Mira: Modern Talisman Jewelry Inspired by Ancient Landscapes
Detail view of Michelle Pajak-Reynolds’s Mira Collection: Ciana earrings featuring ethically mined Herkimer diamond quartz crystals, Fairmined 14 karat gold and hand-pierced recycled sterling silver. Photo credit: Michelle Pajak-Reynolds
Inspired by the weathered beauty of ancient and mysterious stone circles the Mira collection features ethically mined Herkimer diamond quartz crystals, Fairmined 14 karat gold and hand-pierced recycled sterling silver. Small and intimate in size, these designs reimagine the magic of ancient landscapes as modern-day talismans.
Mysterious Stones
Jewelry artist Michelle Pajak-Reynolds shovels dirt and small rock rubble into a 5-gallon bucket in preparation for sluice mining at the Ace of Diamonds Mines in Herkimer County, New York, September 2019. Photo credit: Trista Bonnett
The Mira Collection started with the gemstones, Herkimer Diamond Quartz Crystals, I mined with friends at the Ace of Diamonds Mine in New York in early September 2019. Gemstone mining is like winemaking. Each season is unique, and every gem is rare and beautifully nuanced with its own geological terroir. One never completely knows what treasures the earth will reveal once you start digging and sifting beneath the surface. This sense of wonder while using only hand tools to hunt for Herkimers among tons of dolomite limestone, conjured memories of my study-abroad visit to Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England on New Year’s Eve 1998.
Panoramic view of Stonehenge taken on December 31, 1998 by Michelle Pajak-Reynolds during her art history study abroad in England and France. Photo credit: Michelle Pajak-Reynolds
It was a crisp, overcast winter day. The wind whipped at my bobbed red hair and sliced through my warmest winter coat instantly chilling my bones and adding rosiness to my cheeks. Every step was punctuated with the faint crackle of partially frozen ground crunching beneath my hiking boots. My art school classmates hid from the British cold in the gift shop. I felt the brutal cold and none of it the same time. After more than a year of saving every penny from my job at a mall department store, I was FINALLY at Stonehenge, one of the great wonders of the world. No matter what, I would not be lured away from spending as much time as possible with its mottled green-gray lichen covered sarsens and “bluestones.”
As I walked in awe along the path surrounding the famous inner horseshoe and post and lintel circles, an amorphous and angular shaped white stone caught my eye. I removed my gloves and with frozen fingers scratched it out of the ground tucking it away as my special secret treasure, dirt and all, in my pocket. Heck with gift shop trinkets. I had my stone; part souvenir, part personal talisman, and begrudgingly got back on the bus headed for New Year’s Eve festivities in London’s Trafalgar Square.
Michelle Pajak-Reynolds’s special stone collected from the visitors path surrounding Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. Photo credit: Michelle Pajak-Reynolds
Making the Mira Collection
As with all my jewelry collections, the inspiration subject matter and raw materials are obsessively researched. Using traditional metalsmithing techniques, I crafted each design by hand in Fairmined 14 karat yellow gold and recycled sterling silver; carefully selecting each Herkimer diamond for its unique shape and sparkle.
Herkimer diamonds are 500-million-year-old raw quartz crystals some metaphysical practitioners believe to be “manifestations of pure, solidified spiritual light.”[1] Mined exclusively in Herkimer County, New York each gem naturally forms with 18 facets, six sides and two points (double terminations). While not exactly diamonds (diamonds are pure carbon crystals, Herkimers are silicon dioxide), Herkimers acquired their diamond nickname for their natural sparkle and diamond-like silhouette. Clear quartz crystals featuring this identical crystal system are found elsewhere in the world, however only those mined in Herkimer County New York can authentically be called Herkimer diamonds.
Stonehenge is a magical awe-inspiring place. Tales of ritualistic practices, astronomical alignments and misbehaving youth turned to stone for reveling outdoors past midnight are only a minuscule portion of the legends surrounding Stonehenge and ancient European megaliths.[2] Modern archeology has revealed Stonehenge was built in phases beginning about 5,000 years ago with simple tools; hammerstones, antler picks, ropes and wood.[3] These stone tools and images of Stonehenge and other stone circles informed the designs and patterns I hand-pierced in satin-finished sterling silver sheet metal.
As a Fairmined gold licensed designer, I fabricated custom 4-prong settings in Fairmined 14 karat yellow gold for each of the Herkimer diamonds featured in the Mira collection. Fairmined supports artisanal small-scale miners around the world. Fairmined certification, through the Alliance for Responsible Mining, enforces strict standards for mining practices including ethical and sustainable methods protecting the health and well-being of the miners and the environment.
Modern Talismans
From special stones secretly tucked away in pockets to auspicious gems and precious metals worn for their protective influences, there is an ancient primal part of us that connects with these storied materials and transforms them into talismans and amulets. The Mira collection captures this magical relationship for our modern era and future generations.
Related posts:
Sparkle a Plenty: Mining for Herkimer Diamond Quartz Crystals in Herkimer, New York
Gemstone Spotlight: Golden Enhydro Quartz Crystals
Voyageuse: Jewels Inspired by Moss
[1] Simmons, Robert, Ahsian, Naisha, The Book of Stones: Who They Are & What They Teach, Heaven & Earth Publishing, 2015, page 243
[2] Burl, Aubrey, Great Stone Circles: Fables, Fictions, Facts, Yale University Press, 1999
[3] Building Stonehenge, https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/building-stonehenge/
If you’ve enjoyed this article you may also like these additional Mira collection research materials. (Instead of providing links, I hope you’ll look for these fascinating publications at your local library and favorite independent bookstores.)
Rings of Stone: The Prehistoric Stone Circles of Britain and Ireland by Aubrey Burl and Edward Piper
Stone Circles of Chaco Canyon by Thomas C. Windes
America’s Stonehenge: The Mystery Hill Story, from Ice Age to Stone Age by David Goudsward with Robert E. Stone
Celtic Sacred Landscapes by Nigel Pennick
