Hot Hot Heat

Fire and Ice Earrings. Pepper Tree Flower. Carnelian Pyramid. Brass Comet Tail.

Royalty. Amethyst Studs.

Black Eyed Susans Magic Spell Earrings. Clean Shoulders. Ocean Jasper, pink and mustard. 

Black Eyed Susan petals from my Mother's garden.

Heart of the Wish Earrings. Snakeskin imprint (naturally shed). Cicada wing. Kabamba Ocean Jasper. 

Brass wishbone.

Magic spells three and the most luscious simple amethyst studs.

Figures that the day I pour out my gratitude for summer heat

the thermostat is at 94 in San Jose.

Bask.

This is nourishing, too.

Trickling in like water down your glass

HERE

xoxoxo,

Sunny

IN IT.

Back when I was six months postpartum Anthony and I did this series called "Insanity"

in an attempt to find balance with our bodies and bond a bit after he came home from work:

we were essentially captives of a six-day-a-week program that was so balls-to-the-wall

it was….insane.

Hence the name.

Right.

On the DVDs the instructor would go around and talk to the participants

and ask them questions and they would breathlessly answer

or grunt

and every once in a while he'd turn to the camera and be like, "Do you see her face?

 She's IN IT."

'Her' face would be slightly zen, absolutely badass

and totally committed to the task at hand,

getting through this cardio onslaught 

on camera.

Well, friend -

I am IN IT right now. 

"It" being life.

I am laser-beam precision

at the fine art of living the fuck out of the day

while balancing all of the bits

and doing it with love sweet love

and an awareness that time is the only commodity that matters a lick to me.

Money, schmoney.

Beauty, schmooty.

I want to hold the slightly sticky hand of my son and go on an adventure walk.

I want to make delicate and beautiful things in my shining studio.

I want to talk to my people because they lift my spirit and guard my heart.

I want to scratch a furry chin, be it Schmilly's or a cat's.

I want to lift and squat the heaviest weight I safely can in the musty musky gym

with my headphones on blasting Salt-n'-Peppa.

SHOOP.

I want to drink iced tea on the back stoop at 8 pm totally exhausted

because my day got my all.

Because I am IN IT.

So I do.

Some days I get so tired I deflate by three p.m.

and Orion comes over to my boneless form on the couch and kisses my cheek loudly

and fusses around me gently before it devolves into painful gymnastics

with my limbs as the jungle gym

.

When I get impatient and fussy enough to rival any toddler I look at those in my care

and observe that moment from their perspective: there is no rush,

no place for them to be. They are exquisitely present

and it softens the hard parts in me and we go on.

Rinse and repeat. All day, every day.

It's such an exercise in cultivating grace.

.

I like to think that if Shaun T. came to my house on any given day

when I am wearing all the hats and juggling an entire fruit trees' worth of oranges

that he'd turn to the camera (of course there would be a camera, silly!)

and he'd get all serious and intense and say, "Do you see her face???

Do you see that dedication????

This woman is 

IN IT."

xoxoxo,

Sunny

Cuff 'em.

HERE.

xoxo,

Sunny

Pendulum

If you watch my feed over

HERE

on Instagram

you can see that the age-old pendulum that swings so widely 

between metals/stones and leather

has decidedly gone toward the latter.

I am going to have a shop update

HERE

either Friday or Monday depending on what 

I get done when.

I've got a fever and the only cure is more

cow.....hide.

xoxoxox,

Sunny

Working from a Tender Place.

Durga Earrings. Hammered Brass. Sterling and Fine Silver. Chrysoprase. Ocean Jasper.

The Stuff of Stars Earrings. Quartz Shard. Hydrangea. Star. Comet Tails.

To the Moon Necklace. Sugar-fired enamel and watercolor on copper. Sterling and fine silvers. Brass comet tails. Chrysoprase faceted rondelles. Bee Wings. Bone Toggle.

I think when we feel lost

the veil might be the very thinnest it can be 

while we ride in these clunky bodies.

If we surrender that lostness with love

the way opens so beautifully:

not without pain, that's not the point,

I used to think that's the point - the place of painlessness.

That's not a human life.

That's the self-help section at Barnes and Noble.

I worked with an aching heart this week,

these last few weeks

and surrendered daily to the uncomfortable place

with as little dramatics as I could.

The result was such an intense focus

and such good solid workmanship.

My head flitted nowhere

on account of the tenderness in my chest

and it all grounded down through my hands into the metal

and it was so so so good.

I am incredibly happy to offer this work

.

