Promise of Spring

When I go for my long walks through my neighborhood and the surrounding stream valley park, I keep my eyes and ears open for ideas for my jewelry. Inspiration in terms of color is easy to come by in the spring, summer, and fall months, and I tend to view the world through my painter's eye. However, it is winter when the sculptor in me is more awake to possibilities. Although lovely color can be found -- in the bark of a tree, a bright red cardinal perched on a tangle of vines, the reflection of a bright winter sky in the still water of a mostly frozen stream --I look more for the shape and texture of things that emerge when the foliage is gone. Recently, I passed a dogwood tree and paused to marvel at the tightly furled buds on the very tips of the branches. Their shapes were lovely, but I was even more entranced by the thought that, deep inside, like a wonderful secret held in a tightly closed fist, lay the promise of the blossom that would emerge when the days lengthened and sunshine once again warmed the land.

Last winter, I made a series of earrings out of sterling silver wire that I called Winter Branches (see my blog entry: http://mebdesigns.blogspot.com/2008/02/winter-branches-earrings-handcrafted.html). As labor intensive as they were, I enjoyed doing them immensely. The tree I passed on my walk inspired me to do something similar. When I came home that day, I sat down in my studio and began to draw shapes that reminded me of those dreaming buds on the tips of slender branches.

When I came up with a design that I thought would make lovely and graceful earrings, I set to work. Since this design is a little more elaborate than my Winter Branches design, I decided to use 19 gauge silver so they wouldn't feel heavy. Despite coming down with a debilitating case of tennis elbow, thanks to all the hammering, they turned out just the way I envisioned. Look for them soon in my etsy shop.

Fuschia Flamengo, Ghost Deer, and Other Distractions

I find these days that it is very difficult to stay indoors. The blue sky and changing colors beckon. And yet, when I am outside walking, I find my mind half in my studio, working on a design, or thinking about what I'm going to make next. I enjoy the walk, the feel of the warm sun, the sound of acorns crunching underfoot, the crash and thud of falling black walnuts and apples from the trees above, the sight of a leaf floating gently from the sky like a snowflake presaging a blizzard. And always, always, when I'm walking, I keep my eye out for a white deer which comes to nibble on a neighbor's garden some evenings. I saw this photo, which my neighbor happened to snap, and it took my breath away. The deer doesn't look real. It looks like a photographic negative or, perhaps, a ghost. How does it stay hidden in the forest, I wonder? Do other deer attack it for being different as, I was told, horses often bite others that are white?

I realized today as I was walking and pondering the last thought, that there is a connection there with the necklace I'm making. The connection has nothing to do with the colors in nature, as this necklace has much more in common with a tropical garden than a temperate forest. Rather, the connection is with the girl for whom I am designing the necklace and a white horse.

A number of years ago, when I was living in Peru, I met the girl and became very close to her mother and her family. My son was the same age, and they used to take riding lessons together. One day, the horse her sister was riding reached out to bite the white horse upon which the girl was mounted. Horrifyingly, the horse missed and, instead, bit down on the girl's thigh with such force that it lifted her up out of the saddle. Understandably, the poor girl was very reluctant to get back up on a horse again.

But, I digress: I got distracted. Back to the walk, back to the thoughts of the ghost deer, back to the thoughts of the girl and her necklace. The necklace is called Fuschia Flamengo. It is spectacular, it sparkles, it has a star's big personality....pretty much like the girl herself! Happy Birthday and enjoy your homecoming!

Golden Days and Dreams of Amber

A short drive from where I live in Northern Virginia, is a parkland situated along the banks of the Potomac River. A trail winds along the edge of the river, enticing one to take a lovely long walk. A few miles downriver are the thundering Great Falls, which stopped Captain John Smith in his journey up the Potomac centuries ago. In this park, the river itself is wide and shallow and slow, dotted here and there with rocks and rills and a few deep pools in which gaggles of geese and rafts of ducks eat and play in the clear water. What was to have been a short stroll, turned into a nearly three hour walk because I couldn't bear to turn back. Strolling along the shaded path, with no sounds other than birds in the surrounding forest and waterfowl in the river, with the Potomac sparkling in the sun, was heaven. The weather was perfect; the park was perfect: I fell in love.

