The Only Kind of Onion I Like

The wonderful Alton Brown said onions are one-dimensional and insinuated they're overrated, and I couldn't agree more. Why use onions when there are more interestingly flavoured scallions, garlic, and leeks around? But we must admit that the shape of the onion is quite attractive, if not the flavour thereof. Pleasingly round and plump about the middle, the top tapers into a lovely and graceful point at the top, and the veggie can sit demurely on its mostly flat bottom (belying its palate-destroying flavour, but that's another blog, yes?)


Artist Karen of Essential Elements agrees that the onion has an attractive silhouette, judging by the number of beautiful beads she chooses in this shape for her jewelry. A fine example of this are these very pretty sky swirls earrings available in her shop.

Made of handblown Venetian glass holloware, they are coloured with delicate, sky-blue swirls alternating with very lively cobalt blue swirls going from the crown to the bottom of the bead. Personally, I'm fascinated by the idea of hand-blowing something this small and delicate; I've seen many glass-blowing exhibitions in my day, but usually, they're larger pieces like vases, bowls, pitchers, and art pieces. The glass beads these earrings are made of are art in miniature (here is another pair, more playfully rendered)! Crowning and at the bottom of each lovely bead is a bali silver bead cap.

What's wonderful about Essential Elements' earrings is that Karen will switch the earrings out from her standard slipless french hook earwire to a leverback, post, and yes, even a clip-on earring! My mom only wears clip earrings, and hasn't bought any in years because it's so difficult to find pretty ones; fortunately, thanks to independent artists like Karen, this is becoming less of a problem.

At the moment, Essential Elements is having a Mother's Day special, and all jewelry is 10% off until May 4th - now's the time to snap up some fun and beautiful jewelry for yourself, Mom, or a friend. Gift wrap and boxes are available upon request, and an attempt will be made to ensure appropriate paper, as well.

There's a really broad range of price points at Essential Elements, and a broad range of styles, too - from whimsical and fun to classic to very elegant and beautiful. It's one of those shops that is extremely hard to feature just because I can't choose a favourite without much internal confusion. ;) Enjoy perusing her shop - where onions are decidedly not one-dimensional and overbearing.