My Own Rhapsody in Blue

     I should probably pay more attention to color trends...I know about Pantone color forecasts for 2012-13 and fashion forecasts and jewelry trends. I look. But then I just keep making what appeals to me...and hope that it appeals to you as well. I go through what seems to be color spurts, mixed in with my desire to create pale, neutral, shabby jewelry for brides and bohemians alike. Sometimes it feels like a push or a pull to create a certain style, but I have many "facets"...like we all do I imagine.
     I make vintage jeweled necklaces and earrings for formal occasions, maybe because I dream of attending such fanciful places...and assemblage jewelry resurrected from old keys, religious medals, antiques, tattered remnants and worn out pearls. The sparkle and the shabby.
     The focus for me is on the "vintage" and "antique" part of it. I simply love the idea of resuscitating something old, and making it alive again...noticeable....relevant...seen...and loved again.
Maybe it is bit of what I think we as human beings need to be. Seen. Heard. Understood. Important. And most of all, loved.
    There are some that say that they can see the love I have for what I make in the photographs I take. These days, I don't do a lot of the editing and tweaking I used to do. I use my cheapy camera some old handwriten pages and I pick a window. I might sharpen them just a bit because I never use a tripod (terrible, I know, right?!) and hope that my hands aren't super shaky like they can be!
   I deeply want the love for what I make to flow to you, the wearer, or those inspired by my work. Each thing I make is so infused with it. I feel like I am somewhat of a conduit for God. For love. And this the way I spread God's love. Even if it is only to inspire someone with a color.
   There are times when a harsh voice comes into my head that says that what I do is silly. Irrelevant. Trite. Materialistic. Stupid. And who cares about jewelry when the world is falling in around us?
I push those thoughts away. Sometimes it is easier than others, because I do get discouraged. I replace them with the other voices that say that what I do makes sense. It IS relevant. That it isn't about materialism. That someday the bigger picture will be revealed... this gift, for whatever reason, was given to me at 41 years old. I'll be 43 this year. The passion I have for what I do is something that is hard to explain. I literally dream about it. My husband says I talk about it in my sleep. It consumes me. It brings me immeasurable joy. It is my solace. I am a woman consumed with a passion for something that I don't quite understand myself. I truly believe that it comes from a source outside of myself, that flows through me. A reason for being that will make a difference in the world, if even in the smallest ways, to change it for the better.
     I ask you today, what is the song of your heart? What is it that takes your breath away? What makes you loose track of time...so absorbed that the world around what you are doing ceases to exist? For me, it is creating tangible pieces of love. The song of my heart, that I know, was orchestrated by God.
Why did it come to me at 41 and not 20? Maybe because I wasn't ready to listen...or maybe because I never took the time aside from raising my family to simply be still. The signs were there all along. It began with this~

(somehow I've been able to hold onto this pin for more than 30 years)

     It began with a sparkly vintage brooch given to me by my grandmother in my early teens, that I wore constantly throughout high school. But even before high school, I was making single earrings to wear from little antique pendants when I was 13 years old. This was in the early 80's when asymmetry was popular and I'd wear a pearl in one ear and a hand-made vintage dangle in the other. This passion has followed me my whole life, but the attention, the noticing, just wasn't there. The story didn't unfold until much later, for whatever divine reason, not until my 40's.
     Are there patterns and connections in your life that seem to have been there forever? I never thought there were any specific patterns in mine, until I got still and quiet and really thought about it.
Today, I invite you to find the time this week for stillness; for a bit of quiet. As a mother, as a small business owner, I know how very difficult that can be. Believe that the song of your heart is there.
Be still.
Listen.
Know.
You will hear it.

See more of my work here, if you'd like~
www.sacredcake.etsy.com