Merry's Blog

There is something especially lovely about this precious metal. I’ve heard silver compared to the beauty of a full moon while gold is compared to the yellow brilliance of the sun. I rather like that!

My love of jewelry created in silver started when I lived in Arizona in the mid-1970s. In fact, I worked for a silversmith for a while, drilling holes in little hishi beads created by local Native American artisans. When my employer let me pick out a special necklace as a gift, I was drawn to a lovely turquoise and silver necklace that I own to this day.

There are so much gorgeous Native American designs. My wedding band is Hopi made. My husband and I both have Hopi wedding bands we purchased on the Reservation near Flagstaff Arizona the weekend before we got married in 1976. They are lovely and simple designs mismatched but perfect together.

I never thought back then that one day I’d be creating my own silver jewelry.

Now that I do, I’ve expanded my line to include animal pendants like the sweet little pug puppy and the dangling possum necklace.

I like to think that my animal jewelry is an homage to the lovely designs, (many of which include animal motifs) of those talented Southwestern artists.

My line is pretty eclectic, and I don’t like to specialize in any particular species or type of animal. That pretty much reflects how I feel about animals. I’m fascinated by bugs (see my anatomically correct dragonfly earrings and the shiny silver butterfly charm) as well as jungle animals (like the tough looking rhino pendant and the African elephant earrings).

One category of animals I can’t seem to get enough of when it comes to designing are the small pets. It’s especially interesting to me that people have animals in this category as companions, so to help them out I’ve designed a series they can have fun wearing. This would include my fluffy round bunny pendant and the slinky looking ferret earrings. Of course you can’t have those two with out including a guinea pig, one of the world’s absolutely cutest pets. In sterling silver I have the surprised looking guinea pig pendant .
 
Give me some design time and I can get lost for hours and hours. There is no shortage of inspiration, either.

I sometimes wish I would get more requests for animals like platypuses or kangaroos. Now they would be awfully fun to design, but I seldom get asked for them. But I can’t complain; I had a blast recreating my horse jewelry lately, including the stately English horse dangle earrings and some of the other new equine jewelry on my site.

Sterling silver is a metal I plan on having a long and fruitful relationship with. It certainly helps that I love it myself.