The other day I was organizing some photos and realized I had literally forgotten all about this collection!! I love the Grey and Gold collection and had completely put it out of my mind. I felt so bad! Like I’d forgotten a friend.

I sold a bunch when I first launched this collection and in moving on to the next thing have let it sit quietly on my website unattended. But here it is!! There are quite a few more available, these are just some of my favorites. (And reminded me of the rings I shared earlier.)

This collection is unique in that no prints will ever be available of any of them - just the originals. Some of the designs I’ve redrawn with slight variations, but never exact. My brain and my being doesn’t like doing the same thing over and over again.

Shop the Grey and Gold collection.

Little trees all around. I love to be surrounded by trees. It feels like a hug.

I remember the first time someone told me they really disliked that feeling, of being surrounded by trees. They’d grown up in a plains state with wide open spaces and trees made them feel closed in or trapped. I was a little horrified. When I’m in a wide open space too long, I always feel like something is missing. Trees. Trees are what’s missing.

Photo shows: tree line ring in yellow gold - 4mm and 6mm. Like all my rings, each is made to order from scratch so the trees vary a bit.

You can shop these in the landscape rings.

When I had a bathtub, which was most of my life, I never really thought about it. Who doesn't have a bathtub, why might they not. Maybe it's by choice. Some people literally build a house with no bathtub! Who are these people?! Other people live in a space that may have a shower only or doesn't even have a shower. Or maybe they don’t have a home. Most people take water for granted though. Take things like a washer and dryer or dishwasher for granted. Turning on the water and taking an endless shower or filling up a giant bathtub. 

It's a small thing, to some. 

Every time I hear someone list "taking a bath" as a self-care option, I think "WELL I WOULD IF I HAD ONE!" And I wonder if they have thought about the privilege of having water. 

It's a small thing, to some.

To take for granted the water that comes out of the faucet. To run endlessly, drink it, never think about it.

My situation is largely temporary and by choice. I know some day I will again have a faucet I can drink out of, that will run endlessly if I let it. There will be a time when I forget that I thought about water every day and wondered if I need to get more. I will forget the time and space it takes up to have to consciously think about something that is a basic need like water. I know others will not be so lucky. Will live the rest of their entire lives being concerned about their needs for water. Not being concerned about water for their lawn or to wash their car. But basic needs like drinking and washing up. 

Today I get to soak in a salt water tub and take a long shower. It's a self-care outing I pay for and it is a luxury. I soak it in and feel grateful.

A few days ago I started "the garbage post challenge" - 100 posts in 30 days on any platform. It is a challenge created by Simone Grace Seol as a way to just start posting more and being less of a perfectionist about content shared. If you want to listen to her explain and talk about it, it is episode 160 on her podcast Joyful Marketing. (I highly recommend listening if you create any kind of content)

Literally for the 2nd of my 100 posts, I was sharing to IG stories, and I almost retook the photo because the edges were a little off and the photo looked a little skewed! But since the point of the challenge is to move past those blocks of constantly judging things as not good enough and spending way too much time trying to create the perfect post/perfect content, etc - just share! Get it out there. Find the quality by creating the quantity. Like an artist, working on drawings and sketches to learn how to create using certain techniques or materials. But if we don't practice sharing, it will always feel like we're trying to create the most beautiful drawing without practicing. Which would be ridiculous. It's not only okay for others to see our imperfections, it can be really good. Have you ever seen someone make a mistake and seen them so gracefully move on and think, wow! what a role model. And suddenly you think even more highly of them because you were able to see their imperfections? 

Writing content in particular seems to take me way too long because I reread and edit and reread way too much... just to make sure it is "just right". Which is great for a novel or content someone is paying for. There is such a thing as quality control. But social media and blog posts and email newsletters? Not so much. If someone decided they don't want to be a fan because I didn't proofread my content enough - that is not a person I need in my life. I need people that support my imperfections and if I'm too scared to show them, how will I know who those people are?

I know that one of my biggest issues is that I do have a concern with "too much" I get annoyed by companies that send me too many emails. I don't want to be another person just creating noise. But then I self edit and I'm making a decision based upon what someone else *might* be thinking. So instead I'm working on posting and sharing what feels comfortable for me and honoring that if it doesn't work for someone else, that is 100% okay. 

