NANCY CHRISTENSEN // NEW WORKS

Tonight we receive Oakland artist Nancy Christensen and her new works, untitled.  The watercolor series is a zen-like exploration of space and attachment.  Her primary characters are connected to smaller entities conveying a quiet bond.

Party starts at 6pm, and we are offering 15% off storewide for the event.  Ed the Soulector will be here spinning his rare vinyl funk and R&B.  Last party of the year, hope to see you here tonight!

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Get to Know Solee Darrell

Yay!  So pumped to share with you our newest gal, Solee Darrell.  Solee will be working with me upstairs making jewelry.  Solee studied metalsmithing at Sterling Quest in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato Mexico, and is working on her own line of jewelry too.  She is a bright light, a total jewelry aficionado, and a welcoming spirit.  So happy she has joined team Nine!

We asked her a few essential questions so you can get to know her a bit:

1// What inspires you?
What inspires me most is other women! I love meeting women who have they're own distinctive sense of style and getting the chance to see the world through their eyes.

2// What is your favorite jewelry piece?
I have so many amazing pieces of jewelry that I've collected through the years. I have made some amazing rings that I love but of course they are always first to sell. I would have to say that my all time favorite piece of jewelry is a gold coin necklace that my mom got me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I always wear it when I'm going on a plane or when I'm doing something really important because it makes me feel a little safer.








3// Favorite Oakland spots for

Cocktails: Cafe van Kleef. I crave those greyhounds.
Beers:  Beer Revolution 
Burgers: In n Out, forever and always
Pizza:  Hi-life 
Fancy-Shmancy Date Night: MUA. Great ambiance great food.
Music:  The Fox Theater. It's beautiful in there!
Surpise us: Lake Merritt has been so good to me this summer. I love sitting on the cement slabs with some beer and friends.  And I recently discovered Oakland Floats. It's a deprivation tank spa! If you haven't tried it you need to! The coolest way to relax

Follow her @soleedarrell

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Insta Love // Re Elle

What influences, inspires, sets your heart on fire?  Curiosity about what does that for other people opens up new ways to get inspired and lit up.  I love to watch what my jeweler peers are doing, what they are being moved by and how that eventually turns up in their work.

My Insta Love feature will now be all about this: my favorite outtakes from the jewelers and artists we house in the shop.This art form and craft, at its best, goes beyond making pretty little things.  It is tapping into the same human and universal mysteries that all art gets itself into.

Today I am sharing some of my favorite shots from Brooklyn designer Re Elle.  I own one of her Fold Cuffs, it is a daily wear that feels a part of my body.  Her feed is one of my most heart-throbby.

Follow her @re_elle
Enjoy.

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The Girl Who Knows

For the next few months I am a Guest Editor in Residence at The Girl Who Knows, a lifestyle blog for living with soul. It is giving me a fun chance to write about topics that that don't totally fit here, but interest me and I want to share nonetheless.  Some of it, like my post today, feels a little more personal, the kind of stuff I tend to chat about with my close friends. Other posts will just be about stuff I'm into.  Enjoy my first two posts, and checking out the rest of the lovely TGWK blog.

#2 80/20 Your Life

#1 What to Read This Summer

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Go Far // Desolation Wilderness

This week I took a couple days off to go backpacking with some of my bro-dudes in Desolation Wilderness, just west of Lake Tahoe.  We started our journey at Echo Lake and walked 26 miles to Emerald Bay, camping out at a couple lakes along the way.  Our trail was an overlapping route of The Pacific Crest Trail that extends from Mexico to Canada, and the Tahoe Rim Trail that wraps the circumference of the lake, the terrain littered with stunning swim spots and wildflowers.  This time of year the thru-hikers on the PCT are walking this stretch and we were lucky enough to meet a bunch of them and ask them about their trip.  Here are some of my favorite outtakes from the journey, enjoy.

Dick's Pass overlooking Dick's Lake and Fontinellis Lake

Morning view at Middle Velma Lake

Loupin

Josh getting ready to fish

Lake Aloha

Campsite at Lake Gilmore

Bro-ing it out with my crew plus Michael, a PCT hiker who stayed a night with us

Mosquitos!

L O V E + M E T A L 

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Origins // Variance Objects

At Crown Nine our motto is 'Real Objects Made By Real People' because we believe that where things come from matters.  That how things are made and who makes them matters.  That objects have significant power and can deepen our everyday experiences.  So with that in mind, we are beginning a new regular blog feature called 'Origins' in which we will talk with each of our artists in depth about the origins of the objects they make.

