28 January, 2012

Musing on Jewelry and Emus

These are Eniko Design's ammolite earrings; I wrote about them in December, gloating that I was getting them for Christmas.  They change colors like butterfly wings or parrot feathers, organic, mineral magic- or miracle.
I had the gold and lapis necklace made with three ropes of large lapis beads of different sizes and shapes, tiered like Jackie O's pearls.  It's great for a strong burst of color since nothing beats lapis for color.  Any suggestions for the seven (heavy) left over beads?  

The green emu egg looks like a dinosaur egg, so it seems appropriate for fossil earrings. It fed our family of four as an apple souffle at breakfast and then as a quiche for dinner, about four total cups of beaten egg.

When you are eye to eye with an emu, the lizard part of your brain knows that you've encountered a dinosaur.  Watch out for your jewelry- emus snatch at shiny things to eat them.  When an emu grabbed my keys, the only reason it did not swallow them was because the wallet to which they were attached was too big to fit down its throat.     

25 January, 2012

Universalism


Imagine my surprise when I downloaded my camera and this was on it!  Doesn't she look lovely?  A few of my pieces are there too...another surprise... 

I'd never told my daughter about the mysterious loss of my mother's pearl earrings.  When I was two or three years old, my mother's pearl earrings vanished.  My mother looked and looked and looked for her good pearls, to no avail.  She resigned herself to their loss.  Then, about a month later, she picked up my Old Green Rabbit and there they were, stuck in his floppy ears.  Even then, I liked the good stuff and knew you gave it to loved ones. 

But don't all little girls like "the good stuff?"  This photo is more proof that, "All women are from the same tribe."  Does anyone have stories you would like to share or photos of  favorite dolls or stuffed animals decked out in gold and jools? 

23 January, 2012

Support Free Speech

Salman Rushdie continues to be persecuted and hunted for writing The Satanic Verses, published in 1988.  For fear of being killed by assassins and for fear of demonstrations organized by a conservative Islamic seminary, Rushdie did not attend the Mumbai Book Festival.  After he did not attend, supporters (Hari Kunzru, Amitava Kumar, Jeet Thayil, and Ruchir Joshi) briefly read from the The Satanic Verses at the festival (not a planned event but in response to the situation).  These authors rapidly left India because they and the festival are now under police investigation because The Satanic Verses are banned in India.  India has not had the moral courage to tell the bigots to shut up and be civilized or face swift punishment if they commit  crimes.   

Once again, bigots seek to kill and silence those who express ideas that they don't like.  And they are supported by those who blame the victim of their threats.     

I am sick to death of bullies.  Citizens of the world must do something against bigots attacking authors and editors.  I ask you to read The Satanic Verses and talk about it.  Blog about it.  Blog your support for Hari Kunzru, Amitava Kumar, Jeet Thayil, and Ruchir Joshi.  Write a letter to the Indian Embassy expressing your outrage with India's censorship of the book and India's failure to ensure Rushdie's safety from harm by appropriately responding to those who threaten him.  Write Oprah and ask her to continue to throw her popularity behind anti-censorship (she was feted like a queen at the Mumbai Book Festival) and in favor of those who read aloud from the book at the festival.  Write our State Department and ask it to support those who read from The Satanic Verses.  

Embassy of India
2107 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington DC 20008  

"Oprah's" blog is http://www.oprah.com/blogs/index.html      

Her address is:
Harpo Productions, Inc.
110 N. Carpenter Street
Chicago Illinois 60607

Links covering the flap:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/20/salman-rushdie-jaipur-india-literary-festival
http://news.yahoo.com/rushdie-speak-video-india-book-fest-093012649.html
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/arrest-threat-forces-authors-to-leave-jaipur-fest/223353-40-100.html

Art Smith for Monday


Half and Half Necklace

Bauble Necklace


Galaxy Necklace with earrings
Signed Art Smith pieces are still available.  While he signed a lot of his pieces, sometimes he did not sign his signature pieces.  Some collectors avidly bought from him while his store was open, and some people have pieces he designed for the theater and for dance troupes, so learn the provenance if you get a piece.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing these wonderful creations as much as I've enjoyed posting them!  I hope they made you think about the body's space for jewelry!      

21 January, 2012

What I Want to See at the Golden Globes

I want to see someone eschew the diamonds and platinum at the Golden Globes or Oscars or any of the fancy Hollywood events this year in favor of this. 

