Growing your jewelry collection is something that should happen naturally, as time goes on. It’s not something that happens overnight but instead develops organically as you move through life from one experience to the next.
For this very reason, the way your jewelry collection grows will reflect where you are in life: the milestones you’ve reached, your feelings and aspirations, and your relationship with yourself and with those around you.
So what pieces of jewelry will you purchase in your college days compared to the ensuing decades? How will your jewelry collection change as you move through each of life’s stages?
Let’s consider each stage of your life course and look at how your jewelry collection might develop over time.
Footloose and fancy-free
Understandably, during your teen and young adult years, you may not have precious and enduring jewelry top of mind. But when you invest in quality pieces in your teen years, you’re able to still wear them twenty years later.
You may also find you’re the recipient of beautiful jewelry gifts in your younger years. Whether it’s your high school prom, your graduation, or your Sweet Sixteen, your family may have earmarked these milestones as perfect opportunities to begin building your jewelry collection.
As your tastes begin to develop, it’s usually best to start with understated but fun pieces: jewelry that you can wear everyday without fear of damage or loss.
Foundational pieces, like a simple charm necklace or a religious symbol, can make a good basis for a life-long collection. You may receive charms as gifts and can add to, or layer with, the necklace as you get older and buy your own pieces.
Personal jewelry with empowering affirmations are also a fun start to a teen jewelry collection. Our Mini White Vermeil Initial Charms are simple personal pieces, while our Mini “Protect” Evil Eye Charm is an enjoyable way to tell your story.
Our Mini “Perseverance” Fish Charm Necklace is also a fun but powerful piece, and is stunning on its own or layered with other necklaces.
For an investment piece, our critter collection is a good place to start. The Diamond Critter Bee "Creativity" Necklace with pave white diamonds in a blackened setting works well as an everyday piece, but will also add an extra talking point to your evening look. And the empowering inscription by the neck closure can provide decades of inspiration.
Poesy bracelets are another lovely way to begin your jewelry collection. They work well as single bracelets but can also be layered with other poesies, string bracelets, or bolder cuffs and bangles.
They’re lightweight and versatile so whether you’re doing a yoga workout or meeting friends for coffee, you won’t feel encumbered by your jewelry. You can also choose an empowerment inscription that means something personal to you.
Stackable rings are a perfect addition to a new jewelry collection, especially for those who want to self-purchase on a smaller budget.
Our poesy stackable ring collection is available in an array of different colors with empowering mantras inscribed within such as Never Fear, Courage, Imagine, and Dream. Choose a ring that sums up your journey as you set out in the world.
Your adventure awaits
As you move into your twenties and set out on your career path, you’re embarking on a lot of new challenges and opportunities. It's a time of great change as careers and relationships take shape, as you begin to explore the world on your own terms, and as confidence and self-motivation grow.
What you include in your jewelry collection will reflect this shift. As you begin to earn, you may find you have a bigger budget for buying jewelry. But more importantly, the nature of the jewelry you buy will tell the story of this unique stage of your life.
Our “Adventure” range includes some beautiful expressions of your new challenges - whether they be a new job, the start of a relationship, or a trip to a faraway land.
Our spherical My Earth NYC Sterling Silver Charm Necklace will inspire you as you set off on your travels. It’s simple, but it tells your story. As do our other travel pieces, like the Adventure Compass Locket and “Curiosity” Telescope Charm.
Our inscriptions will also tell your story as you embark on young adulthood. Our “Perseverance” Fish ring will remind you to just keep going, while our diamond-encrusted “Unmasked” ring will tell the world that only you are in charge of when you reveal your true identity. Incidentally, these two rings work beautifully in a sideways stack.
Independent woman
By the time you’re in your thirties and forties, you might find you’re more established in your career and in your relationships, and you have a place you call home. You’re settled, but you’re also independent and powerful.
A stable job may mean you have more purchasing power, and a stronger desire to invest in precious jewelry. In fact, it’s the age at which you’re fully embarked on the path to buy jewelry for yourself.
By now you’ll also have a good knowledge of your jewelry tastes. You’ll know what colors suit you, which metals and gems you love, and the size and weight of jewelry that works best.
It’s also the time in your life when you get to celebrate successes - both big and small - in your personal and professional life. Whether that be a big promotion at work or a milestone birthday, or just because you’ve worked hard and deserve a treat. Whatever it is, jewelry is a great gift to give yourself at this stage of life.
Foundational pieces like lockets and chains work well because they can form the basis of an expanding collection. You can then pick pieces to add to your collection and layer them into statement looks.
Empowering rings are also a good option. Our “Courage” Lion and “Intuition” Octopus rings are both statement pieces that say something about how you express your self-empowerment at this stage of your life.
Mother nature
Whether your life path leads you to motherhood yourself or you become a godmother or aunt, you may have a chance to express your maternal side at this stage in your life.
It’s also at this stage when you’ll begin to think about passing jewelry on. You’ll start considering the enduring value of a piece of jewelry rather than solely what it means to you at that moment.
Birthstones are a beautifully significant way of commemorating the birth of a child, as are Zodiac Charms.
Stackable rings are also a sweet way of honoring your children, by choosing one to represent each child’s personalities: One of a Kind, Queen Bee and Warrior.
The locket is rooted in a tradition of keeping your loved ones close to your heart. Many mothers choose to wear a picture of their little one in their locket, or even a hand-drawn picture. If you have several children you want to keep close to you while you’re apart, you could opt for a three- or four-image locket to include a photo of each child.
40, 50, 60+, the New 30, 40, 50+
As you move into later periods of life, jewelry may take on a new meaning. By now, you may have built a wonderful collection of jewelry that reflects all the twists and turns you’ve experienced. So the kind of jewelry you’ll likely be most interested in as you get older will be heirloom pieces: Jewelry that hold significance, whether monetary or purely sentimental, and can ultimately be shared with your children and grandchildren.
It’s at this phase of your life when you may find your family expanding and flourishing as you welcome new grandchildren. Once again, multiple-image lockets are a lovely way to capture individuals in your family when you can’t necessarily be with them all of the time.
Pieces you consider heirloom jewelry are harder to define, as they vary greatly from one jewelry collection to the next. Generally speaking, heirloom jewelry will have both intrinsic monetary value as well as great sentimental significance to you. Heirloom pieces will stand the test of time and carry deep symbolic meaning for many generations to come.
Our high jewelry collection includes the stunning Teardrop Locket with Snow Quartz. It’s timeless, it’s classic, and will be as gorgeous in twenty years’ time as it is today.
Your life course told through jewelry
Whether you’re just entering adulthood or contemplating retirement, the jewelry you collect and wear will represent where you are, how you feel, your ambitions, and the memories you hold dear.
In a way, your jewelry collection you build will reflect the rich tapestry of your life as you’ve lived it: The adventures and opportunities, the challenges and successes, the relationships and losses. But what should remain are two things: first, that you invested in enduring jewelry; second, that you invested in yourself.
What stage of life are you in, and what jewelry do you find most significant? Does your jewelry collection still contain some of the pieces you started out with? We’d love you to share your experiences with us.