The Nimbus Ring

This was the first piece of metalsmithing that I ever made for myself.  This was not my first project in Edinboro, but this was the first piece of jewelry that I ever made as a "professional."

I still love it.  I still wear it.  I still find it relevant even though I completed it over seven years ago.

This ring began my love affair with my jeweler's saw... the delicate touch need to turn the tight corners, the perseverance needed to break blades and keep going.

I feel so strange telling you that I am in love with an inanimate object, my jeweler's saw, an object that will never love me back and that will certainly betray me in the end, as all tools eventually do, by breaking and no longer running true.

But perhaps I am not so much in love with the tool so much as what it helps me do: it helps make my thoughts into a reality.  

I love that things, objects, jewelry, art can have personalities... qualities given to them by their makers, by the hands that made them.  Mistakes can become blessings in disguise and a slip of the hand can create something completely unique.  Of course, that isn't always the case... sometimes a slip of the hand means hours of backtracking and fixing, but to the beginner, with beginner's luck on her side, the true personality of a thing can come from a pure place, an unburdened and clean place.

I really do love this ring.