The Great Beyond

I have been a working artist for three years in March: March 31st, to be exact.

That was my last day as a receptionist in Los Angeles.

These three years have been the most incredible, challenging, gratifying, lovely and short years of my whole adult life. Working for yourself pushes every boundary you try to construct, undoes your most concrete plans and sometimes leaves you breathless, without a rock to stand on.

This is exciting; this is life at its least predictable and most raw. I would imagine having a baby or being a field journalist in a war-torn country would be much more intense, but for now, for me, this is the knife edge I choose to balance upon.

Having my work copied has been such a remarkable, infinitely valuable gift - the feeling of safety I had from creating what I found to be completely original pieces was a lullaby I wore like armor... a myth, really: there is no safety in creation.

This realization has made for dark moments, has sent me down rivers of icy fear and left my tooling bench empty for the better part of a month, save custom orders and feeble attempts at 'pushing through', which any artist knows is a fallacy:

you are either filled or empty: very seldom is there a half-way point, and when you incorporate muscling into your creations it has a tendency to crush the very delicate thing you most want to set free:

Inspiration.

This brings me to the point of sharing: I have found inspiration in this season of death, meaning I have embraced my winter, held the sense of cold and still that change brings.

My biggest inspiration over the last few weeks has been the bird skull found on Wright's Beach:

I am tooling something using its image.

It is on a canvas that may be finished.

In my dream last night, Anthony told me what kind of bird it was: I woke up without the knowledge, but I remember it was a bird I really loved and Dream Allison was very, very happy to learn its identity.

After three years of tooling things that are alive and vibrant, I am reaching down deep to retrieve a pearl buried in a piece of something once living, now gone.

This is a very new place, a thrilling new adventure.

xoxoxo,

A

The Two Week Rainstorm

It is very dim inside of my little house - observe the rich, noon-time sun:

We've had nary a drop of the good golden light stuff going on one week now, and they say another big rainstorm is coming through this afternoon to provide another week's worth of rain - What?

Well, we MADE some sunshine last night:

Homemade chicken soup with handmade noodles, a recipe from the Schmill Family cookbook. It was wonderful being with my husband in the kitchen, laughing and cooking and hugging

and stealing kisses.

Rain on, Sonoma County sky: I've got my love and my soup to keep me warm!!

xoxoxo,

A

Nom Nom Nom

In the Metal Shop this afternoon.

Opalicious

New Techniques

Marrying Leather and Silver to make a Compass for the Spirit

Opals.... fiery, lovely sunshine-y opals

from Mexico with love.

On the left: a melted sterling backplate

Delicately sawed flowers

A really big orange fire opal

a super-luxe chain

On the right:

Compass - on the back, the word 'guided'

given to me in the morning yesterday, a gift of inspiration

Mexican fire opal

sterling polished to a low shine 

hand-stitched

.

.

.

Omigoodness!!!!!

xoxox,

A

Space

With the power of a jeweler's saw, a piece of jewelry becomes a lovely play of light, metal and negative space.

I rarely post pictures of pieces that are not done yet, but these looked so delicious together that I could not resist. 

They have a bit of clean-up left, but they will all be in the shop on Monday, along with some custom pieces I've nearly finished!

On the left:

Agua Nueva and Mexican Jelly Opal, size 10.5

Middle: 

Mexican Jelly Opal in mid-century architecture, size 6.75

Right: 

Chevron. Amethyst, size 7.5 !!!

I recently acquired a parcel of Mexican Jelly Opals with very little fire, but oh my goodness, the luminous-ness... a new word for stunning eye candy ;)

Have a spectacular weekend - tonight I am noticing that the evening light is lasting a little bit longer.....

Spring?

Hello, Spring?

Ah, well.... come back soon.

xoxoxo,

Allison

Saving Grace

I am working.

There are custom orders I am completing and a bevy of rings and necklaces I am currently in the middle of making, but mostly I am working at something different in my life right now.

I am toiling in the field of my spirit, working at strengthening my sails.

Yoga.

Cooking.

Painting - and soon I will be incorporating gold leaf into my latest canvas, based on the bird skull I found at the beach - GOLD LEAF!!!!

I am studying failure, opening doors that I can only reach through rough passages of emotion and thought.

I am mining my resources for the great strengths I know are in there, somewhere, feeling underused and undervalued.

This body and mind are working through ideas that are new to me:

incorporating death into my work

Getting outside the box I've made into a new place whose atmosphere I am still adjusting to.

I have a feeling that February will be an explosion of design and inspiration after I meet Jillian for some Stone Shopping and much needed girly-sleepover time at the Tucson Gem and Mineral show.

I will pass through Los Angeles and see my friends

Drive through Redlands and stay the night with my peoples...

Rinse and repeat.

For now, though, January is something different: a grand pause, a re-wiring of something kind of broken...

I wish there were better words

but for now it is just this moment, this place and a studio that is calling out to be used.

Love,

Allison

Please

Give.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Haiti.

Chakra Suite

Today in the Metal Shop: 

-4 Chakra Necklaces-

Root

Solar Plexus

Heart

Crown

Each necklace has the individual chakra's (energetic center)

sound printed on the back, which can be used in meditation and chanting.

