January 29, 2024
But what I’ve noticed lately is just how BRAVE Finn is every day. He boldly walks around in full sunlight; having memorized where the posts to the porch are, how to get up and down across the terraced, brick landscaping in the yard. He knows where my utility trailer is parked and avoids it while he takes care of his personal business. Finn even knows where the pool is and how to avoid falling in while walking around the whole thing. (I mean, that last part was learned the hard way, he falls in once or twice a year and we fish him out and dry him off. Big dogs have big wet dog smells too.)
Continue Reading
March 07, 2023
Quick list of things that cause sterling silver to tarnish: oxygen, hydrogen sulfide (small component of our actual air), sulfur (rotten egg smell in Florida water or hot springs all over), acids (some face creams, trace amounts in tissues and paper), acids (also include your personal pH based on the water you drink and the food you eat!), chlorine (pools, shower water, cleaning the toilet) and general moisture (live in the South or East Coast anyone??)
Continue Reading
January 26, 2023
The colors and shades and differing colored matrices of turquoise are unique to each region and mine where turquoise is found. Sometimes, like in Bisbee, AZ, finding turquoise is a byproduct of copper mining. Each area reflects the minerals and elements present when the seams of turquoise are formed and the matrix the host rock or sedimentary rock which was not dissolved. Truly, each piece is one of a kind.
Continue Reading
October 19, 2021
Continue Reading
March 18, 2021
Howdy Jewelry Friend! I’ve been writing messages INSIDE the bezels that hold the stones in your OSJ Jewelry. For like, two or three years. (Insert shrug emoji here.) If you have a purely woven piece, then, whew! I guess you can skip this whole confessional. But if you’re bezel-curious or bezel-positive, then maybe you should read on?? Initially, like any tiny habit and secret, it started simple. The words were simple, things like, “Soul Shine”, “Love Wins”, “Believe in You” and “Be the Light.”
Continue Reading
January 17, 2021
Now I’m going to let you in on a little secret. At my house, the end of every argument is ended and put to rest, FOREVER, with a Hug. Sometimes, when thoughts and emotions are too much to tame and explain, we just say, “Can we Hug it out?” Sometimes, it takes some real arguing to get there, and other times it’s fast tracked. Now, you gotta know, it’s perfectly acceptable for either party to say “No.” It hurts a little, mostly a lot, but it’s about respecting someone's boundaries and allowing them the space to decide when they want to move on.
Continue Reading
August 19, 2020
Some of my earliest memories of August center around the long, last days of summer, a child’s perfect wish to hold onto the time before school began and the day long bike riding sessions and drawing chalk spaceships in the street and playing Horses and swing sets and lemonade on the back patio. I lived in extreme northwest New Jersey as a young child and the sunlight lasted until after my bedtime. I happily recall twilight dreams under my pink, cotton comforter (yes, I still have it. Like Dierks Bentley, “I Hold On”) where I’d ride horses across the west and zoom into space where the expanse of stars would twinkle and welcome me (I didn’t know the physics of the atmosphere interacting with the wavelengths of light, so in my woman child dreams, the stars ALWAYS twinkled, even when floating amongst them).
Continue Reading
July 24, 2020
So cute! Wooden box, all little green bits promising to thrive on neglect and small amounts of water. Surely the perfect plants for me!! Perfect size for my desk! (A desk which is the first grown up desk I’ve ever owned- bought it last fall after stalking it online and in person for nearly a half a year.) Perfect right next to the lamp (Costco buy and it’s twin is in my family room) to the right of my monitor, a bright green, adorable reminder that we are all living and connected.
Except they started dying.
I can promise you, I was giving them ALL the neglect they needed. Stressed about my green experiment and NOT wanting my husband’s over two-decade premonitive admonition to be true, I moved them over to my studio windowsill. Lots of sunshine there!! And I fussed. I may have overwatered them if my niece is right—we had a frantic facetime consultative intervention when I noticed big, bold, juicy leaves on the rug. AHHHHHHHH!!!
Continue Reading
July 09, 2020
I planned on writing a great Journal Entry for you concentrating on Design and my “Design Process”, but I’ve been distracted. Forgive me? I’ve been in the house since March (and I’m grateful for the house to be in since March, by the way). And so, when considering my design aesthetic origins, what it is that drives my work, I, of course, settled on the debate: Star Wars vs. Star Trek. (Please know that both aforementioned names are copyrighted by Walt Disney World Studios and Viacom-CBS respectively (as of this writing in July, 2020). I mean no disrespect or infringement, and only mean to discuss the illustrious franchises with the utmost of fan respect.)
Continue Reading
June 25, 2020
1 Comment
Whew! You found me. Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'm hoping you are more than tempted to purchase one or several pieces. I am a full time, self representing, exhibiting artist (although I'm not in any organizations stating such in any official capacity-- I guess I should look into that). I travel from coast to coast participating in some of the finest art festivals. I also participate in small, funky events. I teach my techniques and can be booked by you, your group or your local shop. Call me with questions, you'll find my phone number in the upper right hand of every page. In the mean time-- please buy something!! Lets support the makers of USA, like me!
Continue Reading
May 27, 2020
Through the Curated Collections, I’m bringing you groupings of related pieces, much the same as I would arrange in my display cases. Each of them is a mini-universe unto themselves, relating in materials, colors and fabrication to each other. In a very direct way, I’m bringing my Art Festival Exhibition to you, here online. There are nearly 300 pieces in this first iteration of the Curated Collections, divvied up into approximately 25-piece collections. I’m even sneaking some new work in too- pieces that were going to debut this Spring and Early Sumer. That’s 12 bi-weekly installments of art-show-ness for you, Jewelry Fan!
Continue Reading
May 19, 2020
Epic. Failure. My dirty, little, shameful secret. And one woman, through an act of compassionate kindness broke open the floodgate of feelings and made me feel special whether that plant lived or died (well, it had already died, but that’s not the point). I cried for about 12 straight hours, throat raw and eyes puffy for days. I’m learning to be ok with failure and loss. I’m grateful my loss is only a business, not a family member or friend, but it’s still a loss and I needed to let myself feel it.
Continue Reading
