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.”
I just got back from a trip that felt like a jeweler’s pilgrimage, a visit to the annual Tucson Gem Show for stone hunting.
This show is actually made up of hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of smaller shows happening all over Tucson starting at the end of January, and lots of jewelers will do a majority of their stone shopping for the entire year there. Gem and mineral vendors from all over the world bring their entire supplies of stones, and it can be the one of the few chances a jeweler has to find really unique and rare treasures.
Finding inspiration for a new collection never seems to be straightforward. Instead, my brain quietly logs away bits of information it comes across — a beautiful photograph, an unusual color combination, a scene from a movie that I can’t stop thinking about — until some of those seemingly random bits find each other and click together, suddenly forming a clear idea for a new jewelry.
Top to bottom, left to right: Beauty editorial from Harper’s Bazaar; Cleopatra’s cartouche (her name spelled in an enclosed oval shape) carved in a temple wall, photo by Trevor Lowe; Wall painting with the goddess Hathor, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fashion editorial from Harper’s Bazaar shot by Txema Yeste; “Egypt painted and described” by Robert Talbot Kelly, 1902; Necklace of pendants and beads from 1330 B.C., British Museum; Finger Ring depicting King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Last January a few of those moments my brain had been storing away came together: a recent trip to The Met’s Temple of Dendur; thumbing through an issue of Harper’s Bazaar and seeing an image of woman in a long, flowing dress flanked by the columns of temple ruins; the saturated blues and greens of a new stone I’d just discovered; a passage in “Stoned” by Aja Raden about Egypt’s emerald mines. They all melded together into the idea of Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt, and how she would adorn herself.
“Queen of the Nile” imagines Cleopatra having escaped to her desert palace where she can forget about her royal responsibilities for a moment. There she doesn’t need ceremonial necklaces or over-the-top headdresses, but more casual jewelry that’s artfully crafted from luxurious materials.
Left (the inspiration): Ancient Egyptian glass and electrum necklace, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Ancient Roman ring from 1-200 A.D. in gold, pearl, and emerald, Bibliothèque nationale de France; Lapis scarab carving, source unknown; Right (the new designs): Hathor Ring; Aten Necklace with pearls; Khepri Scarab Necklace in brass
With that idea in my head, I wanted to feature stones found in Cleopatra’s Egypt, like peridot, emerald, and carnelian, and wanted to use pearls which were incredibly rare during her time. There’s an apocryphal story I love about Cleopatra showing off her power and wealth to Marc Anthony by dissolving a pearl in a glass of wine, as if to say, “I could get a dozen more of these if I felt like it.”
I was inspired by the Egyptian jewelry found at The Met, featuring golden amulets strung between beautiful stone beads. I wanted to blend Egyptian motifs like the scarab, symbolizing renewal and rebirth, with Roman elements like metal beading. And carving these new pieces in wax gave everything a hand-wrought feel, like it was just discovered after centuries buried in the sand.
Left (the inspiration): Shell and carnelian necklace from 1802–1640 B.C., The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Etruscan finger ring from 525 - 330 B.C., Thorvaldsens Museum; Right (the new designs): Selene Studs in spiny oyster with copper; Selene Bracelet with pearls and carnelian
My hope is that this collection is a new, wearable take on a rich and ancient past. But most importantly, I hope you fall in love with it like I have, and that it brings you a little bit of joy every time you wear one of these pieces.
Watching the incredibly glamorous and over-the-top Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor, sparked something in my brain. The costumes! The culture! The love story! Though much of it was 1960s Hollywood applying its shiny veneer to history, I wanted to know more about this woman, Egypt’s final ruler, and all the stories we still tell about her.
Image credits, clockwise from top left: Snake rings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection; Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra; Snake bracelet from Phoenix Ancient Art’s collection; Detail of “Death of Cleopatra” by Francesco Cozza; Illustration from John Edwards Holbrook’s “North American Herpetology”
Most tragically, her final story is one of star-crossed lovers meeting their end. She and Marc Antony, co-ruler of the Roman empire back in 30 BC, fell in love and joined forces against Octavian, Rome’s other co-ruler and eventual emperor. When Octavian’s forces defeated Marc Antony’s in a civil war, she and Marc Antony made a pact to end their lives instead of submitting to a new ruler. Marc Antony acted first, and upon hearing the news Cleopatra locked herself in a tomb with her two maids, using an asp’s poisonous bite to end her life.
Painters, sculptors, and playwrights have depicted Cleopatra’s life, with asps prominently featured every time. These snakes are especially meaningful considering how important they were in ancient Egyptian culture, represented by the goddess Wadjet and symbolizing a pharaoh’s divine authority. Worn as talismans, they were said to grant protection and health. Snakes have been important in other cultures, too, featured in creation myths, symbolizing rebirth and new beginnings, and said to bring good luck.
Left: Asp Bangles and Asp Rings from our Egyptian Asps Collection; Right: Snake bracelet from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, photo by Kenneth Garrett
What started as an obsession with Cleopatra turned into an urge to make this ancient symbol into modern, wearable amulets. I hope you enjoy wearing these new versions from our mythically-inspired Egyptian Asps collection.
Left: Still from Cleopatra (1963), 20th Century Fox/Photofest; Right: Emerald specimen, photo by Klaus-Peter Kelber.
I’ve always been fascinated by powerful women in history, and Cleopatra has to be top 3 on that list. She took Egypt from her younger brother and made herself queen; she had affairs with some of the most famous men in history (Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, no big deal); and she had an impressive collection of gems and jewels. (It’s entirely possible she was reincarnated as Elizabeth Taylor!)
But one of the stones most synonymous with Cleopatra is the emerald. She figured out way before anyone else that in order to command fear and respect, she had to look look the part of an impressive, heaven-sent ruler. And she did that by owning all the gems and constantly showing them off.
She scooped up all of Egypt’s mines for herself, using emeralds as her royal calling card, wearing and giving them as diplomatic gifts. The Roman author Lucanus wrote that her home was littered with emerald-encrusted objects, and that she adorned herself with so many that he wondered how she didn’t “faint beneath the weight of gems and gold” (#goals). She had so many that during her time, when you thought of Egypt you simultaneously thought of emeralds.
If you’re feeling as inspired as I am by this queen of Egypt, I highly recommend watching Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (buckle up, though, it’s a 4 hour movie). Or, dive into more gemstone lore with Victoria Finlay’s “Jewels: A Secret History” where a lot of this incredible information came from.