It is the second week of January and we just returned from a week on the coast of Mexico. We were on the east coast, south of Cancun, on the beaches of Akumal and Tulum. It was a big, full circle moment for me.

18 years ago I walked those same beaches displaying a wooden case lined with black lace where earrings of feathers, found objects and twisted wire hung, amusing tourists hoping to earn enough for dinner and maybe beer. The lacy case now hangs in the studio alongside newspaper articles featuring my work and Gemological degrees as one of my most prized possessions. Show below, Seth spray painted stencils of a Quetzal on the wooden exterior. Quetzals are a elegant, bright red and green birds found in the jungles of southern Mexico and Guatemala that I fell in love with while visiting.

My work out of that case was enough to keep me south for many months. It introduced me to the tourists purchasing my work, but also other artisans. I met itinerant silversmiths from South America whose workmanship surpassed mine in technique and price. Their pieces were gorgeous and they kindly shared their passion for this art of adornment, inspiring me to seek further techniques and increase my skill set. I studied with a few of them and eventually came home to Oklahoma, enrolling in a silversmithing class to figure out exactly which tools I needed to build a small home studio (which became the school bus studio - another story for another time). My work evolved and demand for my custom, story-telling adornments increased. We founded Dillon Rose together in 2015 as a container for our creativity, a vessel from which Seth Dillon and I could explore art and entrepreneurship together. 

How beautiful to revisit these beaches with our 12 and 9 year old children, so many years later, adorned in the kind of jewelry I only dreamt of creating back then. We visited the spot where Seth built a lean too on the beach years ago. We lived out of that little lean too for weeks, leisurely exploring the ruins, rocky cliffs and beaches while selling jewelry in the afternoons.

This will be our 10th year in business and in many ways it feels like a homecoming. We started Dillon Rose as a duo a decade ago and find ourselves here again, just the two of us. We’ve been ambitious and this has served us. Now we are reflecting on ease and flow. Acceptance is something simple, yet powerful. I am connected to the passion that inspired me to walk the beaches with my lacy case of jewels. It's the same passion that inspires me to seek a life of freedom, creativity, and knowledge today. 

We are inspired by our time in the sea to create a collection this year with the theme of FLOW. The ocean so physically and rhythmically displays the lesson that all comes and goes. Our journey as artists has taught us this same lesson in many ways. To pursue a dream is to navigate unchartered territory where things come and go - landscapes, passions, people, concepts, dreams. Keep an eye out for the FLOW collection later this year.

Seth and I share a love and appreciation for the meaningful engagement rings and tokens we create for you. Telling stories in metal and stone, adornments which connect people to their values is still such an honor. Thank you for being part of our flowing journey.