Art Smith's Boa Necklace
Please, someone be really daring and wear this beautiful, Modernist piece.  Tilda, darling,  you could do this easily; Heidi, dear, you could make it work; Nicole- please rock this!   Someone, please, break out of the box and wear something out of this world! 

20 January, 2012

19 January, 2012

More Art Smith


I want the necklace/belt Art Smith is holding.  Look at his ring and the pieces on the table behind him! 
Knuckle Duster Ring- This ring resembles the design of the ring he's wearing in the photo.

Undulation Ring- I can't tell if it stretches across fingers or down one.





18 January, 2012

Art Smith

This necklace caused my heart to skip a beat.  Brass and tiger eye, I can feel how it would rest on my collar bones and the cold stone ball would bump against my skin.  Can you hear the noise the chain would make rubbing against the metal?  What's not to love?


As of that moment, I flipped for Art Smith.

Art Smith was a Modernist jeweler and artist who ran his store in Greenwich Village from 1946 until his death in the 1980s.  Born in Cuba to Jamaican parents, he was reared in Brooklyn and was 100% a New Yorker.  His jewelry in copper, brass, and silver (very little gold) is sculpture for the body and jewelry that can hang on the wall.  His interest in jazz and theater shines through his works- some of them are like seeing jazz, like the Ellington necklace below, named for The Duke.


I see these pieces and I swear a little voice in my head says, "OhGodohGodohGodohGod...." 

16 January, 2012

A Shout Out...

Introducing the lovely and vivacious Natasha Ray.  She's a celebrity manicurist (according to her business card), and if you need a Minx manicure in DC- she's your gal at minxdc@hotmail.com!  Her jewelry was totally on-trend.  If only the photo had captured the sparkles from the ring's little stones; they were scintillating polkadots.  


Thanks for letting me harass you at the mall, Natasha. 

If you are wondering what Minx manicures are, shoot Natasha a note or check out www.wendybrandes.com for a Minx education with photos (and some lovely jewelry).

15 January, 2012

Just Prettiness...

Sometimes something just strikes the right cord, like these aquamarine, tourmaline, labradorite, and moonstone earrings by Nak Armstrong, available at www.barneys.com.  I must be on a pastels kick. Sigh...
If you prefer something more historically shaped, Nak Armstrong made this pair of moonstone, aquamarine, tourmaline, labradorite, and onyx.  These remind me of African masks.

Has anyone else noticed how often photos of "pairs" of earrings are really photos of only one earring copied to look like two?  Why is that?  Especially because these photos are supposed to convince us to buy these items?  The suspicious part of me (the one that knows firsthand that there are unscrupulous people lurking in the jewelry industry) wonders, "What's wrong with the other one?'

13 January, 2012

An Elf Stone


31.31 carat green beryl in platinum with .60 carats diamonds, www.langantiques.com


In the book The Lord of the Rings, the elf lord Glorfindel leaves a green beryl jewel as a token that the heroes, fleeing before the Nazgul and fearing ambush, can cross a bridge safely.  It is described as, "a single pale-green jewel...a beryl, an elf-stone."  That got me to thinking about what I knew about green beryl and what I did not.
Marco Molinaro at www.osterjewelers.com, 16.27 carat green beryl in 18 kt white gold with .75 ctw diamonds
I knew green beryl was of the same family as emerald, aquamarine, morganite (pink beryl), and heliodor (yellow beryl).  I knew it was available in large stones and the standard for gemstone quality green beryl is depth of color and clarity (like aquamarines).  But I wasn't sure about the difference in color between emeralds and green beryls and green beryls and natural, unheated aquamarines. 

Robert Procop's earrings, www.robertprocop.com
 But the answer is in Tolkien- a pale-green stone.  It lacks an emerald's intensity and an  aquamarine's bluish color.  Most jewelry pieces favor larger stones, perhaps to increase the color.  

Available at Lang's antiques, www.langantiques.com, 16.75 carat green beryl with .60 carats diamonds and yellow and white 18 kt gold 
I couldn't find any jewelry that looked elvish, but this stone is amazing.  Perhaps this is what Strider found on the bridge...

