Heart with Wings Necklace
The inspiration for creating jewelry comes from many sources. However, personal emotional pain is perhaps the hardest form of inspiration.

Amy Sweetman, the artisan behind Anatomology's anatomy jewelry collection, found solace in the designing of her pieces when her long, and seemingly forever marriage came to an abrupt halt.

Her anatomy based designs is partly because she is a psychology professor specializing in neuroscience. But her heart, spine and brain pewter charms in her jewelry symbolizes who she is and what she has gone through.

The first design she tackled was the heart because it symbolized to her the emotional pain and the hollowness in her chest. The brain represents her academic work and the spine, fortitude to get through this traumatic episode of her life.

It's easy to see the progression of her emotional healing in Amy's collection. She names and includes a thoughtful quote for each design. The Heart in Hand jewelry set was about trust as in "I give you my heart."


The Mortality necklace was "a tribute to life's impermanence and sense of urgency. One day all that will be left of us will be the bones we leave behind."



The Knife Through the Heart Necklace below recalls pain. "If you can manage to wade through the curse of pain, when you reach the other side, you will see it brought a gift that could not have been gained any other way."


These are her Courage and Fortitude necklaces symbolized by the spine and vertebrae elements.


Her Heart and Mind necklace speaks of "Harmony - Inner strength is developed by learning to harmonize the yearnings of the heart with the demands of the mind."


The Heart with Wings Necklace (shown at the top) must surely represent the lightness she felt when she finally came to terms with the demise of her marriage. Amy said in an email to me, "It was quite a process, but I feel good about myself for the way I have handled all of it."

Amy, you are an inspiration yourself to have come this far and to have created such a unique jewelry collection!

Other anatomy inspirations:
For more tutorials check out my Jewelry Making Tips

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