i smell spring.
and i am smelling it from our “true” pittsburgh home,
goodbye townhouse rental, hello 1903 victorian just east of downtown.
snow abounds, and yes, recedes and disappears in the sun.
hooray as hunter, logan and i would say!
we are inheriting the last third of a community garden and damn, to my kids and i love to dig, sow and reap.
we will have pumpkins this fall, just you wait…

in this garden/backyard of ours i envision a fabulous wee smithy of sorts, next to the pumpkins.
basically an amish barn that takes up residence in our backyard, providing a safe for me to work with fire.
a place in side for jewellery, outside adjacent, my 250lb anvil and my forge.
a smith adjacent to a jewellery studio!

grateful inside and out that our move is complete and psyched about setting up my new temporary studio (till i get this barn you know). back to work with a wave of really cool new clients (return of some old) and some new newsletter subscribers (thanks maureen-burke.com, for featuring the “life chain”!).

and i am thinking…
i want to send out a newsletter as a house blessing, create something for you guys, whilst manifesting a barn raising for me
but i would like your opinion.

what would you like to see me run a special on right now?
mother’s day, graduations, spring! all on the horizon,

would you like to see some OM pendants, wishbones perhaps…
on sale as they say?
so happy to hear anyone’s response.

it would be great to finally have the opportunity to finish the astrological pendant line.
john is a huge proponent of these little guys and i daresay, they are so simple and pretty, charms indeed.
was thinking that i could offer a really great discount to all who commission the first of their sign (leo and sag are the only ones finished).
any and all thoughts are so welcome and appreciated.
i love making OM’s, wishbones and peace signs, but perhaps you want a discount on custom creations or just good old peace signs?
so many possibilities….:)

now i must to garden exploration with my wee companions and baby wolf. the snow is melting so that i can actually see soil.
hooray

shine sun, shine
xo
heather

i almost forgot about making these entirely, since I don’t wear many earrings myself and I hadn’t had an order for them since we switched over the site from the old marketplace one to the new blog set-up, and the old earring listings came down off the net.

anyway, shortly after we got the peace sign jewelry page of the new shoppping cart set up here with Wordpress, I was very happy to hear from a repeat client saying how much she wanted another pair of these! (she had been unable to find my old listings on Google this year and had lost email info, but came across the new site- finally. John assures me this will never happen again…)

so now i like these better than i remember liking them before, so up they go.

peace sign earrings

my original small peace sign earrings in sterling, with a simple sterling wire, now available exclusively online at heather-reilly.com!

This is a really cool challenge I had recently from a new client: create the classic “rollling ring” design in platinum, with each of the three joined rings a different finish: a smooth, polished (shiny) platinum ringjoined to a smooth brushed platinum ring (“matte” finish) joined to a third platinum ring with my trademark hammered and burnished finish.

“Heather,

Thank you making my gorgeous ring. I know the rolling movement of the three individual rings was challenge. But, the finished ring is perfect!

I love the weight of the ring and the way the rings roll over each over – it’s very soothing. Some how, you made a ring that feels like it was always meant to be on my hand.

You rock!!!”

-Susan Evans

Heather Reilly Hiemstra, metalsmith, in the jewelry studio, discusses the LifeChain project materials, sources, and the particular link of the chain she is forging for her bout with colon cancer three years ago.