Shop Talk: Finding Your Inner Jasper

We had friends visiting for the holidays which always turns into a multi-day, family play date.  No where else have I lived where the notion of a play date is so prevalent.   But here on the East Coast I have quickly come to understand that it is a very scheduled atmosphere, and one where parents feel the need to schedule every waking hour for their child.  Not to mention ensure that their kids are escorted from one location to the next. 


Long gone are the days where we as kids would run between houses, walk ourselves to school or run up to the corner store to pick up milk or loaf of bread for mom.  It just isn't done anymore --- at least not where we are.


While I am still getting used to the notion of a play date, it is so much fun when you can do that not only for your kids, but with the parents of the kids.  That is how it goes when we see our friends from Boston.



Our husbands are happiest playing games, literally and figuratively. The youngest girls have their own variation of games usually involving the 3-Ps: petshop, puffles or penguins.  The older, barely just-turned teenage girls are simply too cool for either. The amazing part of this is everyone has their own partner in crime ... and so my friend and I settle in for a 24-hour extravaganza of 'talk shop swap.' I managed to get a picture of her (behind the camera) and she has the respective one of me (behind the camera). She (Baby Cocktails) designs patterns for knitting, and I design jewelry.  And so there is no end to what we can talk about with our blogs, our respective craft communities (Etsy vs Ravelry) or the use of twitter and facebook ... personal or public.  Riveting I know, so I'll spare you the details and get right to jewelry.   


Baby Cocktails appears to have a love of jasper.  Perhaps un-confessed at this point, but it will dawn on her once she's unpacked the stash I've sent her home with.  The blue imperial jasper (above) was as if I made them with her in mind. I didn't originally, but they were an absolutely perfect fit. The hoops and the stones mirror each other and are going to look amazing with the new grey-blue sweater she's working on.  I'll be sure to post it once complete.  


I LOVE this style of jasper with its complex 'veining' patterns. Imperial jasper is dyed in several colors: blue, green, red, sometimes orange.  The brecciated result is caused by fracturing or breaking in the stone from stress and/or shrinkage.  Yes ladies sometimes shrinkage can be a beautiful thing.  The stone lovers in the bunch will tell you that jasper is used as a protective stone and will align your chakras to get just the right balance of yin and yang energies.  It protects against evil spirits and any venomous snake and spider bites.  So Baby Cocktails should be all set as she renovates the house!  For that story you'll have to check out her blog.  


And just when you thought I was done talking about jasper, enter the ocean variety.  Baby Cocktails may just be finding her inner jasper, but I've long known mine runs deep.  



As we were checking out a friend's blog on how to ensure your knitting is Fit-To-Flatter we decided (to be fair it was mostly me not we) that a nice pop of color with some well selected jewelry would add to the look of people's knitting --- without distracting from it of course. Wink, wink, shameless plug for my jewelry to adorn my friends in the knitting world. I often say when people ask me why I'm so prolific with jewelry it is "because I don't knit."  No one ever asks a knitter why they knit. Or why they are forever pulling out a project from their bag to knit and talk. So for Fit-To-Flatter the selection included yet another jasper: ocean. 


This variation is found on the intertidal shores of northeast Madagascar, and apparently can only be mined at low tide.  The colors vary widely, but what make this one unique are the multi-color patterns typically in circles or even polka dots.  I prefer more of a wavy pattern as seen (above).  I'll be looking for how Fit-To-Flatter ends up using this pair, and will be sure to post.  Wink, wink more shameless plugs.

Thankful in India :: My Shiva

While traveling through India with my husband and his mother we visited a small town in the foothills of the Himalayas called Mussoorie. The train ride was a life altering experience: see my previous post Thankful In India: Mother-In-Law. Seriously, thank God for my Mother-In-Law on this trip.  Without her I might have turned around after the first night. 

We flew into Delhi landing at nearly midnight. Note to self: arrive during the daylight --India is a different world at night. After finding our luggage we head out to grab a cab.  My husband and I (consider ourselves New Yorkers) pride ourselves on our street smarts.  NY street smarts are child's play and only mildly useful in India. 

When we walk out from customs we are solicited, no strike that, accosted from all sides with taxi drivers. Once in the cab it is like we're in an old film noir driving at night. The cab looks to be circa 1940, diesel, clutch and very jumpy. Driving along the Grand Trunk Road the oldest road in South Asia ... 'nough said.  

