Leduc jewelry maker heads to Hollywood
Local craftswoman Annie Hunting will be heading to Hollywood hoping her gemstone meditation bracelets are a hit with the stars.
Sage Stone Malas and Meditations, Hunting’s business based out of her home in Leduc since 2015, will have a celebrity gift suite as part of the Academy Awards celebrations in Los Angeles.
The gift room will be part of a pre- Oscar event held Feb. 23 at the Woman’s Club of Hollywood — a day before the grand awards show.
“Celebrities will be coming through and visiting each one of the vendors, getting information about the product and being gifted something from each,” she said of the opportunity to promote her meditation products among Hollywood’s elite.
Each star who visits the gifting room will receive a lapis lazuli gemstone wrist mala, wearable meditation beads.
Gifting this piece of jewelry was an easy choice because the deep blue metamorphic stone is known for having a strong connection to creative minds, Hunting said.
“It’s a stone that really helps with communication and creativity, and self-identity essentially,” she said.
Hunting will be travelling to L.A. with 130 wrist malas that will take about 20 hours in total to make out of her home workshop.
This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity came as a pinch of luck, Hunting said, when she was approached at another market by Edmonton artist Monique Castonguay about the event.
Castonguay had a spot in Hollywood last year and will be returning again with her business, A Mother’s Blessed Keepsakes, which creates DNA keepsake jewelry.
“I was at the right place at the right time,” Hunting said.
Her business focuses on creating sacred, gemstone jewelry used in meditation and healing, including malas, and has expanded to crystal grids and gemstone massage tools. Hunting has also recently started hosting meditation workshops.
“My intention and my goal is to share with people techniques for being more mindful and for creating meditation practices and ritual practices to help them feel more at peace and more aligned with who they are,” she said.
The bracelet for the Oscars guests will likely be available to the public after the event, but Hunting said she wants the stars to be the first recipients.
This won’t be Hunting’s first time in L.A., but this experience will have a different feel — the previous visit was a trip to Disneyland as a kid.