DESIGNING THE NECKLACE

"We started by talking about the personality (of the character)," said Carla. MaryLee described her vision of the necklace--something that looked like a custom piece, a real one-of-a-kind.

They looked at an array of gemstones of varying textures and colors before deciding on the turquoise stone on yellow gold combination. "When Carla first suggested turquoise, I was thinking of those big old belts you find at truck stops in Arizona," said MaryLee. "Then they started bringing out these turquoise stones, and I thought, 'Oh, wow!'"

There are a lot of variations of quality of gemstones, and when Carla started her business, she made a commitment to always getting the best of them. "We just do. That's where we decided we were going when we were young (in the business)," said Carla. She picked a spectacular turquoise stone and added black diamonds around it because they make it "very sparkly--even though they are very small, there is a great twinkle factor about them."

"There's a term in jewelry called 'everyday'," Carla explained. "We wanted it to be an everyday piece, so it wouldn't be a special occasion piece, and it wouldn't be something that was so casual that it was like hemp and beads. We wanted it to be a beautiful piece that she would likely wear everyday, and I think this captures it super-well."

QUICK TURNAROUND

To do a custom piece like this would usually take 6-8 weeks. But with the deadline looming, Carla and Kate Ryan, her design partner, got it finished in just ten days. "We really wanted to do it," Carla explained. "After MaryLee left, we were like, 'Ohmigod'."

Besides Carla and Kate, three others worked on it, including a wax carver, a caster and a stone setter. There was a lot of put-this-in-front special nature to it. "Once everyone learned about what it was, they were totally behind it," Carla said. "It was like this really special cool thing and as people began to do their parts of it, we saw it come to life."

Kate, who Carla calls a "beadwork master", added a strand of rubies and black onyx to the necklace and the piece was finished.

A SISTER'S CONNECTION

The experience holds a special significance for Kate, who years ago had given a necklace to her younger sister that she had made. "It was also turquoise and a very fine quality and she wore it all the time," Kate said. "She passed away in September 2007. She was 19 years old and it was just a sudden, freak thing. I think that things happen in ways that help you. It was incredibly touching that MaryLee, with this story, found us. It has definitely helped me."

THE FINISHED PIECE

MaryLee picked up the necklace at Carla's Boulder design studio and loved how the earthiness of the turquoise was complemented by the elegance of the gold and the black diamonds. "Because no matter what you see of a woman on the outside, she's always a mix of everything," said MaryLee. "There is some of that earthiness in Margaret, the older sister, and some of that elegance and strength in Christie, the younger sister."

MaryLee's so honored to have a Carla Morrison necklace, a genuine work of art, in her movie. "It gives me chills thinking about it, how beautifully it came together and all the amazing people who put in the extra time and effort to make it happen."