Ghost Ranch Magic
“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life — and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.”
Visions from Ghost Ranch
Everything seems to slow down a bit during the first couple months post-Christmas. With a wide-open calendar and fewer jewelry sales on the books, I tend to float a bit aimlessly through these first weeks of a new year. Self-doubt floods in. So for the past couple of years, I’ve tried to make January about holding space for learning and growth.
I am an adult human who owns a small business and makes all of her products 100% by hand, which often feels like taking the time to learn a new skill, brush up on an old one or doing any task at all that isn’t optimized for superiorly maximum efficiency or money earning is wasted time. When I was first approached about attending a two-week jewelry retreat in Northern New Mexico, my business brain immediately found rationale and intense fear both time-bound and monetary to decline an experience so clearly earmarked for frivolous fun.
And yet, ironically —the inconsequential, curious making of jewelry in-between long hours at my corporate job three years ago is exactly the thing that led me here, to Fancy Boheme. Freedom, creative control and flexibility are the things I love most deeply about my work. The simple act of learning to do more with raw materials (in my case, precious metals and raw stones) affords me the ability to expand on my designs and be more adaptable when it comes to custom work.
The Landscape
In other words, I went anyway. Ghost Ranch is nestled along Highway 84 in Abiquiu, New Mexico. It’s an education and retreat center founded among the the picturesque mesas that Georgia O’Keeffe fell in love with and called home in the later years of her life. Each day I woke up, made jewelry and/or cut and polished stones all day long. Much of the time, my hands were busy learning and practicing inlay — the process of embedding stones directly into jewelry. This time-honored technique started with Native American jewelry and is carried on by fine jewelry artists from all backgrounds.
As someone who lives downtown in a major metropolitan city — it was a uniquely wonderful experience to have complete silence while I slept (minus the occasional coyote howl) hike to breakfast, dinner and the studio everyday, and expend all of my energy on a single effort: making jewelry. As someone who normally works alone, being surrounded by women of all backgrounds and ages mentoring and laughing with each other was a welcome shift. In fact, most people come back year after year simply for the camaraderie. I know I will, if I’m able to.
What Does This Mean for My Work?
Everything, and nothing at the same time. For me, Ghost Ranch was more of a transformative personal experience that punctuates my decades-long struggle with giving myself permission to do creative work.
For Fancy Boheme, this of course means new thoughts, new designs, new inspiration. Despite living in Colorado my entire life, and despite the intense beauty of the desert — my work has never been decidedly Southwestern. Modern and dainty? Definitely. Sustainable? Always. I’ve only recently begun to learn about turquoise, and I’m learning how to incorporate both new techniques and materials in a way that feels inherent to Fancy Boheme. While I’m working a lot more in silver, and have purchased a few rough-cuts of intensely bright turquoise, each piece I design this year will still be made with great love for minimalism, wearability and our mother earth.
I’m looking forward to creating more heirloom-quality pieces: expanding my line of fine jewelry made with precious metals, stones and diamonds in the made-to-order section, a ton of new one-of-a-kind pieces made with my existing stone collection, as well as a pile of brand-new designs for spring with a resort feel (think turquoise mixed with bright pastels and collectable statement pieces). Jewelry takes an awfully long time to make, and I want to make artisan pieces that stand the test of time and trend — special mementos of self-care for whoever wears them and love for whomever gifts them.
Thank You.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how immensely grateful I am to have your generous support of my little business, through all of its shifts and ideations. Thank you for helping contribute, through your orders and kind words to this experience. Thank you for supporting a real person, who makes work with her hands. I hope that you also give yourself permission to do the thing that’s calling to you — no matter how big or small.