MAYBE Collection

Some days a woman knows exactly what to do. Most days she does not. Some seasons her whole path is legible; most seasons it is legible for only three steps ahead, and the rest of it is fog. This is not a flaw in her navigation. This is the actual shape of a real life. A woman moving through her real days is almost always in the middle of a small quiet ongoing maybe ~ maybe this. Maybe not. Maybe soon. Maybe next year. Maybe never. Maybe something she has not yet imagined.

This is the entire premise of our MAYBE Collection. A small family of two pieces ~ a delicate choker necklace and a slim bracelet ~ named for the small English word every woman has said hundreds of times without noticing. Not the announcement word. Not the certainty word. Not the boundary word. The kept-open word. The small worn permission to not-yet-know.

At the center of each piece sits a small triangular Rainbow Moonstone ~ a soft translucent white stone that catches light and returns it as a slow blue-and-rainbow iridescence, like moonlight moving through a small pane of frosted glass. She is the stone of intuition and new beginnings. And the small triangular bezel setting she is held in ~ triangle pointing downward, toward the wearer's own body ~ is the small design signature of the collection. The moonstone points at the woman herself. The maybe belongs to her.

Along the chain of each piece run small hammered gold bar accents ~ tiny bright dashes of hammered vermeil (or sterling silver 925) that appear along the chain at considered intervals. They are the small bright certainties inside the larger uncertain arc of the chain. Read one way, they are stepping stones. Read another way, they are the small moments of clarity that appear inside a season of maybe ~ the small evenings where something makes sense, before the fog returns.

She is not a piece for the woman who has decided. She is a piece for the woman who has not decided ~ and who wants a small worn silver or gold reminder that she is allowed to sit in the not-deciding a little longer, without treating her own uncertainty as a personal failure. Maybe. The word is not a weakness. The word is a permission.

SANDRINE'S OWN WORDS

— Sandrine, LeeLoobird

Sandrine names four small ideas that the MAYBE Collection is designed to hold, and it is worth taking them one at a time.

The first is that MAYBE is a quiet ode to possibility. An ode is a small formal poem of praise. Sandrine is naming the whole design language as a small worn poem in honour of the word possibility. Not the word certainty. Not the word ambition. The gentler word underneath both. Possibility ~ from the Latin posse, meaning to be able. The wearer does not yet know if she will do the thing. But she is able to. That is what the piece is honouring.

The second is that the moonstone is a symbol of intuition, clarity, and new beginnings. Three qualities named together. The moonstone is the stone the wearer looks toward when she does not yet know with her mind, but knows with her body. She senses. She feels a small pull. She notices a small hesitation. Intuition is the older word for this. The MAYBE piece is the small worn support for exactly this kind of knowing.

The third is the small paradoxical phrase: simple in form, deep in meaning. This is the whole LeeLoobird design ethic in seven small words. The pieces are quiet. They do not shout. They do not demand explanation. And yet, held in the wearer's hand at the end of the day, they carry the weight of everything she has been silently thinking about.

The fourth is the sentence that names the whole practice: a gentle reminder that even in uncertainty, there is light. This is the deepest promise the MAYBE Collection carries. She does not remove the uncertainty. She does not pretend the fog is not real. She simply reminds the wearer, quietly, that inside the fog there is still light. The moonstone glows even in the dark. The maybe is not empty. The maybe contains the light.

JOHN KEATS  ~  NEGATIVE CAPABILITY

The most useful philosophical concept ever written on the subject of MAYBE was written in December of 1817, in a small handwritten letter from a twenty-two-year-old English poet named John Keats to his brothers George and Tom. Keats was young. He was thinking hard about what made certain writers ~ Shakespeare above all ~ so much better than others. And he arrived, in the middle of the letter, at a single small phrase that has since travelled through two hundred years of English literature: Negative Capability. He wrote:

— John Keats, letter to George and Tom Keats, 21 December 1817

Read one way, this is a theory of poetry. Read another way, this is a manifesto for the MAYBE Collection. Keats is naming a specific skill ~ the ability to be in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without immediately trying to resolve them. To sit with the not-yet-known. To not force the season to close before she is ready. To not irritably reach after fact & reason. Just to remain, quietly, in the middle of the small perhaps, and let the answer arrive in her own time.

