Wednesday, December 22, 2010

What I've been working on

I've mentioned before that I am horrible at keeping things to myself. I mean, if you have a deep, dark secret that you need kept hush-hush, you can trust me with it. But when I'm really excited about something I want to tell every single person, even if they don't care.

For example, I've seen several people in the past few weeks announce their moves to new jobs. They kept all of their interviews quiet. They kept the fact that they were looking for another job quiet. It wasn't until they had an official offer that they told anyone at all, and they did it quietly.

And then you have me, who was jumping up and down and telling everyone who came within 5 feet of me "I HAVE AN INTERVIEEEWWWWWW!" approximately 30 seconds after I listened to my voicemail that said "we would like to interview you." I hadn't even set up a time and date yet.

So please know that it was incredibly difficult for me to keep these necklaces secret from their respective owners AND the internet, as their respective owners sometimes read my blog.

Back story: There are 11 siblings in my mom's family. 5 girls. My aunt Martha lives in Norway, and started talking to me last summer about doing sisters necklaces for Christmas.

These are my favorite kind of custom orders. We decided on a general size and shape, and that each would have a birthstone (well, not just A birthstone, but THEIR birthstone. You know). And then I got to take the template I drew up and decide what went inside of each.

Meanwhile, I'd visit my mom, and she'd ask me how all of my custom orders were going. "What do you have left to make?"

"Oh...some necklaces. And earrings and stuff."

I desperately wanted to tell her about how awesome they were because I knew how excited all of the sisters would be that Martha had commissioned these. There were times I wanted to ask "Do you think this aunt would like this? I've never seen what kind of jewelry she wears..." but I just had to keep my mouth shut and wait until our family Christmas on December 19th. Torture.

And THEN to top it off, presents are always passed out at the end. Of course. I carried around the little bag of jewelry boxes off and on all day, because I just wanted them opened NOW. But there wasn't a good opportunity to hand them out until the end, with everyone else.

Onto the photos!


Martha's, in Norway:
The other 4 - I wanted to get a picture without hers so she could see the others and still be surprised about her necklace. And then I forgot to take a picture of all 5! Left to right: turquoise, pearl, chrysoprase, garnet.


The back of each is stamped with my initials as well as "M-sisters 2010"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are so special! Thanks so much Jessi the sisters love them!
Happy holidays!
aunty M

Anonymous said...

What a lovely idea for a gift, and the necklaces turned out great! So what was everyone's reaction?

jessi sawyer said...

You're very welcome, Martha. It was a wonderful commission! Merry Christmas :)


liz -- I only got to see 3 opened, but they all loved them and were quite surprised about it all!

Anonymous said...

Oh, yes! The Aunties adore them! What a splendid surprise. Now I know why you were so anxious to get us all to open them. So sorry that we were slow to obey! Thank you so much for your creative genious in creating such a special body of work. JEWELS!!! I feel very lucky to now own a necklace (not just any necklace) a ring, and 3 pairs of earrings made by JESSI. I love them all. Thanks, Aunty J