Anonymous asked: Hey there and Hello! I'm digging your work. You're very meticulous and devoted. I'd like to ask if you carved some of the square stones. I really dig your earthy styles because it's not like anything I've seen out there. How do you have the patience to do this and how much time does it take you?
Awh!!! Thank you for your compliments. I’ve been designing jewelry since I was 8 years old. I started out making the hippy hemp and friendship bracelets like most kids. Then I got interested in stones. I grew up in the hot desert and my parents were very strict. I had little options when it came to fun. I wasn’t allowed to be like other ‘normal’ kids who got to go outside, run around the neighborhood and reek havoc. One reason for my parents being so strict for a while was because a little child, who was our childhood friend, by the name of Micheal Leland, was kidnapped and abducted, so this kind of caused a pandemonium of an epidemic where my neighbors made their kids stay inside for several summers and after school days. The worse part is that Micheal’s body was found only two blocks away from our house in a drainage ditch, and so our parents, police department and investigators believed that the abductor lived in our desert community/neighborhood. Arizona had a very long bout of child abductions, which terrified several parents… So that is part of why me and my older sister at the time, had to stay inside. We learned to focus on studies, getting good grades, playing my instruments (violin, cello, and clarinet) and finding something other than math or science to spend my extra time doing. I had to get a hobby.
Living in AZ, is like living in the Mecca of rock and gem shows. I enjoyed going to them every year and I’d save my allowance that I got to buy large geodes, stones, and things here and there. I almost majored in geology, but I couldn’t stand to hear about the earth’s formations, and how the core had lava. Yes, we all know about Pangea and how the earth was once connected like a huge puzzle. I wanted a shortcut. I wasn’t interested in knowing about how there are like 8 layers of materials/minerals before you get to the center of the earth, or where earth quake faults lie. I just wanted to know where to find the goods and get my chance to go on geological digs to collect my own mineral samples. I tried to major in geology for a year and after falling asleep in class, due to boredom, I changed my major… I figured out that I could get around the schooling and do what I wanted to do, without having to sit in class and hear the earthquake history of the world. By the time earthquake lectures were over, I’d be terrified because there’s nothing cool about earthquakes, the ground shaking like jello beneath your feet, stone buildings and freeways crumble, highrises in LA swaying like jello, or seeing it’s destruction. Plus I wasn’t planning on working for the USGS, or Cal Tech… I was enthralled by stones and their genesis and as soon as I got to the level of where I could name any stone just by looking at it and feeling it, raw or polished, I was set. As for patience? Well, when you love something, patience is the key and is nurtured. When you’re doing what you love, patience is something that comes with the territory and I don’t care what it is, whether it’s music, learning an instrument, learning a career or whatever… So it’s more like devotion and being partially married to your craft, whatever that may be. Hope that explains and hoping that I haven’t made any typos. Yes, I’ve carved/shaped some stones. Happy Holidays and may your 2012 be amazing!!!
12.23.11 @ 17:36
1 note
