This video of me soldering bails may look pretty non-eventful (& poorly angled/edited🙃) but it took a lot of mental weightlifting and therapy to get to this point of creating simple things again. And I just wanted to pop in since it’s been so long since I’ve made a post about my work.
The loss of my brother has felt like the loss of a limb, or like my head has fallen clean off for 12 straight months but somehow I continue to appear normal and functional on the outside to everyone else. Sucking back tears is a skill I hope no one ever has to master for too long, after a while it takes a toll on the heart.
And while that all sounds dark and gloomy, what I REALLY came here to say is that lately I have managed to cherish little moments of lightness through my art again, and by connecting with my people in nature, while holding space for my pain at the same time. When you’re with the right people, it doesn’t feel like such a struggle, joy and grief can coexist at times, and I think there’s some kind of magic in that❤️🐊
After a year of carrying around the heaviest grief I’ve ever known, I now know that healing is cyclical🔄 The storms will always return but I’m learning to move through it differently each time, a little less paralyzed, a little lighter. Choosing ✨wisdom✨ over woe is easier said than done. I’m still a work in progress.
Sending armfuls of love to anyone else walking around with a massive invisible weight on their shoulders. There is also lightness within you at all times, I hope you always manage to find it when you need it the most. This sh*t ain’t easy, I 🤎 you.
If you have managed to read this far (thank youuu) I am planning to be at Twin Steeples Arts Market this coming October. Stay tuned for updates, I am going to attempt to post more often about what’s in the works💚🐊🐊🐊🐊
Cypress & Copper Lily Pad pendants are in the works! A homemade concoction of beeswax & olive oil has always been my favorite chemical-free method for polishing cypress driftwood. Coating them with my bare fingers & buffing is my favorite part of this pendant making process. It helps to hydrate thirsty wood & also protect it, while leaving that natural, glorious cypress scent behind✨ I love watching the wood drink it up & see the wood grain pattern begin to reveal itself before my eyes. This is where art meets therapy for me! 😅🥰 These will be released at Gnarly Barley Brewing Art Market this Saturday, Dec. 2nd 12-5pm. See y’all there! ❤️🐊
Finishing up the last of these sterling Swamp Tomb lockets!🪦🍂🖤 This batch features tiny insects🕷️ with cemetery & swamp wildflowers & moss. Release is tomorrow at @twin.steeples.arts.center Arts Market 9-5. There will be only 6 pendants and one cuff. Get there early if you want one, no holds!👻🖤🍂 Booth 42🐊 If I have any energy left in my body by tomorrow morning I’ll try to post more pictures of what’s available. It’s driving me nuts that this is so last minute and rushed, by now I’d usually have a thousand pics posted and everything completed. I’m dead tired y’all🙃
New work & personal life update: Vol. II of the Swamp Water collection is in the works! Currently working on the tiny swamp plant elements, including sterling silver water lilies, arrow arums, and duckweed. I’m hoping to have these ready (along with some lily pad stud earrings) for next Saturday at @twin.steeples.arts.center pop up art market 5-8pm ❤️
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On a very personal note, I’ve been dealing with some super scary possibly permanent nerve damage from my tonsillectomy back in January that’s been majorly affecting my sense of taste and my salivary glands (which for a Cajun gal that loves to cook, this has been a major struggle for 6months), and I have a doctors apt this afternoon that may bring either good or possibly life altering news. The anxiety has been paralyzing this week. (Hence not a lot of jewelry updates lately) I’m kind of lost on how to handle myself or talk about it, but super thankful for my friends bc despite how much this has been weighing on me, they still manage to lift me up when I need it🖤
Send happy thoughts my way today, or light a candle or something. I need all the good joujou I can get.
Maritime Music & Arts Fest is in full swing! Come see Haunted Cypress Studios in the 🖤🤍 striped tent for some one of a kind swamp jewels🐊
Madisonville Ballpark ‘till 8pm
Lily pads & cypress!!🪷🐊Handmade with sterling silver & copper.
These will be available on April 22nd at the Maritime Arts & Music Festival in Madisonville, La!💃
Swamp tomb locket previews!🪦🖤
Swamp tomb locket previews!🪦🖤
Each of these handcrafted solid sterling silver tombs will be listed ✨FRIDAY✨ 12/16 at 7pm Central at HauntedCypress.com
All wildflowers, lichen, bones, and moss collected & preserved by me from various swamps & cemeteries in South Louisiana🖤🐊
This batch includes lots of Mardi Gras colored flora!💜💚💛
Sending out newsletters with Holiday specials ✨tomorrow morning!✨ So join the mailing list asap at HauntedCypress.com for tomorrows promo codes & info!
Louisiana Opal #2! Trying to capture all the beautiful colors of the opalescent “flash”. As always, it’s difficult to do it any justice. But here’s my attempt!
This piece will be part of a set of three pendants featuring swamp lilies with green patina copper lily pads💚 🪷
#louisianaopal #leesvillelouisiana #sterlingsilver #louisianaartist
Cypress are starting to change color in Manchac Swamp🍂✨
With so many things transitioning in my own chaotic life, it was nice to feel connected to this beauty in my favorite place on my birthday week🖤
P.S. Orders are shipping out Saturday! And there are three Cemetery Magnolia petal pendants & two cuffs left in the shop;) 🪦
HauntedCypress.com
Twin Steeples Village Arts Market is here!!
Tomb lockets are ALREADY sold out😱
But don’t worry! More tombs are coming before the holidays🖤
We still have plenty Cemetery Magnolia Petals, Maypop & Butterfly wings, and petrified Louisiana palmwood pendants, cuffs, and rings!
Come see Haunted Cypress booth #22🖤
Twin Steeples Creative Arts Center
👻GHOST STORY TIME: Since I was a kid my grandma would tell me this story about my great grandpa Freddie Blanchard who used to maintain a graveyard near Lafourche Parish.
One day he brought home an empty vase that laid abandoned near a grave & brought it home to surprise my grandma. The next day she fell very ill & began seeing a little girl in a frilly dress sitting on top her dresser, staring at her.
So a few days later when they made the connection, he returned the vase back to the area that he had found it. My grandma instantly started to recover & the little girl never returned.
To me the lesson of this story had always been pretty clear, & to this day I will never remove anything near or on a personal grave site!
All the flowers I pick from the cemeteries for my lockets come from the trees or the neutral grassy areas before the maintenance men cut the grass!
It’s also just respectful to leave things as they are. With the exception of maybe picking up a fallen vase or putting flowers in them🖤
These solid sterling silver oven tomb pendants will be released at the first ever @twinsteeples art market in Ponchatoula THIS Friday 12-5 & Saturday 9-5!
HauntedCypress- Booth 22
Come out and see us! 👻
Shiny sterling silver tomb, but make it old & grungy! 🖤👻
Showing some of the process from gritty matte patina to textured shine✨ trying to replicate the older broken down tombs in the old mid-city New Orleans cemeteries and also give them the glory they deserve🖤🪦
These tombs will be filled with cemetery flowers, roots, and tiny bones found in Louisiana swamps🐊
⚫️Will be at the @twin.steeples.arts.center village arts market Sept. 30 - Oct. 1st!
#neworleanscemetery #oventombs #graveyard #grave #hauntedcypress
