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

Tea for Two

In yoga the other day my teacher told me

to invite my fear to tea;

perhaps then it could tell me why it has been so strong and so constant

for such a long time

And so I made a space

in quiet meditation

where I set the table and laid out my favorite tea cups.

I brewed rose-scented black tea, my favorite,

and offered a cup to my companion

asking

politely,

"So why are you here so consistently?"

Sipping its tea slowly and thoughtfully, fear's cup clattered to the table in epiphany...

It looked me in the eye and cried,

"I am trying to save your life!

"I bring to mind mountain lions so that you don't get lost in the woods

I make you blush so that dangerous strangers cannot get too close

I know the things that lurk in the night

And the noises in your heater that will cause a fire...

I have seen centuries of pain

and eons of cruelty!

In every moment

In all of your lifetimes I have been here

trying so hard to save that beating heart

I am devoted to

.

and

.

every

.

time

.

I

.

have

.

failed."

We both sit silently for a while now, fear and I...

For me, it becomes a matter of cultivating compassion instead of wanting to push madly,

understanding the good intent behind the stream of words I still cannot always decipher from instinct....

for fear, it becomes a matter of simply understanding that it will lose me

again

.

and again

.

and again

.

unceasingly.

For all things it is true that love means letting go;

even the stuff we most wish to shed

may, in its adoring, cling more tightly

to our breast.

Once More, with Feathers...

The last elk scarf-lace for a bit....

feathered friend

This one doubles as a thick cuff for a wrist 6 inches or under...

Oh, my heart....

Tagua nut button in softest orange...

riveted

lace-d

oh my gosh this design fills my heart up something fierce!!

In the Leather Shop tonight!

xoxoxox,

Allison

Burlesque Scarflette

Oh, my....

Look out, boys: magenta leather scarflette coming through!!

But it won't just simply walk on by with a measured clicking of sensible heels - oh, no....

This little luxe piece will shimmy past with a flutter of maribou stilette slippers and the unmistakable sound of toms and horns...

This baby is burlesque!!!

Feminine mystery and sweetness wrapped in a tartness that never lets you mistake it for naive...

Pink and black tooled rose round

palest pink nut button

tiniest silvertone rivets

and hand-punched organic lace.

Ooooh

La

Laaaa!!!!!

Fits up to a 14 inch neck.

In the Leather Shop today!

Wild Warmth

Though not quite a necklace, this unique and soulful piece is neither a scarf: rather, it is a hybrid, the best of both worlds:

warming

cool as a hipster without the irony

wild

and somehow tame

like Pocahontas in England.

A warm mustard Elk hide

one side of the edge left natural, the other

given a punched, elegant lace (found all through the design)

A small button of bean sprout stitched on

and the wee-est rivets placed on either side of the button hole to ensure it doesn't continue to grow...

It is so soft, so lush and so chock full of prayer and meaning: picture me hanging on for dear life as Inspiration moved quickly

and dictated tasks....

"Scallop," it said.

"Punch more!" it cried

"Tea, please!" it implored....

yeesh!!! Is creativity always so demanding???

A strong, delicate piece of my heart

in the Leather Shop this morning.

Working by Lamplight

As the season moves toward the time of Giving, I find myself working into the evening, which falls early these days.

My tools glisten in the light of a gorgeous antique lamp

and steam rises from a mug of tea

which will certainly soon be forgotten.

Ideas challenge me to make them real...

new techniques win their own thunder...

That gorgeous copper round that was going to become a part of a Lucky Strike piece?

It became its own necklace, the work being so exciting and worthy of its own place.

I am so smitten with engraving, with forming...

In this time of the year when the light fails early in the day, I find solace in the Caribbean colors of my studio walls

and the joy that artistic endeavor creates.

I feel like Santa, dressed in prettier clothing, making beautiful things that will adorn beautiful women and wondering to whom each piece belongs, because truly each piece already belongs to someone as soon as it becomes physical.

I look forward to these early-dark days before the winter solstice and the peaceful work therein.

Love,

Allison