Welcome.
For a long time I have worked at a jeweler’s bench. I still work at a jeweler’s bench.
Many seasons with a torch in my hand have taught me so much about the human condition, the creative process, and the centering practice of making things. And, through the years, I have deepened my understanding of jewelry as an intimate art form. Often it serves as a prompt for devotion, legacy, accomplishment, belonging, remembrance, or threshold.
So, in a very real way, my work at the bench has never been about the jewelry itself.
It is about becoming. It is about process.
It is about the lived narratives of the remarkable humans who choose to wear jewelry I have created on their bodies as they move through their lives.
In recent years I have begun dwelling more intentionally in those spaces of becoming with people, whether I create jewelry for them or not.
Gold & Soul is a place for me to share insights from a lifetime of studying both outer craft and inner formation. As a goldsmith, artist, spiritual companion, and lifelong student of transformation, I write here as an alchemist, one who is deeply interested in what changes, what endures, and what emerges from the fire.
My intention is to share stories from the bench and from the inner life. Together, we might explore questions such as:
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How do we become who we are?
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What survives the fire?
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How do I learn to trust my intuition?
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How do we hold both joy and sorrow at the same time?
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What does it mean to live a life of depth when doing so seems countercultural?
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What is God and how do I find Her?
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Why am I afraid to die?
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How do creativity, spirituality, and embodiment shape one another?
Gold & Soul will be a slow vessel. A crucible in its own right. A place to explore honestly without performance or judgment. It's not my first time blogging, and I’m not committing to a publishing calendar or promising any tiered rewards. I will write slowly as the lines ripen for me. Everything I write will live primarily here on my site, and will also be offered freely to all over on Substack. I am profoundly grateful for the patrons and benefactors there whose gifts allow me more space to tend the fires of mystery.
My hope is that my offerings via Gold & Soul will nourish, inspire, and challenge readers to check underneath their lived experience.
Thank you for being here at the beginning.
— Ginger