Hannah Blount Jewelry

With my recent upgrade to an iphone, along came a whole new window of opportunity for distraction: Instagram. While on Nantucket last weekend, I meandered along the beach with Dave and Laila and snapped these Instagram photographs:

You can see why the island is such an inspiration to me...

My mother is a spectacular sewer. After admiring her handiwork, she hand-crafted these beautiful doilies for me.
They are currently gracing my living room, adding a few touches of elegance to the simple room.

Maryellen Hustad (Blount) Mefford, 1919-2011.

Today I had the privilege of celebrating my late grandmother's life. There were laughter and tears, smiles and hugs, and many shared memories. Grandma Marnie was one of those unique individuals who took it upon herself to do everything. Every time I was with her, I learned something new. She traveled so many places, learned so many things, taught so many eager learners, created so much craft, loved so many people, and most of all, was dearly loved by even more.

Grandma Marnie just had a gift. Every Thanksgiving, the seven Blount children (and my poor parents) would travel from Nantucket to her beautiful home in Bristol, RI, where she would have an extravagant meal waiting for us. We would race into the house, fighting over who got which room. There were the bunk beds that the boys would always get. There was the room that had its own bathroom that my parents would get. There was the bedroom with the window seat and glass animals (she let me take some of those treasures home). Then there was the room I never went in, and I don't really know why. Then there was the room with the dancing flower. I remember the basement, which was full of puppets (with its own stage!), and toys like you wouldn't believe, and a storage WALL of yarn, and upside down buckets attached to strings that I would walk on (what are those called?) all around the house. There was a cabinet that had an endless supply of cheerios and a measuring chart for the grandchildren's heights. There was the screened porch and the tree with a wrap-around bench (so cool) and every winnie-the-pooh ever filmed. There was a banana-seat bicycle that I would ride down to the circle at the end of the street and bike around and around and around with my brother, Josh. There was a hide-a-key in a half rock that (at my tender age) I found so brilliant and stealth. I could go on for hours. But those are the things I remember most clearly about my grandma's old house. And while everything I mentioned is a physical object of some kind, they were placed there by my grandma with wisdom and care, intentionally at our disposal. And she was brilliant at it.

My most distinct memories of my grandma are the dinners she made me while I studied jewelry in college. Every Thursday I would drive to Warren, RI, and she would make me delicious eats. They were probably the only real meals I had while I was in school. She took care of me, which often meant taking care of my car so I was able to get to class (and to dinner on time), and looking back, I'm not entirely sure I would have made it through those years without her help.

She was a beautiful woman, inside and out. We will all miss her dearly.

Her loving character and artistic vision will carry on with those whose lives she has touched.

While home on Nantucket for a wedding last weekend, I decided to help Momma B out and clean my room. This meant a great deal of trash bags and take-it-or-leave-it bags (if you are from Nantucket you know what that means). But one thing I just couldn't get rid of is the Klutz bead book that started it all. I received this as a birthday present (I thought I was around six, but this book proves it was a few years later- although I was crafting way before that), and would spend my days pouring over its pages trying out new designs. I realized, looking through its water-stained, moldy instructions, that I tried each and every style they suggested. I have sisters who can vouch for that, as they still (to my embarrassment) wear, with pride, the little jewels I made 15 or 16 years ago. Here are some images I took:

When my friend made the trip down to NYC recently, she spent some time in her old hood, Brooklyn. There she visited her favorite shop, Catbird, and brought me back this little trinket! I am in love. I don't know why I did not think of this before, but I have decided to collect eggs. Now, wherever I go, I will always be on the lookout for them... I can't wait to see my collection grow!

PS Feel free to add to my collection. I love gifts.
Just saying...

I was searching for photographs of the real Ruthie B. when I stumbled upon this Nantucket blog, Nantucket Waterfront News. Martie does a great job of capturing the underlying island spirit, and I can't wait to follow it!

Here is a photo of the Ruthie B.

I intend to take photographs the next time my dad is in... you'll get more!

In lieu of my new nautical collection, I took the day off to venture out of the city for some r&r with my friend, Tuany. Here is an image of Singing Beach, where I easily spent half the afternoon chasing off seagulls and wondering- what happened to that bag of food that was just sitting here?

Aside from a little skin charring, the day was glorious, and we topped it off with some much needed frozen yogurt.

To help with a *ahem* future design, I had my dad dry out a fish skull and send it to me. I thought it was too cool to keep all to myself... Enjoy!

This weekend I had the opportunity to visit the Alexander McQueen retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. His haunting runways and eerily beautiful artwork has the most exquisite attention to detail I have ever seen. Please... do yourself a favor. See this exhibit.

Voss, 2001

It occurred to me that I have never revealed my thesis work from my college days. Here is what I worked on during my final year at Umass Dartmouth, where I explored the shapes of eggs and branches. My thesis was named "Waiting," the namesake of my current egg and branch line.

(Model is Jemesii)