Our destination was a hotel in the middle of Connaught Place. When looking at a map from a Western perspective, it would appear to be 'downtown' New Delhi.  Note to self: when a country is as old as India there is not likely to be a 'downtown' in the American, or Western European understanding. 

Our Taxi driver runs up (yes up, there is no main floor lobby) several flights of stairs to check our booking.  "Sorry sir but there is no reservation for you here" he reports. Now that's strange.  I personally called at least 3x before our arrival to check our reservation and was told "don't worry, there is plenty of room." Ok, now what?  Our cabby sets off like an Indy driver through the back streets. 

We arrive at a second location, and are once again told there is no room, specifically "there is a convention in town with an extra 10 million" he says.  This is starting to sound very fishy as nothing appears to be quite that over run, and the hotel we are now outside of had a guy waiting at the front gate to tell our cab driver this news.  We set off for a third location where they miraculously have a room for us, but it will be nearly 3x what we had originally budgeted for with our reservation. 
    We know we are being hustled but we're just too tired to negotiate at this point.  Welcome to India!  They appear to have blown their budget on the lobby since the room was Times-Square skeevy.  However at this point we'd been traveling for more than 15 hours and had been driving the back roads of Delhi for more than an hour. Like I said; too tired to care.  The sheets did not look clean.  I pulled out a shirt from my luggage and put it over my pillow and grabbed my coat to lay on top of the bed.  

The next morning I am woken up at sunrise (that's about a total of 4 hours of sleep at this point). The sun is just starting to filter in through a window screen and I can hear the call to prayer from the street.

The procession uses bells, and they sing rhythmically in a 5-note chant. All this seems to excite the local dogs who yip and run around below. An 'other world' experience. 

We explore Delhi for the day, which includes a stop by a massive statue of Shiva. Lord Shiva is the Supreme Being in Hinduism and is known as the creator and the destroyer. Shiva continuously dissolves and recreates in a cyclic process of creation, preservation, dissolution and recreation of the universe. Shiva is the original sati victim. Sati is the Hindu practice of a widow throwing herself on her husband's funeral pyre, which is now abolished by law.  

A few days later we were up in the Himalayas (Mussoorie) and drifting through the market bizarre where my husband spots my bronze statue of Shiva. I knew immediately that this Shiva was coming home with me. My husband began the negotiation dance that is 'to shop in India.' Truly an art, and he has it in spades. It was still early in our trip and was one of the first things we bought.  I threw it into my backpack and quickly realized that I was not going to be able to buy a lot of bronze -- it's really heavy and rough to carrying around India for 5 weeks.  Note to self.

My Shiva is a version called Nataraja, Lord of Dancers (nata in Sanskrit means dance and raja means Lord). The link notes: "To understand the concept of Nataraja we have to understand the idea of dance itself.  Like Yoga, dance induces trance, ecstasy and the experience of the divine."  I don't know what yoga this guy does? While I like it as much as the next guy and certainly can become quite relaxed ... my state is not normally one of a trance nor ecstasy ... but one of sleeping.  More than once I have fallen asleep in a final released locust pose (lying on your stomach with your arms tucked under you). Perhaps there is a theme here ... I need more sleep in my life!   For more stories on our lack of sleep in India read about our overnight train to Mussoorie: Thankful In India: Mother-In-Law. My Shiva still sits on my shelf, and is used liberally in photographing my jewelry. More on Shiva try: Shiva or Gods

Thankful In India :: Mother-In-Law

Just after my husband and I got married we decided we wanted to see India, and we wanted to see it with his mother who grew up there.  My  Mother-In-Law was just 3 months old when her parents moved to India; heading off to the subcontinent via steamer ship (circa 1928).   She has always said that her father 'walked her across the Atlantic' ... as she cried he soothed her walking up and down the deck.     
    Her parents were Christian missionaries who had just accepted an assignment in India; in a land dominated by Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and the occasional Jain.  Their destination was Assam, a remote part of India. Assam is just on the other side of Bangladesh in the northern most corner of India. 
    While her parents' village was in Garo Hills of Assam, she would take a train to her school on the other side of the country in one of the 'Hill Towns' of the Himalayas called Mussoorie. Her school was a boarding school up on a crest (you can see the it, right) with a beautiful view of the Himalayan peaks from the campus. It took 3 days, by train, to get to school from her village in the Garo Hills. She rode in an open box car train consisting of wooden benches where people sat in rows. .... wow .... seriously? How do you sleep? But then that would explain why she was good with the 'first class' sleeper train we took up to visit her school. Trains in India are a world of their own.

