In Retrospect...Naturally !

In Retrospect I should have named my blog differently...perhaps even; "In Retrospect", though I’m sure that title was taken long ago, as were many other more suitable titles such as "Down the Rabbit Hole" and "Through the Looking Glass".
Humanity has a propensity for embarking upon an adventure and once set sail, we halt, sometimes only a short distance from the dock at other times much further a sea. It is this inherent nature of our species to realize, afterwards, a better course, a fairer passage, we second guess, use hindsight and long for a "do over". And time marches relentless on.

For the past few days I’ve succumbed to Spring Fever, have done very little in the way of designing new pieces of jewelry, haven’t purchased any new beads or findings (truly unheard of for me, a die hard beadaholic). Instead I’ve been found puttering in my garden, pruning away the last remnants of this past winter’s frost damage, planting some seedlings, pulling weeds, and watching in amazement as things seem to grow before my eyes (especially the weeds).

Today I realize that I’ve veered far from my original course with this blog...no I had never meant it to be solely a blog about beading but I did have every intention of sprinkling a few morsels of bead work here and there...much like hidden Easter eggs.
So in all this time of fair spring weather I have created only a couple of new pieces, a pair of seed beaded fringe earrings using rondels of carnelian and tiny freshwater pearls. Though I'm pleased with the earrings, I can’t say that I’m pleased with their photos. I’ve been contemplating rigging up a photo light box, have heard it’s easy to fashion one from a frosted, plastic storage box...note to self; "look into self-made light boxes". I’m also very open to your advice or suggestions on this subject so please feel free to post me your comments.



Have also just completed a lovely beaded pendant using a 40 mm gemstone donut of beautiful red jasper...will have to take some photos to post in another blog entry...but the red jasper donut is quite shiny and causes much reflection of light...need that light box!

Pearls the Care and Feeding of

Part I

Often people assume that since gemstones are called stones that they’re indestructible, but even granite is not impervious to damage by acids and abrasive substances.
Pearls, for example, appear to be hard, however they are not and can be easily damaged by the simple act of adjacent stones and other pearls rubbing against them. The outer layers of the pearl is a shiny, pearlescent material called nacre, this is the same substance that the mollusk uses to coat the inside of it’s shell, the thicker this layer of nacre, the richer and more lustrous the pearl and also the more valuable. Nacre can be easily abraded and that is the reason that higher quality pearls are strung on silk thread and carefully hand knotted between each precious pearl.

I can vividly recall talking with a young lady who was just getting into the jewelry making business. She informed me that she was remaking older pieces of jewelry, items that she had bought cheaply at places such as Goodwill and local thrift shops. She also confided that she had inherited a number of pieces from her grandmother and one of those pieces had been a pearl necklace. Unfortunately this young lady found the look of the hand knotted strand "old fashioned" and "out-dated", so she took it apart and strung the pearls close together along with other beads for interest. Upon hearing this my heart literally sank. Her grandmother’s necklace was probably fairly old and the quality of the pearls many years ago is far superior to those available today, her grandmother’s pearls could easily have been worth $300 or more.

As gently as possible I explained that truly good, expensive pearls should always be strung on silk or other smooth nonabrasive threads and hand knotted between each pearl to protect them from abrasion. I knew my advice was proving fruitless as this young, budding jewelry designer looked at me as though I was from outer space. Ah well, what do I know, in her eyes hand knotted necklaces were unattractive and only desired by little old fuddy duddies such as me.

Pictured above, some of my pearl supply.