Today I am happy to share with you, well no, I’m happy Kari is sharing with you her favorite jewelry pieces and their story. I know lovely Kari only via Instagram. She is a huge jewelry enthusiast. A reason why adore her.
I know she loves gold, her dogs, shark tooths but also much more.
Read and view below what she has to share about her jewels (and about herself!) and swoon away!
I discovered Sophie’s Made of Jewelry blog through Instagram a little over a year ago. I can’t remember now what account brought me to hers but I’ve loved discovering the jewelry designers she showcases every day. I was excited and honored when she asked me to share my story about my love of jewels and show some of my collection.
My name is Kari (@karripsoph on Instagram) and I live in the States and manage the men’s and women’s apparel product development team for a major retailer. I’ve always loved developing product and solving the problems we encounter every day to get product into the stores. As my career evolved, so did my love for fashion and styling – especially jewelry. It’s interesting that throughout my career I’ve worked with furniture, domestics, apparel, shoes and accessories but never jewelry!
I’ve loved jewelry since I was a little girl. I remember playing in my mother’s and grandmother’s jewelry boxes throughout the years like most little girls do. When my mom was young back in the 1960’s and 1970’s she always dressed up when she went out at night and that included fabulous jewels – both costume and fine. She loved big necklaces and earrings and always wore a ring on every finger. Even now in her 80’s she still wears rings on every finger when she goes out!
I also love animals and always have. Over the years I’ve been fortunate to travel to 6 different countries in Africa to photograph all the animals I’ve loved but had only seen in zoos. My obsession with Africa and animals can now be seen throughout my jewelry collection. I also recently found a box of jewelry that I wore when I was a little girl. It was interesting to see that much of my childhood jewelry was animal jewelry too! I have also co-designed some of my own pieces with a local goldsmith like my dog paw charms modeled after the actual paw prints of my dogs and my rose gold horn cuff modeled after the African antelope called the dik-dik.
I have so many favorite jewelry designers as you can imagine.
Two of my favorites though are Kathy Rose and Elisabeth Bell.
Both are available at Roseark in LA.
They both design such unique animal-themed jewelry that I
really connect with.
I never take off my Kathy Rose snake cuff, eagle tail cuff,
eagle ring and antelope ring. I also frequently wear my
Elisabeth Bell T-Rex gold tooth necklace and
Stingray barb gold necklace. I tend to pile it on as you can see!
There are many pieces on my wishlist like the Kathy Rose eagle cuff bracelet and also a Borgioni skinny handcuff bracelet. Right now though I’m working on a new project with a jewelry designer I just discovered at a local show – Susan Elnora. She designs animal-themed jewelry so when I met her we started discussing some new animal skull and skeleton pieces for both jewelry and home décor.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about my passions and seeing my jewelry collection. Thank you Sophie for inviting me to share my story!
[All images via and thanks to Kari]