So much of my work involves the beauty of the earth it's colors, textures, the senses which come alive and sing secret songs when particular elements and attributes are composed in a different arrangements.
The beauty of this has never escaped me and has in fact informed much of the work I do with a unifying and connecting sensibility. It adds meaning to the work I do. I see myself as one of those integral and intertwined elements of this one big song, this uni-verse.
In Honor of this, 10% from all purchases from my shop will be donated in the name of the purchaser to a recognized or specified verifiable non-profit dedicated to humanitarian efforts and relief in Haiti's devastated Port Au Prince region.
Your purchase will have manifold levels of satisfaction as the things we do will have a global enhancing effect, an act of positive direct solidarity and an affirmation of humanities highest human values, that of love and care of others.
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.
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).
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."
I was raised on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, a temperate rain coast which provided a rich experience of exploration and discovery. My earliest memories are hardwired with towering and benevolent Western Red Cedars, rich Edenic gardens of mossy nurse logs, shimmering alder groves and verdant glens of tall ferns. It was a warm,fertile and moist environment, ideal for my growth and blossoming. It was also the ideal environment for mushrooms.
I was raised in a mushroom hunting family. At varying points in the cycle of seasons my family would take knives and recycled bread bags and head out into the moist and fertile forests to hunt mushrooms. These forays often found my whole family hiking and then spreading out to comb the woods.
Humans are good at this hunting and gathering, we have the ability to scan a scene with a particular form in mind. Our brains can scan the environment and process the information quickly and recognize the particular pattern of attributes we are searching for . . . if those patterns are present.
Mushrooms have a general season in which they will fruit, but they are particular about if and when. Something I have learned through mushroom hunting as well as growing mushrooms myself is that they fruit when the conditions are right. If the moisture levels are right, and the temperature is within a certain range, and the lighting is just right they will fruit. Without fail. However, if even one of these elements is off, they will not fruit, no matter what time of year it is. This was evident when my family would return to a spot where we found many mushrooms the previous season to find that there were none this year, the conditions having changed slightly.
I have taken this bit of mycological wisdom and often applied it to my life. I have often repeated to myself the mantra of "When the conditions are right, it will fruit." It is simillar to the saying of "If you build it, they will come" from the movie Field of Dreams. Often when we desire change in our lives, we can liken it to the fruition of an intention. We must allow the fruiting to occur by creating conditions which are right for it to blossom. Often all it takes is acts of allowance, removing obstacles to the intended results manifestation.
And so, mushrooms and their process have been great teachers to me throughout my life. Their testament to the way of nature, the science of life, the Tao if you will have enriched my life. Sometimes with a peace of mind at times in knowing that when conditions are right things will fruit, and other times their wisdom has influenced me to shift parts of my life that are in my control, to, in otherwords, create conditions more condusive to the fruition of that which I intend to see blossom in my life. This Companion Ring "MycoChromatic" is also titled "mycologia" and is a testament to my love of mushrooms and intended to honor and remind one of the wisdom they speak of. The Smaller side of the companion ring which is a rounded form meant to appear like a young mushroom button also has a highly polished top wherein the wearer can see himself reflected.
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."
Creating jewelry is a very satisfying process for me. I find it a very enjoyable way to spend my time, losing myself in the creative process. I lose track of time with favorite tunes on for hours and hours as I "work"
Because almost every one of my pieces is a one of a kind unique creation, each one is also an experiment. I experiment with materials, design elements, textures and colors, and most of all, techniques of fabrication.
I make all of my works from scratch. Aside from some earring wires recently, i do not purchase pre-made components and put them together. I fabricate all of the parts of the pieces I make from scratch; everything from finding and cutting and polishing the stones/ materials to cutting melting, forging, milling, rolling and shaping the silver and gold. I find this to be very satisfying as none of my parts are standard sizes or shapes, everything comes from the creative process of dreaming of something and then manifesting it in the "real" world.
Sometimes this process amazes me even more by surprising me with lucky accidents which later become useful as elements on other pieces or as new techniques of fabrication or assembling. Recently I had to devise my own way of attaching silver to brass since the two metals seemed to be incompatible for simply soldering them together.
My latest ring, the Full Moon ring really stunned me with its surprise gift. The ring began as a nice lump of recycled silver which i textured in the brief moments while it cooled. It revealed itself as slightly moonish and so I re-melted it and re-worked it till i was satisfied with its moon-likeness. I like to have a lot of content in my pieces at least while I work. I find it very satisfying, so i began to contemplate and remember moon symbolism.
. . . ahh, the full moon, a symbol both simple and complex, speaking of completion of cycle, abundance, and symbolic of the height of power, the peak of clarity, fullness and obtainment of desire . . . and lunacy. In alchemical teachings, the moon is ...a facet of Silver.
Instead of any of the previous forms of ring shanks i have crafted, it struck me that a nice design element could be added to the piece by the mirroring of the full moons circular shape in the band. This was a great way to integrate the main of the ring with the shank, allowing the shank to be more artful on top of being functional. I decided on two large circles with a smaller one in-between which when laid out measured the requisite length to create a size 7&1/2 ring shank, a safe "average" and very common ring size for women. What I found after creating this ring astounded me. These circles when observed from the bottom appear as another full moon with a waxing crescent moon to the left and a waning crescent moon to the right!
(this photo was taken before i brush-finished the piece)
This was a completely serendipitous aspect of it's design, not an aspect i had intended, but an unforeseen aspect manifest in the form of my design. It blew me away. I wish i could say that i had intended it to be this way, however, i am completely satisfied, and a bit in awe, with the way it came to be.
Sometimes things just happen this way and i take great joy in it.
The moon of this ring is of brushed Sterling Silver with a modicum of patina for the craters and seas. This sits atop a found White Agate which is set in lightly brushed Sterling Silver bezel.
This ring is a size 7&1/2 Main Bezel and stone of this ring measure 1" x 3/4"
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