Chrysoprase Calm and a Maybe

I know I spoke of this week being a time of leather,

and perhaps it will be, but

perhaps it will not...

The whim of nature seems to have shifted,

and at my prenantal this morning I was told I have very high blood pressure

combined with protein in the pee,

the combination is an indicator of pre-eclampsia, something

that will mean I will be induced quickly

if blood work/continued blood pressure readings confirm suspicions.

I feel a great deal of calm about this development after wrestling with it this morning;

yes, the natural birth I so wanted might be a thing of the past, but I can still most certainly 

experience the birth of this boy with grace and wonder:

I know quite a few mamas who found goodness in the not-as-I-had-hoped birth experience

and every single one said that the resulting babe was worth every moment

and they would do it all again to meet him or her....

THAT brings me such peace.

So today I worked slowly and methodically, as I am not yet on bed rest

and I finished this flower I'd been mooning over for the better part of a few weeks:

a light chrysoprase at its center,

the ring itself a size 7. 

What is it about metal, sometimes even more than leather that calms me?

Leather gets to the heart of me in a different way.

I have to say, metals and the process of sculpting, cleaning and polishing them makes for some serious delight, some zoned-in Zen.

Since tomorrow might be my last day to work, I decided today to also finish up the canvas for an orphan ring.

This chrysoprase was cabbed by me a few weeks ago from a beautiful slab I found

at a rock show: it's so translucent, so apple green and has these lovely dendrites and the streaks of what looks white are actually tiny drusy pockets not yet unearthed: spectacular!

RESERVE PENDING

I paired it with a simple setting, sterling bubbling all around like fine caviar

in layer upon layer...

It's seriously decadent.

This ring can be made in any size, but it would look best on a middle or ring finger.

The shank will be made tomorrow if it gets snapped up

and all of my last pieces would be shipped in the latter part of the day.

Want to be the mama of this orphan?

Convo me

HERE

Thursday's morning prenatal appointment could lead to 

everything going quiet around here for a time:

this is perfect training for the actual care of our boy:

things will require more flexibility, more open-endedness

once he arrives!!

I will do everything in my power to keep you posted!

With so much love,

Allison and Baby O

Oh Those Moments...

In updating my software for the iPhone I uploaded all of my pictures

for safekeeping on my laptop and external hard drive.

Inevitably there were oh so many of our creamsicle Jones

and I laughed and cried the way you do when you unexpectedly come across pictures

of that ex that broke your heart and rocked your world...

you know, the beautiful one

that got away.

Even though there was a sadness in my perusal

there was also a rich celebration

of a life well-lived

full of humor, passion and so much love.

Wasn't he just the most beautiful boy?

We are so lucky to have been his people.

xoxox,

A

Resplendent Quetzal

RESERVED

In South America there is a bird of mythic beauty and nobility, with long tail feathers

and a strange, stout head.

It is both adorable and almost eerie in its build, so unlike

North American birds.

Legend says that if a quetzal is taken into captivity, the bird ends its own life

and so it has become an international symbol of liberty

in its home countries.

I hammer engraved one on a sturdy sterling plaque

and strung the picture

on fluorite by hand

a gorgeous rainbow

to accompany this symbolic creature

and all its beauty.

The piece fits as would a 16 inch necklace.

To inquire or reserve,

please write to me

HERE

xoxo,

S

Finally

Fern and chrysoprase drops

Fresh beauty will be in the shop momentarily:

Jacaranda and sterling cameos

These last few days I have been learning the humility of limitations,

namely the physical kind.

I am big with baby

rich with lovely and adorable visitors

and completely sapped by the last few weeks of gestation...

naps are a non-optional requirement daily

and for someone used to hosting

and doing

with great gusto, this new phase of things (read: utter exhaustion)

is just such newness.

Single Fern Frond Necklace with Chyrysoprase

The mothers among you must be smiling with kind knowingness:

just wait until he comes into this world, right?

Surely this time will look positively Herculian!!

And still the urge to create beautiful pieces

abounds...

