winner

the winner of the giveaway is christy brannan!  congratulations, m'dear!  please email your address to me so i can send your rings to you.  silversparrowdesigns@gmail.com.

and june, cinder, dj, and leann, i'd like to send you each a stacking ring too, for being a wonderful silver sparrow designs blog reader.  i truly appreciate all of you ladies ❤  just email me your address as well.

hearts and garnets and gratitude and a giveaway

i made many heart/garnet/ valentine's pieces!  i love how these turned out.  several different ring, necklace, and bracelet designs to choose from.

this one is my favorite, with several of conor oberst's lyrics

also a beautiful rainbow moonstone set in a fancy cathedral bezel necklace

and this charming lynx

we have been crazy around here with construction!  we thought that little miss theo would share a room with junebug.  but june's a pretty persnickety sleeper, and it just didn't work.  then we thought june could share with hazel for a while, but hazel's on the brink of teenagehood, and she needs her own space.  so, we are building a room for dorothy.  we used to have a huge living room.  now we have an average size living room and a bedroom for dorothy.   i will share photos when we are finished!

i have been a bit overwhelmed with orders lately.  which is so wonderful, after taking such a long break.  i know i've talked about this a bit, but during the break that i took from making jewelry i realized that i don't just make pretty things for people to wear.  i believe that i make meaningful pieces for women to cherish, to pass on to their daughters.  women come to me and we talk about what's going on for them, what they need in their lives, what they're working on, needing, desiring, wanting to let go of...  we come up with a stone, or stones, that resonate with that and find words or phrases or song lyrics to fit and i make them a special piece to wear and rub and focus on as they go through whatever it is.   i sometimes think of my work as the opposite of a worry stone- an intention stone, or a manifestation stone.  i love to do markets and hows because i love to watch people come into my both and see what they connect with.  it is fascinating to me, to observe people finding piece that resonated with them.  i've made so many wedding rings for so many couples over the years; i've made necklaces for mothers to give to their daughters when they begin to menstruate; i've made lanterns to help women battling cancer; i've made so many necklace and bracelets for mothers, grandmothers, aunts, etc. with the names of their children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews; i've made countless dog tags for people who cherish their dogs as their children; i've made jewelry celebrating births and memorial jewelry to remember losses...

i absolutely LOVE what i do, and i am outrageously happy to be back at it, and to have so many amazing customers.  you ladies are so fabulous!  i'd like to offer a giveaway just for you blog readers.

all you have to do to enter is just comment here with your ring size!  i'm not advertising this giveaway anywhere else, it's just for you dear blog readers.  i have no idea how many of you there are anymore!  but i am grateful for every one of you.  so, comment with your ring size to enter, and i will announce the winner of this little heart stack on valentine's day!

for leonard

i made this piece to honor the magnificent leonard cohen.  to me, some of his most meaningful words were "ring the bell that still can ring.  forget your perfect offering.  there is a crack in everything.  that's how the light gets in."  when i showed this necklace to my daughter she asked what those lyrics meant.  i told her it means to appreciate the good things you have in your life, rather than wishing for something you've lost or don't have; give up on trying to do things perfectly; and that everyone is flawed and flaws are beautiful. terrifically fabulous advice as you start the new year, yes?

hawk

when i returned home from a rather tumultuous trip, i was troubled to find a dead juvenile red-tailed hawk in our front yard.  he (i say he, although i do not know the gender.  this bird is too majestic to refer to as "it) did not appear to have been attacked and killed, more likely he had inadvertently flown into the glass of the window and broken his neck.  i never take the visitation of a potential spirit animal lightly, and despite (or maybe especially intrigued because of) the fact that he had chosen to present himself in death rather than life, i sought answers.  what i found astounded me.  a red-tailed hawk is said to: offer clear-sightedness, facilitate long distance memory, reveal messages from the universe, offer guardianship & courage, inspire a creative life purpose, *help you to realign with the original intention of your soul*.   furthermore, i discovered that a dead spirit animal, as opposed to a live one, can indicate that there is a part of yourself, in relation to these aspects, that has died or that you have lost.  although i couldn't find any documentation to support it, i also feel that the fact that this bird was not yet full-grown was indicative of the issues i've carried from my own childhood, unresolved.  to me, this was such a very clear message from the universe, and just in time for the new year.  so what did i do first?  i made a red-tailed hawk totem bracelet.  i added an opal to the sky.  opals offer comfort and enhance unconditional love, they ease transitions and offer strength and courage in times of change.  my hawk is now residing on my left wrist, forever in flight, to encourage me on my current journey of self-discovery, growth, and transition.

manifest

happy new year!  i consider the new year to be a time to reset yourself, not to make yourself better as so many claim, "new year, new you", as if the old you was flawed and faulty and you need to upgrade yourself, but just a time to realign yourself, make sure you still know what's important to you, what you want to achieve, where you're headed and how you may get there.   i see it as a time to remind myself what it is i want to attract to myself in the coming months, what i want to manifest.  i made this bracelet as a constant reminder to myself to keep my intentions at the surface.

this is my intention for 2017.  i always remember to state my intentions as if they are already happening.  i have found that this is the quickest way to bring them about.  i made several other manifestation reminders as well.

