New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted— Birthstone Collection

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Catfish Collection

The catfish has satiated hungry Southerners as long as we have been around. One in every ten fish on the planet is a kind of catfish, and they can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Odds are almost everyone, everywhere, has some awareness of this particular fish family.

Their whiskers, the reason for their name, are called barbels and contain the greatest concentration of their sensory organs. Where they lack scales, they make up for it in taste buds. Their entire body is covered in taste receptors that allow them to taste their food long before they sense it any other way.

Catfish have been the “big fish” in many a tall tale. If you’re from the South, you’re likely to know at least one story of the big one that didn’t get away.

For as long as we’ve been fishing them, we’ve been coming up with ways to do it. But the one that got me interested in catfish in the first place was the hoop net.

Hoop nets are woven into the fabric of this place we call home. Knot by knot, cotton or nylon cord is hand-knit into a tube-shaped web held open with wood, metal, plastic, or fiberglass hoops. The inner funnel web keeps the catch from escaping. A single hoop net could catch enough for your whole family (and your neighbors. ;)

Our catfish collection from our new 2023 jewelry collection pays homage to both the catfish and the hoop net. The catfish pendant and cuff are totems of this life-sustaining, deep-water dweller.

The hoop net cuff symbolizes the heritage of handcrafted traditions and bounty and harvest.

Shop the Catfish Collection

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted— Customizable Collection

Personalize the jewelry in this new 2023 jewelry collection with the gemstone(s) of your choice!

Choose from 13 different stones when designing your jewelry, whether it's your birthstone or simply your favorite color.

Shop the Customizable Collection

 

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Dad & Daddy Pendant

The Dad Pendant —We made something for the dad or father figure in your life. It's a sweet and subtle way to celebrate becoming a dad, being a dad, or remembering the dad who means so much to you.

The Daddy Pendant — Whether you're familiar with the term as an affectionate nickname for a father or from its place in pop culture, the "Daddy" pendant is the newest addition to our name pendant collection!

Shop the Dad Pendant

Shop the Daddy Pendant

Shop the Family Collection

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Earthworm Cuff

Earthworms immediately conjure up the most earthy childhood memories for me.

I used to work at a scout summer camp with my grandparents. My sister had diabetes and needed to be near snacks and monitors, so she got to help my grandmother with crafts in the pavilion. That meant I got to help my grandfather teach kids how to fish, which mostly involved putting worms on hooks for hours and days in the Louisiana heat.

To say I've touched an earthworm is an understatement. :) I jokingly say that — if there's a "putting worms on a hook" quota, I met it when I was 12. I haven't put a worm on a hook in years. Honestly, I don't have the stomach for it anymore, anyway.

There is something incredible about earthworms. Even in the most developed suburbs and cities, you'll likely find one if you dig in just a little. They are among the few wriggly, wild little creatures a kid can safely handle. We're allowed to hold them and are safe from bites or stings. And for the curious, less grossed-out ones of us, we do.

In school, we learn that they can GROW BACK after you cut them in half. What was once one worm could regenerate itself into two separate worms!? What kid hears that and doesn't instantly become more curious about this magical, secret-holding, natural world around us!? When they aren't busy being self-regenerating superheroes, they tunnel through the earth, leaving healthier, more vibrant, nutrient-rich soil for our root-sending friends to dig into and thrive in.

An earthworm spends its entire life being hugged by earthy, womb-like tunnels in the dirt. Something about that existence sounds so grounded and cozy to me now.

I don't expect most of us to list the earthworm as our favorite of all creatures, but if you think about them, they are usually the gateway to our earliest amazement with the mysteries of the outside world.

This earthworm is meant to be an emblem of that awe. Awe of nature, its mysteries, and our curiosity for its secrets.

Shop the Earthworm Cuff

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Fork Cuff & Pendant

A teeny utensil perfect for the foodie in your life. Purchase a Spoon Pendant for a companion set.

This fork jewelry was initially created for Madeline's Fork Cancer Campaign in 2023.

Shop the Fork Collection 

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Friendship Bracelet Collection

Weaving string and yarn into wearable keepsakes for me and my best friends was one of my favorite things to do as a kid. You could say it was the tiny seed of jewelry-making that became MIMOSA. All the patterns, colors, and styles are perfect for creating endless combinations on long, lazy summer days.

This summer felt like a milestone of making memories come full circle. My daughter came home with her first friendship bracelet and a burning desire for a box full of embroidery thread like my grandmother gave me at her age.

