I was featured on Gem Gossip!

What is it about jewelry that makes it your passion?

I am fascinated by the way jewelry can tell our stories before we even open our mouths. For me, jewelry provides cultural context. For example: my maternal grandmother, who was born on the Caribbean island of Grenada and later moved to Trinidad and Tobago, had a large collection of jewelry, including her treasured 18 karat gold “slave bands.” They were a set of open bangles engraved with flowering vines and embellished with clusters of grapes on the ends. When I see women wearing bangles like my grandmother’s, it is a comfort to me. I know immediately where they are from.

I am a quiet introvert, who typically doesn’t like talking about myself at great length, so I let my jewelry do the talking for me. I have nine piercings in my left ear and four in my right (and I’m not done with my right ear yet). I work in a very conservative environment, but I proudly wear my hair up and go to work with thirteen bits of gold and diamonds glistening in my ears because it’s my own little form of rebellion. I wear bright colors and patterns, and rings on every finger because I’m hoping the choices I make about how I adorn myself will communicate that I am a person with deep feelings and strongly-held opinions, a creative person who cherishes beauty, a person willing to bend or even break the rules if necessary. Jewelry is just one of the easiest ways to share these things about myself without yelling it out from the rooftops.

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