Little Details, Little Moments......

If you know my work a little, you will know that I like lots of lovely details.

I like swirls and twists........


I like colour, texture, pearls, and patterns.............



I also like the little moments in life.........

I like the little glances, the small kisses, the fluttering feelings.

I like getting distracted while walking down the street by the deep fuchsia colour of a blooming peony.

I like the heady scent of the freshly watered marigolds that stops me in my tracks and keeps me from getting where I'm going on time.

I like to stop to pet the purring cat on the sidewalk.

I like to take a break from my run to watch 12 baby Canadian geese fall all over each other.

I take comfort in the little details and the little moments.

I have a lot of change going on in my life right now. Good change, great change, exciting change, change that scares the bejeezus out of me. So for my Week 7 ring a week I went back to what is comforting for me. This ring has lots of lovely little details. A silver ring shank that is hammer textured. I've added 24k yellow gold bits to the ring shank. Set in the tubing is a little pink felt "petal" and then stemming from the petal is silver wire dotted with pretty pink pearls.

Honey Bees, Flower Petals, and My Week 6 Ring...

There is a honey bee found in Turkey who builds a beautiful nest of flower petals to keep it's larvae nourished and protected for the winter. She flies in petals one by one from nearby fields and glues the layers together with mud, overlapping them in an exquisite loveliness. This process for the solo female honey bee can take days to complete. The result is not only a perfect protective home for it's offspring, but it is also an intricate, beautiful, colourful, magical work of art.


Ever since seeing the photo of these nests and reading about them I have been playing with flower petals. For my Week 6 Ring for the Ring a Week project I have made a little bead using pressed tulip petals and I have strung it on a square silver wire which I've then twisted and shaped to make into the ring.

Steel Wire, A Ring A Week...and What Happens Next.

What comes Next?

As an artist and business owner I never quite know what will come Next. I can write business plans and goals but they can change in an instant. Opportunities come up that I have to grab onto. Inspiration hits and a new idea and new direction unfolds. I've accepted this constant flux that my world works in and I'm always in awe of the new places that my art and business take me to.

For the past couple of weeks I have been playing with steel wire.

This is Next for me.

It is different. It is not what I expected.
It sat on my table for months.
I looked at it each day thinking about it, but not quite sure what to do with it. Then one day a few weeks ago I picked it up, I unraveled some of it and I started to see it differently. I have been twisting it, looping it, playing with it in my hands and with my pliers. I've been getting to know it. I've been letting it get to know me. I'm not sure what will come out of it exactly. But it feels right for this moment of my life and I'm willing to lean into it and see what happens Next.

Here's whats happened so far:

Week 4 Ring for my Ring A Week project.

Week 4 Ring Version 2.

Week 5 Ring for The Ring A Week Project.

I've fallen for these little wire wheels and I keep making them in different sizes. I'm going to try enameling some of them and turning them into a neck piece.



What is also happening Next for me is September Shop. September Shop is a Pop-up Retail venture for the month of September. It will feature my jewelry and the work of 5 other local female artists. You can join our Facebook page if you would like to stay in the know. I would love to see you at our opening Gala, it's going to be an exciting and playful September!

A Big YES

This is my Wedding Cake Ring. This ring was recently chosen for The 13th Biennial International Juried Enamel Exhibition.


This is a pretty big deal to me. The exhibition starts September 9th at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg TN. November 14th the exhibit travels to the Knoxville Museum of Art and then February 6th until March 23rd 2012 it will be at The Metal Museum in Memphis TN. I have always lustfully longed over the classes offered by the Arrowmont School and going to The Metal Museum in Memphis is right up there in my top 5 fantasies. I don't think I will be able to travel to all of the places that my ring will get to go to. (I can't believe that my ring will travel without me, how will it look after itself?, I think I just acquired a bit more empathy for what my Mom went through when I went to Barbados for a month when I was 19- sorry Mom) But I am hoping to go and meet up with it when it gets to Memphis next winter.

