Posted in Uncategorized, tagged antique, instagram live, lockets, Luna & Stella, photo on December 7, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Today’s Bonus Tidbit
Suzanne will be showing Luna & Stella antique lockets Fridays at noon (Eastern Standard Time) through December 22 on Instagram Live. Go to @Lunaandstella .
You can also see these one-of-a-kind lockets on her Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/lunaandstella/. Suzanne will size and place a photo of your loved one in the locket of your choice. A few of the antique lockets are shown below.
Suzanne’s Mom
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged birthstone, giveaway, jewelry, Luna & Stella, mother's day on May 7, 2017| 2 Comments »
I want to share a few more examples of Luna & Stella jewelry and let you know that Suzanne is offering free shipping for everything in stock if you order today.
After today, you can still get a gift to your mother in time for Mother’s Day if you order by Thursday, May 11, 2017, and use FedEx Overnight delivery.
Check out these beautiful pieces. Think about mixing modern and antique stacking birthstone rings for a uniquely personalized gift. The mother and daughter necklaces are another great Mother’s Day idea: for example, the smaller and larger suns below.
And do remember to sign up for Luna & Stella’s antique locket giveaway by tomorrow, May 8. My fingers are crossed for a blog reader to win.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged antique locket, birthstone, jewelry, Luna & Stella, mother's day on May 4, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Dear Readers, this is just a reminder that I’m Suzanne’s Mom (John’s Mom, too), and Suzanne is the founder of the contemporary birthstone-jewelry company Luna & Stella, which hosts this blog.
Mother’s Day is a big season for Suzanne, and you will be seeing her moon and stars charms and her antique lockets in magazines such as Marie Claire and on websites such as CoolMomPicks.com.
Suzanne is also giving away one of her beautiful antique lockets. Here are the rules for entering the drawing, as seen on instagram @lunaandstella:
We are giving away this sweet hand-engraved floral antique locket for Mother’s Day. 🌸
To enter
1. Follow @lunaandstella on Instagram or Facebook
2. Tag 2 friends
3. Tell us in the comments portion of this instagram post whose photos you’d put inside
Giveaway ends Monday May 8 at 3 pm EST.
I have to say, I’d be thrilled if the winner turned out to be a reader of Suzanne’s Mom’s Blog. Do consider entering the Luna & Stella drawing on Facebook or instagram.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged antique locket, birthstone jewelry, Luna & Stella, providence, valentine on January 28, 2017| 4 Comments »
Suzanne has been dolling up the studio of her birthstone-jewelry company. Would you like to see what it looks like? Margareta took the photos. I especially love the Munch-like landscape of the moon on water and the view of the river from the studio window.
Do check out the Luna & Stella website, especially if you are thinking of giving your Valentine a piece of jewelry for Valentine’s Day. Suzanne’s antique locket collection has been getting a lot of attention lately, and there is a wide variety of contemporary necklaces, bracelets, cuff links, earrings, and more, including the moons and stars that gave Luna & Stella its name.
“Who’s your moon and stars?”
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged birthstone jewelry, empathy, facing history, justice, Luna & Stella, tolerance on November 28, 2016| 4 Comments »
Suzanne (seen here with her paternal grandmother and John) sent this message to her customers today:
“At Luna & Stella, we make fine jewelry that celebrates our closest connections, the relationships between parents and grandparents, sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, sisters and brothers, partners and the friends that are our family. Â I believe those relationships are the greatest treasures we have.
“But recently I have been thinking more about the extension of these relationships — community. Specifically, I have thinking about what the role of businesses in civil discourse is and should be, and what my role as a small business owner should be in being a part of the conversation.
“I am the first to admit I don’t have all the answers. But I think we owe it to our children and communities to start somewhere. The place we are starting is with Facing History and Ourselves.  For over 40 years, Facing History has been training educators to teach empathy, tolerance, and civic responsibility through the lens of history.
“On #givingtuesday, November 29, Luna & Stella will give 20% of all sales on our website to Facing History.Â
“Thank you for your support of this important work.
“In gratitude,
“Suzanne
“P.S. Â As a thank you, use code FACINGHISTORY for free shipping on your order. Â If you are not able to shop on #givingtuesday, we will make a donation equal to 20% of your purchase all season long with this code.
