Crystal Ellis was feeling creatively stilted and in need of a change when she attended Oprah’s “The Life You Want” Tour in 2014. Though she had studied fashion and at one point planned to work in fashion merchandising, she’d ended up in pharmaceutical sales.
“Elizabeth Gilbert [of Eat Pray Love fame] was a speaker. She talked about living your life without fear and with passion, about taking risks,” Ellis remembers. “Something just clicked.”
Within a month, Ellis was taking a jewelry course and designing gemstone bracelets that she initially gave as holiday gifts. By New Year’s Day of 2015, she had launched a side business, B.Birdwatcher Spiritual Stones.
“I could’ve gone with ‘Crystal’s Crystals,’ ” she says with a laugh. Instead, she chose a moniker that references a family nickname, as well as a storyline in the old sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies.
Since then, the Arlington resident’s interest in spirituality has led her to study Buddhism and chakra theory. She’s traveled to Portugal and South Africa to see how the semiprecious gemstones she uses are ethically mined, and to Greece to purchase antique coins and charms for her designs.
Ellis believes gemstones have certain metaphysical properties. Green garnet, she says, gives the wearer confidence to weather conflicts. Blue spinel promotes peace, white howlite imparts tranquility and rose quartz symbolizes love.
Her bracelets ($90-$180) are often adorned with a charm, too—perhaps a nature symbol such as a mushroom or butterfly, or a Buddhist icon, or empowering words.
Some custom pieces are made to match clients’ life circumstances. “I always ask, ‘What are you trying to manifest? What’s going on in your life?’ ” Ellis says.
One bracelet featured healing stones for a woman grieving her brother’s passing. Another—a wristband of garnet beads and a butterfly charm—was designed to give a client strength during cancer treatments.
Don’t believe in talismans? Even New Age skeptics will find that the bracelets make for pretty wrist candy. Ellis sells her creations online, at area pop-up markets and at Painted Tree Boutiques in Midlothian, Virginia.