The Story of Starfish
I grew up on Key Biscayne, an island near Miami, with my head under the water, enchanted by the extreme beauty of sea life. At home, my library was dedicated to learning about these incredible animals, and the uniqueness of the starfish always stuck with me.
Even though they spend most of their time flat on the bottom, they are radially symmetric, can move in any direction, and are the consummate multitasker with each of their five arms. Better yet, if they get in trouble and one of those arms is damaged, it regenerates naturally, and finds its place once more.
I've never thought of myself as a multi-tasker, but I do see that as a strength in many of the women around me.
My Favorite Parts of this Design
The truth is, I designed my Starfish to push the boundaries of my design. I had been in love with my Bonbon design, and I wanted to create something even more complex, more perfect, so that I could fall in love again.
My Bonbon design is a complex geometry of reverse-set stones. It was my first design with reverse-set stones, and I love the unfamiliarity of this setting, and the marvelous ways that the upside-down facets reflect light. I wanted to explore what it would be like to use reverse-set stones next to right-side-up partners.
I also realized that my Bonbon design had 3-part symmetry, it was a complex geometry that could be divided into 3 parts. I love math, and I wanted to explore the next prime number for symmetry, so I wanted to see what a design with 5-part symmetry would look like.
This design decision really made it clear that I could explore the starfish as inspiration, and I even knew that I could use the reverse-set stones to represent the characteristic bumpiness of my favorite starfish, Oreaster reticulatus, commonly known as the red cushion sea star.
The third challenge was that while I love how I "hide" stones on the underside of my designs (as a silent reminder of your power, independence, and beauty), I thought it would be interesting to include a sort of peak-a-boo of these hidden stones, and give the world a hint of what lied beneath.
This ended up being fortuitous, because one of the defining characteristics of my favorite starfish are the upturned ends to each arm, which immediately marked them as the perfect place to pursue this goal.
My Starfish pushed all of the limits of my design, and I hope you love it as much as I do.