Rings flash when we move our hands and earrings sway as we move our heads. Both draw attention and become part, become extensions of our bodies. Wearing a brooch is a bit subtler, I think, and a bit more involved than feeling cool metal slipping over your finger, warming to your body. The mechanism of the pin back provides a process or a ritual. It provides the performance of specific actions required to attach a brooch to clothing, that clothing which is as much a part of the body and the self as skin. There is something grounding, solid, and satisfying about a brooch with a well-made pin back. It is the knowledge that, unless otherwise designed to do so, it will not move, but will nonetheless call attention in its own distinct way. With this in mind, I make my brooches, my small worlds, hoping they will be discovered through eyes, hands, and bodies other than my own.

Above is a short statement I wrote on brooches that I wanted to share. Honestly, until I was asked to submit to the pop-up version of #ThisIsABrooch, which is part of Adorned Spaces at this year's Society of North American Goldsmiths conference, I had not thought about why I make brooches. However, I was asked to write a statement answering that very question in 200 words as part of my submission. Well, I do love a writing challenge, especially when its focus is to draw out the answers to "why?" It's a good start, that little brooch blurb, and I'm sure I will have more thoughts on it in the future.

As for the present, my thoughts are with the metalsmiths and brooch lovers at the SNAG conference in Boston, especially my UMass alumnae and friends who have put a lot of planning into the conference. I wish I could be there to see you all, but this weekend is also the start of a summer filled with the wedding celebrations of three lovely ladies! First up, a bridal shower for my little sister!

KLE