We Walk On in Private Missions of the Heart

Avila, Toledo, Milan, Amatrice and Monterey

Ian Burgham is an award winning Canadian poet whose work I have been honored to use for many years. I asked him to say a few words about his experience having his work found on our jewelry...

I've been thinking about what it is to have people wear my words on your jewelry. When someone buys your work I'm sure there are many considerations that go into the decision.

But where it begins is with you Jeanine. As I see it, your vision of what is delicate and beautiful as an object is tied to an understanding of the deepest things that make our selves human, and connect us with each other, the world and worlds beyond time. The beautiful, beauty does that. It is in William Blake's terms the product of the "Divine Imagination" in us at its best.

To add my words to your pieces imparts another layer. I think it is not what I meant by the words I write that matters, but what you know they mean to you that influences your choice to use them.

But finally, the real magic happens when someone encounters the jewelry, a complete stranger, and purchases it to wear it; words mix with design and the purity of stone and metal creating a new artifact. And more than that, the piece carries high emotion and meaning, private meaning that only the wearer can know. Everyone brings their heart's experience to that piece.

The jewelry and words are no longer ours. Now they are of the soul of the person who wears them. The piece becomes a declaration as to an understanding of the best of ourselves and the best in us. And maybe a reminder that we walk on in private missions of the heart.

--Ian Burgham