Charm necklace
Jun. 2nd, 2002 12:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrI love my new Elven leaf brooch, but my charm necklace is the most personal piece of jewelry that I own. Kij sent me a couple new charms to add this week. It occurs to me that I might describe the necklace for you. Eventually, I might take a picture, scan it and post it so you can see it. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elisem helped me design it.
The necklace is fashioned from three ribbons (black, metallic gold, and silver/gold) strung with silver and brass beads and braided together. Little silver and brass whatchamacallits with Celtic knots (can't remember the jeweler's term for them) are strung on the ribbons between the beads, and it is from these that the charms hang. There are also spacer beads with Celtic caps at regular intervals.
Anyway, the charms:
a bunny
a silver seagull and silver loon--I bought these on two separate summers when we went to Gull Lake, Minnesota for vacation
a charm thatelisem designed for The Wild Swans. It consists of a white rose carved from bone; below it hangs a claddagh charm, and eleven sterling silver feathers
a clear glass bead with delicate cobalt blue veins shot through it, mounted on another cobalt blue bead. The delicate blue lines make me think of writing, and it is a bead to honor my writing group
a pewter cartouche of my name in Egyptian hieroglyphics, which my mother-in-law brought me from Egypt
a gold charm that my parents gave me in honor of my first book Emerald House Rising. It is a gold house with a real emerald set in the door
two rings, one of hematite and one of thin 10k gold. These were my nursing rings, one for each of my girls--I would switch them from hand to hand to remind me of which "side" I had nursed last. Linked with these two rings is a little glass heart--which matches the glass hearts on my two daughters' charm necklaces that I have started for each of them
a little glass bottle of champagne stuck in a pewter "ice bucket" with glass ice cubes. Very lifelike. I got it at a doll house store and had a hole drilled in it and a jump ring added. Kij has one exactly like it on her charm necklace. We got them to commemorate our custom of having "tiddley pum nights" when we get together, splitting a magnum of champagne to toast our recent fiction sales
a gold stone bead. This was the first charm I used to start the necklace. Again, Kij has one exactly like it on her necklace. She had a charm necklace, and I wanted to get something to add to it, so I bought her the bead and she bought me this one so I could start my own.
a bear fetish made of petrified wood (millions of years old). I got it when Rob and I went to Arizona last year for our fifteenth anniversary. I had heard that the bear could be a symbol of power especially in the middle years of life.
my great grandfather's watch fob, a gold pendant showing two dragons back to back. His initials are on it (CAK for Charles Allen Kerr). This is the pendant which hangs at the bottom
two charms hung together. One was a clear stone (called an "Apache tear") that I glued to end cap and jump ring at the arts and craft room at the YMCA camp where I vacationed with my family at the age of ten. With it hangs a tiny leather circle with a Colorado columbine painted on it that I made in the arts and craft room at another YMCA camp I made when I went back to Colorado with my own family, thirty years later
a little fish charm I bought on the streets of Chinatown in New York when I went there for dim sum with my brother, years ago
a gold sailing medal my grandfather won at the Evanston yacht club. It is engraved with his name, Charles L. Floyd, and the year, 1954.
a pair of earrings glued back to back. They show a silver circle with a little mother-of-pearl blob near the top. I was told that I had miscarried in 1992, and I bought the earrings to make the charm as a memento for my lost baby. But I found out twelve days later that the doctors had been wrong--I was actually still pregnant. That "lost baby" turned out to be Fiona. Now I wear it in thanksgiving.
another pair of earrings, glued back to back, a pewter star with mother-of-pearl inlays. Rob bought them for me one time when we went to Valleyfair because we had been having a tough time, and we decided to treat ourself to a fun day. The star is a reference to my wedding proposal. On our first date, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant, and my fortune cookie said "You are the star of his existence." V. peculiar fortune. Two years later to the day, he took me back to the same restaurant, and when I opened my fortune cookie, it said, "You are the star of my existence. Will you marry me?"
a silver Celtic knot work ball, originally an earring. Kij has the other. We bought them when we went to the Renaissance Festival together
a jade leaf, in honor of my interest in environmental issues
a sterling silver mug that says "coffee"
a silver pillow bead--Kij has one like it
a cobalt blue and turquoise-colored bead, with the symbol for two women hanging from it. (Kij has one like it. The accents on her charm necklace are largely turquoise, and mine are cobalt blue)
a pewter street car, bought one summer afternoon when I went with my family to ride the Lake Harriet street car
a tiny brass owl, named Pigwigeon, in honor of my enjoyment of the Harry Potter books.
a clear crystal, which I bought when I went to Banff, Canada
The charms Kij sent me most recently are a coffee cup and a telephone, both sterling silver (we talk on the phone once a week on Sundays). I like to add charms, but not indiscriminately. I like it when people I love take the time to find something perfect to add. The necklace, as you can imagine, has gotten large and a bit heavy. It invariably draws impressed comments from people.
[Um . . . nearly went back and deleted this entire entry. Sudden intense worry that I have lost all perspective and am boring people. If so, sorry. Ate poorly tonight, prob. hypoglycemic, brain not working properly. Suppose I shouldn't worry--those too bored will have stopped reading by now, anyway. And will have missed this confused apology, too, come to think of it.]
