lady bug

Usually I hate gaudy crystals but this Swarovsky lady bug I just couldn't live without. It's big and chunky so that I end up wearing it all winter. I have tiny lady bugs for spring. The bright red goes really well with black winter clothes and in fact off sets the winter's gloom. I shortened the chain so that the bug rides just above my breastbone. I don't like big necklaces to swing back and forth at the belly level. Not to mention they interfere with jacket fasteners. I got this last year when I was visiting my son who lives in Union Square at the big Swarovsky store down there where they were handing out champagne to celebrate the season's new designs. It's great sometimes to feel like a decadent San Franciscan with money to burn!

some floating hearts

I loved the Elsa Peretti's floating hearts since I was a kid in the '70's, and I'm so glad they've made a come back. Good design never goes out of style forever. I like to wear a group of these in graduated sizes because they look like falling tears. The big cutout heart just looks good in the picture. I really bought it for my sister, Amy. But I haven't seen her for a while. Only one of the above hearts is an original Tiffany's; the rest are just knock offs. But as you may have noticed, I'm very democratic about my jewelry. I wear diamonds and glass side by side with equal pleasure.

What's on my hand

Here's what I have on my hands today. I like a motif, in this case the color purple, to be consistent on both hands. I usually wear bolder rings on my right hand since I don't have to worry about clashing with my wedding rings which I wear all the time.

more kitties

All these kitties came from thrift stores. I especially like the one on the left as does both my son and my nephew. I like to wear that hair raising cat with that darling little mouse stick pin which implies that the cat is afraid of the mouse. I like jewelry that tells a story and often like to juxtapose pieces so that a message can be arrived at if one thinks about it. Both my son and his girlfriend like cats so I always know where to send my thrift store finds if I start to feel like my cats are multiplying, well, like cats.

more rings

I love my collection of big paste rings. They look great when matched right up to a color of an outfit. I have a blue velvet coat that goes exactly with the large blue ring and they look amazing together. I wish I'd kept all the rings I bought at Woolsworth in the '60's when I was just a little kid. Even then if I had some money I immediately turned it into some kind of jewelry usually a ring. Turning paper into jewels is how I see buying jewelry. Like spinning flax into gold. Glass rings are wonderful for those of us who will never be able to buy a fancy diamond that bears a name. And they're safer too. Nobody is going to break into your house for a piece of glass! Very old glass rings from the Georgian period are often worth $1,500. So don't laugh at these not so humble impostors.

clear stones

Needless to say, I love fake diamonds. When I started this page I started with a handful of rings. But as I kept looking through my various jewel boxes, I kept finding more! I'm certain I don't have them all pictured yet. And I wear them too. I love that people can get such pretty fakes because the cost of real diamonds is expensive in dollars and prohibitive in terms of human labor and environmental devastation. That doesn't stop me from loving real diamonds; we all have our flaws. But cultivating a love for fakes is a step in the right direction. I've included some clear stones here: white topaz and white sapphire because they're lovely and a good stand it for diamonds.

wings

Fanciful winged creatures always capture my attention. I guess they are our version of the Egyptian scarab which is a symbol of the soul. If this is the case we must have many more unique souls than the Egyptians did. Think of the literally thousands of scarabs that have been dug up, all virtually the same. We have beetles and flies and bugs and bees and butterflies and flutter-bys of all materials and color. I think this reflects our valued individuality. No matter what your style is there's a soul symbol for you. Just think there are shiny black widows for Goths and golden jeweled bees for ladies who lunch.

Almanor Art Show

These are three little works of art that I got at the Almanor Art Show sponsored every August by Plumas Arts in Chester, Plumas County. I'm sorry to say I only know the name of the most established jeweler, the one who made the large bead, but I'm not going to mention it in fairness to the other two artists and because he's a grumpy grump pants. His skills as a jeweler are unquestioned, but I find his work for the most part insipid.

On the other hand one wishes the two other artists here had more to work with. The young woman has a purity of focus. For several years now she has used the simplest of materials to work with texture on circles. Much of her work is done in copper. And she likes splashes of color here and there like the succulent green pearl on the piece I bought.

The ring was made by the loveliest young man from Mexico. I was charmed immediately when he admired my mid-century rings and said, "You just don't see that kind of workmanship anymore." Most of his work was cast silver all done by hand, but I fell in love with this little black pearl that swivils loose between two seed pearl anchors. It has an ancient simplicity which I love.

