freaky fridays.

my wristbones throb over these new pieces by favorite favorite kelly tunstall for her new 'my girl friday' project which features one of her odd, signature ladies wearing designer clothing / accessories every friday. 

yes please.

xo

a peek behind the curtain . . .

nesting in the underworld. 

quartz point & vintage ring setting collaged with 2 sentinel hummingbird skulls.

long snake rib earrings.

 these earrings have been "just for me" since last summer. it's time i shared.

predator & prey.

part of my 'alchemy' series. mouse bones form a triangle "rosary" center while two owl talons form a crescent moon, reflecting alchemical symbols for male and female, as well as natural enemies, creating an interesting friction / balance.

seance.

victorian hand bypass cuff. inspired by my trip to lily dale, the world's largest spiritualist medium community. will also be available in a necklace & ring versions.

trinity & bones.

a cast triangular "crystal" is layered on a flat triangle and held into place with three mouse bones. part of my alchemy series. 

i hope this excites your bloodlust just a bit . . . 

i've been working endlessly these days on these ( & many many other ) new pieces in preparation for my upcoming look book. although i was trying to keep it all secret, i couldn't help but reveal a few of my favorite new pieces above.

more details coming over the next week about the look book, i'm truly blessed with great, talented friends, some who will be present here in philly for the shoot & others who've extended their kindnesses from across the sea. 

also, there's only one week left today to enter my give a way to win a rose gold plate conjoined sparrow claw ring! to enter, leave a comment at this previous post here. 

xo

surviving the sea.

fellow philadelphia margaux kent of the black spot books / peg and awl fame ( hand bound leather book/ tiny book necklace empress) has just released a limited edition book, 'the illness apprentice'  featuring her stunning melancholic, narrative photographs. they make me miss the sea as if it were a person, a ghost.

xo.

"there is no way back for me now"

my first experience with alexander mcqueen was in college. i had just transferred to a small liberal arts college just outside of manhattan at the start of what would have been my senior year if i had stayed in philly. at the time, everything was upturned & there was that electricity abrew from the cusp of autumn, from the sea change. the above picture was in a september issue of something and really struck me. i had carefully cut it out and glued it into a journal. around that same time i also stumbled on another editorial featuring that same 'oyster' dress in a brightly hued rainbow ombre. the model was writhing on a shiny floor. her lips were a bright smear of blood red. she was fictionally insane. i was hooked. 

from then on his clothing orbited my periphery. i'd always feel something abstract when i stumbled across it, but never really dug deep to find the pulse of it. i didn't worship fashion, never paid much attention to what was going on each season aside from my cousin's tales of working backstage as a model dresser (intriguing i promise.) i was in school for literature; i was tattooing a dead poet's initials onto my wrist & writing about disembodied organs. so sadly, by the time of his death, i knew little to nothing about alexander mcqueen aside from how his clothing made me feel when i happened to chance upon it in a magazine. i knew they were odd, straddling the line between grotesque and beautiful, but i still only held them at an inspirational distance.

i could say all this changed yesterday when i went to see 'savage beauty.' i went alone & stood in line for over an hour. a darkened room introduced the sombre yet edgy tone that wove throughout each room. their was a shrouded melancholy alive here, a ritual converging with a delicate mourning. it was palpable.

held in glass boxes like sacred relics, vaulted in a blackened cabinet of curiosity or balanced on antique mirrors darkened & fogged with age, the clothing felt alive on the lifeless/headless forms. you could sense the hands that sewed, that cut, that forced resin antlers through a piece of delicate lace. this made it all the more poignant, as if his death completed some strange circle. the presence of a ghost electrified every stitch, every curve of fabric.

people were clustered together, grouping their way around those darkened rooms, freckled with the sounds of howling wolves or the music box tinkering of bjork's 'frosti.' people drew in sketchbooks held tightly to their bodies. people snuck photographs. people couldn't explain. a mother whispered to her daughter, a little slip of a girl,  about the silver thorns that wound around the throat of the mannequin.

 we were disgusted or in awe or were bordering on having an experience akin to what i imagine religious devotes have, oscillating between life and death.

if you live anywhere near nyc, go.

collect my heart in a cabinet of curiosity . . .

my teeth throb just looking at this older piece by artist madeline von foerster (whose work i first spied over on phantasmaphile years ago). i recently had the honor of interviewing her for hi-fructose and was pleased at how smart and sincere she was. read it here if you're so inclined, or check out her newest show, 'the golden toad' at roq la rue.

xo.

jl

bloody sundays.

the new issue of hi-fructose is out featuring incredible cover artist marco mazzoni! i wrote an essay on isabel samaras's work as well as kris lewis'. there's a fistful of great and interesting art in this issue & as always, i'm thrilled to have my words and thoughts part of it. & of course the new lula is out... it has a great interview with mia wasikowska about jane eyre.

the give-a-way for a custom sized rose gold plated conjoined sparrow claw ring is still open for the next 2 1/2 weeks! to enter, leave a comment on this post. thanks to all of you who have already entered! i've really enjoyed your kindness & support and am excited to randomly choose a lucky winner of august 3rd.

