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Laura Niblack ↟ Metalsmith

@thewildpine

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🌲 Maine Metalsmith✨Vibrant Handcrafted Jewelry
💎 New Jewelry: Early October
🏕️ Hiker, Skier, Forager 🏔️ NE 67/67
🎣 Married to @newenglandflyco

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Every day is a gift. I always reflect on birthdays of the past and of those no longer here, and try keep their memory alive in some small way (which is why I chose this song). It was my birthday yesterday and I had a wonderful 3 day weekend of celebrations doing some of my favorite things: antiquing, treasure hunting, watching horror and fantasy movies, going to some fave and new shops, and admiring the beautiful leaves! It was wonderful! My husband made me the best dinner and I got to spend quality time with my daughter and shopped with my sister and mom. I received wonderful and thoughtful gifts and got a hug from my nephew! And don’t mind me, I really loved my outfits and jewels! 😍🤣 Outfit clips were inspired by @dreamboat_courtney 😘
Excited to have joint birthday celebrations with my best friend Sarah at the Night Faire in Salem this Friday!
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Necklaces, earrings and most rings are by @soliloquyjewelry with the exception of the
Amber and garnet ring by @thewildpine
Purple hex cab ring by @hypnovamp.jewelry
Cat Sith wax seal ring by me

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#bookwyrm #booksbooksbooks #booksaremagic #autumn #bookdragon #bookwyrm #octoberbaby #libraseason #bookstore #thrift #antiquing #whimsigoth #hobbit #practicalmagic #cursedpage #witchy #fleetwoodmac

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Some places are worth carrying a dress in your backpack for 🤍

Assynt felt wild and almost prehistoric. Dark rock, gorgeous streams and lakes around every corner, and a landscape that made me want to photograph it differently.

Getting down to this waterfall meant mud, wet rocks, spray everywhere and freezing air at the bottom, but I had this photo in my head and was determined to make it happen.

Assynt has some of the oldest geology in Europe. Parts of the landscape are made from rock around 3 billion years old, with the strange isolated mountains shaped over millions of years by erosion and ice. It’s one of the reasons this whole area looks so different from the rest of Scotland.

One of the best things about Assynt is that it still feels much quieter than places like Skye or Glencoe. You can drive for ages through huge landscapes, stop almost anywhere, and actually have moments where it feels like no one else is around.

📍Location:
• Wailing Widow Falls, also known as Allt Chrànaidh Waterfall
• a roughly 30 m waterfall dropping from Loch na Gainmhich into the gorge below
• the short loop is about 1.7 km / 30–60 min
• easy to reach from the A894, but the trail itself is rough, muddy and very slippery when wet
• dog-friendly but your dog must be comfortable walking on slippery and, at times, steep rocks

And yes, you can absolutely hike down in the dress 😂

The actual essentials were my @merrellcanada waterproof boots for the mud and slippery rocks, and my @cotopaxi_canada light but warm layer because it was absolutely freezing once we got near the waterfall.

For trips like this, I always pack gear that can handle pretty much any weather or trail conditions. Pieces I can rely on, wear over and over, and know will actually perform when things get wet, cold or messy.

Pretty dress for the photos, Merrell + Cotopaxi for everything else #gifted #hikinggear #merrellcanadaambassador

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🎟️✨ FEELING LUCKY?! ✨🎟️

We’re bringing the luck to our Wonder Event raffle! Your ticket could win you an incredible prize package featuring some of our amazing local business supporters:

☕️ Gift certificates to Wild Clover Café & Market
🧘‍♀️ A 5-class pack at Soul Revival
💐 A beautiful floral arrangement from The Robin’s Nest
💍 A piece of jewelry from The Wild Pine
🏨 A midweek 2-night stay + soak at Newcastle Inn & Waterstruck Wellness

Talk about a lucky night! 🍀💜

Join us for Wonder Event on October 9th from 7–9 PM at Colby College, celebrate with us, and grab your chance to win these incredible prizes!

🎟️ Get your tickets today using the link in our bio!

A HUGE thank you to these wonderful local businesses for supporting Hardy Girls and helping us make this event possible. 💜

#HardyGirls #WonderEvent #CauseARuckus #MaineEvents #Colbycollege

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ENC0RE: 0PALITE CELESTIAL STUDS & 0PAL EARRINGS ✨

I was going to wait until the anniversary of @taylorswift’s album, The Life of a Showgirl, to release a reprise of opal earrings. HOWEVER, we were treated to 4 new songs yesterday, so I put the pedal to the metal & SET 0VER 50 ST0NES IN CELEBRATI0N!!

The initial album dropped when Maeve was only a week old. New music felt like such a gift as I embarked upon postpartum. Its release happed to coincide with our 1st rough night: intense cluster feeding, no sleep & breastfeeding struggles. It was brutal. In the thick of it, we listened to the new songs one by one.

When “Opalite” came on, the upbeat tune brought levity. Then the lyrics resonated TO MY CORE:

But my Mama told me It’s alright
You were dancing through the lightning strikes
Sleepless in the onyx night
But now the sky is OPALITE
Oh oh oh oh, oh my Lord
Never made no one like you before
You had to make your own sunshine
But now the sky is OPALITE

Dancing with our daughter to a song about perseverance through sleepless nights & choosing to create our own happiness was DAZZLING.

Opalite is a man-made stone. It is stunningly sparkly, & compositionally similar to its real counterpart. While the gems are alike, Opalite is remarkably striking, albeit “fake.” Shimmering & beautiful.

As both a metalsmith and new mother, this metaphor captivated me. Inspiration struck.

