Boxes

This is a view of my huge white dresser...I admit, I have a problem. I love boxes. All kinds. Super shabby cigar boxes, old rusty tins, tattered velvet boxes, old cardboard boxes, and especially my collection (the one overtaking my dresser) of cream colored vintage jewelry boxes...the ones with the gold flourishes and borders that have been loved off over the years...I keep my jewelry creations in them, like stacks of little shabby white hope chests, with the contents waiting to be discovered by a kindred spirit.

My Constant Furry Companion

Seems like she's there 24 hours a day. If she's not sleeping, she's awake and gazing at me while I type or while I work at my table. On occasion she gets down from her old box perch (that I don't have the heart to move) and rubs her nose on my arm or lays on my right forearm while I try to type...I've gotten used to typing with her weight on my right forearm......
My dear Molly cat.

The Return of Spring

From a vintage double linked chain of gingerbread brass, hangs a very old buckle turned aviary...a refuge under the branches for a little bygone copper wren. Layers of olden leaves and branches provide a canopy for this little traveler, and an antiquated etched floral heart reminds us to keep nature there...in our hearts, when each day blurs into the next. Spring will return again. Ever present, as long as we keep it alive within ourselves.

Dear Baby Lamoreux

When your mama asked me to make a special necklace for you, I didn't know what to say. I was so honored...and I thought of you the whole time I worked on it. Your mama wanted something that would make a little noise that you could hear when she moved...I looked for just the right thing, and settled on a little key. Not just any key, but the key to a mysterious jewelry box, long forgotten...I thought it fitting because you are such a jewel. Sounds corny, I know....
Then I thought of the locket and how your momma talks of her grandmother's flowers and how much she misses her...and how I can relate because, though I am still blessed with my grandmother in my life, my love for her is so great that my heart went out to your mother and her deep loss and grief. I know your mama will think of your tiny hand in your grandmother's, and how she wishes she could see you...and I will tell your mama that she can see you...that she will find her grandmother in your little eyes and in your first little smile. And she will hear her grandmother in her own voice as she speaks to you in whispers in the hours before dawn.
Baby Lamoreux, you don't know this quite yet, but you have amazing parents. I don't know much about your father, but I know he has such a kind and gentle face....and the way he looks at your mama when she takes his picture says so much about how he feels for her....
and your mama, she is so amazing....so talented....so spiritual....and so beautiful inside, that she radiates joy and peace to everyone she touches.....and she touched me.
I read her story, as she told it, when life was very lonely and difficult for me. Your mama has no idea the impact she had on my life, not to mention the lives of so many others. She is so very special, and you are so blessed to be inside of her right now....as she breathes in and breathes out and smiles at the thought of you there in her belly, so tiny.
Yes, all this and more as I made a simple necklace...but I made it with such love...in hopes that you will feel it as you grow...and I hope your mama can feel it too.
xoxo
Jennifer

A Locket for my Dear One

...with a secret note inside.....I made this locket for my husband for Christmas. A leaf for each year we've been married and a heart for the current year.

I adore this print by my sister, Kelly Rae. I love seeing the bits and parts and pieces of things that I've sent her in her creations...

Seasons of light...

I feel more fully in the moment these days...growing more and more into myself, even at 40, there is still so much growing to do.
The holiday season is such a joy for me this year...actually my whole life has become more joyful. I finally feel like I've found my true self (other than my children and husband). Everything seems to have more meaning because I choose to look closer, breathe deeper and know. There are still the little voices that tell me what I'm doing isn't important...that making assemblage art and artistic assemblage jewelry is not really art and that someday I am going to be found out for who I am, someone pretending to be me. Does that make sense? All I know is this, I feel spirit moving through me when I create...and I've always read that you have found your passion when you forget to eat, when you loose yourself in time, when sleep becomes a cumbersome task....
I stay awake at my table until my eyes won't stay open anymore, and I have to think about when my last thing to eat was.....this is new and wonderful and scary all at once.
Lately I've been smitten with lockets and gatherings of sparkles and leaves and tiny things............
The locket that says "Fly" was inspired by my incredible sister, Kelly Rae Roberts, to whom I am so grateful for her encouragement and support. I am certain most who will read this blog know of her. I am in awe of her work and her dynamic spirit. When I grow up, I want to be just like her.
See her amazing work at www.kellyraeroberts.com

I've be so pleased with the assemblage jewelry and artwork that I've been creating lately. I feel like I am finding my own voice in old oil cans and vintage filigree and antique findings...vintage crystal beads and sterling wire. It is so hard not to be consumed by this, my new found passion...the thing that makes me forget to eat and not want to ever sleep........