It's mid-summer 1989, and I'm about eight years old. This pre-screen world doesn't offer much entertainment, so I must create my own. Today, I'm a chef in my backyard kitchen, and at the top of the menu are backyard berry mud pies with yellow flower-covered cupcakes on the side. I spend hours picking the berries, enough to fill a Tupperware bowl I stole from my mom's actual kitchen. I sift dirt for flour and mix in found seeds and crushed leaves as crucial ingredients to this conjured-up concoction. My hard day's work yields earthy pastries almost too pretty to eat. But I don't dare eat them; even at 8, I know enough to be wary of nameless wild berries in my backyard.
It would be another 30-something years till I found out those bright red backyard berries were, in fact, edible. Beyond that, I'd finally learn them by name, the Mock Strawberry. It's not a native wild strawberry but a naturalized little displaced relative from southern Asia.
I can't recall why this backyard berry popped into my mind not too long ago. I remember laying my head down on my pillow and the zoomed-in image of its texture, and then a flood of memories of what I now know as foraging came to me. I knew I had to capture that texture, but more than that, I wanted an excuse to dig deeper into something so woven into my first memories of play and creativity outside. I imagine little hands have been picking bright red berries from fields for fun since our beginning. It feels like a shared memory that goes beyond my old backyard across space and time, and something about that feels beautifully human and profoundly connected.
I created this ring to capture some of the magic of backyard baking and foraging before we knew what to call it.
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Made by hand in our South Louisiana studio.
Each piece varies slightly due to its handmade nature.
*Note: Sterling Silver and 14K Gold prices may vary due to fluctuation in the gold and silver markets.
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**PLEASE NOTE** Paying for upgraded shipping service does not affect processing or production time. Please chat in or email hello@mimosahandcrafted.com to inquire about product availability if your order is time sensitive.
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Our in-house team creates each piece from start to finish in our South Louisiana studio.
We use the ancient art of lost-wax casting to create unique bronze, sterling silver, and 14K gold jewelry.
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