I hope to burn this gift out in the coming weeks

so there are no distractions when Orion arrives Earthside...

next week almost promises leather pieces:

last moon mandalas for the lobe and chest

a clutch

a belt...

maybe

may

be

so.

xoxo,

A

Delicates

Ferns and Wings and Peridot and Beach Pottery...

RESERVED

Hammer formed fern fronds

riveted with sterling and 14k gold wires

The feel of Hawaii in the whole piece...

RESERVED

Peridot and cicada wing earrings, riveted with a single sterling punctuation mark

at the bottom of the wings...

Single Copper fern frond with sterling silver rivets

All of these pieces will be in the

Metal Shop

Thursday late morning (sorry for the delay, you know... pregnancy and all!)

Have a beautiful day,

Sunny and Baby O

You Should Have This, Too....

You will be so glad I showed you where to find this miraculous recipe...

of brown butter

apple pie -

go

HERE!!!

xoxox,

A

For Bravery

Fierce

Wild

Precise

Soulful...

I am practically giddy to see who will take this gorgeous beast as their heart's companion...

He can be found

HERE

xoxox,

Allison

Full

Today I promised myself that I would make all manner of things

like blood orange curd

and bread for guests tomorrow

and finish a few necklaces

and

and

a

n

d

.

.

.

instead I sit here reminiscing...

it's nice.

I am running around the high school track at 11 years old listening to my walkman, in it a tape of Rick Astley singing "It would take a strong strong man to ever let you go"

rewinding over and over again to hear the drum machine beginning so my endorphins could

send my feet flying faster...

I have vivid memories of my very very bad/delicious high school boyfriend

arriving in Ohio to take me on a weekend of apology spoiling at the end of my freshman year of college

.

It was totally chaste and awesome; he picked me up in his big old yellow VW bus with the Charlie Brown stripes

we swam in a reservoir

ate roadside strawberries until our stomaches were aching

went to diners...

it was late May in Ohio with the lingering amber-fresh evenings

and I remember thinking after he dropped me off and puttered back to Pennsylvania

that we all wish someone would show up at our door and say, "I was such a fool - you were great and I am sorry"

and here it was, the ultimate non-verbal speech

done as only he could have...

Soon after this I am walking home from the N train while living in Queens,

the cold air of early spring or late fall

the exhilaration of somehow surviving the adventure of it all for another month

aimless

and bold in my gorgeous youth...

the men on their milk crates with their canes and mustaches

talking into evening

The lights from the ground on every night flight

I took alone

as I traversed the country for love or family or work

all of these years

so much space in between the places people live so far below...

Here in my body

another waits for his own memories to be made

though he will experience his life so differently.

It's the crest of a hill I am reaching for here in these last weeks of gestation,

the understanding that I will grow old

and live vicariously through a generation whose upswing I will experience firsthand...

I hope I am the 'cool' mom.

I hope I make him happy

and I pray that life treats him with such goodness that he too spends his Sunday afternoons

remembering moments of loveliness that led up to this one

like reflections

climbing facets in the light...

One Last Batch

I will be working through the weekend

as next week will be rich with time spent adoring friends from abroad;

I cannot even believe that this is the last batch of pieces

I will work on before I close up shop for a while:

I am looking at three pairs of earrings

four necklaces and two rings,

the theme being flowers and ferns.

There may be a few more pieces in the coming weeks, but I am

not counting on anything - I know Orion could arrive anytime after today

safely and sweetly, and I intend to go be his mama with all my might when that moment comes!

One of the most exciting pieces on my plate is the hammer engraved lion you see above with that gorgeous Australian Print Stone:

there is a kindness and nobility in the eyes of that sterling beast that took me

by surprise when he was finished...

he is for protection

but I think he's for wisdom as well.

Hammer engraving him was tremendous labor

and I cannot wait to see the finished piece, it's so close to my heart!

I just woke from my afternoon nap

and I am feeling the pull of the studio's lamplight

and wonders...

off to brew a cup of tea

and smooth some edges for a few hours!

