I designed these as the Sun was leaving the zodiac Cancer and was moving into the zodiac Leo. I finished my first pair on 7/20/22. Cancer's ruling “planet” is the Moon and Leo's ruling “planet” is the Sun. As I was making them I thought about Summer, my favorite time of the year, and my childhood days spent on the ocean beach. —Carolyn

Carolyn L. Anderson, the owner and operator of Old Cedar Native Arts, is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and an alumna of the University of Minnesota. In 2006, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in studio art and has exhibited her paintings and mixed media artwork alongside other Indigenous artists in several exhibits locally and nationally. She also has experience curating historical and contemporary Indigenous art exhibits and for 16 years, she worked for Birchbark Books in Minneapolis where she became a buyer of Native American art and jewelry. She was inspired by the beadwork that she would regularly purchase for resale at the store. In 2019, she decided to give beadworking a try and developed several of her own designs. Carolyn beads earrings with some of the tiniest glass seed beads available on the market today. Because it takes so long to finish a pair, she usually makes them on demand.