I was recently asked to design a new piece for a magazine cover shoot, and to be on-set to style the piece for the shoot as well. The magazine was looking for a unique piece that would push the concept of “going green” on the cover, to align with the issue’s theme. As a designer dedicated to eco-friendly design practices, this appealed to me a great deal. So, I accepted the assignment, despite one serious drawback that came along with it. More on that in a minute.

I’d been thinking about doing some hand-carved gemstone pieces to really push the concept of being eco-friendly, earth conscious and living green, while still maintaining the sense of couture elegance that embodies much of my work. The cover piece was a perfect opportunity to create the flagship design for this collection. Make a bold statement with a bold piece. I definitely liked that. So, my concept for the new Earthly Desires collection was born. Now, it was time to get started on the magazine piece. Sounds straight forward, right? Well, back to that drawback I mentioned.

My turnaround for the magazine cover shoot was just under a week. It seems this is so often the way of it. Here it was, late on Friday when I was approached about doing the design. I began sketching like a mad hatter and by Saturday evening, I had the design concept all worked out. Now, as for that gemstone focal piece, that was going to present a problem. I did not have any green aventurine, jade or other suitable green stone on hand large enough to carve a focal piece for the design and there was no way I would get the stone I needed until Monday; possibly Tuesday. The design needed to be completed by Wednesday. So, carving a gemstone focal piece was not going to happen. Carving gemstone takes time, which was in short supply. So, a slight reworking of my plan was required.

I modified my strategy slightly on Sunday and had most of what I needed to begin the design on Monday, with a quick run for some additional material on Tuesday. I completed the design at 2 a.m. on the morning of the shoot. Who needs sleep, right? The result is an elaborate necklace appropriately named Earthly Desires.  The pendant features a globe of the earth in polymer clay (a good substitute for gemstone when you’re in a pinch), with North and South America hand-carved into the shape of leaves. The globe is held in the roots of a hand-formed bronze-tone copper wire tree, with green Aventurine gemstone leaves and copper wire swirls above and below the globe. The necklace is a mixture of green jade, dark brown and green glass beads and copper chain with a copper clasp.

Here is the finished piece, Earthly Desires, the key piece in my new Earthly Desires collection. I’ll be working on building this new collection in the coming months, so stay tuned. I’ll have product shots of the second piece in this collection up soon.