Episode 3: Jewelry Inspired by the Outdoors

Podcast
Written By Lois Melbourne
 

I walked into a booth at the Southlake art festival, saw landscapes in jewelry, and knew I had to talk to this designer.

Michele of Sidhe Designs hand fabricates jewelry from sterling silver and mixed metals, cutting tiny trees, hikers, campers, and whole prairie skies out of metal with a jeweler's saw. Every piece carries a story. A tree bent in Colorado wind that taught her you can be rooted and flexible at the same time. A dragonfly that came from a sermon after a loss at the school where she taught. In this episode we talk about the Gaelic name nobody can pronounce, the forethought it takes to make jewelry that looks good on both sides, an ancient Korean gold technique called keum boo, and how her husband Dan became her partner in everything from the books to the brass brushing.

    • 0:50 Gemologist or geologist? Cynthia clears it up right away

    • 1:23 Growing up curious about the riddles of the earth, and how a geology degree turned into a life in colored gems

    • 2:29 What it means to be a jeweler who has actually been underground

    • 3:46 Her honest advice about buying at a mine, including the rule about never spending more than you can afford to lose

    • 5:03 The darkest dark you can imagine, the eyeless creatures living in it, and the moment she describes as riding on a star

    • 6:36 How do you let a stone go? The short answer is cash flow, the longer answer is love

    • 7:49 The 96 mile walk through Scotland and the pendant she is making from a pink tourmaline she pulled out of that mine decades ago

    • 9:14 What a bespoke process really looks like, and the questions she asks that have nothing to do with jewelry

    • 11:27 The blue pearl moment, and the tanzanite and acacia earrings built around a sunrise over the Serengeti

    • 13:11 Why a finished piece should feel like it was always there

    • 14:25 Heavy clapping is damaging your jewelry. Here is how to clap instead

    • 15:50 Convertible and interchangeable pieces, the engineering behind them, and the client who pushed her to start making them

    • 18:44 Why colored stones are having a renaissance, not a trend, and what changed in the market to get here

    • 21:23 Why you need a guide more than ever, and what a Johnny come lately jeweler will miss

    • 23:04 The emerald engagement ring question, plus the difference between hardness and durability. You would not fry chicken in a silk blouse

    • 26:16 Inherit the earth. Cynthia explains the phrase and why a jewelry collection is a message in a bottle

    • 27:39 Lois on the mystery amethyst ring, and Cynthia on leaving breadcrumbs through inscriptions

    • 29:56 Should you reset an inherited piece? What grandma would probably want

    • 31:10 The American Gem Trade Association and the ethics pledge behind it

    • 31:54 Spectrum Award wins, the carved petrified wood owl she refused to sell, and a collection built on Mary Oliver poetry

    • 34:41 Her current favorite piece, made for a widow, about moving through chaos toward a new path

Find Michele and Sidhe Designs:

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Lois Melbourne
Next

Episode 2: Your Life, Written in the Language of Jewels