Packing Check-list: Portland or Bust

So, I've been packing for my trip to Portland's Body Mind Spirit Expo... Let's hope I have everything that I need.  This totally put my mad, Tetris packing skills to the test.

-display furniture
-lighting
-square register and charger
-table clothes
-packaging
-promotional materials
-banner and S-hooks
-clothes... yeah, there might be clothes in there :)
-writing implements
-itinerary and relevant phone numbers
-jewelry... I should hope so
-ring sizers
-camera and charger
-phone and charger
-books, etc.... I think my round-trip travel time is something like 17 hours
-hand mirrors
-inventory print-out and extra price tags
-guts

Fancy Penmanship

I love books.  I love blank books almost as much as I love printed books.  And I love beautiful pens almost as much as I love blank books.

The truth is that I love, love, love writing with actual writing implements as opposed to a keyboard.  Don't get me wrong... I love email and word processing just as much as the next person, but there's something so personal and lovely about holding a pen in my hand and writing words.


All my poems start on paper before they make it to the keyboard.  All my jewelry designs start in my sketch book before they make into metal.

But let's be clear, I am not anti-technology... my computer is an important design tool that I use just as much as my pencil and ruler and templates.  Some of the things I create would be much less without the aid of my computer.  I am not anti-technology.  I am pro-balance.

I have seen objects that literally could not have existed in the real world without Computer Aided Design or 3D printing... the forms too "M.C. Escher," literally impossible to fabricate or carve by hand.  And on the other side of the coin, I have seen objects in museums that needed a maker's touch, a finger print, the delicate evidence of skilled hands... there are just some things that computers do not understand.

And as in all things, there are camps, each arguing the virtues of the different approaches.  I make things, (and I've already told you how much I love pens), so it should be obvious that I err on the side of handmade... but like I said: balance.  There can be a crispness to objects that hands just can't quite manage, an exactness.  But there can be a tension created by plans gone awry, when materials just don't behave the way they're "supposed to" and something better, inspired happens. 

Machines take this tension away, computers cannot comprehend the beauty of plans gone awry... usually plans gone awry lead to blue screens and lost data, unbalanced binary code.  It's the job of the maker to decide when to let the crispness take over and when to let the natural order and possible chaos rule the day.  Balance... it's something I'm working on.

The Sacral Chakra

So, this the second installment of jewelry in my Chakra Series.  For the first installment, please view my post entitled The Root Chakra.

Chakra 2, otherwise known as the sacral chakra, is located in the lower abdomen to navel area of the body.  Physically, it is the energy center that governs the sexual organs, large intestines, lower vertebrae, pelvis, hip area, appendix, and bladder.  Emotionally, this chakra deals with issues of money, creativity, guilt, control, morality, sex, and relationships with specific people.  

If chakra 1 is about love for the tribe, the chakra 2 is about love for the specific people with which we choose to cultivate personal relationships.  The Sacred Truth that this chakra has to teach us is "Honor One Another."

Admittedly, the jewelry that I've made so far doesn't deal with some of the more complicated aspects of these chakras.  But like I said in my earlier post... the possibilities are endless.  I'm taking baby steps right now until I've worked my way through all the chakras, even though they each govern specific things, they are all interconnected.  Once I have a greater understanding of the whole "machine," my pieces will naturally become more complex all on their own.

Fall Leaf Pendant: sterling silver, printed paper, epoxy resin

Fall Leaf Bracelet: sterling silver, printed paper, epoxy resin.

Let Go Pendant: sterling silver, lab-created sapphire, broken stained glass

Let Go Earrings: sterling silver, lab-created sapphire, broken stained glass

Sacral Chakra Earrings: sterling silver, dyed coral, broken stained glass

The Archangel Cuff Bracelets

It took me a long time to design these bracelets... a lot longer than it usually does once an idea occurs to me.

And I think this was for various reasons; the form... I've never made cuff bracelets before, I had to take the time to experiment, the materials... once I decided to use fauxbone, I had to take the time to better familiarize myself with that material, but mostly I think it was the subject matter.  My Goddess Necklaces were easy for me to conceptualize, and I realized, I talk to my Goddesses all the time, but I really only turn to my Guys when I'm in trouble or I need help.  I think they were just givin' me guff for being that way :)

In any case, it gave me an opportunity to really think about what I gain from these angels, with which parts of myself they really help me connect.  If these are my divine intermediaries that I turn to when I need something beyond myself, then why do I really talk to them?

