Someone is going to look at your ears today and feel something lift a little. That is what a tiny perfect orchid does. It has always done this. It cannot help it.
The Orchid
The Phalaenopsis orchid is called the moth orchid, and the name comes not from what pollinates it but from what it looks like. Those broad flat petals spread like wings, the whole flower shaped like a moth caught mid-flight, which is one of the more poetic naming decisions in botany. In their native tropical forests of Southeast Asia they grow as epiphytes, clinging to tree trunks and branches and pulling their moisture from the air, never touching the soil below.
Their seeds are almost impossibly tiny, so small they drift like dust on the wind, and they carry no food source at all. Every orchid seed that germinates does so only because a specific symbiotic fungus found it first, broke it open, and fed the tiny plant until it could feed itself. Without that fungus in exactly the right place the seed simply will not grow. It is the same quiet miracle as the pink lady slipper orchid, the same ancient partnership between a plant and a fungus that we still do not fully understand, played out in forests all over the world every day without anyone noticing.
The orchid on your windowsill came from all of that. It is more extraordinary than it looks, which is saying something because it already looks extraordinary.
The Piece
Two tiny orchid faces, each one about half an inch wide, each one built up in multiple layers of sterling silver with a real leaf pressed into the surface so every petal carries the texture of an actual leaf that once existed. The characteristic orchid shape is unmistakable even at this small scale, those broad outer petals spreading wide and the inner lip rising at the center. The whole surface is deeply oxidized so every detail reads in rich shadow and light. They sit at your ears like two orchid blooms that landed there and decided to stay.
Each pair is made to order just for you, which means each flower will be its own slightly unique orchid because that is how handmade things work and orchids in particular have always insisted on being entirely themselves.
The Craftsmanship
- Earrings: approximately 0.5 inches wide
- Material: recycled sterling silver throughout, oxidized
- Detail: real leaf impression on each petal
- Style: post studs with sterling silver backs
- Edition: made to order, each pair unique
A Note from Tamara
I made these because orchids make people happy and I wanted something small enough to wear every single day that still carried all of that feeling. There is something about a flower this delicate and this precise that feels like a small argument for paying attention to beautiful things. I hope whoever wears these looks in the mirror every morning and feels exactly that.
Shipping
Your orchids will be made to order just for you in my little studio in the New Hampshire woods. Please allow one to two weeks for them to be created. You will receive a tracking number by email so you can follow them on their journey to their new home.