Bijoux Bios

    This jade ring was a gift from my mother, Nellie Mae Van Orman Gill. She was living on the island of Guam at the time. She and her husband traveled to Hong Kong, and it was there where she spotted the ring. The ring came from China, better known as Red China then. It was 1969. I was 25. It was the height of the Vietnam War protests, and the Chicago riots. I was at Ohio State my graduate year to get my master's in communications.  When she came to the States, the ring passed through U.S. customs without difficulty. She gave it to me as a present when I graduated with a master’s degree from Ohio University. She said Jade was to bring good health and to wear it  always. I had the ring sized to fit and haven’t taken it off since. That was more than 50 years ago. The ring has stayed the same, but my hand is bigger. Since I’ve been wearing the ring, my health has been relatively good, but that’s not why I wear it. I wear it because it constantly reminds me of...

Can You Ever Have Enough Jewelry? Gwen Reese: No. Unequivocably, no.        There are times over the past five maybe 10 years that I thought, yes, you’ve got enough jewelry. You don’t need another piece. You’ve got more than you can ever wear in a lifetime. So you need nothing else. You’re not buying another piece of jewelry. And I committed to that… until I saw the next piece of jewelry. And I bought it and so now I’ve stopped saying that. I’m just like no we can never get enough because we just can’t.      We see something beautiful that resonates with us. Our energy just connects with it.  There’s not a piece I buy just because it’s a piece of jewelry. Everything I buy just reaches out for me. I connect with it. It causes me to tingle even. I’m drawn to it. Sometimes I look for something… if it’s a crystal but most of the time I’m just out and about and…I’m not in jewelry stores because there’s something I’m supposed to get…I don’t ev...