Sky-Earth, Down East Buoy Necklace

My Wife’s Go-to Necklace
Sky Earth, Down East Buoy Necklace
…and Earrings

We all have our favorites: a favorite sweater, favorite jeans, favorite shoes. Favorites are feel-good comfortable. Favorites are the easy choice and some days the easy choice is the best choice.

I asked my wife why she likes this necklace: “I love the color combination,” she said. “It feels summery. I wear a lot of blue and white and it goes great with those colors. It’s casual. It’s fun. I love Maine and I do like lobster rolls. The necklace is a nice size. It shows up well.” -S.P.

Sky Earth
Down East Buoy Necklace

Depart any harbor, sail along our rocky coast, lobster buoys dot the sea with the colors of Easter eggs and Christmas ornaments…an ocean of bobbing color. Sterling silver with an adjustable 16 – 18-inch chain. Silver buoy swings freely with its bell-clapper handle. Everything’s in motion; it’s totally kinetic.

Lobster Pound

I remember in the 1950s when Crescent Beach’s Kettle Cove had a lobster pound, a big brown shingled building. The tides washed in under the building. There were splashing sounds of salt water pumped into and out of the tanks. It was, to a five-year-old, a mysterious place. It was dark, cool, and smelled of lobsters, seaweed, and saltwater. It was seven minutes away from our summer cottage. We went there several times a summer. The big looming structure, the men in yellow oilskins and black rubber boots, the smells and sounds all mixed together with a sense of summer and the 4th of July and fireworks. At checkout, it was not, “Paper or plastic?” It wasn’t even, “Do you want seaweed with your lobster?” It was simply, “That’ll be $11.18.”

This is a painting we own of a lobster shack, probably a real place somewhere on the coast of Maine. However, today, it could be someone’s summer house. The buoys are such an awesome symbol of summer. – R.H.P.

You’ve Been There

As time passes, our symbols of the coast become fewer and farther apart. There are, though, those fleeting moments… You’ve been there when you stood on the island or this point of land, full sun, sea breeze, and there, at the corner of a building, old wooden lobster buoys hang. There before you is a vast blue ocean, a lobster boat, and three gulls soaring. You feel it at that moment. The blue sky, the blue sea, the whitecaps. Blink once, turn around, and it’s gone…but you remember.

Our Lobster Buoy necklace captures those Maine moments by the sea. When you wear it, you’ll feel again what you felt.

You Will Be Noticed

This buoy is pure magic. It’s Sky Earth. the upper part is turquoise blue – a summer sky blue, pure light blue between bands of sterling silver. The Earth part of the buoy is as though one was looking at Earth from outer space and the continents and seas were seen through a blue haze. It’s like a map viewed from far away. This Earth part of the buoy is always variable. The map-like patterns are frozen on every buoy. The maps are part of the magic of this piece.

This detail is a bit unusual; the handle of the buoy is on a swivel ring. A real buoy handle is solid and is attached. On our necklace and earrings, the buoys hang down, the handles are free to swing around. This is part of the charm of these pieces, the unusual free-moving parts.

The necklace is big and will be noticed as you wear it. It’s a way of declaring your connection and affinity to Maine without wearing a lobster or lobster trap. Be ready to talk about where you hang out in Maine. when somebody comments on your necklace, ask them about their favorite places.