About Our Animal Totem Jewelry

Our art grows out of our deep appreciation for nature and its processes. Animals of the wild have worked their way into our lives through legend, myth and symbol, connecting us to our own primal instincts, reminding us of our mutual tie with the earth and our interdependence with other life forms.

Jim and I have spent many years honing our skills and mastering the techniques we use; we believe in maintaining the highest level of craftsmanship in our work and professionalism in our business.

Animal Totem Stories / Jewelry with Meaning

When people ask me what my jewelry means, I tell them the idea is very simple. Each piece of jewelry tells a story about an animal. Each story describes the animal’s place in its environment, or its place in the cosmology, or its meaning to us as humans. Each charm or image represents an element in that animal’s ecosystem, telling us a story about how it lives. For example, here’s a story about the fox necklace:

                carnelian-eyed fox hunts by moonlight   
                      creeping silently through forest
                         of vine maple, willow and alder.   
 
And a haiku about the coyote necklace:

                  out of the shadow
                            into the light 
                                     coyote was here  

Animal Totem Jewelry / What is Totem?

For millennia, we humans have identified with animal qualities: the survival of the wolf, the grace of the deer, the power of the eagle, the intelligence of the fox. Historically, we have used our communion with our “animal allies” to strengthen and improve ourselves, by emulating their positive qualities.

“Totem is hard to talk about, really an abstract concept to most modern people. The totem is the connection between the person and the spirit or essence of an animal. If everything in the world is composed of spirit, one can converse with everything in the world. There are still people in the world today who believe everything is animated by spirit, anima, that everything is sacred.”

Animal Totem Jewelry / Totemic Associations

Of course, your own experiences with animals will suggest totemic meanings unique to you. But these general totemic associations may be useful as you explore animal-inspired imagery.

Animal Totem Jewelry/ How do we make the jewelry?

See the Studio Tour section of this website for an in-depth tutorial about our jewelry-making processes.  It’s fully illustrated and entertaining!

A new design can take months or years to incubate. Craft is slow. Primitive technology is slow.

“We use an ancient method called lost wax casting with some fabrication around the cast piece,” explained Brooke in an internet interview at WestByNorthwest.org, Spring 2000. Jim describes lost wax casting as practiced 7000 years ago: “A wax carving was encased in clay, and this clay was baked until the encased wax flowed out through a hole in the bottom. The clay mold was then turned over and molten metal was poured down the same hole the lost wax ran out . It was then broken open to reveal the metal form within. This was a rough cast piece. Today we use different tools than the ancients, but the concept is the same.”

After the casting process is completed, the next part of the jewelry-making process comes into play; grinding, filing, sawing, shaping, polishing, soldering, stone cutting, stone setting, carving, stamping, the application of patina to metal, and final assembly.

Brooke cuts and polishes her own stones, and hand-carves organic materials such as bone, wood, horn, fossil tooth and ivory, and shell. She also uses Japanese alloys such as mokume-gane, shakudo and kum-bo.

“All of these many processes and materials contribute to the stories we tell about each animal.”

Animal Totem Jewelry / Product Information

Chains: The prices for pendants in the Art Gallery include chains. All chains are made of sterling silver. For our stock chains, we use soldered, factory-made chain which we assemble here at our shop and finish with sturdy lobster clasps. We offer 3 basic styles : Long & short link in a 20” length, a 1.6 mm. snake chain in a 20” length and a 2 mm. snake chain in a 24” length. We can customize the lengths for you, for a small charge.
We also offer heavier entirely-hand-made chain bracelets and necklaces, which Jim makes here at our shop. They are sold by the inch, and are beautifully finished. Bracelets come with sturdy lobster clasps, and the necklaces come with your choice of toggle closures or lobster clasps. See pictures in the Art Gallery!

Animal Totem Jewelry/ How We Got Started

Brooke Stone has been a professional craftsperson since 1975. She started making “wearable” fiber art at home and over a 15-year period, sold her wearable art creations nationally to craft galleries, at retail shows and did custom commissions. In 1987, she began metal-arts training in Eugene, and later taught continuing education classes in jewelry-making at Lane Community College.

Jim Clement left the timber industry behind to begin his metal-arts training in 1989 and later joined Brooke in the jewelry business.

Together they’ve built Brooke Stone Jewelry. The complete line of jewelry is made from start to finish by Brooke and Jim at their country home outside Eugene, Oregon.

Brooke and Jim have raised 4 children between them and countless chickens! When not working in their shop, they love hiking and canoeing in Oregon’s pristine wilderness areas. Jim enjoys “working on the land”; milling his own lumber for many continuing building projects, including renovating a couple of old barns. Brooke enjoys landscaping with native plants and is also a traditional rug-hooker. They have 3 grandchildren thus far and enjoy doing “crafts” with the grandkids.

Animal Totem Jewelry/ Where else can you see our work?

You can see our work by appointment here in Eugene at our shop! Just email or call for an appointment. 541-686-5487  We love visitors!

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