Sautoir With Tassels: Pearls, Amethyst, Moonstone, and Gold

I can’t remember ever being bored. My parents and grandparents instilled a love of learning and creativity as foundational to a good life. Their passion for nature, gardening, and sewing immersed me in exciting conversations and problem solving around the art of designs that catch the mind’s eye and emotions. My mother, a second-generation master seamstress, sewed couture designs with fine fabrics. She taught me. We lived in the Southern United States when the south was an international hub of fine fabric production. By traveling back roads, often going directly to factories, we scored fabulous finds. These excursions taught me the joys of the hunt, for fine fabrics and now gems Designing jewelry consolidates my skills and passions. My design aesthetic, an “out of the box” approach uses gems in complex, repeat patterns that echo couture fabrics and the colors of nature, calls for unique findings. We started with a signature clasp, then spacers and bead caps, and now the bean shape and texture of the vanilla bean (a white orchid).