Venetian glass

I love glass that was made in Venice. This is a particularly nice piece, I think, because of the size and because all the white in it looks like snowflakes. This kind of glass is made with individual long canes of glass. In this case the canes are very fine. I had a friend whose daughter had a pendant like this which she had received as a gift when she visited Venice. It fell out of its setting and smashed into almost a million pieces. My friend collected all the pieces and using a magnifying glass glued the whole pendant back together so that you couldn't tell it had ever broken! I swear this is a true story. I would think her daughter would value that pendant now even more than she did before because it has so much of her mother in it.

candy coated

The pave czs give these pastel mint stones a sugar coated look. I obviously went through a fad with them. But they are so pretty for the price. I'm not much for department store jewelry, but I am sucker for sparkles. I only have one son, but I hope he'll have twelve children. I know that's not good for the population problem, but one is allowed one's fantasies. At this point he's 24 and says he's having zero children. So it looks like I'll have to give these rings to my nieces, or maybe to their children. I have more nephews than nieces, as it stands, none of whom are interested in my jewelry blog. Part of collecting jewelry is the comfort one gets thinking about who will inherit what. Jewelry contains some of the spirit of the people who've worn it and like to think of handing out these things when I get old. My favorite treasures belonged to my great aunts, and I collect in part to leave a legacy to those born when I'm long gone. And I often buy pieces that look well loved but have somehow become orphans.

tide pool

The crab is 22K gold and the lobster is stamped tin from Spain but they look great together, one on each side of a collar. The ring is the first piece of jewelry I bought when I got my first real job working at the Aloha Tower in Honolulu for the State of Hawaii. I wouldn't buy this now because it's factory produced mall jewelry, and I like one-of-a-kind art pieces or vintage mid 20th century. But I do wear it with these pins because it just seems to go with them. It's funny but it seems that the only reason people think you would wear a crab is because you're a Cancer, which I'm not. But I do like the lobster because it reminds me of the Moon card in the Rider-Waite Tarot Card Deck.

The moon card has the happy fate of representing Deception, Twilight. Obscurity and Intuition.

seascape

Most dolphins I find to be utter kitch, but this design is something I would reproduce if I were any type of artist. It's lines are so simple, and it's not "cute" in the '70's dolphin fad way. I found it all banged up in a thrift store and was determined to restore it in some way. I glazed it with gold paint and put a layer of lacquer over that. It will never be perfect but I feel like I preserved the design. I think it was originally a bolo tie clip if you can believe it. I turned it into a pendant.

Being from Hawaii, I love anything with an ocean theme. Above are a few of my sea motif pieces. I think ocean themes are translated very well into enameled work or matt gold finish. I love the enameled shell above which is vintage, and I just happened to have a chain that fit it, and the enameled starfish is a ring straight from China which I think is lovely. The sea horses and other things are mostly vintage and just seemed to fit into this seascape.

galleon treasure

Chemists call gold the noble metal because it doesn't interact with any other substance and tarnish. Therefore you can pull up golden frogs from the ancient deep, and they are still wearable.

These brass frogs and giant glass emerald remind me of treasure brought up from a sunken

Spanish galleon. The green crystal is really one of a pair if shoe clips. Can you imagine the shoes clips like those would go on? With only one, I naturally turned it into a pendant. Pretty cool chain, huh? The amazing thing about this pendant is that all the miniature green "stones" that circle the main "stone" in two complete rings are all there. None are substitutes or missing completely. This piece is so well made. I used to wear this to the jail when I was teaching there because everything there is so ugly. The patrons long for a break from sore eyes. The "emerald" is also part of my Russian Princess fantasy.

glass baroque

I really like the way this photo turned out. It's not the best technically, but it really shows the beauty of this old glass baroque pearl necklace. None of the pearlescence has cracked off. Each bead is unique. Fake pearls in the past were so valued because they used to be so hard to make. We've all come across a beautiful old set that has cracked and peeled. I am particularly fond of the big baroque shape of these beads and thrilled that they have held up so well. I made the earrings out of another strand that only had a few good beads left. I think they are a pretty good compliment to the necklace without being to matchy-matchy. This set would be good for a night at the Opera paired with a chiffon lavender dress, diamond ring, a champagne mink stole and a fresh pedicure.

surf board

My sister calls this my surf board necklace, but I like it so much I bought two rings to match. The problem is that there are really very few things to wear with this strangely shaped pendant. In fact, I don't think I've successfully worn this with anything I own, and I have a lot of "artistic" clothing. So what is the value of having something beautiful just stuck away in a box? Well I get to take it out and consider wearing it. I admire the workmanship and wonder who bought it the first time and what it was worn with in the past. I guess it's full of potential. Someday this will be the perfect thing or I will find the perfect person to give it to. In the meantime I forget I have it and so get to discover it again and again.

pink bracelets

I really wish I could be wearing these bracelets all right now, but once again the season interferes. You need at least three-quarter if not short sleeves to show these off. I found all these inside of a month. I find this phenomenon true about yard sales too. When you go yardsaling you might see three or four bowling balls on one Sat. and then none for the rest of the summer. Another day you may see three sets of giant forks and spoons but then none ever again. It's like there's some kind of pattern to the chaos of what people decide to throw away. It seems to me to be some small proof of an oversoul, of a universe filled with unity and connectivity.

solids

I have always been attracted to large pendants with solid colors. I tended to wear these to work, the pink on a pink sweater and the blue on a blue sweater, both with skirts. The effected is dressy without being to showy. I'm very fussy about these types of pendants because I don't want them to look plastic. You don't want it to look like you got the piece just to match the sweater, but rather you just happened to have a sweater to match the piece.