    A lock on the train compartment door would be one of the many reasons to be thankful while in India (yes there is a Top 10).  You know it just wasn't the first thing that came to mind, but my Mother-In-Law insisted and I thought "well she does know the place, even if that seems a bit, um, extreme."  
    Throughout the night there was the occasional pull at the door of our sleeper compartment (I should mention that the door was a steel plated one that slid open with a lock-in-place bar handle). Thus the air quotes around 'first class.'  Our compartment was similar to the one shown (below, right).
    The pulling at the door would turn to a yank, then an aggressive rocking rattle with what I assume to be swearing in Hindi.  The pounding would begin in earnest after that (I should also mention that you cannot see through the door, so we could not see who was there or if they had finally given up).
    We bought all 4 tickets so we could sleep in peace without worry. However since it was a compartment that slept 4 and there were only 3 of us, the train conductor was working some cash on the side and re-selling our 4th bed ... over, and over.  It seemed that at each stop a new suspect would get on and the pounding would begin anew.
    Another important piece to this story is that the this 'first class' train was also a mail train, which is why it stopped at every friken town from Delhi to Dehradun (our destination). And why the pounding continued throughout the entire night.
    One more reason to be thankful while in India is for my Mother-In-Law who had done all this before.  Remember the train ride she took regularly to school, through the foothills of the Himalayas ..well it must have taught her a trick or two about how to ride a train in India.  And so as it goes with most women, I had 'to go' in the middle of the night.  I get up, swing open the door and try to close it.  However, I can't and notice my Mother-In-Law is standing behind me blocking the door closure.  I think, well ok she's gotta go too.  She turns sharply to my husband and says "lock it behind us and don't let anyone else in."  Right, forgot about all that.  

    She follows me down the corridor and as I go into the bathroom compartment, once again I can't get the door closed behind me.  There she is again "um thanks, I think I got this" I say. She gives me that look only a mother can do ... that look of pity and knowing all in one and says "you'll need my help."  Once inside I quickly see the problem.  There is only a hole in the floor, aka a Turkish Toilet (left).  Note, I decided to use a picture of a new, uninstalled toilet as there just is no need to show one that has been in use, particularly one from a train in India. 
    Now the interesting part of this kind of toilet is that it is on a train, and so the it opens to the bottom of the train with the train tracks quickly flashing below as I look down.  Oh lord - really?  My Mother-In-Law kicks into action and demonstrates for me that I must brace myself against one wall while holding on to a bar on the other side and watch where I put my feet (the raised bumps are for traction).  I am supposed to do all this while managing to get my pants down.  Good God - really?  Let's hear it for 'first class.'
    We finally roll into to Dehradun and I get my first Indian Chai - street style.  Now I have to say the Chai you get at Starbucks is nice if you like liquefied pumpkin pie.  But real Chai doesn't taste like that.  
    They steep the tea on the burner with the sugar added, then cool it with the addition of milk. Finally they draw the tea (pouring it back and forth between pots) to both mix and froth it. You just can't find it here in the states.
    We find a taxi and head up to the Mussoorie along the switchback roads that make up the foothills of the Himalayas.  Our 45-min, white-knuckle drive land us along the main road of Mussoorie, which is lined with a sort of half outside and half inside market bizarre. These markets are prevalent throughout India, and it is where I find my bronze Shiva.  The one I use for my profile picture.  See my following blog My Shiva.

What's Your Vote: Can You 'Rock' Hoops?

This is a tough look to pull off.  I often see people who think they 'rock' the hoops like Beyonce, but really look much more like Joy, the trailer-trash character from the TV show My Name is Earl.   Take the vote on Antiquity Travelers 


I took a look at what eHow Style had to say about The Reason Women Wear Big Earrings and they say it's because of a bad hair day.  Most women have a day when their hair will not conform to a style. Instead of just pulling the hair sharply back into a pony tail or bun, they include big earrings as a way to more look feminine. The large earrings replace the hair and frame the face in a flattering way.

