Gift Ideas - Anniversary

If, like me, you occasionally have to buy gifts for people who seem to have everything, it can be hard to find inspiration. It's great when you get a clue or an idea from them, but this doesn't always make for a nice surprise!

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This is why I love the idea of themes for gifting. The oldest and best example of this is Anniversary Gifts based on number of years.

With both the Traditional list and the Modern list, as well as Colours and Gemstones, these lists are able to take a lot of the guesswork out of gift buying. Using these lists can narrow down your search for a gift and save a lot of time and effort.

Year	Traditional Gift	Modern Gift	Colour	Gemstone
1	Paper	Clocks	Gold or Yellow	Gold
2	Cotton	China	Red	Garnet
3	Leather	Crystal or Glass	Jade or White	Pearl
4	Fruit or Flowers	Appliance	Blue or Green	Topaz
5	Wood	Silverware	Blue, Pink, Turquoise	Sapphire
6	Iron	Wood	Purple, White, Turquoise	Amethyst
7	Copper or Wool	Desk Sets	Yellow or Off White	Onyx
8	Bronze or Pottery	Linen or Lace	Bronze	Tourmaline
9	Willow or Pottery	Leather	Terracota	Lapis Lazuli
10	Aluminium/Tin	Diamond	Silver or Blue	Diamond
11	Steel	Jewellery	Turquoise	Turquoise
12	Silk or Linen	Pearl	Oyster White	Jade
13	Lace	Textiles or Furs	White	Citrine
14	Ivory	Gold Jewellery	Ivory	Opal
15	Crystal	Watches	Red	Ruby
16	Wax	Silver Holloware	Silver or Emerald Green	Peridot
17	Furniture	Furniture	Yellow	Carnelian
18	Porcelain	Porcelain	Blue	Cat’s eye
19	Bronze	Bronze	Bronze	Aquamarine
20	China	Platinum	Emerald Green	Emerald
25	Silver	Silver	Silver	Silver
30	Pearl	Diamond	Green	Pearl
35	Coral	Jade	Coral	Emerald
40	Ruby	Ruby	Red	Ruby
45	Sapphire	Sapphire	Blue or Red	Sapphire
50	Gold	Gold	Gold	Gold
55	Emerald	Emerald	Emerald Green	Alexandrite
60	Diamond	Diamond	Diamond White	Diamond

Obviously Year 7 is of particular interest to me as a Wool picture is an ideal gift for this anniversary year! There's also Year 13 which lists Textiles as a modern gift and Year 4 which lists Flowers.

However it doesn't end there. The colours list can be particularly useful if you already have artwork in mind but don't know where to start. A colour, or a pair/group of colours can provide the starting point for a commissioned piece and give ideas for the subject matter. Narrowing down the options can help to drive creativity. You never know, there may also be the ideal piece ready to go!

As well as colour choices, other things to feed into ideas for anniversary gifts could be honeymoon or favourite holiday locations, wedding flowers, joint hobbies/interests. Using these ideas you can choose or commission original and unique artwork to make a brilliant anniversary gift!

Lastly, don't be afraid to brainstorm ideas with an artist or maker. You don't have to have a detailed brief before you approach us. We can talk through the beginnings of an idea and help form it into a brief with you as well as source photographs and research ideas.

Interested in gifting fibre art? Email me at ushma@fifteen2.co.uk