Diamonds Forever Orbiting Each other

  
I was delighted to see Chrissie and her husband Jim at my open studio during the Ithaca Art Trail last Fall. Here is Chrissie’s account of our creative collaboration.

“I always intended to have Lainey create something with my mother’s engagement diamond. Yet 5 years after she had died, I still had done nothing. In Fall 2021, my husband, Jim, and I attended Lainey’s open house during the Ithaca Art Trail. She was displaying one of her beautiful, signature orbit bracelets. I knew that I wanted a necklace. Looking at one double orbit in the bracelet, Jim said, ‘You should do this. A double orbit is so appropriate for you and your mother. After all, you had the same birthday (different years, of course), looked very much alike, and were quite close.’ ”

“Of course, the bracelet double orbit had to be adapted to house the diamonds on a pendant, and that’s where Lainey’s skill and creativity came in. Using two colors of 18K yellow and rose gold, she incorporated my mother’s diamond and her mother’s diamond (my grandmother). When I look at it, I can imagine that the diamonds are circling around each other—forever orbiting together.”

 
“Lainey also made a lovely necklace from a ring belonging to my other grandmother, using a diamond from my father’s ring to secure the chain. My father’s ring was his Scottish Rite Freemasonry ring, which he wore every day of his life. So, I have my mother and her mother in one necklace and my father and his mother in the other. It has been such a pleasure to work with Lainey to create these treasures.”
–Chrissie Schelhas Miller, Ithaca NY

Signature orbit link that caught Jim’s eye. In my design process, I wanted to use rose gold around her mother’s diamond as a symbol of the heart connection and yellow gold around her grandmother’s outer orbit.

Encircling visions of love,
Lainey