I crafted limited edition Opalite Celestial Studs to celebrate choosing to EMBRACE JOY in the midst of hardship. Because sometimes, in order to survive, you have to fake it ‘til you make it. When the darkness seems all encompassing, harness l all of your grit to manufacture your own happiness. You’ll make it through.

✨N0W IN THE SH0P!!✨

**Opal studs are ready to ship & Celestial Studs are made-to-order & ship within 1-2 weeks.

The perfect adornment as you enjoy ENC0RE!

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Girls just wanna have a fun and feral folklord fall (and for the billionaires to stop torching our planet 🫶🏻)

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Content note: This episode discusses bipolar disorder, postpartum psychosis, psychiatric hospitalization, hallucinations, and the loss of a parent. Please take care while listening.

The final episode of Season One of The Reinvention Project: From Rupture to Becoming is here.

Laura Niblack: A New Pine

Laura Niblack is a metalsmith, outdoor adventurer, mother, and the artist behind The Wild Pine.

One month before giving birth to her daughter, Maeve, Laura lost her mother. Two months into motherhood, she experienced postpartum psychosis—a terrifying mental health crisis that left her hospitalized and, afterward, struggling to regain abilities most of us never have to think about.

In this conversation, Laura speaks so openly about losing her grip on reality, the complicated intersection of bipolar disorder and motherhood, ending breastfeeding in order to heal, and the family and friends who stepped in when she and her husband could no longer do it alone.

We also talk about art.

Around Laura’s neck throughout our conversation is a tiny silver conelet. I noticed that ,when our conversation became difficult, Laura would reach for it and turn it between her fingers. Her body seemed to settle.

That small object carries so much of her story: her mother, her daughter, The Wild Pine, her illness, her art, and the self she feared she had lost.

At one point, Laura describes finally returning to her metalsmithing bench after psychosis and realizing through the familiar movements of her hands:

“I’m still myself. I’m still in there.”

Thank you to Laura for trusting me with her story, and thank you to every person who has listened, shared an episode, reached out, or spent time with these conversations over the course of Season One. I am enormously grateful.

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Snippets of our summer: It’s been an absolutely beautiful season here in Maine. The past two months have been simultaneously wonderful, delightful, difficult and poignant.

Watching Maeve experience SO MANY FIRSTS has given us indescribable joy. She’s crawling! Doggies are her passion! Swimming is life!

July was hard, as we laid my Mom to rest. We gathered as a family in her favorite place on earth & scattered her ashes. It brought up a lot of grief and gratitude at the same time. It was why I chose to take a few weeks off, to focus on time with family and healing. And we’re doing so well!

Isaac’s fly fishing guiding business, @newenglandflyco is flourishing. Thank you for cheering us on in this endeavor! He caught Maeve her first brook trout and she LOVED seeing up close and watching it swim away. It was AMAZING.

I’m am happy to be back in this space! I have SO MANY exciting announcements, plans and jewelry in the works. It’s so hard to be patient! I can’t wait to reveal ‘em all to you!

Thanks for being here. Thrilled to catch up.
What have been some of your summer highlights?

(Huge shoutout to @photocait for capturing this miraculous portrait of all of our creatures happily looking at the camera…as folks with dogs and children, you know this isn’t a small feat! 😆)

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Snippets of our August adventures 🫶🏻

Trail running
A new duck friend
Tippy smiles
Lots of time on/at the river
Tiny lizards
Family float trip
Freshly hatched baby quail
Yummy post-run treats

So much more happened this month but IG says 20 photos is the limit 😂

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My Maine squeeze 🫐

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The reality of solo travel with a tripod and a dog is that it takes so much more time. Not only do you need to carry all the gear up the mountain, but you also get hundreds of bloopers for every good shot 🤭
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Here is my Solo Photo Formula 📸

Base:
1 camera + 10s timer
1 tripod balanced on loose rock
1 husky doing her own thing and bored of waiting for you
100+ hikers passing through your shot

Steps:
Wait 20 minutes for a clear break in the crowd.
Hit timer & sprint 20 yards across gravel.
Bribe dog to look at the lens.
Pray no one walked into the frame.
Repeat 50 times.

Result:
… Astrid is not even looking at the camera 😤

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Drop your worst self-timer blooper below so I know I’m not the only one doing trail sprints out here ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Psst… running back and forth to the tripod is so much more comfortable in @merrellcanada hiking boots 👀 #merrellcanadaambassador

Authentic Travel | Dolomites Hiking | Solo Travel with a Dog | Solo Female Travel

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Photo dump of a glorious day in the Missouri Ozarks 🫶🏻

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Laura from @thewildpine changed my life with this tip 🤯

If you have a scrap of gold sheet and you’re looking to cut out a bunch of backplates, try this! Swipe >>

Use rubber cement to attach a piece of paper directly onto your sheet. If your sheet has already been cut from like mine, use an exacto knife around the wonky edges!

Then place your stones on top and trace around each one. @thewildpine and I are a dynamic duo and while discussing this tip I tried museum-putty to hold the stones in place for tracing 👯‍♀️ she is planning to add that to her routine!

The paper gives you a nice, clear outline that won’t smudge or rub off the way Sharpie can on metal.

Such a simple idea, but SO helpful when you’re trying to make the most of both your gold and your time 🙌

Thank you Laura for sharing this one! 💛 BONUS TIP Laura inspires and encourages me to do batch work. I am so much more efficient with my time this way!!

#MetalsmithSociety #JewelryMakingTips #Metalsmithing #JewelryMaking #BenchJeweler

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