Bijoux Bios

                              This story, a much needed comfort right now, comes from Bainbridge Island, Wash., a Seattle neighbor with forest trails and landscaped gardens and gasp-worthy views of Cascade and Olympic peaks and Puget Sound. What begins as a tale of loss ends with a recovery. It's a tale we need to hear. As difficult as things may be, we must keep faith that there will be healing. As the saying goes, diamonds are forever -- even when they are hidden from our eyes.      -- Jaye Ann Terry and Margo Hammond    My mother died in Florida on December 18, 2006. R ather than go to her memorial and then come all the way back to Bainbridge Island (Washington State) for Christmas, we decided to stay in Florida and go to Marco Island and spen d the holiday there. So obviously we didn’t have a lot of Christmas presents because we were there for a funeral. So we just all kind of said w...

   During these turbulent times when so many of us are experiencing grief and outrage over what has been taken from us, Maria Vesperi’s story of loss has a particular resonance. It is a tale that carries an important message about the pain of loss, but also about the power of healing. The story has a bad guy: a thief who breaks into a house and steals silver pieces. Each piece holds a precious memory and each loss is painful. But the story also has a good guy: a friend who sees the pain her friend is experiencing and decides to do something about it. She gives again.      We are especially proud to present Maria Vesperi’s story since the piece of jewelry that has adorned our Facebook page since our launch belongs to her.        "The gold locket was handed down from my grandmother to my mother to me," Maria explained when we asked her about the origin of the locket. "It can be dated to1908 by the studio photos taken when my mother was ...

As we have been sheltering in place, many of us have used our house-bound time to tackle projects we never had time to do before: organize photo albums, rummage through all those cards and letters we’ve saved, straighten up drawers and re-arranging our jewelry boxes.      With all these activities we are visiting the time before the virus. Looking over the things we have accumulated over our lives, we are re-visiting a life which right now seems distant to us. Our pieces of jewelry, as Meagan points out in our next Bijoux Bios post below, can especially serve as our “totems of memory.”        We are resuming our Bijou Bios offerings — stories about jewelry and how it affects our lives — with Meagan’s comments because we believe they especially resonate during this time of loss. Jaye Ann Terry interviewed Meagan — in the intimacy of her kitchen in Eastpoint, Florida, while she was preparing a meal — on April 21, 2019, long before anyone had hear...

"My uncle wore this ring always -- until he was shot. Somehow, it ended up on my hand." I am 72 years old and I am now inheriting a lot of jewelry that I never knew existed. This one I knew. At first I thought it was an amethyst but I looked it up and it's not an amethyst. Amethyst is lighter in general. In my research, I didn't find one this dark. It could be a variety of things that come in shades of purple. It could be a garnet, it could be one of three or four things. I'm not sure what it is. But I know whose ring it was. My mother had seven siblings. There were two brothers and this ring belonged to one of the brothers, the older one. He wore this ring always -- until he was shot. On the night he was shot, his wife took it off his finger and put it on her finger and wore it until she died. Then her niece, my cousin, inherited it.  I really had not ever thought about this ring one way or the other. On my last trip to Miami, my cousin picked...

Do Those Shiny New Earrings Make You Feel Radiant?      I bought these earrings about eight years ago at one of the Union Square Holiday fairs in New York City. Actually, the salesgirl was wearing them and I thought they looked fantastic.      They make me happy. They make me feel fabulous. I don’t know, even if I don’t bother with makeup, I just feel instantly better.       I always tell people when they’re buying jewelry: If a piece doesn’t make you feel amazing and fabulous, if it doesn't make you feel like your best self, then you shouldn’t get it.       Is jewelry important to me? Hell yes! It’s such an easy way to express yourself and to feel beautiful and, I don’t know, without sounding like a cheeseball, to feel radiant really. Ruthie Adler,  a graphic designer from New York City (Chelsea), had been working for less than eight months at the KT Collection Jewelry Store at 73rd and Columbu...