Peg, mildly wibbling
elisem helped me design it.The necklace is fashioned from three ribbons (black, metallic gold, and silver/gold) strung with silver and brass beads and braided together. Little silver and brass whatchamacallits with Celtic knots (can't remember the jeweler's term for them) are strung on the ribbons between the beads, and it is from these that the charms hang. There are also spacer beads with Celtic caps at regular intervals.
Anyway, the charms:
a bunny
a silver seagull and silver loon--I bought these on two separate summers when we went to Gull Lake, Minnesota for vacation
a charm that
elisem designed for The Wild Swans. It consists of a white rose carved from bone; below it hangs a claddagh charm, and eleven sterling silver feathersa clear glass bead with delicate cobalt blue veins shot through it, mounted on another cobalt blue bead. The delicate blue lines make me think of writing, and it is a bead to honor my writing group
a pewter cartouche of my name in Egyptian hieroglyphics, which my mother-in-law brought me from Egypt
a gold charm that my parents gave me in honor of my first book Emerald House Rising. It is a gold house with a real emerald set in the door
two rings, one of hematite and one of thin 10k gold. These were my nursing rings, one for each of my girls--I would switch them from hand to hand to remind me of which "side" I had nursed last. Linked with these two rings is a little glass heart--which matches the glass hearts on my two daughters' charm necklaces that I have started for each of them
a little glass bottle of champagne stuck in a pewter "ice bucket" with glass ice cubes. Very lifelike. I got it at a doll house store and had a hole drilled in it and a jump ring added. Kij has one exactly like it on her charm necklace. We got them to commemorate our custom of having "tiddley pum nights" when we get together, splitting a magnum of champagne to toast our recent fiction sales
a gold stone bead. This was the first charm I used to start the necklace. Again, Kij has one exactly like it on her necklace. She had a charm necklace, and I wanted to get something to add to it, so I bought her the bead and she bought me this one so I could start my own.
a bear fetish made of petrified wood (millions of years old). I got it when Rob and I went to Arizona last year for our fifteenth anniversary. I had heard that the bear could be a symbol of power especially in the middle years of life.
my great grandfather's watch fob, a gold pendant showing two dragons back to back. His initials are on it (CAK for Charles Allen Kerr). This is the pendant which hangs at the bottom
two charms hung together. One was a clear stone (called an "Apache tear") that I glued to end cap and jump ring at the arts and craft room at the YMCA camp where I vacationed with my family at the age of ten. With it hangs a tiny leather circle with a Colorado columbine painted on it that I made in the arts and craft room at another YMCA camp I made when I went back to Colorado with my own family, thirty years later
a little fish charm I bought on the streets of Chinatown in New York when I went there for dim sum with my brother, years ago
a gold sailing medal my grandfather won at the Evanston yacht club. It is engraved with his name, Charles L. Floyd, and the year, 1954.
a pair of earrings glued back to back. They show a silver circle with a little mother-of-pearl blob near the top. I was told that I had miscarried in 1992, and I bought the earrings to make the charm as a memento for my lost baby. But I found out twelve days later that the doctors had been wrong--I was actually still pregnant. That "lost baby" turned out to be Fiona. Now I wear it in thanksgiving.
another pair of earrings, glued back to back, a pewter star with mother-of-pearl inlays. Rob bought them for me one time when we went to Valleyfair because we had been having a tough time, and we decided to treat ourself to a fun day. The star is a reference to my wedding proposal. On our first date, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant, and my fortune cookie said "You are the star of his existence." V. peculiar fortune. Two years later to the day, he took me back to the same restaurant, and when I opened my fortune cookie, it said, "You are the star of my existence. Will you marry me?"
a silver Celtic knot work ball, originally an earring. Kij has the other. We bought them when we went to the Renaissance Festival together
a jade leaf, in honor of my interest in environmental issues
a sterling silver mug that says "coffee"
a silver pillow bead--Kij has one like it
a cobalt blue and turquoise-colored bead, with the symbol for two women hanging from it. (Kij has one like it. The accents on her charm necklace are largely turquoise, and mine are cobalt blue)
a pewter street car, bought one summer afternoon when I went with my family to ride the Lake Harriet street car
a tiny brass owl, named Pigwigeon, in honor of my enjoyment of the Harry Potter books.
a clear crystal, which I bought when I went to Banff, Canada
The charms Kij sent me most recently are a coffee cup and a telephone, both sterling silver (we talk on the phone once a week on Sundays). I like to add charms, but not indiscriminately. I like it when people I love take the time to find something perfect to add. The necklace, as you can imagine, has gotten large and a bit heavy. It invariably draws impressed comments from people.
[Um . . . nearly went back and deleted this entire entry. Sudden intense worry that I have lost all perspective and am boring people. If so, sorry. Ate poorly tonight, prob. hypoglycemic, brain not working properly. Suppose I shouldn't worry--those too bored will have stopped reading by now, anyway. And will have missed this confused apology, too, come to think of it.]
Peg, mildly wibbling
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charming
Date: 2002-06-02 06:10 am (UTC)And I like the idea of accomplishments, loves, dreams, friendships and memories all strung together like that. It's a novel in itself, no?
- Darice