Achingly Beautiful

Mexican Fire opal with a TON of rich red and green threaded under the surface of the stone: the camera tried so valiantly to capture it, but alas, it could not! You can see glimpses, though....

The stone of wonder is set in a hammer-formed sterling silver flower which has been given a delicious dose of ebony and features polished bright sterling dew drops....

Voila!!!!

And oh my goodness warm and smoocheriffic mookaite earrings strung on handmade ear wires... these are life-affirming in their exuberant colorful joy!!

Both the earrings and the necklace will be in the Metal Shop in a little while...

This is the last week that both shops will be open -

I will close everything down the evening of the 20th so that I may travel to the frozen tundra of Minnesota for Christmas.

Perhaps Santa will bring me a Yeti fur coat!!!

xoxoxox,

Allison

Impossible to Explain

This past week, I spent three days with a woman whose presence was

so

luminous.

I tear up every so often when I think of our time together, the places we went and the things we saw, the endless conversations we had about things that mattered

and the way my heart felt so safe with her.

I will write more about our trip in a few days when my mind can fully grasp the honor of its purpose and the words to describe it can actually be found.

In the meantime, there are pieces I began with both of us sitting in my studio, informed as I must have been by the nature we tromped into and the holiness of it all.

These pieces will not be listed in the shop: they will be reserve only through the blog: they belong to someone specific and are so dearly tied to my heart that I cannot make them available to the general public just yet.

Convo me if either piece is Yours.

BOTH PIECES ARE TAKEN: THANK YOU FOR WRITING!

This little sacred bag is 5 inches wide, 2 inches deep and four inches tall. It fits more than you'd ever think in it, but I hope its purpose is holy.

Perhaps it is worn around the neck while you meditate

or through the woods, filled with amulets, oils and incense to be burned.

At the very end of its long natural edge top flap, a tiny milagro sits: 'protect this woman', it reads, and I have prayed that it will indeed.

A single young buck horn tooled leather badge rests above a shell button, majestic and soft all at once. The bag body is made from the softest ivory deerskin

and each connection is riveted for indestructible construction.

One side of rivets is mini, the other small: delicate and strong all at once.

The strap is 25 inches of hand-cut and hand-braided deerskin strands, organically shaped.

Little bits of organic hand-punched lace can be found in unexpected places, adding grace and lilt to the whole piece.

And then there's the scarflace, which doubles as a waist belt for a woman with a 25-27 inch waist: I'd have modeled it, but at 30 inches I didn't want to stretch out the piece nor change its structural integrity.

SCARFLACE IS TAKEN!!

Natural edges, deer hide, antlers and tagua nut button...

Inlaid pink leather heart, carefully stitched into place with love.

This beauty is wide: 3.5 inches wide around the neck, 5 inches wide at the ends.

Gorgeous.

Heartfelt.

A little tiny milagro tag reads "Protect this woman", and the antlers are meant to do just that!

From end to end, this scarflette is 36 inches of beautiful, soft and meaningful prayers and hide.

I cannot wait to see to whom these pieces belong:

it's like Christmas :)

xoxoxox,

Allison

Bring It

Everyone

Makes Passes

At Girls

Who wear

Safety Goggles!!

With Love (and birdies!) from San Jose,

Allison & Kelly

Just a Travel Notice

I will be out of town from Thursday (tomorrow) until Sunday - if anything is purchased after tomorrow very early in the morning, it shall ship out Monday.

My days will find me communing with an elegant, willowy dove who is quite amazing.

Woohoooo!!!!

Thanks and hooray to the open road!!!

xoxoxox,

Allison

Progress

It is well

With

My

Soul.

Soft ebony body

blood-red suede lining

A piece of me in there somewhere,

shining.

xoxox,

A

I wish you

This kind of cozy today :)

xoxoxox,

Allison

Simple and Warm

Collector's Morrisonite in shades of pink, ochre, khaki and cream. Unspeakably beautiful, incredibly rare.

Size 6.75.

It's like caramel and strawberries? Non?

Simply set with love.

Ocho agate with an open center: you know what that means for me: fill 'er up with granules!!!

It looks like feathers and sea stones... gorgeous!!

And finally, a stone I cabbed (now that I know the arbor is coming I can set my stones with abandon!!)

whose origin is unknown: it's a dendritic agate with a peach 'sky' and a rock outcropping of rhyolite matrix.

Looks a bit like late summer Petaluma in the evening: kind of like my bog header -

NON?????

On the back I have set a warm, inviting piece of copper to keep you toasty all through the winter.

