Monstera Deliciosa Dangle Earrings

The monstera on your windowsill is doing something extraordinary and you know it. The leaves keep getting bigger. The fenestrations keep getting more dramatic. Every new unfurling is an event worth stopping for. You have started checking on it every morning the way you check on a very good book you cannot put down. These earrings were modeled after exactly that kind of plant.

The Monstera

Monstera deliciosa is native to the tropical rainforests of southern Mexico and Central America, where it grows as an epiphyte, climbing trees and reaching toward the canopy with leaves that can grow to nearly three feet across in the wild. Young plants produce small whole heart-shaped leaves with no fenestrations at all. As the plant matures and establishes itself the leaves begin to develop their characteristic splits and holes, each new leaf more complex and more fenestrated than the last.

Nobody entirely agrees on why monstera leaves develop their fenestrations. The leading theories include allowing wind to pass through without tearing, enabling light to reach the lower leaves growing in the shade of the canopy, and helping rainwater reach the roots below. Whatever the reason the result is one of the most distinctive and beloved leaf shapes in the plant world, immediately recognizable and endlessly reproduced in art and design, which tells you something about how deeply people respond to a plant that gets more interesting the longer it lives.

There is also a life lesson somewhere in a plant that starts simple and whole and becomes more extraordinary the more it has been through. The holes are not damage. They are experience. They are what happens when something is given enough time and light and care to become fully itself.

The Piece

A real leaf was pressed directly into the recycled sterling silver so that every vein you see is a permanent record of an actual leaf growing in my yard in the New Hampshire woods right now. The characteristic fenestrations are pierced through by hand, every hole and split cut individually, the whole leaf twisted slightly the way monstera leaves naturally angle themselves toward the light. A twisty coiled stem finishes the top of each leaf, that same unfurling scroll shape of new monstera growth. The surface is deeply oxidized so every vein and edge reads in rich detail.

Each earring is approximately 0.75 inches wide and hangs approximately 1.5 inches from the ear wire. Every pair is made to order just for you from recycled sterling silver, and each one will be its own slightly unique leaf because that is how handmade things work and monstera leaves in particular are always slightly different from each other.

There is also a matching necklace pendant and stud earrings available in the shop if you would like to build a full set.

The Craftsmanship

• Earrings: approximately 0.75 inches wide, 2 inch drop from ear wire
• Material: recycled sterling silver throughout, oxidized
• Detail: real leaf impression, hand pierced fenestrations, twisted stem
• Style: French wire dangle earrings
• Edition: made to order, each pair unique

A Note from Tamara

I have been watching my monstera grow and change for years now and I find it endlessly satisfying. Every new leaf that unfurls is slightly different from the last, a little bigger, a little more fenestrated, a little more itself. I hope whoever wears these feels that same quiet joy of watching something beautiful become more itself over time. That plant deserves to be worn.

Shipping

Your monstera earrings 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.