Here's the true story of how our top-selling Bat Mitzvah Star of David gift in silver actually bypassed the teenage girls and went right to adults as the #1 best selling Jewish jewelry necklace.
As you already know, a very common Bat Mitzvah gift is a Jewish Star of David necklace or bracelet, which congratulates the teenage girl on her accomplishments on this special day.
It’s a day of pride, celebrations and a rite of passage into adulthood.
And a day of love.
A day also to truly love and embrace your religion.
As a designer, we often sit and doodle on paper. From the doodle comes a drawing and from that a concrete idea. Then, it is discussed with our team, where we go over the aspects, the design, the material, size and feel of what will go into the perfect piece of jewelry. (It can sometimes take up to a year to complete a pendant.)
Looking at our collection of pendants, we knew that LOVE was a popular design theme, and since we don’t only sell Judaic jewelry, we had in our existing collection a necklace that spelled the word LOVE out in letters. And the O in the LOVE was set in pave cubic zircon stones. Here's the design below:
We also had a small, sparkling Jewish star charm on a chain.
“What if we combine the two?”
“How would they look together?”
We had seen customers wearing the small Jewish star charm on a shorter necklace high up on their neckline, and some were wearing it layered with the LOVE necklace.
“What if we made the two together on one design?”
That was really how the perfect pendant evolved, looking at our customers and discussing how to combine two pieces into one.
We sat with our design team and figured out how to match up the exact proportions of the letters and the star. We wanted the necklace to be modern and made from 925 sterling silver, the material of choice that we use on the majority of our designs, and to set it with cubic zirconia stones. We choose these two materials because we know that sterling silver is a precious metal and has a very low allergy rate. It has no nickel in it and doesn’t turn one’s skin green color as brass can often do. It might be more expensive than other metals used, though not nearly as pricey as 14k gold, and there is a very long lifetime value to sterling silver, which means you can enjoy for decades and decades. So, basically, we use choose to manufacture in sterling silver.
The same holds true with cubic zirconia stones, they are the perfect imitation of diamonds, as stated in the Jewelryshoppingguide website. They do not lose their luster and continually sparkle. Others, like rhinestones, dull over time and fade, but these cz stones are almost diamond-like and do not disappoint. The combination of sterling and cubic zirconia stones also make for easy cleaning, which yes, you will have to do from time to time to maintain the beauty of your jewelry.
But, let’s get back to the design.
LOVE for love that is combined with a Jewish star. The star originally was designed with an opening, and we wanted to keep it that way. This hole, or window, was designed to represent a direct relationship to your soul. It shows a tiny hint of skin in the open or void space, and that is surrounded by the stones that let in the light, the light of G-d, Judaism, faith, and of course, love.
Each of the three letters, L-V-E are made from sterling silver and measure ¼” each, but are not set with stones. We left the “bling” to the star, taking center stage in capturing the light of the stones.
The concept and the design flows perfectly.
The love of your religious values, your heritage and pride all combined into one necklace. At first glance, you might not see the Star, which is ok. At second glance you might or just might not see it, but it’s there. It is intertwined within the words that speak about love.
Love of freedom in life
Love of others-- partner, spouse, family, children
Love of your religious values
You name it, love intertwines in a perfect celebration of life. From a young teenage girl that is celebrating her first "big day" as a rite of passage into Judaism, to a graduate from high school ready to take on the "world" and even to a mom on Mother's Day.
And finally, we offer this design not only in sterling silver, but also in plated gold-- either yellow or rose-colored gold. If you want to learn more about plated gold and how to care for it, we’ll refer you to our blog post that will explain the process better to you.
So, we started this blog by telling you how the most-popular Jewish Star necklace went from Bat Mitzvah gift to adults.
How did it evolve? Honestly, we don’t know. I think a very smart mother actually raided her daughter’s jewelry box after her Bat Mitzvah and put it on, but I have no proof of that.
All I know is we sell more of the LOVE and Star necklaces to adults now than thirteen-year-old girls.
Now, you may perhaps be asking yourself, "What if silver isn't my thing, and I want the piece in 14k gold?"
We've got you covered.
Designed in solid 14k white, yellow or rose-gold with .06ct full-cut diamonds, it's nothing less than absolutely stunning. The edges of the star all sparkle with real diamond stones, and have the same opening to your soul as the silver one does.
Both necklaces, either in gold or silver are designed with two lengths that you can easily adjust from 16” up to 18". It's so easy to do-- just move the clasp to a longer piece of chain that sits flush with the necklace and is located at the back part of the necklace. If one day you might be wearing a lower cut shirt or dress, and want the chain to lay a bit longer then wear it at 18". Another day you might have on a different cut shirt, and you'll find that if you pull it up a bit higher to 16", it will match that look of your outfit better. The ease of being able to adjust the length is not only comfortable but makes styling a breeze. The young girl above is wearing her 14k gold chain at 18".
Maybe we answered the question of how the youthful-looking love and star necklace went from Bat Mitzvah teen to adult, maybe we didn’t.
Truth be told, I think we didn’t. I think the piece of jewelry, originally thought of as a teenage piece of jewelry, was actually designed as a practical and meaningful piece of jewelry without even realizing it. Maybe it’s a just a design that speaks to you, that touches you and evokes a message that is stronger and more direct than a present to be gifted for an event.Maybe it’s just pretty and what is age anyhow?
We’ll let you decide.
And if you’d like to see the necklace yourself, on your neck, let us know.
We offer free shipping, great customer service and if you’re not loving the piece after you have purchased it, return it to us for a full refund. It's also sold on Amazon Prime and this is the link here.
We’ll let you be the judge.
Check the silver design out at this link and the 14k gold one at this link.