I loved summers growing up in upstate NY. Every June, as soon as school let out, my family packed up the car and made the long drive to Lake Placid, where my grandmother’s old cedar-shingled summer house sat nestled among the trees. It was my favorite place in the world—where the mornings were crisp, the afternoons stretched endlessly, and the nights shimmered with fireflies.
But the best part was always Grandmother. I was named after her.
She was a small woman with short silver-streaked hair, always in a linen dress that smelled faintly of lavender. She never hurried, never scolded, and always had time for my endless chatter.
I loved nothing more than gathering wildflowers for her. I would run barefoot through the tall grass, searching for the delicate white blossoms of Queen Anne’s lace, the ones that looked like tiny lace doilies against the deep green of the fields.
Grandmother told me the story—how Queen Anne pricked her finger while making lace, and the single drop of blood became the deep purple dot in the flower’s center.
Each morning, I filled my hands with fresh blooms, arranging them in a jelly jar of cool lake water. I would place them on Grandmother’s porch table, where they caught the golden light of afternoon, their lacy heads nodding in the breeze. That's when Grandmother would brew a pot of tea and we would sit there overlooking the lake and we would talk about my Great Grandmother who I never knew. She came to the live in the United States from northern Italy and fell in love with Lake Placid as it reminded her of her home at Lake Como.
Queen Anne’s lace is a delicate, lacy wildflower in the carrot family. It has flat-topped clusters of tiny white flowers that resemble fine lace, often with a single dark purple or reddish flower in the center. The flowers bloom from late spring to early fall, forming umbrella-shaped arrangements that attract pollinators.
Its leaves are feathery and resemble those of a carrot plant, which makes sense since it is a wild ancestor of the domesticated carrot. When crushed, the leaves and roots have a carroty scent. The plant grows 2 to 4 feet tall and thrives in meadows, roadsides, and fields, often in dry or disturbed soils.
One of its distinctive features is that, as the flower heads mature, they curl inward, creating a bird’s nest-like shape. This plant is sometimes confused with the toxic poison hemlock, which has similar white flowers but lacks the hairy stems of Queen Anne’s lace.
Historically, Queen Anne’s lace has been used in herbal medicine to treat digestive issues and even as a dye, but care should be taken when foraging, given its resemblance to poisonous plants.
A myth says the purplish flower at the center is a drop of blood shed when "Queen Anne" pricked herself while making the lace.
It struck me one day to design a small collection of pieces to honor my childhood memory.
I particularly love the earrings because they are furled at the edges - exactly what Queen Anne's lace does in late summer. I wore these to a special black tie dinner several years ago as they are quite a statement at 3 inches long.
The ring with the heart in the center is really special to me as it sums up my feelings.