Emotional inebriation

I wanted to show you the bracelets that I wear pretty much every day. They're made by me, out of a great variety of beads that all have a history to me. some were made a long time ago, some were made just before I left for England. The brass bangle was my mothers when she was a teenager- she was almost a complete drop-out hippy, but her mother stopped her. I was never stopped- the bangle keeps me mindful.

There are the marbled brown polymer clay ones, made long ago by a good friend who I've lost contact with. He recently contracted HIV, so I think of him and send good thoughts whenever I see his fingerprints in the swirling surface of those beads. Rudraksha prayer beads, tiny coconut beads, carved Tibetan beads from a friend's shop- now mysteriously vanished. I do not know where she is, or what happened to her shop. I'd like to find her, and these beads keep me mindful.

There are big beads made of seeds, odd creatures that seem to have patterns carved into them, but it's just the nature of the seed. Red resin beads, big brass bells, amethyst rounds...all from different places, different times. People and places I may never know again, but the beads keep me mindful.

treasures in the studio

These bracelets are the kind of pieces I want to create. Earthy, natural pieces that fulfil something in me- they come from a healing place, rather than the wounded place I spoke of a few months ago. My natural tendency toward the wild and feral aesthetics that were born in my childhood watching fantasy films and learning to draw by tracing Conan comics. Aesthetics that were honed in my 20s when I met a tribe of people known in Australia as ferals- unique to Australia, friendly, passionate and fond of doing the impossible. Ferals are rare creatures now, but they taught me much.

my soul sister Phoebe and one of her 3948392 friends--- I get to spend all weekend with her! :D Also note in the background, many ferals.

Most of the beads in those bracelets come from that time in my life, that time that I somehow wandered away from, and recall in the night when I've no one to talk to but myself and I become reflective. The last few days, while working on new pieces in my mind, I am drawn by ideas of wood beads, leather, clay amulets, wood, brass...barbarian hoardes and tribal warriors. Ideas that evoke the best of my past, that bring it forward into the now to be reborn as the present.


Ideas that keep me mindful.