thrift shopping

It was a beautiful day but too cold and icy to take a walk so we drove to Portola to see what the Nifty Thrifty had to offer. I hadn't been there in months and months so I was anxious to see what they had stashed in their jewelry case. The problem was money. I had $15. And I am just at the start of this year's Christmas shopping expeditions. I like to get everyone in my family a cute gift, but I have so many relatives that I can't afford to pay much for any one gift. The handful of items shown above was my score for the day. I have someone in mind for each item, except I might have to keep the skull ring because it's such a classic and I don't have one. I have many little nephews who would like it though so I'm kind of torn. Anyway I have all year to decide and that's the fun part. For now I'll wear it because hey it's so cool. The enameled heart is also a classic and could work for many of the girls in my family. And you've got to love the swordfish for the sister whose childhood goal was to open a fancy fish shop (salt water). The crucifix is for my son who is going to a Jesuit school now. And the tea pot pin for his girlfriend who among other things works at Starbucks. Anyway you get the picture. And what a fun afternoon!

Africa

There was a book called Africa Adorned by Angela Fisher that came out in 1984 that really altered my aesthetics for jewelry. It was revolutionary for me really. I began to see the beauty in native people's traditional jewelry. This heap above reminds me of some of the beautiful stuff in Fisher's book and the beautiful people who wear and make these things. Above is real amber, about a hundred red wooden beads and a carved bone fish. About this same time, in Hawaii, I discovered the tiniest shop with African imports. It was out in the industrial part of the island, and I don't know how anyone could have found it unless they were going, like me, to a clothing factory nearby to buy wholesale skirts and T shirts. But my sisters and I began to make regular visits and that's where I got the amber and carved fish tucked under looming masks, spears, and tall, skinny beaded dolls. The wooden beads were in a thrift shop if you can believe it. The amber with the red beads is also a very Tibetan combination so I love this set for several reasons. In the eighties I had a very amber yellow T with a matching knit yellow skirt (from the clothing outlet) that I wore with this entire set a lot.

fun fakes

Lapis and enamel right? This looks really good with a collared shirt. You put the pendant around your neck and the beads under the collar so that both show and emphasize the other. Only, you guessed it, the lapis pendant is a fake and so are the enameled beads. The beads are just painted to look like true enamel work which requires that little strips of silver wire are intricately formed on the plain bead and then powdered color poured into each space in the wire and then the whole thing put in a kiln to melt and harden. In these beads silver paint is used to outline all the design work. Quite a little trick in itself. The pendant is some other material that I forget the name of, but I've seen it in rings as well. I think it's dyed. Still the design of these fakes is so nice that no one ever questions whether or not they are what they appear to be. The thing is you want to know these fakes are out there so you don't end up paying too much. Still I never hesitate to buy a fake if I like it. Sometimes I think man made materials are the most precious in the universe, man being so rare a creature in the big picture. I mean what really is more rare, a diamond (Saturn's rings are made of them) or a cubic zirconium?

lapis

There was a lady in town who had a store with two necklaces in it. One turned out to be of real clear blue lapis beads and was later appraised at $3,000. I didn't buy that one. I bought the other one which I am still trying to figure out what in the world it is (but that's another post). My friend told me to buy the lapis, but I thought it looked fuddy-duddy. The necklace I bought may not be worth as much, but it is as different as you can imagine. Anyway the point is I could have had real jewel quality lapis but instead have this costume dangling piece which I mix with some strands of low quality real lapis, upon one of which I put a rather Middle Eastern looking pendant that is shaped like a book and opens. I think this should hold an Arabic prayer, but since I didn't have such a thing, I put in a little Mexican icon. But that's secret. Now this set looks very good on. It's bold and the costume piece that I found at the Sutro St. Salvation Army doesn't look as cheap as it is because of its rich color, I think.

Russian jewels

This blue heart is really Swarovski's "Heart of the Ocean" inspired by the Hope Diamond Kate Winslet wears in the movie, Titanic. But I prefer to think of it as part of my Russian Ice Princess costume and wear it with my blue velvet coat and white snow boots. It seems like something out of War and Peace, my favorite novel. These originally sold for quite a bit of money, but I got this years and years after the movie came out brand new on Ebay.

And with a necklace like the blue heart, why not these pink earrings. I literally got them for pennies. I imagine a Russian Princess to walk around lit up with the pastels of a glacier.

plastic, yay!

I saw a picture in a magazine where the model was wearing a necklace with dozens of large dangling teardrop plastic beads. They were all this shade of yellow which got me interested in finding yellow plastic beads. I add the plastic purple pearls to provide contrast and because purple and yellow are such a great combination. For years I was afraid of this combo because I was haunted by the words of my childhood landscape painting teacher after using yellow and purple together in a sunset picture. "That will just mix into a muddy brown," he assured me, even though the sky itself was purple and yellow and not muddy brown. To my childhood brain that translated into the rule: purple and yellow don't match. But they do, in the sky and on the body. Every color can be worn with every other color is my new rule. I try to follow this rule a lot.