You should see my studio, sweet friend! There are leaves piling up in every corner, ferns are tickling my ankles as I try to saw, ivy is crawling along all the walls, and I am assuming the moss devoured my hammering stump because I swear I used to have one.
This collection is my most beautiful yet, I am gathering up whole forests of green and texture for you.
I am glad that this offering is going to be so big and beautiful, because I have decided to move the Mossflower Collection to a biennial schedule, meaning I won’t create another full prehnite collection again until 2022. I know this puts a bit more pressure on you if you are hoping to claim a particular piece, but I think a more spaced out schedule will allow me to expand into new a bit. Not to mention, I will be able to save up soooo many more Mossflower designs before the next iteration!
With that said, I hope you get the piece you have your eye on.
Spring Glow Rings
Cost: $86
Sizes that will be available:
(4.5, 4.75, 5.25, 5.75, 5.75, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6.25, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5, 6.75, 6.75, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7.5, 7.5, 7.5, 7.5, 7.5, 7.5, 7.75, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8.5, 8.5, 8.5, 8.75, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9.5, 9.5, 10, 10, 11, 11.5)
The first design I made for this year’s Mossflower offering! Spring Glow Rings, perhaps the simplest, sweetest design of every Mossflower Collection.
Spring green prehnite that glows in the light, the veining of a real leaf pressed delicately into the bezel, serrated edge to resemble a nettle leaf, careful oxidization shadows resting in all the nooks and corners.
Looking at all the different hues of prehnite in these Spring Glow Rings feels like looking into a crowded wood: countless shades of green, spots of shade, thorny rutiles, feathery inclusions. Some stones are soft and minty, other the bright green of a new leaf. I love them all unconditionally.
Thank you to everyone who wrote in requesting a ring in their size. I made sure to make at least two rings in each size requested. Per usual, when I make the listings I will put the size at the very beginnings of the titles, to make it easier to find your size quickly.
Nellas Necklaces
Cost: $125 each
Adjustable between 17″ – 20″
From last year’s blog post:
This necklace was originally designed for the briefest of Tolkien characters, and elf-maiden called Nellas. She was a solitary being and “was unwilling ever to walk under roofs of stone” of the elven city of Menegroth. She lived alone among the trees and rejected the modernization of the Sindarin. Because of her knowledge of the pathless forest, she was asked to follow Turin, mortal son of Hurin, if he strayed in the forest.
Nellas eventually befriended him and imparted wisdom: “From Nellas, Turin learned much concerning the ways and the wild things of Doriath, and she taught him to speak the Sindarin tongue after the manner of the ancient realm, older, and more courteous, and richer in beautiful words.” Nellas was a source of ageless knowledge for Turin, a lonely young boy in a strange land. As Turin grew older, “he turned his thoughts to deeds of men” and walked less in the forest. And so he did not see Nellas again, though she continued to watch over him, and she remained hidden.
When I first read about her, the vision of Nellas was a beautiful one: an unseen maiden living alone in the forest, learning wood lore and speaking to the trees in an ancient language. And so, this necklace was made with her in mind.
Large, beautiful prehnites, some with dark thorny rutiles, others the bright green of a new leaf, all faceted to catch and reflect the light. The sides of the pendants feature patterning taken from a real leaf, to make it look as though the stone is being cradled by leaves.
Some Tolkein scholars translate the name Nellas from the Elvish to mean “three-leaves.” It is this translation that inspired the back of the pendants. I have sawn a window in the shapes of sprig of three leaves to show the back of the stone, hidden from sight but ever-present, like Nellas herself.
Birch Bracelet
Cost: $165 each
Sizes that will be available:
(6.5, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5, 6.75, 6.75, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7.25)
“On glorious branches, glittering and
Pale green as she grows,
The birch tree bears her lovely leaves,
The flower of flowering trees,
Fair of hair and lithe of limb,
The mistress of the mountain.
The winds now call, soft winds are stirring,
She lowers her limbs in play.
Sleek and straight and white of bark,
She utters a trembling tongue.
Great mystery, bright token is she,
A blessing on my people.
The twilit sky obscured by clouds
Is bright again with lightning.
And standing strong and faithful while
Her lovely leaves take flight,
The birch will wait there, bare and white,
Still mistress of the mountain.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, “Bagme Bloma”
Tolkien, an avid philologist, originally wrote this poem in Gothic, an ancient language of Germany. His reverence for the glorious birch is so evident here: bright token of blessedness, the mistress of the mountain.
As my fella and I were sipping coffee one late afternoon a few weeks ago, we were watching the forest behind the house as the wind kicked up. The willows were dipping down towards the pond and the dragonflies had taken refuge in the long grasses around the water’s edge. But what caught our gazes was the stand of silver birches at the forest’s far edge, caught in the tumult of the wind. Those slender trees were yawing, their branches pitching, and leaves rolling. As Tolkien described, “her lovely leaves [took] flight.” But the magic was in the way in which the silver birch leaves scooped up the golden hour sunlight and tossed it back. The sparkle amidst the saturated green tops of the birch trees looked just like sun glitter atop the dark Atlantic sea. It was a halcyon moment.
And that very same evening I finished my very first bracelet in this design. With those tumbling birches, deep forest shadows, and the late afternoon glow of birch leaves in my mind, I completed this piece. I set the last prehnites, spilled in some shadows, and fastened it around my wrist for the first time. And I couldn’t help but feel as though I had built a birch bough my wrist; glittering pale green and lilting with every movement.
Tolkien wrote his love letter to the birches with ink, it seems I have written mine with silver and stone. Alternating birch leaves and glowing prehnites, like a summers day.
(Note! Before purchasing a Birch Bracelet, it is a good idea to measure your wrist. The easiest way is to wrap a piece of string around your wrist as loose as you’d like you wear the bracelet, mark the string where the end meets, and then measure the string where you marked it. In the photo of the bracelet on my wrist, I am wearing a 6.5” bracelet, which I consider a small.)
Keep an eye out for more previews of the upcoming release!
✖️Mossflower Collection Release (PART I):
Sunday, August 23 at 7pm EST in the Etsy shop✖️
