Earrings have been playing second fiddle to gigantic necklaces for a few seasons now. It's kind of a shame, since in the grand scheme of things they can upgrade a look they way few other players in the jewelry box can. Rediscovering the joy of big earrings is awesome, especially when they're gorgeous wooden mini-sculptures like Rachel Gilmans'. A stylist by trade, Gilman's blog has been our go-to spot for style inspiration for a while. She often sources out super rare '90s photos of the likes of Karen Mulder and Vanessa Paradis late in to the night, or digs up unseen Madonna pics. She's an insomniac, so blogging is almost like sleep therapy.
She initially started crafting jewelry a couple of years, and custom-made earrings for a tie-dye fashion story she was styling. The pieces didn't quite hold-up the entire shoot, but they did end up being the prototypes for the master jewels she makes now, which are all still lovingly hand-made and hand-painted. Her influences are a hodgepodge of all the things closest to her heart—art deco, '80s fashion and her parents collection of extensive Southwestern folk art. Joan Collins recently said that earrings are the most flattering jewelry a woman can wear, and in Gilman's hands, they're the funnest too.
