A Very Special Engagement Commission.

I was recently approached by a friend to create a non-traditional piece of engagement jewelry for her intended. Now that all has been delivered and they've had the big reveal (he said, "yes"!), I can share the work I did for their special moment.

Before I do, I just want to say how very honored I was to be asked to participate in this way. I make very intentional pieces all the time. In fact, it could be argued that everything that comes through my hands is wound up with mindful selections, from the materials used to the curves and angles in the design. It is especially important to me that commissions be met with a careful balance between artistic freedom and collaboration with the client. I try to be in constant contact, particularly in the research and design phase, with potential materials and solutions to unique challenges that the piece may bring up along the way. It's very important to me that I get a feel for how things resonate with the recipient and that they're on board with all the selections being made.

That said, this one changed course a few times. She's familiar with my work and knows what lines I have available, and she really liked the Golden Snitch design, but wanted to incorporate their birthstones somehow (aquamarine and amethyst). I really loved that combination, so my first thought was to actually find a couple of spheres or large beads to cut in half and fuse together to create a centerpiece to the Snitch that would be more like one of my spheres. After shattering a 20mm amethyst bead, I went back to the drawing board.

I have been doing a lot of work with resin and wanted to expand my collection of molds for it, so I messaged her real quick to run it by her and ordered a couple of silicone sphere molds to see about taking gemstone chips in aquamarine and amethyst and creating a resin sphere that I could wrap like the typical gemstone spheres. That worked out beautifully and here is the result:

I'm happy, they're happy, everyone's happy. Love is grand and I wish them the very best for the rest of their lives together.

Music City Winterfest This Saturday

I'm so happy to be a part of another great Nashville event in Centennial Park this weekend at Music City Winterfest. Looks like a really great lineup of artists, vendors, kids activities, music, food trucks, and even a beer garden. Come finish your holiday shopping in the park!

Excited to be at SoundHarvest this weekend!

I'll be bringing these beauties and many more with me.

There's a stellar lineup and the weather should be gorgeous.

Further Fest this weekend in Nashville, TN!

I'm excited to share that I'll be set up at Further Fest this weekend along with a stellar line up of music, dance and flow arts, all sorts of workshops, and artisans of all sorts.

I'm packing up my whole studio it seems to bring to the festival and set up to create while I'm there, offering a unique opportunity to request something custom in person. I've seen there will be many other artisans offering live demos of their crafts such as wire wrapping and glass blowing.

I can not wait to be immersed in what this festival has to offer Come out and join us! Weekend and day passes are still available.

Elvish Circlet Commission and Beginning Silversmithing.

I've been wanting to share about a commission I just finished up a little over a week ago, but I sort of cleaned up my work space and jumped right into the next thing. However, this needs to be shared. It's a major milestone for me in that it pushed me into silversmithing. I am not proud to say that it took me since September to finally make that leap. But luckily my client was a good friend of mine who knows exactly what it's like when a project just stalls and also when it's demanding you learn scary new things in order to complete it. From the very beginning, this project pushed me out of my comfort zone in all sorts of ways. But it is now complete and I've learned and grown through its completion into crazy directions... hence not slowing down long enough to post about much of anything lately.

But here they are...

Nerdanel, Feanor's wife in the Silmarillion. This one pushed me into working with gold and is based on a design I had done previously. I used gold filled wire and beaded it with labradorite, as well as moss agate, ceylon moonstone, smoky quartz, and a mixture of glass seed beads in greens, gold, and grey to match her gown.

The other is my version of Elrond's crown from Lord of the Rings. This is all sterling silver wire hammered flat and soldered together. It pushed me into finally using my silversmithing tools and getting over my fear of melting things that I don't want to melt and not melting the things that I do want to melt.

I'm so grateful for being given the opportunity to play in a world I love so dearly and create something out of it. And such a huge bonus to be able to work with someone who loves that world as much as I do and who has the patience to let me sort out my hang ups about where I am and where I want to be with my work in order to get through her pieces. Life is pretty damn sweet to me.

Now Pandora's Box is open and the whole way I design has changed. I sketched out an idea yesterday and was like, "wait, I can just solder a frame first and build it up from there!" Wrapping is now a design choice instead of a method of connection. Fun times.