Rings

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Complex

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For most of my life, I have feared certain aspects of my personality. I thought that if I kept them hidden from myself, they would not take over, because deep down I believed these traits were who I really was. 

Lately, as I am more at ease with myself, I’ve discovered that:

1.   These traits do not make me a terrible person, they make me part of human kind.

2.   I am happier and more humble now I know that I am no better or worse than anyone else.

3.   There is no single aspect that defines me. I am a mix of contradictory emotions that come and go.

4.   Life is so much richer when I understand how complex and undefinable I am.

Complex Ring.
Handmade with labradorite moonstone and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

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Balance

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I perceive two contrary forces within me: the most evident, are the stories I tell myself and others about who I am and why I do the things I do. 

The other (more hidden), is my internal struggle with power, and how I manage to satisfy my needs. To be at ease with myself and feel complete, I need to accept that both are part of who I am.

Balance ring.
Handmade with lapis lazuli and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

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Omen

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I am fascinated by how others read my work. A single piece evokes different interpretations, which makes me think that symbols are containers for the meaning we give them. In other words, because we see what we need to see, a symbol’s greatest power lies in teaching us who we are and what we want. 

Omen Ring.
Handmade with carnelian and recycled sterling silver. 

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Impromptu

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Lately, I’ve been taking all the time I need to make a piece. I usually begin with a sketch, but I mostly improvise as I work. Sometimes this leads to dead ends, others to interesting results. Not knowing where the process will take me has made my work much more exciting!

Impromptu Ring.
Handmade with fluorite and recycled sterling silver.

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Introspective Series

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I will add these pieces to my online shop tomorrow, Sunday, at 11 am CT.

I can cut the rings to fit any size between 5 and 10. Once I cut it to fit you, you will still be able to open it half a size. Please specify your size when you make your purchase.

The (very!) large lemon quartz pendant includes a 31” long darkened sterling silver chain.

Al items ship for free, and will arrive in a few days by DHL.

Roots

It’s been interesting to spend so much time in the company of my cat and my plants. Entering their wordless world has made me connect with a more natural environment. I realize that the constant rush and stress are unique to a world created by the human mind. In nature, time takes on another dimension. One that is much richer in every way.

Roots Ring.
Handmade with chrysoprase and recycled sterling silver.
Available this Sunday, at 11 am CT, in my online shop.

Blossom

Borrowed wisdom for these times: Bloom where you are planted.

Blossom Ring.
Handmade with amethyst and recycled sterling silver.
This Sunday in my online shop.

Breakthrough

Of all the trips I’ve taken, the introspective journey has been the most valuable. In the past, I was fortunate to go on long meditation retreats. Now a virus has stopped time, and has given me the opportunity to go within.

When I am able to observe my mind without reacting to everything that passes through it, I can navigate life's changes without losing my inner peace. This is the freedom I’ve always longed for, and I am grateful to feel it now.

Breakthrough ring.
Handmade with chalcedony and recycled sterling silver.
This week in my online shop.

Sortilege

Sortilege: the mysterious and irresistible attraction that the charms of a person or a thing produces on someone.

Shiva

Ever since my father died a few months ago, the transitory nature of existence has occupied my mind. If he -with his powerful presence- no longer exists, then everything else will also end in time. This vision may seem depressing, but it has freed me from my worries about the future.

For as far back as I can remember, my dad had a toenail infection. After decades trying to heal it, he finally found a medicine that worked. When the funeral home came to take his body, the last thing I saw, as they closed the bag that contained him, was a perfect toenail on his foot. We fret about things that come and go, when what we can always have is the awesome experience of being alive.

Shiva Ring.
Handmade with lemon quartz and recycled sterling silver.

Durga

Empathy from this shared life experience will turn us into citizens of the world. After we care for each other, it will be time to care for our planet.

Durga Ring.
Handmade with lemon quartz and recycled sterling silver.

