i am the ocean. i am the river.

i have been busy working on pieces for my upcoming show, lanterns, spiral earrings, stacking rings, charm necklaces, etc. i took a break from that the last couple of days to make these new pieces.

a new "maven soul" necklace,

with prehnite, rainbow moonstone, labradorite, and green tourmaline

amidst the stones, it has a single leaf, one of my tri-leaf pieces, and a sweet little green tourmaline flower dangling below.

maven means "one who knows". this necklace is to encourage understanding of your own soul. to promote exploration and excavation. to help you to discover what is real for you.

an "i am the ocean" ring,

with a gorgeous faceted labradorite

i am the ocean.

i ebb and i flow.

i give and i receive.

i know and i don't.

i trust and i fear.

i am the ocean.

this flash is amazing!

the ocean has been on my mind lately. living in the landlocked, usually very dry (except right now. it snowed today!) area that i do, i adore the ocean, the beach. i dream of it often. glenn and i just decided to return to this incredible beach for a family trip to celebrate my birthday this year!

and the "i am the river" ring,

with a beautiful crazy lace agate

i am the river.

i let go and i flow.

i gurgle, i ripple, and i roll.

i trust and i trickle.

i release and i believe.

i am the river.

in the absence of the ocean, i desperately appreciate the river that runs through my town, the dolores river. it is a constant soothing presence in my life and i don't know what i would do without it. i love the contrast between the ocean and the river. the ocean is back and forth, give and take, in and out, here and there. it always stabilizes, always equalizes itself, what it gives it takes back, what it lets go, it retrieves, an unending cycle. the river just goes. it blindly flows where it knows it's meant to go. it lets go and it releases and it goes, no looking back, no reservations. which are you right now, the ocean or the river?

these are all on their way to the shop right now.

we had planned to camp this weekend, with some dear friends. but once again, the weather is not cooperating. it is freezing cold and snowy. may is malfunctioning this year. i just want to be warm! we'll see what it does tomorrow and decide. i hope you all have spectacular weekends, whatever your weather and whatever you do...

the girls

the girls and i had a great time this weekend, just the girls.

we had a tea party, with homemade chocolate chip scones,

we worked on the garden,

(our growing season is very short and i need to get things into the ground!)

and we played at the river.

and i will leave you with this little bit of sass...

a lovely date

so i would like to share something very sweet with you. remember i told you how glenn was planning all sorts of backpacking trips? well, this weekend was one of them. he was supposed to leave today and come back sunday night. so i lined up a babysitter for this afternoon/ evening so that i could go for a hike. well, glenn came home from work yesterday and said that he would rather stay home tonight and have a date and leave for his trip tomorrow morning. now that might not seem like a very big deal to you, but it was to me. so dear. glenn loves backpacking as much as i love my little music road trips.

so we went for an awesome bike ride and out to dinner. we live in a fabulous place for bike riding. i am a very amateur mountain biker, but i love it.

the trail we were on today was so fun. parts of it were easy, like in this picture. but other parts of it made me feel like a kid on a bmx track, windy turns and short, steep ups and downs; i had a blast.

biking is so different from cross-country skiing, and you know how i feel about skiing. where skiing is relaxing and meditative, biking is on-your-toes and even a bit stressful. you really have to focus on what you're doing, to be in the moment, facing the challenges as they come. you can't really let your mind wander much. it's a very different experience for me and i am really enjoying it.

after our ride we went out for a great dinner at a local sushi spot, stonefish. delicious!

i am so lucky to have such a great man in my life,

who loves me and supports me and appreciates me.

one more thing i'd like to share with you. remember how i said i have been going back and reading a lot of my old books? well i just found another box of old books in my barn. so i have been reading herman hesses's narcissus and goldmund. do you know it? it is so wonderful! and, as i was saying before, it is an entirely different experience reading it now as opposed to then. among other things, the book addresses several issues of dichotomy. i'm not quite finished with it yet this time around but parts of it have really struck me.

at the beginning he's talking about the differences between a scientist and an artist. (glenn is a scientist; i am an artist.) he says "...natures of your kind, with strong delicate senses, the soul-oriented, the dreamers, poets, lovers are almost always superior to us creatures of the mind. you take your being from your mothers. you live fully; you were endowed with the strength of love, the ability to feel... yours is the plentitude of life, the sap of the fruit, the garden of passion, the beautiful landscape of art. your home is the earth; ours is the world of ideas..." i just love that. i've been desperately trying lately to embrace my life, my self, all the good and the bad. and i think this is such a good way to describe the way that i am.

