Linda Thiltgen

Decorative Tile Coaster, Linda Thiltgen

Isn't this just the best idea? Wow, living your life every day as if it was a message. What would that look like? Would I be shouting it out or whispering? Just pondering this concept for five minutes made me realize how often I get distracted from my own path.

Linda Thiltgen, a creative spirit from Minnesota, has been exploring art and design for over 30 years, and produces these inspirational tile sets that explore the simple beauty of nature.

She has a passion for fabric, textures, and Asian art. Using these inspirations, Linda also creates paperweights, pillows, and framed collages like this lovely piece entitled Autumn Cirque. Every artwork holds a message -- visible or invisible -- and is meant to empower the spirit and be a reminder to the beauty that surrounds us.

I was instantly drawn to Linda's work because of my own fondness for birds and leaves. Thank you, Linda for finding me on Etsy!

Acorn: Prosperity & Hope

Hope, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): fine silver acorn charm

In the fall, acorns delightfully crunch beneath your feet, calling to mind mighty oaks that grew from fragile seeds. The acorn was an ancient symbol of prosperity, power, and protection. Known as the “fruit of the unenclosed land,” the acorn suggests a hidden strength that eventually unfolds into something magnificent and powerful. An acorn is a remembrance that your humble dreams have unlimited potential.

Wear a tiny acorn to appreciate and support your hopes and dreams.

Art as Love

Homecoming, Beth Hemmila: fine and sterling silver

In David Richo's book When the Past is Present the author explains that we are all seeking to fulfill the "five A's of adult love: attention, acceptance, appreciation, affection, and allowing us to be ourselves."

The simple act of creating (e.g., art, music, dance, food, etc.) gives me the vehicle for experiencing these five key elements of love. For example, putting aside time to create the necklace Homecoming was a pure act of self-care. Looking at my creative process, I believe that art is my humble way of parenting myself. From this experience, if I truly embody Mark Silver's idea that business is a means to exploring relationship, then through Hint I am also learning how to parent the world.

Below are some ways that art is standing in as my parent for the "five A's of adult love, " but I could go further and explore how these ingredients manifest through my business relationships. Just by blogging and commenting on other peoples blogs, I am both offering and receiving appreciation, affection, and attention. Or when I've designed a charm that nobody purchases, and I come to embrace this disappointment as beautiful moment of loss, I learn acceptance and allowing. What are the ways that you experience these five elements of love in your art or business?

Attention
Committing to creating something outside myself and seeing the project through to its completion affords me the experience of dedicated focus. When I become engrossed in making a piece of artwork it reminds me of the same intent as shooting a bow and arrow. There is a singularity to the experience because I have acknowledged that this artwork is worthy of consistent and dependable attention from myself.

Acceptance
Sitting down with a blank canvas, a lump of clay, or a pile of beads gives me the opportunity to learn acceptance of whatever comes from my creative impulse. I learn to practice that whatever transpires is a perfect expression of who I am in that moment.

Appreciation
I have a stack of artwork, collecting dust in a closet because I just HAD to make them :) Like dying your hair purple, sometimes my inner kid has so much curiosity that I just have to know the outcome before moving on. Making something and then being able to appreciate the repetition of the process instead of the outcome is one the greatest gifts art offers human beings.

Affection
Creating art involves both looking outside at the world and then inside at myself. These observations generate affection for what I discover both inside and outside. Perhaps art is actually turning my love inside out for the world to see. For example, I choose to create images of nature and animals on charms so that each time I send one to a friend it's like blowing a warm kiss out into the universe -- a heartfelt thanks to the natural world for making my life richer!

Allowing
Dedicating space physically and emotionally for creating art is the most poignant act of allowing myself to be who I am in every moment. When a human being carves out space in a home for themselves to tinker with cars or throw pottery we are allowing ourselves to follow whatever impulse arises.

Am I Original?

