Nina with Bay necklace

The Bay is one of my favorite new necklaces. Inspired by African sculpture, the scale is right on for right now. I wore it on a New York trip recently with a really colorful dress and also with a neutral linen outfit and I never wanted to take it off. The selection is a chapter from the Tao Te Ching translated by Stephen Mitchell and creates such a lovely graphic design on the plate. The Bay necklace comes in sterling silver or brass--I love the brass one--it is a warm metal and looks great with so many colors and textures.

We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot,k but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we desire.
We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable.
We work with being, but non-being is what we use.

-Lao Tzu

Inspiration for Poets, Soul and Gathering Roses

Gathering Roses, Poets necklace and Soul necklace

The Italian detail on these necklaces was inspired by the tiny chasing design around my Buccellati ring I wear every day. I often study, daydream and marvel at this little ring and admire it under a loop. I wanted to juxtapose a detail that was old fashioned and lady like against the organic and very hand made style and do it in a way that would feel modern--another reason I chose to attach the flat chain to the sides the sides of the Poets neck.

Gathering Roses
I shall fill my lap with roses
Gathered in the milky way-
--Amy Lowell

Poets Necklace
Upon the wings
Of shimmering moonbeams
I pack my poet's dreams
For you.
My wearying strife,
My courage, my loss,
Into the night I toss
For you.
-Amy Lowell

Soul Necklace
-the soul will gravitate around the truth, as the planet around the light.
-Victor Hugo

Large is the new Medium. New Pieces Just In!

Here Nina is wearing the Vuelo earrings in hammered brass and the Contemplation necklace in both hammered brass and silver.

A good friend of mine recently told me that what I consider to be' big' is really 'small', and what I think is 'gigantic' is really 'medium'. For this collection I pushed the scale way outside my comfort zone and was inspired by the brass, hammered jewelry that artist Alexander Calder made for his friends in the 50's and 60's.

Summer Collection '11 is Here!

This necklace is called Contemplation and it is from the new collection. All the selections for this collection are from the Tao Te Ching, the Chinese book of wisdom that talks about the Taoist belief that we are to be happy in the present with what we have and to accept what is. I have worn this piece with a bright red color block dress and also with a tan linen dress--both sans belt so the necklace really stands out. The length and larger scale is perfect and makes a statement. Personally, I deeply relate to this meditation by Lao-Tzu. A touchstone hidden inside my own metal book. I consider 'the source' to mean 'oneself.'
Empty your mind of all thoughts.
Let your heart be at peace.
Watch the turmoil of beings,
but contemplate their return.
Each separate being in the universe
returns to the common source.
Returning to the source is serenity.
Lau-Tsu, translated by Stephen Mitchell

National Poetry Month contest results

We asked you to help us celebrate National Poetry Month, and for four weeks we received postcards from all over the US as well as from Belgium, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.

We were excited every day to get our mail and see what beautiful, unusual, and inspiring words and images had come to us. We were overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response to our contest (as was our somewhat bewildered post man, who really earned his money this April), and we loved the glimpse each postcard provided us of the individual sender’s point of view and personality.

And then came the tough job of choosing our favorites. It was a struggle to pick just three from hundreds upon hundreds of fascinating options, but we finally did, and those three are as follows:

Ashley

Poem: Sonnet XVII

Poet: Pablo Neruda

Trans: Stephen Mitchell

Ilona

Poem: Unless (excerpt)

Poet: Robert Penn Warren

Jill

Poem: Notes toward a Supreme Fiction: To Henry Church

Poet: Wallace Stevens

(You can read their full poetry selections at the end of this post)

With so many amazing postcards to catalog, it’s going to take us a bit longer than we originally anticipated to get them all ready for viewing in our store and online. (Again, e-mails and address information will be censored before any postcards are seen by the public.) We will let you know as soon as our 2011 National Poetry Month archive is complete so you can flip through it in our store or check it out online.

Congratulations to our winners, and thank you so very much to all who participated. You’ve made this a National Poetry Month to remember!

Full-length winning entries:

Ashley

Poem: Sonnet XVII

Poet: Pablo Neruda

Translated by Stephen Mitchell

I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.

Ilona

Poem: Unless (excerpt)

Poet: Robert Penn Warren

All is in vain unless you can, motionless, standing there,
Breathe with the rhythm of stars.

You cannot, of course, see your own face, but you know that it,
Lifted, is stripped to white bone by starlight. This is happening.

This is happiness.

Jill

Poem: Notes toward a Supreme Fiction: To Henry Church

Poet: Wallace Stevens

And for what, except for you, do I feel love?
Do I press the extremest book of the wisest man
Close to me, hidden in me day and night?
In the uncertain light of single, certain truth,
Equal in living changingness to the light
In which I meet you, in which we sit at rest,
For a moment in the central of our being,
The vivid transparence that you bring is peace.

In Celebration of Birthdays...

My friend turned me onto Drew Droege doing this hilarious impersonation of Chloe Sevigny and I cannot get enough of of it. I love the hat bracelet she is wearing...makes me laugh every time.

I celebrated my 44th birthday yesterday by taking the day off and just doing whatever I wanted...I got some great books on design and wood joinery in Japan town, had a long overdue massage at the Kabuki Springs and ended the day with dinner with my best pals at Mission Chinese Food. My mouth is still on fire. Now it is back to work today and a new year ahead!