I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love redesigning old jewelry. Last month, I described how I started redesigning some of the pieces I got before I started my own jewelry line. My first project resulted in this tsavorite-and-pearl pendant. Sticking with the pearl theme, I next tackled a pair of diamond…
History
Kate Middleton For the Win; Best Wedding Hat
Most days, I can’t haul my ass out of bed before the crack of noon, but I’m up to watch the royal wedding. Kate Middleton for the win, as this highlarious Tumblr puts it. For other royal merriment, follow Not Kate Middleton and Queen_UK on Twitter. I’ve been irked at some fashion police criticism of…
Jewel of the Month: Empress Wu Dragon Ring
One of my favorite wicked royal ladies is the 7th century’s Wu Zetian, the only female emperor of China. She became known as Empress Wu after her death, but she ruled under a name she chose for herself — Emperor Shensheng. I wrote about her in 2007: Empress Wu, Part I Empress Wu, Part II…
Syria Is in Vogue, Teen Blogger Is in Jail
I ripped out this small Reuters item from the New York Times on February 15, as a reminder that freedom of speech isn’t to be taken for granted: Syria: Teenage Blogger Sentenced to 5 Years A teenage blogger, brought into court chained and blindfolded, was sentenced Monday to five years in jail on charges of…
Thoughts on 9/11: The Devil Is in the Details
“The devil is in the details” normally means that the biggest challenges of a project are contained in its smaller elements. But I always think of the expression in relation to the personal stories told by or of the victims of catastrophic events. Such is particularly the case for me today, the anniversary of the…
A Portrait of the Jeweler as a Tudor Queen
My designing friend Zang Toi has two white-gold paintings of Marie Antoinette that were love at first sight for me. You know how I feel about queens! I once bid on a small, pink version of Marie in an auction but lost. I was very upset. When Zang finally introduced me to the gorgeous artist,…
Jewel of the Month: Xenobia Ring
While on my way to Washington, D.C., last month for an interview with the hometown paper, I was browsing the vampire section of the airport bookstore when another book jumped out at me. Not literally, of course. It wasn’t an evil zombie book that was trying to kill me. I just noticed it because the…
Book Club: A Distant Mirror, the Finale
For this post, the fourth and final one on my favorite history book, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitious 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman, I wish I had a deep-voiced television announcer to say, “Previously on Wendy Brandes Jewelry …” and give a summary of the three preceding posts. Since I don’t have that guy, I’ll…
Book Club: A Distant Mirror, Part III
Welcome to Part III of my report on A Distant Mirror, The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman. Read Part I and Part II to get yourselves oriented. On Saturday, in my second of a series of posts on the book A Distant Mirror, I listed the disasters of the 1300s. Those included what Tuchman…
Book Club: A Distant Mirror, Part II
Today is a day for celebration: it is the one-year-and-one-day procrastination-versary of my introduction to my favorite history book, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara Tuchman. On March 26, 2009, I posted about A Distant Mirror and told you to come back the next week for more. I wrote a long and…