Yu: Attuning to Spiritual Inspiration & Positivity through Community

Yu

This pendant emerged spontaneously through some experimentation. After considering it I realized that it reminded me of the hexagrams of the I Ching oracle. This pendant looks like hexagram 16: Yu, with an expanded or magnified fourth line representative of "the minister" who is a spiritual adviser. This is where the turquoise sits.

I Ching Hexagram: 16
Name: Yu.
Keyphrase: Enthusiasm.
Formed By The Trigrams: Thunder over Earth.
General: Revitalize your spirit through celebration.
Love: Give your partner a pleasant surprise. Suggest an outing or trip.
Business: Take time to celebrate your business successes.
Personal: Throw a seasonal party to celebrate the cycles of nature.

Turquoise is one of the oldest protection amulets, and was also known as a symbol of wealth in many ancient cultures. It usually carries the meanings of strength, protection from harm, psychic sensitivity and connection to the spirit world. If given a turquoise by a loving friend, that stone would protect the wearer from negative energy and bring good fortune. Turquoise is the symbol of friendship. It also brings peace to the home.

Turquoise carries great wisdom of basic truth within it. It is one of the oldest stones known. This is a stone that a person must learn to attune to instead of the stone attuning to the person.

Overview: Yu is related to raising the energy of not only yourself but of those around you. Yu suggests our existence and environment can be suddenly changes through celebration. We should each use our strong leadership to inspire those around us. Don't underestimate the power of shared enthusiasm, it will help increase confidence which will help to withstand any future difficulties.

The thunder that powers new growth is above the earth or beyond the realm of the physical or the material. The energy of innovation is free and storming through the world. For the ancient people, kings, warriors and shamen, this was the inspiration for music that channeled and focused their people's liberated energies.

It speaks to me of the power of attuning with the environment and celebrating or sharing enthusiasm to help the self and others tap into the energy of innovation and inspiration, to realign with our spiritual dimension and thus affect changes in our environment and existence.

The attuning or aligning our selves with our spiritual nature and providing a leadership of ourselves and others which spontaneously manifests in celebration and enthusiasm or positive energy can help us bond together, solve our problems, meet our challenges and bring peace to our home which in the big picture i see as the earth, the universe . . .our existence.

Handmade Holidays

Recently these earrings were presented in an Etsy.com Treasury collection alongside many other fine and beautiful items. The title of the treasury was Lift Your Voice (in praise of handmade).

below is a link to the Etsy Treasury
Lift Your Voice In Praise of Handmade

It was created by Barbe Beaty, an eco-friendly precious metals artisan and Founder and Facilitator of a community based workshop, "Promise Project" (http://www.promiseproject.com), for girls/women from various populations.

"During these sessions, participants engage in the design, hand-sculpting, and hand-finishing of a fine silver token which symbolizes a personal pledge made to themselves reflective of where they‘ve been, where they are, and where they wish to be on their path through life."

Through her art and her community work, she hopes to continue reach out, enlightening others to the thought that "We are all artists in the sense that we each have a story unique to tell, and we each have the ability to "design" (shape and influence) our existence."

More links to Barbe Beaty and her work

jewelry website :: www.njiastudios.com
community workshops website :: www.promiseproject.com
life tidbits :: www.soulyyours.blogspot.com
Follow her on Twitter :: njiastudios
Proud member of Etsy Metal Clay :: www.etsymetalclay.com
Proud juried member of Trunkt :: www.trunkt.org/njiastudios

Unautumna / First Yellow Leaf of Autumn

Description

Each year I have a habit of keeping an eye out for the First Yellow Leaf. It's a ritual which has emerged naturally from a practice of Locality Mindfulness. It fosters a sense of place and seasonality in my soul. Autumn is such a juxtapositional time of transition, a beginning and and end. It often feels like a melancholy double-exposure. One foot is firmly planted in Summers ripeness and abundance, and the other foot is coldly planted in Winters season of silent reserve. I celebrate many personal holy days, and one is First Yellow Leaf of Autumn. Another is First Snow. In a few months I will be longing to celebrate First Leaf, but for now, the foothills are mostly swathed in green, but the time of the turning leaf is in full blaze in higher elevations. Large stone is Imperial Jasper, small stone is a Goldenrod Jasper. The upper bezel is Gold and the lower bezel is Sterling Silver as are the shank and leafy design elements. There is a light patina to this piece as seemed fitting, but the gold bezel also looks nice polished up brightly. Let me know if this is your preference and I'll polish it up before shipping. This ring is large, most likely a mans ring, and can be worn in either direction. Ring Size: 11

Orlin Helgoe's Visions of the Prairie

When you google the web for Orlin Helgoe, you don't come up with much. He's mentioned briefly by name a few times and, oh, there's an out of print book about him and his paintings . . . and there doesn't seem to be any copies available. It gets even worse when you search web images with his name, all you come up with is misleading photographs of other peoples paintings which would lead the unsuspecting investigator to have a very wrong picture of his work. To me, this is a shame.



Lucky for me, I live in Pueblo Colorado. Now, I haven't used that sentence an awful lot in my life, and I do not use it lightly in this instance. This is Orlin Helgoe's hometown and so there are clues about him to be found here. Many of his paintings are collected at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center some of which are displayed through the year. The Pueblo City County Library District has a copy of the out of print book. There are other local artists living here who were students of Orlin Helgoe. His family and friends still live here.

