Where It All Began: Celebrating Vincent
Jennifer Rabe Morin
Gregore & Jennifer-Rabe Jewelers
Santa Barbara, California
Asatisfying part of being a member of the American Jewelry Design Council (AJDC) is the chance to make projects. As a commercial jeweler, [I find] it refreshing to break out of making things for others and instead make something that is more intimately about my experience in the world. For the 2020 “Secret Garden” project, I made earrings that shared some positive feelings about life—life in my secret garden is a utopia wherein all celebrate and support each other for everyone’s splendid uniqueness, and that is a beautiful way to live.
The earrings each feature three bronze butterflies with lemon quartz wings and purple garnet bodies. The butterflies are lifting up a mineral of cavansite while also towing a lemon quartz flower bud and garnets, a Rose d’France secreted away inside the bud. All of this is being overseen by an apatite-and-lemon-quartz fly that is in its own way helping the butterflies to raise up the rich-colored cavansite for all to enjoy. The whole image is as if to say, “Behold, let us together celebrate and uplift one another.”
The apatite and cavansite are so similar in color, even though they are different materials. I take this wonderful truth as a message that in spite of our uniqueness we share the common bond of belonging to this natural world.
After the piece was completed, the AJDC lost a dear member of its family, Vincent Polisano, who was married to long-time member Diana Vincent and was one half of the team behind Diana Vincent Jewelry Designs. Much like the butterflies are supporting the cavansite, Vincent treated and supported everyone in the AJDC like family…I wanted to remember and celebrate him with this piece, so I titled it Celebrating Vincent.