Kalaya Steede

Every now and then a little elf steps into the studio while I am working and starts asking these annoying questions.    What are you doing? Why are you wasting your time working on that? PRODUCTION WORK?!!! WTH?!!! He (yep the little bugger is a "he"), I shall name him Doubt, infects my mind from time to time.   This all happened last Friday while making some of my New Orleans'  Token pendants. So I reached down deep inside me to think about the "why".  I thought about it because I was running towards something else and resisting the moment. As I sat there at my bench working on this particular token pendant here is what came to me. New Orleans Token Pendant These particular tokens were minted in 1947 and 1970.  They differ only on what is said on the back (1947 - "One Base Fare" and 1970 - "One Cash Fare") .  The ones I use for my pendants are minted in 1947.   I do not clean them up.  Instead I examine them, hold them...

Hi everyone! I know it has been a long time. It's the new year and time for me to reflect and decide where my place is on this journey. I've decided to breathe and what a relief it has been. The studio is lukewarm but it's okay. No pressure on myself and just to move right along with the flow. I made some earrings for my friend's birthday. Stephanie is from here and hope she doesn't mind me saying, didn't learn to drive until she was 17 or 18. How in the world did she get around in this city? Well, she catched the bus of course! We have always talked about our future and how our kids (if we had any) will hang out with each other and we will grow old here in New Orleans but then Katrina hit and  she had to move away which broke my heart.  So I thought it was fitting to make her some of my token earrings. Simple with so much connection to the city and to me. Turquoise for protection... brass for healing... and  coconut ...