People often ask me about the creative process for Opera Bracelets. Well, it’s comparable to scoring a goal in soccer (my husband is a huge soccer fan). Sometimes, a ball magically makes it into the net from half way across the pitch, but other times, the ball has to touch 22 pairs of legs before it finally makes its way across the line.

So, here is the story of the “Violetta Valery” Bracelet (Inspired by Verdi’s La Traviata), which was designed in that magical swooshing right into the goal manner:

A customer and I were chatting; she was about to attend a performance of La Traviata and we were talking about the character of Violetta. It suddenly seemed absurd to me that there was no Violetta Bracelet. I knew I would want to use purple as symbolic of Violetta’s name and pearls to give an old fashioned feel evoking her era. A flower charm would represent the flower she gives to Alfredo at the beginning of their love affair and a cameo was to symbolize the portrait she leaves to Alfredo upon her death. But the bracelet needed something else… something to really say “Violetta”.

I have heard it said that Violetta is the only character in La Traviata to understand what love is. Not long after letting love for Alfredo into her heart, Violetta sacrifices her limited days of happiness for someone she doesn’t even know. At the beginning of the opera, she actually avoids and denies the possibility of love, but by the end as she gives her remaining money to the poor and reflects on Alfredo and Germont without bitterness, we experience her loving, compassionate soul completely.

So, I needed a heart charm… and they are SO many. Often, the choice of a heart charm is agonizing; it may take hours or days to find just the right way to express this simple and all-encompassing concept (That’s when that metaphorical soccer ball is bouncing on everyone’s legs). But on this day, there was divine providence: I immediately hit on the perfect heart charm. It had the word “love” engraved on it in three languages. English (most of Opera Bracelets’ customers are English speakers), Italian (for the language of the opera) and French (the language of the setting). If that wasn’t enough, the reverse of the charm had a flower made out of purple stones.

And that was how the Violetta Valery Bracelet came to be! Click here to see the final product…