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Greetings,

I hope this finds you and your loved ones happy & healthy.  I’ve had a very busy month since we last saw each other.  This past Easter, we celebrated the Baptism of my daughter Olive along with 3 of her cousins during the Easter Vigil.  I felt so blessed to have so many friends & family come together to celebrate such a wonderful occasion. 

Looking down from the pulpit at the faces of the congregation full of my family and friends made me think of all the amazing people who I have met throughout my years in both my personal & professional life.  As I get ready to share with you an hour of beautiful new JAI designs and all the stories of discovery that inspired them, I wanted to introduce some of the people that touched my heart and helped influence the love and passion that went into creating our JAI designs.  

In the Northern Jungles of Thailand close to the border of Burma, I came across some local women who were transporting grass that they harvested and would later weave into brooms to sell at the local market. 

When I entered the Akha village of the Hill Tribes in the jungles of Thailand I was greeted by this woman.  It is customary that when a guest enters the village they are greeted and they receive a woven wool bracelet so that the rest of the village knows that they have been welcomed.  The women make all their jewelry including their beautiful head-dresses.  The teeth appear to be black as it is a sign of beauty.  The coloring comes from a fruit that looks like an orange as without it their teeth are actually bright white.

I had the pleasure of spending the day with some of the most exceptional wood carvers on the outskirts of Bangkok.  Here I met a father and son whose family have been woodcarvers for as long as they could remember.  It was very sweet how proud the father was to introduce me to his son who he said would continue the long legacy of the family’s name in woodcarving.  It reminded me of my dad and younger brother who are both in construction and real estate and the pride my father exudes when telling his peers of my brother’s accomplishments.

During one trip I arrived in a local village as they were preparing for a holiday celebration.  I met a group of women who were making floral headdresses to be worn during the holiday ceremonies.  They worked mainly with lotus flowers & marigolds.  It reminded me of my mom before holidays as she would decorate the home with seasonal flowers and create the different floral arrangements.

One of my favorite places to visit while in Thailand is a local orphanage in Chiang Mai.  It was years ago that I first visited this orphanage and now it’s become one of the highlights to every inspiration trip I take.  I always find a way to return and spend a day with these wonderful children and now have the pleasure of sponsoring 3 of the children’s education & living expenses.

My entire team have fallen in love with the kids from the orphanage.  This is Jen from our marketing department with 2 of the children that she sponsors. 

Here are some of the children playing around after we celebrated Jen’s birthday at the orphanage with cake for all the kids.  They were on a little sugar rush as you can see.

I love this photo.  I met this woman in a very small village in the jungles of Thailand.  I don’t think she knew that I didn’t speak her village’s dialect because she kept talking and talking, and I kept smiling and smiling.. you know, the international language.. just smile.

This is a little girl who is part of the ‘Long neck’ hill tribe.  She had just got out of school, (which is a one room building), and was having a bag of chips as she waited for her older brother.  She said they were headed home to do chores before their parents came home from the hills where they were farmers.

This was a highlight of one of our trips to the islands off of Phuket.  We spent the day diving and exploring some of the most beautiful islands in the world.  (New collection coming soon from this trip) Afterwards, our guide pulled our boat up to this small island. So small that it only takes 10 minutes to walk clear across the island.  In the middle of the island was this little free standing make-shift restaurant.  Here Jen is pictured with the bartender who made our fresh pineapple drinks who was also studying to be a silver smith.  He showed us with great pride all the rings he was wearing as he had made them himself.  We ended up giving him one of our tigers eye Croco beaded bracelets, which he loved.

We visited a distant island of Sea Gypsies who are a group of Nomadic tribes people who worship the ocean.  Less than 400 people inhabit the island.  I spent the day learning all about these mystical people and learned how this small island of sea gypsies survived the great Tsunami without losing any lives.  This little girl pictured here on the porch of her home had taken candy wrappers and made them into bracelets.  You know I had to buy these for my nieces and nephews at home.  This little entrepreneur reminded me of when my brothers and I would make lemonade and pull it around in our wagon to all the construction sites in our neighborhood when we were little to make money to buy candy at our local mini-mart.  She was saving money to buy a doll that she wanted.

I met a sea gypsy woman who was born and raised on this little island in the Andaman Sea.  She has never left its shore during her 80 years of life.  When I asked her if she ever thought what the rest of the world was like, she said; ‘this is the only world she knows and she loves it.’  She never gave concern to a world that she knew she would never see. 

These are just a couple of the people I have met while exploring South East Asia during my inspirational trips.  Although I come from thousands of miles away and do not speak the language or completely 

understand their culture and traditions, I have learned so much about the love and beauty that lives in each of us.  I’ve been educated, enlightened, and inspired through my travels which have helped me create works of wearable art that I hope you love.

Please join me this Thursday, April 30^th at 6pm ET as I bring more of these inspirations to life in our new JAI designs.  If you would like to experience more of my travels and the world of JAI, please join me on our JAI Jewelry for QVC Facebook page and our JAIjewelry_ Instagram account for more behind the scenes images and stories of my travels.

Safe Travels / Scott