Goodness, it feels good to be back into the groove of work after our adventures in Japan. The studio has been humming and cranking for a few weeks now, but in the beginning it felt a bit like in “Howl’s Moving Castle” when the castle had been sitting a bit too long and first begins to walk again.
The gears and hydraulics of my little studio made a dreadful sound at first. Hammers felt heavier than I remembered, the studio hotter than usual.
I broke a staggering number of saw blades, and touched a piping hot bezel cup more than once because I forgot I had just soldered it.
But now, I can feel the studio will positively float through the rest of July, joints oiled and Calcifer happily crunching logs.
After a few weeks of toasty work in the studio (ugh, this heat!), I have a brand new collection for you!
It took me years of collecting, but once I acquired enough gemstones, I knew it was time to create an offering of sun-ripened strawberry quartz, tiny sterling flowers, glowing green kyanite leaves, and leaf-print everywhere I could tuck it.
As I was photographing these pieces, I realized I made a rather smaller collection than usual. As opposed to 20-30 pieces of each design, I only made about 10-15 of most of them.
So I hope if these joyful bits of summertime are singing to you, you are able to pluck your very favorite pieces!
“I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer – its dust and lowering skies.”
― Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Jamberry Rings
There will be 15 rings available.
Sizes available: 6.5, 6.75, 6.75, 7, 7, 7.25,
7.5, 8, 8.5, 8.5, 8.5, 9, 9, 9.5, 10
Price: $152
I think there is something very beautiful in the idea of strawberry jam. Plucked at the height of their brightness and flavor, full to bursting with blue skies and soft summer rains.
And then those plump bits of summertime are alchemized into something that can be pulled off the shelf in the very darkest days of winter.
When I first received these stones in the mail from my lapidaries, all I could see was dollops of dark red jam. Tall domes smooth and speckled with little mineral pips.
Some of the stones in these rings are deep and dark, the berries plucked at the very zenith of their sweetness.
Others are light and dreamy, jubilant with sunshine they seem to store in their bellies.
For these rings, I wanted bigger cuts of strawberry quartz, bold rings like wearing an actual strawberry atop the hand.
They are simply set in straight bezels. To one side of the stone is a sawtooth edge strawberry leaf, with real leaf print pressed into the silver. And to the other is a sweet, plump strawberry tucked around the corner.
Like finding a secret strawberry when you are luck enough to look behind another.
All set atop a split triple half-round band, wide at the top and tapered at the bottom for stability. All oxidized with the dark shadows you’d find until tucked around the strawberries.
These fit a tiny bit snug since they are saddle shaped bands, but as always the sizes are listed as they read on the mandrel.
Strawberry Runner Necklaces
There will be 13 necklaces available.
Suspended from a double-stranded chain,
adjustable from 12.5” – 16.5”
Meant to be worn high on the sternum
Price: $162
When I began collecting these strawberry quartz gemstones a few years ago, this was the first design that tendrilled its way into my mind.
When I think of strawberries, I think of my grandmother’s strawberry patch. A small square of garden atop the hill beyond the black cherry trees, started in neat little rows and always ending in a riot of leaves and tendrils.
At the height of June, you had to watch your barefooted step because you’d find strawberries growing in the grass around the strawberry patch, clinging to little runner vines, proud of their inability to be contained.
Finding those little berries and secretly deciding they were “fair game” to eat, and didn’t count with regard to the warnings we got if we ate all the jam berries, I’d snatch those little runner berries and eat them with my younger brother.
This is my attempt to capture how picking strawberries in the summertime makes me feel. Sporadic and a bit riotous, dark with sweetness and green with the height of summer, and a strawberry hidden in tall grass.
A double-strand necklace filled with sparkling strawberry quartz, little sterling strawberry flowers, warm green kyanite, and a little sterling strawberry hidden on the back of the pendant.
These necklaces are meant to be worn higher on the sternum, as such the necklace chain is shorter than my usual chain, with the larger quartz pendant chain slightly longer so they can swing lower. However, I can add a few inches to the extender if you really don’t want a short necklace.
There will be 13 of these necklaces available, possibly 12 if I pluck the one I myself have my eye on!
Strawberry Thief Necklaces
There will be 13 necklaces available.
Suspended from chains adjustable from 17” – 20”
Price: $152 – $172
I couldn’t create a strawberry collection, and not name a design after one of my very favorite textile designs by William Morris.
(I have a much-loved fabric book sleeve with in the Morris textile pattern, and I fear it will be worn to tatters before I am done with it. Anyone else always need a book in their bag at all times?)
These necklaces are made with the biggest, darkest, gooiest slices of strawberry quartz gemstones that I was able to collect.
Built into the chain above the pendant is a cluster of sterling pebbles and sterling silver leaves pressed with real leaf-print.
Encircling the pendant is a hand-twisted sterling silver vine.
At the bottom of each pendant is a little sterling silver flower surrounded by a little line of pebbles, like the stones outlining a berry patch.
And on the backs of each pendant is a strawberry shaped window showing the back of the gemstone.
These pendants are dark when being worn, but whenever you like, you can hold them up to the light and watch them glow with sweetness and warmth.
Strawberry Thief Necklaces, named for all those little strawberries hidden behind leaves so that all those winged strawberry thieves don’t find them!
Summer Harvest Rings
There will be 20 rings available.
Sizes available: 6.25, 6.5, 6.5, 7, 7, 7.25, 7.5, 7.75,
8, 8, 8.25, 8.5, 9, 9, 9, 9.5, 9.5, 10, 10, 10.25,
Price: $153
Like a berry patch and their height of ripeness, a handful of rings to exemplify the very best of summer harvesting.
These multi-stone rings each feature a dollop of strawberry quartz, and a glowing leaf-green kyanite.
Both are faceted to catch and throw the light.
Surrounding the stones are tiny sterling pebbles and a tuft of leaves unfurling from one side.
They are set atop 4mm rectangle bands and given a matte finish to highlight the sparkle of the kyanite and the dark sweetness of the quartz.
These fit true to size. The rings sits right atop the finger, and their low profile make it so that they don’t swing as much as other top-heavy rings.
Summer Harvest Earrings
There will be 11 pairs available.
Measure around 2.5” from the top of
the earwire to the bottom of the dangle.
Price: $147
And here are the earrings to match the ring!
A romantic tendril suspended below the ear, the a sun-ripened vine plucked during the summer harvest.
These multi-stone earrings rings each feature a somewhat matched strawberry quartz, and a warm green kyanite. These are also faceted for maximum sparkle.
Between the gemstones is a small furl of leaves, like strawberry leaves protecting the last of the berries.
They are suspended from sturdy french earwigs made of sterling silver.
Despite their length, these are very lightweight. If you like breezy, romantic earrings that tickle the shoulder and catch the eye, these are for you!
And that’s everything I plucked for you in this Strawberry Jam Collection!
I hope if you are looking for a piece to exemplify the sweetness of summer, or like me want a piece to remember your grandmother’s garden, that you catch a piece during the release.
This collection will flow on the shop shelves on
Wednesday, July 22nd at 7:00 p.m. EST.
Click here for a direct link to where they will appear.
And remember, refresh your page often once the clock strikes 7:00 PM EST, until they all appear.