ABOUT
The body is an altar.
Tempered Earth is a handmade adornment studio exploring the relationship between jewelry, memory, embodiment, and self-expression.
To me, the body is an altar because it’s where we experience our lives. There’s something meaningful about intentionally choosing what we keep close to it. What we place upon the body can become an honoring of the self, the life being lived through us, and the people and stories that made our lives possible. Adornment is one way we can tend to it.
Each piece is created in small quantities, using materials chosen for their texture, history, and connection to the natural world. Jewelry doesn’t always have to carry meaning, but I’m interested in what happens when it does. A piece can simply be something we enjoy wearing, but it can also mark a particular season, or become something we put on when we want to feel a little more like ourselves.
With that in mind, my hope is that the things you find here become part of your own rituals and stories. I hope they’re worn often, layered freely, and imbued with meaning through the life you live in them. No two pieces are exactly alike, just as no two lives are. Natural variation, evidence of handmade work, and the particular character of each material are part of the story.
The Name
The name Tempered Earth speaks to this philosophy. Tempered is strength shaped through experience, refined by life's fires and softened by the wisdom we gain. It is that which has been transformed rather than broken.
Earth is the foundation from which we come and to which we return: ancestry, nourishment, stability, and possibility. It reminds us that we are not separate from the natural world, but of it. Within the earth, soil becomes the place where new seeds are planted after every season of shedding, much like plants leave behind seeds at the end of their life cycle to make way for new growth.
Together, Tempered Earth honors the beauty of what is transformed, what takes root, and what continues to grow.
The Practice
That same attention to change and transformation shapes the slow, intuitive rhythm of the studio. Rather than producing large collections or adhering to a constant release schedule, the work unfolds in chapters. Offerings are small bodies of work inspired by a particular season, symbol, or inner landscape. Each contains only a handful of pieces, created as one-of-a-kind works or in very small editions.
Meanwhile, Intervals emerge between those larger chapters: singular works and limited releases born from experimentation, unexpected inspiration, rediscovered materials, or an idea that wants to be executed. Once a design has left the studio, it may never return in exactly the same form. This website archive acts as a record of the evolving practice.
The Materials
That sense of continuity extends to the materials themselves. I frequently use African brass and glass beads, sandcast beads, freshwater pearls, reclaimed and vintage components, natural stone, ceramic, and gold-filled details. Rather than reinventing the studio's aesthetic with every release, I work within an evolving material vocabulary, returning to familiar forms, textures, and elements while allowing each Offering to deepen the language. New materials and techniques enter the practice when they naturally belong there. The intention is not sameness, but continuity. I want a piece made years from now to still feel unmistakably like Tempered Earth.
The Maker
Tempered Earth was founded in 2026 by me, Stephanie Long, also known as Stevie Reneé. I’m a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and embodiment facilitator whose work explores the relationship between creativity, the body, and transformation.
Jewelry has been part of my creative practice since I was a little girl designing pieces alongside my mother. Together, we had a small jewelry business called Bead Garden Designs, which was my earliest introduction to making adornments for others. Years later, I founded Sol Eclectic, where I began developing many of the material and visual instincts that would eventually find a different expression through Tempered Earth.
After years as a writer, editor, and wellness practitioner, working with my hands feels like a natural extension of my work. Tempered Earth is both a return to a creative practice I’ve loved for more than 25 years and a deeper expression of it—shaped by everything I’ve learned about storytelling, embodiment, change, and the ways making can bring us into closer relationship with ourselves, our histories, and the materials we touch.
Every piece is designed and made by hand in my home studio in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Inquiries & Collaborations
I'm open to custom pieces and commissions, as well as select collaborations with shops, stockists, stylists, editors, and other creatives. If you're interested in a custom piece or working with Tempered Earth in another capacity, I'd love to hear from you.