05/02/2026
A custom piece, SO full circle!
Once upon a time. There was a store in Whitefish run by my dear friends .skin.tattoo on Railway who had loyal and generous patrons, who would give me my first dollars, and first taste, of what it would mean to be an artist for a living. I am forever grateful to you, Liv and Cass, and every person that came in to see it. You built my beginning. What an amazing foundation.
In this shop, while still taking classes at the local community college, Cass built me my first display and Liv counseled my new endeavors. I sold a little set of Peridot pieces, necklace and earrings, to dear friends of the store. That was likely 15 years ago. The woman that wore this set would be a quick poster child and testament to the quality of jewelry I hoped to make, as she literally never took these pieces off!
Recently, like all favorite silver chains eventually do, it broke. I honestly can’t believe it lasted that long! The necklace ended up in pieces on the dash of her car, and after a good rattle up the north fork, slid into the recesses of the vents, never to be seen again. There was an attempt to rescue, and many tears, so I’m told.
It was a retirement gift to replace the lost piece, by her husband and one of my favorite Montana Sapphire storytellers. He brought me this original Rock Creek Sapphire, the last one of four special stones for the women in his world. I recreated the original peridot with this mega chonk of a Sapphire stone, and photographed it set on top one of Cass’s sculptures that I inherited when he passed a few spring seasons ago.
This kind of roundabout journey is just exactly why I love making jewelry. It is this kind of magic that keeps my heart in it, and the kind of crazy connections over lifetimes that really illuminate how lucky we are to have eachother. It is, without a doubt, THE reason.
Thank you so So much Lee and Amy, CJ for delivery, who all won’t see this post anyway, and indelible thanks to Ethos so many years ago, who gave me a shot and saw something in me that I hadn’t even begun to see yet.
