She Loved Everything

Every year between Valentines Day, my anniversary in March and Mother's Day in May I practically panic at the thought of finding THREE interesting new gifts within three months to celebrate my wife. It's even harder to keep it interesting when it comes to jewelry since she has never seemed drawn to anything besides Tiffany. When I discovered Waxing Poetic, I had a feeling she would like the personalized aspect of many of the choices but I completely underestimated her reaction. She loved everything, from the use of initials to symbols of our daughter to the unique touches of the bracelet and packaging. She has beamed for days since and is so proud to show it off as her own lucky charms. I have no doubt now she'll be excited to add more as the life events continue! - Ben N.At Waxing Poetic we receive so much amazing and touching feedback from our customers.  It would be impossible to share all of it and we are truly honored and humbled by you, our customers.  This month, with Mother's day right around the corner, we wanted to feature Ben N. who has given Waxing Poetic as a gift to his lovely wife on special occasions.  We sat down with him to learn more about his experience with Waxing Poetic and to share his story.

Q: How did you first hear or learn about WP?  What were you looking for when you found us?

A: I learned about WP through my dear friend Patti – and as I followed her personal story I realized she offered a great way for her jewelry to tell their own personal stories.

Q:Was there something at first stopping you from ordering WP?  If so, what?

A: I probably looked at WP for a year before buying it – I wasn’t sure how my wife would receive jewelry from a brand she hadn’t necessarily heard of (but meanwhile I was getting tired of feeling trapped by more commercial choices).

Q: Who were you thinking of when you were shopping?

A: I immediately thought of my wife – I know what matters most to her is something personal and something unique.



Q: What drew you to the piece(s) that you selected at first?  Why did you pick them?

A: My wife has always liked charms – so it was fun to choose the ones that included the most important parts of our relationship, whether intertwined initials, hearts, and initials and symbols related to our daughter and family.

Q: What does the piece signify for you?  Is it a reminder, a memory, a characteristic, feeling, etc.  Tell us about this in detail?

A: I first bought WP jewelry for my wife on our seventh anniversary when I realized more commercial options just didn’t’ feel special and that we had a lot of experiences in our time together to celebrate.  By initially choosing symbols of our marriage over time it was a great way to then add others along the way – especially as our daughter is growing.Q: What was the reaction you got when you gave WP or when people see you wearing WP?

A: I know my wife was surprised – although she wasn’t familiar with it as first, as she learned the story and recognized all the elements that were personal to her she seemed to forget about previous jewelry brands that she may have respected as brands but not necessarily valued as truly special.

Q: What do you think about the quality and design details of the piece(s) specifically?

A: The quality is top notch and I know my wife feels the detail going into each piece is incredibly thoughtful.

Q: What is the most important part of WP that you like the most?

A: It allows the wearer to tell their own story through a variety of unique, touching elements.Q: How did you feel about Jewelry before you found/own WP?   How is WP different from other Jewelry you [buy]?

A: To be honest I felt a little hamstrung by little blue boxes (which in the end didn’t feel personal or unique) and gem stones (where I didn’t always feel good about quality).  WP is definitely a more unique, personal touch when looking to buy gifts for my wife and the quality has been terrific.

Q: Would you recommend WP, who to, why?  What would you tell them?  How would you describe WP to them?

A: I recommend WP to anyone who is looking for jewelry that allows for more individuality and personal connection instead of just buying a brand.  Giving my wife her first WP bracelet and then continuing to add to it with new elements that represent what is important to us has turned out to be a much more meaningful experience than giving her less personal (and even more expensive!) items in the past.

Earth Day 2017: Perspective

To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

  – Carl Sagan

That is the last line of Carl Sagan’s moving and ever insightful message about our Earth, inspired by “The Pale Blue Dot” photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) from Earth. In the photograph, Earth is shown as a tiny dot (0.12 pixel in size) against the vastness of space.Life is complicated, and we feel divided. Here, Carl Sagan's beautiful "Pale Blue Dot" speech inspired by that photograph, to put it all in perspective, reminds us that we’re all in this together.



