“The journey is the reward.” This quote is attributed to Steve Jobs, although it’s actually an old Chinese proverb. I’m fully experiencing this truism everyday. The simple act of letting go…of doubt, fear, judgement… and doing what comes naturally…that’s when you really come alive! I started with a concept built around the way certain memories made me feel. I wanted to translate this feeling, this contentment, into form. It had to suggest warmth, like the sun. It had to reference fluidity, as in water and wind. These are the things I feel most connected to, and I wanted to interpret them in a modern, luxurious way.
I remember the moment I saw the parcel of colored diamonds displayed at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. I immediately responded to the colors. Diamonds are the stone I worked most with in retail. I have an immense appreciation for their beauty, durability, and optical properties. No other stone can reach the luster of a polished diamond. No other stone has the emotional attachment of love and commitment that diamonds historically hold. However, up until that point I never appreciated anything other than colorless or near colorless diamonds. My goal, working with clients in retail, was to identify the best combination of the 4-C’s in a stone to produce the most beautiful and bright display of light return, at the same time respecting a budget. I can obsess over slight differences in cut and how it affects overall beauty. I can honestly say to everyone I’ve sold a diamond to, that I took the process of finding your diamond as seriously as my gemological knowledge and experience allowed. I would own and wear any of them myself.
But now I was seeing diamonds through a different lens. There were shades of browns, some yellowish browns, some pinkish browns, greenish, and grayish, and golden. Beautiful subdued neutral tones, yet the same high luster of diamond. I was designing in my mind as I walked around the show, and I kept coming back to those soothing warm natural colored diamonds. I could see them with rich yellow gold wrapping around them like sunlight or water around rocks. I could feel myself walking barefoot in these settings and feeling the earth beneath me. This embodied the state of mind I wanted to create. It took stepping outside the paradigm of conformity and letting my intuition guide me.
It’s taken a long time to get to this point…to trust my inner voice…to do that thing that sets my soul on fire. But I can honestly say, no matter how you measure success, that just DOING IT, jumping off the metaphorical cliff, is the ultimate reward.
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