Kali

In these times where we collectively help each other by not seeing each other, I am glad we can communicate through the universal language of art. 

Kali Ring.
Handmade with lemon quartz and recycled sterling silver.

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Venture

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I spent the morning writing blog posts. As I wrote, I felt inspired and confident. What great ideas! I thought. Now I’ve re-read them and they seem shallow and empty. Is this how I’ve been writing lately? For years? Stories I think are interesting, but are not worth reading at all? 

Later, full of shame and regret, I realized there is no way to avoid this. I make a living by sharing what I create. Unless I show up as I am: informed or ignorant, profound or shallow, I cannot show up at all. When I work at my jewelry bench, I have to be willing to make junk or high art. I never know which is which, because there is no formula for either one. 

A voice in my head says, who the hell are you to write about anything? Why should anyone care? I’m sure you hear it too. I think we all do. But I will continue to make things and write about them, because if I listened to this voice, I would be half dead. I’d no longer experiment and learn, fail and succeed. After all, everything is an attempt at something. Life itself is an attempt. I choose to participate.

Venture Ring.
Handmade with amethyst and recycled sterling silver.
This Wednesday in my online shop.

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Continuity

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There is a space I enter when I am able to work in my studio for several days in a row. It is a deeper place in my mind where I feel more connected to my hands and body, and where I feel present as I chisel each tiny line on the surface of a piece. I call this space the blessing.

Continuity Ring.
Handmade with rainbow obsidian and recycled sterling silver.
Next week in my online shop.

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Quietude

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I love living alone. It makes me aware of my changing nature, of the cycles of my mind and body.
I rest when I am tired, eat when I am hungry, and connect with friends when I am full of energy. 
I have the gift of time and space to integrate my experience of the world around me.

Quietude Ring.
Handmade with labradorite moonstone and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

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Immerse

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One of the things I most appreciate in my life is that I can read every day. It is how I make sense of the world and find out what interests me. It’s how I model those I admire, and uncover my shadow in those I reject. Reading expands my imagination and makes me feel intensely. Stories are how I learn.

If I like the narration, I will listen to a book on Audible, otherwise, I will read it on Kindle. These are books I’ve read recently (in no particular order):