Covert Jewelry Making: Flash in Blue

If you've been following my earlier posts, then you know that I have a Turkish friend that has put me to work! She loves to scout the various vendor stalls through Manhattan's Grand Central Station and report back with what the best items are from her latest excursion. She shows up on the train with cute little bags, a new pair of gloves, the occasional purse (or as NYer's call it a pocketbook) .. and every now and again she'll report on a fabulous new piece of jewelry she loves.


One such report she tells my Designer friend and me that she has spotted a very cute little necklace at the vendor right around the corner from where we get off the train each morning. She describes it to us, but well, it's pretty hard to follow. She was attempting to describe this necklace to us and all I got is that it was "a simple necklace, single strand with those blue beads ... you know the Mediterranean color blue." "Oh, you mean turquoise?" No, no it's lighter than that. "Do you mean topaz?" She shakes her head and reconsiders and says that it might be lapis. "Wait so it is darker than turquoise?" And so it goes with my Turkish friend. We decide it might be easiest to just take a look at it once we're in the station. So we head around the corner that morning to check out the stall, but of course our 7:45 arrival each morning is too early for any of the stalls to be open. Apparently my Turkish friend kills time in the evening before her train by drifting through the stalls, or so she tells us after trolling through several rows of stalls. "Well ok then" I say. "How about taking a picture for me so I can understand what you are looking for." Problem solved. Off to work.

Day 2 of this conversation.  She's very excited and tells me that she has successfully taken a picture for me the night before while milling around waiting for her train.  She pulls it up on her new iphone and all we can see is literally a blurred flash of blue and she askes me "so can you make it?"   My other friend and I can't hold back the laughter as she explains her sleuthing involved holding her phone right at her waist to snap the picture.  She didn't want the shop keeper to think she was stealing his idea. Right.  She must have been a bit skiddish in her adventure and moved around a bit too much to get a good shot of the necklace.  Who knew jewelry making was such a secretive business.

Before I go on, I have to give you a little background on the iPhone purchase.  This is a saga in and of itself. A few weeks back she decides that she needs to catch up with everyone else and get one of these iPhones.  She buys it, but honestly can't figure out how to find much of anything that was pre-loaded for her at the store.

Our Designer friend kicks into gear and says she can set it up.  She sets the time, a few icons on the main screen, finds some nice wallpaper.  Bada bing, bada boom ... all set.  

The next day she is upset because all the apps loaded on at the store have run down the battery to the phone.  She tells us that really all she wants is to have a workable phone in case she needs to call her husband.  "What is all this other 'crap' on the this phone?"   I quietly say, "why did you get an iPhone if all you want to do is call your husband from time to time?"  She sighs, and says she thought she should get an upgrade like everyone else.  After several weeks of this, she tells us that she is through.  Through with this phone.  It is heavy, always seems to be 'dead' when she actually wants to use it because of the constant and arduous updating of all these apps.  She's going to return it.  Next day she is even more upset as it seems she needs all the packaging it came in to return it.  

Ok wait.  So you don't use a phone much, but think you need an iPhone.  You're not sure how to turn it on, but you pull it out of the box and throw everything away.  After roughly 3 weeks you're ready to throw in the towel.  And you no longer have any of the original packaging?  Let me just ask "have you ever purchased electronics in the US?"  You get that most people hold on to the packaging for a least a month or two --- just in case.  Or in the case of my husband a year or two.  Yep.  A year or two.  You should see the basement.  But that is another story, and another blog.

Back to the jewelry extravaganza at Grand Central.  At this point all I have is a blurred iPhone image, a semi-coherent description of a necklace and an idea of what she likes and wants to fix with this piece.  I figured it just made more sense to hunt down the vendor to see the pattern first hand. So we decided to catch the vendor that morning. And as luck would have it we were delayed.  We pulled in about 8:10am.  The shop keeper was just rolling up the garage-style doors and there it was.  The elusive blue necklace.  Since we were the only ones there, he came straight over and asked if we needed help.  My Turkish friend ask about a simplier version without a second strand.  At this point I knew exactly what she wanted.  My poor friend behind the counter was still working hard on the sale. He suggested that he alter the version she was admiring, and her comment back was "no thanks I have a friend that will do that for me."   Enter, Train Jeweler --- Stage Left.

