When I was a kid, living in the Netherlands, we lived just around the corner from Wil Huygen who wrote Leven en werken van de Kabouter, translated and published in English as Gnomes. My mom was never brave enough to knock on his door and ask him to sign our copy of the book, but when my parents and I would hike through the forests near our home in Soest, I would skip past all of the mushrooms, imagining all the kabouter who lived there. A long way from Holland, I saw this mushroom on a Christmas Eve hike through Point Lobos and I was reminded of my childhood hikes.
Kabouter is the Dutch word for gnome. In Dutch mythology and Dutch folklore, kabouters are tiny men who live underground or else are household spirits helping in the home. They are generally shy of humans. The males have long, full beards and wear tall, pointed red hats. In the Legend of the Wooden Shoes, an old Dutch folktale, the kabouter teaches the Dutch man how to make wooden shoes.
So, when I found these sterling silver gnome charms, I had to have them. I chose vibrant red druzy and luminous rose quartz nuggets handwired with recycled red glass and sterling silver to create this one-of-a-kind necklace.
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