"Grandmother's Pearls" Live On

Carrie was sad that her favorite pearl necklace, which had belonged to her late grandmother, was in pieces. Then one day she met the Jewelry Doctor, who waved her magic wand and it was “Happy Ever After.” https://myjewelrydoctor.blogspot.com/2009/05/time-travel.html

Cracking the Code

“You can just restring this,” said Carolyn.

I wish.  

Look closely.  This necklace had a past.  The person who fixed it most recently was probably trying her best to get the necklace to the sixteen-inch length Carolyn prefers. Unfortunately, some of the large round (Swarovski) pearls and the smaller (freshwater) ones were missing, and she apparently thought the best solution was to leave a lot of room between the beads.

Result:  Swiss cheese.  Or, to be more precise, a whole lot of gaps in the necklace. (The actual length, once the pearls were brought together, was just over thirteen inches.) Also, the combination of several colors of Swarovski pearls and three colors of freshwater was a bit hard on the eyes.

What to do?

At first, I thought I’d just add more of the larger white freshwater pearls.  But that didn’t work.  And then the magic happened.  As I continued to look at the necklace, I saw what the original jeweler had in mind.  I was able to crack the code.

“What code?”

The rhythm the jewelry was intended to have.  In this case, it was what I call a “Morse Code” design:  dot-dash-dot-dash.  I believe that’s what the original intent was, and once I looked closely at the broken necklace, the solution was obvious.

©2018 Laynie Tzena.

Time Travel

Once upon a time, a woman had a beautiful five-strand pearl necklace. She wore it often. This was the "Jazz Age," and faux pearls were all the rage. Karl Lagerfeld designed with them.

But alas, the pearl necklace broke one day. And she never wore it again. When she died, "Grandmother's pearl necklace" was given to Carrie. Who brought it to me.

At first, we thought we'd just make it into a three-strand necklace. Surely there were enough loose pearls to do that. But no. This is a graduated pearl necklace, and the remaining pearls weren't all of the right size. We needed more pearls. Graduated faux pearls. From that time period. In the same color family. I looked hither and thither and what do you know?

Then one day Carrie took out a sheet of notebook paper and made a sketch of a pair of earrings she had seen someone wearing. I used that drawing as a starting point for these earrings, which accompany a graduated bracelet that seemed only fitting to go with her necklace.

Turned out we also had enough pearls for a graduated single-strand necklace to go with her bracelet.

Last but not least, Carrie had mentioned that her grandmother grew roses. So some of the remaining pearls show up here:

And here:



Carrie tells me her father and uncle were amazed to see the restored necklace. The last person they'd seen wearing those pearls, of course, was their mother--"Grandmother," to Carrie.

©2009-2015 Laynie Tzena.

Breathing Room

Pianist Randy Weston once said of Count Basie, "He was a master of space. He knew the notes not to play."

When Judie brought in this necklace, she asked, "Do you think I should leave it as it is?"



Judie is delicate, even at 5'7". The necklace was a good six inches across. When she put it on, it looked as though the necklace were wearing her.

I said, "Sure, if you want to gain 50 pounds, or be a drag queen."

Lots of people would probably disagree.

"It's Ruby Z! How can you say that?"

I love Ruby Z. Look at the bird in the center of the necklace. Look at those leaves. Just gorgeous. But add them together and the composition works better as wall art than to wear--at least for Judie.

As a necklace, it needed breathing room.

So we freed the bird. He's now perched on an onyx, crystal, and Czech glass necklace.



And we spread out the leaves. They are accompanied by freshwater pearls, vintage German glass, Czech glass, and sodalite.



Oh, and just between us, sodalite might be an underrated gemstone. Where lapis has flecks of gold, sodalite is often marbled with white, making it a natural companion for pearls.

And who doesn't love pearls?

©2009 Laynie Tzena.

The Doctor Will See You Now

Let's start here.



Each person's style is different. Helen could have said, "I want you to rebuild this bracelet exactly the way it was." And, assuming she had all of the loose coral or I could get the same shade of salmon coral* from my sources, that's what we would have done.

But she didn't say that.

She said, "What can we do with this? It just isn't me."

So we talked about her style, the kind of jewelry she likes to wear, what she thought she'd like. She decided she wanted a necklace and earrings. Something classic.

So I designed this for her.



She was very happy.

And we had coral left over.

So I designed the bracelet to match the necklace.

And we still had coral left over.

So we put our heads together about what to do next. And Helen said, "This time I want something funky."

And I designed this set with birch, copper, and one of my favorite gemstones, unakite, to go with the remaining coral.



And you know what? We still have some coral. No immediate plans.

*Yes, I know some coral is endangered. I don't design with that coral for my collection. If someone asked for a three-strand set like the one in the picture, I'd use sponge coral or would recommend using lapis, onyx, or red tiger's eye, all of which are plentiful. In this case, the coral buying was done many years ago, when coral was not endangered. We didn't buy any for the re-design; in fact, we ended up with extra!

©2009, 2019 Laynie Tzena.