I also fell in love with a strand of large Baltic amber beads which I found in a nearby shop recently. These beads look like drops of warm sun that encapsulate the golden and reddish colors of fall. I lived in Poland many years ago, and I have regretted ever since that I didn't buy trunkfulls of amber then. I do remember walking along the Baltic sea and finding delicate drops of amber on the sand. Amber is wondrous: It is so ancient that the trees that gave off the resin that became amber no longer exist. The resin formed 25 to 50 million years ago and enfolds within itself the world that existed at the time. Homer speaks of amber as a gift fit for royalty in the Odyssey, and an amber room was indeed given to Peter the Great of Russia by the Prussians. It is said to bring luck to its bearer, whether royal or not. And this amber strand was big, it was golden and full of red and yellow inclusions as if it is reflecting a fall day millions of years ago. I couldn't wait to make a necklace with it.

I began with a beautiful, large center bead. That bead is surrounded by tiny Czech glass seed beads, and two facetted Czech crystal rondelles of a hue the color of yellow-green leaves in autumn. From that gorgeous center bead, graduated sizes of more amber beads continue, separated by small Czech glass rondelles and cathedral beads -- also showing the gradual onset of autumn in their sparkling green and yellow depths. To reduce the weight and the cost of the necklace, I added beads of amber and citrine glass whose golden color perfectly mimics the beautiful amber. Finished off with an adjustable 14-karat gold-filled chain and a handmade 14-karat gold-filled clasp, the lucky person who ends up with this necklace will indeed feel like royalty. Look for it in my etsy shop soon.

The First Signs of Autumn

It is easy sometimes, when walking in my neighborhood, to forget that I live in a suburb of a major metropolitan area. A short stroll away lies a stream valley park where, as often as not, I see or hear some form of wildlife. It might be a cluster of deer, startled into statues by my coming. Occasionally, I'll spy the tawny red coat and spindly legs of a fox. Rarer still, but not uncommon, is when I catch sight of a beaver, either sliding down the riverbank with some tasty tangle of leaves in his mouth, or gliding through the water towards his dam. Always, I am surrounded by birdsong, the chatter and scramble of squirrels, sometimes the cry of a hawk as he sails overhead, and the mesmerizing song of the cicadas.

I lived overseas for many years in countries where there were only two seasons: the hot season and the cool season; or the rainy season and the dry season. Coming back to witness again the four seasons of a temperate climate has been thrilling for me. As I walk now, despite the persistent summer heat and humidity, I see leaves fluttering down onto the path. The trees themselves are just beginning to show hints of gold or red or brown. The combination of colors in a temperate forest in the autumn is always both soothing and exhilarating to me, exciting my artist's eye and promising more changes to come.

I love designing jewelry that showcases those changes. I just finished a necklace called Smoke and Sparkle, which has hints of the beginning of autumn. Starting with a lovely smoky quartz nugget, which looks as if it has been caressed over time by wind and water, I surrounded it with the sparkling facets of smoky quartz briolettes. Nestled in between these, I added chips of peridot and small Czech facetted cathedral beads, with lovely transparent green barrels tipped with gold like the leaves in autumn. I love how the green sparkles amongst the brownish grey quartz like sunlight on the leaves in a forest. The necklace has a wonderful combination of textures and colors, that are both subtle and eye-catching. It is now available in my etsy shop, along with additional photos.

Sunlit Sea

One year ago yesterday, I sold a necklace called Sunlit Sea. Today, in an odd but happy coincidence, I was commissioned to do something similar. Happily, I still had enough of the beads playing the starring role, as well as a good supply of supporting cast members. The colors on the glass beads that I used remind me of the sun shining on the waves, with hints of the cool depths underneath.

Sadly, this will be the first summer in many years when I won't have the opportunity to see the sun shining on real waves. I lived with my family for several years in Costa Rica, where we would brave the terrible roads as often as possible to go to our favorite beach on the Caribbean side. We saw that beach many different times of year when it had many different moods. The best memory I have was one October when we went there to celebrate our son's birthday. The sea was completely calm, soothingly warm, and one could float to one's heart's content, staring up at the blue sky, or turning one's head to the side to see the long line of the palm-lined coast. The worst memory was being there shortly after the terrible tsunami in Asia. This time, a terrible storm knocked out electricity and washed out the road back home. As my son said in a quavering voice, in the pitch dark of the hotel room, with the sound of the waves roaring loud in the utter stillness: "The air is a little too thick with adventure!"

