Mardon Introduces New Citrus Heritage Raincross Jewelry
November 19th, 2011 by James L. Sweaney, CGA, FGA. GG
The latest addition to our Famous Raincross Collection of fine jewelry is simply stunning! We think our fine silver pendant wonderfully captures the unique style and bright colors of the orange crate art from the heyday of California citrus.
Riverside was founded as a citrus colony in the late 1800’s, prospering to the point that around the turn of the century we had one of the highest per capita incomes in the United States! The industry spawned the unique orange crate labels that are avidly collected today.
We were inspired to make this beautiful pendant after working with one of our prominent Riverside families who are local citrus growers– we made them several custom designs using their brand, and were really impressed with the pride and sense of history they feel about the citrus industry.
Our pendant is modeled after this label, probably circa 1930’s-40’s from the McDermont Fruit Company, a grower associated with Sunkist. What better combination of the logo of our famous Mission Inn and our citrus heritage could we find for this latest creation?
Our wonderful enamelists, the Fusager family of Magick guided us thru the development of the piece, and our Mistress of CAD, Jenny Sweaney, created the design from which we milled the master model.
We knew the piece would be just gorgeous but it truly exceeds our expectations. In fact, Falcher Fusager, master enamelist said the brilliant colors of the finished original that you see here nearly brought tears to his eyes– and he sees a lot of enamels!
The design has already been a huge success – the first batch is sold out! We will have more available after the holidays, so if you would like one please reserve yours now. 
Tags: CAD/CAM, citrus colony, enamel, Magick, orange crate labels, Viszu
