Jewelry as a container for sensitivity

“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive.” — Pearl S. Buck

I recently came to know, via a wonderful year of therapy, that I'm an HSP (highly sensitive person). Apparently most artists are. Put simply, this means that we are more sensitive to emotional, experiential, and external stimuli and are constantly seeking and making connections about the world around us. I don't love labels, but it connected a lot of dots for me. Our culture places such a stigma on sensitivity, but I've not only admired it as a trait in others throughout my life, but I value it highly in who I choose as friends and business partners. Feeling doesn't scare me. I go in deep from the get-go. I love sad songs. Existentialism excites me. Most of my closest friends are deep feelers. We go straight to the heart. Sensitivity is an unspoken language.

Then I had a realization: this might be why I have such a hard time explaining why I love jewelry to you. I'm constantly writing about how putting on a piece is a feeling that can't be described in words. I love writing, I love contemplating, and I love words, but it's possible that the most impactful objects simply cannot be described, only felt. Also why photography is such a high art. Maybe words are simply a vehicle toward feeling, away from the head and toward the heart. I'm convinced of it now.

It's been a strange and wild couple of years. The chaos of the world has brought me deeper into intimate, quiet moments. In the garden, in awe of a bud that became a flower in one day. Working at the bench, thinking about the moments you're celebrating with these pieces, how you're feeling more yourself than ever before, how today was beautiful and tomorrow will be moreso.

To all my sensitive ones: Sensitivity is a superpower. Sensitivity is awareness, gentleness, observation, curiosity. It's being tuned in to subtle energies and finding refuge in what's beyond the obvious. It is quietly in defiance of the status quo. I have found that a great art practice is also all of these things.

In my studio practice, I'm designing jewelry to adorn human beings, so these subtle energies are always top of mind. Jewelry exists to create and exude a feeling. Sometimes that's nostalgia, confidence, devotion, drama, status, or even to deter attention. The intention with which we utilize objects and adornments is endlessly fascinating when you really tune into the why as well as the emotion that goes into choosing to bring an important piece into your life. Imagine if you found a jewelry box that belonged to a grandparent and each piece had a piece of paper with a short story rolled up with it. Compare the stories your 16-year old self was telling through jewelry versus now. Each piece becomes a time capsule, a way to know others better, a way to know ourselves better. A jewelry collection becomes a box of treasures that is a window into how we see and make sense of our worlds. What would you write?

I'm an Air sign full of Earth signs and a Libra rising, so I thrive in balance. I liiive for a delicate, fine line - balancing feminine/masculine, traditional and futuristic, light and dark. This is so much of the human experience, isn't it? A constant striving toward balance and harmony?

One of my goals is to design pieces with a new perspective while also imbued with nostalgia - you've never seen anything like them before but you feel strangely at home in them at the same time. Wanting you to feel at home in my pieces is an extension of wanting the creative in you to feel seen. Rings that feel silky smooth and so comfy because you're someone who is tuned into details. Earrings that make you swoon at your own natural beauty when you look in the mirror. Necklaces that feel close to your heart in more ways than one.

So much of the power of jewelry lives in these quiet moments. In moments of appreciation for yourself, in devotion to yourself, in tune with yourself. I see now that this is why jewelry and I were fated to find one another and very possibly, why you and I were too. I'm having so much fun on this artistic, extra-sensory journey with you.

Love you all,
Michelle