I grew up thinking of amethysts as semiprecious stones—which, to my mind, meant starter stones, the kind you bought before you could afford really precious ones. Amethysts, after all, were mere quartz. True—but there are many respectable gems in the quartz family, including citrine, chalcedony and chrysoprase. Amethysts are the top of the line, one of the few… Continue reading The Wearing of the Purple
Category: Collecting
Matilde, Matilde, She Take Me Money
If the title of this post puts you in mind of Harry Belafonte, you may be old enough to have learned one of the tougher truths of jewelry buying: By the time you can afford an expensive necklace, you may no longer have the neck for it. This has happened to me, but it hasn’t stopped me. Dreamer… Continue reading Matilde, Matilde, She Take Me Money
Hammered
This is a photo of a bracelet, one with more presence, and more mojo, than any piece of jewelry I’ve ever seen, let alone owned. It arrived just after Christmas 2015, having taken its sweet time getting to me. I bought it from my dealer friend Kathi Jo (see my last post), who’d sold it to another client years… Continue reading Hammered
Finally Getting It
My late friend Juliette used to say, “I don’t understand why you wear gold, when you could be wearing silver—the most beautiful, sensuous metal there is.” I disagreed. For me, silver, especially the Scandinavian Modern stuff she adored, was several degrees too cool. Whereas gold, yellow gold, was warm and rich—more flattering, I thought, to my… Continue reading Finally Getting It
Big Love
My mother may have worn faux Georg Jensen, but my late friend Juliette wore the real thing, and she was passionate about it. Not so much the graceful, naturalistic Jensen designs from the first few decades of the 20th Century, but the sleek, minimalist, aggressively modern pieces from the 50s, 60s and 70s. Hunky statement pieces with slabs… Continue reading Big Love
Seeds of Obsession
For a good many years, I half believed I would stop wanting more jewelry when I got my hands on my mother’s. She didn’t have a huge amount of it, but what she had was clearly special to her, and I was preoccupied with trying to figure out what she loved and why. The pieces she seemed to… Continue reading Seeds of Obsession
Yet More Jewelry 