Featured Artist: Parrish Relics Jewelry

You likely recognize Jen Parrish-Hill’s adornments from this magazine, not only in the previous photo shoot but multiple others, if not your own social media feeds or—if you’re very lucky—your own private jewelry box. From the enchanted confines of Frog Hollow, she crafts finely detailed sculptures and then, using the ancient lost wax method, casts them in recycled sterling silver and bronze. She hand-finishes each amulet and applies patina to create a time-worn appearance and one-of-a-kind individuality. These are Parrish Relics.

Parrish-Hill has designed collections for the Edward Burne-Jones exhibition at Tate Britain and more recently for an exhibition on medieval martyr Thomas Becket at the British Museum. That collection includes a floriated clover amulet inspired by the Miracle Window of Canterbury Cathedral. “I really enjoy working with museums to find a spark that bridges the past to the present,” she says. “It is always an honor to be asked to interpret these treasures with my own small voice.”

Parrish-Hill has lived at Frog Hollow for the past eight years, nestled in a hemlock forest alongside a stream, with her first love David, their rescue dog Grady, and their cats Shadow and Galatea. Living in this enchanted setting, she finds herself more and more inspired by nature and the way “everything thrives by being intertwined.” With her jewelry designs, she weaves her fascination for medieval art and architecture with a “reverence for the natural in a way that pays tribute to both.” William Morris and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were masters at this, she says, and a huge source of inspiration for her, especially with “their attention to the details of the smallest flower to the mythic stories they told so well through stained glass, paintings, and so many of the decorative arts.”

With each amulet sold, Parrish-Hill donates a percentage of the proceeds to “wonderful charities and organizations that help make the world a better place.” The Oak Bower Collection, featured on the previous pages, benefits the Old Growth Forest Network, which protects forests across the U.S. For
the collection, she chose “stained-glass colors that recall each season here in our corner of the forest, held within a frame of Victorian-style oak leaves, branches, and acorns.” The wild animals around them—like the hare above that shimmers under thin layers of mica (found locally) and held within a bronze frame of two branches creating a gothic arch—are an important part of a flourishing ecosystem, she says. “My intention is to create amulets that honor them as the sacred beings that they are, along with our trees, rivers, and native plants.”

Find more of Parrish-Hill’s work parrishrelics.com.