“P.P.S. My friend and Facing History Los Angeles Director Liz Vogel interviewed me for Facing History’s website. Read the interview here.”
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged antique, contemporary, jewelry, lockets, Luna & Stella on November 9, 2016| 4 Comments »
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What is important to you? Who is important to you?
Today I’m thinking about all the ways we hold what we care about as close as we possibly can. Maybe we love to wear an article of clothing that reminds us of the dear friend who gave it to us. Or a ring that belonged to a great-grandmother. Or a child’s photo in a locket.
As you know, this blog appears because my daughter, Suzanne, suggested five years ago that I write a blog tied to her contemporary birthstone jewelry company and (I’m still amazed by this) basically said, “Go forth, and write about anything that interests you.” Wow.
Today what interests me is letting you know that Suzanne’s company, Luna & Stella, is now offering antique lockets that are rapidly finding a mix-and-match niche. The handmade hinges, just to mention one highlight, are nearly invisible, impossible to find today.
Dear Friends, carry what’s important with you wherever you go. In your heart. Or maybe in a locket. Get those creative juices flowing … maybe a photo of Lady Liberty would be good.
From the founder: “Luna & Stella blends its own contemporary heirlooms with antique and estate pieces. Influenced by the moon and star icons used in Victorian jewelry, Luna & Stella creates fine jewelry that is symbolic of loved ones, using birthstones and other symbols to represent the relationships between parents, grandparents, children, partners, siblings, and friends.Â
“A passionate collector of antique jewelry, Suzanne curates a selection of antique lockets and Victorian and Estate stacking rings chosen to layer with Luna & Stella’s collection of modern talismans, charms, symbols and birthstones.Â
“I love finding lockets with the original photos inside. It is a glimpse into another time and place. I wonder about the people in the photos – were they her parents? Her husband? Her children? Her sister or someone else important to her? Whoever they were, they were important to the wearer and I think it is so special that those memories have been preserved in some way, over a 100 years later. When the new owner puts in her own photos, the locket gets new life and new meaning to each caretaker.
“The url to our website is http://www.lunaandstella.com/ and to the collection of lockets is: http://www.lunaandstella.com/collections/vintage-locket-collection. Not all of the pieces you have are online, yet but they will be by Nov 15. Clients can customize the lockets with a new or antique chain, and charms from our or their own personal collections.”
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Association of Rhode Island Authors, boston, boy, concord art association, fishing, Holly Harrison, hope anchor, Luna & Stella, mfa, museum of fine art, postaday, providence, rhode island foundation, Rivers and Revolutions, sudbury river, waterplace park, yellow warbler on April 25, 2016| 2 Comments »
I’m bummed that I couldn’t get my video of the giant red lotus to load. I can provide a still shot, but the flower outside the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston does more than look big — it opens and closes with a goofy clatter. Audrey II from the Broadway show Little Shop of Horrors has nothing on this hilarious monster.
A few blocks away, speaking of clatter, is the mechanical clock that graces Mass College of Art.
At Concord Art, where Mary Ann’s friend Holly Harrison curated a fascinating show on birds, Rivers and Revolutions students from Concord Carlisle High School had a small exhibit of their own — featuring a giant yellow warbler (in sneakers) and a nest complete with appropriately spotted eggs.
Next is Waterplace Park in Providence, where I was once again tempted by shadows. Note how interesting the streetlamp looks stretched out on the staircase. The state emblem with “hope” and an anchor reminds me to tell you that Suzanne sells an anchor charm at Luna & Stella and donates $5 of the sale of every anchor to the Rhode Island Foundation, now celebrating its 100th year.
My favorite photo here is the little boy on the banks of the Sudbury River, where he has just pulled in a nice bass, his fourth fish of the day. I took a bunch of photos of the boy and his dad, but this was the only one that made clear you are actually looking at a fish.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged attleboro, birthstone, birthstone jewelry, bracelet, Charmaine Gahan, concord journal, families, friends, hinge, jewelry, locket, Luna & Stella, luna and stella, mama + me, mama and me, mother's day, new york, playtime, postaday, providence, trade show, vintage on April 7, 2016| 2 Comments »
Imagine how chuffed I was to see this article about Suzanne by Charmaine Gahan!
