It is a warm summer afternoon and the garden is at its most alive. The sunflowers have gone tall and the wildflowers are doing whatever they like and the amber light is coming through everything at that particular angle that makes ordinary things look extraordinary. And there, in the middle of all of it, is Marigold. She is holding a single flower stem in her paws. She is not in a hurry. She has nowhere else to be. She has found her perfect world and she knows it.
The Striped Skunk
The striped skunk's genus name is Mephitis, from the Latin word for noxious vapor, which tells you everything you need to know about how humans have chosen to think about this animal. We led with the one thing about them that is inconvenient and named them after it and largely stopped there. This is a shame because skunks are, once you actually look at them, one of the most beautiful and ecologically valuable animals in the North American landscape.
Striped skunks are native to the continent from southern Canada to northern Mexico, recognizable instantly by those bold white stripes against jet black fur, each individual's stripe pattern slightly different from every other skunk alive. They are solitary, docile, and extraordinarily reluctant to spray, preferring to give a series of increasingly emphatic warnings before resorting to their famous defense. They stamp their feet. They raise their tail. They do a little warning dance. They have given you every possible opportunity to make a better choice. What happens next is not their fault.
What they are doing in your garden is eating your grasshoppers. And your beetles. And your grubs and your crickets and your cutworms and the mice that are working their way through your vegetables. Skunks are considered highly beneficial to farmers and gardeners precisely because their preferred summer diet consists almost entirely of the insects and rodents that cause the most damage to crops and gardens. They do this quietly, at dusk and through the night, while you are inside not thinking about them. Your garden owes them considerably more credit than it is giving them.
And when they are not doing that, apparently, they are standing in wildflower fields holding a single stem and looking exactly like Flower from Bambi.
Meet Marigold
Her name is Marigold, after the warm golden flower that blooms in late summer gardens exactly where she lives, and because it is simply the right name for someone this sunny and this unbothered.
This piece began with just a skunk. The world came after, growing around her as the flowers were cut and shaped one by one by hand, no two the same, until suddenly it was clear exactly where she had always belonged. That is how the best things happen in a studio. You start with one true thing and everything else finds its place.
Marigold stands at the center of her wildflower field, her fluffy tail tucked behind her, holding a single flower stem in her tiny paws with the quiet contentment of someone who has everything she needs. The flowers surrounding her were each cut and created individually, no two alike, their petals and stems built up in careful layers across the face of the pendant. Above her a cloud filled sky drifts in gentle silver relief, wisps of breeze moving through it, and tucked among the clouds a warm amber cabochon glows like the summer sun itself, round and golden and casting that particular quality of afternoon light that makes a wildflower field look like the only place in the world worth being.
Above the main pendant, connected by a large handmade hook that clasps visibly and easily so you can always see exactly what you are doing when you take it on and off, a realistic leaf element sits topped with hand carved magnolia flowers, pressed and shaped from the same recycled sterling silver as everything else. The necklace chain itself was hand pieced, link by link, from silver that started as raw material and became exactly what it needed to be. The pendant measures approximately 2.25 inches tall by 2 inches wide. The chain measures approximately 21.5 inches long.
Every single element of this piece, the flowers, the skunk, the sky, the leaf, the magnolias, and the chain itself, was built from scratch from sterling silver that was melted down and shaped by hand into the world Marigold now lives in forever.
The Craftsmanship
- Pendant: approximately 2.25 inches tall by 2 inches wide
- Stone: amber cabochon, warm orange, sun set among clouds
- Material: sterling silver throughout, oxidized
- Detail: real leaf impression with hand carved magnolia flowers above pendant
- Chain: approximately 21.5 inches, hand pieced sterling silver
- Closure: large handmade hook clasp, visible and easy to use
- Edition: one of a kind
One of a Kind
There is only one Marigold. This wildflower field, this amber sun, this single stem held in these particular paws: they exist once. She has been waiting a long time for exactly the right person. When she finds them she will never be made again exactly like this.
A Note from Tamara
I started with just the skunk. I knew I wanted to build a world for her but I did not know what that world would look like until the flowers started coming into being under my hands, and then I just knew. This is her perfect world and she has always known it too. I named her Marigold because she belongs in a summer garden and because she has that same energy as Flower from Bambi, sweet and innocent and soft and completely at home in the natural world in a way that makes you want to be a little more like her. I hope whoever wears Marigold feels that same belonging every time they look down at her. She is holding her flower. She is exactly where she should be.
Shipping
Your Marigold is finished, packaged safely, and will be on her way to you within 3 to 5 business days.