From this vantage point, our Earth looks somewhat like a mere seed. A connection worth exploring. Though seeds seem relatively tiny, the entire life of a plant is hiding inside. And from Space, our Earth appears insignificant, yet holds all the incredible wonders of our natural world, our planet’s unique history involving too many creations and stories to ever comprehend. And, of course, the seed of our humanity.

And what does a seed need to grow? Well, for one, water. In commitment to our beautiful home, our Earth, our blue dot, we are donating a portion of our online sales to the Waterkeeper Alliance, a national organization committed to keeping our waterways clean. And why does our earth look like a blue dot from space? NASA says because it’s mostly covered in water.

Find out more about this organization here:

https://www.waxingpoetic.com/cms/waterkeeper-alliance/

Happy Earth Day.  Every choice we make counts.  Let’s tread lightly and care for our resources on this beautiful Earth.

Let your Self have a guiding word

What happens when you distill down your focus, intentions - dare we say, life in-the-moment - into one word?With the release of our new Wordplay collection, we’ve been pondering this question here at our WP hub… and we’ve seen a quite interesting kind of internal motivation and connection within and among us as a result.

The wearable variety of guiding words isn’t new to us.  We use little talismans of sentiment on our jewelry as touchpoints on a variety of things that matter to us.

But just one word? Yes.

One.

Word.

One that you can wear and touch, that reminds you of the life you are creating.  Yes (yes actually happens to be Patti’s favorite guiding word).  What is yours, right now?

Let’s find out. Be still.  You may already know your word (one will come to mind pretty quickly… don’t edit, just recognize).  You may have a word that if more of a life word (like Patti’s yes) or may need one to reflect and direct something you have going on right now (feeling stuck? Wanderlust helps… something like that!).Or maybe you aren’t sure.  Just turn inward to listen to yourself: what words do you hear over and over?  Always a good place to start.  And here, a few more places to begin the journey toward the right wearable word (or words) for you:

What do I want to cultivate in my life?

What is my essence, in one word?

What quality describes an accomplishment?

What is my truth?

What affirms my beliefs?

What is a common theme in my life that I keep coming back to?

Words are memories, motivators, affirmations, and most importantly, portals to our deepest desires. The closer we get to ourselves, the truer the transformative effects of these little efforts, these little, very powerful, words.  What word if calling out to you now?View the entire Wordplay collection here.

DUE COURSE: THE SCENIC ROUTE

Inspiration behind the Honey Love collection, straight from the hive along the Scenic Route

Waxing Poetic believes in taking the Scenic Route, which means:

1) quite literally, we like looking at things and taking our time and not rushing and being careful to notice tiny details and unexpected treasures and sometimes going so far off the beaten path we end up in the middle of the mountains surrounded by flowers and

2) appreciating similar tendencies in others who went before us and learning from/being inspired by their journeys and discoveries and
3) being grateful for those who left milemarkers, signposts, maps, fieldguides, and star charts so that
4) when we get to a place where we feel filled enough with feeling and fervor that we want to make things, we can do so in a way that is filled with
5) Reverence for the world, for nature, for our families, for our friends, for our artisans, for our craftspeople, for the raw materials we source with great care and

6) for the tremendously gifted and giving people who help realize our vision and designs into tangible, wearable, dreamroutes.
View our Honey Love collection, along with other jewelry inspired by the Natural World here:https://www.waxingpoetic.com/collections/themed-jewelry/natural-world/

 

We Are Love

In celebrating each other, those we love,

and the signifiers of our deepest truths,

we see our best selves reflected back.