A close friend since kindergarten, Charmaine has been a huge support to Suzanne and the birthstone-jewelry company that hosts this blog, Luna & Stella.
In a delightful report, Charmaine describes how her whole family joined Suzanne’s family in New York City over school vacation to lend a hand at the Playtime trade show, a big deal for promoting new products to retail shops around the world.
Among the highlights of Suzanne’s growing collections are sweet Mama + Me bracelets, just in time for Mothers Day (May 8), and some stunning vintage lockets.
Notes the website, “All of the lockets in the Luna & Stella Vintage Collection were made in Providence, East Providence or Attleboro between 1880 and 1940.”
Why vintage mixed with contemporary? That’s kind of an interesting story, too, being the result of a hunt for beautiful hinges to use in new lockets. After the long search, Suzanne concluded that they just don’t make smooth and subtle hinges like they used to.
But sometimes an apparent dead end can lead to even better ideas, and Luna & Stella’s cool mixing of old and new seems to be an idea that is catching on.
At the Concord Journal (here), you can read more about the two friends and their families working the trade show in New York during the coldest week of the year.
Photo: Charmaine’s girls join Suzanne to look over the Mama + Me collection from Luna & Stella.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Akito Akagi, Amy X. Wang, birthstone, book buying, charms, design, Hans Christian Andersen, japan, jewelry, Luna & Stella, Mimei Ogawa, Morioka Shoten, one book, postaday, quartz, relationships, Takram/Miyuki Kaneko, tiny bookstore, tove jansson, Yoshiyuki Morioka on March 17, 2016| 2 Comments »
Well, this is a new one on me: a bookstore that sells only one title at a time.
Amy X. Wang reports at a website called Quartz that in September 2014, “Yoshiyuki Morioka, a bookseller who had been running a store in Tokyo, Japan, for 10 years, had a curious thought. Lots of customers, it seemed, dropped in during book launches and other events to buy the same title; others often appeared overwhelmed by all the extra variety. So why not start a bookstore that only sold one book at a time?
“Now, Morioka Shoten — Morioka’s new venture that threw open its doors in Tokyo’s trendy Ginza shopping district in May 2015 — operates around that very principle. The store stocks multiple copies of only one carefully selected tome each week …
“Takram, the design engineering firm that helped Morioka put together the look of his new store, says the experience highlights ‘the importance of a physical venue in the era of digital reading.’
“Books that have been displayed so far include Swedish-Finnish author Tove Jansson’s The True Deceiver, Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales, and works from well-known Japanese writers like Mimei Ogawa and Akito Akagi. Each title is displayed for six days in a row—Tuesday to Sunday—and then swapped out for a new book.
“And things are going quite well at the quiet little store. According to Morioka, Morioka Shoten has sold more than 2,000 works since it opened. Proof, then, that readers seeking deep, personal relationships with physical books are still around across the world.” More here.
You know, that last sentence strikes a chord. I was just explaining to a friend today how this blog resulted from my daughter asking if I would apply my love of blogging to support the vibe of the jewelry company she founded, which emphasizes deep, personal relationships.
If you’ve never clicked on the Luna & Stella site (or even if you have), please do now. Suzanne and Erik have posted a steady stream of new birthstone-jewelry designs and charms over the five years I’ve been blogging. Each one is full of meaning.
Photo:Â Takram/Miyuki Kaneko
The one-room bookstore Morioka Shoten in Tokyo
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Amalsaad, artisan, birthstone, craft, family, Gujarat, handmade, heart, india, jewelry, little paisley people, Luna & Stella, mother-daughter, new york, new york now, newyorknow, playtime, playtimenewyork, postaday, relationships, rings, trade show on February 15, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Trade shows have been helpful to Suzanne’s birthstone-jewelry company, Luna & Stella, as it branches out from being strictly online to selling to retail outlets like Talulah Cooper Boutique in Providence.
A couple weeks ago, Suzanne took Luna & Stella to the trade show NewYorkNow (“the market for home, lifestyle + gift”). Today, she is making an impression at PlaytimeNewYork — while making friends with other relationship-oriented businesses, like Little Paisley People.
