Something Magical This Way Comes

Yesterday I was vocal in my life: vocal about my inner-most thoughts and fears and joys. It inspired what will become a clutch whose back will say the words 'Beauty is Inside' and whose innards will be lined with the most fantastic 70s fabric from Kauai.
I am positively emotional about it all.
There is never anything to lose by speaking your heart.
You will always grow.
Sometimes I forget that and hold the more confusing feelings inside, hoping that by ignoring them they will dissipate - au Contraire!!! They return doubly confused and slightly angry that they've been put in a dark place when all they ever wanted was air and clarity.
Does that ever happen to you?

A Song of Thanksgiving

CD Pre-Order (!!!!!!)

HERE!!!!!!

Heart Warming

Last night I took the next step on the journey of melting that I began the other day: it is amazing. I made something last night that surely belongs to a very specific woman. It exudes a fire that cannot even be imagined: a person must see it in the stone to believe it!

I am excited to see who its rightful owner is, as it is incredibly powerful. Oh the mysteries of life!!!

You can find it by clicking THIS.

Imminent Orange Throwing Contest Alert!!!!!!!

Ladies, get your throwing arms a-ready!!! Here's what is going down: in celebration of the camaraderie and lovely sensitivity shown in the comment section for THIS post ( link embedded on 'this' ) I am devising a contest.

I will give ample notice, but in the coming weeks I will be announcing a day in which we all literally throw an orange ( photo documentation will be lovingly accepted ) and write down the reasons why we feel that this symbolic gesture can mean a change in our overall treatment of life and renew our sense of possibility. 

That new burst of written joy can then be copied into the comment section the specified post and from those comments one will be chosen at random to win the following: a gift certificate for $50.00 dollars to Sunny Rising Leather or Sunny Rising Metal and $30.00 ( of my moolah ) donated to the charity of your choice so that someone else can share in the glory of your new found faith in your ability to find mirth and possibility in absurd symbolic-y things like orange-tossing!

The idea of doing this makes me absolutely dewy with happiness.

You all amaze me: that I get to have you come by and share your wisdom and challenges here on this little blog is just tear-inducing and smiley all at once.

Like a cotton commercial.

Love to you all this evening (digital hug) and stay tuned, please.

Some wedding kisses for you!

A Busy Day Yesterday

These pieces were made with so much joy yesterday: I have never made layered rings, and I made the opal piece using metal I melted: I couldn't believe what was happening when I put two and two together: melting metal feels amazing and I cannot wait to make more pieces using it!

These will all be in the Metal Shop this afternoon.

Two new dear friends

Oh, I am smitten as a kitten over these two new koi. There was something about the way the leather took on the colors that just made me overcome with joy!

Woodland Love Mystery

When I was making this necklace ( and I mused a little on it in the description ) I imagined finding it at the base of a giant tree whose leaves were just finishing their autumn in a pile of crisp yellows and downright crunchy browns... I wondered what it would feel like to just simply... find it and the feelings that flooded me were powerful:

Tenderness

Curiosity

Wonder

It made me feel a sense of adventure flooding through my imagination. Isn't it interesting what can happen if we take ourselves out of our reality and into childhood creativity again?

I let myself play. I think I will sleep better tonight for it :)

New Necklaces in the Silver Shop!

Yay for simple bezel set gemstones! Ocean Jasper, Fossilized Coral and Turquoise Gemmmmms.

The pendulum swung to silver yesterday :)

Available Here.

Throwing Oranges

I went to lunch with my dearest Katherine today and we were discussing stuck-ness and I was describing how we kind of wear a path in the grass and find ourselves exasperated with our present circumstances. I then said that what we need to do to get off our well-worn path of frustration is to "Throw an orange", and I guess I meant we'd follow the orange we...just...threw (?) It makes total sense in my mind and it made total sense to Katherine.

Perhaps it meant that we distract ourselves with something bright and different and watch where it lands, somewhere completely foreign and exotic compared to our constant.

I think it's time for me to throw an orange. My shops are silent as the grave save for custom orders in progress. There is so much talk of fear in our country. There is fear in my home given that the one income ( for now, mine ) is sporadic at best, and I am tired of worrying.

I am simply going to do what I am doing in my studio for the love of it and pursue day-time work, likely part-time. If doing what you love becomes fearful then the love is leeched out of it daily: I refuse to sacrifice my koi and leaves and flowers and stones and silver to the leeches of fear.

I have one lead that would be amazing: I hope it goes through.

This will mean less posting and less creating, which makes my heart feel slightly heavy, but it also means the mortgage will not be a worry and it will give Anthony the freedom to not have to grab whatever is offered to him if the fit isn't right.

I must remember in this that I have not failed to 'be an artist' if I spend a few months giving my time to something else ( in this ideal case, helping one of my dearest girlfriends start her own amazing business as her assistant ) - I am simply doing what I need to do for my family.

Rolling up my shirtsleeves, focusing my mind on throwing an orange in the widest arc my muscles can make.

Spring and Fall as One

The Garland Necklace

Sunny Rising Signature Bag

In the Leather Shop now!

Orion

My wintery companion, my night sky love since I was small. Here is my gratitude in silver.

SIck?!?!!!

Alas, Ben Folds, I will not see you tonight. I got sick. I avoided all the icky sickness traps in the last few months: better now than right before my wedding. Or yesterday or the days before.

This is one of the necklaces I painted on camera for Tara ( aka Weirdwolf on Etsy: )

We had an amazing time. That is one inspiring, gentle and completely focused woman. I came away from the experience so affected by someone doing good in the world: her portraits show such a love of craft and a sensitivity to beauty all around. She's the girl who finds the cool things in every city, the offbeat things that you stumble upon that make a town memorable...

I am rich for having spent these last few days in her presence.

Now back to bed.