First up is one of our newest artists, Nicole Rimedio, the designer behind Variance Objects.  Nicole founded Variance in 2013 with her partner Scott. Scott manages operations and Nicole is the artist. They both have a passion for gemstones and together they source the finest natural and unusual gem specimens and rough rock. Nicole and Scott live and work in Santa Cruz, California.  Find them on Instagram @varianceobjects .

We have met Nicole and Scott a few times over the years, and this summer added Nicole's work to the shop which they dub as Rough Fine Jewelry.  We love the cohesiveness of her irregularities, how each piece almost looks suspended in it's process.  Fusing silver and gold together for her settings, the overall aesthetic is an esoteric twist on classic gemstone-centric jewelry that we just cannot get enough of.  Here is our interview together, boiled down to the essentials.

KE:  Why do you make art?

N: I'm unhappy doing anything else.  I tried to not be an artist and I was miserable.  I think I was born this way.

KE:  What themes are in your current work?

N:  Destruction and erosion and the juxtaposition of those themes to the pristine. Those qualities become magnified when in relation to each other.  It's both pleasing and confusing to the eye.



KE:  Current obsessions?

N:  Stones.  I have lots of books on stones, both scientific and metaphysical.  Nothing better than a day at a gem show. One of the things I love about Santa Cruz is all the young travelers selling rough stones on the street.  Each room in my house has a place set aside for stones.  I hold, carry them and sleep with them.  I even hide them under Scott's pillow (my husband and co-owner of Variance).  I don't think he minds.  Well, he doesn't always realize it until he has strange dreams and I have to come clean.

 

KE:  Best piece of advice you have gotten?

N:  A glass artist I worked for in Cleveland, Steven Tater, once told me, "the key to being an artist is to keep showing up".

KE:  What artwork or artists influence your work?

N:  Abstract expressionist painters such as Agnes Martin, Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter.

KE:  How do you want someone to feel while wearing your work?

N:  I want them to feel like the piece is theirs, like it has always belonged to them.  Sometimes it feels like the jewelry is looking for the right person as much as vice versa.



KE:  How do you know when a piece is finished?

N:  It feels like it takes a breath.  And also there aren't any sharp edges.

KE:  What do you admire in other people?

N:  Competence and risk-taking.





KE:  What special talent would you choose if you could magically gain one?

N:  Fireproof hands

KE:  How does destruction play a role in your work?

N:  Big time!  Sometimes I think about Variance jewelry as artifacts or found in ruins.  You know what I mean if you know my work.  Sometimes the pieces are about the way the fire moves the metal; that molten quality has a destroyed feeling. It's all about the interaction of the fire and metal.



Stay tuned for more Origins posts with our house of artists.
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All images courtesy of the artist, Copyright 2014 Variance Objects.

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ASTRAL DECKS by Obi Kaufmann

 I first met Obi back when my studio was at The Hive.  I've been following his art ever since, so when I saw that he was in the process of creating his own 'tarot' deck based on the stars of the Northern hemisphere, I had to get my hands on them.

I love any tool that helps shift perspective and gets me out of a mental rut.  Sometimes these tools are the kind words of a friend, a song, a piece of art on a wall in a museum, astrology readings, a good self-helpie book, an inspiring quote, whatever... as long as it makes me consider a different perspective.  I often find myself guarding my own little worldview and position, and these little tools chip away at that protective instinct, in the best of scenarios absolutely exploding my old ideas apart.  I like that.  Let's shift paradigms, like on the regular.

The Astral Deck is a really self guided tool, simply open the deck and go for it.  Inspiration is to be had in the characters taken directly from the night sky, from the forms Obi calls into the world, and from our own connection to the people we are with.  Get hella deep with it or just make it a way to kill time when the sun goes down on a camping trip.

The decks are available in the store and online | $25

Enjoy

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LOVE STRUCK // Andrew + Sequoia

Meet Andrew and Sequoia, two of my most beloved clients who recently tied the knot in Oakland.  The duo is aspiring to become restaurateurs, currently satiating their appetite with a beautiful blog CASA PEPE, overflowing with gorgeous photos and recipes that any food lover will drool over.  Keep your eyes on these two, the restaurant they are dreaming up is bound to be exceptional.

I remember when Andrew stopped by the shop back when it was still in the alley, he was so sweet and nervous-- not about the decision to ask Sequoia to be his wife {which he was so certain about}, but about getting the ring part right, and getting up the nerve to actually ask her.  He popped by a few times before deciding exactly what he wanted to get for her, and together we designed a Classic Engagement ring for her.  Later they came back in and got their wedding bands, he picked the Classic Wedding Band and she paired her diamond with a simple mitsuro style Feather Band.  They were so fun and easy to work with-- I knew their wedding day would be a relaxed and joyful day because that is what they embody together.  

Here is their love story in their own words, enjoy.

1// How did you meet, what was your initial impression?