I love how the founder of Little Paisley People describes the origins of her business: “I spent the most memorable summers of my childhood in Amalsaad, a quaint village, in Gujarat, India. … I grew up watching my mom work with the local artisans to hand-make toys that would support the local community. Those are the toys you also see in the Little Paisley People line. And that’s the logo you see – the passing on of the thread over the generations. …
“We create handcrafted lifestyle products for children, never forgetting that kids need to be kids. The handmade nature of these products evoke an understated elegance but are always playful. Social responsibility, the people who make these products, and how they make them are very important to us.”
Here, she and her daughter model Luna & Stella’s mother-daughter heart rings. How nice that new businesses are emphasizing the importance of family and friend relationships!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged acrylic, art, birthstone jewelry, concord, contemporary, ireland, juried, locket, lorraine sullivan, Luna & Stella, maggie stern, medicine cabinet, members, meredith fife day, postaday, sculpture, seamstress, vintage, vintage linen on January 22, 2016| 2 Comments »
Art: Maggie Stern
“Fish for Supper”
Concord Art has mounted a juried show of member works. I have been twice this week. It’s accessible and stimulating.
When you first enter, you hear a strange clattering and turn to see a beat-up old medicine cabinet with vintage pill bottles inside that are rattling around like ghosts. Very amusing.
My former boss, Meredith Fife Day, had two lovely country scenes in acrylic from her travels in Ireland, and she was the one who reminded me to see the show.
I took a photo of Maggie Stern’s playful “Fish for Supper,” above. Stern says, “What I love most about art is that you get to make up the rules.” I Googled her and found that she has connections with the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Mass., and has excelled in a variety of artistic realms, including illustrating children’s books and making kits for crafty folks to reproduce her original stitchery.
I was also drawn to Lorraine Sullivan’s use of vintage linens. There must be something in the air about vintage. I’ve been doing a little prospecting (along with Erik’s mother) to add to Suzanne’s new vintage locket collection at Luna & Stella, and have learned that the idea of mixing vintage with contemporary birthstone jewelry is quite popular.
In fact, all sorts of vintage items are being cherished now, to the point that it was not only wonderful but a bit painful to see how Sullivan used her seamstress grandmother’s handiwork in the piece below. Creative destruction. Happy-sad.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged arc relief, birthstone jewelry, contemporary, food bank, granola project, local business, locket, Luna & Stella, postaday, providence, rhode island, shopsmall, small business, talulah cooper, trunk show, vintage on November 27, 2015| 2 Comments »
If you are a consumer these days, after Black Friday comes Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday. I do love Giving Tuesday as there are so many worthy causes to choose from, and you don’t have to go farther than your computer to donate. This year I am torn between a food bank I admire and my favorite refugee nonprofit, although I do love the Granola Project. Maybe I will do something for all three.
But tomorrow is Saturday, and I am headed down to Providence to help Erik with the kids while Suzanne has a Luna & Stella birthstone-jewelry trunk show at Talulah Cooper Boutique on Traverse St, just off Wickenden (12 pm to 5 pm).
While we are on the subject of Luna & Stella (the parent of this blog) you should know that now through Cyber Monday (November 30, 2015) only, you can get 40% off all earrings, plus $20 off orders over $100 anywhere on the website — with code SHOPSMALL.
This season, Suzanne is into mixing her jewelry with some vintage lockets she has found. The ones in the picture are all from the Greater Providence area, long known for jewelry making. 
Photo below: Rhode Island Foundation
A Luna & Stella trunk show pictured in a profile at “Our Backyard,” which features Rhode Island people and businesses, here.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged birthstone jewelry, drawing, giveaway, instagram, Luna & Stella, necklace, postaday, qatar, rings on October 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »
You know this blog is connected to my daughter’s birthstone-jewelry company Luna & Stella, right?
Well, today I am passing along a Luna & Stella promotion in case you would like to follow Suzanne’s company on Instagram and get a chance at a $50 gift card. As a Luna & Stella Instagram follower, you’ll also get $10 off your first order with Suzanne (use the code INSTA10).
If you are not already on Instagram, you can sign up here, https://instagram.com/.
I liked this day-in-the-life small business story that Suzanne put on Facebook today:
“A customer in Qatar who had special ordered our 14K gold Constellation Stacking Birthstone Rings for his wife to celebrate the arrival of baby due in November, emailed us on the way to the hospital last night: ‘The baby is coming now! Can we change the birthstone?’
“No problem, we said, we are always happy to make adjustments for babies who don’t arrive on schedule.
