Wildflower Jewelry Linked to Jefferson / Bon Air Designer Says Twinleaf Line is ‘Conversation Piece’
By MARGARET GRAVES
If you’d like to celebrate the 265th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s birth today, you might consider his gifts to botany.
That’s what jewelry designer Rebecca Worth did in creating her Twinleaf collection.
Living in the Richmond area and wanting to design something special for The Jefferson Hotel, Worth wondered: “What’s a way of embracing that history?”
In researching Thomas Jefferson, “I came across the twinleaf,” she said.
The twinleaf is a wildflower whose Latin name is Jeffersonia diphylla. At the May 1792 meeting of the American Philosophical Society, Benjamin Smith Barton assigned the flower to a new genus, Jeffersonia, to honor Jefferson’s knowledge of natural history, “especially in botany and zoology.”
The perennial with simple white flowers usually blooms around Jefferson’s birthday.
“I wanted to have a piece for The Jefferson . . . and the twinleaf was perfect,” Worth said. “I didn’t know there was a flower named after him.”
Worth, who has participated in fashion shows at The Jefferson and has bridal headpieces from her other collections at The Salon at The Jefferson, shared her twinleaf concept with Loys McLaughlin, manager of the hair salon.
Then Worth took her design to Monticello, Jefferson’s estate in Albemarle County. Peggy Cornett, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at Monticello, told her that the petals needed to be farther apart.
“It was so great to work with the people who know the flowers,” said Worth, who had seen photos of the twinleaf but not the actual flower in bloom.
A couple of months ago, she started creating the jewelry in her home studio in Bon Air.
The flowers in the Twinleaf collection are hand-sculpted porcelain and embellished with peridot (a green semiprecious stone), freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals on 14-karat gold wire. The collection features bridal headpieces (which can be converted to necklaces), pendants, pins, earrings and hair ornaments.
Worth brought the Twinleaf headpiece to McLaughlin, who said, “It was the most fabulous thing I’d ever seen.”
Worth showed the rest of the collection to Jo Short, manager of Gator’s Gift Shop at The Jefferson.
“I saw it and I said, ‘I’ll take it,’ ” Short recalled. “We’ve sold the first set already . . . the first day I had it.”
Sharon McElroy, director of retail sales at Monticello, also purchased the Twinleaf collection for the Museum Shop there. “We’ve had a good response to it,” McElroy said.
Although the Twinleaf collection is designed to be an exclusive keepsake for visitors to The Jefferson Hotel and Monticello, pieces from Worth’s other collections can be found around town at Saks Fifth Avenue, Heidi Story, Compass West and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.
The collections are all part of Sylvan Spirit, the jewelry business she owns with her mother, Maureen Worth of Lexington.
Their designs are “for the woman who’s looking for art jewelry . . . looking for a conversation piece,” Rebecca Worth said.
“In our society, everything’s getting so cookie-cutter. I want to make something that speaks out and is different.”
And with the Twinleaf collection, which honors the heritage of Thomas Jefferson, “It’s fun to do something historic.”
Where to find Twinleaf collection
Gator’s Gift Shop at The Jefferson Hotel: Pins, earrings and pendants, $55-$155; (804) 649-4660
The Salon at The Jefferson: Hair ornaments and headpieces, $56- $450; (804) 649-4753
The Museum Shop at Monticello: Pins, earrings and pendants, $40- $149; (434) 984-9840 or www.monticello.org/shop
More info: www.sylvanspirit.com
Contact Margaret Graves at (804) 649-6363 or mgraves@timesdispatch.com.
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO
Originally published by Times-Dispatch Staff Writer.
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