“Being in a rock band, I feel a certain responsibility to have a weird haircut. I mean, who else gets to do that?”
Atypical earrings.
Handmade with recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.
Exploration
“Everything I learned in my life, I learned because I decided to try something new.
”
Exploration Pendant.
Handmade with recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.
Expansive
“Perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns...We may want to love other people without holding back, to feel authentic, to breathe in the beauty around us, to dance and sing. Yet each day we listen to inner voices that keep our life small.”
Expansive Earrings.
Handmade with recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.
Layered
I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.
–Stanley Kunitz (The Layers)
Layered earrings.
Handmade with recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.
Beetle
My friend Maria gave me the creative challenge of turning my Beetle drawing into a pendant. This is the result.
Renewal
Every now and then a new element appears in our life. It could be a place, a friend, a book, or a gemstone. Something that sparks new joy and makes us see life in a different way. These are treasures. They awaken a part of ourselves that had not been seen, heard or acknowledged. Amplified and expanded, we are no longer the same.
Renewal Ring.
Handmade with garnet and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.
Portal
“Enter with love the temple that is your own heart.”
Portal Earrings.
Handmade with recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.
Cycles
Over a decade ago, I traveled to Taxco to shop for silver jewelry.
Located three hours southwest of Mexico City, Taxco was the most important silver mining center during the Spanish conquest. After centuries of intense extraction, silver and mining activities dwindled, but in the 1940’s William Spratling, a New York architect and promoter of muralist Diego Rivera, moved to Taxco and brought new life to the town. He commissioned local silversmiths to produce his designs, and when his business took off, he trained more people, until most of the local families learnt the craft. Spratling inspired artisans to explore traditional motifs from their ancient past, instead of relying on European designs.
When I visited Taxco, Spratling's design influence seemed long gone. Most of the stores sold copies of Tous, Tiffany, and cheap designs from China. I had trained as a ceramist, printmaker and painter, and was surprised to see a lack of creativity among so many skilled artisans.
It had been difficult for me to imagine my place in the world as an artist, because everything I saw in museums, galleries and books seemed impossible to improve, but here was a niche open for exploration. Art, for me, must come from the depths of human imagination. I knew that learning to work with metal would take time, but I was already rich with ideas.
Cycles Ring.
Handmade with recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.
Heirloom
I haven’t written in a while, and I miss going to the place within me where I discover how I perceive life. When I don’t write, I get cut off from my inner eyes, the ones that see with all my senses, the ones with which I navigate the depths of my experience.
In that space where my writing is born, I embrace the full cycle of life and death. I face those parts of me that have ended, and I witness those that are born.
One day, no one will remember me. I am part of the chain of lives that are passing through. My longings on this path seem ephemeral, but I write them down to engage with myself and to hold my heart like a precious stone for as long as I am here.
Heirloom Ring.
Handmade with recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.