I set off for my favorite bead store in Manhattan and quickly figured out that the blue beads were a dyed coral - a common use of coral beads these days.  I also picked up the focal bead she really liked in the piece ... a simple red glass bead.  But with a twist added a few silver spacers and an extra couple of red coral beads on the side of the focal bead.  I tucked it in to a zip lock, I told you this was a classy operation I run, and headed off for my early morning train ride.  My Turkish friend was delighted.  Yes delighted.  It was exactly what she had in mind.  She immediately put it on and asked what she owed me.  I calculated the raw materials and gave her the total of what it cost me.  I swear by not marking up anything I make for friends.  I don't want to mix friendship and business.

Now you might remember that I mentioned my Turkish friend had a thing for adjusting the length of a necklace.  I've called her Goldilocks of climate, but perhaps I should have done the same for the length of a necklace.  There is the back and forth ... "that is too short, don't you think?  too many strands?  hmm, perhaps just a tad longer."  In this case she came back the next day and said " do you think you could make it just 1 inch shorter?" "Sure" I say.  And the next day I show up with the same necklace, restrung, one inch shorter.  After about 1 week she comes back and says that while the clasp is very nice (I should think so since I specifically picked out a fancy sterling silver slide clasp) she says she really just wants a simple lobster claw.  "Would it be too much to switch it out?"  I know it seems like no big deal.  The thing is I have to restring the whole thing since the necklace is wired, then 'crimped'  with a clasp.  To remove the clasp you have to rewire the whole thing and re-crimp a new clasp in place.  Of course I do this .... take 3, or is it 4?  I'm losing count.

The interesting part of this project is that the train crowd witnesses this entire saga. They know just how many times I've reworked the piece. By now they know that I will customize it until you are happy. Another woman we ride the train with, decides she loves the necklace. She asks if I could make her one exactly like it. Well maybe not exactly. Do you think you could add pearls? Um, sure. And off we go to make another version of this necklace.

I think I've got this pattern down. I come back a day later and have an exact replica of the necklace, only with pearls instead of the red beads. She loves it. Puts it on, end of story. Right? nope

She decides that it is too short. My Turkish friend likes it just at the collar bone.  But our other friend likes it low enough to show off her cleavage.  Her exact quote was that she needed to flaunt it while she still had it.  So "could you add another 2 inches roughly?"  Well let's see.  I think I still have the left over beads I pulled out of the last version ... that should cover it.  I make the alterations. 

Yes I had to pull it apart and restring it.  But now it is one of my most popular patterns.  Our friend asked if I would make a matching pair of earrings with mostly pearls so she could wear them when her Italian husband came to visit.  Yes he visits.  No they don't live in the same country.  Again ... story for another blog. This one is too long already.

This is how it goes with being the Train Jeweler.  You get a little information, and you try to piece it together.  Then you re-group and I end up pulling it apart.  You'd think I'd give it up, but frankly that is kind of the fun of it all.  Call me crazy.  

Hammering Silver is a Wonderful Stress Release

I first met my Designer friend's soon-to-be husband as a way to surprise her.  He sent me an email, and I'm still trying to remember exactly how he found me.  


He told me that she had lost a hoop from one of her favorite pair of earrings.  Any chance you can make a new pair?  I'm always game to try something new, and I had never "made" hoops --- up to this point. I had only bought and adorned them like the ones I made for a friend at work.  This is a tough look to pull off.  I often see people who think they rock the hoops like Beyonce, but really look much more like Joy, the trailer-trash character from the TV show My Name is Earl.   



I took a look at what eHow Style had to say about The Reason Women Wear Big Earrings and they say it's because of a bad hair day.  Most women have a day when their hair will not conform to a style. Instead of just pulling the hair sharply back into a pony tail or bun, they include big earrings as a way to more look feminine. The large earrings replace the hair and frame the face in a flattering way. 

I gave the hoops with coral to a friend at work who has beautiful, long black hair and can completely pull this off.  As can her daughter apparently since I was informed that she had the earrings less than 24-hours before her teenage daughter took possession.  

But I digress.  My Designer friend was looking to replace some simple hoops that she wore all the time, but with a very bad closure.  They were constantly falling off.  While her soon-to-be was trying awfully hard to explain what they looked like, I finally just asked that he take a picture and send it to me.  I could just make out the shape from the somewhat blurred picture of the remaining hoop.  


