Aotearoa – pounamu earrings

These Aotearoa earrings are simply “must-haves”!  The white rind on brilliant green means that these one-off beauties will make you stand out from the crowd.   We know that if you are going to spend a lot of money on a pair of earrings you want something that is versatile and hard wearing. These babies have all that.  I have tested similar pairs so that we are able to make them light enough to wear all day long and then keep them in for a night out on the town.  Each earring hangs from a sterling silver kidney hook that closes firmly so they cannot fall from your ears.  Most importantly, this classic shape and colour combination means they will work fantastically with any colour or style you want to rock.  Taonga like this Aotearoa Tangiwai doesn’t come round every day, you’ll want to get yours while they last.

60mm Diameter

The Story

On our journey of discovery, we have learnt that Aotearoa literally means “long white cloud”.  Traditional accounts suggest that, after a long ocean voyage, Hine-te-aparangi(wife of Kupe, the great explorer) sighted a particular cloud, aotea, which usually indicates the presence of land. Roa, long, can also indicate a length of time. Therefore a more accurate translation of Aotearoa may be “it has been a long time since seeing a cloud that indicates land.’ Hence these earrings represent the aotea hovering over the land that was first sighted by Hine-te-aparangi.

The finer points

• We carve your Aotearoa taonga to order.  Individually hand-carved just for you.
• Please remember that pounamu is a natural material so every taonga we make from this stone will be unique due to the variations within the stone.
• Precious things take time – please allow up to 14 days from your order to completion of your taonga.  Please contact us if your order is urgent and we will see if we can accommodate your needs.