Celebrate Your Birthday Every Day

Quick: What’s your birthstone? Most women can rattle off their birthstones easily because we’ve formed a relationship with them over the years. Maybe you received a birthstone ring for a birthday or a necklace for graduation; whatever the occasion, you probably remember unwrapping the piece of jewelry and instantly recognizing your special gem. 

This personal connection to birthstones doesn’t really make sense—after all, roughly one-twelfth of the population shares the same birthstone. But that feeling of “it’s all mine” is very real. It is, after all, a celebration of the most important day ever: our birthday! Adding to their allure is the fact that ancient cultures assigned positive qualities to these precious and semi-precious stones that still linger today. Plenty of us enlightened, modern women believe (or least hope) that wearing a citrine will draw success and joy to us or that sporting an amethyst will lend us a feeling of tranquility.  Shop now for a wide selection of birthstone jewelry at Sitara Collections.

If it’s been a while since you’ve added a piece of birthstone jewelry to your collection, it’s time to treat yourself to a little something that’s all about you. Glamorous rings, elegant earrings, look-at-me pendants—Sitara Collections offers birthstone jewelry in a variety of styles that will make you feel like a birthday girl every day of the year. Check out our new search tool, which will bring up your jewelry in an instant.

These Ornaments are For the Birds

There’s just something about colorful birds that captures our imaginations; after all, how many of us have a feeder in the yard to attract feathered friends? Sitara artisans have taken this bird fancy and turned it into Wild Woolies, gorgeous (and eco-friendly!) ornaments that brighten your day—and your home—year round.

Each felted bird is created from scratch using traditional felting techniques. First, natural carded wool is dyed in a rainbow of colors, then dried, re-carded and shaped into a rough pattern. Warm, soapy water is poured over the prepared wool, which is rubbed and rolled by hand beneath a thin layer of meshed nylon. The heat and agitation gradually interlocks the woolen fibers, thus creating the soft but solid fabric known as felt. Once the initial shaping process is complete, it’s dried in the sun and then cut into shapes, stuffed and sewn into ornaments. Expressive details are added using both embroidery and a distinctive technique called “needling,” which uses a specially engineered felting needle to punch through overlaying colors of felt to bind them together.

The result: a handmade bird that’s as unique as the real thing. And our skilled artists have created a lineup that includes some of the most popular and vibrant birds in nature. Everything from cardinals and bluebirds to painted buntings and purple martins can be added to your Christmas tree or used in a hundred different ways to brighten up indoor or outdoor décor.

Earthy Goods Does Good

What’s better than finding a product you love? Buying it from a company that turns your purchase into a powerful force for change. Earthy Goods is one of those companies.  Founder Reshma Anand was a successful businesswoman whose travels exposed her to a harsh truth: her rural Indian countrymen were in a life-and-death struggle for survival. She also found that these remote villages were home to incredibly talented artisans who were being exploited by unscrupulous business people. Earthy Goods was born out of Reshma’s desire to expose the rest of the world to these extraordinary products and to compensate their creators fairly.

Today, Earthy Goods works with small enterprises to ensure they’re able to compete in the marketplace. In the process, the lives of these “invisible artisans” are changing in incredible ways. Not only are traditional knowledge and skills kept alive, but parents are able to support their children and women are empowered to make real decisions about their lives—often for the first time.

The good news is that it’s easy to become part of the solution. Earthy Goods retails everything from home décor to jam; all you have to do is bring them home. Sitara Collections is proud to be the exclusive U.S. vendor for Earthy Goods, so when you shop with us, you can feel doubly good about everything in your cart.

The Art of Giving Good Gifts

Excellent gift giving is a skill that too few of us possess. How many hours do you spend agonizing over what to get the people on your holiday and birthday lists? For most of us, the answer is “way too many.” The reason gift giving is so difficult is because just about everything seems the same, whether you’re shopping online or in stores. Clothes, jewelry, home décor—it’s all pretty generic, and your recipient likely already has it or doesn’t want it.

When Sitara Collections was launched, it was with a vision of not only promoting fair trade and sustainable employment for talented artisans, but of offering customers something truly unique that they simply can’t get anywhere else. You can grab a candle everywhere from dollar stores to high-end boutiques, but where else can you get an iron perfume wax pot that looks like something out of a sultan’s palace? Or how about a wine bag made of dupioni silk topped off with a gold tassle? And then there are luggage tags made of cruelty-free leather and embossed with designs and colors that put your old plastic tags to shame.

The people in your life deserve something special, and Sitara has put together collections featuring items that will delight and surprise loved ones. You no longer have to settle for a ho-hum trinket at a chain store when real gemstone jewelry, cruelty-free leather goods, standout home décor, good-for-you beauty products, and much more are just a click away.

Sterling Silver Jewelry Goes Low-Maintenance

Who doesn’t love the look of sterling silver jewelry? It’s so popular that jewelers even came up with a white variety of gold that looks an awful lot like sterling silver. The appeal is undeniable, but some people have shied away from this metal because, over time, silver tarnishes. And in our go-go-go lifestyle, sitting down with a cloth and silver polish seems like a waste of time that could be devoted to work, family, or—gasp!—just taking a breather. Sure, rubbing a cloth over a silver chain once in a while doesn’t sound terribly difficult, but anyone who’s spent the better part of an afternoon trying to work a cloth into the nooks and crannies of textured, intricate earrings or pendants knows what a chore it can be.

Sitara Collections has taken the pain out of owning sterling silver by applying an anti-tarnish solution to every piece of silver jewelry in our line. No more dull, discolored silver accessories left to wither in your jewelry box because you can’t find time to remove the tarnish. No more settling for metals you don’t like as well or paying more for white gold or platinum to give you silver’s chic, glamorous look.

It’s a whole new world of sterling silver, and we invite you to join us in exploring it. Whether you’re lusting after a decadent pair of gemstone earrings or can’t take your eyes off an intricately crafted necklace, you can rest assured that your purchase doesn’t come with a lifetime chain to a polish cloth.

Easy. Gorgeous. Sold!