Keats believed that this was the highest human skill. Not decisiveness. Not confidence. Not certainty. The ability to sit inside a small quiet maybe, without needing to make her go away. Shakespeare, he argued, was Shakespeare because he could hold ten different characters' truths at once, without ranking them, without deciding which was correct. He held the whole complicated middle. Negative Capability is the name for that small holding.

The MAYBE Collection is a small wearable reminder of exactly this. The chain is slim. The moonstone is small. The gold bars are considered. Everything about the design is quiet ~ she does not shout, she does not demand certainty, she does not force the wearer to resolve. She simply sits at the wrist or the throat, holding the small worn maybe alongside the woman who is currently in the middle of something she has not yet named.

Keats wrote another line, later in his short life, that matters to the MAYBE wearer:

— John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale (1819)

Even in his most beautiful poems, Keats returned to the small acknowledgement that he did not entirely know how to feel about the largest questions of his own life. He held the half-in-love quality of a woman who is uncertain about everything important. Half-in. Half-out. Half-decided. This is the small honest register the MAYBE Collection is designed to sit inside. She is not for the fully-in woman. She is for the half-in-love woman, the half-arrived woman, the half-committed woman. She is designed to keep the half-open door held gently open.

BATIN + MUNGKIN  ~  THE INDONESIAN INTERIOR

The Indonesian language has a specific and beautiful word for the kind of knowing the MAYBE Collection is designed to hold. She is called batin, and she does not translate cleanly into English. The closest reach is the deep interior life ~ but the word carries more than English can hold. Batin is what a person is on the inside. Batin is what a woman feels when she cannot yet name what she feels. Batin is the layer of the self underneath language, underneath argument, underneath opinion. It is the small quiet room inside her where the maybe actually lives.

There is a small traditional Indonesian phrase: lahir dan batin ~ outside and inside. Every person has both. The lahir is the visible self ~ what she says, what she wears, what other people can see and interpret. The batin is the invisible self ~ what she actually feels, what she has not yet said, what is currently forming inside her. In the Indonesian understanding, a person is only whole when both are honoured. When she pretends the lahir is the whole story, she becomes brittle. When she honours the batin as equally real, she stays open.

The Bahasa Indonesia word for MAYBE is mungkin, and it is one of the small daily words every Indonesian child learns before school. Mungkin hujan ~ maybe rain. Mungkin besok ~ maybe tomorrow. Mungkin ya, mungkin tidak ~ maybe yes, maybe no. The word is unheavy. It is used many times a day, in every household, by every generation. Unlike in some Western cultures where the word maybe can read as evasive or non-committal, in Indonesian culture mungkin is respectful ~ it acknowledges that the future is not fully knowable, and that any small statement about tomorrow is only a hopeful approximation. The word carries humility.

There is a third small word from the Balinese language that matters to the MAYBE. She is called ngrasa, which comes from the same root as rasa ~ but shifted into a verb. Ngrasa means to feel deeply, to sense with the body's intuition rather than with the mind's argument. A Balinese woman ngrasa the weather before the rain arrives. She ngrasa when a family member is not well before the phone call comes. She ngrasa the right day to begin a new project even when the calendar says otherwise. Ngrasa is not superstition. It is the trained practice of paying attention to what the batin is quietly saying.

The MAYBE Collection is designed to be worn against this specific kind of knowing. The wearer touches the small moonstone at her throat or wrist and remembers that her own batin is worth listening to. That the small maybe she is holding today is not a failure of thought ~ it is her ngrasa, working. That in the older Indonesian understanding, uncertainty is not a problem. Uncertainty is the shape of a soul that is honestly, humbly, meeting a future that is not yet finished.

THE RAINBOW MOONSTONE  ~  MOONLIGHT THROUGH FOG

At the center of each MAYBE piece sits a small triangular cabochon of Rainbow Moonstone, and she is worth understanding on her own terms. Rainbow Moonstone is not, technically, the same as classic moonstone (which is a variety of orthoclase feldspar). Rainbow Moonstone is a variety of labradorite, primarily mined in India, Madagascar, and Sri Lanka. Her particular optical trick is called adularescence ~ a slow floating blue-white shimmer that appears to move across the surface of the stone as she is turned in the light. Underneath, faint flashes of rainbow can sometimes be seen. This is why she is called Rainbow.