The late Orlin Helgoe is known by some as "The Shaman of the Prairie." His work often depicts life and inspired moments on the prairie which he both loved to roam and paint. To me he was one who had absorbed the spirit of earth and sky, and took strength from the visions he recieved of the prairie. His powerful paintings exhibit that he was one who sought to pierce the veil between the seen and the unseen, to unify the outer landscape with the inner world.


His paintings are, well . . . full. Full of images and emotion and something else. Something they draw from the observer, elements which lead the mind of the beholder to translate, or fill in the blanks. Some of his paintings are close up shots of something, like the one of the dead deer he painted after killing his first and last deer on a hunt, or bleak landscapes with mysterious circles floating in the air, or some like the one these pictures come from which is an enormous painting depicting a scene which seems like a multiple exposure shot of several moments and perspectives at one level and then one finds that this multiplicity of scenes is comprised of many other smaller elements, smaller scenes and micro-mysteries.



When I found this stone the scene depicted in the picture jasper was instantly recognizable to me as Helgoe-esque. Although nowhere near as colorful or complex, it definitely reminded me of the elements in his work. When my subconscious mind sought to interperate the imagery of this stone it's only corroborating connection was "Helgoe." Here was a desert scene of mystery complete with the floating wheel within wheel orbs. No mistaking it, this piece was some kind of memorial to Helgoe and and the mystery of the wilderness of the local landscape. Were the stones speaking? Did they miss their lone wanderer? Did they miss the seeker of meaning and mystery, the "Shaman of the Prairie?"

Integration of Metal & Stone

I absolutely love being creative!

At times I find myself wondering and wandering around the studio looking at my materials. Things are arranged in a way which to the untrained eye might look chaotic. However, to be more accurate I would have to say it is a time-spanning chronicle, more of a testament to what is and has been of interest to me for the last several months.

Bits and pieces of stone large and small, found and oxidized metal parts, scavenged circuitboards, interesting and very old bits of glass bottles, sea glass, even sticks and wood scraps and old bits of burl lay about the large table I built for the shop. There are old watch parts, half made pieces of jewelry, stones already polished sitting next to custom bezel cups awaiting their setting, un-nameable iron fragments from machines and mineral composites from steel making processes, owl and turkey and finch feathers from recent hikes, sketches of pieces already manifest and pieces still in the sea of possibility.

Often when seeking some new inspiration I arrange stones in different positions, place them on top of one another, shift them around slide them over next to metal bits, looking for patterns of recognition on color compatibility or texture or composition. All of this process and analysis, to me, is felt and "seen" on a more instinctual level than those previous words let on or allude to.

According to the inner critics schedule, this is "Work" and can be thus seen to him if that is what he needs in the moment. That satisfies that "adult" and responsible part of me which is intent upon being efficient.

But to me, the real me, the little boy inside, this is merely playing, a natural pastime of exploration and creation.

During this sacred play time I often become aware of my subtle shifts of interest. Shifts in interest turn the compass for me and change the world I see. Soon I am sailing my ship in new directions to chains of small islands i have never been to but love.

On one of these islands I found a lovely integration of textured silver and amazingly textured stone. The rare bit of Hematite, reminding me much of the frog pond when it drys out toward the end of summer leaving only cracked mud, had an amazing texture. Unlike most Hematite you will find on the market, usually made into rings, this piece is not as dark and doesn't have the polishes black chrom-like aspect one usually sees. Instead this piece is a chocolate and more natural or organice color, a warm and rich darkness which alludes to it's story. history and ...mystery. This stone has been sitting in eyes-reach of me when in the studio for several years and has had this small orange Carnelian cabochon sitting atop it for nearly as long. I have often known these two would be mated, but it was still missing something.

For months and months now I have believed it was another stone, something which would pair up with this amazing stone and somehow compliment the things I see in the texture of the Hematite. But on this new island of creativity I realized that instead it would be I who creates that component of the piece through the fires of silversmithing and the esoteric arts of texturing and patination.

My work nearly always involves the integration of metal and stone, however this piece and the process in creating the front section for it takes it to a new level and a new field of play. I was able to experiment and create a texture process through amazingly simple methods (Using fire and stone and cedar wood grain and knot whorls) to create a piece which would refer back to the deep lines and sectioning found in this particularly interesting piece of Hematite.

The result is not only a very satisfying piece and a great sense of completion for a stone pairing which has been waiting years to be set and completed, but a confirmation that indeed my course of discovery and creativity lies in this direction for awhile ahead.

Inspiration Is Everywhere

"Sometimes you get shown the light/in the strangest of places if you look at it right."
-Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia

Inspiration is everywhere!

Yes, as a jeweler it can come from checking out other jewelers art, but for an artist with an eye for the abstract, the microbiological and the organic miracles of life on planet earth i also often find paintings to be inspirational, giving me a sense or a feeling or triggering a memory associated with color or texture.

Periodic synesthesia and, as Rimbaud would put it " . . . a long derangement of the senses," can help the poet become a visionary for sure, but "sometimes you get shown the light/in the strangest of places if you look at it right."

Such as reading the Sunday paper.
In particular, the New York Times Book Review.

There has always been a love in me for the sweeping and feminine forms of classic cars, and those fins and often creative tail light placements capture my attention.

It's something that is missing from todays car designs. An it's something that I miss.

I have no idea what the inspiration was for car designers in the last 25 years, but it definately wasn't aerodynamics, the female form or even the contributions of the ever-phallic rocket ships.

Oh well . . . we still have classic cars and we still have the history of them captured on film.





This inspiration is still in it's initial experimental and embryonic design stage, but i have a feeling it will fruit something beautiful and modern with roots in the classic.