I made the Resist necklace for the Resistance Revival Chorus as a gift. At the time, I'd been making empowerment word necklaces a while, but this one felt different. The word wasn't going to one person. I was making a necklace for a group of women and nonbinary singers who were bringing music to marches, rallies, and stages. I made the necklaces and handed them over, happy to support of their work. 

Then I started seeing them. First at Carnegie Hall. Then on The Tonight Show, where the word Resist was catching the light across a row of singers in the middle of a song. I'd made the necklaces, but I hadn't pictured what they'd look like once a whole group was wearing them at the same time.

I know what a word means to me when I make it. But once it's out in the world, it takes on a life of its own.

Resist is the clearest example I've got. It's a simple word. But put it on a group of women in a room, and it starts to feel different. The word becomes part of whatever they're doing, saying something without anyone having to explain it.

I love that about the Empowerments collection. You choose your word, and then you decide what it means in your own life. Resist might be something you wear to a protest, or something you put on before a hard conversation you've been avoiding. Some mornings it's just the word you need to catch in the mirror on your way out the door. 

That's the best part of making these necklaces and sending them out into the world: the word stops being mine the second someone else puts it on. It becomes theirs.