THE STONE HERON STORY
I began creating jewelry when I was just a little girl. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t preoccupied with shaping the elements around me into something beautiful I could wear. I would work with anything I could get my hands on, macrame with wooden beads and brightly colored string and glass. But it was the stones that set my heart on fire. Nothing could turn my head like the natural beauty and symmetry of raw crystals and gemstones.
I kindled my passion into a a workable business, and I was already selling jewelry to supplement my income when I met my husband in 2007. He was always supportive of my art and when he lost his job in the summer of 2009, we took my jewelry on the road traveling in Northern California and throughout the western states. We sold jewelry and camped. We ate at restaurants and shopped at the boutiques we found. We played in waterfalls and climbed mountains and generally let the wind carry us wherever it might blow.
Through it all I was driven from each moment to the next by my love of stones, but the coastal waters of northern California and Oregon inspired me to new flights of fancy as I fell in love with the graceful presence of Great Cranes, Egrets and Herons. I found a teacher in the spirit of these birds. I was awed by their capacity for stillness and speed. . .
2011 found us settling down for a while in Ecuador. We dined with Buddhist Monks, drummed with Shamans and lived with fellow travelers and artists from all around the world. We never knew how long we would be in one place and I missed my workshop, but it was a powerful time of growth and personal development. My passion for my craft was quiet but growing within me as the seeds of inspiration matured.
After two years abroad, I returned to the States pregnant with artistic inspiration and heavy with the desire to explore new mediums. Never before had the desire to master my craft been so intense or so unbearable. New jewelry began exploding from my heart and mind almost fully formed before my hands could even shape them.
Often the creative force of these designs and new ideas were beyond my skill and as I struggled over and over to strike the proper balance of wistful passion and skillful execution, I learned the patience of the Great Herons and Cranes who silently wait and gracefully stalk their opportunities with a meticulous deliberation that borders on supernatural.
I found myself again and again, steeped in that still space of creative awareness that blossoms almost unbidden from the soul. . . and then I would mess up. The agony of this pursuit dragging me ever back into my workshop, driving me forward towards that razors edge of balance between creating perfection and unveiling it. . .
Years of practice turned passion and longing into love and simple planning. An exquisite and subtle Truth transformed my craft and built itself into my art as I returned again and again to the stones and the metal and the wood and the silk.
The culmination of this journey is STONE HERON.
Every piece of Stone Heron jewelry is an exquisite meditation on the nature of beauty, acceptance, devotion and joy.
My wish is that by sharing these pieces they might inspire minds to stillness and hearts to grateful joy.
That simple purpose fills my soul.
May you be well, May you be happy, May you be peaceful
