Cartagena Collection
A Colorful Escape
Last year, Craig and I took a trip to Cartagena, Colombia—an ancient, walled city bursting with texture, color, and life. We were invited by our son and daughter-in-law, Carter and Ruby, who needed some help with childcare while Carter was a groomsman in a local wedding. As most of you know, my husband and I have been bitten by the travel bug and any excuse will do - so this sounded like the perfect job for Nanna and Pops!
First Impressions of Cartagena
Neither of us had been to Colombia before, and the moment we arrived, we knew it was going to leave a mark. Cartagena is wildly walkable and full of personality at every turn. We lucked out with the Airbnb: high ceilings, exposed stone walls, big beams, hanging plants, layers of texture. I was in heaven!
But the thing I keep coming back to is the COLOR. Bright, sun-washed buildings in joyful primaries, clothes that feel just as alive, and the kind of street energy that makes you feel like the world is a celebration. It wasn’t quiet, and that was the point.
One thing I was not expecting was fantastic shopping. If you know me, you know I have a soft spot for good linen. We found the most incredible little menswear boutique—natural fabrics, minimal cuts—and Craig walked away with a full refresh. (The mustard trousers are chef’s kiss.)
The colors and the streets bursting with joy were inspiration on their own, but the main event that I was wholly unprepared for, a new love that blindsided me, was Colombian emeralds. My mother loved emeralds and until this trip, I never understood it. My jewelry has always been minimalistic and metal-forward. I played around with some beading in the earliest days, when jewelry was still definitively a hobby and my business hadn’t grown legs, but it never kept my attention.
I knew that I would look at emeralds on this trip — how could I not, as a jeweler… when in Rome and all that, but modernity got the better of me. Instagram knew where I was and, accordingly, my algorithm flooded with emerald content. One particular store, Lucy Jewelry, had the perfect mix of visually captivating posts and information hooks that drew me in. What can I say, I fell into a rabbit hole…
I went to bed feeling much more educated, with the thought that perhaps we would pop into one of the many (many!!) emerald stores we passed everyday. Just take a look. As fate would have it, Craig and I were walking around a half block from our Airbnb the next day, and there was Lucy Jewelry. The woman working was the very same woman from the video rabbit hole I had been in the night prior - I felt like I already knew her! I tried on a handful of incredible pieces and fell head over heels for one necklace that felt nothing like my own work—and yet layered perfectly with it. Suddenly there was a pop of color on my neck…
And suddenly I found myself loving that pop of color, wishing for more! I felt like the streets of Cartagena, in all their joyful vibrancy, had rewired my brain, and thus the Cartagena collection was born. This is an ode to color, an ode to joy, and whenever possible, an ode to my new favorite stone: emeralds.
