Delphinidae

Sierra's Betty B Cause Design

On a trip to Bali in August 2009 with the rest of the Betty Belts team, I was lucky enough to design a piece of jewelry for the collection of Betty B, my longtime sponsor and supporter. The whole process that goes into a Betty B piece is incredible. First of all Betty Belts is a very socially and environmentally responsible company, and I was able to see first hand the very ethical way that Donna von Hosselin creates her jewelry.

After much help from Donna and Joanna at Studio Perak, Delphinidae was created. Dolphins will always have a special place in my heart and my story about them is below. Also this piece is part of the Cause Collection for Betty Belts, so 10% of it's profits is donated to my choice of charity which for my piece is Project Kaisei. Project Kaisei is an organization dedicated to creating an ocean clean up initiative and capturing the plastic vortex in the north pacific ocean. Project Kaisei not only is going to spare us from this "monster" that we created, they are going to save the lives of many ocean creatures, including our beloved dolphins.

My Story

Dolphins as animals, as a symbol and as an omen have been and always will be a part of my life and my family's lives.

My mom told this story to me, and it explained to me why dolphins have always been so important to me. My parents had always wanted children, but having children seemed unattainable, until one day when my mom finally found out that she was pregnant. They happened to be in Fiji at the time, and as they were leaving the island on the ferry, a pair of dolphins accompanied their boat jumping together in unison. My parents joked around that the two dolphins were an omen that they would have twins. They didn't think too much of that day until the day they found out that they were indeed having twins.

When my parents first introduced me to the ocean, they reminded me to never be scared. I should never be scared because I was a visitor in the dolphin's and many other creature's oceans. If I wanted to be safe I needed to learn from the dolphins by never resisting the ocean and to always respect it. Now whenever I'm out in the ocean and I'm lucky enough to see dolphins I always feel safe and I know that I'm never alone.

You can view and purchase my design at Betty Belts

And a very big thank you to Donna von Hosselin, David Pu'u and Joanna at Studio Perak for sharing your creativity and insight with me to make this design everything and more than I could have ever hoped for

Off to Bali...

In a few days, we will be embarking on a very unique trip to Bali. This trip was the brainchild of Donna Von Hoesslin (owner of Betty Belts Jewelry www.bettybelts.com) and renowned photographer, David Puu (www.davidpuu.com). We have known David and Donna for almost 5 years now and we've been talking about a Betty B team trip to Bali practically since we first met. Betty B jewelry is ethically and sustainably made in Bali and Sierra, myself, Mary Osborne and Jeanette Ortiz (BB team riders) will all be given the opportunity to design a piece of jewelry that symbolizes something important to us. In addition to getting a "behind the scenes look" at Donna's company, we will also be volunteering with the East Bali Poverty Project (www.eastbalipovertyproject.com). My Dad, who is a Dentist and a founding member of the Surfer's Medical Association, has already supplied us with a plethora of toothbrushes to bring to the villages. In addition to all of this, we will probably come back with an immense amount of breath taking imagery and hopefully have scored some uncrowded Bali tubes. David just wrote a blog post about the trip titled, "Organic Reprisal" and he is a far better writer than I, so if you have time check it out at www.davidpuu.com/blog/ . So keep an eye out for the upcoming posts while I blog in Bali. 

Some of David's past work from Bali... (all images copyright davidpuu.com)