This mythical piece is currently included in an Etsy.com Treasury compiled by the Gufobardo shop. The collection holds a variety of wonderful handmade items with a nice theme that one can feel when looking through the items contained there. They would all compliment each other very well.
...dark & mysterious, Elvish but darkly so, Sauronic yet beautiful...there is a touch of everything in this piece, it is very earthen and metallic with touches of underworld subtlety, organic, even floral unfurling in the upper beaten brass portion . . . speaks of power, yet also grace . . . a sense of tremor and trial, but also of flow . . . the iron hold of deaths surety and the ethereal triumph of new life's promise . . .
This ring began as a found bullet casing.
Once beaten into a new form it became the base of a silver bezel with black patina holding a Serpentine cabochon in it's dark embrace.
A gnarly and complimentary wood-grain textured silver band with a matching black patina was affixed giving this piece a very unique character.
"mori kemen lokte" is Tolkienian Elvish for "dark earth blossom"
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.
It's Ear Season again. You mean Deer Season? No, I mean ear season.
That's right, it's ear season again, time for hunters to keep their ears peeled for the sounds of deer in the forest, and for hikers in the woods to keep their ears peeled for hunters. Autumn is one of my favorite seasons.
There are so many reasons for me to be out in the mountain forests at this time of year. The seasonal changing of the leaves, which around here amounts to groves of Aspen trees turning golden and quite frankly transcendent or ethereal. Their yellow homage to the years dying sun is, truly, something to behold. Also, when the Aspens change color I know it's time to harvest Osha root, a powerful anti-viral and bronchial stimulator good for fighting off the flus and bronchial coughing which are also just as seasonal this time of year.
This is also the time for mushroom hunting and the King Bolete enjoys the same high altitude haunts as the Elk do. So, not only am I up there root-grubbing around and meandering through the sun-dappled sub-alpine Douglas Fir ecosystems, but many hunters are as well, listening for the rustle of something in the woods. I am a lover of silence, I have learned a lot from the deer growing up in the woods, and my movememnts and manners can, especially when in reverie at Natures beauty, be much akin to deer and Elk. Emulating these peaceful and powerful forest beings is not a wise thing to do at this time of year, however, so i often find myself whistling a tune to signal my human-ness, or perhaps the spirit of the bard overtakes me and I get a bit lyrical or compose Tolkein-esque narrative. I found these bullet casings on the North slope of Greenhorn Mountain in the watershed of a small spring. I like to pick up any trash I find when out on my hikes and forays, but especially anything hazardous to my environment, such as batteries. I'm not sure of the potential for heavy metal contamination of our watershed from brass bullet casings, but I'm pretty sure that it isn't a good thing. I collected these and brought them home to dispose of in a propper manner, which is to . . . well, . . . I really didn't know. Recycle them I guess, but I wasn't going to take a trip to the recycle station soon, so I kept them around. Soon, I began to look at them as found objects and metal material which might be fodder for my creative outlet.
These were a quick experiment in upcycling found brass bullet casings. I brushed, drilled and added simple Sterling Silver ear wires. This hazardous waste has been transformed into a simple yet edgy pair of earrings. They make great conversation pieces for earthkeepers and deer hunters, ecologists and Outdoor Educators. Each pair come with small rolled scrolls with quotes about nature tucked into them. Particularly I like to put a quote by Aldo Leopold on his idea of a Nature Ethic in them, but there are many quotes from Emerson or Muir which would go great in them as well.
"The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land."
"This sounds simple: do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these 'resources,' but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state."
The inspiration for these Sterling Silver and Coral earrings came to me at midnight. Not a typical tale for me, for you see, i am a night sleeper, a dreamer. But, alas, this particular night found me awake and restless. The heat of the day had subsided with a miraculous rainshower earlier, and so . . . out to the studio i go.
To get there i must step out onto the back deck, my feet feeling the rain wet wood. I step down into the garden, following the straw lined path now very cool and wet, nearly squishy to my bare feet. In the day i have to be mindful not to step upon any creature for the rolly-pollys and ants are busy moving from the garden across the concrete patio between the studio and the garden.
I do not put music on, but opt to listen to the music made by the wind in the trees. A cool night breeze this is which blows through making my tall carrot flowers sway sleepily. And as i sit to meditate for a moment and take in this nights present moment, i am filled with inspiration and begin to look through my materials and my silver to manifest this complex sense of the night . . .
. . . and these earrings "inspircoral" are born . . .
. . . there is something in them of the sacred circle, the path of planets, a cool night breeze and my neighbors backyard wind chimes...the striving of the life force in the sea...the transformation of extreme forces, met with grace and peace, a creation somewhere between allowing and dreaming...
The silver swerve and circle are free to rotate around the axis of the ear wire. The coral bead is free to spin.
Well, even though today was a bit blustery, i went out for my hike anyway. This time i made my journey to the Little Owls Canyon. Little Owls Canyon is a magical place and has welcomed nature lovers for ages as is evident by the petraglyphs or rock art gracing its walls. It has been a rock climbers hidden gem for decades. There are rare salamanders here, and i have heard frogs singing up in pools i have yet to explore.
The health of the canyon's waterway and wildlife is being endangered by an irreverent and irresponsible mining company which is still in operation despite its permit violations, EPA violations, and various other sundry violations of law, ethics, and environmental stewardship. They have been running a mining operation for years, having leased the mineral rights to land which is now a growing community of home owners. This mining operation is seeking a special use permit to expand their operation onto even more peoples land. A grassroots organization of rock climbers, land owners and land lovers has sprouted up in opposition to the granting of the special use permit.