The trinkets are meant to be light and airy, each with their own shapes and textures

Root: Sound - LAM.... stone: Garnet with host rock

Solar Plexus: Sound - RAM... stone: Mexican Opal

Heart: Sound - YAM... stone: Beach glass

Crown: Sound - AH... Stone: Impeccable Boulder Opal with tremendous fire!

These four will be in the Metal Shop later today.

Portuguese Beach/ The Bodega Dunes

Oh, the Pacific.

One of the Seven Sisters who always manages to pull out what hurts and clean the wound with a clarifying hand.

I came to the sea confused, waiting for an answer that will affect our future deeply and I came away allowing the question to live in my life with grace.

It won't be long now.

We were with Anthony's family; my family now, too....

I told Anthony how nice it must be for him to have a wife that continues the family tradition of digging for things in the sand and in the dirt:

 my Mama 2 (Bonnie) sits right down in a trove of beach rocks and hunts for beauty, just like me!

And oh my OH what incredible treasures we found.... sand dollar, bird cranium, driftwood, agate...

Beach glass, shell fragment, jade, worry stones....

Laughter, SkipBo, hobo hamburgers, freezing cold shower badges, racoons in the garbage cans, coffee with condensed milk, heart-to-hearts, starting a campfire, PJs all morning, stories from when it all began.....

Patience, insight, a heart full of love and family.

The best gifts you cannot ever see with the eye: they are in the ether, a tale waiting to be shared again, a memory floating above the more difficult day-to-day,

whispering words like 'hold on' and 'soon'.

xoxo,

Allison

Happiness is a Warm Torch

Today I was able to finish two projects that have been keeping my heart light and my hands warm for the past three days:

This piece above is entitled "Portrait of a Fox" because, well, do you see it there?

It is a gorgeous piece of Agua Nueva Agate and I framed it in twisted sterling as one might frame a portrait painted by a human hand.

This ring is a size 7.25 and will be in the shop later with this looker:

Shazam! 

This is a Big Bang ring using the second-to-last eclipse stone in my posession, and it's a doooozy of a stone: swirls of creamy yellow and a background of deepest ebony...

breathtaking!!

It's surrounded by all manner of cosmic sterling and a wee 14k gold dot.

This stunner fits a size 10.5.

See you in the Metal Shop!

xo,

A

Grrrrrrr......

New Goggles arrived today... too tight behind the ears, but the silhouette?

Me-ow!!!!!!

;)

For Nancy

Your Celebration of Tea as an art inspires me to treat the time sipping as sacred and special:

today

Tea from a dear, dear faraway friend

Cup from a Pittsburgh thrift store, tucked into the 'expensive' section (20 dollars give or take)

that reveals a bouquet of flowers as the cup contents are drained....

Allowing a sigh of relief, calming the whirlwind.

Thank you for touching my life!

Beat The Drum

The necklaces I have to show you today are a result of the last week of my thoughts and prayers.

They are a more definite, less fluid design than I am used to making and the beauty in that newness is that they reflect my current state of mind.

Because we change, our art changes, too.

Lately I have felt more fierce, less delicate.

Dripping with the water of a new land, I am learning a new language, foraging for sustenance after what felt like a great fire swept through my life.

I don't have a branch to offer in this in between place: I have war paint under my eyes and I am watching the forest waiting for movement, anticipating things that aren't sweet to pass before me on their way to survival and growth.

The pieces I made are thumbprints of this experience: pieces that one might pass before a mighty door to be granted entrance.

They are a language, they speak of identity and clarity. They cannot pass themselves off as anonymous, they cannot feebly attempt to destroy things: 

these pieces are keys, they are courage.

I can practically hear their heartbeats.

Of the two, the larger contains a Koroit Boulder Opal with rainbow pinfire: my camera was aching to show you:

The best way to see the colors? Click on the pictures: I guarantee you will be thrilled by the sparkle that lies just beneath the surface.

Both pieces will be in the Metal Shop this evening, along with something both vintage and new, sweet and rugged.

I am currently going to go drink some African Cream tea and come back to this small town, this gentle life after a week in the wilds of the in-between.

The World....

...According to our new Nikon 60mm AF Micro Nikkor Lens:

Meow

Beautiful Pests

Studio Warrior

Nesting

The Secret Life of My Houseplant

I reckon my photographs will never be quite the same after this, my first Macro lens.

Today I worked on a very very very deluxe piece for the silver shop, a necklace which combines koroit boulder opal with beach glass in a very strong, definite way.

I look forward to sharing it with you soon!

Love,

Allison

Windswept

After spending the day driving the scenic California 1 with my Mr., I came to a firm conclusion: my leather shop is on sale. Everything is 25% off with the sale details in my shop announcement.

It is time for new beginnings and fresh designs: rest assured, I will still be making the classic pieces I have known and loved for years, but it's time for new blood.

The sale will last until January 11th, so take advantage of my pioneering and grab what you have long loved at a considerable deal.

I wish I could share the thoughts I've been having lately, but they reach so deep in me and feel so formative that I cannot find the words for them.

Things won't be flowing into the shops with the rapidity they once did: more time will be taken to absorb the life around me and participate in more than one aspect of it. 

There might be some pretty big changes in my day-to-day life, but again, I cannot say anything until I know. It's not a baby, it'll be something far more simple.

I'll keep you posted - I hope everyone rang in the happiest, healthiest, wealthiest New Year ever!!!

xoxoxox,

A