Last summer, we had the privilege and pleasure of spending an idyllic vacation with wonderful friends on the Isle of Palms in South Carolina. Before the tide would go out and leave miles of sand exposed, the water would calm down and, again, one could float, lifted and caressed and gently rocked by the waves. The bonnet-headed sharks swimming around gave just the right note of danger.

So, this year, my sea memories will have to be created by the colors of the beads and stones in my studio. I have some gorgeous chalcedony the color of a warm, shallow sea that I hope to turn to next. All of you who have access to a beautiful beach, I wish you gentle waves and warm breezes!

Forest and Sea Necklace

I freely admit it: I am not a neat jeweler. My studio tends to get pretty wild with boxes of beads of various colors, mailing supplies, wire, tools, photography equipment, etc. Every now and then I have to take some time and clean it up. After several days of silversmithing, I decided that the time had come. As I was putting things in their proper place, I unearthed a beautiful spiral hilltribe silver bead that I had also used in my Pearl Swirl necklace (which can be viewed in my etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=5995187). Aha! I said to myself, as visions of a new necklace started dancing in my head!

As in my Pearl Swirl necklace, I decided to use some of my champagne pearls because their swirly shape is so reminiscent of the spiral bead. But rather than throw in a lot of other pearls, I decided to raid my box of wooden beads. I immediately fixated on the large, torqued spiral ones, which I felt would help offset the size of the spiral bead. Then, for interest in terms of color and texture and shape, I started weaving in other wooden beads: square, round, and triangular. Then, to separate the silver bead from the wood (as wood has a tendency to cause silver to tarnish more quickly), I used two beautifully polished horn beads on either side of the silver. Rather in the manner of silk knots between pearls, which swerves to highlight each shape as well as to protect each pearl, I employed a variety of czech glass seed beads.

Last but not least, I used a handmade sterling silver clasp and a 4 inch sterling silver chain, whose links reminded me of the torqued spiral of the large wooden beads. I realized recently that I really prefer adjustable necklaces, so I can vary them according to the neckline of the shirt I'm wearing, so I've started offering most necklaces that way. This necklace, therefore, can be transformed from a 16 inch choker length, to a 20 inch necklace. The photos below show how the necklace hangs at those two lengths.

Is my studio clean now? Of course not, because, as soon as I stumbled upon the spiral silver bead, out came the boxes, the clasps, the chains, etc. Do I care? No, because out of chaos, came this beautiful necklace!

Pearl Swirl Necklace and Costa Rica

I spent the morning editing the curriculum vitae of a lovely Colombian woman whom I got to know while living in Costa Rica. She was the director of a community-based environmental organization whose goal was to protect the nearby mountains and watershed area. I hiked those mountains every week with friends, and was utterly captivated by them.

So here I was, thinking back about my three years in Costa Rica. When I'm thinking about Costa Rica, my thoughts often stray from the beautiful mountains of the interior to the wonderful beaches on the Caribbean coast. Unlike the Atlantic side, which is filled with tourists, the Caribbean side has stayed more true to its roots, and life is less ruled by foreigners. Our favorite restaurant in Costa Rica was there -- Pecora Nera -- and our favorite beaches -- Punta Uva and Playa Chiquita. When I wasn't eating Italian food or floating in the warm waters of the Caribbean, I was walking the long length of the beach looking for interesting shells. It was thoughts of those shells that led me to create today's design, which I call my "Pearl Swirl Necklace". It would have been the perfect thing to wear, after a wonderful day at the beach, while drinking a glass of wine and waiting for Illario to bring out his magical food.

If you want to learn any more about the mountains of Costa Rica, and the wonderful plants and animals that inhabit them, you can do no better than to read the blog of another good friend of mine about her own piece of paradise http://fincaeltigre.blogspot.com/