Believe it or not, jewelry isn’t all we think about here at Jewels That Dance this time of year.
Sweets and treats are also forefront on our minds – so – we thought we’d share a couple of our favorite cookie recipes with you.

Marlene’s Favorite:
Almond Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and white sugar until smooth. Mix in 1/2 teaspoon almond extract. Mix in flour until dough comes together. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Make a small hole in the center of each ball, using your thumb and finger, and fill the hole with preserves.
3. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes in preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Let cool 1 minute on the cookie sheet.
4. In a medium bowl, mix together the confectioners’ sugar, 3/4 teaspoon almond extract, and milk until smooth. Drizzle lightly over warm cookies.

Patti’s Favorite:
Swedish Ginger Cookies

Ingredients

• • 3/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon clove
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped crystallized ginger
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar for 2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and molasses.
4. Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and baking soda. Stir into batter. Stir in crystallized ginger. The batter will be thick. Roll into 1-inch (2.5cm) balls. Place granulated sugar on a plate. Dip balls into sugar. Place sugar-side up on cookie sheet about 3 inches (8cm) apart, as the cookies tend to spread when baking. Keep dough refrigerated between batches.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cracked on top, slightly firm to the touch the color of gold. They will soften and crisp up as they cool.

Enjoy!

What inspires you?
The world around me — how can it not be the most inspiring thing imaginable?

If you weren’t a custom jewelry designer and jewelry store owner what would you like to be doing?
I would be making other forms of art – no doubt about it!

What talent would you most like to have?
I would love to sing.  My fantasy is to sing torch songs, in a tight red dress, leaning on a grand piano in a small jazz club.

How do you feel having received so many accolades over the course of your career?
Grateful and humble.

What do you like best about being a custom jeweler/goldsmith?
I love the relationship that develops with each client and the collaboration that generates a beautiful piece of jewelry.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
Figure out what you do best, and then go do it.

If you could pick a super power, what would it be?
If you are talking about a “marvel comic book” superpower, I would fly.
Or I could be queen of the world and set things straight.

What book are you currently reading?
The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.

What do you hear most often from your shoppers?
“I love this store, the jewelry is amazing and everyone is so nice.”

What is the most exciting (adventurous) thing you have ever done?
Kayaked the Grand Canyon in my little boat, spending 21 days on the Colorado River. WOW what an adventure!

Describe an ideal day off.
Fix something broken, have a picnic style lunch, dig in the dirt on my tractor and finish the day sitting by the river.

What do few people know about you?
I wanted to be a cowgirl, just like Annie Oakley, when I grew up.

Paula Dawkins
Jewels That Dance, Asheville NC 28801

Jewels That Dance welcomes a distinguished designer/goldsmith to the store for two days this October. We invite and encourage you to come and meet Barbara Heinrich, a fine jewelry artist and master of innovation and design during our evening reception on Thursday, October 26th from 5pm to 8pm or on Friday, October 27th from 11am to 5pm.

Barbara was born in Heilbronn Germany, and grew up in the vineyards of her family’s winery. To keep herself busy she says she collected dried noodles, pods, snail shells and broken glass, which she strung together to create jewelry. Heinrich graduated from the Jewelry Academy of Pforzheim and won a scholarship to study in the US. She earned a MFA from the University Of Rochester Institute Of Technology, after which she established her studio in up-state New York. There she creates distinctive and award winning jewelry pieces by blending timeless aesthetics with contemporary ideas. She is known for her soft brushed gold surfaces, juxtaposed with burnished lines and surface set gemstones.

If you would like to learn more about Barbara and her creative talent, please follow this link to read the cover article in the current ORNAMENT Magazine.

View jewelry by Barbara »

Jewels That Dance is excited to announce the arrival of a rare new gemstone. This gemstone is the lotus garnet. Unearthed in the Mahenge region of north Tanzania, lotus garnet was recently discovered in late 2015. Found in alluvial mines, the amount of rough is unknown and each production is small and has a variation in color with every pocket produced. The gemstone is a rare form of an orange-pink garnet similar to the color of morganite or imperial topaz. Lotus garnet, when viewed in the sunlight, has a slight fluorescence which can give the gemstone the appearance of color change. Stop by today to take a look at this new gemstone.

Please join us for the launch of our new collection

Friday, June 23rd 6 – 8 pm
Saturday, June 24th 10:30 am – 6 pm

Stop in for a chance to win a two person ENO hammock and enjoy local brews while you browse …

Paula Dawkins and the goldsmiths of Jewels That Dance have listened to our customers and created an enchanting collection of engagement rings, reflective of this beautiful part of the country where we live. The collection offers a variety of styles; all very feminine, some with rosy shades of sunrise to flatter soft skin tones, others with details plucked right from the garden. These organic, playful, one of a kind rings are cast in rose, yellow or white gold and set with a variety of diamonds. Along with round brilliant diamonds, the collection features rose cut and colored diamonds, offering endless combination of natural beauty.

This collection, born from the creative spirit of this area and the rich culture of fine handmade artisans, is romantic, timeless and of heirloom quality. The collection offers both rings organic in feel and those that are sleek, with impeccable details and clean lines. All these rings are created for today’s women with active lifestyles and a taste for adventure. Best of all, every step of the creative process is completed here in our studio, each ring receiving personal attention from our dedicated goldsmiths, goldsmiths who find joy in their work and take pride in the masterpieces they create.

Click here to see the LOVE HAPPENS Collection

Life doesn’t come with a manual, it comes with a mother!

We, at Jewels That Dance, honor all you mothers, you supermoms, you stepmoms, you mothers of community and of course, Mother Earth.

Here’s just a little background about the day…

During the ancient annual Greek spring festival the Greeks honored Rhea, the mother of many deities of Greek mythology. The Romans celebrated a spring festival called Hilaria dedicated to Cybele, a mother goddess. Celebrations honoring the Mother permeate our worldwide collective narrative. In the United States a precursor to Mother’s Day came from abolitionist and suffragette Julia Ward Howe who wrote a “Mother’s Day Proclamation” in 1870 as a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace. Mother’s Day was officially adopted as a holiday in this country in 1914 when Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

Enjoy Your Day!