In the older stone-reading traditions, moonstone is one of the most-associated stones with the feminine intuitive line. She is the stone of the moon behind fog ~ the light that continues to shine even when the sky above is not clear, the small quiet source that keeps the tide moving even when the wearer cannot see the moon herself. In the Vedic tradition, moonstone is associated with Chandra, the moon deity. In the Roman tradition, she was associated with Diana. In the Balinese Hindu tradition, moonstone falls under the domain of Dewi Ratih, the Balinese moon goddess whose story we told in a companion essay on our Energy Necklace.

The small triangular shape of the setting is not accidental. In Balinese Hindu iconography, the downward-pointing triangle is the yoni symbol ~ the feminine principle, the receptive vessel, the small quiet opening toward what is arriving. In the ancient alchemical traditions of the West, the downward triangle also represents the element of water ~ the flowing, the receiving, the quiet feminine. The MAYBE moonstone is set in this specific shape because she is not the stone of forcing. She is the stone of receiving. Of listening. Of the small quiet knowing that arrives when the wearer stops arguing with her own uncertainty.

The stone worn at the throat (on the Necklace) sits close to the small area where the wearer's own voice lives ~ she is the small daily reminder to speak, softly, from her own knowing, even when she is not yet certain. The stone worn at the wrist (on the Bracelet) sits at the pulse point ~ she is the small daily reminder that the wearer's own body knows things her mind has not yet caught up with.

THE TWO PIECES  ~  NECKLACE AND BRACELET

The MAYBE Collection is a small two-piece family. She is smaller and quieter than our full four-piece collections, and this is by design. Some collections are meant to be full worn architectures. The MAYBE is meant to be intimate, private, small enough to slip under a linen shirt and be worn only for the wearer's own eyes.

MAYBE Necklace ~ The MAYBE Necklace is a delicate 37-centimetre choker (with 4 centimetres of adjustable extension, reaching to 41 cm) in either 22k gold vermeil or full sterling silver 925. Along the chain sit two small hammered gold bar accents, and at the front of the choker hangs a small triangular Rainbow Moonstone in a bezel setting. Rp 2,850,000. The choker sits close to the throat ~ high enough to be seen above most necklines, private enough to be worn under a collar. She is designed to sit at the exact place where the wearer's own voice lives, a small worn reminder to trust what her own throat has been quietly saying.

MAYBE Bracelet ~ The MAYBE Bracelet is a slim 16-centimetre chain (with 2 centimetres of adjustable rings) in 22k gold vermeil, with the same small hammered gold bar accents along the chain and a matching small triangular Rainbow Moonstone at the front of the wrist. Rp 2,690,000. She is designed to layer with the wearer's other slim bracelets ~ the small worn maybe alongside whatever else she is quietly holding. Popular worn on the wrist opposite a watch, so that the wearer catches the small moonstone every time she reaches to check the time.

HOW THE COLLECTION IS WORN

The MAYBE is designed to be worn quietly, and to layer beautifully with the rest of the LeeLoobird world. A few small suggestions.

The small daily quiet. Either piece worn alone becomes the small daily companion. Many of our wearers begin with the Bracelet alone (slightly less visible, slightly more private) and later add the choker as their trust in the collection deepens.

The two-piece pairing. The MAYBE Necklace and Bracelet worn together form a small worn triangle across the wearer's body ~ moonstone at the throat, moonstone at the wrist. The two small stones catch light at slightly different times of day and remind the wearer, from two positions on her body, that she is allowed to be in the middle.

The wearable-word grammar. The MAYBE joins the small LeeLoobird family of pieces named for the small daily words a woman actually says. She layers beautifully with our MERCI Collection (maybe + thank you), our CINTA Collection (maybe + love), and our Oui À La Vie Collection (maybe + yes). Together these small worn words form a small worn vocabulary of the woman's real interior life. Perhaps. Thank you. Love. Yes.

The MAYBE Collection also pairs beautifully with our Energy Necklace, which carries the crescent moon at the throat. The two moonstones together read as a small daily lunar practice ~ the moon of the Energy (visible, waxing, becoming) and the moon-behind-fog of the MAYBE (softer, uncertain, quietly present). Both together on the same body form a small worn moon architecture.

CARE  ~  KEEPING HER AT HER BEST

The MAYBE Collection is designed for real daily wear. The 22k gold vermeil is a serious professional 3-micron plating over solid recycled sterling silver 925, protected with a nano coating to hold the finish through years of use. The Rainbow Moonstone is a softer stone (6-6.5 on the Mohs scale) and asks for a small amount of care ~ she does not enjoy sharp knocks against harder surfaces, ultrasonic cleaners, or long exposure to hot water and harsh cleansers.