We started knotting bracelets for each other, family, and friends. We learned new patterns, styles, and techniques.

Somewhere in there, I remembered that first feeling of creating something from little — the satisfaction from working with your hands, creating something special, and sharing it with the world. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.

I hope this collection reminds you of your earliest years of creativity when the goal was making and having fun.

This new 2023 jewelry collection is for you, your friends, new and old, and the forever desire to “tie” ourselves together with wearable keepsakes.

Shop the Friendship Bracelets

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Garfish Ring

Despite its intimidating size and fierce look, the garfish is a surprisingly docile prehistoric fish that has been swimming in our waters for more than 180 million years. The stories it could tell.

An ancient knowing emanates from a life force that’s been around for so long. The garfish is a survivor unscathed by extinction. It was unbothered while lands shifted, mountains rose, humans moved in, took over, called it names, and tried to eliminate it.

The garfish is a survivor who, despite all its ancient wisdom, grins ever so slightly like the most unlikely Buddha.

*This design was inspired specifically by the Alligator Gar.

Shop the Garfish Ring

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Golf Cuff

This golf-inspired bracelet features a three-dimensional representation of a course layout with sand bunkers, rough, green, fairway, and tee box. It also includes a pond shown as an opening in the cuff, where you can see the wearer's arm.

If you didn't know much about golf, at first, you might think it was a beautiful abstract piece. The closer you look, the more you realize this new 2023 jewelry piece is the perfect little model of any golfer's daydream!

Shop the Golf Cuff

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Hummingbird Collection

This sweet little bird sparks joy as soon as it darts into view. This commissioned piece honors a very special person who adored hummingbirds. We hope it brings you that same joy every time you wear it.

Shop the Hummingbird Collection

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — LASM Planetarium Pendant

We are honored to have been selected to create this special commemorative piece to celebrate 20 years of the Irene W. Pennington Planetarium.

Sitting high on the Mississippi River’s edge, the planetarium’s iconic dome is a work of art. The roof is blanketed with rows of scalloped shingles. Beneath the scalloped dome is an awe-inspiring space where films fascinate audiences through imagination and wonder.

I wanted to create something that captures the beauty of the architecture and the mystery it holds. On the outside of this dome pendant are hundreds of tiny scallops reminiscent of the rooftop. Stamped on the underside is the constellation “Eridanus,” known as the celestial river. I included it as an homage to the Mighty Mississippi that runs alongside the Louisiana Art & Science Museum.

The LASM is a treasure in our community, captivating young and old minds. It is home to a wide variety of impressive permanent and temporary exhibits. Add it to your Baton Rouge bucket list.

Shop the LASM Planetarium Pendant

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Loupe Pendant

For the last few years, my friends, family, and I have spent more and more time in the woods—specifically woods with ravines and lots of moss-lined creeks. We look at rocks and leaves and press our hands into the cool moss for hours. The longer we look, the closer it pulls us in.

Somewhere along the way, I got a loupe, and it was like a portal to a whole world of exploring previously unknown to me.

You pull a loupe close to your eye with the other side of the lens equally close to whatever you’re curious about. As your focus adjusts, you expose what feels like a new dimension of life. You see the teeniest bugs, spores, moss flowers, and the most impossibly small mushrooms imaginable. It’s breathtaking. It is awe-inspiring. You get lost in it, and almost always, someone is over your shoulder begging for the loupe, the portal to that awe, wanting to see it for themselves.

We carried that loupe all over, hoping to find more new-to-us worlds we’d never seen. Tiny worlds were waiting for us everywhere. In our backyards, the cracks of sidewalks, and the pollen bed at a flower's center.

It didn’t take long to want to make a loupe of my own, inspired by those tiny worlds where fractals feel alive. A loupe to become an heirloom, a magical portal I can pass down to my children one day. And in the meantime, use to find our way to the awe that unfailingly inspires us.

Shop the Loupe Pendant

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Joy | Sorrow Ring

There is an ancient saying that there are 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows. During our lives, we will all experience both, in more of a balance than most of us can bear to accept.

At first, the thought went against everything I’d learned from the fairytales I grew up with. A life “half-full of sorrow” didn’t sound very “happily ever after” to me.

I had this notion that I should be working towards ALL JOY. That the goal was never to be sad or experience pain and that winning in life was to come out unscathed by sorrow.

