First, just in case you didn’t hear me screaming it on every rooftop yet… the shop is open again! And I am here today to present you with the first new collection of jewelry and wooden decor that I have listed there, named Wood & Antlers.

I love creating collections. Working with a Main Theme, being inspired by a particular animal or landscape or weather, figuring out how to make different ideas work together and create a feeling of wholeness… There’s just something about it that gets my fire burning and my mind racing with thoughts and images.

So it’s no wonder at all that with all the time I had on hand last year, I felt the drive to imagine and create an entire collection that would celebrate the shop’s long-awaited reopening when the time came. That’s when Wood & Antlers Collection comes into the picture. But let’s rewind a little bit, and talk about the inspiration behind it.

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As you can see, there’s a common element to every piece I made for this collection, and it almost feels like the Stag Spirit watched over this Creative Project the entire time.

In my own Spiritual Path, I work with animal energy all the time. It’s a huge part of how I connect to the Land, be it through a symbolic representation or a real-life encounter outside. Here in the Pacific Northwest, deers are everywhere, often living on the edge of the cities and suburbs, visiting parks and gardens at dawn and dusk.

I regularly come face to face with them during my walks or at least spot some hoof prints in the mud or snow. They’re ever-present in some way or another, to the point that I now have pictures, amulets, and representations of deers and elks pretty much everywhere in my apartment.

But I have to talk about one in particular who crossed my path last summer. A graceful and gentle doe visiting the forested yard of the Airbnb my partner rented for my birthday last year. A cabin in the woods really, that made for a relaxing and enchanting weekend away from the craziness of 2020. I enjoyed it so, so much. A much-needed breath of air.

But anyways, the doe had decided to have breakfast in the midst of the sword ferns behind the cabin, and I watched her and her cute little fawn, sipping my morning coffee in silence on the wooden deck. After a while, the fawn hid in the brush to rest, but the doe stayed. She stayed all day, in fact, sitting in my company and that of the Great Cedars.

Our eyes met on the day I turned 33, and the depth of hers had so much to say.

It’s the kind of experience that you can’t really describe to people, you know. First, because there aren’t any words for that, but also because it doesn’t look like much, at least from an external perspective. I mean, it’s just a random doe in a backyard, right? But the inner experience mixed with the outer context of that particular moment had much significance to me, and still resonate to this day.

Plus I’m a passionate advocate for the everyday experience, and finding meaning in the simplest things. Infinite Beauty in the markings of a leaf and the course of the clouds. So there’s that.

The doe spoke to me of Personal Sovereignty, of inner strength and potency.

And to an extent, these are concepts and ideas that I tend to symbolically associate with deer and elks, antlered stags of all kinds. I’ve always seen these majestic creatures as Forest Kings, and if there ever were a form to be given to a woodland Genius Loci, in my mind it would definitely take the shape of a Crowned Stag. A wise and Ancient Spirit watching over the land and its inhabitants.

So there you have it. Wood & Antlers. With the birth of this particular collection, I take back my seat as a ruler of my own world, making my voice heard through sharing what my imagination has inspired me to create. I hope with all my heart that you enjoy it, and that it inspires you to find and release your very own Inner Sovereign.