A few small notes to keep her at her best. Remove the pieces before showering, before swimming, and before applying perfumes or heavy body oils ~ the chemistry of chlorine, salt water, and concentrated fragrance is not friendly to any vermeil piece or bezel-set stone over time. Store the pieces in soft pouches, ideally lying flat, so the small triangular stone edges are protected. The sterling silver version develops a natural patina over time; a soft silver polishing cloth returns the surface to brightness if a brighter finish is preferred.

Each MAYBE piece arrives in our small LeeLoobird pouch, ready to be worn or ready to be given. The MAYBE is one of our most-given pieces to a friend in a difficult season ~ a small handwritten note tucked inside the pouch always completes the gift.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is the MAYBE Collection?

A small two-piece family: the MAYBE Necklace (a 37cm choker with 4cm adjustable, Rp 2,850,000) and the MAYBE Bracelet (a slim 16cm chain with 2cm adjustable, Rp 2,690,000). Each carries a small triangular Rainbow Moonstone and small hammered gold bar accents along the chain. Made in 22k gold vermeil (3 microns over recycled sterling silver 925) or in sterling silver 925. Hand-made and blessed in our Bali atelier.

Why is the collection called MAYBE?

Sandrine chose the English word MAYBE deliberately ~ she is the small daily kept-open word every woman uses hundreds of times without noticing. Not the announcement word (YES), not the closure word (NO), but the gentler middle word that holds possibility open. In Bahasa Indonesia the equivalent word is mungkin. The MAYBE Collection is a quiet ode to the woman who is currently in the middle of something she has not yet decided.

What does the Rainbow Moonstone symbolize?

Rainbow Moonstone is the stone of intuition, clarity, and new beginnings. In older stone-reading traditions she is called the moon behind fog ~ the light that continues to shine even when the sky above is not clear. She is a variety of labradorite whose optical adularescence produces a floating blue-white shimmer with occasional rainbow flashes. On the MAYBE she is set as a small downward-pointing triangle, a shape traditionally associated in Balinese Hindu and Western alchemical traditions with the receptive feminine principle and the element of water.

Can I wear the pieces alone or as a set?

Both are correct. Some wearers begin with only the Bracelet as a small private introduction to the collection, and add the Necklace later. Some wear only the Necklace at the throat, close to the voice. Some wear both together for a small worn triangle across the body. All are correct.

Is the MAYBE a good gift for someone going through a difficult season?

Yes ~ this is one of our most-gifted pieces for exactly this reason. When a friend is in the middle of a season the giver cannot resolve for her ~ a difficult decision, a health uncertainty, a career pause, a relationship in question ~ the MAYBE is a small worn gift of permission. She does not tell the receiver what to decide. She simply reminds her that she is allowed to sit inside the uncertain middle without treating it as failure. Arrives in our LeeLoobird pouch, ready to be given with a small handwritten note.

Can I mix the gold and silver versions?

Yes ~ many wearers own the Necklace in one finish and the Bracelet in the other. The two pieces share the same design language and read beautifully together at any temperature combination. The Rainbow Moonstone at the center is the same stone regardless of the metal setting.

How do I care for the moonstone?

The Rainbow Moonstone is a softer stone (6-6.5 on the Mohs scale). Remove the pieces before showering, swimming, or applying perfume and body oils. Do not use ultrasonic cleaners or steam cleaners on the setting. Store the pieces flat in soft pouches so the triangular stone edges are protected. Occasional gentle cleaning with a soft dry brush is enough.

Where can I browse the full LeeLoobird collection?

You can view the full LeeLoobird jewelry collection at leeloobird.com/collections/necklaces and /bracelets. Each piece is designed, hand-made, and blessed in our Bali atelier.

The MAYBE is not a piece for the woman who has decided. She is a piece for the woman who is in the middle of not-deciding ~ and who wants a small worn silver or gold reminder that she is allowed to be. The moonstone catches light. The maybe stays open. The wearer moves through her day with the small worn permission at her throat or wrist, quietly listening to her own batin, quietly trusting her own ngrasa, quietly holding the small perhaps that has not yet arrived at its answer. Even in uncertainty, there is light.