I made this ring when I was contemplating the meaning of connection. I was thinking about what it meant to connect with another person for a lifetime. I was thinking about doing it. I was thinking about weddings, and delicately decorated wedding cakes. I was thinking about all of the traditional elements of a wedding that make my skin crawl. I was thinking about all of the traditional elements of a wedding that make me cry in an instant.

Here are the links for you to check out the amazing places that my ring will visit, If anyone wants to come meet me in Memphis next February let me know. :)

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts

Knoxville Museum of Art

The Metals Museum

Inspired. Connected. Nourished. Creative Spirit.

Inspired. Connected. Nourished. Creative Spirit.

These are my words.

These are the words that hang taped to my hallway wall above the painting that my 2 year old nephew and I created together.

These are the words that represent the way I want to feel EVERYDAY of my life which came to me via Danielle Laporte's Spark Kit.

My past 4 days were spent in Seattle at the the SNAG conference and I felt these words fill me up and take me to a place of enthralling enjoyment that I don't get to very often.

Inspired. Well, hello Lola Brooks. We listened to her speak on the first day of the conference and this really set the tone for me. She was engaging, intelligent, incredibly witty, and desperately inspiring. She also was wearing a denim pant suit and after she spoke I had to resist the urge to run up to her, tell her that I loved her and that I too own a denim pant suit.

Connected. I took the train down with 3 other jewelers. Simone Richmond, Stephanie Menard, and Brendalynn Avender. We shared a room together and we shared the experience. I don't remember the last time I giggled so much, had so much fun and so little sleep. We talked art, jewelry, geeked out on tool and stone shopping, shared our passions and dreams, analysed love and boys, and helped each other to navigate the twisted path of being an artist.

Nourished. Sharon Massey took one of my cards and told me she really liked my work. Deb Stoner took one of my cards and told me I had great images. The fact that I'm even near their radar makes me believe in possibilities and confirms that I'm moving in the right direction.

Creative Spirit. Everywhere you looked at this conference people were wearing art. Amazing, beautiful, creative, interesting, innovative, hand made art jewelry. I was submerged for 4 days with a thousand other people who all share my passion for taking risks, and trying new things.



Lola Brooks. Image taken from the American Craft Magazine article about her.


Here we are. Stephanie ($27 dollar Sandwich) Menard, Patsy (what happens at SNAG stays at SNAG) Kolesar, Simone (we love drunk Simone) Richmond, and Brenda Lynn (WTFBL?) Avender.


This ring was my favourite ring from the many amazing pieces at the Ring A Day show at the Punch Gallery. It's created by Victoria Takahashi, made of wood, mixed metals, polymer clay, dyed leather, and acorn cap.


A very sweet girl gave me this hand made patch. (I don't have her name, so if anyone knows who she was please let me know and I will give her the credit and link on my blog) I love this. This captures the feeling of my whole conference experience.

Metalsmithing IS for Lovers.

Thank-you to everyone who made my first ever SNAG conference one of the most Inspiring, Connecting, Nourishing, and Creative weekends of my life. xo -patsy.

SNAG conference Pins

When I first started Jewelry Design school attending one of the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) conference's was put on my list of life goals. Thursday morning at 6:40am I will take a train down to Seattle with 3 jeweler friends to go to my first ever conference. I'm sort of freaking out. I'm so excited. I'm so nervous. I'm so grateful that I get to go and that I get to spend 4 days talking, thinking, and breathing all things jewelry and metal arts.

On the first night of the conference there is a meet and great "jewelers style". Which means everyone makes around 30 pins and exchanges them with each other as we meet and mingle. These are the pins that I made.....

A Ring A Week - Week 2

Week 2 of our Ring A Week project.

Something fun and playful.

A lot of my time in my studio is now spent "producing" - making pieces to fill orders and get into more stores. I still love the process of making every piece, but I don't just get to "play" that often anymore. This Ring a Week project is giving me space to play and rekindle for me the magic that I feel when I am in a space with no creative limits.

This ring is made from sterling silver square wire, which I have blackened. I've soldered a piece of copper tubing to the ring shank and in the copper tubing is a flower that I've created using paper and pressed flower petals.