Smoky Soup Designs: Abandoned Beauty

I have always loved abandoned places. Fascinated by their history and ghostly echoes, I adore them with a passion. To this day, I don't know what it is about dilapidated, forgotten structures that draws me to them. Rusty warehouses with broken square-pane windows and soaring ceilings, crumbling Edwardian stone mansions that once served as hospitals for diseases that no longer have a face in today's world, the sagging boards of a solitary barn-- overgrown with weeds and the occasional rogue tree waving from the window. I love to explore these places, visit them like old friends. They inspire me with their broken beauty, their peeling paint and once ornate tiled floors that are now cracked by the young shoots of trees.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about these forgotten worlds and my jewelry reflects that. You can see a melding of nature and industry in my new botanical pieces: the delicate features of wheat formed from metal, pressed flowers between panes of frosty glass.

Firefly Marsh Necklace

Firefly Marsh Assemblage Necklace

Winter's First Breath Necklace

Winter Wheat Earrings

Winter Wheat Set

In the coming days, I will be posting more of my latest creations in the shop and here. I wanted to start this "collection" off with this preface; to explain where I draw my inspiration from. Below are some images that I found of hauntingly beautiful abandoned places. I hope that you can feel their magic too.