This piece is 16 inches, but has an extender chain finished with an elegant little bijoux.

All three will be in the Metal Shop this evening!

xoxoxox,

Allison

Softer than anything you could ever imagine...

Deerskin with natural edge.

Organic lace

Tagua nut button and pink carved quartz flower

Tooled leaves and gentle heart.

In the Leather Shop later today.

xoxoxox,

Allison

Oh Holy Night Celestial Necklaces

Garden Quartz with Mexican Fire Opal (no fire snaps in this little sunrise, just pure orange juice goodness!)

Chrysoprase cabbed by me with two dendritic chrysoprase tube beads a' dangling....

You could really plant something in there.... magic!!!

Oxidized to perfection and left mostly ebony to highlight these stones - these STONES!!!

Eeeeee!

I could not quite adequately capture the green of this lovely chrysoprase on my camera, no matter how I set the white balance: it is clear, gemmy and luminous, truly.

Goodness.

Both will be in the Metal Shop today!

xoxoxox,

Allison

It Is Well With My Soul

"When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is Well, it is well, with my soul."

- Horatio Spafford

The last big bag of 2010 goes out with a meaningful and heartfelt 'bang'...

A blue tear of Arizona turquoise surrounded by the twin Bluebirds of Happiness...

from the tear grows green things:

in sorrow and in happiness, it is Well with my Soul.

Please do yourself the honor of clicking on the link for Horatio Spafford's incredible story of loss and the song he birthed from a place of unimaginable suffering....

To write those words at the moment he did write them is profound

and awe-inspiring.

xoxoxoxox,

Allison

A small note:

(This bag should be in the shop before I leave on December 21st:

all shipping will be done on the 20th of December

and then Anthony will go to the Post Office for me on the 21st for last minute orders

and after that, the shops are closed until New Year's!!!)

Thank Heavens

When I lived in Los Angeles, I was blessed to know a wonderful woman named Joanna, whose husband Billy recorded, co-produced and poured his soul into 'Vox', my first full-length album.

They were incredibly generous with both their time and their hearts.

Joanna took me out one day for shopping excursion through some really amazing little shops in both Glendale and Silverlake, and one shop stood out in particular:

a rock shop with crystals and minerals and I remember finding a piece of stone called

Prehnite.

I recall holding it and feeling something ease inside of my soul.

That day was dear to me for so many reasons, one of which being the seed it planted for lapidary.

Fast forward to working with silver and finding stones on the internet, learning their purposes and their origins.

I have spent countless hours researching colors and patterns and the hows and vague whys of their creation, ever expanding my adoration for what lies far beneath our feet.

When I visited Ed of Stones in Motion for the first time a few years back, I knew I wanted to work with stones. It felt so right to grind them down and create a cabochon where there was previously a slice of rough earth.

Does it make sense to say that lapidary makes me think of God, makes me feel closer to the One who created us all, He/She of infinite power?

It is nurturing to my soul.

Five weeks back I had to stop going to the lapidary studio on Wednesdays for reasons I don't feel at liberty to discuss, save that my heart broke a little and

being a woman felt like a liability.

I began putting money into a fund to someday buy myself a lapidary arbor, figuring that it would take until about April, but I was willing to make it work, and in the meantime, I had a few stones I had worked to put into my designs and that had to be enough.

For now.

Well, that husband of mine went and toppled my plans by getting me a CabKing lapidary arbor, a tool that will allow me to make cabochons from start to finish here at home any day of the week, and week of the year

surrounded by solitude, cats and three palm trees

listening to Nina Simone and Queen in my old Uggs

sipping something warm from a cup nearby.

Somehow a journey that I began with a new discovery years ago has led me here to this gorgeous place and I am overwhelmed with gratitude and

emotion.

This is life at its finest!!

xoxo,

Allison

Deer Hide

In stone, gold and ivory....

I couldn't resist.

By lamplight they are so luminous, by day, divine.

I am powered by dark chocolate and tea, working with stones this round.

I cannot wait to show you: it will be a few days at least before this duo gets unveiled, but it will be worth it.

xoxoxox,

Allison

For December

A dark and gorgeous month deserves its own homage, and so my scarves took a turn over the last few days:

Wintery and deep

Lunar and winged...

Long and short...

Gosh.

Just.... goodness. I love making these more than I could ever say.

Ideas are pouring through the top of my head

down through my body and

out

my

toes....

I am off to make an Elk hide run and go to Petaluma and have lunch and fill my creative well a bit... without these days I empty out quickly.

Both scarves are in the Leather Shop, awaiting their mistresses.

Love and wonderment to you all,

Allisunny