just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, I have 21 four leaf clovers to share with all of you who wish to spread a wee bit of good fortune this March, with free shipping this week to boot, so click here to get yours! (they are also the first trinket now available in my being-remodeled online shop– which is a story for another day. the peace signs, zodiac pendants and everything else will be up again soon)

unlike the rest of my trinket line, these charms are forged solid (rather than the outline). starting with an ingot of silver, I hammered the metal flat, cut out the rough shape of the lucky clover and then began filing until my four leaves had that happy heart shape.

did you know that according to legend, each leaf of the clover represents something?

the first is for faith, the second is for hope, the third is for love, and the fourth is for luck.

i love that :)

I am half irish, (with the temperament to prove it), and I remember my grandfather saying, “you know, the irish are historically an unlucky folk, but the grand thing about them is that they just don’t know it… they believe they’re lucky, and therefore, they go about life with a smile on their face.”

to me that pretty much sums it up. luck isn’t something you have or you don’t have. luck is something you believe you have …

so if you believe yourself to be lucky, then just maybe you’ll be able to see the good fortune in the coming of each and every day.

so this st. paddy’s day, may you find yourself with a wee bit ‘o faith, hope, love and luck… and if nothing else, a tasty pint ‘o guinness in your hand!

this year, I am still hibernating a bit but yesterday’s spring weather finally had me boxing up the new year’s bells and moving forward.

been working on a favorite kind of project… the “recycle your old gold” job. making a 4-5 thousand dollar bracelet for under a grand. with the metal and stones that you just don’t wear anymore!

this pot o’ gold will become a solid gold bangle bracelet with a lovely hand forged weight, smooth and shiny texture with only the slightest evidence of the hand forged hammer marks.

not shown in the pot of gold is a tennis bracelet of diamonds. this week, this bangle will ship to my client’s daughter and she will try the bracelet on for size and then take my sharpie and dot along the bracelet where she would like me to flush set the tennis bracelet diamonds.

this will be a classic piece: mom gives daughter a bracelet forged from the gold worn by her mother, her grandmother and her aunt.

history…made economical :)

and now, a blur of inexplixably angonizing days later, I would like to reach out to all of you who follow my work, who care, and say thank you, happy winter solstice. fill your homes with love and so much light and share it with everyone far and wide so that there are no more people who walk among us in such agony as to be capable of wreaking such unutterable anguish.

how we move forward? I still don’t know. and then I look in the eyes of my babies, now 5 and 7 years old, and I am absolutely positively sure that we will go on, with more love, more patience, and more sensitivity than ever before. my community has shown such an immense outpouring of support for each other, this in itself moves me to tears all over again.

oh and if you still need the gift of one of my little hand forged trinkets, my amulets, please send me a msg, email me, pick up the phone and call me… and i will make sure you get it in time. right now, this is a way that I can bring some joy. in my head I am formulating a trinket in memory of all we have lost, but until then…

and yes, I am still honoring the holiday discount of 40% off.

good luck with your shopping!

this has happened every year, even before silver and gold became my career as a jeweler. I have to launch into a good hearty rendition of neil young’s “powderfinger” to get burl ives out of my head :)

but for everyone shopping online, I digress…

a question people always ask about the trinkets: how do I wear my trinkets with my other jewelry?

the answer is ‘silver and gold’, or actually silver and platinum and gold most days.

rarely do I ever take off the emerald cut diamond that john gave me so many years ago. it is my version of my engagement ring. but gold vermeil is my offering this season and I wanted to wear my golden om.

so given the sparkly nature of the season, I am going to wear my golden symbol of calm right next to my sparkly diamond symbol of love. this sets the tone for lots of sparkly silver and gold as the holidays progress

silver and gold….

and now you’ll excuse me as I sing another verse of neil young, burl ives has taken over again.

anyway we’ve had a lovely weekend so far, making time for a beautiful holiday dinner- brining the turkey is the way, even a non-turkey lover like me can enjoy.

also some football, pies (pumpkin with my best homemade crust ever), champagne, roaring fires, Santa and the tree-lighting in ‘downtown’ Bethel last night.

might even get a date with John tonight!

so more to the point, the gold vermeil trinkets are now available at a 40% discount only to fans who subscribe to my (infrequent) email updates. here’s the earlier post with more details. if you’re on the list, check your email this morning. if you’re not, you can sign up here.

if you hate email lists, i have something for you to this holiday season, too, because there’s free shipping for everyone in the US until December 15. its been a terrific year, and thanks again to all who’ve supported me and my work on the way along.

here’s some pics of the gold trinkets, I’ll write some more about them later.

total love affair with my hammer today and this piece of platinum (shown below). forging an ingot formed from a wedding ring and an engagement ring (diamonds removed of course). so satisfying to see the rings so separate, completely fused, and rolled and forged into a band. i love transformation. at whatever pace, it never ceases to inspire.

on the left, you see the platinum rings I started with. on the right, the platinum ingot and hammer in the studio today, and at the top of the this post, you see the final product…I just love this ring!!!

so while I haven’t solved the crazy gold market, I have found a way to get gold trinkets (and they are gorgeous, check out his picture) into your hands this holiday season, for gifts or for yourself, gold for about the same price as sterling silver, and whats more, a holiday discount on both! read on to find out how.

here’s the story:

leave it to one of my custom clients to come up with a solution to the “gold market fiasco”, as I’ve been calling it. a couple of months ago a client came to me with her very sentimental angel medallion in sterling silver. she wanted to have a replica made in yellow gold. it priced out a mere 3k. that’s right, a solid gold replica would be $3000, and that itself was heavily discounted from the “suggested” or traditional jeweler’s mark-up.

ummm, no.

the client actually suggested the solution: how about plating the silver medallion in gold?

