Persephone Collection

In honor of Zoe 12/2010-11/2022

Persephone served as a goddess of living things but also over the dead with Hades in the Underworld. “The harbinger of spring, and a reminder of all the growth and hope that it brings.”

Because she was the Goddess of Spring, Persephone was often associated with many spring-themed symbols. Wreaths of flowers, reeds, lilies, and precious gems were all associated with her in various forms. Any form of vegetation, animal, or even scent representing new life was related to Persephone in some way or another because it was only upon her return to Earth that life could go on each year.

Garnet is a gemstone commonly associated with Persephone. Due to its rich red color, this gemstone was named after a pomegranate fruit, another symbol of Persephone. Green, gold and red are colors associated with Persephone. Other colors symbolizing Persephone are black, light blue, purple, magenta, indigo, and yellow.

_____________________________________ Zoe's Story ________________________________________

This collection is very personal to me and has the most significant meaning of any of my work due to things happening in my personal life while I built these pieces. I started this collection right after my dog Zoe, my soul sister had surgery to remove cancer. The surgery was supposed to give her a year to a year and a half before it would come back, but it gave us time. I started the design process of all the pieces in a head space full of gratitude that I had more time with my best friend that had been with me through 12 years of life. Hence the depiction of flowers and petals; a simple personification of the joy and celebration of life. When I started the designs it was Fall of 2022 and I spent time planning out the next year of my travels on the road full of all of Zoe’s favorite things intending to give Zoe the best last year possible. When I took her in for her first post-surgery checkup 4 months later, her cancer was not only back but had spread and she was put on palliative care, her health declined quickly and she passed away 11 days later.

There are no words to describe the loss of anyone you have an extremely close connection with. Even though Zoe was my 4-legged fur baby, we had a very tight bond and trying to describe that connection would be hard to understand unless you’ve had the same experience with a pet. But she was suddenly gone, and it left me and Kaylee (my younger dog) in a miserable state without her. It took long months before I was able to pull this collection out and start working on it again. Looking at it, working on the pieces while I was still grieving was a challenge, I never thought I’d go through. But at some point, it started to become therapeutic. There was meaning to sitting with the grief and memories while I worked and honored the intention I had originally started with. There were a few times I had to step away again, and I have found myself having to push myself to pick up the work but when it was finally done, a year later, when I’m back in Denver again where she passed away, it all seems to have a certain poetry to it.

Somewhere during the making process while I was in the middle of nowhere in southern Utah, when I was able to sit with the grief and not feel consumed by it, the name of the collection seemed obvious. Persephone. The Goddess of life and death, the Goddess of Spring and the Underworld. The reminder that from life comes death, from death comes life.

While I sit here writing this, I cry missing Zoe with a heartache that even after a year feels overwhelming. But I feel love too. She embraced life with love and joy and gave it freely to everyone day after day bringing smiles to people everywhere we went and even though she is no longer here, I still feel it. I still remember it and that will live on with me through the rest of my life. Maybe one day our souls will find each other again but until then she carries a bit of mine with her, and I carry a bit of hers with me. Love and Loss, Life and Death.

I hope you can find beauty in these pieces and wear them and remember to honor the joy life brings and give your fur babies all the love, kisses and cuddles in Zoe’s honor when you wear them.