I did the obligatory trip to my favorite silver store in Manhattan, Metalliferous to find thick gauge silver (15g) to hammer.  I did my own version of hammered silver hoops, and I have to say was quite a good release after a frustrating day in the office.  Highly recommended.  

It drives my husband crazy when I break out the chasing hammer and block to create a silver hammered charm.  It is like an army of tiny little guys clinking away with their hammers. If you check out the other pieces I've done for her, you'll notice that this is the simplest jewelry I've made for her.  She loves to wear complicated jewelry and she can pull it off since she is tall, thin with beautiful long dark hair.  While these are not exactly the same earrings as the hoop she lost, they have a closure that will not fall off.  By all reports she loved them.  She did wear them quite a lot last Spring.  The beading forum I post and share with always seem to like the more adorned version of everything.  Simple patterns usually get boo-ed Beading Daily. Guess my, the beading crowd leans toward bling.  

Weddings: Designer Preparations

So I'm just gearing up with a third post to my blog.  Still trying to decide exactly what my blog is about.  I think it is about jewelry since I'm clearly obsessed with it, but somehow it appears to also be about travel.  Is frequent train travel (aka commuting) travel?  It certainly feels like it when I spend 3+ hours a day doing it.  On the plus side, it gives you plenty of material to write about.  So thanks for reading and I'll try not to disappoint.


Let's talk a bit more about my Designer friend.  The one I mentioned in my first post who can pull off just about any outfit --- really.  Completely jealous.


Last Spring she was planning her wedding and she realized that I might indeed be able to make a custom necklace to fit the look she is going for.  I did say she can pull off anything .... and one would need this attribute for this particular piece.  So her description of what she wanted was a 3 tier necklace that hangs mid-length with varying sizes of pearls and plenty of bling.  Now when someone asks for bling you need to get specific with them because not all bling is created equally.  Are we talking Kardashian style?  or god help me .... Lady Gaga? or more subtle Cartier classic?  Her reply was "surprise me, I trust you" ... really? We just met, at least at this point in our friendship.

So I stopped at several of my favorite bead shops along the NYC-CT corridor and picked up a few items for several pearl variations, and then temporarily strung them.  I packed it up to show her on the train ride.  This is my usual 'office hours:' front of train, right-hand, 4-seater ... "one at a time please."  My train crowd is very active, and liberal with their comments about projects in the making.  Good thing I'm used to constructive suggestions --- and better to get the input for alterations addressed before I finish the project.  I brought in what I thought were 3 different versions on 3 strands for the "review committee." 

She took one look and said "this is perfect!"  I was confused.  Which one do you like?  She said all 3 of them. Ok, so which one do you want me to use as the pattern?  She said all of it ... um huh?  Wait, you want me to use all of this?  Are you sure?  I promise I tried to simplify the pattern and the use of bling ... my tendency is toward Cartier not Kardashian, but this seems to tilt the scales to the later --- at least in my opinion.  But who am I to judge, I'm just the Train Jeweler.  I merely create (and often restring until I get the green light).

She did look absolutely beautiful wearing this necklace with a very simple long off white strapless sheath.  I promise I'll be back with another blog on the wedding!  Beading Daily

Inheritance: My Turkish Coral Project Continues

As a second installment to this story, my Turkish friend took one look at the first version of this necklace and with a  bit of a sigh said "I don't know, do you think this looks like me?" as she held it up against her shirt.  First version you can find here How I met my Turkish Friend. I did know right away that I was in for a second version of this necklace.  In my defense, she was admiring a very similar necklace done in all pearls and so seemed somewhat logical to me that she'd like this style.  Silly me.  Now my other train friends and I just laugh and shake our heads because this is a very common theme with my Turkish friend.  

"Do you think you can just make this 1 inch shorter?"  "Could you change out the clasp?"  "I think the color should be more grey-blue - don't you?"  I've learned not to finish the project until she has a good look at it as I simply end up ripping it all out and re-stringing it. 

So if you read my last blog entry you know that she asked for me to rework the necklace to have just 3 simple strands.  I kept the bead variations within the same color tones.  The combination uses coral, orange agate, rust-colored jasper coins and carnelian (a very popular Indian stone seen throughout the inlays at the Taj Mahal). Check out this link to see just how beautiful the inlay is within the Taj, and how prevalent the carnelian orange color is throughout the patterns: Taj Mahal inlay work.  

