More jewelry...who would have guessed?

Continuing my found jewelry (Nature jewelry? Found object jewelry? I don't know what to call them...) here at home, mostly on our evening walks. Mostly on the rail trail that runs through our tiny PA town and mostly as the sun is going down...which sometimes presents photo issues.

I'm so fortunate to have a husband who's completely content to act as my assistant. "Gather as many good looking walnuts as you can." I order and there isn't a quibble.

He carries rusty metal in his pockets for miles and alerts me to interesting bits of trash. He makes suggestions and critiques and handles my disagreement with critiques like a champ. ("What? No, the cracked, large walnut can't go at the very bottom, too predictable." )

First one I made without using my hands. 

The trail is shimmery for about 50 ft. headed south into Maryland. Almost all the rocks and even the dirt contains mica flakes and its like someone sprinkled silver dust across the path. Sadly the photos didn't turn out nearly the whole thing looked in real life. 

They say inspiration is everywhere. While I'm sure that is true I seem to find it more some places than others.

Shop site success

My NEW SHOP is open!

I decided to take the completion of my Longest Year line as the time to make the move to shop space independent of Etsy.  Its connected to my website as is the Etsy shop but this way I won't be putting add my eggs in one basket as it were. I'm not sure right now exactly how the division of shops will work but all new work from now forward is going into the new shop.

Reversible necklace

And now, after all the website wrestling, I really feel like its time to just concentrate on the work. Thats where the pleasure is for me, designing and making, and with some different autoimmune symptoms surfacing in the last 2 months anything that reduces stress is literally what the doctor ordered.

I specifically chose to limit the first installment of the Longest Year line to 12 pieces, one for everything month of the year since my diagnosis. I hope it doesn't seem overly sentimental because it was actually more a matter of practicality - I could have designed and designed forever just using this limited selection of shapes.

I've loved the process of limiting myself and then seeing what I can do within that limitation. The shapes in this line are all variations on one, the "mountain" shape in this necklace (save for here and there such as the bracelet toggle which I couldn't seem to resolve any other way although I'll tell you I really tried to make that a little mountain as well).  And for now I chose to limit the palette too except for color on a couple pieces.

This is a brooch/necklace combination. 

What I found, much to my delight I have to tell you, is that rather than running out of ideas, I couldn't find the end of ideas! I could probably work for another year and just keep pushing and pushing this one shape. I'm not sure I will (would I fall out of love with the shape? would I still be able to sell work?)  but I could.

The original necklace where this whole line started.

But at any rate, for the sake of getting a this body of work together I needed to draw the line somewhere and 12 pieces for a line called The Longest Year certainly made sense (Although...there are more pieces already started and sitting on my work table today ;-)

Four stranded necklace - you change the strand that's worn in the back from the black to the longest translucent. 

I'd love to get your feedback on my new work and the shop! I'd also love to hear if any of your who are artists have ever limited yourself this way and how it affected your work.

The Longest Line

This line has been a long time in the making. I'm kind of amazed that it's come to fruition not in spite of but because of my autoimmune disease diagnosis last March.

I introduced a couple pieces not long before I was taken to the ER and didn't find my way back to them up again until later in the spring. In the midst of my ensuing brain fog the repeated shapes became a kind of meditation for me, soothing and steady. And I've just let myself flesh out the line further. It was a "if life gives you lemons make lemonade" sort of epiphany.

The necklace has four different strands - one black, one very pale grey and two translucent and you chose how to wear it, with the black section at the back (as shown) or with the longest translucent section at the back. Who doesn't like flexibility?  Either way its a mid-length necklace with no clasps.  The pieces are flat and so very lightweight and connected with heavily oxidized sterling silver.

In addition to the couple pairs of earrings that dripped into my shop in the past couple of months, The Longest Year line will include short, mid-length and long necklaces, several styles of earrings, a pin and a bracelet and will be ready for purchase on March 7th.  Watch this space for more details!