garage. I have boxes and boxes of tomatoes in the kitchen and porch that will hopefully ripen in time. I have a table full of pumpkins and other various types of squash.

It’s a bounty.

It’s a cornucopia.

It’s going to be a lot more work.

These are my two favorite pumpkins! The one on the left is my largest and brightest. I don’t know what it weighs but it’s quite handsome and awkward, all at once. I’m going to let RW carve it into a jack-o-lantern! He dearly loves pumpkin carving (it makes me itchy). The wee one on the right is my favorite pumpkiny little darling. He’s so tiny. Just look at him.

I’ll be processing all the pumpkins into puree form so that RW can make pumpkin pies with it later in the winter. He dearly loves pumpkin pie. We might make pumpkin soup but I had some terrible experiences with pumpkin soup whilst living in New Zealand once upon a time and I’m not so keen on the stuff. What else can I make from preserved pumpkin? Oh. Cheesecakes. Any other ideas?

The garden is officially gone, pulled up, composted, and in some areas, the soil has already been turned. It’s official. Autumn has arrived!

Because most of the day was dedicated to gardening I only had the later afternoon to spend in the studio and was so inspired by my squash harvest that I decided to create a new little enameling template for small white squashes. They’re sweet, crisp and beautifully over fired. I think I’m going to concoct necklaces with them. More on that, I’m sure, tomorrow.

I hope Wednesday treated you well!

Plume

PS I’m looking for a new pair of eyeglass(es) frames. My options here in Pocatello are rather sparse. Does anyone know of any online eyewear shops that carry bizarre frames? I had a vision of green or turquoise frames with little wings on the sides — I know that some company SOMEWHERE must make them. Right? Of course right.

Filed Under: enamel, garden, pocatello

Detritus

September 26, 2010 by The Noisy Plume

Things of dreams. Things of the real and now.
A new necklace constructed with the things I’ve seen on the forest floor lately and the things the forest floor made me dream. This necklace features three enameled components, fired right here in my studio kiln, neon green lichen set in resin (collected in the North Cascades mountain range of Washington) and a hollow form setting that holds up the main enameled setting. My standard chain with a hand fabricated toggle closure seals the deal. It’s kind of wild, urchiny and of sea-ish soul…but it was born right here in Idaho.
One of a kind!

Filed Under: enamel, New Jewelry