Toasting Fifteen {earrings-of-the-month}

Fifteen years ago, this month, this happened...

My husband Jake and I are celebrating 15 years of marriage this month. Fifteen years. On one hand that feels like a lifetime; on the other, it seems to have passed in the blink of an eye.

In this past decade and a half, we've had two kids, lived in two states and five different houses, and juggled probably about dozen different jobs between us. We've been to Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona; we've traveled to Italy and Costa Rica. We've SCUBA'd, zip-lined, canoed, and tangoed. It's been an amazing adventure.

But it's also been work. Don't let anyone tell you that marriage is easy. Still, being happily married is a daily choice...and I choose it. Every. Day.

So, I was inspired to create earrings that feature the traditional gift of fifteen years of marriage: crystal. And because pearls symbolize wisdom acquired through experience, I added some of those into the designs, too.

The earrings are combinations of clear genuine crystal quartz and pearls handwired with sterling silver. They hang from sterling silver earwires. Photos to come. I hope all the gals enjoy!

Whispers of Pearls {Earrings of the Month}

"And the music of the pearl drifted to a whisper and disappeared..."

John Steinbeck, The Pearl

I just love the international legends I found about pearls. For ancient Chinese, natural black pearls were created in the brains of dragons and fell from the sky when dragons fought. Chinese art often depicts a dragon holding onto the pearl safely between its teeth or paws.

An ancient myth from Ceylon portrays a lake of tears created as a result of tears shed by Adam and Eve. From Eve’s tears, white pearls were created whereas from Adam’s tears came black pearls. Since men were thought to shed fewer tears than women, the scarcity of Adam’s tears is used to explain the rarity of black pearls as compared to white ones. 

The Japanese equated pearls with tears of mythical nymphs, mermaids and angels. Ancient Greeks believed that pearls were formed when rain or dewdrops haphazardly fell into an oyster.  In ancient Greece, pearls symbolized love and marriage; wearing them supposedly promoted marital bliss. And we could all use some of that, right?

The MAY EcoChic Designs’ Earrings are made with freshwater pearls, icy aquamarine, pale amethyst, and glittering moonstone. All are handwired with sterling silver findings to create one-of-a-kind pieces...and they are in the mail to my subscribers today. I hope they enjoy them.