Build a Collection

When you see something you love, you get it. Once it's yours, you keep it forever. You don't stop there. You keep looking. You want to find another thing you love, to put with the other thing you love, so you can love them together.

Now you're working on a collection.

Phil and I have a collection of old license plates. Phil and I also have a collection of wooden masks. We have a music collection that we are rather proud of, and a snowboard DVD collection. Really, the snowboard flics are Phil's collection. I just sit next to him as he watches them repeatedly, rewinding and replaying his favorite parts, and breaking moves down for me one frame at a time. Thanks to travel; I've got a pretty awesome collection of stamps in my passport. And the list goes on...

I've got another collection that I didn't even realize I was forming until recently. Now it is something I am rather excited about. It is my handmade jewelry collection; and it is pretty spectacular. Currently I wear it all on my right hand, but I have no doubt it will be expanding.

Here's where it started. This is my Jake ring; and by that I mean this is my Five Year Anniversary Band made by Jacob Albee. If I was as much of a blogger then as I am now, I would have written about this ring a long time ago. Nonetheless. This ring was handmade by Jake in his Vermont studio. It's made of meteorite. How cool is that? It's Gibeon Meteorite to be exact; made of iron and nickel. It is 4.55 billion years old, and it fell from (somewhere between) Mars and Jupiter and landed in Namibia. Here Jake has incorporated white gold and three different colors of diamonds.

This ring exemplifies the jeweler's mantra of combining the past with the present; earth and atmosphere. 

I always wore my Jake ring on it's own. I found it to be such an incredible piece, that I never had much to compliment it. Then I went to a Christmas market in Anwanden, Germany, and found the jewelry of Erdwind. Erdwind is a small jewelry business run by Conya and Klaus. The two have turned their love of nature, and delight of collecting nature's treasures, into delicate and beautiful handmade jewelry. Their work highlights driftwood from Corsica, various tree seeds, pearls, shells, and metals.

I fell in love with this ring featured above. Particularly so because I found it to be a wonderful juxtapose to my anniversary band.

 Not even two days later, I received a Christmas gift from my mother. (who happens to have a flair for cool jewelry) We have a lot in common. I know if she likes something, I'm going to like it too. She's a clay artist; and she was recently at a Christmas Bazaar herself when she found the work of Angela Duffin. Angela makes jewelry from mixed metals and precious stones. She is inspired by her love for textile design. I find it alluring how, treating metal like thread, can be so complimentary to the organic forms of the stones. 

I am proud to wear these three pieces together. As an artist I know how hard each craftsman has worked on their piece. I love how the artists, and I, all share similar ideals and motivations. I feel energized by the history (and personalities) of these objects. I can only hope that my own customers receive half as much joy in wearing my own products.

www.jacobalbee.com

www.erdwind.de

www.angeladuffin.com