The Things We Carry Home
A simple brown agate, a favorite family place, and the memories that made it worth keeping.
Some people bring home souvenirs.
Christine brings home rocks.
My friend and customer Christine has always been drawn to the little pieces of the earth she discovers when she travels—the colors, the patterns, the simple beauty of a stone that catches her eye.
Her husband, Royce, knows this about her very well.
Christine recently told me about a trip to Cripple Creek, Colorado, where she happily searched through the rocks while Royce did what he has apparently perfected over many years of marriage:
He found a bench outside and waited.
It's a familiar scene for the two of them.
The things worth keeping
Christine isn't looking only for stones that someone else might consider precious.
Over the years, she and her family have collected rocks during their travels and National Park adventures. Some have ended up in fountains or tucked into pots with plants around their home.
They're small pieces of the places they've been.
And somewhere along the way, ordinary objects become something more.
They hold the memory of a landscape. A family trip. Children at a particular age. A place you loved enough to return to.
One particular brown agate had been waiting for its turn.
Christine found the agate in a gift shop in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, during the family's last trip there together in 2017.
It wasn't a rare gemstone.
But Pagosa Springs wasn't just another vacation destination, either.
A favorite family place
Royce grew up going to Pagosa Springs.
His family vacationed there when he was growing up. Years later, he introduced Christine and their children to the area, and it became one of their own family's favorite places.
There were hikes and time spent around the river. The beauty of the Rocky Mountains. Family vacations together.
And, naturally, rocks to investigate.
Royce even remembered the gift shop where Christine found this particular one.
She made him stop so she could look through the stones while he waited outside.
She emerged with more rocks 😍
Christine had always thought that someday she might have jewelry made from some of the stones she'd collected.
Years later, that simple brown agate from Pagosa Springs finally became one of them.
Letting the stone remain itself
When Christine entrusted the agate to me, I didn't want to make it look like something it wasn't.
The irregular shape was part of its beauty. So were the warm brown tones and natural markings that had attracted Christine to it in the first place.
The design needed to honor that.
It holds Pagosa Springs.
The mountains and the river.
Family vacations.
Children who aren't children anymore.
And, undoubtedly, a husband patiently waiting outside while she looked through just one more collection of rocks.
Christine told me:
“This ring will always remind me of our favorite vacation spot with the kids.”
Because the most meaningful jewelry carries more than beauty.
It carries memories.
From the Studio
I think we all have things like Christine's agate.
Objects that wouldn't necessarily mean much to anyone else—a stone, an heirloom, something tucked into a drawer—but that somehow hold an entire chapter of our lives.
I love that jewelry can give those things a new way to stay close.
That's at the heart of the custom work I want to create at LJ Artisan Designs: not simply something new to wear, but something thoughtfully designed around what already matters to you.
If you have something you've been holding onto—or simply a story or idea you'd like to turn into a piece of jewelry—I'd love to hear about it.
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