While you might not believe in the healing power of crystals, you can’t deny the magnificence of their beauty. At least, that’s what jewelry designer Kari Dern is banking on. At Become Spellbound, she uses the earthly elements for striking design—large chunks of sparkling crystals hand-sculpted into a pendant with an adjustable leather necklace. “I don’t want it to look like a necklace, but something that makes you look like a superhuman,” Dern says. We chatted with Dern about starting her own business and the power of crystals.

How did you get into being a jewelry designer?
I was living in Manhattan, developing [a jewelry-making] process as a hobby for myself, and I found out I’d be moving back to Baltimore for my husband’s career. Once I knew that, it made a lot of sense to take the leap
of faith to give this a shot. I began to roll out these [necklaces] on Instagram, and people bought them. It was scary. It was slow when I first started. But it ramped up gradually, and now I feel like I don’t have enough time to create. It felt as if the universe was saying, “Yeah, duh, you knew you were supposed to be doing this.” The funny thing about it was that I [just] wanted to create these things, not be a business owner, but here we are! It started going well, and I launched the website in 2018.

What led you to decide to use crystals?
I wanted to wear them all the time. I’m a big fan of crystal jewelry. And years ago, the things I would wear and buy, as much as I loved them, I felt like I wanted something that pushed the boundaries a little more, something that had a wilder feel.

Does each necklace have a particular meaning?
Each crystal is tied to a certain element and also aligns with one or more of the chakras. I do feel like they each have their own vibration, and sometimes you connect with a crystal, sometimes you don’t. It might just be a thing that’s pretty and what you want to wear, or it’s the energy that you need. If you feel connected to the energies, that’s awesome. If you think it’s just something beautiful, that’s great, too. At the same time, who are we to say these are different things? If you think it’s beautiful, maybe you’re just drawn to the energy. I’m all about letting people have their own journeys.

What goes into creating the pieces?
I buy whatever crystal I love and what I’m drawn to. I do try to keep in mind the mentality of what everyone likes, but at the same time, I still will only buy what is beautiful to me. It’s trusting my intuition about what I like aesthetically and energetically and hoping it connects with someone else. I hand-sculpt [the casings] with a clay material. I may go back to [finish one necklace] over a few days, but it takes about four or more hours for each one. I really enjoy it.

Where can we buy Become Spellbound jewelry?
I have pieces in Wishbone Reserve located in Hampden, but generally, I mostly sell online.
I have a few pieces in art galleries across the country, but online and on Instagram are where the people are interested, and they get it.

Inspired by history and her grandmother’s love of crystals, Rachel King created eco-friendly, all-natural, and ethically sourced crystal jewelry brand Eaarthbones. After studying photography in school, King transformed her self-taught hobby into a thriving online business with products now available in local retails like A Keeper’s Vintage. We sat down with King to talk about the inspiration behind her jewelry and the future of her Baltimore-based brand.

How did you come up with the name Eaarthbones?
So Eaarthbones is kind of a take on crystals being bones of our earth, of our world. The two a’s are from a book by Bill McKibben and it talks about how the earth is not what it used to be, but the earth that we have now we should definitely protect and cherish and treat with respect. That is a big pillar for Eaarthbones. I work with all ethically sourced materials, a lot of up-cycled materials, all vegan—so I really wanted all of my jewelry to be sustainable as well as beautiful.

Why did you choose to start an eco-friendly business?
There is so much waste already out there and there are so many things that we don’t even use as human beings that I didn’t want to contribute to it. I only wanted to enhance our knowledge of the earth. So the crystals definitely teach us about the earth and ourselves. I wanted the materials I used to go hand-in-hand with that.

How do you go about choosing the crystals for your jewelry?
I get all of my crystals from other small businesses that I know in the United States. Each step along that process is really important. I kind of devise a plan for the crystals that I want to use and the colors that are in season or that reflect my collection styles. Then I just make sure that they’re from different sources that I know they are ethically sourcing them.

What is your favorite thing about being an entrepreneur in Baltimore?
There’s so many people doing pretty much exactly what I’m doing, like working full-time plus being an entrepreneur plus having their business. Some months are slower than others and just everyone is so determined and willing to help each other.

What is your go-to jewelry piece?
I love wearing my Maura Hoops. I wear those pretty much every day. They’re super lightweight. The hoops I’ve been making since I started so they’re also near and dear to my heart.

How long does it typically take to make a piece of jewelry?
It depends on how many times I’ve made it before and how intricate it is. The intricate, wire-wrapped pieces, those could take up to two hours. There are some pieces I’ve been making for years, like hoops or rings, that really take me about five minutes. It’s really the practice of doing it over and over again—some of it has really becomes second-nature to me.

Where do you draw inspiration for your jewelry?
I make collections. Like last fall, I had the talisman collection, which is all very inspired by different cultures and talismans throughout history. I had a siren collection where each piece was named after a different mermaid throughout history. So a lot of history and mythology really inspires my work.

