SPARKLES

The little country school I attended had a carnival every December.  The highlight, for me, was the White Elephant Booth.  Filled with everybody’s leftovers, it called to me in siren tones.

They had jewelry there.

I’m sure there were other useful wares as well, but I saw only the sparkles.  Every year, as soon as I spotted the table, my eyes glittered as brightly as did those castoff pieces from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. And as far as I was concerned, the sparklier, the better.  I still have a few of the treasures I picked up there in the 1960s, and I still wear them!

I collected  jewelry all through my teens and twenties, and I was given some genuine treasures by older family members and their friends.  Then one day I came home to a burgled house.  Most of my jewelry was gone. I was heartbroken.

When I claimed the losses with my insurance company, I learned a valuable, if tardy lesson.  You have to insure your jewelry separately.  I received only $500, the limit, for jewelry easily worth ten times that.  So of course, I took the 500, and I started over. 

One of the great things about being a dilettante: you get used to starting over. 

This time, I not only collected, I started making jewelry, becoming a regular at places like Baubles and Beads in Berkeley.  Another favorite these days is Beyond Beads on Howard in San Francisco.  Lots of wonderful chains & findings there.

My collection has become more focused. I started patronizing some wonderful local designers—especially the very gifted Kathryne Cassis, whose Dominion of Light Gallery you MUST see on Pinterest.  My good friend (and longtime partner in enthusiasms) Beverly collects vintage costume jewelry.  She taught me a lot.  And she gifted me with several pieces, including a pair of Miriam Haskell earrings.  Silver-grey sparkly flowers. Oh, Lordy. Like giving crack to a junkie.

My first love is rhinestones.  As far as sparkle goes, they really pack a punch. Haskell designed hundreds of pieces in gold, pearl, and rhinestone.  Heaven.  Go look at Ruby Lane or Etsy and search for Haskell-pearl-rhinestone and see if you don’t agree.  The rub is, they’ve become extremely expensive.  Stuff I could have had for a quarter and a little luck at the White Elephant Booth goes for hundreds.

So I’ve started making faux Haskells. My pearl-and-rhinestone leaf pin, crafted on the bones of a $2 find at the Alameda Antiques Fair (which we oldtimers still call the Alameda Flea Market) was quite satisfactory, so I plunged in. The first earring is finished. Pearls and rhinestones on a gold flower form. LOVE IT!

The second will be harder.  It always is.  Around here, we call the second earring The Dilettante’s Challenge. 

“Another one?  The same as the first?  Really??”