who cried a river and learned to make earrings! earrings that are hand done (you’ll likely see fingerprints) and each one unique and deeply loved just like u hunni!

welcome to the part of my website that reads like a 2009 blogpost*

late 2019 and 2020 came with a surprise mental breakdown (menty b as my friend angelina calls it lollll), loaded up after many years in stressful jobs on construction sites and in offices (someone’s gotta warn people about engineering school), healing from losses and reproductive system surgeries, and probably like a pandemic or smth.

my ex-partner and i ended our relationship 2 hours before shelter in place was declared in SF, lived as roommates for a few months (bless him - he is one of the only people that i could do that with), and i moved back in with my parents after fire season/SF rents finally did me in with west coast living.

i continued experiencing panic attacks and depression and rage and confusion and reality distortion to a level i had never understood before (finally can really, actually emphathize with my loved ones who dance with the relationship with anxiety andor depression long term) and the woods of massachusetts with trickling streams and waterfalls seemed like the place to move through this dismembering and re-membering process (S/O to Kelley Harrell for the language and the processing tools).

i couldn’t hold a full time job anymore, and went down to 5-10 hours a week (bless my former work place). my momma taught me the ways of the woods and how to sew and my dad taught be how to collect and boil maple syrup (bless her and him the most) and they taught me how to actually keep a woodstove fire aflame.

since then, it’s been working two jobs - a thrift store and at trader joe’s - in worcester, MA. it’s been spending sweet time with old and new friends (thank u caroline and em for making MA days so hilarious and nourishing). it’s also been reconnecting with my college RA, hours of video calls across the ocean, and him moving in with me (thank u mugo for a glorious past few years and the road to come). road trip including gut-busting laughter with more dear friends. then another trader joe’s post in austin, texas where i got to spend the summer with my sis (bless her the most 2) and long time friends. and it’s been another job in philly (think mckinsey but for microplastics and energy/biosolids recovery recommendations for wastewater treatment equipment manufacturers). and it’s been finding my balance, finding my community, and finding what home feels like here.

through all of this, the only constants keeping me tethered to this earth were friends/family, community work, and magick (the practice of escaping into life and committing to redirecting toward the feelings i want to experience, informed by water, fire, and ancient languages + divination of my ancestral lineages). and the most colorful - learning how to make earrings.

i am delighted to the bone to share the wet butter house project with you - the spinning of my pain, joy, and messy life experiences of these past years into wearable art, a form of beauty i can offer to this sacred and profane earth.

these face ornaments are my offering, so that we have one new way on this earth to celebrate and decorate and adorn this human body (I prefer meat suit, bone house, or skin bag of bugs and muscle - what’s ur fav??) we get to experience

*actually you can read real old blogposts of mine…evafjohnson.wixsite.com/colorfull - tbh not for the faint of heart and don’t read the march152021 one if ur family hah).

O YA the wet butter part

wet for water, butter for my favorite food.

my dad’s a water engineer (and i followed), my family grew up chasing waterfalls, and my happiest moments have been in streams and hot springs. i could spin into a whole thing about structured water H3O2 and free energy and cerebospinal fluid (look it up!! thanks jared for being my one friend i can speak to for hours about this). warm water with lemon and a crack of celtic sea salt is my fav drink and it seems real to me that water has a memory of All Things.

butter for the first food i ever ate on my own (climbed up the counter to break into the fridge) and i have been dousing my meals in melty buttery goodness ever since.

also wet butter is kinda a horrifying gross concept but equally silly and zany. makes no sense. kinda like the life each of us are experiencing through these two (or more or less) eyeballs.

thanks for reading (or skipping 2 the end ;P),

thanks for your caring/funny/zany/gentle spirits,

all my love,

eva / aiofe / the hands behind ur earrings