Object Project: The Queen's Jewels

Submitted by Jo of Seese the Day

Necklace courtesy of VintageTreasures4U

I was scanning items once and saw a vintage necklace just like one my mother had when I was growing up.  It wasn't her style at all, since she was a conservative woman.  This was a necklace fit for a queen and it has earrings and a bracelet to match.  I have gotten rid of many of her jewlery items since she died but somehow I couldn't bear to part with this set.

I had memories of it, my mother let me play dress up with it and my favorite game was playing queen. I was convinced at age 3 or 4 that I was not really a member of my family because I didn't look like them at all.  Everyone had dark hair and eyes (actually Daddy had blue eyes and a red beard if he let it grow).  So in my young mind I was practicing for the day I was rightfully restored to my royal family. I think this fantasy was fertilized by the coronation of Queen Eliz. II on my 3 or 4th birthday.  My sweet mother never dashed my dreams. She let me revel in the royal fantasy and generously let me play with her precious jewlery.  I wish I knew where she got a piece so out of her style, a special occsion piece? A gift?

When I saw the similar item at a vintage site I convoed the shop owner telling my story.  She was sweet and reponded with a kind response.  (Now I think why would she want to know, if I had one I wouldn't be buying hers,) but that was not her attitude at all. Next I created a treasury just around this piece of hers.

When something is an important part of our past it carries the energy of the times that were important.  If there were a fire and I lost it I would be fine.  I have the memories and that is what is important. However I hung the set from my french bulletin board and glance at it occassionally and smile.  I have been known to walk over and put the set on while i sit in my craft room and work.  I look at them like they are the crown jewels.

Now at 64, I realize I am not a princess in waiting but I have discovered the real jewels my family has given me. Imagination, and self-worth, the purple necklace reminds me of that truth and I love that little red-haired girl who was allowed to dream.

The Circle of (Bead) Life

Some of my newly acquired bead stash

 I love heirlooms, hand-me-downs, and other sorts of already-used goods. I love their stories, and the fact that they belonged to someone else before me. And I love especially when I can make things out of them!

I recently acquired a collection of beads, findings, and other random bric-a-brac from a friend's mother, who had inherited it from her aunt. Her aunt was a crafty lady who throughout her life made her own jewelry, including stringing her own pearl necklaces (this is a level of sophistication I have not yet reached).

When my friend's mom acquired this stash, she was very generous in passing it along to me, though it was fitting. After all, I started my first jewelry business "Beads & More" with her daughter when we were about 8 or 9. And when my friend's interest in jewelry dwindled, her mom took me in as a surrogate crafting protégé. She taught me to knit about 5 years ago, and I've been a knitting fiend ever since (though in recent months it's taken a back seat to Bric & Brac). In addition to knitting for myself, she's recruited me to donate scarves to a thyroid cancer foundation, Light of Life, which she's involved in.

Brass and Turquoise Baubles Earrings

Metal, Glass, and Pearl Baubles Earrings

So now she's passed the beads along to me. I've already started creating with them, combining with my existing stash, with other beads acquired from myriad different places.  Some of the resulting jewelry I'll use for my own purposes (see my new Etsy additions above), and other pieces will be donated back to the Light of Life Foundation. I hope they (as well as all my pieces) go back into the cycle of changing hands, doing good, and making people happy.

The Stuff of Life & The Life of Stuff

Only a couple of posts in, I'm still tweaking and refining this blog, trying to figure out what exactly is its purpose and what I want to say.  So, to narrow the focus a bit, I'll start by looking at my blog's actual title (ha!)--Bric & Brac--which aside from being the moniker I've bestowed (somewhat arbitrarily) upon my jewelry line, actually describes pretty well my interest.  Bric & Brac comes from bric-a-brac, of course:

noun /ˈbrik ə ˌbrak/ 

Miscellaneous objects and ornaments of little value

I find bric-a-brac to be extremely interesting and revealing: in small objects that could often be overlooked is wrapped up history, personality, function, and the lack thereof.  These objects have a story.  This is a quality I hope to convey when I make jewelry.  It's why I like incorporating repurposed, miscellaneous objects.  Since becoming involved on Etsy, it's something I've appreciated about the site as well.  It's a site filled with people who have a similar reverence for the simple beauty of objects, who put care into their creations or their vintage finds.

So between my jewelry, my work on Etsy, my blogging, and the way I live and look at my everyday life, I think objects serve as a good link.  In my blog, miscellaneous objects of little value (or slightly more value) will become windows on the world.  Whether found in the streets, in shops, or in my own home, there are myriad stories to tell!

To get the ball rolling, I'll look at an often overlooked (you can see by the mess!) but rather intimate part of my life: my desk.  Here where ideas are born and sometimes lost, where I've collected a most miscellaneous assortment of goods, and thereby all the stories that go along with them.  I won't tell you the stories, of course, but I think the photos speak well enough for themselves.

(Just wait until I start opening my drawers!)

Readers--or whoever is out there--what objects are typical of your everyday life?  What literal drawers can we open to understand you?

Welcome to Bric & Brac!

I am a strong believer in the beauty of everyday life.  For me, art is the little things that make you stop and think and take life a little beyond the ordinary.

This is a blog to record art: made, photographed, exhibited, found on the side of the road, etc.  I hope to share the world as I see it, and eventually to accept submissions from readers.  I want to know, what do you think is beautiful?  If we get a community sharing the unique things we all notice and appreciate--something others might overlook--who knows the possibilities!  I hope we will be able to walk outside and see the world in a new light, question something we've never thought about, and see beauty where before there was none.

This blog is also a platform to promote my new Etsy site, bricandbrac.etsy.com.  After 10+ years of making jewelry for family, friends, and myself, I have decided to take a chance and bring my crafting to the internet.  Jewelry is wearable art, after all, and I love the challenge of taking unique materials and making something functional and beautiful out of them.

Art is not a single, untouchable entity.  It is interwoven with life.  It is the utilitarian and the decorative, what we see and what we create, and the bric and brac in between.

(Also, if all of this seems dreamily idealistic, that's because it's midnight in late summer, and that's just the kind of mood I'm in.)