The Lost City of the Monkey God -Douglas Preston

The Work we Were Born to do -Nick Williams

Thou Shalt not be Aware -Alice Miller

Healing the Shame that Binds you -John Bradshaw

Born Standing Up -Steve Martin

Art and Soul Reloaded -Pam Grout

The Actor’s Life -Jenna Fischer

Chasing Aphrodite -Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino

Pussy -Regena Thomashauer

Bad Blood -John Carreyrou

Three Women -Lisa Taddeo

Men Without Women -Haruki Murakami

More than Enough -Elaine Welteroth

The Mother Tongue -Bill Bryson

The Patron Saint of Liars -Ann Patchett

It’s not your Money -Tosha Silver

Beautiful Boy -David Sheff

In Pieces -Sally Field

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up -Marie Kondo

The Wisdom of Florence Scovel Shinn

Ninth Street Women -Mary Gabriel

Get Weird -CJ Casciotta

The Muralist -B. A. Shapiro

Cooking for Picasso -Camille Aubray

Sapiens -Yuval Noah Harari

The Art Forger -B. A. Shapiro

Less -Andrew Sean Greer

An Abbreviated Life -Ariel Levine

Self Therapy -Jay Earley

The Tao of Fully Feeling -Pete Walker

North -Scott Jurek

Circe -Madeline Miller

Forward -Abby Wambach

The Insight Cure -John Sharp

A Thousand Names for Joy -Byron Katie

The Children Act -Ian McEwan

Behold Dreamers -Imbolo Mbue

The Secret History -Donna Tart

Eckhart Tolle -A New Earth

Finding your Way in a Wild new World -Martha Beck

Steering by Starlight -Martha Beck

The Anatomy of a Calling -Lissa Rankin

The Betrayal Bond -Patrick J. Carnes

Caveat Emptor -Ken Perenyi

Love Warrior -Glennon Doyle Merton

How Children Learn -John Holt

Self Comes to Mind -Antonio Damasio

The Body Keeps Score -Bessel Van Der Kolk

Inner Work -Robert A Johnson

Finding your Element -Ken Robinson

The War of Art -Steven Pressfield

Bird by Bird -Anne Lammott

On Writing -Steven King

Walking Home -Sonia Choquette

Loving What is -Byron Katie

Radical Acceptance -Tara Brach

Peter Pan -J. M. Barrie

The Power of Self Compassion -Laurie J. Cameron

This is Marketing -Seth Godin

Find Another Dream -Maysoon Zayid

The Dark Side of the Light Chasers -Debbie Ford

Talking to Strangers -Malcolm Gladwell

How to Change your Mind -Michael Pollan

Listening to Ayahuasca -Donna Postel

What I talk About When I Talk about Running -Haruki Murakami

City of Girls -Elizabeth Gilbert

Mating in Captivity -Esther Perel

Sense and Sensibility -Jane Austen

The End of the Affair -Graham Greene

The Female Persuasion -Meg Wolitzer

Lolita -Vladimir Nabokov

The Seat of the Soul -Gary Zukav

David Copperfield -Charles Dickens

The Color of Water -James McBride

State of Wonder -Anne Patchett

Bel Canto -Anne Patchett

21 Lessons of the 21st Century -Yuval Noah Harari

Call me by Your Name -André Aciman

The Weight of Ink -Rachel Kadish

Calypso -David Sedaris

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark -Michelle McNamara

Total Cat Mojo -Jackson Galaxy

Nevertheless -Alec Baldwin

When you are Engulfed in Flames -David Sedaris

Theft by Finding -David Sedaris

Sherlock Holmes -Arthur Conan Doyle

Born to Run -Bruce Springsteen

Just Kids _Patti Smith

Middlesex -Jeffrey Eugenides

A Life in Parts -Bryan Cranston

The Power of Focusing -Ann Weiser Cornell

The Invention of Nature -Andrea Wulf

Creativity Inc -Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

Year of Yes -Shonda Rhymes

Yes, Chef -Marcus Samuelsson

The Art of Asking -Amanda Palmer

Rising Stronng -Brené Brown

The Power of Vulnerability -Brené Brown

Elon Musk -Ashlee Vance

Big Magic -Elizabeth Gilbert

The Virgin Way -Richard Branson

Quiet -Susan Cain

The Goldfinch -Donna Tartt

Mind over Medicine -Lissa Rankin

Finding Ultra -Rich Roll

Unbroken -Laura Hillenbrand

The Personal MBA -Josh Kaufman

Made to Stick -Chip and Dan Heath

Purple Cow -Seth Godin

Start with Why -Simon Sinek

David and Goliath -Malcolm Gladwell

Immersion Ring.
Handmade with Chalcedony and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Ember

I want to learn about what happens to us when we take the gentlest kindest approach towards ourselves. When we don’t start off feeling evil. When we begin by knowing that we are not evil. We are not sinners. Who do we become then? When we have nothing to prove? When our self worth or worth in general does not depend on our achievements. What do we do when we let our minds wander and be curious? What do we read? Look at? Learn from? 

I believe we all educate ourselves that way, in what matters the most to us: our inner healing. We make sense of who we are that way. We claim our own way, not our parents way, not how others saw us, or how we think they saw us, but how we are.

We identify and claim our own teachers. Part of us knows and follows the trail. Usually when we are not watching. When the parents are gone when we are alone and no one can see us. That’s when we really choose. In secret, not ashamed but guilty of indulging. It’s when we give ourselves permission to explore and “waste time” that we best use it. The product is who we become by choosing. 

Ember Ring.
Handmade with amber and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.