What does the future for Eaarthbones look like?
I would love to one day have my shop on wheels so I could move around. I don’t necessarily like the idea of a brick and mortar because I feel really tied down. I have a studio up in Cockeysville, so just making that more available for people to come and enjoy my work and making that my shop would be really cool.

I just dropped a spring collection, which was very inspired by the moon and the stars. So it was a lot of really big crystals, a lot of 14K and sterling silver wire. I’m hoping to my brand gets a little more upgraded with each collection.

We all thought wearing crystals as jewelry was just another L.A. trend trying to make its way to the East Coast. Turns out we were wrong. Becoming increasingly more mainstream and popping up in trendy boutiques around the country, crystals are said to legitimately benefit overall spiritual and physical health.

Ever since the Egyptians, various cultures have claimed that crystals have healing properties and emotional effects, such as boosting moods and releasing negative energy. Authentic crystals may just be the holistic health product you’re missing.

In honor of the upcoming full moon (February 19), we sat down with the owner of Hampden shop Crystals, Candles, & Cauldrons, Shelley Klimm, to find out more about the specific benefits of crystals, which ones are most popular, and how to use them in your daily life.

Why do you think crystals have become such a huge trend?
We are seeing a sudden emphasis on people’s spiritual paths, especially with everything going on in the world today. We’ve got a lot of negative energy out there and people are realizing these things really do vibrate—they help you feel better. Spiritual vibration is really elevating, which is a good thing. I don’t think it’s going to be just a trend. People are going stick with it.

What are some benefits of crystal healing?
There are some crystals out there that work really well for depression and anxiety. Just holding them helps you. I’ve known people who are able to get off of anti-anxiety drugs just by pulling out their crystal out and holding it. I personally think the mental benefits really outweigh the physical healing. That’s just me. I’ve just seen so many cases where people have had a lot of emotional issues and these crystals have brought them back from the brink.

What would you say to someone who is skeptical about crystal healing?
I get a lot of, “Well, god wouldn’t approve of these things.” To those people I say, “Well if god created the earth, god created those crystals.” And his or her energy is put into them. Scientific fact: they vibrate. They’re alive. But you can’t twist somebody’s arm. Sometimes, I’ll have somebody like that come in here and I’ll gift them with a crystal and I’ll tell them to work with it for two weeks and see how they feel.

How do you use crystals in your day-to-day life?
I am one of those people at home I have really large pieces. So I have them under the bed, at the top of the bed, where I do my meditation. I wear crystal jewelry depending on how I feel that day. So like today I have on moonstone and appetite. They are two stones that work your intuitiveness. They’re also just very good “feel good” stones. They keep me grounded. When I got up this morning, that’s what I needed for today. Occasionally, I will have something in my pocket. If I know I’m going to be dealing with a lot of negative energy that day or as the day progresses, I will go grab a piece of black tourmaline and stick it in my left pocket.

Why do you think crystals have become more mainstream?
We are getting more open—that’s the whole thing. Be aware that there is this market where they’re scamming people. There are also a lot of crystal practitioners that are scamming people. We know where all our crystals come from since daughter and I hand-pick everything. I think that’s why people come to us because we can tell them the story about the crystal. As long as there are places like this, you are just going to see an increase.

Do different crystals have different traits and effects?
You can go through the books and it will list rose quartz for your heart chakra, crystal quartz as your master crystal, and most of the black stones tend to be grounding stones or protecting stones. I am a firm believer that, if you are drawn to a particular crystal, there’s a reason for it. That crystal is calling out to you for a certain reason. I don’t tend to get too hung up in what the books say—and I will tell my customers that. You can’t tell something that is hundreds and thousands of years old: “Hey you are going to do this for me.” I let that crystal tell me how it wants to work on my body. My customers that listen to that and follow that are very happy and pleased with the outcome.

What are a few basic fundamentals to crystals and crystal healing?
I usually tell people to start with the basic crystals: crystal quartz, amethyst, rose quartz, citrine, and labradorite. From those five crystals, you can pretty much do anything and then you can build your collection around them. Everybody wants rose quartz because everybody really thinks it is a crystal to attract love. It’s really a crystal about self-love and self-esteem. If you don’t love yourself and you don’t have good feelings about yourself, you can’t love someone else properly. So that’s usually the crystal we get the most requests for.

How do you cleanse crystals and why is it necessary?
A lot of people will use them three days before a full moon, during a full moon, and three days after. So you’ve got a seven-day period that you can put your stones on the window sill and have them cleansed and charged up by full moon. I have so many that it’s just not feasible for me to put everything out on the window sill. I use a stone that is called selenite, which cleanses and charges your crystals. It grabs hold of negative energy and transmutes it to positive energy. Crystals pick up energy. Selenite will pick up and release it. Everything else picks it up and holds on to it. It’s really good once a month to go ahead do a cleansing to get rid of all of that negative energy around you.