As you might have noticed, there’s been a bit more energy put into posting photos, updates, videos, and writing around here lately. I have really missed doing all of that! I took last year, 2022, to focus on art markets, galleries, and doing things in person. That world, and the internet world, both take a lot of time and effort to have a good go at it. And I always give things I care about my best! So I went all in with that and took a break from the internet world.

When 2023 began, I was sort of burnt out on the market thing. I had participated in them almost every single weekend for a year, and they were a lot of fun. But with the new year, even though I tried for a few months into 2023, I just couldn’t find the energy to keep down that path. I felt like I was giving up too easily, but over the spring and summer I got seriously sidetracked with painting, photography, and writing! It was all I could think about and do, so I worked on that stuff very intensely and was just in a groove with that.

I did a lot of small gouache paintings of New Mexico flowers and animals. I started a daily writing practice in March that is still going very strong! I did some oil paintings of sky and landscapes, which I will paint in much larger versions when I have the space—I long to do that so very much, there are no words! And I took an incredible amount of photos of, well, everything! But the truth is, I am always doing that. I’m very excited to make a series of prints from those works when money for materials allows.

In 2024, I would like to find a balance with all of this; attending the markets only less frequently, maintaining an online presence, getting deeper into painting, flowing with the jewelry + photography, and continuing the writing! That would be grand.

Some of the gouache paintings, I think would make a lovely set of greeting cards!

My gouache setup was so much fun. I expect next spring I’ll become obsessed with it again.

I made a little case to travel around with paints and a sketchbook.

Paintings in progress. I just let my creative spirit fly and worked on a bunch of stuff all at once in a fury to get it out.

Playing with color, texture, and finding a flow

As I have found in many other areas of life, things ebb and flow. And as time goes by, I find cycles repeating themselves, and I am learning how to ride along with them.

When the fall season came, I was hit with this incredible urge to revisit my jewel cave and make some new jewels! When I would sit and think on new ideas, I kept returning to pieces I made some years ago. I remember the way the creative process felt then. It was very pure in the way I made pieces that were simply what I felt most inspired to make. They were untouched by expectations and demands of a market and buyers. I know, that is how you run a business. But creativity needs chances to be free and go its own way, too. It really loves that.

Back then I visited worlds I love to get lost in: mythology, astrology, fairy- and folktales. It was just the most fun I’ve had making jewelry. And since then, I have been longing to get back on that current. I wondered if it would still be there for me to ride. It turns out that it is—in new and marvelous ways! It feels like I am starting over again, but the learning curve has passed through the subsequent years of work, so my skills are more refined now. And this time around, I am incorporating much more photography and video to tell the story of The Jewels!

In other words, I am having a great time!

There’s some great news in all of this: I’ll have some new jewels in the shop very soon!

Until then, you can follow along on my “What’s New” page, join my Email Newsletter, check out my Instagram page, or simply check in here whenever you feel the call.

Thank you for being here,
Christi

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