Michael is the archangel of protection, guidance.  He lends strength and courage.  I use him as a shield in stressful and frightening situations.  I honestly think of him as some sort of bad-ass knight, so it made perfect sense to me that his bracelet should take the form of a gauntlet, complete with custom coat-of-arms.  But more than the strength, Michael is really about the love for me, that deep river of light that is so worth fighting for.

Raphael is the archangel of healing and creativity.  I really think he and I have been buds for a long time, even before I knew his name... of the three Archangels for which I made bracelets, he's the one with whom I feel the deepest kinship.  In this bracelet, I made a mandala from silhouettes of human vertebrae... because my creativity heals me, and my healing only adds to my creativity: the two are inseparable, my backbone.

Gabriel is THE messenger angel and known to help with clarity and creativity where communication is concerned.  I used to think that he was my need to know about damn-near everything.  But really, I think he has more to do with how I think about strength.  I like to think Gabriel helps me take responsibility for myself... because most days that takes real strength.   In this bracelet, I combined the hurricane symbol with a typographical mandala made of the word "authentic." 

Handmade Time Machines

Handmade objects have their own magic, a quality given to them the the hands of the maker.  I'm not talking about magic in a fantastical sense but magic in the sense that these objects have the ability to cross the boundaries of time, they have the power to take you back.

I haven't visited the Carnegie Museum of Art in years... years!  I can't remember the last time I was there.

But I visited a couple days ago with a friend. 

In the art galleries, I found myself wanting to touch the paintings.  Some of them had a texture... globs of paint left behind either by accident or design, a texture.  I wanted to touch those paintings!  Reach out my hand and feel the paint... as if by some transference, I'd be able to feel the brush upon the canvas, the hand upon the brush, the mind connected to the hand.  It was all I could do to stop myself!

And the same thing happened in the hall of decorative arts and design... especially with the furniture of inlaid wood.  Some of those objects have at one time or another been in people's homes before they found their way into the museum.  I wanted to hear the stories that these pieces of furniture had to tell... Why is your door cracked?  It was a cold winter that year... I lived near the window, you see, drafty.  Or are you talked about this crack?  Lovers' quarrel, the damage was too extensive to be repaired.

What have these objects witnessed?  What sorrows or joys have they been a part of?  They're in museums because they're examples of craft that are meant to be preserved, used as examples to teach future generations about the art and culture of the past.  But I found myself preoccupied something much more interesting... the human element.

On the Art of Surrender

Sometimes... but only sometimes, I wish that life was a straight line.  Life can only be lived in one direction, but it is not a straight line.

Things happen.  People come and go.  Knowledge is gained and lost.  Experience is a sword that cuts both ways.  Something will happen, and I'll find myself saying, "Oh my God, am I really in THIS place again?  How many times do I have to learn this lesson?"

It's an expression that's starting to find it's way into my work... I find myself wanting to break things and use the pieces to create new objects, as if by the act of breaking, I'll will myself to cut a new path.  I find myself wanting so badly to incorporate incredibly transient materials like water, fall leaves, flower petals, and fire.  But how do I solidify things that by their very nature only exist at a single point in time?

It's the need in me to hang on... even though I'm not allowed.  I am allowed to keep the memories but not the people attached to them.  I'm allowed to keep the experiences but not the circumstances that created them.  I'm allowed to keep the love, and the pain, for as long as I need them.

But the truth is that what I'm really afraid of letting go of is not the memories, experiences, or emotions... it's this person that I am.  I've known her for a very long time.

I've come through years of heartache.  And for what... thicker skin?  If anything, I'm more sensitive now than I was back in the day, my skin worn smooth and crisp from the years of erosion.  Who would I become if I didn't use these hurts as the second skin I never acquired?  Who would I be if I stopped using my generosity and creativity as shields?  Sometimes, when I meet new people, I feel like I'm playing at slight of hand... look over here, and I won't have to show you what I'm really about.

Lame.

Lately, I find myself wanting to take myself aside and say, "Listen, you've been great, but it's time for you to leave me alone.  I'm going places where you can't follow." 

All I really know for certain is that strange and wondrous things happen on this road that I've chosen... when I made these earrings, I broke the glass with a steel punch.  The glass broke the steel.  The glass broke the steel before the steel broke the glass.  True story.