Katie

I'm sure you have an extraordinary aunt. Everyone does. I mean extraordinary in a many ways...but most of all because she offers something different to your life. Maybe she's an artist who spot welds and makes sculptures out of old mufflers. Maybe she collects porcelain dolls (which she names and displays in a special room in her doily-ridden home). My extraordinary aunt is extraordinary for many reasons. When I was little she sent me pictures of her children playing soccer in Guam and little mud dolls from Spain. She taught me how to make an angel food cake from scratch and how to fry pizza dough for the most amazing pizza ever. For my 9th birthday, she took my sister and I to the Happy Hollow Zoo followed by a shopping-spree at the Berryessa Flea Market. It was an adventure I will never forget and I still treasure the rhinestone necklace and earrings she insisted I couldn't live without. (I'll occasionally try them on and just as if I was 9 years-old again, they make me feel like a princess.) Somehow I always believed her when she told me I was beautiful even when I would otherwise be less convinced. She is magic. There's a little bit of magic in this offset silver poppy necklace with turquoise beads...something special, something different; just like your extraordinary auntie.

Jazmine

She is a high roller. She is luxury and she deserves it. She is the one who took me into Neiman Marcus on Union Square and walked in the place like it was her kitchen pantry (while I would normally be nervous and afraid I to leave fingerprints on the display tables). She also knows that good things come in an orange box. (If you don't know what that means, don't worry, I didn't either until I met her.) She is the only one I know that owns a Birkin bag. And while she demands luxury, she saturates the rest of the world with her generosity. To be her friend is to be bathed in the golden light that is Jazmine's giving heart. Those around her know this best of all especially if they have attended one of her ultra fabulous parties (nothing less than VIP treatment). While I am in that golden light, my confidence is miracuoulsly bolstered and doors seem just a bit more open. She calls it positive thinking, not being spoiled, a life lesson that is more valuable that anything that comes in an orange box. This was my gift to her. Pearls, of course, big ones (small pearls are inconceivable to Jazmine) on a gold chain with exactly '09 links.

Mabel

Mabel is the second eldest of my husband's four sisters. She is a consummate optimist and has the amazing ability to make something miraculous out of what ordinary people would call nothing. Two examples: 1.) When we were only at the dating stage, she asked my husband and I to be the godparents of her daughter. Usually you would ask a more confirmed couple for such a commitment but her rationale was, "They are going to get married anyway." We eventually did, of course. and 2.) There is a family portrait on my mother-in-law's wall, circa 1985, Mabel and her sisters have yellow daisies tucked behind each of their left ears. The story is that Mabel picked the flowers in the parking lot of the photography studio right before they walked in for their appointment. She made her sisters wear the parking-lot-daisies and the result of her efforts is the most endearing, precious family portrait ever.
Mabel had four children before her 30th birthday, which was a couple of days ago. These earrings are for her. I've had these purple square stones forever and I've been waiting for the right inspiration so that I could do something special with them. Wouldn't you know, it wasn't until I was trying to make something for Mabel's birthday that the clear glass beads and silver chains just fell into place, and they came out just perfect.

Karen

Karen is a striking natural woman. At a recent dinner party I noticed these green and silver earrings she was wearing. She told me that she got them at a farmer's market and I could instantly see her: fresh faced, maybe sunlight in her hair, returning a polite "thank you" to the fruit seller who gives her a sample of late summer peaches. At the end of the aisle, she has an artisan baguette in her cotton tote bag and perhaps a half dozen organic lady apples that she'll display on a white plate on her kitchen counter. She'll then pick up a pair of earrings, like these ceramic and silver beaded ones, and hold them between her fingers for a moment before she brushes her hair off one ear and measures their length along her neck in the hand mirror that hangs from the merchant's tent post. She appreciates their simple beauty; the slight luster of the antiqued silver and the color green, the same shades of green that surrounded her and filled her lungs on her last trip to Costa Rica. They are her last purchase at the market, she slips them on her naked lobes and turns the corner to make the rest of the walk home. Karen is a perfect Sunday afternoon.