Color Sampler, Beth Hemmila: acrylic on panel

Disclaimer: Welcome to my blog series on copyright! This is the second installment in a four part series in which I am exploring the spiritual and emotional context of copyright. I am in no way minimizing the legal and practical issues surrounding this complex topic, but would like to offer space to muse about questions and feelings that arise. To catch up on the whole series and read insightful comments by fellow bloggers, click here.

Originality

Inspired by Jasper John's painting Numbers in Color this miniature sampler pictured above was my pivotal teaching moment. Giving 7th graders a set of limiting parameters such as the same colors of paint (red, yellow, and blue), tools, paper size, and instructions, deep down inside I wanted to prove that each one of their paintings would be truly unique...I was not disappointed.

When all 35 color samplers hung next to each other, it was clear that not one person felt the desire to copy a fellow student's work, and I began to believe that when someone is given the freedom to make a choice, they will always do what comes most naturally to their heart and that in itself is truly original.

Am I Original?

What am I wanting when I ask to be seen as original? For me, just saying the word "original" brings up feelings of anxiousness and longing. Could it be that I am yearning to be known and respected by others in a deeper way? When I want to develop a unique style, am I trying to create an easily identifiable signature like a bird call so I'm not lost in the crowd? Is this my own fragile way of seeking reliable nurturing and genuine appreciation from others so as to find a sense of belonging?

Being original implies singularity and suggests that without this badge of uniqueness, I might feel loss when I become viewed as one among many -- my vulnerable self avoiding the realization of our interconnectedness. Now that seems like the opposite wanting to belong! :)

I'm guessing you may have some interesting feelings in regards to these questions of originality, and I'd love to hear about them. I'd enjoy knowing more about the way others find compassion for this tiny, fragile bird inside each of us that just wants to make its unique mark on the world.

I found my source of comfort in the beauty of my 7th graders' color samplers and in the Latin roots of the word "original," which means "beginning, source, birth." How could anyone feel disappointment, if what we are seeking through originality is really a connection with the source of our being? :)

Sanford Biggers

Blossom, Sanford Biggers, 2007: player piano, steel, resin, paint,
silk leaves, earth, and sound recording

Check out my article at Planet Pink n' Green regarding New York contemporary artist Sanford Biggers and his intriguing installation called Blossom at the Portland Art Museum this summer.

Beauty

Aphrodite Earrings, Beth Hemmila: fine silver and sterling silver wire

These beauties just washed in from the sea and
definitely belong to some gorgeous sea maiden :)

Aphrodite Earrings, Beth Hemmila: fine silver and sterling silver wire

Created for a lovely Etsy friend, these Aphrodite earrings
remind me how simple beauty can become utter
radiance when inspired by someone's feminine spirit.

New Blossom

New Blossom, Beth Hemmila: fine silver, gold filled chain/wire, and aquamarines

This tiny, silver lotus bud with its sparkle of gold sunshine looks so ephemeral when dangling next to your heart.

I created New Blossom while thinking about those times when you look at someone and no matter if you feel peace or stress, you stop watching the outside drama and see the ineffable beauty and aliveness in the moment.

Where you stop consciously listening and interpreting words and feel the full force of what another human being is expressing. Sometimes I wonder why it takes me so long to find that place of simple calm because its power shines like pure radiance on both people.

May I remember each day to return to this place :)

Tell Your Story

I've been procrastinating on my story necklace listing for months. Then finally over the last several weeks I've had this flood of custom necklace requests that made me realize where I needed to put some attention :)

Symbols are all about telling your story through images instead of words. Like eye poetry!! I get goosebumps when people put together different charms and then open up their story to me. So in an effort to make things clearer, in my Etsy shop I have created a listing for a quote that will allow customers to create their own story necklace using charms from Hint Jewelry. It's a little like Mr. Potato Head jewelry style!

I provided some samples of necklaces to kick off the inspiration.

Current choices of necklace chain I have in stock.

Clasps people may chose.

