Here at Foterra Jewelry we love partnering with super talented photographers and artists who capture amazing moments in nature. And the photographer behind this photo jewelry collection is no exception. We teamed up with the amazing nature photographer Jen Grand, to get the stunning image of the Northern Lights for this photo jewelry collection.
Jen is an adventurer. When bad weather strikes, you can find her out with a camera in hand, trying to get the images that make her heart sing. She also is a mover and shaker, having cofounded Venturous Woman, an organization that takes women on photographic journeys to inspire their creativity and passion.
Jen took the photo we used for our Northern Lights necklace and earrings set in 2017 at Jasper National Park in Canada. If you look closely you can see the stars of the Big Dipper shining prominently through the colorful display.
We LOVE this jewelry collection, but we wanted to dive into what makes this spectacle of light so special.
If you have to ask, then you must never have seen one of these spectacular light shows. Just stop and think about it for a moment. How would it not be special to witness colorful lights literally dancing in the night sky? Hues of magenta, blue, green, and indigo fill the sky and collide with one another in a dazzling display above your head.
It makes it more than worth it to bundle up and venture out on a cold night.
The amazing light display happens when charged particles from the sun interact with the Earth’s magnetic fields. The charged particles enter the atmosphere and begin to move in spirals along the lines of the magnetic field. As they near the Earth, they begin to run into and transfer energy into oxygen and nitrogen atoms. They speed up but eventually have to release the energy. Different types of atoms produce different colors during this process.
This is why the auroras are located at the magnetic poles. Keep in mind that the magnetic poles are different than the geographic poles and thus the lights can be visible in areas further south (or north) then you might expect.
This phenomenon is not limited to Earth, either. Space probes and the Hubble Space Telescope have been able to capture astonishing photos of auroras on various other planets including Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Back in the day, humanity might not have been as scientifically advanced, but we have always known there is something special about the auroras.
Auroras are mentioned in ancient Greek writings. As you might imagine, they didn’t get the opportunity to see them often and mostly thought they were bad omens.
In areas where the lights are more common, many people groups associated them with spirits. Some Inuit tribes told their children not to go outside at night lest the aurora spirits run off with them. The Maori and Aboriginal peoples in Australia viewed them as fires in the spirit world.
In a special event in 1862, during the Battle of Fredericksburg, the spectacular show was seen as far south as Virginia. Many soldiers wrote about it in their journals. Some people saw it as a bad omen of the times whereas many others took it in stride as an unusual display of nature’s brilliance.
It is interesting to note that these displays were probably easier to see back then when there was far less light pollution. In 2011, the lights were seen as far south as Atlanta and Oklahoma.
Here at Foterra Jewelry, we are all about displaying the beauty of the natural world through photographs. But photos that are hidden away in a book or on a hard drive don’t get seen.
That’s why we created an astonishing method of printing those photographs onto delicate jewelry pieces that are stunning to behold.
When the sunlight strikes these pieces just right, they really sing!
A well-taken photo of these colorful lights dancing in a dark night sky is just begging to be made into photo jewelry. So we were overjoyed to be able to create a piece that shows the aurora off in all its glory.
Not everyone gets a chance to see an aurora. But we are so excited to share it with you through our Northern Lights jewelry. Now, anyone anywhere can carry a small piece of this astonishing sight with them wherever they go!
Check out all of Jen's photo jewelry today!
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