jet

I have some jet beads that I wear with two different looks. The first I like best although I've worn it only in Hawaii. I you have seen pictures of the ancient Hawaiian Royalty you will often see them wearing a large carved whale bone hook or tongue on a necklace of tiny braids of human
hair.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Hawaiian+whale+tooth+necklace&hl=en&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS512US512&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Dj0-UY-rGuPRyAHvuoGQDw&ved=0CD4QsAQ (This will send you to an incredible Hawaiian jewelry gallery!)
My jet beads remind me of the look of human hair, and I have this bone hook which I got at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, and the two together remind me of that ancient look.

I also wear these beads with a French jet (glass) necklace with a giant real jet drop. This is pretty too.

Chinese pink

I wear a lot of pink hence I get a lot of use out of these Chinese pink lampworked beads. Here I'm showing them with that string of turquoise I've mentioned before, the one that goes with everything. Together these make a beautiful choker. I love the pink beads especially because of the flecks of red in them. When I was a child my mom told me that red and pink don't match, and yet they were always my favorite combination. Growing up in Hawaii, I had a different aesthetic than my mom who grew up on the East Coast. Now I get to indulge it all I want and could wear pink and red everyday if I felt like it! Certainly when you get to my age you have to tone down your black clothes with some pastel or you end up looking too severe. Pink is the perfect choice.

white bone

This is a lovely little choker where a single horn of a small ungulate has been sliced in half and polished to make perfect matched sides of a necklace centered by a white bone bead. I'm of two  minds about having this piece since so many small deer have gone extinct. I got it from the famous Sutro St. Salvation Army and love its elegant simplicity, but I'm not sure I'd buy it today because of the environmental implications. However since I have it, I try to treasure and take care of it. I like to wear it with the carved faced earring above because those faces are so gentle and seem like guardian spirits to the little endangered creature below. I love white bone. It is such a soft organic material. I just wish I could know that my bone pieces are from domesticated sources. Bone is one of the most ancient materials for human ornamentation. I like to wear bone because of that connection to the ancient past. Everything in the world is so speeded up and modern that bone seems like a way to imagine our ancestors and live a little more gently on the earth.

fancy birds: for your eyes only

This is Betsy Johnson on eBay.

This is also on eBay.

This is from my collection.

Also eBay.

 

Ever since I was old enough to go to the zoo, I remember trying to find peacock feathers. Finding one was like finding a jewel. So it's only natural that peacocks should inspire jewels galore. Here is another one, this time a broach, inspired by the Meiji Period in Japan (1868-1912):

What I got on eBay

I was looking for snake rings and this one is as good as two. It was $3.99 with free shipping. The oval rings below were a total of $20.00 including shipping. So I splurged for under $25.00. I usually like round rings but bought these ovals because they were as close as I could get to navette shaped rings which are  my new obsession. Navettes are modified ovals. Instead of being round at the ends, they come to a point. I already have several, but I was looking for one in black or gold. And the rings below were as close as I could get.

Ebay

This past weekend I went on eBay and looked at some 45 pages of estate rings. It was an enjoyable pastime even though most of the offerings were really ugly. I picked these rings pictured here as my dream purchase list but the cost was upwards of $1,800! So I had to be satisfied with taking these picture and putting them on this dream page so I can enjoy without purchasing. And by the way that figure did not include shipping costs. Tomorrow I'll show you what I did buy on eBay.

trade beads

I bought these lovely trade beads from a lovely lady who had been in the Peace Corps in Africa during the '60's in Upper Volta now known as Burkina-Faso. I love their turquoise color as so many of the trade beads you see are earth tones, browns and burnt sienna. I wear these beads with an extra string of turquoise because for me turquoise is a neutral. I wear turquoise with everything. In fact in another blog I'll show you the one string of beads that I wear with everything, from gold to pink lampworked beads to coral. The effect of wearing these trade beads is that of a large collar. I usually wear them with a very plain brown dress to give them center stage so to speak. A pair of red heels and the whole look comes together (red being my other neutral!)