uncertainty

I can't decide whether I love or hate this set. Cary was with me when I bought the pendant and suggested she make the chain out of gemstones that matched the piece. I get lots of compliments when I wear this, but I keep remembering the really good gold loop earrings I could have bought instead. After losing yet another side to a cheap pair of gold hoops, I remember again the practical thing I let get away (I went back and checked a couple of days afterward) in favor of a pastel gemstone heart that doesn't really look like a heart. Sigh. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's too feminine. I usually wear it with some small baroque pearls (not shown here), with a pastel top, but more often than not I take it off for something else. Maybe it's just out of style or just plain ugly. The matching earrings help but they're clamp-ons so I can only bear them for a couple of hours. I think I should have bought the gold hoops.

minor designer

Like jewelry lovers everywhere, I sometimes make an impulse buy from a boutique or department store. I try to stay away from these places because I don't need anything more mass produced in my life. When I get something from a second hand store, even though it was obviously mass produced, I feel like I'm repurposing it. That somehow it's come to rest in my huge collection as a special part of a whole. I feel like someday the collection can be catologued and donated to the aptly named the Walters Museum of Jewelry in Baltimore in  a cabinet marked, "How did she do it on 12 bucks an hour?" Needless to say I've gotten snagged by a few sale items signed by minor designers. The above is Bebe from a couple of seasons back and the ring is Betsy Johnson. Being that I'm from a small town it doesn't matter that these pieces are way out of style. I can wear them anyway. I love rings that make a statement and also have, besides the Betsy Johnson, below a Juicy Couture and a mock turquoise from Target.

Antler bracelet

This amazing bracelet was made for the tourist trade I think by one of the North Eastern Tribes. Why I think this is just a gut feeling. Anyone in the world could prove me wrong. But anyway it's all carved on an antler and linked together by heavy links which suggests the artist was using available materials not special jewelry ivory and jump rings. I love the way each scene is cut into the natural brown window of the exterior of the antler and carved into the ivory beneath. I also like that these bracelets could be made from leftovers after a hunt or found pieces lying in the woods. It is such a treat to find something so rare at the Sutro St. Salvation Army for only a few dollars. I'm awed by the workmanship/workwomanship put into what strangers would consider cheap trinkets. Tourist trade art is just so under appreciated. I buy it whenever I find it abandoned. To my mind the carver of this piece is every bit the artist of something you'd find in a museum. I'm sorry that my best photos don't do it justice.

black pearls

A rope of blue (black) pearls, what an '80's cliche! These are obviously not the greatest quality in the world. I ordered them from China. But for the price, the fun is worth it. You can imagine yourself with these and a dress with shoulder pads, Alexis-style, stubbing a lipstick stained cigarette out into your plate of eggs after a fight with mean ol' Dex, whom I knew incidentally in Hawaii when he was still just plain ol' Mike making the rounds of regional theater. I have no where to wear these crazy purchases except at home with a pair of jeans and an old sweat shirt, but boy do I feel good if I have to run out and do an errand. It's a small town; I'm eccentric.

rhinestones

These are some of my rhinestones. I wear these three together as a choker. You can tell these are old stones because each one is cut differently. Rhinestones go in and out of fashion so fast it makes your head spin. I don't think they are "in" at this precise second so I have mine stored, waiting for that next rhinestone "moment."

I often wear one of these drops with my rhinestone choker. I like the way these seem to almost float at your collar bone on such thin chains as a contrast to the thick studded choker. You can also wear these alone (especially the pink and the white) when the style is as it is now, with small and understated necklaces. Although during times like these, I tend to stick to my diamond solitaire, which is a piece my Aunt Olive said every Lady must have.

kitties and fish part two

Caroline Walters, Textile student at California College of the Arts says:

"The original necklace was a bit cluttered, and to fully show off the charms, I put it on a new chain and made it two tiered. I think this made it more modern, while still keeping the original spirit of the necklace."

Adding a new chain was a brilliant idea since part of the problem with the original was that I thought the old one might break at any time. One never feels confidant in a piece of jewelry with a weakness. The charms are more mindfully organized on this new version as well.

Caroline immediately accepted this "Project Runway" assignment. She loves crafts of almost any sort and is wearing a  sweater tank she knitted herself. I'm proud to say I introduced Caroline to knitting, but she has far surpassed me now.

Caroline has an Etsy store called FawnsLove.etsy.com where she sells knitted goods and other hand made accessories.

The way Caroline fixed this piece for me reminds me a lot of the way the artists handled their materials at the Renegade Craft Fair this year in San Francisco. Especially the work of local California artist Isobell.etsy.com from whom I bought a wonderful sweater chain with cats. I don't wear little '50's sweaters much, but the chain looks great on peter pan necklines. Check out etsy for bespoke items of all kinds.

kitties and fish

When I first got this necklace it was cats and dogs. But the dogs were ugly and so over time I replaced them with fish. I also added some more interesting cats. The sign of  my success was that my two nieces called the final outcome, "Mystical," which was the ultimate compliment coming from them. To own a
necklace that two, count them, two teenage girls would like make it worth a blog all in itself. But now I'm not sure I like this very much. And the girls did like it two whole years ago when they weren't so sophisticated.... I feel like it's too cluttered and should have something taken off, but I can't decide what.

I wish I had a model so that we could analyze it better. But I'm just one  person here.... Maybe I'll get the girls to take it home and work on it themselves. I could do that before I publish this and have a before and after photo. Yeah, where's the phone....