WISH Wear: Something Special to Remember Your WISH

As promised, we will be featuring three women whose work has inspired us and who we have invited to become a part of this project with us.

Meet Joanna Szkiela:

She’s the founder of www.gotoredsofa.com. Before I met her, I met her jewellry and fell in love. When I ran into Joanna at a local art fair, then I bought Christmas presents for all the women in my life. You can check out her site and you’ll see some what I’m talking about.

At the art fair last winter, I told Joanna about WISH and asked if she’d be interested in doing a special piece for our ladies. Something to anchor and inspire them throughout the year. I was honored and delighted when she agreed to do it. About a week ago, Joanna came by to bring me the first finished piece, and I haven’t taken it off since.

I love it. I love wearing it. I love knowing what it stands for, and I love all the compliments I get from people who see it on me and wonder what it’s all about.

Here’s a little explanation about the pieces and their significance. This is our “official” WISH necklace:

This necklace is inspired by the idea of making our dreams come true–in essence, the whole underlying message of WISH! We’re trying to inspire women to rekindle the wishes they had when they were young and help them find the inspiration to make it all happen.

This necklace has 3 charms:

The Root.

Every dream takes root (is grounded) in our past experience and draws its strength from who we are. It is nourished by  our aspirations for something better and grows from there. The first element of this piece is the root/branch which symbolizes those first beginnings of the dreams we have held and do continue to hold.

The Dandelion.

The dandelion element symbolizes the desire to make the dream true – as we make a wish and blow. I still take dandelion seedlings and blow them into the wind, but some years ago, I must have just let go of the element of making a wish while doing it. This element of the piece takes the wish and blows it out into the wind where it multiplies. Think of all the seedlings in that dandelion.

The Honeycomb.

The honeycomb made by the hardworking bee symbolizes commitment and perseverance. The bee is known for its hard work and this little piece of honeycomb represents the idea that we do need to work at our dreams to make them real – then, just like the dedicated honeybee, we too can transform the mundane into the marvelous and make our dreams come true.

There’s another picture of this piece on someone’s hand so you can see the size. It falls perfectly on the chest. I took a couple pictures of it on me, but the lighting wasn’t great and I feel it just doesn’t do the piece justice. We’ve made this piece available for you to order, and I’m putting a personal guarantee on this one.

If you order the piece and you do not like it, just send it back and we’ll refund your money no questions asked. Honestly, I’ll buy it back! This piece was made with so much love and has been designed to take the wisdom of this entire event and capture it in a symbolic and artistically stunning piece of jewelry that you can keep with you as a constant reminder of all you’ve learned during WISH and as a reminder to you to live your dreams and persist in making them come true. As soon as you feel all the love that has gone into it, I know you’ll never want to take it off!

You can order this piece of jewelry here.

Part of the reason Joanna was willing to invest in this project is because she took a huge leap of faith in order to make it happen. She left the corporate world to pursue her dreams and now Red Sofa is how she engages fully in living her passion. We wanted to choose three women and highlight the work they do as an inspiration to all of us to live our dreams and pursue our passions.

We really hope you’ll support Joanna and get yourself this incredible gift. Just so you know, with all three of the women we’ll be featuring as part of this project, we will not be making a profit by promoting their work. All the money goes to the artist directly or is the cost of production and delivery.