My Swelling Heart: The Joy of Seeing You Wear My Jewelry

Creating jewelry has brought me so many different kinds of joy over the years. There's the beginning, when an idea is still taking shape in my head or on paper. Then there's the satisfaction of watching it become something tangible as metal is cut, formed, soldered, hammered and finished by hand. But there's another part of being a jewelry designer that still gets me every single time: seeing someone out in the world actually wearing something I designed.

It sounds like such a simple thing. I've been designing jewelry for decades now, and thousands of CMD pieces have made their way onto hands, ears, necks and wrists all over the country. You'd think I'd be used to it by now. I'm not.

How I Fell in Love With Jewelry Design

I actually began making jewelry as a hobby while intending to pursue a completely different kind of design career. As I spent more time creating, though, my own aesthetic began to emerge. I became more confident in what I wanted to make, how I wanted it to feel and, eventually, what I wanted my life as a designer to look like.

Somewhere along the way, I realized jewelry wasn't the thing I was doing before I figured out what came next. Jewelry was what came next. My heart belonged here.

The First Time I Saw Someone Wearing CMD in the Wild

I can still remember the first time I spotted someone wearing CMD jewelry out in public. I was standing in the checkout line at Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco, looking up from my cart of deliciousness, when I noticed the woman in front of me. She was wearing my hammered oval hoops.

She had absolutely no idea that the person who designed and made the earrings hanging from her ears was standing just a few feet behind her. I didn't know her. I hadn't styled her or asked her to put them on for a photograph. She had simply gotten dressed that day, reached for a pair of earrings she loved and gone grocery shopping. My heart swelled with pride.

Jewelry Becomes Something Different Once It's Yours

I think that's what I've come to love most about making jewelry. A piece begins with me, but it doesn't really become itself until someone else starts wearing it. You stack it with rings you've had forever. You wear the same hoops four days in a row. A necklace becomes the one you reach for without even thinking about it. Eventually, it becomes part of how you recognize yourself.

Over the years, friends have texted me things like, "A woman on the bus is wearing CMD!" Clients have told me, "This stack ring is my staple, everyday piece of jewelry. I simply don't feel like myself without it." Those are the things that stick with me because that's exactly what I've always wanted CMD jewelry to become. Not something precious that spends most of its life tucked away in a box, but jewelry you actually live in.

Made by Us, Made Yours by You

Today, CMD looks very different from the little jewelry business I was building when I spotted those hammered oval hoops at Rainbow Grocery. I have a small team of women beside me, our jewelry is handcrafted in our Upstate New York production studio, and I get to design everything from the Everyday jewelry you stack and layer to one-of-a-kind Reconstruction pieces made from jewelry that has already lived an entire life.

But that feeling hasn't changed. Every once in a while I'll see a CMD piece somewhere I wasn't expecting it, or someone will send me a photograph of a ring that's clearly been worn and loved for years, and there it is again. That same swelling heart.

The Jewelry You Can't Live Without

I'm endlessly grateful that I get to make these pieces, but the real privilege is knowing they become part of your lives after they leave our hands. You wear them to work, on first dates and fiftieth anniversaries, to the grocery store and on ordinary Tuesdays. You give them to people you love. You mark chapters of your life with them. Sometimes you wear them for so long that putting them on becomes as automatic as getting dressed. That's the good stuff.

So now I want to know: Do you have a CMD piece you don't quite feel like yourself without? Leave me a comment and tell me what it is! These kinds of stories still make my heart swell, and I don't think that's ever going to change.

With love,
Colleen

 

© Colleen Mauer Designs. All rights reserved.

Published: November 15, 2012
Updated: August 23, 2026