Long Stem Pansy Earrings

Two pansies, just sitting there at your ears, completely pleased with themselves and entirely unbothered by what month it is. That is the whole pansy philosophy and honestly it is a good one.

The Pansy

The word pansy comes from the French pensée, meaning thought, which is why pansies have been tucked into memorial gardens and given as tokens of remembrance for centuries. They appear in Shakespeare, in the Victorian language of flowers where they represent affectionate thinking of someone you love, and in the hands of gardeners who have discovered that these small cheerful faces show up in April while everything else in the garden is still deciding whether it is ready.

The wild ancestor of the modern pansy was known by names so wonderful they deserve to be said aloud. Heartsease. Come-and-cuddle-me. Love-in-idleness. Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me. Tickle-my-fancy. Someone in the long history of English botany was paying very close attention and clearly having a wonderful time. The pansy is also the birth flower of February, which means it belongs to the people born in the coldest month, the ones who have always known that cheerful and stubborn are not contradictions but in fact the same thing.

The Piece

Each earring is a single pansy on a long stem, the flower hand carved in sterling silver with layered petals and that characteristic ruffled edge, the face markings rendered in careful oxidized shadow. The stem is the ear wire, two inches of smooth sterling silver that goes through your ear and sits behind the lobe while the pansy face sits happily in front. From the front you see the flower. From behind, a slender stem peeks out like a pansy growing straight from your ear, which is exactly the kind of detail that makes someone lean in for a closer look and then immediately ask where you got them.

Each pair is made to order just for you from sterling silver throughout, and each one will be its own slightly unique pansy because that is how handmade things work and pansies in particular would approve of this.

The Craftsmanship

• Earrings: approximately 2 inch stem, pansy face at front, stem visible behind ear
• Material: sterling silver throughout, oxidized
• Style: long stem ear wire with pansy face
• Edition: made to order, each pair unique, limited availability

A Note from Tamara

I made these because I wanted an earring that felt like actually wearing a flower, not just wearing a picture of one. The stem through the ear felt exactly right for a pansy, which has always had a tendency to show up in unexpected places and look completely at home there. These are available for a limited time as a celebration of spring and everything that comes with it. If you love pansies I also make long stem daffodil earrings in this same style, linked above.

Shipping

Your pansies 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.