But I’ve experienced enough life now to know, in my bones, that those sugar-coated happy endings were a myth.

The truth is, a life lived whole and with an open heart comes brimming with joys AND riddled with sorrows.

Sorrows can be everything from little annoyances to deep wounds. But dealing with and healing from those experiences alone, with help, and in the community has been hard-earned wisdom, growth, and the most profound love I now can’t say I’d trade for more joy.

I’ve realized how much I add these questions to the burden of sorrow — “Why is it here? What is it for? What did I do to deserve this?” When it simply is part of the human experience. Any “get out of jail free cards” we use to keep us from the sorrow equally numb us to the joy.

The more I paid attention, the more the quote resonated, replacing those questions with a reminder to feel and experience BOTH the joy AND the sorrow. The fullness of life doesn’t come from shirking either one.

Borrowing from the ancient Roman’s depiction of the number 10,000 (X̅) and the concept of 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows from the ancient Taoists and Buddhists, I created this ring for our new 2023 jewelry collection as a reminder of the human experience of both—a simple raised X for joy, a simple stamped X for sorrow.

A reminder that when in joy, savor it for the gift that joy is. And when in sorrow, do not push it away, but sit with it, do not make more or less of it, but accept it as part of this very human experience and embrace the fluctuation between.

Shop the Joy | Sorrow Ring

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Mama, Mom, & Nanny

The Mom & Mama Pendants — A necklace for the expecting mom, the fur-baby mom, the plant mom, the fun mom, the cool mom — This new 2023 jewelry piece is perfect for all of the moms!

The Nanny Pendant — Nanny is an affectionate term for a godmother, aunt, grandma, or sometimes even an honorary aunt! Here in the South, most of us likely have someone we call Nanny or know someone with this sweet nickname.

Shop the Mom Pendant

Shop the Mama Pendant

Shop the Nanny Pendant

Shop the Family Collection

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Mermaid Pendant

This Mermaid Pendant is a fun revisit of one of our earliest pieces from over ten years ago!

My grandfather loved martinis, and the cocktails at his favorite restaurant came with a little plastic cocktail creature. He always kept them for us to play with as kids, and my favorite was the mermaid.

Years ago, my mom came across a jar of them and gave them to me. I immediately knew this vintage mermaid needed to become a wearable friend.

Shop the Mermaid Pendant

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Mother Tree Ring

We know a thing or two about trees, especially in south Louisiana. We live our lives nestled under their canopies. You can't help but feel exposed, almost vulnerable, in places less blanketed by branches full of leaves.

Beyond their shade and the cozy sense of being held in the landscape, their roots keep together the eroding ground beneath our feet. As humans, we know trees provide — food in the form of fruits and nuts and shelter in the form of the 2x4s and plywood that frame up the places we call home. We know they feed and house the smallest creatures to the largest. We know that, in mass, trees cool the planet and create the air we breathe.

We are just beginning to understand how they care for each other. And of all the things we know about trees, their relationships with each other might be the most fascinating.

We are learning there are what scientists call "hub trees" or "Mother Trees." These mother trees are the oldest and usually the largest in the forest. Through an extensive network of mycorrhizal fungi, they can transfer everything from nutrients for thriving to hard-earned wisdom for surviving.

This ring from our new 2023 jewelry collection is an homage to majestic mother trees that hold ancient wisdom and continue to carry creation onward.

The Mother Tree ring depicts two bold carved trees on either side of the band holding a beautiful 20-millimeter set cabochon.

Shop the Mother Tree Ring

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Mushroom Collection

Mushrooms — The not-so-buried treasure of the forest.

I've always been a nature lover. I'm intentional with time outside but inconsistently, and never for extended visits in the same place. Over the last couple of years, my family and I have spent most of our free time escaping to the woods. Blame it on the times, but the slower pace removed from the busyness of the city is what our souls need.

When you know a place, subtle changes you might otherwise miss become exciting new developments, so it is with our home away from home nestled in the ravines of the Tunica Hills.

Change is constant in the woods. Leaves turn with the seasons, seedlings sprout, fern fronds unfurl, and berries sprinkle on branches, but the stars of the show in these woods (as I've learned) are mushrooms.

They pop out in bold colors from a blended green-brown backdrop. In bright yellows, deep reds, pinks, oranges, purples, and more, they catch the eye like sparkling gems catch the light. A few rainfalls and temperature changes create a fresh rainbow-colored crop of these little ground jewels.

