The Sunday Times: Issue #13

Palm Sunday AND a full moon! What a weekend. Coming on the heels of a very busy week here at the PS HQ. Earlier in the week, I finally got around to perfecting the Wall Fountain Pendants and when I posted them on Instagram, the world responded to them in a way I've never experienced before! More on that below. I also made some cheerful beaded necklaces that I'm currently calling "Fun Strands" but we'll see if that name sticks. Lastly, I went antiquing with a longtime IG friend in St. Pete on Friday and I can't wait to show you what we found. If you've ever considered coming down to St. Pete for a quick getaway, I've got a lovely little city guide in the works for you.

Additionally, I thought since it's Palm Sunday today I'd take some time to explain how I came to name my company after this holiday. It's one of my most frequently asked questions and I don't think I've covered it in a while.

I'd love to take you on a condensed journey through time with me in this issue, revisiting some of my past collections, showing you that you really can just start where you are in any endeavor. You don't need a fully realized action plan, you just need a commitment to taking baby steps, edging closer to your end goal, every day.

"What's in a name?"

- Shakespeare

EXPLAINING 'PALM SUNDAY'

A SORT OF LONG STORY

It's 2012 and I'm hanging on to the back of a pick up truck, riding through Oahu's North Shore. I had just quit my job designing clothing for a well-known brand in New York City and relocated to Hawaii to figure out my next steps while working on small family farms. I left the fashion industry on a gut feeling that even though this was my dream career, it wasn't my dream life. I missed nature and I hated the impact the fashion industry had on the planet. I knew I wanted to spend my life creating and making, but I had no idea what that looked like.

It was around this time, while hitch hiking through the small island towns of Oahu, that the name Palm Sunday came into my mind. I loved the idea of marrying the words for "tropical" and "day of rest" together for a resort wear line of clothing. I decided that once I returned to the states after traveling through the South Pacific, I'd register that DBA, claim the domain, and get to work on a small line of ready-to-wear, sustainable travel clothing.

Fast forward a few years and I'd done just that. I claimed the name, started an Instagram, and began designing the clothes. Right as I was readying myself for production, however, I took a teaching job to help a friend who'd recently asked if I could cover her role since her health was failing. I ended up loving teaching elementary art and stayed at that job for 3 years. With the clothing line on the back-burner, I still experimented in my free time, making beaded earrings and necklaces under the brand name Palm Sunday. I still tried to keep a free-spirited, tropical vibe to the designs but I wasn't satisfied with my skill level and wanted to learn more so I could make better jewelry.

In 2018 I took my first metalsmithing class in North Carolina, where I was living at the time, and all thoughts of a clothing line went out the window. I immediately fell in love with the process of making jewelry out of precious metals and decided that I would pursue this craft instead. Palm Sunday started to take on a different meaning when I applied it to the rings I started making. I began to think of the word "palm" as the palm of the hand and "Sunday" as a word for reverence and that which is sacred. I'd grown up going to Catholic school and the iconography was something I remained drawn to - I thought maybe this could also be my chance to incorporate those motifs into my creations somehow.

TL;DR: Palm Sunday is all about building a 'golden altar' to whatever you hold dear. Whether it's with new jewelry, inherited jewelry, or the jewelry your kid made for you in art class... I believe jewelry is our chance to hold reverence for our most sacred parts of our lives. Building a stack of rings on our palms is just one way to symbolize that altar. The Foundation Collection is the foundation building blocks of that stack. These solid gold pieces can be the base and accent of a stack, such as arches and straight bands reminiscent of Italian architecture. Our bi-annual collection releases, the latest of which was Divino in 2024, are the colorful gemstone solitaires that can become the focal point of the stack or worn alone as a statement piece.

"In the end, the sum total of the essence of our individual works may serve as a reflection. The closer we get to the true essence of each work, the sooner they will somehow, at some point in time, provide clues as to our own."
- Rick Rubin

WALL FOUNTAIN PENDANTS

MY FIRST VIRAL POST

I made these fun Italian Wall Fountain pendants about a year ago on one of my Whacky Wednesdays (a day reserved for play time at the bench). I've had them hanging on my pinboard above my desk since then, as I tried to figure out the best way to put them into production. Because they would fit into the Paradiso theme so well, I finally took them down this week to perfect them. Then I took this quick photo to take a poll on instagram to see which ones resonated the most with people since I wanted to only put 3 of the 5 into production at first.

What happened next was shocking! I've never had a post go viral so I wasn't prepared for the experience. I'm so pleased that everyone likes them so much! And because it seems there's a decent demand for them, I plan to have them cast from molds instead of hand fabricating each one. I'll offer them in silver and gold, and maybe play around with adding stones or enamel.

The styles I'm moving forward with are the top middle, and bottom two. I think I'll also add one with a pointed arch like the Vetta Ring shape. I will likely do pre-orders for them ahead of the release date for Paradiso so they can ship when the collection is ready. Stay tuned for that date announcement.

I had sketched some more ornate ideas for these last year, so it'll be fun to see where these go as I experiment with the idea.

FUN STRANDS

MIXED PATTERNS AND BEADS

I'm really feeling longer length necklaces again, sort of similar to how I started out! The longer, beaded, more bohemian style necklace was in style when I first started making jewelry for Palm Sunday ca. 2015 and it seems 10 years later it's circling back but in a slightly more refined way. I enjoyed combining different patterns of opals, pearls, and ancient roman glass for this strand. I'm calling these my Fun Strands for now, what do you think? Would you rock a strand of all different patterns for summer?

ANTIQUING TIME

My friend Vlada (@inkmothcreative) is visiting St. Pete with her family this week and we took the day Friday to go antiquing! She's an accomplished calligrapher and looks for props for photography and to decorate her studio just like I do. We found some really great things (so much that she had to purchase an extra suitcase for her trip home!). Here are two of my favorite finds, a celadon vase and a silver salt set.

The silver set will be listed under Sunday Market on the website soon. The celadon vase I'm keeping for myself (for now). I also added lots of other treasure to Sunday Market this week so go check it out.

If you ever plan to visit St. Pete in the future (and I highly recommend you do!) keep an eye out for my forthcoming guide to the city including all of my favorite antique stores, thrift shops, and coffee spots.