It’s been a long time, but I’m making more sculpture to wear again… in preparation for my show in September, and in the hopes that Los Angeles will eat it up for it’s one-of-a-kind couture….

always growing.

It’s been many months since my last post, and it’s hard to believe how far my work has come. I just recently finished my largest, most important piece to date: my first permanent public sculpture! It’s a “garden” of large scale metal mushrooms, installed at a new housing project in San Mateo, CA. It was the most challenging AND inspiring project of my career, and my entire life feels shifted from it. I finally feel like I could really focus on my sculpture as my main artistic focus, and let jewelry be a hobby. I have always been a sculptor more than a jeweler, and the fashion industry has never appealed to me enough to make me feel great about focusing on my jewelry. I *love* making jewelry- don’t get me wrong- but this commission inspired me and gave me renewed faith in my capabilities and the opportunities that could lie ahead of I really set my mind to this. I can’t keep up with all the new ideas in my head!

So check out the most recent piece in the “sculptures that grow” link on the sculpture page, and I’m adding some pages for the process of making the piece, as well as a photo journal about the place I worked at while making the piece. It was quite the adventure! I also kept a pretty in-depth blog during the process, detailing the trials and tribulations, as well as the metalsmithing processes I used… so if you are interested in my dorkiness and musings, check it out: www.shiraloa.blogspot.com

wow, it sure does feel good to make something NEW, and on top of it all, a RING! i’ve been wanting to make more rings for a while. this came from a sketch i did last spring and never made… and it is the beginning of something… i would like to see stones like dew drops on this little lilipad, eventually. for now, it’s a bronze hammered lilipad with silver and brass pieces hammered and soldered to the top. the ring shank is sterling silver. it’s big… and i like that.

i’m posting more pictures of this in the BEYOND section..

I feel very honored to be a part of TWO new gallery/retail spaces in Los Angeles. Not only are both spaces run by incredible people, but each person involved creates unbelievable products of their own, and each store has a unique, refined offering for its customers.

1) S&G Boutique
7414 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Wed.-Sun 1-8pm
www.SandGClothing.com

2) Dialect Gallery

215 W 6th St #111Los Angeles, CA 90014

http://www.downtowndialect.com/

Sequoia Emmanuelle’s photographs of my work can be found throughout my website, and I am very excited about gracing her models in her recent shoot of her new line of clothing. We both think it’s a fantastic collaboration. Love you, Sequoia!

I will be posting more from this shoot on the jewelry pages… please check it out!

Listening to the echo of death whip through the skeletal fingers of the trees,

The moon kisses the ice

footsteps melt the snow with Heat from too many paces forward and back

A woman worn through

weighted with the winter clouds

whose underbellies have been stained putrid orange from city lights

Bone shows through from injuriously unkempt, dervish thoughts

There is an unaccountable anguish that accompanies deception of heart,

And the prolonged resistance to commitment

innocence ravaged against a scabrous milestone

a certain kind of loss that cannot be measured

or undone

This is not one person’s pain.

And over time this is not just paroxysm or twinge

But palpable catches on the breath

Tattoos on blood cells

Muscle memory

There is an icy difference between the woman wallowing in scorn

And the woman walking barefoot in the snow,

Ruminating on the pieces that will never grow back.

For one is releasing into the cradle of hypothermia

While the other is trudging forward regardless of numbed appendages.

We caught each other’s tears today

In the basins of our beauty that remain.

It’s as if we were pouring the droplets back and forth between our hearts’ vessels

Amalgamating and recycling grief and strength

into a resplendent alloy.

We are not lost

If only we can coat ourselves in armor made of this.

The death of puerile hopes will always echo dully in our ribcages

yet we can sing replies to strengthen our resolve.

Each day it may be less work

tilling frozen soil.

Hi there, it’s been quiet around here lately, but as the holidays are here and I have lots of metal bits that need homes, ’tis the season….

Please join me for a Holiday Sale and Open Studio! Friday, December 18th, 5:30p-9:30p, at my studio in the Franklin St. Lofts @ 1800 Bryant St. My studio is the corner unit, and still has the old gallery sign above the door- this was previously “Culture Cache Gallery”. My door is the closest one to Bryant on 17th, and says “Alloy415″ on it.

There will be Sculpture, New and Old Jewelry, and wine and snacks for your pleasure. Please join me!

Tiger’s Eye, Opalite, beads and copper… Sterling silver setting with blackened patina…

This will be priced and up in the store by the weekend!

Black Onyx Drusy in a wrap-around, sleek Argentium Silver Ring.
size 7.5

I love this one so much i barely want to sell it. but the good thing is, it inspired me to make more like it. each one will be different though, depending on the stone used and the silver i have. i love that.

8 gauge Brass. can be made with silver.
6″

i love these. i wear them all the time. they flow, and they STAY in your ears. amazingly i have danced my a** off in them and they have never been lost. these are keepers.