Local designer Lindsey Alonzo’s brand Lunasol has helped keep Portland in beautifully-etched jewelry with pops of colored fringe, leopard jasper, and hemitite, for some years now. Season after season, churning out each piece by hand that somehow simultaneously looks like a vintage treasure you unearthed at a market and totally current.

Her latest collection, Plains II, was inspired by her Native heritage and time spent growing up in the flat farm lands in the Midwest.

"Growing up in Kansas I was surrounded by a rich history and culture of the Plains Indian tribes and was always fascinated by their art and ways of life," she says. "Surrounded by rivers, cities and streets all named after different chiefs and tribes, I began reading up on which ones inhabited the area that I was living.”

Alonzo says her collection was the result of research that began years ago—books, art projects, and old school essays about Sundance and Ghost Dance.  Working with photographer Sabine West and stylist Alexis Atarian to create a series of soft, artistic photos, Plains II is the culmination of that research in an inspired new collection of necklaces, earrings, and cuffs. 

“I believe that in some way or another, we all find inspiration from our past.  My ancestors speak to me in the form of creativity and craft among many other things,” she says. “This collection is my interpretation into jewelry of some of the beautiful designs and symbols the Plains Indians used in their art work and everyday lives.  As my dad always says, ‘It’s in your blood.'”