The Bearable Lightness of Jewelry

      


Honestly my relationship with jewelry has shifted so much since I got sick. I no longer like my former favorites and much of the stuff accumulated over many years no longer feels like me, even though I still rely on it to round out what I’m wearing on special occasions. It’s funny how jewelry, like your hair, seems to be an extension of self. 

     It’s hard to describe how being sick changed this - it changed everything. It changed me so I suppose it’s obvious that it changed my relationship to jewelry. The pieces I loved before were dramatic and showy and often quite heavy around my neck or on my wrist and ears. 

    

     In hindsight I guess what I cared about was creating compositions in which I was the canvas and the jewelry and clothes were the paint. It had to do with persona, with display. Now I like lighter jewelry, pieces that are more intimate and don’t weigh me down. They are subtler, though I will still wear a bold clunky piece to complete an outfit for an event. 

     

     My favorite piece now is a dangling pair of clear gold toned earrings on a gold wire - light and movement and no weight. 


Gelareh Asayesh is the author of Saffron Sky: A Life Between Iran and America. She lives with her husband, Neil Brown, and family in St. Petersburg, Florida. She was interviewed by Jaye Ann Terry on January 20, 2020.



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