Design This – Retirement Gift

One of my son’s former and really awesome teachers retired earlier this year. My dilemma was trying to decide what she might enjoy and use post retirement. She was very involved with Math – Science competitions as a teacher, but it didn’t feel right to contemplate gifting math or science geek jewelry as she was leaving teaching. I decided to contact a friend of hers to see what some of her favorite things were so that I could put together something that would fit with her post teaching likes.

I was told that this teacher loved all things related to the ocean and that purple iris were her favorite flower. I also remembered that she had purchased a pearl and amethyst bracelet from me a few years earlier. I pondered what to do with this information as I looked through my jewelry supplies and photos that I had taken.

I found two images of purple iris in my photos. A couple of days later while at another friend’s house, I saw that she had two different purple iris blooming. I asked if I could come back and take some photos for a project that I was working on. I came back later that afternoon and took several shots of each type of purple iris. That gave me four different types of purple iris to work with, perfect for a set of note cards. These flower images were a delight to work with and I came up with one image of each type of purple iris for each card of a four card set. While working with the images I also came up with a wide variety of digital variations that I will be printing and matting as photographic art.

During the process of developing the iris note card set, I found some great double sided seahorse charms while I was at a trade show. I already had some spherical amethyst beads and pearls that I paired with the seahorses to make a pair of earrings to go along with the purple theme and this teacher’s love of the ocean.

If you need a special gift for someone on a special occasion, I’d be happy to brainstorm a custom solution for your gifting needs.