Turquoise & Gray earrings

There is something about Scandinavian design that is at once incredibly stylish and timeless. It seems that the further north you get, the more beautiful things are. Norwegian jewelry maker Hilde is an artisan whose work captures the exquisite beauty of the northern Nordic states. In addition to some of her more subtle pieces I now own, Hilde makes a lot of her jewelry from pearls and crystal. Her creations are elegant but reserved, and based on the earrings I posses, I have no doubt about her crafts(wo)manship and style. Personally, I’m not a pearl girl—for aesthetic and cruelty reasons—so I opted for pearl-free accessories.

The gray and silver dangling drops make me think I ought to have kept a button-up shirt in my recently downsized wardrobe that wasn’t thirty years old or made of flannel. These earrings might officially be more formal than I can fake, and if I do say so myself, I’m quite impressed with my tasteful selection.

My new turquoise earrings are reminiscent of souvenirs I picked up on childhood vacations to the Western U.S. states. The difference, of course, is that Hilde hails from Trondheim, where during these summer months, the sun hardly sets, hiding briefly below the horizon before popping up again around 2am. The maritime climate is significantly different from the sun-scorched deserts of Arizona, and in my earrings, I notice the subtle variations in regional stone. Instead of the bright, sometimes garish appearance of tourist-variety turquoise, my earrings are a blend of subtle greens, muted blues, copper, and brown.

These are the kind of earrings that will impress my mother-in-law and earn points with other teachers on the days I go in as a substitute. If it makes me a poser, at least I look fabulous while I front.

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