#i'm very particular about my metal simulacra of butterflies

[rubiatinctorum]

Bees are a really popular motif in jewelry these days, it seems. They have been for a few years. I'm also seeing butterflies make a return. A couple of years ago, it was a struggle to find more than a couple of options for a butterfly necklace across multiple stores, and in gold, there weren't really options for butterfly earrings or rings. When I wanted a butterfly necklace after finishing my first degree, I had to get a bracelet charm ordered specially into the store from a catalogue. Now, if someone wanted a new gold butterfly necklace, their options in stores would be vastly expanded.

Bees have increased their numbers, too. A couple of years ago, there were small bee and honeycomb designs I saw, but now, there are larger ones, also, and more of them. It's interesting how individual bugs as motifs can trend like that. It causes me to wonder what other bugs will trend. In a couple of years, wouldn't it be cool to see more beetles, or maybe ants, or spiders? Will the selection of dragonflies expand from the few options in stores now?

What about other animals? There are often cat and dog motifs in jewelry, because they are popular with pet-owners. Didn't the elephant trend in jewelry a few years back? When I worked at a jewelry store the first time I was there, they seemed to just be phasing out the remaining pieces from an elephant trend. For my sibling's sake, I hope there is more snake jewelry soon readily available. They are right: there isn't much, except for very large pendants for very large chains, or snakes that are not close to anatomically correct. Even then, those don't have much selection either.

In a broader sense of jewelry trends, I think it would be nice to see gemstones become popular again. Pearls in irregular shapes had a moment a few years ago, so maybe something will happen to cause gemstones to do that, too. They seem to have a backseat to all-metal jewelry or pieces with diamonds or other white gemstones in the past few years. Part of my hopes for this is so selection will expand (selfish reasons) and part of it is because I wonder which gemstones other people I know would choose to wear (nosy reasons).

Maybe I'd like to wait a while before that, though. A lot of jewelry with gemstones right now is taking a shift into smaller designs than in the past few years, maybe for affordability since people are not in an economically good position overall. More pieces are also being made in silver plated with gold, like the necklace I bought on Monday. I really like it, but I hope the plating is good enough to last many years. I suppose it will be; I haven't worn the rhodium plating off of most other silver pieces I have. I like the affordability boost silver plated with gold brings, and that it allows yellow metal for larger styles to be stocked, even as gold and gemstone pieces get smaller and smaller.

I don't love thinking too much about trends in real time. I'm a little bit obsessed with trends of the past for previous decades, though. But when it comes to jewelry (of the sort that won't cause problems for my nickel contact dermatitis), there are only a few stores with a few pieces for each type of gemstone or motif each, if a gemstone or motif can be found at all at them. So, trends really dictate what a person can buy at that time, or how many hoops they'll have to jump through and how many weeks from a catalogue order they'll have to wait to get it.