 i love sundays. today i'm working on the wax for a rune cuff, collecting props for the upcoming lookbook shoot, writing interview questions for a couple of amazing artists and awaiting true blood, one of my only television dates.....

xo.

p.s i'm at 498 sales on the bloodmilk etsy! i can't believe how close i am to 500!

spilt milk.

durning the victorian mourning people wore or carried lacrymatory bottles, a glass vessel that was used for collecting tears shed during the grieving period,typically lasting one year. some bottles were fitted with a special stopper that would allow for the tears to evaporate over time. others preserved the tears to later be spilled over the grave of the dearly departed once the mourning period ended.

bloodmilk sterling & rose gold plated versions coming this fall.

xo. 

novels & novellas.

this took me far longer than promised, but here are some of my favorite novels & novellas. most of this is contemporary:

1. geek love / katherine dunn

2. florida / christine shult

3. half life / shelley jackson

4. madeline is sleeping / sarah shun-lien

5. roughhouse / thaddeus rutowski

6. we have always lived in the castle / shirley jackson ( i tend to read this book once a year)

7. the heart is a lonely hunter / carson mccullers

8. the lover / marguerite duras

9. the hearing trumpet / leonora carrington

10. the sun also rises / ernest hemingway

11. oryx and crake / the year of the flood / margaret atwood

12. anything by jeanette winterson

13. frances johnson / stacey levine

currently reading: this is no year / blake butler 

xo

strapped in.

my 90% all black wardrobe is only punctuated by bloodmilk & often zana bayne harnesses to add a punchy detail to the plainness of my clothing choices. for me, my fashion reference point is a cocktail of lydia deetz/ beetlejuice ( the other 10% of my wardrobe is blk & white stripes) and the young bloods of ray ceasar's paintings who are often wearing harnesses. a bit odd but necessary. so i was thrilled to see the first images of her new fall line, my favorites of which are pictured above.

ray.

xo

jl

love & blood.

earlier this year i was contacted by a local philly guy looking for a special engagement ring for his lady. although the resulting "simmone ring" was completed a few months ago, he wanted to wait until this month to go to the shore and propose to her in a photobooth! so now that they are officially engaged with bloodmilk, i can share these photos:

the simmone ring is a marriage between my beloved sparrow claws and an antique ring setting. the claws add a subtle macabre element to an already intriguing and ornate ring. joining together my love for the past with my obsession with bird claws, which were also elements that michael found significant to their interests & relationship, it was decided that we weren't going to use a diamond center stone. however, there are several black diamonds encircling the stunning garnet (her birthstone) & the ring was cast in solid white gold and then hand oxidized to add my signature shade of gloomy gray. by choosing this metal, the ring retains a traditional significance, but the details reveal a unique strangeness. i loved working on this ring & am honored to have made an heirloom piece that will forever be a reminder of their love & commitment.

congratulations to michael & simmone.

xo

fresh blood: the messenger has arrived.

the messenger: 4 crow talons grip a quartz crystal while one curls around your finger.

a slight bloodletting. more to come.

xo

jl.

belly of flea.

one of my top ten favorite contemporary artist: allyson mellberg taylor has always composed her incredible and creepy works with self-made, all natural inks & watercolors. this month she & her husband jeremy taylor has started to offer them up for sale under belly of flea,  named as an homage to marie antoinette. with an ingredient list that includes plants and insects & with recipes lifted from letters by jane austen, this new line of inks and watercolor pans will surely attract nature savvy artists as well as those of us who love using mediums that have a tale.

xo

summer jams.

white ring.

austra.

cults. 

                                                                                oOoOO. 

current studio companions. 

xo

jl

and such is life.

feverish over this new piece by brandi milne.  her new direction is amazing.

xo

blood milk re-branding.

in anticipation of my 3rd anniversary, i recently spoke with leila marvel about re-branding blood milk for the new ventures i'm headed in & was blown away by the new logo & banners she created for me. leila was one of my first etsy friends & has been my designer since the very beginning! she has an uncanny knack of transforming all the ideas/images in my mind into incredible designs. if you're looking for someone who is not only super talented but incredibly nice & patient, i couldn't recommend leila enough.  

more soon . . .

xo

jl

he who is brave is free.

living in philly these past 11 years has endeared me to ben franklin. 

many happy returns.

today this blog turns 3! three yearss ago today i was working on a series of new paintings and just starting blood milk. i never imagined that all these moons later, i'd have such amazing people reading my blog & supporting my work. as a thank you & a celebration of both the anniversary of my blog & jewelry, i'm giving away the conjoined sparrow claw ring in rose gold plate to one lucky reader as it's gotten some attention recently via the urban outfitters blog.

the give- a- way will be open all month and will close august 3rd, the same exciting week my new lookbook will be shot! to enter, leave a comment to this post . . . . good luck & as always, thank you for meeting me here.

xo,

jl.

*stunning image via andrea glavani. check out the rest of her amazing images.