The Mystical Jewelry of Loren Locke

The world is full of sober people, doing amazing things! Today our spotlight is on Loren Locke, a jeweler and silversmith based in Washington State. As the sole proprietor of Blackulna, she takes gorgeous gemstones and crystals, sets them in silver, and turns them into stunning pendants and rings!

NSH: Hi Loren! Please introduce yourself to our readers! What can we know about you? 

Loren: Hello! Im Loren, I am a 27 year old silversmith & small business owner. I have spent much of my adult life traveling and moving around, collecting new experiences wherever I can find them. I recently moved to Washington state where I plan to settle in and grow my business.

I have many hobbies apart from jewelry making, including such things as taxidermy work, processing/cleaning roadkill, exploring in nature, drawing, playing table tennis, Magic the Gathering, photography & so much more! I love animals and draw a lot of inspiration from their grace and beauty. Anyone who knows me also knows that I’m completely obsessed with whales & everything about them! I am also a happily sober person and have been since 05/31/16!

NSH: How did you get into jewelry making?

Loren: I have always been a very crafty person. Using my hands to make tangible things has always been a very rewarding & cathartic process for me. I always made jewelry for fun for my friends growing up but I started really getting into jewelry making about four years ago when I wanted to adorn myself in beautiful creations but could not afford to buy them. I started my own jewelry business in 2016. Shortly after that I took my first silversmithing class and absolutely fell in love! I then started the very expensive process of collecting all the tools needed to make silver jewelry from home and the rest is history! I have grown a lot as a jeweler since then and there is still so much more to learn!

NSH: Blackulna is such a cool name!! I’ve noticed that your motif includes a lot of references to bones and skeletons.

Loren: Thank you! As with any business, it can be hard to choose a name. I still have many folks who are confused about the name or get it mixed up. “Ulna” refers to one of two bones in the forearm, and it’s just a very beautiful word.

I feature a lot of bones and natural items in my work. I am deeply inspired by nature and the innate process of leaving our bodily flesh forms behind and naturally decomposing into the earth. It may sound morbid to some, but I became interested in this process about 5 years ago while hitchhiking across the country where I would come across roadkill and clean it to use animal bones in the jewelry I was making. The weird hobby of cleaning roadkill blossomed into a full time job when I reached out to a taxidermist and asked for work. I did taxidermy in that shop for a year and learned just about everything there is to know about taxidermy, and it is truly an amazing skill and art form to have on my resume. Since my time in that shop I have taken a break from taxidermy to focus my energy on jewelry craft & my online business, though I still pick up roadkill whenever I can and use it in my work!

NSH: For those of us who are completely unfamiliar with the process, can you walk us through how you turn stones and silver into such beautiful works of art?

Loren: It can be difficult to explain the soldering process, but to simplify it, I would say that every piece I make starts as a sheet of sterling silver or piece of wire. I bend and manipulate silver with hammers, pliers, files, hand saws, etc. & use a torch to heat the metal with solder to fuse pieces together. With many details and small steps in between, I then come to the finishing process where I buff and polish my silver piece and add the stone to its setting and bend the metal around  the stone to hold it in place. A beautiful stone can enhance a piece of jewelry in an incredible way. I often source the stones I use from other amazing small business owners and I have become quite a rock hound since discovering silversmithing. In the future I hope to further explore lapidary work & one day cut my own stones!

NSH: What has sobriety been like for you? Do you feel that being sober has influenced the way you create?

Loren: Sobriety has been incredible! I often attribute the success of my business and creativity to sobriety, since my dreams all started becoming a reality around the time I decided to get sober. As a generally pretty shy and introverted person who has struggled heavily with anxiety/depression, I am amazed with the confidence I have gained & the overall change in my mental health since becoming sober.

I discovered the 12 step program about a year (a very long year) after I got sober and it has turned into an amazing resource that I am so grateful for! Working the program has further enhanced my confidence and ability to process life events, work on my emotional growth & experience a happy, fulfilling life that I am proud of, all while having a wonderful community of supportive folks who truly understand the complex dynamics of alcoholism. With my sober anniversary approaching I am so grateful every day that this is the life that I get to experience and I am beyond excited to continue down this path and see what the future has in store.

NSH: Do you have any parting words for our readers?

Loren: I guess my parting words would be that if you are someone who is struggling to find the confidence to do what you love and/or put yourself/your work out there in the world or just simply struggling with the everyday flow of life, just know that there are people out there that care for & support you, weather it be your sober community, an artist community, friends, or people you still have yet to meet, you are supported. This has been something that I was only able to realize through the journey of sobriety and the process of putting myself out there through all the discomfort. Thank you so much for this opportunity!

You can follow Loren and Blackulna on Facebook, Instagram, and Etsy!!