Precious medals: Designer shares faith with religious jewelry

Belinda Wickwire displays an assortment of vintage religious medals she uses in her work as a jewelry designer, some dating as far back as the Napoleonic era. ”Religious medals and jewelry are a physical way to take your faith with you,” said Wickwire, a parishioner at St. Anselm in Ross. “When there is a tough moment, it is something you can physically hold on to and a reminder of where to turn.” (Photo by Christina Gray/Catholic San Francisco)

 
April 11, 2019
Christina Gray
Catholic San Francisco

Since the opening of her first retail space in the sunny loft of a San Anselmo home furnishings store last summer, jewelry designer Belinda Wickwire has witnessed her collection of heirloom-quality jewelry fashioned with vintage holy medals of Mary, Jesus, saints and guardian angels transfix customers, Catholic or not.

“People always stop and look at the religious jewelry,” Wickwire told Catholic San Francisco April 6 from behind her work table covered with bowls and boxes and trays of rare, vintage holy medals that date as far back as the Napoleonic era. “I find that so interesting that this is where they stop and where they keep returning to.”

Though the shop is not marketed as “religious jewelry,” the Marian statues, crosses, antique rosaries and a two-foot-tall Infant of Prague statue make Wickwire’s faith beautifully obvious.

“I’m spreading the faith basically,” said Wickwire, a St. Anselm parishioner who described herself as a “born and dipped” Catholic. She began making jewelry at 15 while a student at a Catholic high school in Anaheim and considered entering the convent after graduation. Instead she went to work for Tiffany in Los Angeles and eventually an estate jeweler.

Privately, she “found joy” in collecting vintage religious medals, particularly Mary medals.

“I feel very connected to Mary,” said Wickwire, who received the name Mary at her baptism. “There is a sweetness and a sadness there that I can relate to.”

It was never her intention to sell religious jewelry, said Wickwire, who lives in San Rafael with her husband Brad and their children Arianna and Jacob. But friends and acquaintances who saw her work started to ask her to make baptismal, first Communion, confirmation, graduation and other personal gifts.

“For most of my life I have only worn a simple wooden cross,” said Ernesto Diaz, a Jesuit-educated St. Raphael parishioner who told Catholic San Francisco in an email that Wickwire designed a necklace for him that combined a medal of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit order, his own wooden cross and a 
small image of the Santiago de Compostela.

“These three symbols are deeply rooted in my beliefs and background, and it is the only jewelry I wear other than my wedding ring.”

“There are a lot of Catholics in this area, I’m discovering,” said Wickwire, and they are finding their way to her shop.

St. Anselm parishioner Patty Conway told Catholic San Francisco that she dropped in to Wickwire’s shop at Black Rabbit Trading Company and showed her a guardian angel necklace she had purchased years before from a store that sold first Communion dresses in Greenbrae. “That’s one of mine,” Wickwire told her.

Twice a week since then, Conway and Wickwire who have become “fast friends,” sort through medals and talk about their kids, schools and church.

“There is something soulful and beautiful about the medals,” said Conway, who wears her Catholic identity around her neck. “It’s just part of who I am.”

Wickwire has also designed and produced graduation medals for St. Hilary School in Tiburon and San Domenico School in San Anselmo.

”Religious medals and jewelry are a physical way to take your faith with you,” Wickwire said. “When there is a tough moment, it is something you can physically hold on to and a reminder of where to turn.”

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