A Necklace Finds its Owner

There are pieces I make for a client. There are pieces I make for a show; occasionally, pieces become ones that travel with me and show up for the big moments.

I am about to tell you the story of one of those pieces.

In 2012, I participated in an artist showcase in downtown Minneapolis. I got to choose my own models — which meant I got to dress my best girlfriends in red and black and send them down a runway wearing my work. Knowing that jewelry disappears from twenty feet away, I needed pieces that could hold a room. This necklace — the interlocking sterling silver hoops, orbiting each other like something celestial — it felt built for exactly that moment. It stopped people. It got noticed.

Over the years, it changed forms, as meaningful things do. Different chains. Different clasps. I kept searching for the right balance until I finally landed on a lightweight sterling silver chain and a magnetic clasp, making it easy to wear. That was when it fully became itself. Now it was ready for galleries.

But first, it became the necklace I wore to gallery openings, to weddings, to theatre performances. It was the piece I would let my best girl friends borrow for big events.

A few weeks ago, I was in Western North Dakota visiting family — one of those trips where you finally exhale and remember who you are outside of work. My phone lit up with a text from Kathy, who was staffing the Price Krishnan Gallery back in Minneapolis. She had sold not one, but two of my pieces that day.

One of them was this necklace.

I won’t pretend I didn’t feel a little pang of curiosity. The kind of “I wonder who is going to wear this piece? Will the person love it as much as the creation that went into it, the memories built around it?

A few days later, I got an email from Brian.

I’ve been making jewelry for a long time. I know that a well-made piece can elevate a mood, shift a posture, change how a person moves through a room.

 

Receiving a message like Brian’s that reminds me why I do this work at all. She put on a nice dress to feel the full effect, and isn’t that the whole point? Art of any medium invoking an emotional response? I create for this moment — the private one, in front of the mirror — where a person permits themselves to feel elevated and to say, “I am worth it.”

Slow jewelry for a fast world means making things that earn that moment.

This necklace earned its place for thirteen years before it found its person. I’d say that’s a life well begun, and its story will continue for generations to come.