Treasure

secrets?

buried treasure?

beautiful gift

vast emptiness

something to hold onto

acceptance

breathing

you unfolding...

into perfect freedom

I hope you enjoyed the journey inside my secret box. I created this piece for the Out of the Box exhibition at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. My donated box will be auctioned off to generous supporters helping fund this museum's mission. My inspiration for the piece was using the jewelry box as a metaphor for my creative womb. Hmmmm, if I could be on Trading Spaces for wombs what would it look like?

spaciousness...freedom...compassion for our transient nature

In this tiny box I've pieced together my favorite things: infinite blue, unending landscape, horses, flowers, and trees. The "dew that flies" is a quote from Sylvia Plath's poem "Ariel." I'm drawn to it because it reminds me of innocence that is meant to be lost and repeated. The apple with the thorns is taken from a drawing I did visually reinterpreting Snow White. The necklace composed of a Free Spirit charm and a delicate, faceted aquamarine.

I'm really looking forward to sending this little box off to its next destination in time! A joy to have been included in this amazing event. Thank you to the National Wildlife Art Museum for accepting my offering :)

Zen Garden

Water Lilies, Claude Monet: 1916

The May challenge from Art Bead Scene inspires designers to create jewelry based on Claude Monet's impressionist painting Water Lilies. I distilled the spirit of this painting down to a single Zen Lotus charm and tiny, faceted aquamarine gemstones.

like little droplets of water kissing the back of your neck

simple and very Zen :)

Copying?

Believe, Beth Hemmila: flourite, fine and sterling silver

Over the past five months I've been tuning into many blog posts about copyright issues and have blissfully kept silent just sitting here pondering all the confusing thoughts and feelings surrounding it, but choosing not to write. For me, it raises a lot of important and uncomfortable questions about being human and alive in the world, and I wanted to give space to these thoughts. I genuinely hope you'll tune into my series of blog posts on Wednesdays over the next three weeks, so I can hear your thoughts and feelings about the questions I put out into the universe.

Topics

Week 1: What is the difference between art and craft?
Week 2: What lurks beneath my need for originality?
Week 3: Am I a copy of the universe?
Week 4: Do I have enough nourishment?

P.S. With a genuine heart, I have enjoyed reading the different blog posts about copyright, the story of each creative spirit who may have felt a trust come undone by the experience of copying, and am no way disputing the legalities of the subject matter.

I hope to offer space for the feelings and spiritual questions that emerge from the topic of copyright. For in all honesty, when I hear that word, my heart starts fluttering a little too rapidly, which signals to me a place where I am holding on too tight. Truth be told I don't know what to feel about copyright or how I would react. So in all humbleness, I hope you will humor me on this journey of self-discovery into every modern artist's Heart of Darkness -- copyright.

Am I Copying?

At some point in the creative process I believe everyone asks themselves the question "Am I copying?" For me, I can say with all honesty that I look at, sketch, and am directly inspired by ancient art. So I would feel comfortable with the idea that my scarab charm pictured above is a copy of an image that was created 3000 years ago by Egyptians. However, that copying has always been my intent. I want people to reconnect with these ancient symbols and images through my work so its message is still alive in the world.

What comes up for me when I think about my scarab design is some professor saying, "but that's not art, that's craft."

I'd like to open a door for thinking about what differentiates art from craft, and more importantly when we define art as uniqueness are we reinforcing the shift from an ancient, spiritually, group-based mindset to a individualist, modern point of view? How does this influence our daily outlook on the world and ourselves?

My Favorite Copyists

Prehistoric man = Lascaux cave paintings
Egyptians = Book of the Dead
Medieval monks = Book of Kells
Giotto's Workshop = Arena Chapel Frescoes

Altar

Do you have an altar? A gathering place?

This amazing piece of turquoise holds a tiny whisker from Saskia, a twig
from Buddha's Bodhi Tree, and my favorite Yogi teabag quote.

Travel light,
live light,
spread the light,
be the light.

