Accessorize sun-kissed skin with Freya jewelry

43. Accessorize sun-kissed skin with Freya jewelry

When Pamela Anderson was deciding on a name for her new handmade jewelry, she knew she needed something that evoked her work’s hard, metal edges—as well as a sweet, more delicate aesthetic.

“I am a huge fan of intermingling hard edges with soft, feminine lines,” Anderson says.

The resulting name, Freya, reflected both sides.“I wanted something goddess-esque,” the 27-year-old Sacramento resident says. “Then I saw ‘Freya’ and looked up the description: a goddess princess warrior who is strong and beautiful and feminine and wearing an enchanted necklace.”

Anderson’s jewelry, sold via her Etsy shop and locally at Bows & Arrows (1815 19th Street), looks like something an ancient goddess would don. There are dramatic statement necklaces and graceful, geometric earrings; chunky wrapped wire and stone rings; and artful, brightly beaded pieces with a boho-hippie ethos.

Anderson, who studied pyschology in college and now works in real estate, began her venture into wearable art in January 2010, with a class at Sierra College that taught her the basics of jewelry metal work, welding and soldering.

“I had done really simple beading as child [and] friendship bracelets,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to do metal work, but I never imagined making the things I make now.”

Anderson’s artistry belies her relative inexperience in the field. Her Riveted Mixed Metal Necklace ($38) cloaks the wearer with oversized tiers of hammered copper and antiqued brass. The Feather Silhouette Earrings ($55), made of horseshoe-shaped pieces of metal set against contrasting copper teardrop-shaped pieces, exude an industrial wood-nymph vibe that’s at once immensely wearable, yet runway ready.

The making of each piece, Anderson says, can take anywhere from a few hours to, well, “forever.”

“I’m a little bit of a perfectionist. It takes me longer than it should sometimes,” she admits.

That’s OK, because each necklace, pair of earrings or ring is, at the time of its creation, her favorite thing in the world. “The piece I like the best is always the one I’m working on, designing and figuring out,” she says. “That’s always what I’m really enchanted with.” www.etsy.com/shop/freyajewelry. R.L.