The Color of Gratitude {Earrings-of-the-Month}

THANK YOU! With the holiday season looming, I started to think about how to represent abundance or gratitude. What colors meant 'thank you'? I wondered. I read that brown symbolized stability, reliability, and approachability. And being the color of dirt it's also associated with all things natural and organic. I love that.

In flower symbolism, dark pink roses mean 'thank you.' So, I created pieces this month with those two colors in mind. To me, brown + pink = the color of gratitude

My November 2013 EcoChic Designs' earrings-of-the-month selection feature smoky quartz, smoky topaz, garnet, pink moonstone, hot pink chalcedony, and bronzite. I'm very grateful for my subscribers support of handmade. Thank you.

The Start of Something...

During a hike in Modoc National Forest, we came across this nest and it got me thinking about fresh starts and new beginnings. So much potential. My eldest son started middle school this school year. Not a lot of change, in that he’s on the same campus with the same classmates and many of the same enrichment teachers, but a change nonetheless. I still see him as this soft, little boy – most of the time – but I’m beginning to see glimmers of his teenage self, with harder edges and a wee bit of tween ‘tude. As I recently told my cousin who is about to have her first baby: enjoy each stage because it passes quickly. So, I’m taking my own advice. I’m facing this growth head on and embracing the person he is becoming. Enjoy!

The Start of Something…

The SEPTEMBER 2013 EcoChic Designs’ Earrings-of-the-Month selections are made in the shades of these eggs, with aquamarines, amazonite, turquoise, smokey topaz, golden pyrite, blue recycled glass and more...all handwired with sterling silver.

These will be in the mail early next week...just after the Labor Day holiday. Hope the gals enjoy!

Smokin' Hot Earrings and Necklace

Last night we helped one of my best friends welcome in her 40s. Her husband had planned, and executed, a surprise dinner with a few close friends. Complimenti! That's pretty hard to do when we all have very big mouths.

I figured I would commemorate the milestone with - what else? - jewelry. 

I decided to make something with her birthstone, smokey topaz. I thought about trying to squeeze forty stones into the design somehow, but that was a lot of weight since I had gotten large, faceted briolettes.

Instead I handwired a trio of briolettes to a sterling silver chain. The earrings hang from hand-hammered sterling earwires from an artisan I know in San Francisco.

The matching necklace mirrors the briolette cluster with heart-shaped topaz and sterling silver chain making up the rest of the piece. 

She said, "Ahhh...you made me jewelry with smokey topaz because I'm smokin' hot?!?" I went with it.

Love you, Pia. Happy 40th!