A Place in the Heart: Kady Lemus

A Place in the Heart: Kady Lemus

by Patti PaglieiI wanted to share a moment that really moved me recently. It was at one of our photo shoots, and I was working closely with Kady, who has been with us for over four years. Kady gracefully shoulders much of the sales and merchandising support for our family of sales reps and distributors, but is also extremely artistic and something of a Renaissance woman - so she has her hand in many of the creative aspects at our company... from styling jewelry to creating all manners of artwork and displays for our stores. Not to mention her talent for making Halloween costumes by hand (and always blowing everyone away!).On this occasion, Kady was styling our model Alanna, and never having noticed before that she had a distinctive and beautiful tattoo on her arm, I asked her about it.She told me it was to honor and remember her sister, who very unexpectedly passed away at a young age after a battle with cancer. I had no idea. When Kady shared some of the details of her loss with me, there was such wisdom and clarity in the way she spoke about her sister: it was with pure love and bravery, and also surrender and acceptance. I felt her sister was among us as we were talking. To remember: we are alive here, and in the moment, and living deeply and with care. It was a moment when things that don't make sense actually start to. When I asked Kady about sharing this, she mentioned that it is kind of the reason why she works for Waxing Poetic. After her sister's funeral, her mom wanted to give a special gift to a few of her friends that had helped her get through and she said that they just had to go to this really great jewelry store in Los Olivos called Waxing Poetic. So they took a little trip to the store and spent hours in there picking out the perfect gift for each friend....(which Kady said they all loved by the way!). Kady shared that it was then that she also purchased her first WP piece, the Write Your Own Way arrow, which she says is still her favorite one.Kady got to talking to our store manager Brynn about the company and a bit later her mom said "you should look into working for them," as Kady had just decided that she wanted to move closer to home. And "here I am," she says, "four years later, working for WP... so this company will always hold a very special place in my heart:)."
And Kady's heart will always have a special place in the heart of WP.

Even though I had never noticed Kady's tattoo, I have noticed her arrow necklace and now know the profound significance both of those markers hold for her. There are signs all around us, if we pay attention. We each carry them, hold them, sometimes within, sometimes visible, but always there... all the beauty and fraglity of life.

Thank you for sharing your heart and talents with us Kady, and for inspiring us with the positive outlook on life you maintain. We are honored to work alongside you.

LOVE IS OUR BEST RENEWABLE RESOURCE

There is always a higher purpose, a higher office, the unseen truth and a way out of darkness. Love.

We are one, and we are a force for collective good that can’t be stopped or divided by any single person.  We may be lacking for the things we think we need, but we can always renew the most important quality in ourselves that we sometimes misplace or forget when anger and hatred takes hold, and that is the ability to be love, to spread love, to shine that love into the darkest, most misunderstood, scary places.

Let’s be the change, each one of us.  Let’s better understand and aspire to our highest nature. Transformation can happen, it must happen. It is the only way out.  Love really is our best renewable resource.  Let’s use it, and then keep filling it back up and up.

Wishing everyone peace in our hearts, purpose in our actions and love in everything we do.

Love to all, always,

Patti

WANDERING STAR

Our Inspiration: The Situationists, an art movement in Paris in the 1950’s, used a word “dérive” (in French, it means “to drift”) to describe the art of getting lost, on purpose, in your own city, in your own life, if just for a little. To rediscover who you are in the world, to relearn what you love, and why, and to remember that it is perfectly ok to find yourself floating, drifting…  precisely so you can find your way home.Our Process: Drawing aesthetic inspiration from 20th century Modernist jewelry, star charts and tables of the present and the museum-housed past, the music of the spheres and optical or navigational devices of antiquity, we created the WANDERING STAR COLLECTION.We employed classical forms and glyphs — orbs, stars, arcs, ellipses, etc. and chose some very antiquity-friendly materials in terms of their celestial associations for this group, namely Sterling Silver (the element Silver is associated with several different moon goddesses, most often Artemis, Diana, and Selene) and Moonstone (thought by ancient peoples to be moonlight magically housed within a stone, and blessed with mystical properties), as well as… … brass, whose grounding properties keep our starry-selves in balance.See Our Entire Wandering Star Collection Here

SHADOWS OF SUMMER

I don't know how long we stay that way, but we watch the sun go down together.

 The giant, burnt-orange sphere sinks towards the horizon,

coloring the rock layers until it's gone

 and the canyon is covered in shadow.

― Jennifer Salvato Doktorski