In awe of Nature.
Heirloom corn to heirloom jewelry with living, lasting gems. Grown in our garden and transformed by hand. So you can wear your love of our living Earth.
Shop the harvest
Featured rare cob collection · When they're gone, they're gone
No. 1: Dusted Rose
Only 700 seeds in this pastel palette, made for softening into the quieter seasons.
Reviews
Why we're a cult favorite
★★★★★ 4.98 from 59 reviews
A dream, a garden, a year of waiting
Our story
In 2021, Gillian dreamed of dripping in corn jewelry, and she answered the call. Every spring she plants Glass Gem corn with her beloveds in Grass Valley, California and Taos, New Mexico. After harvest, the cobs dry for a full year before each seed becomes a gem you can wear.
How we grow our Gem Corn jewels
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Growing corn
Read MoreYear after year, we plant only the best seeds for jewelry in early Spring near our studio in Northern California, lovingly and intentionally tending to our corn plants and flowers through the harvest in October.
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Harvesting
We gather to celebrate and welcome these new seeds into the world, carefully and slowly unwrapping each cob with child-like awe at each unique rainbow palette more creative and colorful than the last.
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Selecting seeds
After waiting for the seeds to dry connected to the cob, we remove the seeds from the cob and sort out the most radiant and rich colors to be transformed into jewelry, keeping enough aside for next year's crop.
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Creating gems
An 18k gold top is secured on each corn. We coat all of them in a non-toxic, BPA-free, food safe coating that protects the seeds from the elements so they can live a long life with you! And some get drilled so they can become beaded pieces.
Our promise
Over 3% of every sale goes to Indigenous-led seed projects.
Glass Gem corn exists because generations of Indigenous seedkeepers saved it. Giving back to that work is part of every piece we make.
Where your purchases have gone since 2022
- Cherokee Nation Seed BankHonoring the Cherokee roots of Glass Gem corn
- Native Seeds/SEARCHConserving the heirloom seeds of the arid Southwest and the Indigenous communities who keep them
- Wampanoag women seedkeepersGrowing and protecting Indigenous King Philip corn
- The Nisenan TribeThe original people of the land where our corn grows
- An agroforestry teaching farm in ColombiaOn Indigenous land, standing against local mining
- Mujeres de Maíz
Limited harvests
Find out first.
Every collection is limited by what the garden grew. When a palette sells out, it's gone until the corn decides to grow it again. Join the list for first access to new harvests, restocks, and stories from the field.
@mamamaizeshop
Follow the harvest
Raw, in-the-moment glimpses of the garden, the harvest, and the studio.