well I have always shied away from gold plating. there is so much stuff out there done with sub-standard plating. full of nickel, too thin, lousy color etc. you’ve seen it: the color doesn’t look quite right and within months, you are left with some base metal (of indiscernable nature) “shining” through.

not cool and not worth it.

the universe however, is kind to me. after a few calls to some of my mentors in the biz, I found myself chatting away with a chemist, a woman who has been plating for over 55 years. she plates in 22k yellow gold and will match any gold color desired. the medallion was sent off and returned with the most gorgeous 22k gold vermeil. in the rich color of 18k “european” gold. absolutely stunning.

well, this got me thinking: expert gold plating on sterling would last longer than on base metal. the trinkets are not heavy wear items like rings or watches. her services are quite affordable compared to my costs to fabricate or cast in solid gold. so……

so I sent off a package of solid sterling silver trinkets. peace signs, little wishbones, ohm symbols and zodiac signs… and they too have returned with a gorgeous 22k gold vermeil, again in the color of 18k yellow gold, that you see in the pic above.

I LOVE them, and I’m particular. they are so rich, so warm and so pretty, and sooo affordable as my holiday special offer to my subscribers, fans and friends–

so here’s the deal

because they are experimental, I only have a few of each trinket in gold: peace signs, ohm pendants, wishbones and all 12 zodiac signs. I’m not sure if they will be part of the line yet, but John is going to make new items in the online store for them anyway, and we will send out a private link to them to my email subscribers only on Thanksgiving morning, along with a discount good for 40% off all trinkets in the online store. (yes its been a good year, thanks to all of you :)

the gold trinkets will retail for $135, the sterling silver ones remain $117, so at 40% off, gold trinkets will be $81 each and the sterling trinkets will be $70 each. they will arrive to you prettily packaged for the holidays. two pieces of rawhide , black and natural. cut long so you can tie the rawhide at any length. delivered in one of my silver, gold or black organza pouches. super simple, super sexy, super grateful.

the discount code will be good until December 15, but when the gold trinkets are gone, they’re gone for delivery this holiday. (if you really like them, I will add them permanently to the line next year.)

get yours early

now if you know you want one (or more, for great holiday gifts!), you can email me now to reserve yours and I will get back to you and handle your purchase personally. new subscribers will get the code, so tell your friends who love your pendant to sign up here, this is their chance to get the best deal I can do outside of morning television ;)

as always thank you for your support of me and my work, and have a fantastic holiday with your families this weekend!

more soon,

heather

while thousands around us lost absolutely everything, we are extremely grateful to have fared really very well.

we didn’t get any work done for a good two weeks…my jewellery studio was cold, powerless and had a bunch of big huge pine branches blocking it’s entrance. getting back to work was just about the last thing on my mind as I struggled to maintain a sense of calm for the sake of my wee ones who missed an entire week of school… it would seem that to me ‘calm’ means food. so i cooked our way through the storm (thank heavens for gas stoves).

so this year, my holidays are going to be really stream lined. simpler. less stuff! everyone will get a gift of something they need (yes, socks do count!) and a gift that expresses how much they mean to me. something small, something sentimental, something that brings joy and expresses my love.

it is at this time of year that I traditionally offer one really amazing deal to all of my loyal friends and fans. those of you who have stood by me, championing my work and supporting my latest endeavors deserve to be thanked, properly with an incredible bargain!

I have a great special for you this year, one that so many of you have asked me for, but as you can guess, I need a few more days to get it together…. stay tuned!

I have been procrastinating and not writing this post, because i get emotional and then don’t write well at all.

earlier this year, I forged a very special commission: a survivor ribbon for one who is battling breast cancer, from her husband, a gift of love, a pretty, sparkly, solid ribbon of hope & camaraderie, a ribbon that says…I stand with you, I support you.

tender spots were hit as i forged this ribbon.

(scroll down for a better picture but without the stone)

it was quite the process, creating this piece for a most passionate husband.

I hammered in a stone for her, pink for breast cancer, and imagined forging ribbons in a myriad of colors ~ we all have our causes, after all.

of course, i am a cancer survivor myself, six years clear and counting. colon cancer, diagnosed 6/6/06, removed a week later, and forever clear… I believe blue is the color most associated with colon cancer. i see tanzanite in a platinum ribbon for me. now there’s a smile.

I milled my stock out of sterling ingot and created my version of ‘ribbon’. quickly it became apparent that the silver was not going to gracefully bend into a beautiful bow shape, as silk ribbon would. a turning point was needed, I needed a pivot around which I could hammer and forge, a strong pivotal point. I needed a fulcrum.

… and i LOVE fulcrums.

a pivotal point, the point upon which something turns, that is what a fulcrum is. when blacksmithing, you almost always create a fulcrum for your job. I will forge an original curve and then weld it onto a steel table. when ready to turn my steel, I forge around my fulcrum and have perfect curves every time.

when you’re battling cancer, you need a turning point. the point at which you realize that you are going to be okay. whatever the outcome, you will survive…

my fulcrum came to me post opt, through the morphine haze I heard what the surgeon said after removing the tumor from my colon. I listened to him talk about what the cancer looked like, what everything else looked like, and I turned a corner. I realized that I was going to survive, whatever that meant, I was going to be okay.

everyone who has every had a disease, been abused or forgotten, needs a turning point in their journey. they need to know that they will survive. live or die, they are powerful and they will survive.

believe that all is well, be strong and believe. for someone else, for yourself, for all of those who will someday battle. show support, give support.

so even now as I write, my throat swells, my eyes well, and it is why it has taken so long to share my little ribbon in anything but pictures, but finally I am so ready to really get these ribbons out there and forge right through the tears into the sparkly happy bits of life…