Were you wondering why we haven't created any bracelets yet? Yeah, we were too! Bracelets have been something we've had in the works for quite some time, and we are so excited to finally get to share our collection with all of you! We have gemstone bangles and cuffs, as well as two new styles of earrings and necklaces to compliment the bracelets. To announce this big launch, Amy our designer, Anica our brand manager, Ily our model, and Rosa our photographer journeyed out to the sunny sand dunes in the California desert.
Our trip to the sandy desert was inspired by our photographer, Rosa, who recently traveled to the dunes and captured some stunning photographs of herself a few weeks prior to our scheduled BBJ shoot. The second we saw her photos, we knew our jewels HAD to be photographed there. We made a last minute change of plans and decided to take our new pieces on a road trip!
To capture this shoot... in the middle of summer... in the desert...
We woke up at 2 am and had to be on the road by 4 am. We were extremely excited for the sandy backdrop and some soft morning light and of course had to try to beat the heat, so we got a very early start on this adventure.
It was a 5 hour drive, but somehow felt surprisingly fast and driving through the desert as the sun came up was magical. When we finally arrived to our beautiful destination, we were amazed. We felt like we were on the set of a movie with so many hidden spots that were absolutely breathtaking; we did not expect this much beauty in the middle of a desert. We also did not expect the 100+ degree temps hitting so early in the morning. Or the sand flying all over us and into our eyes the entire time. Or the fact that we'd run out of water. Or how quickly the sand would get blazing hot from sun! HUGE thank you to everyone who was a part of this shoot because it was rough.
The natural light from this collection was both beautiful and blinding, reflecting off of the sand that surrounded us in all directions. Not only were the models and the jewelry getting down and dirty in the sand, but Rosa our photographer was too. She was getting all the tough angles and nailing the most gorgeous shots of our pieces glowing in the desert sun.
We were so happy Amy's husband forced her to take a whole case of water! We drank every last water bottle and definitely needed more to eat than the crackers and Lara bars that we sleepily threw into the Jeep at 2 a.m., but had to take advantage of our beautiful site for this shoot so it went well past the length of time we were expecting and ended up being about a 3 hour shoot.
Once the afternoon hit and the temps continued to rise, we decided it was time to wrap up and we rushed to the car for some AC and some shade. Good thing we left when we did, our feet were burning from the hot sand getting kicked up while hiking back up a large hill to the car. We were all wearing sandals, and the wind / sand/ heat combo was not at all kind to our poor feet. At one point, Rosa had to jump feet first into our ice cooler to cool off! We definitely were not laughing at the time, but we now have so many funny stories to cherish when looking back at these amazing photos.
When we made it back to the car, we realized that we needed to find a gas station as soon as possible, as in within 20 miles. The nearest gas station being about 20 miles away, we were hesitant to crank up the AC to cool off. Running out of gas in the middle of the desert in the summer was not exactly appealing to us at that moment! Luckily, with the car on E, starving, thirsty, tired, hot, still wearing our dresses and our jewelry, we made it. We staggered into our oasis in the desert, aka the gas station. After talking about eating healthy just hours before and discussing at length why we are all huge gluten-free/ dairy-free fans, we thought the best thing to do was to go ahead and eat some gluten and some dairy at the Wendy's that was attached to the gas station. We actually convinced the manager to let us purchase the spicy chicken nuggets weeks before they were released, a big win for the day!
We all have been laughing looking back on this day and we are so in love with the photos that we were able to capture. We wanted to share this adventure and the beauty of the desert, and hope to spread some laughter with this post! If you'd like to see our lookbook for this new collection, click here. Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts on how we are styling our newest jewels!
You can check out more of Rosa's work and follow along with her new branding projects via her photography Instagram here.