SEQUOIA: We met at a dive bar- The Graduate to be exact. My friend literally dragged me out of the house right after I had returned from a most fucked up trip to Argentina. A cute boy, Andrew, walked up to me and offered to light my cigarette. For the rest of the night we spoke only Spanish to each other, in fact he introduced himself as Andrés. He called me for dinner an appropriate 3 days later and the rest is history. 

ANDREW:  We met at a dive called the Graduate.  I though she was super cute and offered to buy her and her friend a Fernet.  She didn't really seem interested in me, and I was acting pretty sassy, she'll probably say she thought I was gay and latino.  We talked about our favorite public television chef José Andrés.  She invited me over to her place to watch a documentary on Frida.  PS. that's all that went down.  Neither one of us was looking for love but we sure found it.  

2 // A memorable moment from dating prior to getting engaged?

SEQUOIA:  We've had some really great trips- Spain, New York and Portland to name a few… But the best times to me are the times that we had, sitting around the house drinking coffee, listening to NPR and cooking. There's nothing sexier than a man in an apron.

ANDREW:  We had a really long and crazy date about a month in.  We'd gone to the Jeremiah O'Brian, that docked old merchant marine ship in SF, for some kind of an all day beer drinking event.  It was kind of a shit show, she got pretty upset that someone tried to give her watermelon flavored beer.  Then I took her to a bunch of old man bars in North Beach and Chinatown.   We might have broken up and gotten back together that day.  I think that date really tested our compatibility. 

3 // How did you become engaged?

SEQUOIA:  Andrew proposed on our 3 year anniversary in the middle of the street, in from of the same liquor store that he had told me he loved me for the first time- a week after we met.

ANDREW:  It was her birthday three years after we had met.  I took her to the Claremont for a "staycation".  We went down to College to get some dinner and I was trying to work up the courage to pop the question.  There's a parking lot there that's in front of a liquor store, I know it's not glamorous but it was the first place I told her that I loved her, so it has a special significance to us.  She started crying when she saw the ring and then she said, "Yes."

4// Favorite moments from your wedding.  Did you have any special ritual or tradition?

SEQUOIA: We spent the night away from each other, which was very unusual for us. When I arrived and saw him standing at the end of the aisle- it felt like such a homecoming. He looked unbelievably handsome. We held each others hands so tight. Feeling the love and support of our friends and family around us, as we said our vows with the sun shining through the tree branches, was a dream.

Also, our wedding party gave some of the most heartfelt, beautiful and hilarious speeches, ever. Hearing the blessings and memories from some of our dearest friends was super cool.  And I really do need to mention the food. We are so food oriented that it would be wrong not to salute our fantastic kitchen crew that made one of the best meals of my life.

We didn't really have any rituals but we did dance our asses off. Dancing with my mom, twirling and sobbing, will always be one of my greatest memories. 

ANDREW:  Our wedding was magic.  It was a DIY Oakland style affair.  We had the ceremony in Joaquin Miller and the reception a the Starline Social Club.  Having so many family and friends in one place is almost overwhelming.  The actual event went by so fast its like one great moment in time.  It makes me feel lucky to have so many people willing to give us love and support.  We had lost some important people in our lives in the previous couple of years so it was important to keep them in our thoughts.  

photo by Dustin Cantrell

photo by Dustin Cantrell

photo by Dustin Cantrell

5// The magic ingredient is: 

SEQUOIA:  FIRE! I'm Spanish and he's Italian so there's never a dull moment. But we follow the golden rule of never going to sleep mad at each other. OH and SALT! Andrew always says- when you think you've added enough salt- add twice as much!

ANDREW: We are partners in life.  We stick together with unconditional love and affection.   But we don't kill each other because we know how to fight and compromise.  


L O V E + M E T A L

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ADORNED // Vanessa Agard Jones

// Taking a peek into the jewelry collections of interesting women //

Today I'm very honored to share the jewelry collection of Vanessa Agard-Jones.  I met Vanessa at Caffe 817 one early morning.  I saw her wrists stacked with silver bangles and I just had to ask about them.  We discovered a mutual love for jewelry, storytelling, and the connection that can form between women through folk traditions (we are both quilters).  

Vanessa is a professor at Yale in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.  Her expertise is in sexuality studies in the African diaspora.  She has been working diligently for the last few years on a research project based in Martinique that is exploring queer identities and sexuality in a place that has been impacted by hormone-altering pesticides.  Needless to say, she is incredible and fascinating to talk to.  

We poured tea and chatted at her dining room table with her sweet dog.  Here are some outtakes from our afternoon together-- enjoy her collection and stories.   

