From Forest to Forever
Grains of the Earth Wedding Jewelry Inspired by Mount Shasta…
A special energy comes from the minerals/earth around the majestic Mt. Shasta, and Grains of the Earth has figured out how to harness that feeling and spirituality into wearable works of art that elevate any special occasion.
Grains of the Earth Founder Jessy Meeker sends over some pictures of Josh and Jessica, a couple who recently got married in Ireland. They both had Grains of Earth bolo ties and pendants around their necks, which illuminated their love and deep connection set against a backdrop of coastal green cliffs. “They are both from Ohio, and met in Mount Shasta,” says Meeker. They moved away but visited Mount Shasta last summer, where they met Meeker at the farmers market.
“She’s connected to the sacred energy of the mountain, does Reiki, knows all about the Shasta opal,” Meeker recalls. “It was super flattering to see how Grains of the Earth jewelry looks in the photos.”
Sourcing the endemic Mt. Shasta knobcone pinecones close to their home encompassed in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Jessy and her husband Dave (along with their furry four-legged support team) began making their Grains of Earth jewelry about two years ago.
“We started out just selling pinecones to crafters all over the U.S. and wondered what they were doing with them. And then when we realized what they were using them for, we thought, ‘We could totally do that’,” Jessy says.
Jessy is committed to ethical sourcing, making sure the responsibly foraged pieces share a harmony between the earth and its wearer.
“Most trees drop pinecones, but the knobcones stay on for life,” Jessy explains. She’ll look for the branches that snap off from the wind or have gotten too snow-laden and droopy. “The trees are just loaded with cones here. Their cones only open if there’s a wildfire, so you only find these kinds of trees in wildfire-prone areas. I love the little facts about the tree; I’m able to get this pattern because the cones don’t open.”
Making jewelry out of knobcone pinecones isn’t an original idea, but using Mt. Shasta pinecones is. “We wanted our pendants to feature more of the pinecone pattern, use simple inlays and charge at a more affordable price,” Jessy says.
They slice their pinecones vertically, forming them into ornaments, earrings, bolo ties, “feather” cut pendants and hat bands. And Grains of the Earth adds more products to their collection as they go along. “We get ideas from our customers; they came up with the bolo ties. Those are making a comeback,” she adds.
Over the holidays, the most popular Grains of the Earth products were the Christmas ornaments, shaped in the feather pattern her husband came up with. “I use the stem for the end; they were Dave’s idea. They’re more difficult to cut, but nice.” Her friend is a hatmaker and gave her the idea to make hat pins. Pendants and the earrings are always a hot seller if she can find small enough pinecones.
She sold a few of those this past year to people getting married, but the bolo ties are getting more popular. “People are replacing the bowtie with a bolo tie,” she says. “I sell them on Etsy, online, and I’m always open to customizing them.”
Along with selling its jewelry online, Grains of the Earth is at the Mount Shasta farmers market every week selling its pendants Mondays from 3:30 to 6pm in May through October. They give away special postcards explaining the symbolic representation of the Third Eye pinecones and Mt. Shasta.
“Throughout the span of recorded human history, pinecones have served as a symbolic representation of human enlightenment, the third eye and the pineal gland… The third eye denotes intuition and the ability to see things beyond what you see on the surface,” a portion of the postcard states. •
Grains of the Earth
www.grainsoftheearth.com
