Demimonde Studio: My Love Affair with Turquoise

I have had a love affair with turquoise since I was a little girl. Growing up in Arizona, turquoise was a part of my visual landscape. My mother used to have a thrift shop on Route 66 in Flagstaff, called Sally's Junk Emporium. It was surrounded by Tourist shops selling shiny new silver and turquoise jewelry, and Pawn shops with the tarnished and mysterious pieces sold for cash, called "Old Pawn. I loved to run up and down the street, visiting those shops and was spellbound by the beautiful jewelry found outside the shops, sold on blankets on the sidewalk by the Navajo women in velvet skirts, draped in turquoise and calling out to me, "Yatahey" - which means hello in Navajo.

Turquoise is one of the oldest stones ever used in jewelry and is called the Stone of Sky, Stone of Water, and Stone of Blessings. It is a stone that protects and brings good fortune to it's wearer, is used for spiritual attunement and connection to the elements of air and water. It is a very personal, meaningful stone that takes on the characteristics of it's owner. That may be why I cherish the pieces from mother and grandmother so much. I feel connected to them when I wear the jewelry they have handed down to me.

When asked about what Demimonde is inspired by, it always comes back to growing up in northern Arizona. The San Francisco peaks and it's tall Ponderosa Pine forests surrounded by Pinon and Juniper forest, from family road trips through the Painted Desert to the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell, to the Red Rocks of Sedona. From visiting my Grandparents in Phoenix and the flat, cactus filled desert surrounding their home. From living in Kachina village in Flagstaff and the Granite Dells in Prescott. The unbelievable sunsets and big sky, desert thunderstorms, vast open spaces filled with color and light….. my heart will always, always be in Arizona.