Hand forged (by my cousin, the blacksmith) dimes and pennies. Coins are in dated pairs. cowgirls just wanna have fun!
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2023 – what a year! We sold our house in CA and moved clear ‘cross country to beautiful and serene South Carolina – where the days are lazy (and hot and humid), the old live oak trees are beautiful with their Spanish moss (which is neither moss nor Spanish), the ocean waters are warm and filled with delicious fresh fish and shellfish (oyser roasts, anyone), and the people are friendly with their Southern charm. We’ve settled in quite nicely.
Although mostly retired now, the jewelry making continues to keep me busy. Our community has a boutique on the first Saturday of the month, rain or shine (can’t complain about those 85′ squalls!). On my table one will find my fun and unique jewelry pieces as well as croched hats and scarves. It all keeps me busy and enjoying the semi-retirement, adding in bird and critter watching (ever heard of a fox squirrel?) while enjoying my morning coffee.
That’s it for now. Wishing y’all a lovely and blessed day!
In my local crafters club, The Torrance Craftsmen’s Guild, we have a great number of talented artists. While recently participating in a craft show, I had the time to leave my booth and browse – to check out some of the goodies that our craft club members had made and were up for sale. Lena’s booth is one of my favorites. She makes beautifully crocheted pieces of wearable art, sews flowing ‘butterfly’ blouses, and makes creative jewelry with small seed beads (those little beads intimidate me!). At her table I spied a lovely beaded bracelet with the most unusual combination of colors – yellow, green, purple, and white. After many compliments on her creativity and use of colors, she shared a confession with me – while out strolling in Kenneth Hahn Park, Lena came upon the most unusual and curious looking flower, one she had never seen before. She was inspired by the colors and decided to rush home and make something using those colors, capturing the flower’s beauty forever in her mind.
Well, I too happen to love color. In fact, color is what initially got me hooked on stones and beads. Anyhow, I stared at that pretty little bracelet for awhile, and then it hit me – I KNEW the flower Lena had seen! I hurriedly went back to my booth, rummaged thru my photo greeting cards (yes, I do a bit of photography as well), and found a picture of that flower. It is called a Passion Flower – Passiflora. I knew this because the passion flower had always been a favorite of mine and as a kid I looked forward to the flowers blooming on our fence vine. I rushed the photo card back to Lena to confirm my thoughts. BINGO!
What follows is the story of the Passion Flower.
In the 1500’s when the Spanish missionaries saw this flower it reminded them of the Passion of Christ. These are the representations:
- the 10 petals and sepals represent the 10 faithful apostles (less Peter and Judas)
- the flower’s radial filaments, which can number more than 100, represent Jesus’ crown of thorns
- the 3 stigmata represent the 3 nails
- the chalice shaped ovary (below the stigmata) represents the Holy Grail
- the 5 anthers (below the ovary) represent the 5 wounds
- the tendrils of the plant represent the whips used
Given that today is Good Friday, I thought today would be a fitting time to share this story, a flower’s story of the Passion of the Christ.
Oh, yes – Lena was thrilled to finally know the name of the uniquely beautiful flower she saw that day in the park! And, I believe, she charmingly captured the flower’s colors in her pretty little bracelet.
Happy Easter to all.
Recently, a friend of mine referred to me as “A real Renaissance woman”. I knew it was meant to be a compliment so I smiled and said, “thank you!” While I always enjoyed dressing up and going to the Renaissance Faire, I must confess: I really had no idea what a “Renaissance woman” was. So I looked it up in our modern day encyclopedia, the internet.
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dictionary.com states that a Renaissance woman is “a woman who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field.”
Hmmm… OK, I’ll accept that. While I have profound knowledge in my jewelry making, I also have knowledge of and great appreciation and proficiency in several other fields. To name a few, there’s sailing, music (especially old R&B and Motown, late 50’s and 60’s rock and roll music, and 1970’s rock music, New Wave, and disco – stop the teasing!), dancing to that music, cooking, wine appreciation, family board games like Scrabble and Taboo, card games including poker and Cribbage, baseball, road trips, fishing (freshwater preferred), animals and flowers, cruising – I could go on.
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wikihow.com gives several tips on becoming a Renaissance woman/person:
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Be talented athletically
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Be musical
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Understand art
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Be educated
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Be well-read
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Have a good family and economic life
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Be brave
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Be thoughtful and generous
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Be courteous
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Be a leader
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While I do or have been all the above, I believe that the most important traits to practice on a daily basis are courtesy, thoughtfulness, generosity, and bravery; and especially one which is not listed: happiness. We owe it to ourselves and all those we love to be happy – happy with who we are and happy with what we have.
Me? A Renaissance woman? I guess the answer would be yes. And thank you, my friend, for giving me one of the best compliments ever.
I love the hat
Chatoyant – adjective: having a changeable luster or color with an undulating narrow band of white light <a chatoyant gem>
Origin: Coined from the French “œil de chat,” meaning “cat’s eye”
Chatoyant. Chatoyance. Chatoyancy. I love the way the word flows off my tongue. It has such a beautiful feel to the mouth when spoken. Yummy. But enough about the sensuality of the word, let’s talk about what it means!
Have you ever looked at a stone and noticed the light dancing inside? Have you ever looked at a polished stone and saw what looked like ‘angel hair’, that white iridescent trim and stringy stuff we used to put on Christmas trees (before it was banned)? Have you ever looked at a polished agate and were teased by what might be a hologram somewhere within the lines of the stone? This is chatoyance – the playful dance of light caused by fibrous inclusions or cavities within a stone. It is what creates the ‘star’ in a star sapphire or star ruby.
When polishing stones, nothing thrills me more than to discover that my piece is waiting for me to bring out its chatoyance, the inner glow, the soul of the stone.
Beautiful chatoyant AGATE, from my collection.
BLUE TIGER EYE, hand polished by me.
STAR RUBY, internet image
Well, it happened again. This summer I entered two of my designs into competition in the Professional Jewelry Design Category at the 2014 Orange County Fair. And this lovely gem took the red ribbon for second place! I am always amazed, humbled, and grateful when one of my pieces wins a ribbon. I put much thought and lovingkindness into creating my jewelry designs and I am always pleased when others appreciate the work I put into making them. A big thank you to the judges who also saw the quiet beauty in this piece.
Award Winner 2014
amethyst, sunstone, pearl, toho seed beads. sterling findings
” ‘Cause it’s Summer, summertime is here. Yes, it’s summer. My time of year.”
These lyrics from a song by War describe my feelings exactly. I LOVE summer! The warmth of the season brings out the best in me, the sunshine makes me smile and warms my heart. And then there is my birthday, right smack dab in the middle of summer. I am blessed to celebrate the day with my wonderful husband, beloved cat Aja, and friends whom I love fondly.
To all of you, my website friends and family, I wish the most lovely of summers. May you all enjoy the season with family, friends, barbecues, laughter, and song.
Happy day, Lynette
Wishing all my peeps a lovely Easter Sunday. And for my non-Christian friends, just enjoy the marshmallow peeps! Warm blessings to you all! ♥
Cheers to you all and here’s to a fantastic 2014! Keep checking in for upcoming show dates and new product. I just got back from Arizona with some great items for some very earthy products. Don’t worry, I will still continue making the bling!
Fluorite ‘Tree of Life’
Naturally colored fluorite in purples, blues, yellows, greens; add copper wire, chain, with a sparkling sun and a full moon, and you have a beautifully earthy hand-crafted piece of wearable art. Yes, you deserve it. Mother Nature is calling.
