Good Morning! ...For a morning that starts at 10:30am. I keep artists’ hours.
Yesterday’s cup of coffee baptized myself and my patio door thanks to my bouncing-jumping-Malinois-  grandpup-greeter who is so excited to greet each of us as we wake up & get ushered into a new day.
The pearl bracelet is a bucket list item I’ve wanted ever since visiting Hamoa Beach in Hana Maui. I forged this white pearl bracelet in silver myself along with a separate not pictured dark pearl that orbits a yellow gold bangle. Gold is easier to solder since it has a lower melting temperature but but it’s way more expensive to make mistakes with. Similar to the costs of loving relationships; they're are inherently more expensive in risk, vulnerability and reciprocating love the higher the temperature of influence and importance they hold in our lives.
My philosophy in life is if you can’t choose between one or the other get BOTH.
Yes I’m a child of 80’s #BoKnows
My mother in-law taught me that the only French you need to know in France is "Trois" as in "I'll take all three pieces of jewelry thank you." We were traveling with her via house boat on the Seine River and walked into an expensive jewelry store looking like ragamuffins.
I’m learning that God is a loving father usually of Both And rather than Either Or. You can ask Him yourself to convince you and enjoy the adventure of discovery. I'm certain He'll be obliged to proving Himself to you.
The Waves of Innocence pearl ring is a ring my mother in-law commissioned me to make with pearls that she and her new husband harvested on their honeymoon after my hubby (her son) and I #Mauied them in Lahaina. It was such a fun design, I created a mold to cast additional pieces, yes... in both Silver AND gold.
She recently passed and is currently giggling with God on streets of Gold!
I'm wearing her ring, sent to me along with other insured "pieces of inheritance trickling down", to carry her memory with me today.
As I sort through, place and organize her jewelry pieces in my jewelry box, I realize just how much she influenced all of my jewelry choices and design making. She loved my experiments and encouraged my forging. She said that for every dollar amount my husband's dad spent on coins, cigars and stamps, she got to spend on jewelry. More than their insured collection values, each piece holds a prized memory. Every day that I go to my jewelry box and decide what to wear, I end up wearing a memento from traveling adventures or memories made with loved ones. There is a story behind almost everything. They are treasures that last far beyond their monetary value.
This is sort of my coming out post. Coming out from a season of grieving. Rather, braving the harsh world of its tragedies and critics after an intimate space of savoring time not long enough with those we love.
It’s a bitter sweet thing to have something you make and ship out into the world, come back to you and not return void of achieving it's purpose, but rather having collected enhanced meaning and nostalgia. Mass has memory. Its frequency emanates the memory of the adventures it has traveled with it's wearer. Yes, I believe in science too.
What mementos do you cherish that are a part of your daily life that also simultaneously serve practical functional purposes?
I designed, forged and hand built the pearl bracelet, ring and redwood mug in first photo.
Sure the mug is functional in holding my coffee (before my grandpup can spill it),.....
but jewelry serves a priceless function of inspiring beauty and sentimental value and symbolism beyond what an insurance policy can deem a replacement valuation for, should your life’s treasured trinkets ever get stolen.
My mother in-law’s influence in my life can never be stolen.
I'll take the good with the bad because I know the good will prevail.
I'll take death with grieving because the grieving only comes with living that was well spent.
I'll drink in the full spectrum of emotions as I was created with a limitless capacity for Both And all of the above, with all of it's complexities, dimensions, colors, flavors and sounds.
I'll also spit out whatever I make of it all as I was created to create, express, imagine, design, and participate in life as I breathe in and exhale out.
Even until our last breaths and for all of eternity, we are artists creating.