Garden Street Designs

I can’t recall where I first read about Victorian acrostic jewelry, but it was a few years ago, and the idea to use it as inspiration had been rumbling around in my head for a while. I found a great article all about it at the Sentimental Jewelry blog, but in short, acrostic jewelry uses the first letter of each gemstone to spell out a word or phrase or name that has sentimental meaning for both the giver and the recipient.

This brooch is from the Etsy shop Victorian Sentiments, and the stones around the central glass stone spell out “Regard”: Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, Diamond.

The traditional words are quite lovely, “Regard”, “Dearest”, “Je t’aime”, so I decided to make my own modern versions in the form of my ‘stick’ (as I call them) necklaces, which I had been making using single stones.

An original “stick” design, using just amethyst beads.

“Regard”: Ruby, Emerald, Garnet, Amethyst, Ruby, Diamond

“Dearest”: Diamond, Emerald, Amethyst, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Tanzanite

“Je t’aime”: Jet, Emerald, (Blue) Topaz, Amethyst, Iolite, Moonstone, Emerald

While I like those three a lot, I decided that if my design was more modern, the words and sentiments could be too:

“Admire”: Amethyst, (Black) Diamond, Moonstone, Iolite, Ruby, Emerald

“Sister”: Sapphire, Iolite, Sapphire, Tanzanite, Emerald, Ruby

“Cherish”: Citrine, Hessonite, Emerald, Ruby, Iolite, Sapphire, Hessonite

“Respect”: Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Peridot, Emerald, Citrine, Topaz

You can see from this photo just how delicate these little necklaces are, which I think matches the sweetness of their messages.

I’m sure I’ll be coming up with more words to turn into necklaces, but some letters are hard to find stones for. All I can come up with for “U” is Unakite, which doesn’t quite do it for me. “O” is proving problematic as well, mostly because opals are too expensive. It’s a shame, because I had grand hopes for “Cupcake” and “Porkchop” and “Gumdrop”. I haven’t given up on finding good “U” and “O” stones, but in the meantime, I’ve also been listing more of my toggle necklaces and hammered earrings, with more to come this week:

Please stop into my Etsy shop often to see the very latest designs. Thanks for reading!