The graduated necklace hangs down to her mid-section in an 'opera' style length. She had this one on the other day and she tells me that as she is sitting at her desk and someone at the office is admiring it, one of the strands slowly pulls apart and the beads pop off one, two three ....  My friend has a tendency to be rough on the jewelry.  One pair of earrings she was looking at she literally twisted off the charm on the earwire right in front of me.  I usually need to make sure I use some heavy-duty materials for the projects I make for her.  

So this one I restrung with a wire called 'fireline' something that is nearly indestructible.  But if it is possible, she'll find a way.  I may need to have yet a 5th go at this project!

At the end of this project, I still had quite a few of my friend's coral beads left over. So I created a bracelet with the same color pattern, but not too 'matchy-matchy' as she she said. She never wears the two together, but separately they really are very pretty. Beading Daily

Inheritance: How I met my Turkish friend

A friend of mine who grew up in Turkey asked me to give new life to strings of coral she had inherited from her mother.  The beads are simply stunning.  You can still pick up bits and pieces within that show the natural coral patterns.  

It all started with a train ride.  I take the train from Connecticut to Manhattan every morning where 'standing room only' is very common.  So if you can find a seat then you 'squeeze in' and attempt not to elbow anyone, get elbowed by anyone, or literally knock knees through your hour+ ride into the city.  Needless to say, if you ride the train daily you get to know people; probably way better than you expect.  Another fellow rider, now good friend of mine, was flipping through a Sundance catalog (highly recommend checking it out for those of you that like a little Southwestern style in your jewelry)  My Turkish friend and I were looking over her shoulder as she flipped.  Yes this was before we really knew each other ... but that is sort of how it happens on these train rides.

Our other friend, a clothing designer who works for Walmart --- yes that is a head scratcher, but she does have amazing style and can pull off just about any outfit. So our Designer friend points to a multi-strand turquoise necklace noting how much she wanted it and how lovely it would look with a flowing white summer dress for her upcoming trip to the Mediterranean.  Of course we agree, as long as it is her rock'n this outfit, but I notice the price and say wow it really doesn't cost that much to make a necklace like that.  And so it begins ... I am known as the personal jeweler of my train crowd.

The next day, or maybe it was a week later ... our time together blurs as the ride is pretty monotonous.  My Turkish friend shows up with a zip lock bag full of these gorgeous coral beads and says .. can you do something with these?   It's a 'classy' operation I run as the Train Jeweler.

I created a multi-strand necklace that starts at the collar and graduates the 5 strands. This has become an on-going saga about the length of the pieces I create for my friend. Anyway, for this version (yes I had to do multiple versions) I used diamond-shaped, flat connectors to graduate the strands. The color tones I used were inspired are from jewelry I saw all over India; including some coral tube beads I inherited from my mother-in-law who got them in India where she grew up. I did include a combination of beads from her mother and mine in this necklace --- thus the name of the piece. The neckalce is made from a combination of coral, orange agate, rust-colored jasper coins and carnelian (a very popular Indian stone seen throughout the inlays at the Taj Mahal), gold and gold vermeil Beading Daily

This version was completely taken apart, so the only thing left is the picture.  She decided that she wanted 3 simple long strands.  See Inheritance for the final version she now wears. Beading Daily 

People: Jackie O

As you read the many stories in this blog, you will come across someone I call Jackie O. She is someone I work with who has absolutely exquisite taste in style and well ... life in general.

People: Baby Cocktails

As you read the many stories in this blog, you will come across someone I call Baby Cocktails.  We met while both living in San Francisco, married and had children at very similar times in our lives.  Now we're both on the East Coast and still in touch.

People: Train Jeweler

That's me. I am known for designing jewelry among my train crowd.  

People: Turkish

As you read the many stories in this blog, you will come across someone I call Turkish.  She grew up in Turkey and has that  Mediterranean style, and desire for it's climate.  

People: Soon-To-Be

As you read the many stories in this blog, you will come across someone I call Soon-To-Be. My Designer friend's Soon-To-Be husband who has showered her with jewelry.  

People: Designer

As you read the many stories in this blog, you will come across someone I call  Designer. She has amazing style and can pull off just about any outfit.