Fantasy cut by Dalan Hargrave, a 125 carat green beryl that was Best In Show at the 2004 AGTA Spectrum Competition

12 January, 2012

For Charis

Mark Davis' Charis bracelet, made of Bakelite and 42.46 carats yellow beryl set in 18 kt yellow gold, http://www.betteridge.com/mark-davis/bracelets/ba/

09 January, 2012

A Jewelry Movie- My Precious...

In the movie The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson did a great job making the One Ring, an inanimate object, a character.  It has a cameo in The Hobbit trailer. 


Should be fun to see what Jackson does with the Arkenstone, a huge diamond over which a war is almost fought.  It is a red herring- the real plot device is the plain gold ring ignored in the hobbit Bilbo's pocket.

Due out in December 2012! 

06 January, 2012

A Great Day On Line!

Just a quick jewelry blog update:

Check out www.luckymag.com for a free chance to win tip-of-the-trend diamond jewelry by names you'll recognize, like Bittersweet, Diamonds In the Rough, and many, many others.  The total amount of diamond jewelry Lucky is giving away is over $125,000!  So enter- you may get Lucky!The drawing is at the end of February, so you have time...but there are so many opportunities you'll need to get started now.  Best of all, you can enter with email.  So many sites require Facebook or Twitter to enter these days so that those of us with privacy issues can't play.  It's my choice, but I AM grateful to Lucky Magazine for sticking with email entries.
ONE of the prizes is a $3,500 shopping spree at Greenwich Jewelers, and there are three of those! 
Www.Jewelsnob.com has an article about Plukka, a company that sells cutting edge jewelry for significantly less than it retails due to...well, check it out.  I'll be bookmarking Pluka's website (www.plukka.com) and hitting it frequently since it definitely fits my motto: "Never pay retail for jewelry."
Plukka's Coliseum ring, 18 kt white gold, .90 carats diamonds, "historically accurate" walls- event begins 15 Jan.
Charm and Chain's blog, at http://blog.charmandchain.com/, has the best guest blogger ever. Sari Tuschman blogged about jewelry and its relation to time and emotion, as well as told an inspirational story about a jewelry collection.  Plus, you can see a jawdroppingly beautiful engagement ring.  Congratulations Ali Galgano! 

Splendor is back!   Yay!!!!  http://carlotta-wwwsplendor.blogspot.com/

Astley Clarke has a 50% off sale with designer pieces like the Jules Verne Baby Jellyfish ring, by Stephen Webster, up for grabs for 50% off!  This meets the dictum, "Never pay retail for jewelry," so snap up pieces by Pippa Small, Alex Monroe, and many, many others.
18 kt white gold and black and white diamonds at www.astleyclarke.com/uk

05 January, 2012

The Twelfth Day of Christmas- Epiphany

Today is the day to celebrate the Three Kings' arrival to worship the Christ child.  They brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Because they were wise men, they brought easily portable, small, valuable gifts...easy to pack onto camels, horses, and donkeys.
Detail of "Adoration of the Magi" by Fabriano
And on this twelfth day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me (sing with me now!),
Twelve drummers drumming...
Gold, diamond, and titanium necklace by Abrasha, available at www.denovo.com
Eleven pipers piping...
Pipedreams' necklace at www.notjustalabel.com 
Ten lords a'leaping...
Gold and maw sit-sit, at www.1stdibs.com

 Nine ladies dancing...
Lalique
Eight maids a'milking...
Gold and enamel Georgian bangle, www.pastera.com
 Seven swans a'swimming...
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Verdura
Six geese a'laying...
Marcus Berkmer
Five gooooolllllllldddd rings.... 
No credits because I took this one.
Four calling birds...

White gold and diamond brooches, www.1stdibs.com
Three French hens...
Red Hot Chicky, www.soakrepublic.com
 Two turtledoves...
Lovebirds ring, www.alexmonroe.com
And a partridge in a pear tree!
Opal Fruit Cuff by Solange Azagury-Partridge
Whew!  Hope your holidays were merry and bright and that you stay warm for the rest of the winter.  There is good news- our days are getting longer now, even if they are colder!

04 January, 2012

The Eleventh Day of Christmas

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Elven pipers piping,
Ten lords a'leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a'milking,
Seven swans a'swimming,
Six geese a'laying,
Five gold rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtledoves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!
Necklace by Pipedreams at Not Just a Label
1st Dibs

Lalique
www.pastera.com


Verdura

Marcus Berkmer

 




1st Dibs

Soak Republic

Alex Monroe

Solange Azagury-Partridge