Vintage Pandas Bring Good Fortune

Crystal Rendon is one of my oldest and dearest friends and the artist behind the popular Vintage-Style Baby Charm Bracelet for Mom available exclusively at The Baby Gardner. Crystal had introduced me to a friend of hers, Julia, who is adopting a little one from China. She shared stories of Julia’s support group of families awaiting adoptions from China. They rally together through the arduous adoption process and prepare for the journey to China that they will all take together. I couldn’t begin to do justice to their story, but Crystal expressed a desire to create a bracelet in honor of Julia and her group. So of course I said, “Absolutely, I’m in!” That was all it took. The girl was on a mission…

We knew we wanted to give the bracelet a vintage flair and pandas seemed the perfect choice. The obvious first question was, “Do vintage panda illustrations even exist?” No clue. We searched high and low and everywhere in between. And sure enough, we found them on vintage birthday cards, vintage baby shower invitations and vintage children’s books.

Once we found the illustrations, Crystal began to create — adding authentic vintage cabachons, glass beads, adorable lampwork pandas and more. The result? It speaks for itself…

I’m not adopting from China, but luckily it’s not a requirement. I fell in love with this all the same. The pink and black color combination is to die for. And the best part? Crystal created the original design for moms and a perfectly-proportioned version for little girls as well! Gracie and I will be sporting these by Christmas for sure!

Here’s an idea! Know someone adopting from China? Give the mom-sized bracelet to that special mom-to-be while she waits for her little one from China. If she’s adopting a baby girl, surprise Mom with the matching daughter bracelet when baby arrives home!

You can see more photos of these fabulous bracelets here.