Despite the gradual encroachment of the mining company and its pollutants i was blessed with sightings of much wildlife. Deer and elk tracks, bear and coyote scat. I saw one coyote, many little birds unknown to me (some that were defying gravity and walking underneath rock ledges upside down), a little woodpecker (nutalls) or sapsucker (yellow bellied), found feathers of wild turkey and great horned owl. The small boulder pools were mostly frozen with a light sciff of snow, enough to just make out see coyote tracks clearly, although beneath some i could hear the trickle of the creek.
My most amazing find today was of a mass of wild honeycombs hanging from a shaded section of stone high up a cliff face. I climbed up to get a closer view and took photos, but they seem a bit blurry to me even though the camera should have focused on them.
My love for this canyon and its healthy natural state has led me to attend the local county planning commision meetings, write letters, make phone calls and gather with others to discuss actions we can take to increase awareness of the situation.
One thing that has come up is the cost of legal representation for the landowners. At the last meeting of concerned citizens i proposed that we all do a little towards helping by focusing on our own areas of expertise. There are many artists involved, and i suggested that we make and donate artwork for an auction to raise money. We could make t-shirts, musicians could donate music or even write new music for a compilation cd to be made and sold to raise awareness and money. For me, i have decided to work a jewelry angle.
On my recent visit i collected a few select pieces of stone which i intend to work into a series of pieces which could be sold or auctioned to raise money to help in the raising of awareness about the Little Owls Canyon and its plight.
And in an epipheny (or was it the mushroom whispering) i realized the series would be called "Stones from the Pools of Time" and when i found certain stones they too had names, names which will follow them into the pieces i create (ie. Little Owls Canyon Night, Ghost Dance etc.)
This hiking trip in congunction with local happenings has really inspired me toward a new series of work with great local, social and environmental relevance and resonance.
The last few days have been pretty cold around here. Even what start out as gray days usually end up with the old Colorado sun coming out. The sun streaming into the living room appears golden and warm, but as i look out at the thermostat on the little greenhouse i can see that is only appearances.
Days like this make me welcome the sun, and as i sit on the couch in a sunny spot i put my face into the sunbeams and let the warmth soak in, melting away thoughts of much else. I revel in this for awhile, and memories of springs gone past return. I remember the day my friend Ann and i let our butterflies go. They had hatched from their cocoons in a large pickle jar in the house. It was great to see them flitter and flutter about and head straight for the large yellow flowers.
Some days are good for reflection, and this is one of them. I find that i can place myself in those magical moments of yesteryear fairly well. The smells of the evergreens, the sound of birds and snowmelt running and dripping down rocks and the nuthatches and sapsuckers tap-tap-tapping away, the feel of the new spring sun on my skin and the still cool breeze in my hair, the sights of new colors emerging from the whites and grays of winter and my friend smiling and laughing in her own reverie.
I look forward to these times, but in the meantime, i have the color palette of my stones to gaze out. The many greens i am so attracted to as well as the other colors reminding me of various associative things in nature.
Today it's the birds which come to mind.The red of the finch' s breast, the flash of surprising yellows and oranges from the tanagers and goldfinches, the bluejay weaving deep green boughs of pine. The crazy stitch of the humingbird with its blurred and buzzing rubies and emeralds pulling it all together with its zipping curiosity of everything.
It may be a cold gray and snowy day outside, but inside the promise of spring is already blossoming in my heart.
My father instilled in me a love of hiking in the great outdoors. We did some family camping of course, but what i recall most when thinking back are the times we put on backpacks and hiked for days out into the back country. Living in Washington State allowed us to explore amazingly secluded and magical natural places. These places resonated with the same amazing beauty and mythic quality and power as the world of The Lord Of The Rings which my father would read to us in the evenings before bed.
We would set up camp and explore the area, then, at nightfall we would observe the stars and talk about the heavens. Sometimes, when permitted, we would have a small fire. In the morning we would break camp, following my families leave no trace policy and hike further on and in to our next campsite.
When exploring the various campsites i would often find treasures. Sometimes it was a gnarly fallen tree limb which became my new walkingstick. Other times it was an amazing display of micro plant life, tiny fairy castle fungi or mossflowers. But mostly, my eyes would sieze upon remarkable stones.
My eye has always been drawn to white stones and green stones, but i would find stones of all beautiful colors. A favorite place to find beauty in stone was always a lakeshore or more likely, a creek bed. These stones, wet with glacial melt, would shine and show their colors wonderfully upon their glossy surfaces. I would pocket favorites to take back home to show mom.
Unfortunately when i pulled the now dry stones and pebbles from my pockets full of feathers, acorns and moss, they wouldn't shine with the lustre they had when wet. I would have to wet them to show her the beauty i had seen in the wild places.
When i learned basic lapidary skills i suddenly realized that i was learning how to make stones shine permanently as they would if wet. It has been very satisfying to now be able to do something with the beautiful stones i find, polish them and frame them in silver, creating treasures to be worn and displayed for ages to come.
I still enjoy hiking and now when i find those stones, i also know what i'm going to do with them. This has allowed me to turn my love for hiking into material collecting expeditions, combining doing what i love with making a living which has been a desire of mine for years, and now a manifesting intention.
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