Lunar Souvenir

This set of souvenir jewelry was conceived for an exhibition with a travel theme.  My idea was to design souvenir jewelry for Florida that referenced historical souvenir jewelry with themes from "the grand tour".  Jewelry from this era included micro mosaics and pieces that boasted local gemstones.  I thought this idea was a little ironic because souvenirs make up over 1.5 billion dollars of Florida's GDP.

I began by researching gemstones found in Florida.  These included iron pyrite, quartz, and agatized coral found in the Gulf of Mexico.  The Agatized coral is rare, protected and not the prettiest gemstone.  I continued my research and discovered that the official state gemstone is moonstone! I thought YAY MOONSTONE!  I can work with that......It turns out that moonstone is not actually found in Florida. It was declared the official state gemstone in 1971 when astronauts launched from Kennedy Space center in Florida and landed on the moon. At this point in my research, I had come full circle, realizing that my work would be about Space Travel.  This set includes moonstones and is inspired by the patterns and textures found on the surface of the moon.