With love,

Allison

36 weeks tomorrow

I want to say that time has flown, but it has not really flown...

it's been more of a meandering car ride in an old jalopy.

I can remember the test, hastily purchased from 7-11

that yielded a plus sign after two previous negatives

and it feels like that was a million years ago.

I've lived in a state of gift for these nearly nine months,

in spite of tragedy and triumph...

during every tear and with every step this child has grown big and strong within me,

an everyday miracle

mixed in with making popovers

and running my little beautiful business.

Cells specialized as I drank red rooibos tea

and the tiniest flutters accompanied me to yoga and Korean lunches...

We are so close to meeting him

and I cherish these hours and days because never again will it just be me and him

navigating this awesome earth in the same body...

the million tiny surrenders begin soon!

xoxox,

A

All the Love in the World Bag

Big and bold and girly and strong...

representing an energy center and a way of living

that I hold dear....

full of the literal

delicate

and powerful things that make loving the most important

job one can undertake.

A reserve may be pending on this piece already, but if it does not take, I will

list in the

Leather Shop

this evening or tomorrow morning,

whichever the babe will allow.

With All my heart,

Allison

Everybody's Working for the Weekend

And now I have that song stuck in my head: thanks, self!!

The post title was meant to be a lesson in contrast: most people work a

set schedule, jobbing all week and then hanging out on the weekend doing the other things they love, exercising, visiting, etc... I operate in an open schedule that sometimes results in heavy work on 'off-peak' times like the weekend, like the wee small hours of the morning (though not so much with this babe-manufacturing)

when the inspiration hits hot and heavy for design, I simply hold on to my hat and navigate a suddenly desperate scene: I am hungry for time,

no amount will satisfy.

Days fly, nights are simply nourishment for the power I need to finish a task...

I burn with it.

These last few days in particular have been so

feverish that I rose up a dry husk this morning, hand stitched a few pieces

and then went back to bed for a few hours

to counter the depletion.

It may sound stark or imbalanced, but on the contrary it is what makes a maker feel alive, these times of richness.

The lucky part of these designs I conceived of late is their meditative aspect:

the gorgeous monotony of hand-stitching,

the measured hammering of a mandala...

there is peace in the work, balance and joy in the design, a symmetry I normally eschew

in favor of natural chaos.

May I ask a word of advice from the mamas among you?

That drive you got right before the arrival of the new life

to clean out drawers

and make the house spotless

to organize all things

and feather the nest to perfection:

did you succeed? Or was it just a stressor you let go of

in order to keep yourself sane?

Is there a happy medium?

All advice appreciated!

xoxox,

A

What's Good and Fresh

There is something about knowing I have a finite amount of time to be making actively and regularly that has lit a divine fire under my birthing hips...

I enter the studio as though I have a fever

but instead of more cowbell, the only thing that will heal me is WORK.

Color.

Balance.

Hammers

Metal

Circles

Paint

LOVE.

CLUTCH RESERVE PENDING

I have said since I've become pregnant that love has been the biggest thing on my mind,

that thoughts and actions have become suffused with a tenderness

that almost hurts

it is so strong...

As I get closer to meeting the One who lies at the center of this peace

I find this powerful force has moved from my trunk to my limbs.

My heart and center feel rich in different ways ; full, I guess would be the right word

but my hands and feet feel hot with restless ardor...

I have nearly completed a fern and mandala clutch...

Am in the middle phase of a chakra/anatomical heart big bag made of the best blood red leather

hide you could ever imagine (look at the rugged spots, the shallow cuts near the anatomical heart mandala above - I was so greedy to include those in the bag - they are so real and rich!)

HALF-BELT RESERVED

and as spring approaches, I have a dogwood and mandala half-belt in the works.

My educated guess is that all of these pieces will see completion next week,

starting with the clutch that is mostly finished.

If you have any questions about anything you see, please feel free to

convo

me - I will be accepting reserves.

The manner in which I have been working this month will likely serve me well once

the babe is in arms:

consistent daily flow, slow and steady.

xoxo,

A