stasis in darkness

lately i've been working on the last details of a small new moonstone line (take a peek at the new Hecate ring here) that incorporates many of my classic designs with my beloved moonstone thanks in part to the immensely positive response i had to this very first piece in the collection. i am also working on releasing more collaborative pieces with artist Paul Romano, including a new planchette design.

 last year i made a big move in many ways in my life, literally rupturing what was "normal", to move into a loft on my own ( with diego of course. ) this transition became a kind of metamorphosis, i offered myself a second chance at living a new life and i took it without looking back. this sort of rupture marked me in many ways, one of them being a period of stasis here on this blog as well as a kind of slow churning of new ideas for new jewels. i am teeming with them, always, but it has only been over the last couple of months working on the moonstone line that i have been drawn out of this deep sleep. 

something about the dark anxiety of these photos by artist michaela knizova feels like this season in my life. i have found myself to be more brave in the sharing of my life (evidenced through my IG feed) but also a bit more quiet, as there is more joy, more freedom in my day to day life. despite all of this, i am still coming to terms with my melancholy personality, there is gloominess here but there is also so much light. there is a daily struggle that i believe shows through in my jewel work, a push and pull of this darkness/lightness.

i am feeling both grateful and anxious & look forward to sharing my (& our) new pieces with you here soon. 

the fault line.

i'm interested in how the grotesque can present itself; as fragile as a braid, milk colored & huddling betwixt the tenuous realm of sorrow & the locus of a ghostly epiphany.

- - - - - -

"I am terrified by this dark thing
that sleeps in me;
all day I hear its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity.”
- from elm - sylvia plath

more otherworldly carolein smit sculptures here.

xx

living forever:

i was tucked away in boarding school when i first found the suicide poets (sylvia plath & anne sexton) & it was my senior year that ted hughes released 'birthday letters', a notable book of poems that cracked decades of his silence on sylvia after her suicide. what i learned then, & what is only making more sense now, is that the choice of suicide can never be blamed on one incident, one feeling, or even one man. released today is the missing poem from that volume, 'the last letter' which details hughes's reaction & feelings on her suicide. 

xo.