I’m so proud of my husband for serving our country and passionately support him and the troops.  But being a military wife is very hard sometimes!  It gets very lonely and frustrating, and I really miss my husband when he is away.  A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine (also a military wife) told me about a site she’d found about tear bottles.  She raved about them, but I had never heard of them and decided to look into what they were.  Turns out tear bottles or tear catchers, are delicate little bottles designed for holding and celebrating the tears of your life!  This immediately appealed to me.  I’m an emotional creature and even more so since my husband joined the military.  And when I read that tear catchers were once used by women who watched their husbands sail away to battle or leave for wars back in the 1900s, it really hit home.  I simply had to have one!

I browsed through the Enchanted Tear Catchers website and found a beautiful, turquoise ceramic bottle that seemed to call to me.  The color reminded me of the color Mike and I painted the kitchen in our first apartment and the sparkling amethysts were my birthstone.  So naturally, I snatched it up.  When I received it in the mail a few days later, I opened the gift wrapped box and immediately started crying!  It was so beautiful!  But I wasn’t just crying because of that.  I was crying, because I just missed my husband so much!  And I wanted him to know it.  I finally had a way to express how much he is loved in addition to the letters and care packages I send him.  

When Mike comes home from Afghanistan next month, he’ll truly be able to see how much I love, treasure, miss, and support him when he sees this beautiful tear vial filled with my tears; tears of love, longing, joy, memories, and happiness upon his return.  This tear catcher expresses so much more than my words alone.

Also, when he comes home I’ll have another special surprise for him…Mike’s going to be a daddy!  Looks like I won’t be the only one cherishing my tear catcher.  (He’s an emotional soul too!)

Thank you!

Tear Catchers make a wonderful and unique gift that both intrigues and delights all who receive it.   Tear bottles encourage friends and loved ones to collect the hopes, dreams, joys, and sorrows that resonate in their tears in a treasured vial.  This creates a deeply emotional bond with your tear catcher or tear jar and infuses a profound meaning each and every time it is filled.  Here are three momentous occasions in which a tear catcher makes the perfect, distinctive gift.  

Mother's Day is observed all over the world and across 46 different countries!  According to historians, this holiday is rumored to be centuries old (much like tear vials) and can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods.  The celebration was later cemented in American history by Anna Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe in the 1800’s.  This heartwarming holiday is known for honoring mothers and celebrating motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society.   Tear catchers make exquisite gifts for mothers, because they celebrate and encompass the unconditional love that mothers have for their children.   Mothers are the most revered figurehead of families and the joy, struggles, hopes, and dreams that they have for their children are expressed in tears that can be treasured in a tear gift and passed down from generation to generation.  A mother’s love is instinctive, nurturing, unwavering, and special; All the more reason she deserves a tear catcher to embrace the very tears she so lovingly shares with her children.

Jewelz of Taos Tear Catchers are handcrafted from terra cotta clay with uniquely sculpted relief work and feature authentic gemstones, zodiac signs, birthstones, and healing colors.  No two are alike and each one encompasses "the breath of life", which is the breath of the artist blown into each one.  Therefore each Enchanted Tear Catcher is a figurative living and breathing creation made to embrace your tears, your memories, and your stories.

A young maiden gently weeps as she watches her beloved sailor drift off into a dark and uncertain sea.  She captures each of her tears in a tear bottle so that upon his return, he will know how much he was missed.  She is certain she will fill her tear vial with her tears of longing long before his homecoming.  A wise mother has spent each year of her daughter’s life collecting the tears of her proudest moments in her tear jar.  On her daughter’s wedding day, the mother gives her the vial of tears as a tear gift for her to pass on to her own child someday.  The daughter knows this delicate tear catcher contains her mother’s tears from the happy moments of her daughter’s life, including her birth.   She is touched and gifts her own tears to the bottle…

Tear bottles have been a therapeutic staple in many cultures since biblical times.   In the days of ancient Egypt, Egyptians were buried with these revered vials that were thought to hold the tears of mourners.  This sign of honor has persevered over the sands of time and are a well honored tradition that is passed down even today!

In today’s culture, tear bottles are still a powerful and therapeutic symbol though they have existed for thousands of years!  These symbolic vessels are made from a variety of expressive materials such as blown glass, ceramic, or porcelain with unique gilding, markings, and designs. Many give tear gifts to loved ones to symbolize and embrace the memories associated with joy, inspiration, compassion, and sorrow we face in the path of our lives.  From weddings to wakes, bereavements to births, graduations to communions; No matter the reason or occasion, tear bottles make a rare and distinctive impression on all those who receive them.

Jewelz of Taos Tear Catchers are handcrafted from terra cotta clay with uniquely sculpted relief work and feature authentic gemstones, zodiac signs, birthstones, and healing colors.  No two are alike and each one encompasses "the breath of life", which is the breath of the artist blown into each one.  Therefore each Tear Catcher is a figurative living and breathing creation made to embrace your tears, your memories, and your stories.