The last post, Fashonista Nation, leads me to this post. I was going to add some random jewelry to my current fashion set, but then thought that this could be an entirely new post!
So, as you might have guessed, this post is all about jewelry. I have quite a bit of jewelry, though not nearly as much as my sister or mother, but I do not wear a lot of it. What I wear the most of are rings, and the rings that I'm constantly cylcing are what will be featured in this post.
But, let's start at the beginning shall we. Because without the beginning, I would not have most of the jewelry in my possession. And it all starts with my father.
My father started college in the field of computers in 1967. This is when A computer filled a room. Somebody convinced him that computers weren't going anywhere and that he should bail out now before he completed his degree. So, my dad quit school and became an apprentice jeweler at a local jewelry store.
First of all, we now know that computers most certainly went somewhere. If my father had stayed on that course I'm sure we would be wealthier than our wildest dreams by now. But, that's not what happened. While it isn't fun to struggle, I still don't think I'd change my life.
So, dad started learning how to work in a jewelry store. Cleaning, buffing, polishing. And that's pretty much it, except for helping customers, maybe arranging display trays, and most certainly cleaning the glass display cases with Windex. Then he married my mother and was immediately shipped off to Marine boot camp. When he was finally through, they moved to a different town and this is where my father started, what I consider to be his real apprenticeship. He finally learned how to make jewelry. Casting, soldering, setting, cutting.
So, he was now officially a jewelry manufacturer, but couldn't afford to open his own business at the time. They moved again, to our current home, and he worked as a jewelry salesman for awhile, before being able to branch out on his own, in a shed, in the back yard. This was before I was born, however.
By the time I was born, several things happened. My family had just moved into our current home (which was haunted), my father officially set up shop in a business district (and was then robbed), and I was born (under horrific circumstances where both my mother and I almost died). I'm beginning to think that I'm just about as cursed as Sam Winchester! I mean, it does sort of point to me being a harbinger of DOOM!
But, I digress. Our house isn't technically haunted anymore, my dad continued that business until retiring in 2001, and my mother and I made it and we're all four still alive. But my dad's business was doing so well from the little shed until being robbed at the new place, to where business never really did pick up much again. But that is how my father earned money for his family. Creating and crafting jewelry, as well as making and selling jewelry created with wax patterns, and the really fun one; bartering.
One would think that having a father as a jeweler might mean expensive vacations, luxury yachts, country clubs, fancy clothes, etc. But for us, it did not. We lived a meager upper poverty/lower middle class life. But there are some great perks when your father makes jewelry and fine jewelry is what people want.
My father bartered dance lessons, dental visits, health visits, orthodontist visits, piano lessons. He may have had a ring worth $7,000, but if it won't sell, it doesn't do a whole lot of good for bringing in money. But that one ring could pay for my entire orthodontic bill, which was considerable as I had wonky teeth. He also bartered with people that came into the store. He had jewelry they wanted and they had nice things they wanted to part with. We now have three sets of fine china and one set of nice crystal. Several antique silver serving things, sterling silver cutlery sets, etc.
What my dad made in any actual profit was just enough to keep us dressed in clothes, put food on the table, petrol in the car. But it's what he couldn't sell that made our humble existence actually fun and exciting. Twice a year we would take a family vacation; to the beach during spring break and to the Smoky Mountains at the end of summer. My dad would stay at the shop day and night for weeks finishing up jobs; things people brought in to be fixed or to ideas to be made into tangible items. There were a lot of times we just wouldn't see him for very long stretches of time, because he was constantly working at the shop to bring in extra money for trips. What he couldn't raise, he found other ways to fund the vacation. Major discount coupons for hotel stays or eateries, etc. There were also time shares. Of course we never bought into a time share, we probably wouldn't have even if we could have afforded it, but we joined the time share weekends because you get hotel and sometimes food for free, in exchange for wasting a few hours listening to their spiel.
Which also leads me into birthdays and Christmas. We did get presents. But as I've said before there wasn't a whole lot of money. To make up for it, most of our gifts over the years were jewelry. Dad had all the stuff, it was basically a free gift on his part, just the effort to make it. This is why my sister and mother and I are rolling in precious gems and fine jewelry. They were free.
Before I get to the photos, I'll conclude this with the fact that I have led a very odd life. I've yet to encounter anyone who's ever experienced, for themselves, a portion of my life. What might come close, is still so very different. There have been really great times as well as really bad times, but I wouldn't trade my life for all the money in the world. It's too weird, too strange, too eccentric, too mundanely awesome to really wish for anything else. Be on the look out of in the future posts about other random things, like this, that have made up my life. I am biased, but it's a pretty fun view.
