I Became a Jeweler Because of Brad Pitt
This is my confession. It sounds a bit nutty and juvenile; however, it’s my reality. I became a jeweler because of Brad Pitt’s character in the film Legends of the Fall.Â
Legends of the Fall came out in 1994. I was 16. The advertisements were poetic and suspenseful. It stars: Sir Anthony Hopkins, as the colonel turned mountain man in Montana. Henry Thomas- Samuel, the virginal younger brother. Adain Quinn- Alfred, the older brother who is out to prove himself to his family and love. Julia Ormand- Susanna, the fragile woman in the tale. And Brad Pitt, the prodigal son with the roar of the bear inside his soul. Legends of the Fall is a beautifully shot film with a story of love. How love can creates lives as well as destroy them.Â
Let us cut to the chase.
 There’s a scene when Tristan returns after years of travels through the world. While he was gone, he sent gifts from his travels to his family. Susanna has been pining for Tristan’s smoldering little boy lost heart since the moment she laid eyes on him. She is now loveless, married to Alfred who is a popular congressman. She still wears the bracelet that Tristan sent to her from a far off land.Â
Tristan comes to see her. She’s like “oh Snap. He’s Back!” You can see in her eyes that everyone knows that she married Alfred because of default. They stand in the garden surrounded by white roses. Susanna tries to give back the bracelet. Tristan refuses.Â
“They told me that this was magic” Tristan explains. “I was told that whoever wore it would be protected.” He cupped it back in her trembling hand. His long blond hair blowing in the wind.Â
Those piercing blue eyes welling with tears.Â
That bad ass scare below his left eye.Â
He was wearing a suit. A suit? Yes, a fit suit of navy or black.
My girlfriends and I sat in the balcony of the Uptown in Washington, DC on a rainy afternoon swooning. We ATE THAT $hit up!Â
At that very moment I thought of how romantic for a man who is as feral as the wild horses that he rode in on would stop to purchase a handmade bracelet for the woman who wanted to birth his golden offspring. This handcrafted bracelet of metal was most likely made in a hut somewhere  by the resident eccentric the wandering Tristan encountered one day.
The eccentric metalsmith has a tapestry and a week’s worth of metalsmith jewels to sell lain out at a bazaar. The artist is versed in healing properties of metal and crystals. Her jewelry is made with passion and intention. They are magical. Tristan trades the elephant’s ivory that he just hunted in the African savannah for a golden hinged bracelet, rustic and divine. It doesn’t address any trends in fashion. It is timeless.
 My days consisted of wearing a uniform to school and a uniform for work. I wanted to be that artist that created that little magic. Something that speaks of individuality amongst the crowds of black and white.  A piece that is so lovely, a Montana mountain man had to purchase and send to those far away because he could not articulate on paper (or in this age, email or text or phonecall) how much he misses homegirl that he left behind. I’m sorry I’m not holding you, baby. I love you, baby.
Whenever I make a bracelet and it finds a home, I always wish peace, happiness and health. I feel like all my pieces are magical. I fire my own glass focals (scrap fused glass that I purchased from Blue Heron Glass art studio. Remnants of projects they have completed). I strip curbside leather armchairs to make leather bands for bracelets. I cut and craft brass as my father once did as a steel pan maker. It’s like making a potion in a caldron over a flame.
Each piece is blessed with hope and possibility of quenching ones need for that one perfect piece. Just like the one that Tristan bought for Susanna. Thankfully I have a husband that is incredibly supportive of my artistic endeavors so that I can provide my own fairy dust into the world. It is my compulsion to be like if Rip Taylor and Tinker Bell had a baby.
So, there’s the skinny on why I became a jeweler. I have never shared this before for fear that people would think I was weirder than I claimed to be. I’m an overly romantic Pisces who found her calling at 16 in an Oscar winning Brad Pitt movie.Â
Don’t hate.
I wish you peace, light and health.
