When I Was Just A Little Girl...

It's a lovely filter seeing the world through a child's eyes.  

When I was a girl I stomped through creek beds and dug my toes in the mud.  I spent hours behind a magnifying glass and stared up at the stars.  I caught tadpoles and crayfish and lost myself to the natural world--and sometimes the best part of growing up is rediscovering what its like to be a kid again.

In my latest project, I went searching for that feeling.  After years, I finally took the leap into our archive of vintage stones and stepped out with thirty-three, one-of-a-kind, painstakingly-assembled butterfly brooches.  

The inspiration for the project is my life-long fascination with insects and the beauty of nature.  As a girl I kept a box filled with the shells of beetles and cicadas I found while exploring--a strange, morbid little thing I didn't exactly share with my friends.  In the LH studio and in my home, a few shimmering butterfly specimens add contrast to our walls dedicated to all things inspiring and beautiful.  And now, we have a few more specimens to adore.

Each one of the thirty-three butterflies is different from the last, with every stone hand-set in our Rhode Island studio.  We debuted them at the Newport Flower Show in June and now they are here for you all to see!

We intend for our jewelry to be approachable but wearable art, and this project is truly a marriage between our passion for jewelry and my artistic roots.  The butterflies can be worn as a traditional brooch, or perhaps pinned in your hair.  They could be propped on your shoulder or the centerpiece of a wedding bouquet.  They can be hung on your wall or sit on a vanity--all within their custom artisanal box.  

I lost myself in this project the same way I did as just a little girl, putting on those lenses and seeing the world in a new light.  A piece of me is in every design at Loren Hope, but these represent the first step toward finding my calling.

So as we continue on with our lives, transforming from children to adults, from a little girl with a passion for bugs to a jewelry designer, the butterfly represents our metamorphosis--a process of patience, of labor, of love, and most of all, of beauty.  Along the way, we only hope to capture a little bit of their mystique.  

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