The Elaine Collection

The Elaine Collection... Where Do I even begin. 

The Elaine Collection was created to honor the life of a lost loved one. 

My grandma passed away at the end of march. Her name was Joyce Elaine Maier and she lived a lovely 89 years before departing the physical plane.

Her departure left a huge hole in many peoples lives. 

I find that every time I sit down to talk about her and this collection i'm drawing a blank. How do I communicate how much someone meant with just my words? How Do I communicate the layers that this collection has taken on in the time of its conception to its release into the world? I dont know, it might get sloppy, but im going to try.

My grandma, and really my mom's side of my family, was my saving grace. Time spent with them was always something I cherished deeply. Every year we would make the voyage to Wisconsin to visit and I loved every second of it. I loved getting to play with my cousins and spend time with grandmommy and it was like a little pocket of protection during the most chaotic times in my childhood. 

I think my matriarchal line is where my magic is the most strong as well. The deeper ive gotten into my ancestral veneration, the stronger I feel the power of my matriarchal ancestors. I think that we have been breaking cycles for generations at this point and I really believe that without the unconditional love of my mom's family I wouldn't be here today. 

I am eternally grateful.

With the passing of my grandmother, I am reminded that grief is a very physical thing. The hole she left behind is one I feel deep in my heart. I know she chose to go at the right time for her, choosing not to draw things out and suffer needlessly.

As much as I hurt, I am also grateful. I am so grateful to have gotten the chance to get to know my grandmother and live at the same time as her. I am thankful that I was able to have a grandmother like her. I am thankful for her sense of humor and how it found its way into so many of us. We are one silly family and I am so thankful for that. 

So about this collection of jewelry...

It's something I made to honor the life of a woman who meant a lot to a lot of people.

A few years back grandmommy purchased a ring from me, and she wore that ring every single day until moments before she was put into the ground. I ended up receiving the ring back and it's so wild to me how something that I created with the pure intention of making something beautiful became so impactful.

She wore that ring every day. She loved it a lot and I wanted to make a collection that recreated the design of the ring in her honor. Originally I was going to offer the pieces as a collection of rings that one would have been able to choose their ring size and it would be an almost exact recreation of the original piece. But the timing was off and the depression of grief had me putting the collection into a drawer for a few months.

I ended up revisiting the collection and decided to turn in into something different. The design still is a replica of the original ring that grandmommy wore, but I wanted to make pendants out of them instead. You see, I have just begun the journey of learning how to engrave on metal and these pendants were the perfect blank canvas to practice on. I wanted to create a little piece of magic on the back of each necklace. 

So I transformed the original stone settings into pendants, and carved one of a kind images onto the back of each one. Each piece I allowed to speak to me and unfold how it would. Basically a channeled design that can't be recreated onto any other piece exactly the same.

The magic within me was being used to create this collection. Not only to transmute the grief, but to offer protection to the wearer of the pendant. Each engraved image is actually a sigil that was sealed on the August blue moon. A sigil of protection meant to find the right person at the exact right time.

My journey with grief is on going. It comes in waves. Who knows how long it will last really, but I do know that creativity is a great way to move emotions and transmute pain and I was successful in doing so with the creation of this collection.

Even though grandmommy is no longer with us on this physical plane, I know she is with us in spirit. I often feel her with me while I knit, and feel her love guiding me along from the other side. I cant really put into words what she meant to me honestly. It's like trying to translate body sensations into words that capture it all and I have notoriously not been great at that. All I can do is make something beautiful in her honor and keep moving forward. Try to live life to the fullest and not get caught in my fear of the unknown or uncomfortable. Even a long life is short in the grand scheme of things and I plan on doing big beautiful things with my time here.

Thanks for reading this far along.

Sabina