About us

Hello and welcome to The Sparkling Pebble. We’re so glad you’re here!

I’m Jessica, the founder of The Sparkling Pebble. I have been working in the jewelry industry since I was 20 years old, beginning as a gemologist and designer for fine jewelry stores. I have appraised ancient estates and designed engagement rings for Orange County elite. But to rewind a few years, I was a little kid in the Midwest with a deep love of animals, all things in nature and a love for Sculpey clay. I could often be found in my family’s basement making tiny animals out of clay to create my own little menagerie. My life’s goal as a child was to live by myself surrounded by gardens and rescue animals. Once I realized picking daisies didn’t pay the bills and that forest animals didn’t actually want to cuddle, I knew another plan would be needed. I decided to try mixing my love of sparkling rocks and desire to create, coming up with gemology and jewelry design. I packed up and left the Midwest for the west coast.

After graduating from the Gemological Institute of America with fresh Graduate Gemology and Jewelry Design Arts diplomas under my belt, I began working with high end jewelry stores doing their gemology work and custom design, using hand rendering and CAD techniques. I continued to take design and manufacturing classes over the next years.

Although I loved, (and still do love!) making custom engagment rings, and other high end pieces, something still felt like it was missing. I was creating pieces that, although beautiful, I myself wouldn’t want to wear on any kind of regular basis. I also wanted to do something that made a difference. For quite some time I could not figure out any way to mix my love of animals and nature with my love of fine jewelry. And then I began learning a new kind of digital sculpting program. It was completely organic and allowed me to sculpt on a computer like I used to with my hands. After making a koala pendant as a gift for a dear friend, a light turned on inside of me. The process of researching an animal, carefully sculpting all sides and angles of it, and crafting it to lay perfectly as a piece of jewelry was more fun and fulfilling than anything else I had worked on recently. I decided to sculpt and make more animals. At the same time, the devastating fires in Australia were raging. I just knew I could do more with these little animals. I decided that portions of each sale would be donated to conservation efforts for animals, people and their environments around the world. And so, The Sparkling Pebble was born. Never in my 15 years of working in the jewelry industry have I had more fun or been more filled with purpose. Each sale between $3 and $25 is donated to the World Wildlife Fund or The ASPCA. My hope is to continue creating more tiny, wearable animal sculptures, and to increase donations to organizations that are intent on helping animals, humanity and our planet.

So thank you for stopping by. I hope you will enjoy browsing the current menagerie as much as I have enjoyed creating it. I think you’ll find that while the actual wild animals may not be up for a cuddle, all of the animals you’ll find in my shop most certainly are! And together, I hope we can take a step in giving back to these animals we love so much.