later, again talking about the life of an artist, he says "quite a number of people are able to feel the beauty of the world profoundly and vastly, and to carry high, noble images in their souls, but they are unable to exteriorize them for the enjoyment of others, to communicate them." that made me feel so grateful for my medium, for silver and stone, for jewelry. that is just what i try to do, to "exteriorize the noble images of my soul", my authentic self. i am so grateful.

and one other thing (now i am rambling). goldmund is struggling with the dichotomy of a wanderer's life vs. a settled life. he wants to settle down, to have a workshop and a place to create, but recognizes that most of his inspiration, his zest, his ideas comes from traveling. he is wondering how to be settled but still be inspired. "...to create, without sacrificing one's senses for it. to live, without renouncing the nobility of creating. was that possible? ... perhaps there were people for which this was possible. perhaps there were husbands and heads of families who did not lose their sensuality by being faithful. perhaps there were people who, though settled, did not have hearts dried up by lack of freedom and lack of risk. perhaps. he had never met one." again, this made me feel grateful. grateful for the opportunities that i have to travel and to see music, and to bring those experiences back to my "settled" life. yes, my wanderings are truncated, abridged versions of what they would be if i was not settled down, married, a mother. but i would never sacrifice that either. i am so very delighted that i've found a way to incorporate my "old self" into my current life. i think that it will make all the difference in my happiness and well-being in the long run.

wow. okay. go hermann hesse. good night!

your authentic self

here's what i completed today.

i recently corresponded with somebody very dear to me, someone who knows my soul quite well. he told me something that i think is the highest compliment anyone could give me about my work. he said that my jewelry seemed to be an expression of my "authentic self". that is what i strive for, and coming from someone who truly knows that self, as few people do, it means so much.

so this is the "your authentic self" ring,

with a glorious rose cut rainbow moonstone.

(i made one for myself too, but it was to dark to photograph it by the time i was done.)

i've always associated rainbow moonstone with purity, validity, authenticity.

this one is fantastic. i recently got a few very high grade, fancy cut moonstones. they are just wonderful.

and remember the sego lily?

i finally did it! it took a very long time. i fold-formed the petals and ruffled the edges. but the trickiest part was soldering all of those little stamens in place.

the sego lily is a flower of peace.

i put it on a heavy duty, 3 mm ball chain with a fancy shmancy lobster clasp.

what do you think?

EDIT::: my dear friend (and botanist) just informed me that this is, in fact not a sego lily! it is an evening primrose. i cannot say why i have always thought that was a sego lily. my apologies... (did you know that but were just to nice to say anything about it???)

i also made a new "may peace reveal a path" ring,

with a gorgeous crazy lace agate.

i love this stone.

and, i sort of feel like i should be posting daily photos of the sweet chickens; they're growing so fast!

i think they are in their gangly teenager phase right now, sort of funny looking, but so precious nonetheless.

i will be participating in the dolores river festival this year, selling my jewelry there for the first time. i am looking forward to it. but i have to get busy and start making stuff. so forgive me if i am still not able to keep my etsy shop stocked...

in the desert...

we had an amazing weekend in the desert. have i ever told you what a desert girl i am? i can't get enough of it. there's something about the barren, sparse beauty of it that just gets me. everything in the desert is intensified. and the sunshine, oh, bring it on...

something so crazy was happening at our campground. the gypsy moth caterpillars were hatching.

apparently this happens every spring. they literally take over the cottonwood trees. you can see the trees that have already hatched because there is not one single leaf left on the tree. the ones that have not hatched are covered with the nests.

it was fascinating.

and the girls couldn't get enough of them.

we went for a beautiful hike, where the girls collected lots of rocks,

we relaxed in the shade and read books,

we swam in the river,

(love that belly!)

we went for evening strolls,

and just had a really good, relaxing time. it was lovely.

as usual, i was very inspired by both the landscape and the flowers in the desert. i always think about how hardy and tough and strong these flowers have to be to survive there. these are no yard flowers, receiving fertilizer and daily waterings. these are the real wild wildflowers. they are on their own, surviving, thriving, in the harshest of conditions. so inspiring.

i have wanted to make a sego lily necklace for a very long time. i love the simple beauty of the four heart shaped petals meeting in the middle there. i think i will try it this week.

(i do not know why this is underlined?)

i hope you all had fabulous weekends,

(with lots of love that wasn't quite this prickly...)