Monthly Archives: May 2018

Glass, wire, robin’s egg, twine, 1” diameter

The spring air smells different.  When I leave the house at an unreasonably early hour to walk to the bus stop, the sound of birds helps me walk more quickly and the humid warm air makes me smile, remembering the frigid winter mornings and knowing that they’re over for at least a few months.  This pendant celebrates spring, with a ring of bright spring green glass that reminds me of sunlight filtering through young leaves surrounding a wire nest that protects a piece of a real robin’s egg found on one of those morning walks to the bus. The egg has been coated to protect it, but it still shows some damage from falling out of its first nest.  Now it’s ensconced, a symbol of spring’s arrival.

 LEGO brick and glass, 1″x2″

Everyone knows that playing is healthy for kids, and it’s just as good for the rest of us.  Experimenting, exploring, putting things together in new ways…

Making this pendant was an exercise in moving out of my comfort zone to use bright, saturated colors, but its primary colors and bright oranges and greens definitely scream LEGO.  And what screams PLAY more than that?  And what makes it even better is that you can actually build your own design on the center section!

$45

Glass, porcelain, found objects, 1″x1″

Sometimes the most beautiful things are the ones that are made through struggle.  Their irregularity is striking, their story is told through their texture.  This pendant includes examples of “perfected” beauty that has been valued by American culture for hundreds of years- a gold design on a piece of porcelain from a plate that was treasured by an American family connected to the Daughters of the American Revolution, and glass that shimmers like diamonds.  Next to these is a very different type of beauty- rough glass beads that were painstakingly ground up from recycled bottles, packed into clay molds and fired in earthen kilns made from termite mounds in Ghana. Both types of beauty tell layered stories of wealth, patience and craftsmanship.  I think there’s something healthy about recognizing beauty of all kinds.

$45

Glass and ceramic beads, found objects  1″x1″

Every day my 3 year-old tests my ability to stay calm.   His tantrums have been monumental for the last few months, and each time he gest worked up I take a deep breath, try to focus on something near me in the room, and do my best to continue with whatever I was trying to do.  It’s not easy.  This pendant has a calm center, with shining ripples of beads moving outward. The calm is not simple, but the repeating patterns of the beads moving outward have a rhythm to them that can help me focus and relax.  Placing them is calming, and looking at them is calming too.

(sold)