My non-New Year’s Resolution — going into effect immediately — is to better organize my calendar. I tend to keep too much information in my head or in email, thinking, “There’s no way I can forget about something as important as that!” Then, of course, I miss or almost miss the event. It happened with a Madonna concert at Madison Square Garden last month; fortunately, at 6 p.m. I realized my tickets were for that night instead of the following night. I wasn’t so lucky with Christie’s annual Ancient Jewelry auction. Today, I thought, “Isn’t that coming up?” only to discover it was this past Wednesday. I’d even saved a Wall Street Journal article since October to remind myself!
A Roman ring from Les Enluminures Gallery. Photo via the Wall Street Journal.
I wasn’t planning to buy any jewelry, but I did want to look. As I’ve said before, my own jewelry designs are frequently inspired by medieval or antique pieces. That’s part of why I started my line! I loved the patina, detail and symbolism of ancient jewelry, but I worried it would be too delicate to wear, even though buyers quoted in that Wall Street Journal story say they do wear theirs. My bigger issue is that I usually like the concept of the old pieces more than their actual appearance. We now have superior gem-cutting and jewelry-making technology, so we can take the concepts a lot further. As a result, when I do a piece that’s inspired by the past, I aim to make it better than — or at least different from — the original. For instance, this is an original Phoenician swivel ring sold by Christie’s in 2011:
Click for photo source.
You can see the mechanism for the swivel action on each side of the center stone. That was also true of the Egyptian swivel rings that I admired in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That detail made me want to design a ring in which the mechanism remained completely hidden. I succeeded! No one has ever guessed my 18K-gold Hathor ring has a center that swivels from turquoise to carnelian. Here’s the turquoise side.
Click to see the Hathor ring on my website.
This photo shows the center gem mid-swivel …
There’s carnelian on the other side of the turquoise.
… and here is the ring with the carnelian side up.
Voila!
Museums and books give me more inspiration than I can act on, but it would be fun to see what turns up at a sale anyway. The Wall Street Journal article says that New York’s Winter Antiques Show is another good source of ancient jewelry, so let’s put that on my calendar now: January 25 to February 3, 2013.
Remind me of that too! I want to see what’s out there.
We’ll remind each other!
I love that ring and the earrings. I hope someday I can afford to buy something more from you than the Teeny Geenie. (Not a complaint about your prices–just a complaint about my lack of funds! And also, I love the Geenie and my Little Wolf, even if people always think it’s a horse. WTF? So there.)
LOL WUT?! I never heard a horse comment before, just German shepherd comments! Pretty funny!
I know! I think it’s being in the South. Best excuse I can make.
One of my favorite pieces you’ve made! Have you tried using google calendar? (or equivalent?) I still like a traditional wall calendar, but digital ones work too.
ooooh, old/ancient jewelry. i would love to see it. and own it! lol.
have you ever seen alexander calder’s jewelry? i LOVE it. just fabulous.
Yes, there was a good exhibit of it at the Metropolitan Museum!
That ring is one of my favorites! I need a better calendar system too – I told my boss when leaving today that I’d see him tomorrow night at the office party. He said, “huh?” Oh, you mean the party that’s next Saturday night? Um, yeah, that one.
Ha! MrB turned up a day early for a party recently.
Wow, love that Roman ring.
Love that ring you designed! I read about all the auctions, but alas, living in Houston, don’t get to attend any of the good stuff!
I had no idea you could actually buy and wear ancient jewelry! I imagined it would just all be in museums, too fragile like the stuff they dig up on Time Team! How amazing. I wonder what sort of prices we are talking? Gazillions I guess. Also, ever since I stopped sitting at a desk all day and having all my appointments in Outlook with reminders, I’ve had trouble with remembering important shit. I try putting it in my phone calendar and also have a wall calendar but still forget. I think its because I operate on like a totally higher level and really should have my own private secretary to remind me, ha!
I totally need a private secretary.
I didn’t realize that ring swiveled! Very cool.
The thing about calendars is that even if you remember to write your event down you still have to look at your calendar often to stay on track. This year I thought I had it all straight and drove off to pick up a relative at the airport a day early for Thanksgiving. I really freaked him out when I texted him that I was in baggage claim!
Yeah…writing things down AND looking. It’s so haaaaard!!! sniffle.
Oh, what a bummer. I would love to have gone with you! It’s amazing how creative people could be so long ago, but obviously we have the tools for better workmanship today. I still think there is something kind of cool about the primitive nature of the pieces, but OMG your Hathor ring is miles ahead of that ancient Egyptian piece. But how cool they thought to design it!
OMG I used to do that too, I took better care of my professional life than my personal life. Through my lifeline (Franklin Covey) back in the 90’s.
With today’s technology I organize everything electronically. I constantly have alarms on phone and ipad going off to remind me of something.
Marti