Do you own a Jeanine Payer necklace? Have you ever seen a Jeanine Payer necklace? If you’ve answered no to both the questions, you are missing something. To be perfectly honest with you, a Jeanine Payer necklace is like no other necklace. I recently gifted one to my wife and she was beside herself with joy. Her first remarks reflected my first thoughts when I saw it at a fashion jewelry store, “Wow, it’s beautiful! I’ve never seen such a beauty before!"

So what on earth is so special about a Jeanine Payer necklace, you must be wondering. More significantly, who is this Jeanine Payer?

Jeanine Payer is a San Francisco-based jewelry designer who creates emotionally engaging yet subtle hand inscribed jewelry that the whole world loves. Jeanine's simplicity and originality are evident in her pendants, bracelets and earrings, executed in sterling silver and 18 karat gold, all hand inscribed with poetry in a miniature scale and made to be treasured for years to come. Some of her popular creations bear such pearls of wisdom as "The soul is here for its own joy"; "The journey is the reward"; and "Everything is waiting for you".

There are few things as intimate as wearing poetry against your skin, as many of her clients can acclaim. Her international following includes Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon, Mick Jagger and Johnny Depp. Payer has also worked closely to design custom pieces for Meg Ryan, Seal, Sheryl Crow and Debra Missing.

Take the Arianna necklace from her collection. It’s a delicate 18k gold teardrop pendant with satin finishing, accented with a diamond. The engraving, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves" spoken by Sir Edmund Hillary, appears on the front of the gold teardrop just below the diamond. Or, the exceptionally beautiful Allison necklace, featuring a high polish, sterling silver, curvilinear pendant, accented with two 18k gold jump rings and Longfellow’s immortal line, “The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide." Her stunning collection continues with such sterling creations as the Anais, Anaya, Bowie and more.

One of Payer's first creations was designed as a gift: a tiny book engraved with a beloved poem by Rainer Maria Rilke that only the wearer knew was there. Today, Payer's designs continue to be graced with the words of both contemporary and ancient voices such as Emily Dickinson, Rumi, Lao Tzu, Jane Hirshfield, and Ovid. "Each person brings their own particular meaning to the jewelry, therefore each piece becomes highly endowed," says the designer. "These pieces become talismanic as they are chosen to mark emotional and philosophical moments in each person's life."

Today Payer and her highly-skilled team of fifteen metalsmiths craft these collections a year in a bustling atelier in the historic Phelan Building – San Francisco's original jewelry center. The jewelry is on display in her retail store, located just a few floors below the workshop, as well as in over 250 Specialty Stores worldwide including Fred Segal in Los Angeles, Barney New York and Japan.