Saturday, May 31, 2014

To You, Beautiful Dreamer.


For you, the one who has not been broken by life -
bent, to be certain
challenged 
 a little bruised, perhaps
but not broken
by a long shot
.


You beautiful woman. Brilliant and tired. You keep rising with the morning sun
and doing it all again, things that feel rote and sacred
and necessary
.


I see you with that look in your eye, the faraway one
that means you're building worlds
out of wisps
sturdy as all hell
despite the delicate structure


and gentle though you may be when you're sweet
you lead warriors with your fierce heart
.


I cannot stop cradling this beautiful valentine to you
with its precious cut of fire agate 
and drops of carnelian blood

I want to tell you all about this little curled dreamer I've hammer engraved and 
carved out of the metal (hours and hours of precise intuitive work), leaving a pile of stardust under my feet.
She is happy in her vulnerable warm sleep.
She is tucked into a frond of jacaranda.


I made this honoring piece
because I am so proud of you
because I want to leave you with all my gratitude threaded through the molecules of sterling
and stone


to say 'thank you'
for continuing to grow and dream
in an impartial
world that 
breaks so many
to bits
.

In the 

.

xoxo,
Sunny

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Sweet Littles


Sweet Little Bee Wings in Sterling



Sweet Chalcedony and Feather Shoulder Dusters in Sterling




Hammer-formed Jacaranda Seeds in Large 



Sweet Little Oak Leaves. Handpicked by my son.



Sweet Little Jacaranda Seeds, Smallest Size.




Sweet Little Hydrangea Blossoms in Sterling





Hammer Formed Jacaranda Seeds in Medium-Large


Delicate sweet littles are whispering their way into the 


this 
evening.

May it be a beautiful one for you.

xoxoxo,
Sunny

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Black Thumb


I guess I never thought I'd have a garden
.


because I froze the very roots of everything I tried to grow when I was younger
and rotted so many plants dead that I gave up hope I'd ever get the sense of what they needed
enough to give them a fighting chance....


Thank God for pothos plants
and for succulents -
they are so forgiving of hands both heavy and light
that I found the faith I needed to dare drop seeds in the ground
.



and as I watch these beets and cucumbers and tomato plants thrive
under my care 
as I pluck the Leaf Miner egg cases off of the greens
like a nurse
as I work and breathe in the wet soil 
I smile to myself
remembering that 


I thought I'd never have a garden
.


If you had asked me when I was 28 I'd have told you I would not have a child.
I sat my mother-in-love down and told her so to break her heart quickly and be done with it.
To burn the wound clean and clarify.


I sure did like my friends' kids.
I had great memories of being a kid
but
motherhood was not in the cards for me,
black thumb-bearer
musician
and maker of things
.


I had found my happiness.
I had staked out my claim and my future was a wide and clear desert sky
with no tethers beside loving a man who understood my need to take off 
and go, with or without him at any time I needed to.


I did not need to bring a soul into this broken world to know its pain
or maybe to help heal it
I didn't have any desire to have my heart pulled wide and spilled out daily
to wander through a crowd wondering whose neck I'd need to sink my teeth into lest they harm my child
to be played like a cello
the most bittersweet song of pulsing life and imminent death
thrumming and aching through my cells every single second
like shut this thing off / oh no please don't touch the dial
I've never heard music like this before
It's so beautiful
and it hurts too much to bear
 people ask me why I am not writing songs anymore....
could anyone pick a melody out of this racket?
I'm hearing choirs of angels right along with 
cranking rhythm guitar and marching-band-bass-drums
every second of every waking moment.
Jesus.

Can I have a moment?

Some asshat at the back of the house would say "When he's 18!"
if I was on stage

and I would throw a tomato at them
in like a month when they're ripe
because I don't like that old schtick any more than all the mothers ever
.


There was just this day where suddenly I did want a child
with everything that whole shebang entailed
and so it was.

And it was and it was and it was

Until

Here he is now, not at all a baby anymore.
Capable of amazing conversation
if you're into trains, steam engines of all sorts, chocolate graham crackers, planes,
sparkling lights and tractors.
Counting to ten.
Kissing my arms.
Funny as all hell.
Perfectly selfish.
Learning manners.
Reluctantly sharing.
Rushing to be held.
Scaling medium heights.
Blowing my ever-loving mind daily.
Being my reason
.



I think it's important that we decide how things will be
as much as we want to 
with the understanding that it will not be so neat,
that life itself is so burly and overgrown
it practically muffles the perfect math of our plans
.

Standing in my yard looking at knee-high tete noir cabbage 
with my son I am both hugely grateful and tortured,
trying hard to let the gentle hush of the palm fronds
and the sweet jibber-jabber of a two-year-old 
go. 
Trying not to put the setting vanilla sun in a jar just so I can open it later
when there are other places he'll want to be.
Attempting to let the sweetness pass into chaos
trusting as we must
that all is as it will be
despite our plans, 
gardening
and 
otherwise
.


xoxoxo,
Sunny



Sunday, May 18, 2014

Don't Waste It


Bone and Feather Earrings. Sterling Silver. Sculpted sterling bones.Gemstone and Shell Beads.




Wee Brass Petal Earrings. Handmade Sterling Ear Wire. Sterling Rivet.




Adjustable Sterling Silver Bone Ring, 6.5



Fixed Sterling Silver Bone Ring. Size 8.25



Bone Flower Earrings. Asymmetrical. American turquoise. Sculpted Sterling Bones.




Medium Bone Posts. Sculpted Sterling Silver.


Mini Bone Posts. Sculpted Sterling Silver.


Long Bone Posts. Sculpted Sterling Silver.



Bone Collector Royston Ring. Size 9




Two of a kind flower posts: petal and bloom. Sterling Silver.



This series is all about bones (with a few flowers thrown in because I cannot resist them), all about this one unique shot at life in this body.

This series is about grabbing every second that you can, about not lingering anywhere you don't want to linger for longer than you must.

Don't waste this breath or the next, neither of which were ever guaranteed to you,
both of which are total and complete miracles in which a complex system of chemicals and 
circumstances that have allowed life to exist, fragile and rare
.

There are so many bossy things I wanted to write to you, to myself.... but none of them could find their way out of my fingers with words
so
I built bones.

I built them out of sterling sheet and wire.

I sculpted them carefully and lovingly, each one taking on a life of its own,
asking a generous amount of time to be formed.

They are fierce reminders of the fact that we will certainly die,
one of a few absolute truths as a biological creature.
We are born and we die, two bookends of a life
both bookended themselves by an utterly exquisite and terrifying mystery
people die to defend
and no one could ever define while in a body
.

So, here we are on earth with ten million myriad choices every day
in community and solitude
in love and war
.

I hope every time you see these little bones you ask yourself these questions:
Are your moments serving you?
Are you serving them?
Are you giving with your whole heart?
Are you cultivating the finest things you can in yourselves and others?
 Make the answers 'yes'
please
and it will touch something
make something better
for someone:
what more can we do, what better thing can we do?
.

Open your eyes
breath in this fine air
and live the fuck out of this life
while it rests in your palm
like a tiny spark
that has known darkness
and will know it again
like an old friend
.

The Bone Series will be in the 

Metal Shop tomorrow

.

xoxo,
Sunny

P.S. - I guess I did find the bossy words.