My Inspiration
I’m lucky to live in a very beautiful part of the world. The scenery and wildlife around me are a great source of inspiration for all of my creative endeavors. I have been creating my own jewelry for years. When I stumbled across a beach with many beautiful stones, I knew that I had to do something to display their beauty. I started by making a few pieces of jewelry for myself. Since each stone is unique, I embellished each one differently and soon I had more beachstone jewelry than I could ever wear, so it was time to share it with others.
The Process
First I have to find the stone. I love this part for I can spend hours walking a beach and hunting for pretty stones. I find it and the whole creative process therapeutic.
But since I can’t stay at the beach all day every day, I usually take a small bucket of stones home with me each time I visit. This way I can sort them even when the sun is down or when it is too icy to be on the beach. I do a lot of rock sorting. From the bucket (or the beach) I look for the best, most uniformly or interestingly-shaped stones. These are then sorted by shape and size. This helps greatly when I am looking for just the right rock for a particular design or when I need a pair for earrings.
Once I’ve found the right stone, it gets glued down to a board so that it doesn’t escape when being drilled. I’ve found that it’s more efficient to glue down several stones and drill them in batches. Drilling stone and glass can be tricky and a lot of pieces get broken.After drilling the beachstones, I use gemstones and silver to create my pieces.
The focus of this jewelry is, of course, the beachstone. The stones are used in their natural state, just as they are found. Other than drilling the small holes, I do not change them in any way. I wash the salt off of them and then rub them between my palms to give them their soft, natural shine. I have not tumbled, polished, or shaped them.
To add color, I use gemstone beads. I like the juxtaposition of the fine, polished beads and the raw, simple beauty of the beachstone. I sometimes use beach glass, wood, shell, glass trade beads and glass seed beads.
I also use sterling or argentium silver wire, beads, and embellishments. Many of the beads are made by the Hill Tribe people of Thailand
There is only one place that I use silver that is not sterling or argentium, and that is the solder. Unfortunately, the beach stones cannot withstand the intense heat given off by a soldering torch. Most will crack or break. I’ve had to switch to using a soldering iron so that I can apply the heat more precisely and preserve the integrity of the stones. This works wonderfully, but I have not been able to find a soldering iron that gets hot enough to melt sterling or argentium silver. I have resorted to using silver-bearing, lead-free solder which has a lower melting temperature. Small dots of solder can be found on the back of each piece that requires soldering. It looks much like sterling silver, but does not tarnish.
Why Bowerbird Collections?
Bowerbirds are collectors. The male collects flowers, leaves, stones, and anything else that he finds attractive. He meticulously arranges his treasures in and around an ornately designed lair, or bower. These bowers are used to attract mates. Many bowerbirds pick blue as their favorite color.
As quoted from a National Geographic article, “[Bowerbirds are] the most intriguingly human of birds. “ “Some researchers have attributed an aesthetic sense and the glimmerings of culture to bowerbirds, traits rarely found in any species aside from our own. Some primates, such as chimpanzees and orangutans, are now regarded as having cultural traditions but not aesthetics.”
As a fellow collector, I decided to name my company after the bowerbird. Enjoy !
