Beth's passion is crafting quality, wearable art inspired by the beautiful natural landscape of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and shores of Lake Superior. Drawing inspiration from her adventures in the Northwoods, Beth uses regionally sourced agates to incorporate a literal piece of her beloved land into pendants and rings. Humans have always been attracted to the powerful and grounding nature of agates as the use of them in jewelry dates back to the Egyptians.
The land around Lake Superior is prime agate picking territory, and Beth has been taking full advantage of the treasures to be found right here in our backyard! Last fall, Beth started cutting and polishing locally harvested stones, wearing away billions of years to reveal unfounded beauty within these coveted stones.
The story begins over a billion years ago, when the Lake Superior basin was formed by massive lava flows. When the lava cooled, air pockets formed. Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, cracks developed in the cooled lava. As quartz liquids flowed through the cracks, the air pockets became filled, and the liquid hardened slowly. One layer at a time, fortifications formed.
During the ice ages, giant glaciers tilled up and deposited sand, dirt, and stone, bringing these treasured agates to the surface to be distributed across our landscape by waterways—like rivers and lakes.
Beth has also begun creating new jewelry featuring agates that she found and cut here at our shop in Marquette, Michigan. You can watch a video of this process, as seen on the Upper Peninsula's "Discovering." Beth was featured again last year on Discovering, and you can see that video as well, here.
Come on by the shop! We would love to show you these new pieces, and discuss the whole process from picking up the raw stone, all the way through setting it into a one-of-a-kind piece of wearable art.
We will still be carrying stones sourced from other areas surrounding Lake Superior, to find Beth's agates on our website make sure to check the "details" section of the listing. We will make sure to let you know!
It took over one billion years, fire, ice, searching, grinding and polishing for your agate to finally make it to you. By owning a piece of our shared past, you will carry the energy and fortitude that an agate represents through our shared future.
My son and I made sure to get this for my fiancé it really shows her love for the UP! Everyone comments on the rustic look because it’s one of a kind!
My husband bought this for me in an aquamarine for my birthday. I love the uniqueness of the ring. The birch etching goes throughout the entire band. He knows I love me a birch tree and picked out the perfect gift. Packaging and shipping were on point.
they are a present for my grandaughter out in Wyoming-i'm going to give them to her next week. i think they're great-we'll see what she thinks..
This is a cute personalized Valentine pendant.
don't know how you get that much detail into such a small area thewy were a big hit. thanks again.
My wife loves Cickadees and she loves these perched on the beautiful copper ring which highlights the delicate silver birds.
Got this for my sister and she loved it. Reminds us of our mother and grandmother’s love of this tiny creature.
This pendant is absolutely precious. It was a perfect Valentine gift. The lovebirds and carved heart with initials made it very special. Hats off to Brooke on this darling design.
I love all the details on this piece, especially the "imperfect" notches around the edges. It looks beautiful with or without initials, but I love my personalized version.