Betty

It's the best show on TV right now. Seriously. I don't know if I tune in each week because of the captivating storylines or the fabulous historical fashions. I'm talking about Mad Men of course. And my favorite character on the show: Betty Draper played by 31 year old actress, January Jones. Her facade is so painfully perfect and impeccable that it's almost a relief that we are privileged to see any detectable flaws in her character. That's why I loved a resent episode entitled "Souvenir" (S3E8) where Betty accompanies Don on a business trip to Italy. While left to her own devices, Betty goes all out. She exchanges her "happy homemaker" coiffure for a haute-couture-Italian-do and wears a sophisticated mod black dress instead of her normal suburban pedal pushers and petticoat skirts. She speaks coquettish Italian as she sits in a outdoor cafe flirting with the ragazzi (until Don steps in to spoil the fun). She also wears these fabulous drop pearl earrings that I just had to recreate. Although here, I used turquoise (turquoise is the new pearl). I also tried to be poetic in my choice of turquoise bead to really caputre the essence of why I love Betty so much: the turquoise is flat (instead of a sphere) to represent how Betty and the women of her era are so often undersestimated. There are also cracks and fissures in the surface to represent how Betty's perfection is so tenuously held together...but more beautifuly fascinating becasue of this tension.

Cleopatra

I have a running theme for my daughter's Halloween costumes: QUEENS. Her first year she was a "Queen Bee" then "The Queen of Hearts". Last year she was Marie Antoinette, the queen of France. And this year she was Cleopatra, queen of the Nile. I don't know how long I will be able to choose her Halloween costumes, so I thought I would go all out for as long as I can. Along with this year's costume, I included a historical lesson about the female monarch behind the gold fabric and glue-on gemstones. Through our research, I realized that her story was a bit inappropriate for a three year-old. Cleopatra's rise to the throne involved imprisoning her younger siblings and then cold-heartedly having them murdered. In her lifetime, she married her brother according to the royal Egyptian tradition and then later betrayed her husband and formed an alliance with Rome by consorting with Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. As politically conniving as she was beautiful, there is still a discrepancy as to her death; whether by suicide or assassination. Hard evidence of her existence is still ellusive and archeologists search to this day for the physical remnants of this icon. Yet earlier this year, scientists made a remarkable discovery in uncovering the remains of what they believe to be Princess Arsinoe, Cleopatra's younger sister. DNA test on the skeleton revealed that Arsinoe, and her sister by relation, were of mixed race. Forensic reconstruction of Arsinoe's skull also gave scientists the closest true-life rendering of Cleopatra's beauty (that is if she looked anything like her sister). But alas, since I know from experience that you can look nothing like your sister, her true image can only be realized in legend....and maybe these earrings. Gold dangles emulate royal Egyptian lavishness and the amber drops are symbolic of how the legend of a woman can span the passage of over 2,000 years.

Roberta G.

When I was younger, my sister and I would do the "pretend news". It was our own little make-believe game where we dressed up our mom's suit coats, sat at the dinner table, and spoke to our reflections in the kitchen window. Yet there was always a point in the game when we would fight over who would present the weather forecast. Why? Because of Roberta Gonzalez, the local weather anchor. She was confident, beautiful, and glamorous...and she shared not only our mother's name but resembled her somewhat (according to our father). Ms. Gonzalez has been honored for her charitable work by the American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, National Humane Society (to note a few). As well as received recognitions for her work on-air including 4 Emmy awards. I also heard that she is married to the play-by-play announcer for the San Jose Sharks (GO SHARKS!)...Given all of that, she's fascinating to me because of her style, like I said: a mix of confidence and glamour. I saw recent broadcast where Ms. Gonzalez was wearing this black and white bauble pearl necklace that was the inspiration for this piece. Here, I mixed merlot and cocoa drop pearls with large cream pearls on a silver chain. To wear it, I think you need a little confidence and glamour of your own.