Walker Goldsmiths

(Handcarved Hummingbird Bracelet by Owen Walker)

Hummingbirds are messengers between the spirit world and the physical world. When we see and hear these beautiful little creatures, we can feel joy in our souls and rejoice with them to the pure essence of life. These little masters of flight eat tiny bugs and flower nectar. What a sweet dinner they have. When we see Hummingbird, it reminds us to savor the sweetness in our own lives. We had the privilege of watching a hummingbird build a nest and raise three young ones just three feet from our studio window. Not only did we feel incredibly blessed to have her as part of our family, but we learned a great deal about hummingbird’s diet and life cycle.

(This Picture was taken of the hummingbird through our Studio window by our friend and excellent photographer, Sharon Eva Grainger)

One of the interesting aspects of watching this Hummingbird mother was her nest building techniques. It was early spring and we hadn’t washed the salt spray and spider nests from the window casings yet. This little female Hummingbird flew from window to window gathering these sticky spider nests and collected lichen from the fence posts and Alder trees. Then combining this all together created the most beautiful little nest the size of a 50 cent piece on the top of a branch in the Cedar tree right out side our Studio window. We were so amazed to watch her lay her 3 tiny little eggs and sit on them until they hatched 2 weeks later.

(Handcarved Little Hummingbird Bracelet by Owen Walker)

Another fun thing to watch was the baby’s escape from the nest. They don’t stand on the edge and flap their wings continually and build up strength and bravery as the young Eagles do. One day when they’re all too fat and big to fit in the nest they just get up on the edge and jump off! They flap like mad and almost touch the ground and bob up and down in altitude until they make it back up to the branches around the nest. They don’t really go back to the nest because at this point they don’t fit. Mom rushes around the gardens and trees collecting tiny bugs and nectar and feeding them all as fast as she can while they tweet madly about their hunger and traumatic experience!

(Handcarved Hummingbird Earrings by Owen Walker)

They hung around the garden for a few weeks getting bigger and stronger on nectar and bugs until they flew off to their destiny. We were so amazed to actually watch the process first hand and to see just how many bugs a tiny hummingbird will eat, especially mosquitoes and gnats. We saw them return the next year to the spot where we had a feeder hung that year of their birth. We hurried up and hung up the feeder, amazed at their memory, to keep them around in hopes of that nesting happening again but it never did. What a joy that was to experience!

(Little Hummingbird Earrings and Pendant)

Our Sterling Silver Northwest Box Ring was designed to symbolize floating Carved Bentwood Cedar Box full of dried Salmon or precious items swept into the river during a flood.

Northwest Indian Hand Carved CEDAR BOXES were originally created to store precious items. We all have different techniques to keep our precious supplies and food storage. The natives of the Northwest Coast have for centuries used hand carved cedar boxes; some are carved and painted with intricate family crests or designs of significance and some are painted or plain.

Decorated boxes were very important items, but no matter how intricate or decorated the box, it can never be as important as the supplies it contains – often food or family/clan regalia. The food storage would mean physical survival of course, but the regalia meant you were connected to people who loved you and whom you wanted in your life and defined who you are, thus emotional survival.

The Stonington Gallery in Seattle, WA had a show with the theme “Carved Boxes” and as metal smiths we came at it from that direction. My passion for Lost Wax Cast Sculptural Rings made my dreams of carved boxes just jump with ideas.

We had been experiencing a lot of rain living in the Great North Wet and flood is always a possibility. We live on an old village site on a peninsula and we have to cross the Nooksack River to get to our home and Studio. I had been reading about Universal Flood Myths when the Gallery invitation came so it just fell into place. The Old Spirits of the Northwest and the trials they lived through just came to mind and the Bentwood Box ring was birthed.

This beautiful carved bentwood box, maybe half full of dried Salmon, floating down the river, got away from the people in the flood that took out the village.
Now it could be the Nass River, or the Frazier, or the Skykomish at flood stage, bringing a big mess and taking the carefully wind dried precious lot of Salmon… Another name for this ring is Tschmous, meaning living snag, i.e. sunken log. We created this ring in response to a challenge to create a representation of a carved bentwood box… We imagined a village after a flood with a box of dried salmon floating downstream, waterlogged, with only one carved corner sticking up, floating by waiting to be found. Whoever can see and then catch it will be a hero to the people, physically and emotionally.

The Box Ring, # 307, is a substantial sculptural carving; 9mm high, 18mm wide, very 3-D, tapering to 5mm squared shank.
Hollowed underside and squared shank create a well-balanced, comfortable ring.
Available in sizes 6 to 15.

Hand-cast lost wax, Sterling Silver Bentwood Box ring by Janet Walker.

WOLVES are an enigmatic character on the North West Coast because there is not as great a body of Wolf stories as there are for Eagle and Raven. On Haida Gwaii, on the Northwest Coast, the Wolf was only known from hearsay as there were no wolves on those islands, but the Wolf was an important family crest of the Raven Clan.
There is another mythical character that this bracelet could represent and that is WASCO, the SEA WOLF, which is an Eagle family crest. The Wasco was a giant Seawolf that caught and ate whales usually depicted as a wolf with a dorsal fin. So if you are a Raven this is a wolf, or if you are an Eagle this is Wasco, either way it brings a fierce protective spirit to your wrist.

Owen has a never to be forgotten wonderful memory of the singing wolves from his youth in Alaska. A song that is indelibly printed on the soul and a sound like no other! Such spirit and loyalty as the Wolf is a good totem to wear and to surround one’s self. These little sterling creatures have a gorgeous tail to flash and whip about in a manner only a cheerful wolf could do. Wolves being the epitome of the wild spirit could also lend the wearer a bit of potential excitement to a day. Why not?!

We called this lovely little Wolf the Timber Wolf just to differentiate him from the other Wolf bracelets that we do. Every thing that lives on the North West Coast lives in the timber or in the water as there just isn’t any other place. When Owen lived in the far north he loved to sing with the wolves and to the wolves. When it gets real cold, -40 and lower, it gets so quiet you would think you could hear a dropped coin for miles, those are the nights the wolves would sing across the Matanuska and up the Knik valley. Owen loved to hike out in the river flats and would sing back and forth until his voice gave out or they decided he wasn’t that good of a singer and would stop.
These are Handcarved Wolf Earrings by Owen Walker.

This Alpha Wolf is laying curled up with his chin on his tail, but very much awake and watchful.

Wolves are labeled as friendly, social, and highly intelligent with a strong and loyal sense of family. Rituals are important to wolves, and those who have a Wolf Totem are also keen on traditions in their lives. Traditions can lovingly teach us the path to health, happiness and true freedom of spirit.

This is a big and sculptural ring, very 3 dimentional, 20mm high, 15mm wide tapering to a 6 mm wide squared shank. Hollowed underside and squared shank create a well-balanced, comfortable ring. Available in sizes 6 to 15.

These are cast Sterling Wolf earrings.