GILDED BIRDS

Brix Smith Start, singer, guitarist, designer, stylist, co-founder of Start boutiques and television presenter on her piece of labradorite rock.

GB Tell me why you chose this.

BSS I have a very deep connection to stones, crystal, rocks, minerals, things from the earth. I can hold them and feel the energy contained within them. I feel this in terms of what’s almost a vibrational frequency and even without looking at different rocks I can feel the difference in the vibration that they emit. For instance, rose quartz is a very light tingling feeling, so light it’s frothy. Other things like black tourmaline are denser. In fact black tourmaline feels to me as though it’s pulling the energy into it rather than emitting it.

GB Tell me why you’ve chosen this particular stone as your favourite.

BSS My absolute favourite stone is called labradorite and each one is completely different, as stones are, but the reason this is the most beautiful stone that I have ever set my eyes on is the rumour that labradorite is formed beneath the northern lights, so each piece contains the colours of the northern lights. There’s a luminosity coming from the stone and every single way you turn it you see a different colour, a depth of colour, a marbleisation of everything from gold to black navy – and it shines. You can never see the same thing twice in each stone. You look twice and can’t find the spot you saw before. It’s the like the deepest, goldest, greenest abalone on steroids. It’s almost pearlised, it’s alive. So I keep three pieces of it next to my bed including one particularly large stone. Labradorite is also rumoured to be an amazing stone for healing and it’s also a stone for travelling, so if you do meditation and any kind of astral projection or travelling through different dimensions, it’s a great one to have with you. I’m not sure why that is but I think it’s because it really connects the earth to the cosmos. The northern lights are totally magical, like a vision into outer space and that’s reflected back into these stones.

Of course there’s a photograph of it here but you can’t capture the beauty in a photograph. You have to behold it, feel it and move it around under every different permutation of light from halogen light to sunlight. It’s like the sea, it’s constantly changing.

GB So on the one hand it’s naturally beautiful to you, but it also has a supernatural element to it.

BSS Exactly, It’s supernatural and natural and it’s magic. You look at it and cannot believe it was created on this earth.

GB Do you usually associate beauty with something supernatural?

BSS When I see things that are beautiful, in particular natural beauty like the Caribbean, looking at the turquoise blue, the plants and the atmosphere, I want to weep as my eyes drink in the natural beauty of the earth. That’s real beauty. I’ve also had dreams and visions where I’ve seen things that are so beautiful I’ve wept. They’ve always had incredible colours. Colour truly is vibration, through particles vibrating at different frequencies, so I think that very sensitive people can tune into that and literally feel the beauty that they’re seeing with their eyes. It’s that connection between the visual, the mental and the feeling body that understands beauty in all its depth. If you just see beauty with your eyes, you’re relatively unmoved. You need to feel it at the same time. That’s when it becomes so overwhelming that you weep with joy.

GB So beauty is obviously a big part of your life?

BSS I like to have things that feel good to me near me. If they’re beautiful to other people too that’s wonderful. Some people may find objects I have tacky, but everybody has a different perspective.

GB Is beauty a part of your work? When you make music is beauty a part of that?

BSS When I write or make music it’s completely about how the vibration feels in my body and how it feels in the space around me. If you hit a discordant note, people say that’s ugly and it feels ugly because it’s not harmonious. You can relate that to everything, even your relationships with people. You want to be around people it feels good to be with, where there’s no conflict. Some people love conflict but I personally don’t. I prefer everything to be resonating at a really high, clear, divine level.

GB Have you always felt this way? You’ve had quite a turbulent life.

BSS I don’t think I was always conscious about this, but life is about duality and from bad things you learn that things get better. That duality is totally important. Everybody’s opinion is valuable even if it’s not the same as yours. In my life I used to be a little bit addicted to drama. I used to cause conflict within my relationships as I was growing up and learning, but the reason I caused conflict was because I was doing something that didn’t feel good to me so I lashed out. Later on I learned to only be around people I feel good around and doing work that feels right. If work doesn’t feel right I actually can’t mentally and physically do it. Now I’ve become a honed instrument. I’m standing in my vortex and I won’t step out of that into a situation that doesn’t feel right. Everybody has this capacity to be attuned. If someone is walking behind you in the street and you don’t like that feeling, you cross the street. It’s the same way in my life.

GB So if somebody sees your rocks and things they’re just a bunch of boring rocks, do you think less of them?

BSS No way! I just think that they don’t get it and that’s okay. The main thing is that “I” get it and I love them and they’re mine. Maybe those people get washing powder or some random thing that makes them happy. The only negative thing I could possibly say is, it makes me sad that they can’t see the beauty in them.

GB Do you believe that there are things that are universally beautiful?

BSS Yes, there are clichéd things like the sunset. The sunset looks as though the divine source painted it like a picture. You’re just jaw-dropped and gobsmacked and breathless at this natural beauty and I do think that’s a universal thing. Unless someone has some sort of terribly severe mental condition…

GB Do you find beauty in man-made things? In art?

BSS I find loads of beauty in art because the art reflects the beauty from within the artist. It’s like little shards of their own interpretation of beauty coming out. Or even when they do something that you perceive as ugly there’s that duality that makes you appreciate the beauty. Everything is balanced.

GB What makes something worthy of the word Beauty to you?

BSS It’s a feeling you get inside your body.