This was something that my dad was working on, to sell in the display cases, but he never finished. When he retired and we closed the store I found this. It is the only piece of my fathers work that also shows the process. If you can't quite tell, the dragon is finished. But the top of his neck is the soldered on loop for a chain to go through; attached to that (and to a portion of the tail) is something that's used to help finish the piece, but will come off before selling. This piece means a lot to me, because it shows how my father made his livelihood, not merely the finished product.
Though there are other pieces that my father made for me as gifts, these are the three that mean the most to me. Neither of these pieces are from wax patterns, which means my father perused a catalog, ordered somebody else's idea in the form of a rectangle of wax with the inside carved to be the item, which you then fill with molten gold or silver in special machines and or the special oven.
These are the ladies rings I absconded with from the shop. When the shop was closing, in the final days of the sale, my parents said that my sister and I could pick things we wanted. This is what I chose. I chose two or three other ladies rings, thinking dad would resize them to fit me, but that never happened so my sister wears them as she has tiny fingers. These were all made by my dad, not pre made wax patterns.
No one is sure why the first ring has a whole in the center or what went in there. It was like that when I pulled it out of the display case. But I still love it. It's four opals and some four smaller diamonds. The next is a big gorgeous peridot with two diamonds. I adore peridot. It is my dads birthstone and he dislikes it as much as I dislike blue sapphires. Ha! The third one I think its really awesome, as it's made to abstractly resemble a flower. The band is the stalk (and grooved as such), the opal is the flower, and the tiny bud offshoot is a speck diamond.
These are the other rings that I chose from the shop closing. Men's rings that my dad made in the 1970s. They are gorgeous! The first one I love the stone is jade and the two diamonds on the side are in triangles. The top middle is a mans wedding band, but it is my thumb band. The second middle I love the textured gold, and that there is a full diamond and a partial diamond shape. Even though there's diamonds (gems) in just about all of these rings, They are very small, which is good because I'm not too fond of diamonds. The third is a white gold textured inlay. The diamond that's in there is tiny, but seems larger because of the inlay. I just think the whole inlay things is awesome, even if it is an outdated style in fine jewelry.
These rings my dad did not make, though two of them came from the shop. The first is a mans band. I assume it's wedding, and it was inscribed crudely inside, but most has worn away so you can't tell what it says. It was something dad obtained, either through barter for the metal or a job someone left with him but never came back to reclaim. The middle ring is the same; silver and left for dead, so to speak at the shop. It reminds me of a drawing I once saw in a book, the symbol for a butterfly in a Scandinavian country, so I call it the Viking Butterfly ring. The third ring came from a shop in the mountains. I purchased it when I was fourteen and still love it. It reminds me of a tribal drawing depicting a ram.
That first one is a ginormous piece of turquoise. Those bits of silver on either side are what hold the stone in place on the mounting. They look like squash blossoms. I love that. It was a gift from my sister. The second was a gift from my mom, a silver right with a polished fossil of coral. The third was made by a local (by way of New Orleans) jewelry designer. It's a honey comb with pieces of citrine "honey" here and there.
It was difficult to get a decent photo of this one, but it is the Alien Space Head Ring. I LOVE it! It is very tall and actually not as delicate as it might appear. It's made out of one piece of etched sterling silver cable with three sterling silver beads. Most people, however, do not really care for this ring. In fact, it incites high agitation from most people. Too bad, I will always wear this. Why? Because my sister made it for me.
I don't wear necklaces very often, but when I'm in the mood to do so, these are the pendents that I choose. The top is the fossilized remains of an Ammonite, the blue and silver one was hand made by a close friend, and the third was given to me as a gift by another close friend; it is a piece of antique broken pottery from Scotland.
So, as you might have guessed, this post is all about jewelry. I have quite a bit of jewelry, though not nearly as much as my sister or mother, but I do not wear a lot of it. What I wear the most of are rings, and the rings that I'm constantly cylcing are what will be featured in this post.
But, let's start at the beginning shall we. Because without the beginning, I would not have most of the jewelry in my possession. And it all starts with my father.
My father started college in the field of computers in 1967. This is when A computer filled a room. Somebody convinced him that computers weren't going anywhere and that he should bail out now before he completed his degree. So, my dad quit school and became an apprentice jeweler at a local jewelry store.