1//  This is the one I don't have the story for but is the most precious.  This coin is a piece that my Grandmother, and my Mother, and my Aunt all wore.  Growing up I always remember seeing all three of these women, the women on my mother's side, wearing these long chains with these coins dangling from them.

My Aunt got very sick in the early 80's with a brain condition call Meningioma, and ended up declining over the course of a decade.  My Grandmother had died right before her, and so my mother inherited all three of the coins.  For a time she wore all three, her mother's, her sister's and her own.

She gave me my grandmother's at a certain point, I think when she felt I had reached adulthood in her mind.  I wear it quite often and it really does remind me of the kind of women who I grew up idealizing and loving, and who really gave me a very loving and beautiful childhood.  Most of my jewelry is connected to these women.

My aunt and my mom both worked for People magazine, my mom was an editor and reporter and my aunt was a photo editor and photographer. Her husband was an architect for NBC and they were very Upper West Side, never had kids, had a gorgeous apartment on on the water on Riverside Drive, had two matching Yorkies which they fed chicken livers from Zabar's.  They had a very different life than what my mom and dad had, who had kids and had to figure how to make ends meet, and my aunt and uncle were fabulous, running around being artists.

2// This was my Aunt's and it shows her sense of humor.  It was her pinky ring and one side reads LOVE and the other side reads FUCK.  It was so my aunt, she was brazen and sort of crass and so I love wearing her ring.  You can either be sweet and gentle, or you can be, you know... I usually wear it with the fuck side up.  It's very much her sense of humor.  She was the smoking, cursing, drinking, fabulous sort of auntie.

3// The other side of her is in her other pinky ring, with these classic initials, and I think of it as representing her very classy and sophisticated side.  Her first name was Betsy, although she really didn't like her name, especially when people called her Betsy Ann.  I called her Tante, which is strange because there is no French connection in our family.  It wasn't until I was in 3rd grade that I discovered in class that "tante" was the word for aunt in French, and it was so like her to not want to be called auntie but instead, 'call me Tante'.  Just fabulous.

4// These I wear a lot less often but I keep them in my jewelry case even when I don't wear them.  They belonged to my grandmother and she wore them, and this is her.

And a picture of me in the other one.



KE:  This is you?  Oh my, so cute!  I love lockets, they are such great little storytelling devices.  I've been noticing through interviewing how much jewelry connects women to the other women women in their lives.

V: Absolutely, if you have nothing else to pass down, most women have a piece of treasured jewelry.

KE:  And it doesn't have to be very expensive, it can just be the piece that she always wore.

V: Yes, it's so true.

5// The bangles are the things that are really important because I wear these every single day of my life.  I don't know the true history of West Indian bangles but I can give you the version that I think I know, and then there might be some more clear history out there somewhere.

Most little West Indian American girls know each other by their bangles.  The history, some say, can be traced to a melding of African and Indian populations in the Caribbean.  One story of their origin is that they are worn to remind people of shackles, except they are worn on one arm instead of two so the shackles never join at the wrist, but give you the sound of what it was like as people tried to navigate their lives while chained.  Some say the origin of the bangles is in the transit of slaves, and was one of the things given as payment for selling people to slave-traders.  So there is this sort of correlation between the kind of wealth that you would need to buy your own self.

When I was a baby I had a tiny little pair of baby bangles, I still have them in a box.  Typically what happens is women wear two pairs of bangles of the same design, and men wear single bangles. These ones were my father's mother's, who I never met, and again there is that connection between generations of women.

The others were given to me at various points by my parents. I think the cowrie shell was from my graduation from college.

This heavy one, it came to me when I taught my first class as a college professor for an adult education course in New York.  I had a student from Barbados, Margaret was her name, and when the class was over she gave this one to me.  And she wrote me this beautiful card about how proud she was to have a young Bajan teacher.

All but the one from Margaret where given to me as pairs, but I've lost many of them which is the awful reality of it.  It's actually been with the advent of all the airport screening that I started losing them because it's the only time I ever take them off.  Even though they don't necessarily set the alarm off, they see them on me and make me go back and take them off which is a bit of a heartbreak.

6// Erica, my close friend, gave me this.  She gave me one and she has one so it's like our updated friendship bracelet.  We'd had a conversation one day about feeling like, somewhat socially awkward and not being totally at ease out in the world, and we were just chatting and quilting and drinking wine and somehow came up with this silly idea that everyone in the world who is socially awkward should have to wear a green thread around their wrist to help them identify each other.  A couple months later she came to my house and gave me this.  It was really, really sweet and this is our grown up version of a friendship bracelet.

Thank you Vanessa for opening up your jewelry box and letting us take a peek at your collection.  

If you have a jewelry collection you would like to share on LOVE + METAL, please email me: kateellen@crownnine.com.

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