Earth Smoke Bone Song: the inspiring work of Jade Moon

I am very excited to share with you the inspiring work of (and person that is) Jade Moon.

Jade is one of those women I have always admired; not only for her incredible talent and spirituality, but for her kindness and honesty too. We met about 8 years ago through mutual friends and although we don’t see each other all that often, whenever we do, conversation and caring flows freely between us.

Jade makes Jewellery (among other things). However, I never feel that accurately describes her pieces. They are magical talismans, carefully put together in her gorgeous studio. Imbued with particular attributes fit for their purpose; symbolized in bones, beads, pressings from places of spiritual significance, shells etc. She makes commission pieces which can be for a particular spirit, animal guide, experience, deity, story, journey… honestly, the list goes on and on. She also creates incredibly unique pieces whispered to her from her muse. It really is so hard to describe in a few words.

When we first met, although she was already making pieces and sharing them, she hadn’t made the leap into doing it full time. I asked her how she made that jump:

When I had my son, time became much more limited and you have to become more focused. It also became more and more important to me to make things that mattered, not make things that were going to be thrown away, that were fashions or fads, so I started by making things that I liked, things that I wanted, things that I thought would matter instead of thinking about what would sell. And, in order for me to also get into my creative process; I needed to have a way of coming out of mummy mode and into creative mode. Sitting at my altar and drumming and singing became that method to welcome the muse in because I only had the time that I had I couldn’t wait for the muse to hit me. Through that process of drumming and singing, it influenced the way that I worked and made more of the magical side of me come into what I was doing; and, obviously changing the materials, making sure that I was really using things that were earth friendly really made a difference.

The process through which Jade works feels very shamanic to me; each piece undergoes its own journey, as she puts together the different bits and pieces she will focus on what its intention is. Sometimes she activates them (more on activating to come) when they are complete

At times I smudge pieces to clear them. My perception on people, especially when people request a piece, is that everyone deep down knows their own path. People don’t need guiding so a lot of the time a piece goes from here clear. It has all of the things that I’ve imbued it with through the work, and the thoughts, and the symbology but really they activate them. I’m thinking of a particular piece that someone had and she wrote me a poem; she’d taken it, built a fire, smudged and then she wrote me a little poem about the experience of doing that. I’m just trusting people to activate it themselves.
Other times I do things, for example, when I make a bear totem Piece, I put it in the bowl with the cave bear bones. This is what Carolyn Hillyer calls ‘seeding magic’. Where the spirit of the bones also goes into the piece so its a way of activating bones. Whenever bones come into my studio they are always put into a special bowl or basket and left to be at peace and then I might drum or sing to the bones to call the element of the spirit back in. So that they are reactivated so to speak.

A sculpture of the Goddess Jade made herself she calls her ‘MA’

when we discussed labels we are comfortable with, she explained how the words she uses to describe herself are often words others have used like, shamanic which I think is very apt and my favourite: ‘creatrix’ which is just a bloody brilliant word! One label she does identify with is ‘goddess worshiper’. We talked of ‘witch’ too, and how it’s a good word when describing to others what we do. To me, she feels gentle and patient as well as powerful, I imagine her to be formidable as fuck when needed to be but always with great understanding and compassion. This may be a characteristic she has gained from her work telling stories and reading folk tales, which if you ever get a chance to listen to, are delightfully spellbinding (ha! Pun)

Jade also hinted at some very exciting workshop plans for the future where people could be involved in listening to a story, focusing their inspiration and making their own piece to take home.

You can subscribe to listen to our conversation below. It is unedited as I like the transparency therefore-Please excuse my sniffles. Living in the countryside when you have hayfever has its downsides.

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