Ophelia

Posted on Instagram on July 13, 2018

"Like a leaf clings
To the tree
Oh my darling,
Cling to me
For we're like creatures
Of the wind
Wild is the wind
Wild is the wind"
(D. Bowie)
🖤
I don't know what to say about this necklace, except that it took me captive for two days. As soon as my hand flew to the stones and I felt the pull of their magic.
Many things ran through my mind while working on this, a stream of hazy daydreams and emotions and memories.
.
Ophelia came to my mind a lot. For some unconscious reason, I am sure, but I can't pinpoint it rationally. Still, it made sense to name the necklace after her.
.
The melancholy I have been feeling these last two days, for no particular reason.
And the fact that, instead of running straight to the usual thought ("omg I am relapsing into depression!") I accepted it and allowed it a space within me.
.
How I listened to Nick Cave and Johnny Cash and Jeff Buckley, trusted companions in time of melancholy. How I could enjoy these moments because I didn't let my fear of emotions taint them.
.
And while this necklace may have started as some song about sadness and tears and darker things, in the end it carries a powerful feeling. A love song. And something victorious.
Does it make sense? It does to my soul.
.
This is hand fabricated - it means I cut every leaf and piece from silver sheet, soldered each tiny piece and then used small burrs to carve them and give them the organic look.
The labradorite is like a stunning pond of magic. The garnet a deep drop of blood.
.
Sterling and fine silver.

Metamorphosis ring- daphne

Posted on Instagram on July 11, 2018

"A heavy numbness seized her limbs, thin bark closed over her breast, her hair turned into leaves, her arms into branches, her feet so swift a moment ago stuck fast in slow-growing roots, her face was lost in the canopy. Only her shining beauty was left." (The Metamorphoses)
💙
It's been an emotionally and mentally demanding week.
For a few days I struggled to get in touch with my creative flow, I felt a bit sluggish. I missed the refuge creativity gives me.
So today I marched to the workspace with the intention to create. Only create. Without expectations.
Just with the will to make something beautiful and soak in the process.
.
I wanted this ring to feel alive, like a branch wrapping around the finger. I wanted it to be light in weight, but with a certain presence.
For it to be grace and embrace and escape and beautiful change.
.
It features a beautiful faceted Amazonite gemstone, and it's completely hand fabricated - this means nothing here is cast, the leaves are cut from silver sheet, soldered, carved and shaped.
.
It's a one of a kind statement of graceful feminine strength.
It's embracing the change and being open to its beauty.
Even if it feels like the change is shattering all we thought we knew about ourselves.

Holy Natural Heart

Posted on Instagram on July 9, 2018

"Sometimes everything is wrong
Now it's time to sing along
When your day is night alone (hold on)
(Hold on) if you feel like letting go (hold on)
If you think you've had too much
Of this life
Well, hang on" (R.E.M.)
💙
When you have been in deep crap for so many years, in such a poor state of mind, and you finally get a break from it all, and feel...decent, even good, for longer than two days...
You kinda get used to it.
And when things turn bad, it's so damn difficult to hold on to your new mindset, to not fall in the old program and feel like you are guilty and worthless. To not think that you are hopeless and things can never really be good for you.
.
This has been me the past two days. Hanging on to the thread of what I learned from therapy, while feeling the old patterns pulling me in the old places.
I feel like I can't breathe.
Which makes sense, since I am all tensed up, my rib cage trying to protect my wounded heart.
.
To shake it all of...to work it out...to do something good out of it. To conjure a magic recipe for this pain.
This is why I sat at the bench today and created this Holy Heart.
.
With the most beautiful sky blue heart, to remember to breathe, to allow the rib cage to expand and take the wide sky in.
With thorns, to acknowledge the pain and what hurts - I am not going to push my emotions down and try to ignore them again.
With wings, because I refuse to give up. I refuse to think I will not be able to soar.
With flames of leaves, again and again, because Nature is Mother and Home and Belonging.
.
The back is engraved with the most delicate "breathe" in my own handwriting.
Delicate engraving, because I want it to feel like a whisper against the heart rather than an order. I want it to be gentle like a breeze.

Ring the bells

Posted on Instagram on July 2, 2018

"Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in"
(L. Cohen)
💙
It's awfully difficult to sit with the discomfort. With the pain, the fear. The sense of failure, of disconnection.
It's difficult to really love and embrace myself for all that I am.
To watch those parts of me that seem so full of cracks and wounds and wondering if I will ever be able to fix them.
To look my weaknesses in the eyes and not cringe.
And then, it's harder to stop and remind that I don't need fixing. That I may be different but not weak or broken.
It's harder because it's such a new concept for me. One that allows me to definitely live better in my own skin, and face life in a different, easier way.
I guess it's about that loving yourself thing that I read oh so often about but always struggled to grasp.
.
This Australian Boulder Opal...the part our eyes are driven to, the part that captures our eyes and soul with the pale blue glittering in magic...that's the crack. That's the weakest part. The strong part is the brown matrix you see all around it.
Still, it's the crack, filled with tender magic, that gets us.
And this is why I chose this stone for this piece.
As usual, surrounded by natural shapes, by leaves and branches, because I always need the reminder that I belong to that something greater and bigger. Home.
.
On the back, a crack.
And a knowing heart with an eye to really see, and rays of light to face the darkness.
.
The crack is indeed where the light gets in.

Holy Heart

Posted on instagram on June 30, 2018

"Come loose your dogs upon me
And let your hair hang down
You are a little mystery to me
Every time you come around"
(Nick Cave)
.
This pendant is to represent what is most holy to me, the connection with Nature. This one is too, someway, related to the concept of Ancestry that keeps showing up for me recently.
Because we are all children of the Earth, and this is the first bond that ever was. The bond they can't take away from us.
.
This is a comfort and protection talisman.
A reminder to go back into the heart space when all feels confusing and scary. A reminder of Home, in the beautify swirling greens of the gemstone.
On the back, a Hand with an Eye is a symbol for protection, along with the phases of the Moon.
.
By looking at it I can remember the feel of moss beneath my hands. Of young leaves giggling upon my fingertips. Of hair untied, bare feet, deep breaths.
Home.
Where I am not asked to be someone else.