a little cloudy treat

I’m such a lucky girl. On a recent trip to Wellington I spied a brooch at Quoil and thought, “Gosh, if I owned that little cloud I would wear it every day and it would make me oh-so-happy.” As it turns out, my jewellery tutor Jane Dodd is the hand behind the design, and I twisted her arm into making one of my very own. Ok, there wasn’t much actual twisting involved.

In case you can’t tell, that’s an infinitesimally small flock of birds flying across the cloud. There’s something about the juxtaposition of animated cloud shape and realistic birds that seems to speak to me at this point in my life. The back is darkened which also makes me unexplainably happy. Oh, and the front is Scotchbrite’d to a scratchy perfectness.

I’m almost finished with the necklace I’ve been making from the Afghani glass beads I posted about a while back. Hopefully I finish it up by next Monday’s class and I can fiiiinally show you some images.

oh, the lure of jewelry

I’ve been flirting around with all different kinds of creative pursuits lately… vintage paper collage, writing, cooking, jewelry making. It’s been liberating to just have fun, without the pressure of ‘making a living’ attached. I’ve also been meditating on what it is that I need to be happy. I truly enjoy spending time alone, focussed on creating something beautiful, listening to the quiet natural sounds around me (except this morning when I was trying to sleep in and the birds were scrabbling it out on the metal roof, aack).

So, in Austin, I was able to do this while making flower arrangements, but here it looks like that won’t be my path. I’ve become increasingly drawn to jewelry, specifically very unique, handmade pieces that utilize materials such as shell, bone, glass, twine, wool and found objects (but also silver and rough-cut stones). A positive side effect of moving to a country where you know very few people is the time it frees up to delve deeply into the internet. I have found such a wealth of creative souls – it is exactly the kind of thing that renews my belief in human nature.

The following two images are by kjoo – a woman in Portugal. I have never seen anything like these incredibly unique pieces…

Her etsy and flickr pages are amazing. I found her work through the blog of another rare talent, Tay MacIntyre, whose pieces are some of my all-time favorites.

Tay uses vintage buttons and other items in her work, which I think lends an authenticity and unique beauty.

I couldn’t be more inspired by her display at a recent show in Portland, OR, where she lives and works. A curious thing about blogging, or reading other’s blogs actually, is that you can stay up until 2am reading hundreds of posts, and feel like you know the person at the keyboard. I have followed Tay’s adventures as she became a full-time jeweler, to the Greek Island of Lesbos, seen her new studio, and witnessed her struggle with The Turnip (breast cancer). The fact that she shares all of this with the world is incredible, and experiencing her courageous, unique being is one of the most inspirational parts of my day.