It feels so full of healing

.

It was created so prayerfully

.

When everything else felt like fumbling

these strong bonds tethered everything right back up.

*****

These four pieces will be in the

Metal Shop

tonight.

xoxox,

Sunny

Light, Tunnel, Etc.

Schmilly has been working hard: six-days-a-week hard.

Twelve-plus-hours-a-day hard.

Ridiculous-commute hard.

Thus I have been working hard, too.

Mothering.

SunnyRising-ing.

Cooking.

Lifting weights.

Cleaning.

Smurfing very VERY hard, my little Smurfs.

We are both ringed in grey but every day we get up lucky.

We go to bed lucky.

We show up and man/woman up even if we're bleary-eyed with coffee iv drips.

We've got grit and grit'll polish you right shiny, I trust this.

I recall work 'sprints' or 'crunches' that Anthony had through our eight-plus years together

and I remember more bickering and short fuses... it's so amazing how having a child

and parenting them just entails sacrifice so constantly that you cease to think of it at all,

and some things like the energy for arguing and making-up are funneled into care and teamwork

in a really powerful way.

We are more gentle

and understanding

and things are funnier 

and the jokes are older

and that man just keeps getting more handsome with the passing years

so really, how could I help but flirt and cradle?

We know that the game he's working on is coming into a new phase soon-ish, one that means

the weekends will eventually once again be our own 

and there is a light at the end of the schedule-tunnel.

I remember when I was still a receptionist wishing and praying for so much more

someone wise told me that if I wanted to let something go, I had to love it first.

I did that. I treated guests like queens and fellow employees with love.

I appreciated the free coffee and internet access.

I answered the phones like every caller was my own mama.

I faked it until I made it if I had to:

Eventually I truly cared.

So about a month ago when the pressure and stress of wearing all these rad hats became so intense that I thought it might crush my spirit

 I blessedly remembered those sage words of advice.

I have allowed myself to be less of a diligent friend. Lovingly.

Emails take longer.

I have permitted myself to sit still more with O, less inclined to romp and please in this time of energy depletion.

I have, as always, gone to the studio and found it to be a balm. That never changes.

My expectations are more realistic in terms of what there is time for

and how to breathe into the hours differently 

so that they feel more rich with possibility

and when I'm like, "Fuck it" 

I call my mom

and she tells me wonderful things

and makes my frailties feel less brittle.

I've counted my blessings and they are many.

I've said secret prayers for the drivers with whom I share the road, even (and maybe especially) the ones who put others at risk in their haste.

The house is less tidy.

The garden is a place where weeds have longer occupancy: you're welcome, dandelions.

The car is looking like we live in Death Valley, all caked with dust.

All loved, all of these things.

When life goes back to having more room for wiggling

I hope to look back on this time and think fondly

about how much was let go

in favor of sanity and care.

That I sat on the old bench in the back yard with O around sunset

and caught the bubbles he blew instead of dusting the Havisham cobwebs from the mud room.

That I asked for help when I needed it

and was loved enough to receive.

That I came down hard on nothing

and let the fire get a little low:

you can do that in the summer

and the sun'll take up the slack.

That I had the tattoo consultation.

Every morning's sunrise

can be the light at the end of the tunnel

you're still slogging through

when you love that long dark dank 

place enough to know

it has a gift for you

even if you cannot hold it yet...

just love it

in a real and true way

and feel the resistance

fade

.

xoxo,

Sunny

Comfort

Mixed Metal Comfort Earrings

Sterling Silver Comfort Earrings

Seed Pod Comfort Earrings

Bone Series Bracelet with Fire Agate

I came to my bench the other night the way some arrive at a church,

just there to pray and thank and receive 

to offer all of the gratitude this beautiful life is worthy of

and weep a little for feeling lost.

As I sat with my sketchbook this wonderful little set of doodles kept cycling,

these little spiky/soft earrings

with multiple layers and 

delicate symbols

growing out of their middles

like a language

.

As I hammered quietly and worked the ideas into life

such a warmth and peace came over me,

like every little bit was soothing

and humming

and comforting me

.

I have not yet nor do I ever expect to have something like this happen to me,

to have arrived in studio to fabricate as a means of wrapping myself in what I know

having come from the outside world that felt too new and raw

and having the pieces born of that look like alien text

that so clearly reads as both protective and loving

.

I worked long and late.

I made a few pairs for you, too.

I hope they bring you comfort

when you need it most...

little shields

little paddles to the sea

little lilting voices

singing you home.

HERE

xoxo,

Sunny