First of all, we now know that computers most certainly went somewhere. If my father had stayed on that course I'm sure we would be wealthier than our wildest dreams by now. But, that's not what happened. While it isn't fun to struggle, I still don't think I'd change my life.
So, dad started learning how to work in a jewelry store. Cleaning, buffing, polishing. And that's pretty much it, except for helping customers, maybe arranging display trays, and most certainly cleaning the glass display cases with Windex. Then he married my mother and was immediately shipped off to Marine boot camp. When he was finally through, they moved to a different town and this is where my father started, what I consider to be his real apprenticeship. He finally learned how to make jewelry. Casting, soldering, setting, cutting.
So, he was now officially a jewelry manufacturer, but couldn't afford to open his own business at the time. They moved again, to our current home, and he worked as a jewelry salesman for awhile, before being able to branch out on his own, in a shed, in the back yard. This was before I was born, however.
By the time I was born, several things happened. My family had just moved into our current home (which was haunted), my father officially set up shop in a business district (and was then robbed), and I was born (under horrific circumstances where both my mother and I almost died). I'm beginning to think that I'm just about as cursed as Sam Winchester! I mean, it does sort of point to me being a harbinger of DOOM!
But, I digress. Our house isn't technically haunted anymore, my dad continued that business until retiring in 2001, and my mother and I made it and we're all four still alive. But my dad's business was doing so well from the little shed until being robbed at the new place, to where business never really did pick up much again. But that is how my father earned money for his family. Creating and crafting jewelry, as well as making and selling jewelry created with wax patterns, and the really fun one; bartering.
One would think that having a father as a jeweler might mean expensive vacations, luxury yachts, country clubs, fancy clothes, etc. But for us, it did not. We lived a meager upper poverty/lower middle class life. But there are some great perks when your father makes jewelry and fine jewelry is what people want.
My father bartered dance lessons, dental visits, health visits, orthodontist visits, piano lessons. He may have had a ring worth $7,000, but if it won't sell, it doesn't do a whole lot of good for bringing in money. But that one ring could pay for my entire orthodontic bill, which was considerable as I had wonky teeth. He also bartered with people that came into the store. He had jewelry they wanted and they had nice things they wanted to part with. We now have three sets of fine china and one set of nice crystal. Several antique silver serving things, sterling silver cutlery sets, etc.
What my dad made in any actual profit was just enough to keep us dressed in clothes, put food on the table, petrol in the car. But it's what he couldn't sell that made our humble existence actually fun and exciting. Twice a year we would take a family vacation; to the beach during spring break and to the Smoky Mountains at the end of summer. My dad would stay at the shop day and night for weeks finishing up jobs; things people brought in to be fixed or to ideas to be made into tangible items. There were a lot of times we just wouldn't see him for very long stretches of time, because he was constantly working at the shop to bring in extra money for trips. What he couldn't raise, he found other ways to fund the vacation. Major discount coupons for hotel stays or eateries, etc. There were also time shares. Of course we never bought into a time share, we probably wouldn't have even if we could have afforded it, but we joined the time share weekends because you get hotel and sometimes food for free, in exchange for wasting a few hours listening to their spiel.
Which also leads me into birthdays and Christmas. We did get presents. But as I've said before there wasn't a whole lot of money. To make up for it, most of our gifts over the years were jewelry. Dad had all the stuff, it was basically a free gift on his part, just the effort to make it. This is why my sister and mother and I are rolling in precious gems and fine jewelry. They were free.
Before I get to the photos, I'll conclude this with the fact that I have led a very odd life. I've yet to encounter anyone who's ever experienced, for themselves, a portion of my life. What might come close, is still so very different. There have been really great times as well as really bad times, but I wouldn't trade my life for all the money in the world. It's too weird, too strange, too eccentric, too mundanely awesome to really wish for anything else. Be on the look out of in the future posts about other random things, like this, that have made up my life. I am biased, but it's a pretty fun view.
 |
| Unfinished Dragon |
This was something that my dad was working on, to sell in the display cases, but he never finished. When he retired and we closed the store I found this. It is the only piece of my fathers work that also shows the process. If you can't quite tell, the dragon is finished. But the top of his neck is the soldered on loop for a chain to go through; attached to that (and to a portion of the tail) is something that's used to help finish the piece, but will come off before selling. This piece means a lot to me, because it shows how my father made his livelihood, not merely the finished product.
 |
| Personal Gifts |
No, these he made himself. He fashioned the bands and the prongs on the rings, as well as the designs on the side of the black onyx. The stones are not importantly special, as he never mined and rarely ever cut his own stones and of course always hand set them, because that is what you do.