This miniature spiritual oasis rests on a larger altar that I've recently redesigned to accommodate my kitty's urn and a locket that holds her fur.

What do you like to place on your altar?

Sometimes my altar becomes too cluttered, and I find myself editing. This time I kept my tin can candle holder from Tuscon, a picture of my favorite goddess White Tara, sweet grass incense, and of course photos of furry loved ones.

Dogwood Lidded Vessel, Whitney Smith Pottery

I found everything I needed to memorialize my beloved Saskia on Etsy. Searching for the perfect urn to hold Saskia's ashes I came across Whitney Smith's lovely Dogwood Lidded Vessel. It seemed the perfect reminder of all those blue sky days when I would watch her hide in the flower beds looking for a butterfly chase.

Heirloom Locket, Jeweled Blossoms

Also, if you are looking for a way to preserve a memory of someone you loved be sure to check out heirloom lockets found at Jeweled Blossoms.

Blog Award

I just received this blog award from Sandra of Marbella Designs (Spanish translation: Mar = Sea, Bella = Beautiful, just adore her business name!!)

From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much Sandra for acknowledging that my blog has brought you some creative nourishment!

Here are 7 of my favorite things and 7 more spectacular bloggers :)

1. Love the family that has woven themselves into my life

2. Love every minuscule aspect of nature...well, I'm still on the fence about worms :)

3. Love to cook without the pressure of a deadline!

4. Love going to library and bringing home a stack of books

5. Love figuring out mysteries

6. Love the silence of morning

7. Love that someone invented the blue, ball point pen

Drum roll please...and now here are 7 magnificent bloggers who deserve a Kreativ Blogger Award.

Tea and Honey Bread
Kiss the Paper
TaMs
Misty Mawn
Rosa & Josies
A Fanciful Twist
Inside the Artisan

Enjoy these reads!

Insured

Insured, Beth Hemmila: digital images on paper

Searching through my collection of art supplies I came across a tiny book I created five years ago. It seemed too clever and timely to ignore :)

A while back I was living without adequate medical insurance, which got me thinking about that amazing corporate beast and how many of us feel chained to a particular job or way of life because of the imminent threat of no health coverage. How many times have you or a family member stayed in an unsatisfying work environment simply so you could say at parties, "well, the benefits are nice."

The concept for this book was the question "Is insurance a metaphor for our ego's need to control life's outcomes?" What if insurance is an expression of our need to hold onto something or hold something together.

Needless to say I scrounged up inconspicuous devices you might find in you daily life that hold things together (i.e., safety pins and paperclips). This book asks in what way can we move from the heavy way of thinking to the light?

fear...feeling that everything is safe in every moment
control...chaos is the universal imperative
attachment...everything is nothing
desire...contentment

Radha

Radha, Beth Hemmila: grey pearls, fine and sterling silver

These little peacock charms were languishing in my supply stock for months before I finally realized that they were waiting to be made into shimmering dangles. Do you ever notice that when something isn't moving it means you are suppose to connect with it? It waits patiently...no matter how stubbornly I refuse its presence :)

Flaming Heart: Love & Compassion

Flaming Heart Milagro, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): fine silver heart charm

A traditional image in Mexican folk art, a flaming heart symbolizes our divine love and compassion for humanity. Fully experiencing the fragility of the human condition so as to learn compassion is the path of an awakened heart. No matter your dire circumstances, the noble heart exists untouched like a buried treasure to be uncovered at any moment with the simple act of allowing your tenderness to open to universal pain and experience our unique connection with all beings.

Wear a Flaming Heart to awaken deep acceptance for the tenderness within you and use it to experience love, appreciation, and compassion for all beings.

Shakin' the Tree

Celebrating and honoring all of humanity and our desire to nourish the feminine in ourselves and others...Happy Day of Nurturing the World!



Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree
Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree

Waiting your time, dreaming of a better life
Waiting your time, so much more than just a wife
You don't have to do what your mother has done, she has done
This is your life, this new life has begun
It's your day - a woman's day
It's your day - a woman's day

Turning the tide, you are on the incoming wave
Turning the tide, you know you are nobody's slave
Find your brothers and sisters
Who can hear all the truth in what you say
They can support you when you're on your way
It's your day - a woman's day
It's your day - a woman's day

Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree...

Changing your ways, changing those surrounding you
Changing your ways, more than any man can do
Open your heart, show him the anger and pain, so you heal
Maybe he's looking for his womanly side, make him feel

You had to be so strong
And you do nothing wrong, nothing wrong at all
We're gonna to break it down
We have to shake it down, shake it all around

Souma Yergon, Sou Nou Yergon, We are shakin' the tree...

Songwriters: Peter Gabriel and Youssou N'Dour

Tiny

tiny

Here at Hint Jewelry I am working teeny, tiny. I mean REALLY minuscule! Think the size of a dinner plate you might buy for a dollhouse dining room table. Sometimes a closeup photograph distorts the smallness of my charms, making them seem gigantic, and so I put together a series of relative size photos that can help shoppers understand just how tiny feels next to a dime.

small

medium

large

40 as a Doorway

When I turned 40 in January, someone wrote in a birthday card, "Forty is really no big deal." Well, I feel quite silly but honestly a frustrated, little 4 year old inside of me hasn't stopped stomping up and down, fists clenched, getting red in the face, because I am really wanting some mutual understanding of something so precious.

A gift arrived the other day in the form of an unsuspecting library book -- Enlighten Up: The Keys to the Kabbalah by Barrie Dolnick. Now I can breath...I feel my unruly tantrum dissipating. For in an earlier post on beginner's mind, I embraced the idea that 40 for me is really 4 + 0 = 4.

Right now I'd like to kiss Barrie or the brilliant minds behind the Kabbalah, because the significance of the number 4 in the Hebrew alphabet is that it corresponds to the letter Dalet ('D'), which means wholeness and ready for spiritual opening. Think doorway!


Dalet is a letter that integrates the previous energies. It provides a platform for exploration, a threshold between your current reality and the expansiveness of the spiritual world. Dalet is the unity of you as a being and your internal 'soul' that connects to the Creator.

Dalet is the first letter in the word "Drosh," Hebrew for "examining, searching."

- Barrie Dolnick

Finally something to explain this urgent sense of creative awakening and the undeniable connection I am sensing with all my blooming 40 year old friends...as if the bell for recess just rang and we find ourselves gathered outside with these expectant look our faces that say "lets play!"

Whatever significant number you find yourself landed on I hope you too embrace it with gusto and feel the utter preciousness of its place in time :)

Home: Love & Nurturing

Home Sweet Home, Beth Hemmila (Hint Jewelry): fine silver home charm

Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, finding home is as easy as three clicks of your heels. Houses may shelter you from the outside world and represent an endearing symbol of nurturing, but for me the image of a home suggests the soul’s search for its place – a still point amidst the swirling chaos. This illusive feeling of being at home is sometimes hard to locate, but once you find the space inside your abundant heart filled with love and compassion, home is infinitely spacious and always accessible. Life is one deliciously wonderful experience knowing that home is waiting inside you!

Wear Home Sweet Home and let your heart be nurtured and sheltered…

Mindfulness

Mindfulness, Marie Dodd: crystal quartz, sterling and Karen Hill Tribe silver

One of my favorite Etsy spirits Marie Dodd just posted these lovely earrings called Mindfulness. Not only do the simplicity of the silver paired with quartz shudder with peacefulness, but I love her inspiration for the design:

"here's a reminder not to miss the beauty of a drop of water running down a leaf as snow melts or a storm ends... not to miss the song of your favorite bird, the smell of blooming flowers or piles of autumn leaves..."

Are you opening your eyes right now and giving yourself the freedom to enjoy one brief moment of beauty like me? Thanks to Mary Jane at Marie Dodd for this wonderfully, refreshing gift :)