Over the weekend we went for a short leaf-peeping jaunt, the kind of drive that cars line up for miles upon miles to do. In Shenandoah, the mountainous area of Virginia where we went, the leaves weren’t quite at peak autumn color just yet, but they were beautiful nonetheless.

As we drove, some of the leaves were falling from the trees all around us and I just kept thinking to myself, “Take it in, take it all in.” Because in a year that’s been utter madness, nature has been a constant source of comfort, something to be relied on from spring’s blooming buds to summer’s thunderstorms. As the year flies by, I want to hold onto these precious moments because soon the leaves will all be gone and winter will be here, bare branches and all. No doubt we’ll have to find its brand of magic, too, but for now there’s nothing quite like those leaves. I want to bottle them up into a world I can visit whenever I need a pick-me-up.

Of course that’s a fantasy, but I did feel a bit of that magic when I saw Tiina Smith’s vintage brooch here.

The precious piece captures autumn in a wearable time capsule—an invigorating, brilliantly sparkling one at that—with the most luscious shades of yellow, orange, and red. The color is owed to about a carat and a half of multicolor sapphires, riveting against a blackened gold background. Dewy diamonds line the curve of the leaf’s stem with a bit of exaggerated length and extra diamonds and gold, and that’s fine by me. At approximately 2 inches long and 1 inch wide, it’s the little piece of fall that, honestly, I’d wear all year long.

Top: Leaf brooch in 18k yellow gold with 1.5 cts. t.w. multicolor sapphires and 0.22 ct. t.w. diamonds, price on request; Tiina Smith

Brittany Siminitz

JCK Contributing Editor