My name is Courtney, and my husband James and I launched June Moon Studios, because we believe we can bring people closer to nature by offering luxury, natural gifts for self and home. We’ve headquartered June Moon Studios at our home in Arvada, Colorado. It's on the west side of Denver and still feels like a small town, but you can be in the city in under 25 minutes (10 if no traffic, which is never). Arvada has beautiful views of the Rocky Mountains, the foothills, and the Flatirons further to the Northwest toward Boulder.

But as an artist, my heart belongs in the mountains. They inspire me and my designs each time I'm out there. I've been fascinated with nature and how it relates to us as humans all my life. Geology, minerals, crystals, and rockhounding are particular interests of mine, and the Rocky Mountains are a playground for someone nerdy like me.

The next time you're out on a walk, pick up a rock and look at it closely. Does it have specks, or bands, or patches? Does it have points, or smooth flat surfaces, or nodules?

Billions and billions of years of metamorphic changes below, and erosive and formative changes above the surface of the earth itself made breathtakingly beautiful things that can be found today in old riverbeds, down the sides of slopes, and in mines that still operate and allow those aforementioned nerds to poke around from time to time.

It's an incredible thing to think about, while stringing together the most radiant blue turquoise from Lone Mountain or Calico Lake to make a bracelet, or while dreaming up the perfect Art Nouveau pendant to showcase lush carnelian or opal. 

Not to mention the healing qualities these gemstones have been sought after for millennia, according to cultural records across the globe. No wonder beaded jewelry has and maintains value to those who wear it.

Speaking of healing qualities, a major part of my journey toward the intersection of nature + design was in building my relationship with plants. As a former brown-thumb, and then development director at a small grassroots community gardening nonprofit, I found the more plants I introduced into my home, the more at home I felt. Slowly, and then in bursts of manic shopping sprees, I accumulated enough plants to really learn about them and what an indoor landscape can truly be.

Big or small, expensive pots or not, indoor landscapes are sources of joy. And on top of whatever individual healing qualities they may have, introducing plants into your living space encourages better breathing, reduced hypertension, and better mental health. As one of my former community garden colleagues quoted the Audrey Hepburn line in her email signature, as if to ensure as many people as possible could know this simple truth, “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”