(this one has a tag that says "manifest" and a four-sided bar that says "love makes everything better".

and these.  manifestation stones.  rather than a worry stone, where you rub and worry and stress about problems, why not a manifestation stone, where you rub and intend and trust and believe that what you need will come to you?  i paired stones with properties meant to bring about certain qualities with specific things folks may want to attract.

we had a wonderful holiday season, and i hope you all did as well!

what will you be manifesting in 2017?

barefoot news and owls and holidays

so one day i was on facebook and someone posted a meme about parenting that really resonated with me.  i followed the link to the facebook page of barefoot five.  do you know her?  as i was scrolling through her photos, i recognized her rings (because i am always checking out people's jewelry) and made the connection that one of my customers was called barefoot mama.  i contacted her to tell her of the serendipitous event and she responded, saying she never takes her rings off.  i sent her this message:

the timing of this seems so perfect, as is so often the case. i've just been rediscovering my power, remembering that my work is so important. during the break that i took from making jewelry i realized that i don't just make pretty things for people to wear. i believe that i make meaningful pieces for women to cherish, to pass on to their daughters. in the tiny town where i live, i've kind of become a new sort of healer. women come to me and we talk about what's going on for them, what they need in their lives, what they're working on, needing, desiring, wanting to let go of... we come up with a stone, or stones, that resonate with that and words or phrases or song lyrics to fit and i make them a special piece to wear and rub and focus on as they go through whatever it is. i sometimes think of my work as the opposite of a worry stone- intention stone, or manifestation stone.

i've made wedding rings for so many local couples over the years; i've made necklaces for mothers to give their daughters when they begin to menstruate; i've made "lanterns" to help women battling cancer; i've made many necklaces for mothers, grandmothers, aunts, etc with the names and birthstones of their children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews; i've made countless dog tags for folks who cherish their dogs as their children; i've made memorial jewelry for remembering people who have passed... 

i am totally rambling now, but i think what i am trying to say to you, without meaning to sound grandiose or melodramatic, is that i think i am ready to really bring this out into the world. and you seem like such a wonderful, powerful woman to partner with! your message that you bring is so beautiful and it really resonates with me.

so let's create together!

one thing led to another and i asked her if she'd like to do a collaboration.  which led to this:

very exciting.  i will keep you updated.

i made this custom owl pendant for a customer's granddaughter yesterday.  aquamarine birthstones for eyes.

and the holidays are in full swing around here.  i am feeling so so grateful for my three girls right now.  they are my world.

hazel's a bit old for the santa visit.

in addition to several local holiday shows, i had my first ever trunk show at my house last week.  it was so much fun to have friends and neighbors over to eat, drink, and shop!  definitely a new silver sparrow tradition.

and theo is really enjoying herself.

there are several new holiday options in my etsy shop right now.  i have added a ready to ship section with items that can still be received by christmas.  i've also added priority and priority express shipping options to make sure you receive your gifts in time.  and, there is now the option to purchase a silver sparrow gift certificate, available here.

dorothy has been a great helper with all of my holiday orders this season, offering moral support and helpful suggestions from my back.

happy holidays!

it matters.

i'm in the shop, soldering some rings together for a new necklace design.  i have a show next saturday and i'd like to have six of these ready by then.  and it's the holidays; i'm busy.  i have a stack of orders to fill in addition to preparing for my show so i am slipping out to the shop or sneaking upstairs to the studio every moment i get.  dorothy went down for an unexpected nap?  i can run out and finish that wedding band real fast.  june's occupied with writing her new book, THE GOLDEN GLORY?  i can go upstairs and buff those charms.  hazel's in her room drawing her endless beautiful rambling doodles too?  well, i'm gonna wrap those earwires real quick.  but it's a good kind of busy, the kind i have newly come to love and appreciate.

there was a time when i felt that the only "meaningful" pieces i created were the big, bold, weighty, statement pieces, with several layers of meticulously cut sheet, big glorious stones, and all kinds of deep metaphysical meaning.  in my mind, that was the work i was meant to be doing, that was what mattered; the other, smaller, more reproducible pieces were boring and the making of them somehow meant that i was not a real artist.  and that mis-aligned thinking is part of what caused my beloved silver sparrow designs to falter a bit, and nearly crash altogether.

during my self-appointed-pregnancy-and-first-year-of-theo's-life hiatus, i realized something.  this work, all of this work, silver sparrow designs?  it matters.  it matters more to me than i ever realized.  it matters in a way that only taking a break from it could have shown me.  because during that break i missed it more than i ever could have believed.  i poured so much of myself into this endeavor.  when it first hatched, i was a new mom, staying at home with two young daughters, and silver sparrow designs allowed me to redesign myself, to identify with myself as more than just a "stay at home mom".  it enabled me to continue to be the brave and adventurous artistic spirit that i am.  it let me continue to be a financial contributor to our household. it gave me permission to continue to create, to have the only type of expressive outlet that has ever properly vented me.  silver sparrow designs made it possible for this supremely introverted small town colorado girl to create meaningful jewelry for and connect with thousands of beautiful women all around the world.

and i am so glad that i missed it so much.  i am delighted that i realized that the tiniest little $8 bead addition to the charm necklace and the small copper dog tag that i can recreate again and again are just as meaningful, just as important, just as much "art", as the $600 necklace that will take me a week to fabricate and i will only make once.  because every one of those pieces is an expression from my soul, from the depths of what makes me me, and every one of those pieces is valuable to someone.

and so i have come to a whole new place with my beloved silver sparrow designs.  it has, once again, saved me.  i get up each day and i dedicate as much of myself as i can to my other child, my "business" (i hate to call it that), in the midst of taking care all of the other parts of my wonderful life that need caring for.  and i know that, just like those other components, the more i put into it the more it will grow.

i'm getting sappy now but i just want to say, to those of you who are still here, after checking back so often and seeing the same old post, or one quick half-assed update, all 6 of you, i am so so appreciative of you!  and thank you so much for being a an extremely important and cherished part of my silver sparrow designs.  and i look forward to seeing more of you ❤️

the other day i had to lock my bedroom door so i could take some photos of my jewelry without any interruptions. (i put a table next to our french doors because the lighting is perfect for this.)  when i looked up from the ring i was photographing, there was junebug, standing outside the glass with this sign.  she is so amazing.