Alice & Chains Jewelry Blog

| Jewelry with a story |

It's happened more times than I can count. Emails are exchanged, we meet over Skype, talk on the phone, and sometimes we meet in person before at some point it is discovered that I am not Alice. I believe the confusion starts with my email profile popping up as Alice, but my name, Maggie, is in my email address and in the signature. I take no offense, do not want to change it, and mostly choose not to correct people because I feel it is a reminder, an honor to the legacy of Alice, me selfishly keeping her alive a little bit longer.

Who is Alice?

The name Alice in Alice & Chains Jewelry actually represents two women named Alice. My husband and I both have grandmothers named Alice who deeply impacted our lives, our ideas of family, and who we continually look towards for inspiration when raising our daughter. My only grandparent, Alice was often times more like a third parent - stepping in when my young, divorcee parents couldn't figure it out. Whether it was voiding out the negativity; recognizing and inspiring my creativity; or distracting me with countless adventures through the Illinois countryside, telling me stories about her upbringing, painting my sense of history and family.

The Alice in Alice & Chains is my legacy that I hope to adorn each client with. The beauty of re-designing and re-purposing jewelry from your life is that it adds to your heritage - just like each of us, jewelry comes in all shapes, sizes and colors, whether inherited, gifted by an old friend, leftover from a previous marriage, broken or partially lost - there is beauty in all of it. 

We all adorn ourselves with rocks and minerals, but wearing a legacy, a story, one to share with admirers and the next generation is incalculable and only grows when you repeat the story. The priceless nature of re-purposed, one-of-a-kind jewelry celebrates the love of life because it ignites flashes of memories we don't always access. Capturing and then sharing those memories can be done simply, like the ring in the above photo that I wear daily, it was previously a clip-on earring and now a reminder of smiles, Alice, and of all the things and/or people that make me.