Last weekend (two weekends ago? who can keep track... )
Sometime in the recent past... I accompanied my mother to a Gem and Jewelry Show.
I'd never had much interest in going to one because frankly the word "gem" is out of my price range. I didn't realize that fully half of the show is things that I can afford, like beads and wire to make my own jewelry, jade and pearl creations from China, and the occasional much more expensive looking gem (look, turns out I can afford to use it!) buried amongst the rest. Here is the one I found (and obviously took home with me!):
That's a rather overexposed shot, so here's an underexposed one to balance it out:
The designer, Babrbara Garwood, was manning the table herself and was more than happy to tell me the wonderful story of how her pieces are created. Inspired by designs she sees in museums, Ancient Byzantine being one of her favorite influences, she sketches out each piece and sends her sketches to Mongolian master-craftsmen where the pieces are constructed from silver wires, enamel, jewels and stones and coated in 24 karat cold. Even the backs of her pieces are gorgeous!
She has a website www.importfolio.com where you can see some of her other stuff and see the unbelievable prices. I practically got this pendant for free because as pieces sell out at her show, she takes the odd men left from sets (like someone else bought the earrings and necklace that match this) and puts them in a box and marks everything $34! So with tax my pendant was $35! Unbelievable...Someday, these earrings will also belong to me...:
$88!!Though these are gorgeous, too...:
Ahh, to shop, perchance to dream?...
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