The black onyx ring was a wax pattern, but he used a blank wax pattern and made the design into it. It's based off styles of rings in the 1920s. The setting is platinum and there's a speck diamond in the center. Besides the fact that he hand made these (some he didn't), I adore Art Deco. And what might be the biggest kicker here, my dad cast it in platinum. Not silver, not white gold, but platinum. This is the only platinum item he ever gave me.
Blue sapphire is my birthstone, so I received a lot of rings with those stones. This one is special, because A:) this is the only opal he ever gave me and I LOVE opals, and B) all the women in the family received this ring that year for Christmas. They're all a little different in shape (some more of a star, others more rounded), but all have an opal in the center and then are ringed by the persons birth stone. My mother, sister, and paternal grandmother received such a ring. I really like that connection.
Blue sapphire is my birthstone, so I received a lot of rings with those stones. This one is special, because A:) this is the only opal he ever gave me and I LOVE opals, and B) all the women in the family received this ring that year for Christmas. They're all a little different in shape (some more of a star, others more rounded), but all have an opal in the center and then are ringed by the persons birth stone. My mother, sister, and paternal grandmother received such a ring. I really like that connection.
The pendent I specifically asked for. It is the only thing that I specifically requested that he make, that was ever actually made. I didn't draw out a design, I simply told him I wanted a small Star of David pendent. This is what he made. It's silver and it turned out being rather large, but he hand cut it out of a sheet of silver, which is not that easy to do. I was shocked. I simply assumed it would use one of the wax pattern designs he already had or might even order a new one. I never expected him to go to all the effort to hand forge it. It made me rather verklempt it was handmade with such detail and care. It means the world to me.
This next section are the rings that I cycle through and wear constantly. They are my absolute favourites (and I can actually wear them!)
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| Ladies Rings |
These are the ladies rings I absconded with from the shop. When the shop was closing, in the final days of the sale, my parents said that my sister and I could pick things we wanted. This is what I chose. I chose two or three other ladies rings, thinking dad would resize them to fit me, but that never happened so my sister wears them as she has tiny fingers. These were all made by my dad, not pre made wax patterns.
No one is sure why the first ring has a whole in the center or what went in there. It was like that when I pulled it out of the display case. But I still love it. It's four opals and some four smaller diamonds. The next is a big gorgeous peridot with two diamonds. I adore peridot. It is my dads birthstone and he dislikes it as much as I dislike blue sapphires. Ha! The third one I think its really awesome, as it's made to abstractly resemble a flower. The band is the stalk (and grooved as such), the opal is the flower, and the tiny bud offshoot is a speck diamond.
 |
| Men's Rings |
These are the other rings that I chose from the shop closing. Men's rings that my dad made in the 1970s. They are gorgeous! The first one I love the stone is jade and the two diamonds on the side are in triangles. The top middle is a mans wedding band, but it is my thumb band. The second middle I love the textured gold, and that there is a full diamond and a partial diamond shape. Even though there's diamonds (gems) in just about all of these rings, They are very small, which is good because I'm not too fond of diamonds. The third is a white gold textured inlay. The diamond that's in there is tiny, but seems larger because of the inlay. I just think the whole inlay things is awesome, even if it is an outdated style in fine jewelry.
 |
| Silver Rings |
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| Silver Rings, Part II |
That first one is a ginormous piece of turquoise. Those bits of silver on either side are what hold the stone in place on the mounting. They look like squash blossoms. I love that. It was a gift from my sister. The second was a gift from my mom, a silver right with a polished fossil of coral. The third was made by a local (by way of New Orleans) jewelry designer. It's a honey comb with pieces of citrine "honey" here and there.
 |
| The Alien Space Head Ring |
It was difficult to get a decent photo of this one, but it is the Alien Space Head Ring. I LOVE it! It is very tall and actually not as delicate as it might appear. It's made out of one piece of etched sterling silver cable with three sterling silver beads. Most people, however, do not really care for this ring. In fact, it incites high agitation from most people. Too bad, I will always wear this. Why? Because my sister made it for me.
 |
| Pendents |
I don't wear necklaces very often, but when I'm in the mood to do so, these are the pendents that I choose. The top is the fossilized remains of an Ammonite, the blue and silver one was hand made by a close friend, and the third was given to me as a gift by another close friend; it is a piece of antique broken pottery from Scotland.
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