This is a question I get asked a lot at shows these days, especially now that my line of sage leaf jewelry has grown so much. The main reason is a bit more of a technical one. Out of all the leaves I have tried to work with, sage leaves have become my favorite for their amazing texture, their lovely form, their sturdiness, and the variety of shapes and sizes of leaves that can be found growing in one plant.
The plant that I harvest the majority of my sage leaves for jewelry from is one that I actually started from seed years ago and has now become the main focus in my backyard organic herb garden. It took about 2 years before my plant was established and happy enough to start flowering, and now it decorates my garden with tall stalks of lavender colored flowers twice a season. I love this plant, and if I ever move I’m going to have to carefully dig it up and transport it because I can’t imagine leaving it behind!
I first started growing it for it’s culinary uses, and had no idea at the time that it would play such an important part in my jewelry years later. As I’ve learned more about sage, I’ve found that it has a rich and interesting history, and has been used in many different cultures for ages. It has many medicinal uses for both physical and spiritual health, it signifies wisdom, immortality, purification and cleansing, and healing. It’s name, Salvia, comes from the Latin word salvere, which means to save or to be in good health.
So, why sage? It’s beautiful, it tastes good, and it has earned itself some very interesting significance over the years.