Rings

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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.

Ample

After years of shedding and major change, I feel am finally embodying my 46 year old self. The person I was in the past is gone, as are my expectations of how I thought life would be. I look around and observe where I stand:

I am learning to gather my tribe, and form a family of kindred spirits. My home is a creative and nurturing space where I have the love and play of not one, but soon two, furry creatures. I explore this magnificent city each week and feed my soul with new ideas. I regard my work as a deep act of healing for myself and others. My body is strong and flexible. My mind is curious, and I feel with all my heart.

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

Outlier

What happens if I don’t grow up? If my choices are not wise or healthy? If everything goes to hell because I live with few responsibilities? 

Would it make me a failure if I don’t make a long term commitment to someone else? Will I end up alone and un-challenged? 

I feel everyone around me has it figured out, but having slipped through the cracks of society, I now belong to no-one, but to myself.

Outlier Ring.
Handmade with aventurine and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Maya

I feel bad that I can’t save other people. That I can’t help them be gentle with themselves. I’d love them to see how much they try and how well they are doing. Then I realize, that perhaps it is me I see in a mirror, and I’m just trying to help myself. 

Maya Ring.
Handmade with crisocola and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Cuddle

This ring makes me think of pajamas. The fuzzy, full body kind that gave me comfort as a kid. A cave within a onesie. A furry womb. My childhood under covers.

I look like an adult, but mostly, I am still five years old.

Cuddle Ring.
Handmade with amazonite and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Legacy

One day, when my dad thought he was dying, he called my mother, sister and I to his side, and said: remember how important aesthetics are. This sense of taste that your mother and I created in our work and home, matters. Appreciate and cultivate it. 

Legacy Ring.
Handmade with carnelian and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Unity

I make art to heal myself. With every object I create, I declare that I matter and claim my place in this world. I create to express vitality. It is how I participate with existence.

Unity Ring.
Handmade with fluorite and recycled sterling silver.
This Tuesday in my online shop.

Conduit

When I make a piece, I take direction from my gut. I determine the shape, size and texture based on what feels right in my body. 

When a piece is complete, I interpret it by asking who it is, and what it represents. In this way, each creation becomes a map into my subconcious mind. It tells me who I am and where I am going.

Conduit Ring.
Handmade with labradorite moonstone and recycled sterling silver.
Next week in my online shop.

Enchantment

Today, as I made this ring, I had a strange sensation: it was as if I could see myself from above, and what I was doing was not building an object, but combining elements from inside and beyond me to create a new form of energy. It was a sort of ritual that felt ancient, timeless and new. 

Enchantment ring.
Handmade with moonstone and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop. 

Ventricle

What a relief it is to not be divided within. To respond only to myself and to what I want, and not try to please others. I release stress, my heartstrings join together. This is freedom: the ability to notice to what I feel, and from there choose my way. 

Ventricle Ring.
Handmade with red tiger eye and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Sacred Mountain

I grew up with a mountain at my back. It held my home like a hand. Its energy kind and caring, like a mother. Like the mother I needed to sleep at night. 

At the lake house, the mountain was enormous in her love, filled with creatures, buzzing with life. The stars above bringing her between the cosmos and my bed.

Here too is a forest that creates my corner. It protects me from the wild city. Here I am alone with the few residents of this tower. All in silence, calmed by the spirit of the mountain behind us. 

Sacred Mountain ring.
Handmade with labradorite and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Open

When I feel cloudy and forget that life is good, I make a list of all the things I am grateful for. I soon realize that everything is much better than I thought. In fact, life outside my head is quite amazing!

Open ring.
Handmade with pink quartz and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Sacred Tunnel

In an interview I was given years ago, I replied that in order to become an artist, I had to stop living my life through others. I meant it as a criticism to a weakness I perceived within me, but the truth was more complex. I lived my life through others because that’s how I coped as a child. I was a caretaker, I repressed my needs in order to care for other people. I became compliant and never angry, at least not towards others. This is how I received love.

The price I paid was a depression that nearly killed me. Now I am learning to listen to what I feel and let it be. Let anger be, allow sadness, allow joy. I am becoming more spacious inside. I am a wider container: ignoring less, enjoying more. I am less afraid of what I feel, because it is a healthy expression of who I am. I know now that I am complete with my anger, with sadness and fear. I don’t need to swallow anything down, I don’t have to toughen up and control outcomes to insure I get my needs met. This greater space inside feels like a greater connection to life.

I feel safe knowing that I will not ignore my own needs. I feel safe knowing that I will not put the needs of others above mine. There is a sadness behind this thought. There’s a scared girl inside me that has survived. She is still cold and tired. I guess this is what recovery means. To warm myself with kindness. 

Sacred Tunnel Ring.
Handmade with lapis lazuli and recycled sterling silver. 
Soon in my online shop.

Possibility

Sometimes I feel that what I do makes no sense in this busy world. I wonder if I should grow my business, make more money and secure my future. Perhaps art is a waste of time. Maybe I should choose profit over ideas and stop pondering life’s deeper questions.

This mind set paralyzes me, and is one of the reasons why I lead an isolated life. So that I don’t feel the rat race, so I can live in a make-believe world where creating is play and ideas come from a sense of openness.

Possibility ring.
Handmade with rutilated quartz and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.

Complex

Today I’m terrified. I spoke out yesterday and now, as I promised, I have to show up. I’d rather watch tv and chill out. Relax rest. This is too much exposure. Just like being in a relationship once was. Too exposed! I need to hide. Just like making love was once too much. Skin exposed, nerve endings awake. I need thicker skin. Teflon skin. Like cool people who navigate life with smoothness, reliable in their indifference. I feel too much!

There was a time in my life where I became very intuitive. Extra sensitive to what went on inside me, and I felt I could read people and heal them. It felt crazy on one hand, but true on another. I was wide open. I’d been meditating a lot, several hours a day for months, so perhaps my rational mind shut up and a sense of wholeness and connection took over. That time was awesome but also frightening. People came to me with deeper and darker issues. I tried to stay open and listen, because I know that attention heals, but I was not ready to go to dark places with them. I wanted shallow. TV junk food and less intensity. So little by little I closed up. 

Now I’m the one who has gone to dark places. I had to, in order to explore my depression. I had to contact my depressed self and see what her experience had been like growing up. Meeting her was dark and painful, and I hated every minute of it. Still, I went back because to survive I had to love the part of me that had lived in darkness. I had to love the shame, the hurt, the sadness and fury. 

The result is that I can be with myself longer without wanting to escape. I can also stay with others in their strangeness. I can pay attention to frailty and not want to make it stronger, I can observe lust and not cringe with what it desires. Some parts feel harder to love because they hurt more and seem to make me defective, but I stay with them as long as I can. This is what it means to be human, I guess. It’s messier than I thought.

Complex Ring.
Handmade with tourmaline quartz and recycled sterling silver.
Soon in my online shop.