When I think I've seen all those woods have to offer, a new-to-me species peeks out from an old log or patch of moss. I fall deep into the gills of the underside, into the ridges and folds, into the textures and colors that offer themselves so generously.

When you see a mushroom, it's just the tip of the iceberg of an underground mystery. The mushroom or fungi we see is the above-ground fruiting body of underground mycelium that connects and supports the forest's life in powerful ways scientists are still discovering today.

These forests sustain the exposed life we know and are maintained by this complex hidden network that chooses to peek into the light in the most magical little expressions possible.

Mushrooms are the Easter eggs of the woods, nature's scavenger hunt for anyone curious enough to take her up on it, a not-so-buried treasure.

Whether you forage them for food or medicine, beauty or otherwise, they are potent reminders that, like with almost anything, there is much more than meets the eye. Worlds more. We only have to dig to discover.

Shop the Mushroom Collection

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Peanut Pendant

The perfect little peanut to remind you of your favorite food or your favorite "nut." ;)

This Peanut Pendant was launched with MIMOSA's $30 Spoon Pendant Fundraiser, which raised money for the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. 

Shop the Peanut Pendant

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Self-Stacker Ring

I didn't know a thing about jewelry growing up. Most of the women in my family only wore a simple wedding band. I would have been clueless if you'd asked me how to layer or stack rings.

But I always know a look I like when I see it. Despite my modest jewelry-adorned upbringing, I LOVE the look of rings on rings (and cuffs on cuffs and necklaces on necklaces — you get the idea. ;)

Sometimes stacking can be tricky. The pieces you own aren't all that comfortable or don't look quite right together. Or you want to avoid keeping up with a bunch of jewelry when you're on the go.

The self-stacker ring from our new 2023 jewelry collection solves all of those problems and looks good while doing it. ;) It's one ring designed to look like 3. You can wear it alone for a simple layered look or stacked with more for that rings-on-rings-on-rings look!

Shop the Self-Stacker Ring

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted

There are few things as healing as shimmering sunlight on water. This collection is Madeline's attempt to capture that and carry it always.

Shop the Shimmering Sun Collection

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Snake-Rope Cuff

You're about to fall asleep when suddenly, you see something out of the corner of your eye.

A snake. Your heart races. Your body tenses. Panic washes over your whole being.

What to do? Move slowly? Move quickly? Go where? Do what?

You turn on the light.

The snake comes into focus. It is just a rope.

Your heart slows, your muscles relax, and panic fades.

Between the stories we tell ourselves and the negativity bias that helped our ancestors survive millions of years, our brains always look for danger. That same brain, even safely tucked in bed, thinking its way to crisis and survival mode, can keep us frozen and frazzled in fear of even a near-non-existent threat.

The snake-rope analogy often pops into my "bent-for-fear" mind. The snake visits nightly, early morning, and all day between. The snake can be a tough conversation, an intimidating project, or a scary trip, to name a few. Almost always, by the light of day, it's just a rope. The tough conversation wasn't so bad, the project was fun, and the trip was exciting.

I've spent too much of my life wrestling fake brain snakes. I've wasted imagination and creativity infusing ropes with enough drama to turn them into the stuff of the scariest stories. Whatever fear I'm focused on, this analogy has a way of helping me zoom out just long enough to get a glimpse of reality instead of the monsters I'm making up.

This new 2023 jewelry piece is a wearable reminder to ask myself, is it a snake? Or is it (and almost always more likely) just a rope?

Shop the Snake-Rope Cuff

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Soul Friend Bar Necklace

The words Anam Cara in Ogham are depicted in this new 2023 jewelry piece. Ogham is an ancient script used to write the early Irish language from 300-800 AD. The term Anam Cara is Gaelic for "soul friend" — a friendship where your soul finds its most kindred companionship.

Wear this piece to remind you of your Anam Cara, everything they are for you, and the gift of their presence in your life. Or gift it to your Anam Cara as a sort of next-level BFF necklace.

Shop the Soul Friend Bar Necklace

New 2023 Jewelry from MIMOSA Handcrafted — Spoon Pendant

A teeny utensil perfect for the foodie in your life. Purchase a Fork Pendant for a companion set.

This little Spoon Pendant was initially launched to raise money for the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. Learn more about MIMOSA's Annual Peanut Butter Drive.

Shop the Spoon Pendant