I feel strongly that I want to express impeccable integrity in all that I do and to walk my talk at all times. Therefore, to me, there would be great hypocrisy in calling myself a ‘spirit jeweler’ because I simply made ‘spiritual jewelry’ , jewelry that merely spoke about or shared messages of spiritual beliefs of any kind.
To me, a True Spirit Jeweler has to fully embody what she speaks about in her pieces.
People very often wonder at art shows why I do not wear my jewelry. Good question, yes? All jewelers I ever encounter indeed wear their pieces (at least when they are in a selling mode) to show them off or advertise their beauty. It makes sense to do this, and I used to do it too.
Why then do I not do this anymore?
I AM my own jewelry
Because I walk my talk, my jewelry pieces represent who I am, what I have recently become, what knowings I have recently discovered and integrated within me. Therefore, I feel I AM truly my own jewelry. Since I am “it” on the inside AND I live it daily in my outer life, why would I wear something that represents this “it”? To me, doing this feels like wearing a descriptive skin on top of my real skin. . .it would not add to me, it would in fact detract from and cover who I already am.
Not a Good Move?
I strive to be a naked woman toward others, soul-wise, and to be as totally true to myself as I possibly can, in every way possible, regardless of consequences. My not wearing any jewelry and wearing the simplest clothing at all times is coherent with this striving.
The fact that not wearing my own jewelry might not be a ‘good move’ sales-wise -as I am so often told- is totally irrelevant to me. I simply think that the depth of my personal integrity speaks more for itself than any enticing outer showing of my work.
How Did I Get from There to Now: My favorite ring
in 2005, I made myself a ring, which I always wore whenever I did artshows and whenever I took any important trip, like going to another country. That ring was very important to me: It was my friend, my shield, my reminder/my personal symbol to myself that I was calling every aspect of me to be alive, active and fully present within me, so that I could be at my very best doing whatever I was doing. At artshows, this meant being fully present with customers, giving them the very best of myself. On trips, it meant being fully aware, paying attention to everything so I would not encounter any dangers.
Sumatra, Indonesia, August 2017
Lost, Forgotten or Deliberately left?
8 years later, in 2013, I went to the beach to swim, and for some unknown reason, I was wearing my ring. All these years, if I was EVER wearing my ring to the beach, I always kept it on in the water. My ring represented my ‘complete self’ and as I love the ocean as myself, the ring surely went in along with me! But that day I followed some weird prompting without much thinking and left the ring on my towel before walking toward the sea.
I enjoyed my swim, dried myself and quickly headed to my van, as I had a very rare and much looked forward dinner date with my son.
While driving, I suddenly realised that I had completely forgotten about my ring while drying myself and that it laid now somewhere in the sand!
At that minute, I had to make a quick choice: Rush back to the beach immediately, look for my ring (it was getting dark), and stand a chance to miss my appointment with my son (I could not postpone it, it was the only day and the only times we were in the same town for months to come). Or let go of my ring and of my attachment to what it represented.
Though I was a bit sad at the idea to leave my beloved ring in the sand, I did not hesitate one instant: having dinner with my son was the in-contested priority. So I dkept on driving to meet my son.
A Gift Ring for the Grand-Mother of the village in West Africa
What could this mean?
I am one who asks myself questions all the time. I have no doubt that “abandoning” that ring where it lay wasn’t an innocent gesture. I first wondered if it meant I needed to make myself a new ring that better represented myself. As much as I had tried in the past to make myself a new ring and thus represent better my journey of the moment, none had ever spoken to me more than my original one. So I actually quickly sold my new rings.
After a day, the answer came clear to me: I had been ‘set-up’ to ‘lose’ my favorite ring because I didn’t need it anymore. This ring represented still needing and clinging to an idea (a friend, a shield, a symbol of my ‘complete self’) .
In truth, I had not lost that ring. . .If I went back to look for it with a metal detector, I was almost sure to find it. But rather than hunt for it, I realised that some ‘inner I’ had simply left it where it belonged: On the sand, by my beloved ocean, where some lucky person would probably soon discover it. Leaving it where it lay seemed to tell me that I had become what this ring represented to me, and therefore no longer needed a reminder for these aspects.
For a few weeks, it was odd to not have my ring anymore. But every time I felt the absence of it on my finger, I would realise I could find the presence of it inside my heart, mind and soul and I felt the clear knowing that I had indeed become to myself what that ring meant to me: a best friend, a protector, courage. . . I no longer needed a physical reminder, I WAS IT! How utterly freeing this was!
The Ultimate Test
When I did my first artshow without my ring, I was wondering if I would be able to hold my usual energy without a ring and to also handle the questions people would undoubtedly ask about my not wearing any of my own jewelry. Would I be able to walk my talk not only wearing my jewelry but also NOT wearing it?
This was the ultimate test for me. . . Isn’t the ultimate test of the effectiveness of “spirit jewelry’ to not need it anymore?
No, I do not wear my jewelry any longer.
I have truly finally and completely become so much my own jewelry that I do need to wear it anymore. This is how powerful my jewelry is, it has given me everything it could give me. I have given myself all the power and strength I could give myself through my jewelry work. Now I can fully focus on what it can give you. In the same way it has so fully helped me reclaim my real self, so it will help you, prod you, push you back inside yourself to reclaim who you truly are. And when you fully embody what your piece of jewelry says, well, who knows what will happen!
Northern France, my home village