This Christmas season, I received a couple of custom orders for gifts from new clients. It's always nerve racking for me to take on custom orders even though I LOVE them. I love to work through a piece of jewelry that will truly be one of a kind - a piece that someone thought about specifically for a loved one and just needed a little help from me to get from point A to point B. It's an amazing feeling when it works out how you both hope it will.
Yesterday, on Christmas Day, I was lucky enough to be rewarded with a photograph of a beautiful, young girl. A girl who loves natural stones and all creations of the earth, such as trees and the moon and her native country of India. After talking with her Aunt, we came up with a fantastic idea for a Tree of Life pendant that would be made specifically for this amazing girl. I researched the trees of India and found a perfect fit. I created a tree just for her that was based off of the Cannonball Tree found in India. Even though I was very happy with the tree, I still worried, as I always do, that she wouldn't like it, or it would be the wrong size. Just normal jitters, I suppose. Yesterday, I received a picture of a beautiful, smiling girl, wearing the necklace I made just for her. She had an amazing glow on her face that brought joy to my heart and a tear to my eye.
Later yesterday evening, after all the festivities had settled down at my house here in Dallas, my dear friend, Laura, sent me a note thanking me so much for the jewelry she had received as a Christmas gift from her mother. She was overjoyed and clearly expressed her love and gratitude for the gift. Now, Laura and I have been friends for several years, but I've never met her mother, nor knew her name. It took a while, thinking about it to realize which order must have been for Laura, but I figured it out. :) A lot of online sellers get frustrated when they have to do more than take someone's money, make a product and ship it. But I took time to help this mother through Etsy and how it works. Even with PayPal having issues and hurdles being thrown our way, we figured it all out and the jewelry made it to its destination in time! And not only did it make it in time for a Christmas gift for my client's daughter, it made it in time for my dear friend to open at Christmas with her mommy. Priceless!
Anyway, I know I've been going on for a while here, but I wanted to put some joy into the world today. While it wasn't my personal best Christmas ever, I had a part in at least two good ones and that makes up for a lot.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, etc.....
XOXOXOXOXO,
Jamie
Jewelry talk and more.....
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Monday, December 26, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Wire Crochet
Well, we know I love wire. And not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm pretty darn good at it.
Now, let's bring in the topic of the day. Wire Crochet. We already went into the wire part of it. Now let's cover the crochet part. My grandmother and my great grandmother were avid crocheters. Mostly these days you seem to see knitters. There is just something about that crochet needle for me though. I have seen and cherished many crocheted masterpieces over the years all created by my maternal grandmother. I have a table cloth that was given to me as a wedding gift from my Nanny (my mother's mother). She sat in the house that my parents live in now and worked her little, frail fingers to the bone making that tablecloth. She made it especially for me, just as she had done for many other women in my family. To bring more meaning to this story and this event in my life, you must know that all of these one of a kind, gently created with REAL love tablecloths, were given as gifts for a bride at her wedding....from her grandmother.
Well, my grandmother, Vera Jeanette Henegar, passed away in February 1999 from lung cancer. It was extremely unexpected and and happened quickly. I always wished for a tablecloth of my own, but also knew it wasn't a possibility. I loved her so much and wanted to have that one special gift that symbolized both the love between me and my dear grandmother as well as the newer yet forever love between my husband and I. I guess I accepted the fact that I wouldn't get one a little easier since I knew Nanny would never know my husband since at that point in my life, I didn't even know him. And then I went through the emotions of guilt that it was my fault for partying too much or not dating seriously early enough. Maybe if I hadn't screwed around so much, I'd have had a husband in time for me to get a tablecloth. I guess all these selfish thoughts were just part of the mourning process following the loss of my grandmother. And the extreme sadness of my mother following the loss of her mother. All things I just couldn't imagine.
Now let's cheer things up a bit. So, I did find that prince. We got engaged. We got married. Somewhere between the last two, I had a bridal shower where I was given the gift of all gifts. A tablecloth. A tablecloth made by my Nanny. Specifically for me.
Needless to say, when my mother handed me the gift 6 years later, I lost it. One of the most amazing and significant moments in my life.
So, I went to the chapel. I got married. Had the honeymoon and the babies. I was given my Nanny's crochet needles by my mother. I was determined to learn to crochet. Two words: Miserable Failure. I just don't have the logic, or something to pull that off. I was disappointed. I had planned to make baby blankets for my kids and my friends kids and anyone else open to the idea.
So years pass, babies turn to toddlers, newlyweds turn to parents. Mom decides to try her hand at jewelry design. She really digs it. Has a lot of fun. Learns a wire lace technique that uses the crochet hook to create, although very basically. Still the favorite thing I've ever seen done and done right. I feature this technique in my Etsy shop. Here's a link if you are interested in seeing it:
My collection using this technique is named Juliet. Juliet was the name I would have given my little girl had I had one. I didn't, so the name is given to my new feminine love, my jewelry, and more specifically, my jewelry using the crochet needle that was indirectly put on a pedestal in my youth by a very brave, honest, hardworking and such a spitfire of a woman.
Nanny, had you met my boys, you would have fallen in love immediately. But I know that you see them from where you are. I hope I'm loving them and caring for them in a way that you would be proud of.
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