If you’ve been following us on our long, long ride across the desert, you know how expansive it is. Vastly empty and dry, with only cactus and a few hardy plants to break up the flat, barren land. Pitch-black darkness at night, with a sea of stars.

For the past few months, this scenery and experience has greatly inspired me, and I’ve been thinking about and working on ways to incorporate this part of our journey into one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry.

In Far West Texas, I collected red-brown wild grasses. I saved the inner tubes that popped after we rolled over cactus and goat-head thorns, and all the maps of our exact route. I merged them with sterling silver and copper, with images of hills and cactus. And I’ve been ever-so-slowly working on them at campgrounds and homestays over the past few months.

I’ve listed the first few pieces in my etsy shop. If you’re interested, take a look. I’ll be working on a few more desert-inspired pieces in the next little while, before moving on to the inspiration in Texas and the South.