How many times have you looked up to the sky in wonder? 

How many times have you asked yourself how it could be that you were right here, right now? 

With your head tilted back, almost spinning by the mere idea of being part of this enormous Universe. It can be overwhelming. 

Christiaan van der Klaauw CVDK Planetarium Eise Eisinga watch, this watch won the prestigious GPHG award in 2021. It contains the smallest mechanical planetarium in the world. Showing you real-time, the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter around the Sun. (€43.950,00)

Staring at the stars

It was once such a night many years ago that I found myself staring at the stars. Barefoot in the garden, the moist grass between my toes, I remember laying in my bed and feeling so desperate, so lonely. I am sure many of you have had such a moment in life. I decided to step out of bed and into the garden. I admit it felt a little dramatic, like if I were in a movie. But the moment I felt the wet, cool grass and looked up to the sky, all rumors in my head went silent. 

I was in awe. 

      Why don’t we do this every night? 

Galaxy Planet, Moon, and Star Earrings by Bibi van der Velden. 18kt Rose gold and deep blue Tahitian pearls. The lightning bolts and the star and moon form a playful motive. (€13.910,00 limited edition: 25 pieces)

Feeling part of something bigger

My head went silent, no more thoughts jumping around like monkeys with an attitude. No more worries or feeling sorry for myself. Nothing. Ants crept up my feet, and it didn’t matter. 

I realized how tiny I really was in this enormous Universe. How little I mattered, certainly not a bit more than those tickling ants on my feet. 

I stood there for 10 minutes or maybe an hour. Who knows. When I went back to my bed that night, I felt almost dizzy with my sudden found consciousness of how little I mattered and, therefore, how little my problems really mattered. 

 

Theo Fennell, 18kt white gold pendant with diamonds and sapphires

I slept deeply that night as if I pulled up this blanket full of stars and solar systems and darkness and light and disappeared underneath it. Nice and snug.

The following days were different somehow. I did not step into the garden again at night anymore, but I felt in all my apparent loneliness, no longer alone. Resilience, my strongest trait, took over the steering wheel. 

Did I get to live happily ever after? I can tell you this; it wasn’t long later when I started to open up again to the countless possibilities that life always offers us. The chances we only seem to see when we are in a particular state of mind. A state that I like to describe as a rare mix between humbleness and openness of our mind. 

 

Bibi van der Velden Galaxy Opal Cocktail Ring

Lately, I have been thinking about this moment in my life, and I try to grasp what it is to be human. How something so profound astonishing as floating around on a blue planet in one of the billion or trillions of solar systems is somehow normal. How we can get bored, annoyed, take things for granted. I take one of my books with images from the Hubble telescope and look at the pictures. So real, and somehow they feel like the comic book science fiction at the same time. 

I feel enchanted. Like if magic somehow is real. And it is. Because nothing Disney or Pixar or an older Grimm story ever came up with matches the magic, the fireworks, and the astonishing beauty of the Universe. It’s overwhelming in such a way that we humans shouldn’t look up too often, perhaps. Too many nights barefoot in gardens could make us dizzy….our heads spinning with imagination. 

How jewelry creators and designers get inspired by the Universe

I wonder if the jewelry designers who created the jewelry pieces pictured in this personal story had moments like these. I wonder what you feel when you look at images of the Universe. Does it feel real to you?

I wonder if you ever felt the comfort of a blanket of stars and solar systems. 

Bibi van der Velden Galaxy Opal Cocktail ring. The boulder opal represents the swirling galaxy, the Tahitian pearls are planets spinning in their setting. Tsavorites and sapphires complete the spectacular ring made in 18kt gold.(€23.220,00 limited edition of 25 pieces)

Jewelry can be many different things. And one of those things is being a tangible reminder of a value, a trait, strength, or protection we treasure or need. And these pieces all do that; they all have that potential, like a small dose of magic we can wear, rub or touch and dingle between our fingers. 

Gurhan 18kt gold earrings with freshwater pearls

I am still in the garden sometimes in the middle of the night. Not only when facing a more challenging time, but also just to feel small in my body but infinite in my mind. 

These are my thoughts when I listen to designers and artists who took the stars and planets, or indeed greedily the whole Universe :-) as their inspiration. These are my thoughts when I look at my niche in my professional life; jewelry inspired by the moon, the stars, and all the floating magic surrounding us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibi van der Velden, Theo Fennell

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