I’m obsessed with celestial anything-and-everything. I feel a natural pull towards watching the stars and catching the moon whenever she’s out, in the same way that I’m hypnotized by waves at the beach or a crackling fire.
When I was younger, my love of the moon and stars overlapped perfectly with my interest in Roman and Greek mythology, and when you mixed in my love of stories with female heroes, it’s little surprise that I was obsessed with the TV show “Sailor Moon.”
Image credits, clockwise from top left: sketch from from Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius; found image of an antique plate via Pinterest; detail of Gucci gown from Spring 2017; "Stars of the Ocean," photo by Marit Hettinga via Flickr; personal photo taken in upstate New York; detail of ceiling fresco by Giotto.
I’m so happy to share that I just added upgrades to the Birthstone Star Necklaces — in addition to solid sterling silver, you can now also choose from brass with gold-fill chain, or solid 14k gold.
In honor of these new materials, I wanted to revisit the inspiration behind the Star Signet Rings and Birthstone Star Necklace: a single, slightly off-kilter star that might have been found in Galileo’s notebooks, or hidden in the sparkle of warm sunlight hitting the water.
Want to see how this inspiration became the final pieces? Check out the newly upgraded Birthstone Star Necklaces, and the Star Signet Rings in aquamarine or pearl.
Image credits, clockwise starting top left: Hubble Space Telescope photo of part of Sagittarius, ESA/Hubble & NASA; Fashion editorial from 2017, source unknown; Comet illustration by Lyn Ward; “Winter Full Moon” engraving, Johannes Hevelius; Cast cairn in brass, Cast Cairn in brass, Joseph Magliaro; “Moon Dust (Apollo 17)” installation, Spencer Finch.
Two years ago I saw a photo (the top left one, actually) taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and became immediately obsessed. It shows stars in a rainbow of colors, sparkling against the deep black of space. That image immediately made me want to recreate it, using colorful semi-precious stones against a dark metal background.
And then I fell down a rabbit hole of space photography, space-inspired fashion spreads, and Galileo's original drawings of constellations (I'm not sure I'm fully out of it yet). Sketches came together fast, and before I knew it I was carving (and re-carving, and re-carving again) shapes out of wax, testing out different stone colors, and setting mini constellations into all new pieces.
If you haven’t seen the new Starscape Collection yet, check it out here — I’d love to know if you can see how the inspiration became the finished jewelry!