“In celebration of ‪#‎octoberbabies‬ everywhere, we are doing an ‪#‎IGgiveway‬. You can win a $50 credit to our store.
“To enter:
“1. Follow us on Instagram
“2. Tag a friend
“3. For an extra entry, tell us who is your moon & stars, and what piece you’d buy to represent them!
“That’s it! Giveaway will end on Tuesday 11/4 /15 at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.”
Photo shows the angel wing charm. See all the jewelry at Luna & Stella, here.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bargain, birthstone jewelry, brooklyn flea, jewelry, juried, Luna & Stella, luna and stella, postaday, providence flea, rhode island, suzanne on September 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »
If you are in Providence on Sunday, do stop by the flea market and see what Suzanne is selling. As she writes on the Luna & Stella website, bargains will be had.
“My husband gazing at a tray of rings I have prepared for our first sample sale, asks, what’s wrong with them?
“What’s wrong with them? Â Well, nothing. Â A slightly included emerald, a band that came in a millimeter to wide or too flat, a bale a tiny bit too large, a style we decided not to put in the assortment because we already had something similar.
“They’re beautiful, he says.
“We are having our first ever sample at the Providence Flea at 345 South Main Street in Providence this Sunday, September 13.  If you have never been to the Flea, it’s a outdoor juried market inspired by the wildly popular Brooklyn Flea. We love the vintage/modern mix of the Flea, and the idea a shopper could find a great vintage charm from one of the other sellers and mix it on a necklace or bracelet with one of our charms.
“In addition to our full price line … we’ll be selling our almost perfect samples for 50 – 80% off the original prices. Â That ring of trays you see? Â With genuine rubies, emeralds, aquamarine, etc set in sterling silver or dipped in 18K gold? Â Most will be $30, nothing over $50. Â These are prices you will never see on our website. ”
More at Luna & Stella, the contemporary birthstone-jewelry company for which I blog. (“Write whatever interests you, Mom.”)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged art walk, artist, barry chin, birthstone, California College of the Arts, DeCordova, duly noted, eryn carlson, jewelry, kate colby, Luna & Stella, participatory, poet, postaday, sculpture park, todd shalom on July 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Kate Colby (for whose offer of a room to Suzanne and Erik when they were house hunting there can never be enough gratitude) is a poet.
She came to the rescue when Suzanne was starting Luna & Stella and was having trouble finding a writer to capture the more ethereal qualities of the birthstones.
“What you need,” I said, “is a poet.”
“I know a poet!” she cried. She remembered Kate used to write copy for a catalog.
Beyond such marketing endeavors, Kate publishes poetry, choreographs offbeat theater, and co-leads art/poetry walks. An example of the latter will occur soon.
As Eryn Carlson writes at the Boston Globe, Kate is collaborating with artist Todd Shalom to offer “Duly Noted,” a participatory walk incorporating techniques from poetry, sound, and performance, at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, July 18, at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Carlson comments, “Shalom and Colby know that the very nature of tours makes it easy to overlook the ways in which artworks and their settings inform one another. … The pair created the collaborative walk ‘Duly Noted,’ a poetic exchange between participants and the Lincoln museum’s site and surroundings.
“ ‘Reading the art is apt because it’s so framed by woods and walls and water, and all this history,’ said Colby, who grew up in Wayland and lives in Providence. …
“ ‘It’s all about reframing the site,’ said Shalom, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based artist who founded Elastic City.”
At a performance in May, “participants evolved from visitors to artists and performers. Individuals gave one-word soliloquies atop a stump, announcing their visual discoveries, and, guided by a partner, wandered the grounds with eyes closed to pay special attention to the surrounding cacophony. …
“Shalom and Colby, who met while working on their master’s degrees in fine arts at California College of the Arts, planned ‘Duly Noted’ meticulously over the course of a year, visiting the deCordova several times to perfect the route, pacing, and segues. But a degree of uncertainty and room for spontaneity remained.”
This could be a fun activity on July 18 if you live in the area. The grounds of the museum offer breathtaking views and sculptures everywhere you turn. Add to that a participatory happening like this, and you have the ingredients for a memorable day.
Read more here.
Photo: Barry Chin/Globe staff
Visitors at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum on a participatory walk titled “Duly Noted.’’
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