See below for all the details, but here is the list of designs I will be making, marked as available or claimed

Available

tree and sea, 5-7mm

mountain and sea, 5-7mm

wish upon a star, 4mm

galaxy, with 3 moissanite, 5mm

Claimed

molten, 4 - 5mm

mountain tree and sea, 6 - 7mm

yellow birch, 4-5mm

simple hammered or tooled with love, 4 - 5mm

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Hey friends!

There is a lot shifting around in the jewelry part of my business (some of you may have seen some mention on IG). If you want to read in lots of detail jump to the explanation further down the email.

One of the biggest things is that I'm shifting the focus of my rings, on making and marketing, to gold. There are quite a few designs I don't have photographed in yellow gold and am working on filling in the gaps. My plan was to make a few samples, take photos, melt those down, make a few more, photo, etc. Essentially only using a small amount of metal to create photos of all the designs.

Then I had the idea - why not offer them up for sale at a discounted rate?? It would be a win win - I don't lose out on the labor, and you could get a gold ring at a deeply discounted cost (40 - 50% off). In the end, it seems like a better use of time and resources if you can get something special out of it as well.

These are the designs I will be making in 14k gold - one in each of the designs.

• tree and sea, 5-7mm
• mountain and sea, 5-7mm
• mountain tree and sea, 6-7mm
• yellow birch, 4-5mm
• molten, 4-5mm
• wish upon a star, 4mm
• galaxy, with 3 moissanite, 5mm
• simple hammered or tooled with love, 5-6mm

You can browse all the ring designs here.

The offer: I will make one in your size, within the width range listed. They would not be customizable in any way besides width and size and cannot be promised by a date before 9.30.21 (although it will most likely be sooner, I just don't want any restriction on my time for this project) Since you are on my email list, you're getting advanced notice.

How to claim: Email me! Tell me the design/s you're interested in, the width and size. I will give you the exact price. The first person to claim and pay for a design will get that design and it will be marked off the list. I will answer in the order received. I will edit this post as soon as possible to reflect the designs that have been claimed vs available. In all transparency, I do not expect there to be a mad dash to claim these, however, I have started on working on some waxes already and will be moving some designs from the available to "claimed" list next week once they are cast. In other words, if this is a big yes for you, email me before the weekend is over. And if you want more time to think about it, there is probably time since I'll only be doing 2 - 3 next week.

Pricing - because I price based upon size/width/design, I can't list all of the exact prices, but ballpark you'd be looking at $400 - $800 range for most of those.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I can't tell you how excited I am to be doing this and I hope some of these designs get to be worn by you and not just melted down after their glamour shots.

Behind the scenes details: For many years, the palladium/silver alloy I used was one of the most popular, if not THE most popular metal I sold. The combined cost+durability made it an excellent choice and I recommended it to couples all the time. With the drastic increase of palladium cost, I thought a shift might need to occur, but it wasn't until I tried to re-order the custom alloy that I was given a $16k minimum order quote. Ouch! For some larger jewelers/jewelry stores, that might be doable, but not for me. Not only did the cost of palladium increase, but the company I was working with drastically increased the minimum order. I was already questioning continuing to use it - the palladium cost increase seems so inflated and the "value" of the metal has only changed in that the demand by Chinese car manufacturers changed (there's more to it but basically in my understanding the car manufacturers (gov't? some regulation somewhere) changed their requirements, now requiring more palladium.

It used to be half the cost of platinum and is now 2.5 - 3x the cost depending on when you check the prices. It is kind of truly amazing that what the Chinese car manufacturers are doing would change what I offer in my business, but for right now, that is entirely the case. (plus the pandemic, world economics, who knows what else, like maybe an alien that only eats precious metals has a taste for palladium)

The past few years I've been drawn more and more to yellow gold - incorporating it often in to my artwork and using it when I can in jewelry. I've often felt like I wanted to make more in yellow gold, but I was usually attracting people to the items I already had photos for - all in the palladium/silver alloy. So if I want to keep selling these designs, I need to make them and photograph them so people can see what they look like and fall in love with yellow gold like I have.

Growing up I was all about silver. I think gold jewelry in the 80's and early 90's was, shall we say, not my style. I always thought that silver looked better on my skin, but the reality is, gold looks great on most skin tones. And over many millennia all over the world, cultures have adorned themselves in gold for a reason - jewelers love working with it! haha! I kid, but seriously, most jewelers I know love working in gold - it is truly special and feels a bit magical in handling it.