If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, you’ve seen my gold and diamond Cleopatra earrings on Kim Cattrall in Sex and the City 2. And you’ve seen the silver version on a flock of bloggers and friends. Now you can see the silver Cleos on gorgeous model/DJ/musician/actress Tolula Adeyemi. Tolula was introduced to me…
queens
Why I Love Queens
Most of my jewelry is inspired by queens. By queens, I’m referring to royal ladies — not one of New York City’s five boroughs or Quentin Crisp. I love badass women in general and when queens are badass, they are supa dupa badass. Seventh-century Chinese ruler Empress Wu, for instance, said she would use a…
Jewel of the Month: Empress Wu Dragon Earrings
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…
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…
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…
We Are Amused by Undead Royals on Twitter
People who haven’t tried Twitter assume that it’s nothing but dull announcements of intake and output: “Making lemon bars…yum!” “I need to go pee.”*A There’s a lot of that, but Twitter also can be very interactive and I’ve had great conversations there. Some of my favorite dialogues have been with a Twitterer who isn’t online…
Celebrities Wear WendyB and Francis
I’m finally starting to see the results of my plan to take over the world: two hot celebrities are wearing WendyB-approved items this week. The first is Alexa Chung, the MTV It Girl who makes all the fashion bloggers’ hearts go pitter patter. She’s wearing the Matilda sword necklace from my jewelry line on page…
London, Day 4: Henry VIII and Hamlet
Today I had a make-up date with the guy I stood up yesterday, Henry teh 8. In a moment of fashion insanity, I did NOT wear my Boleyn necklace to the Henry VIII exhibit at the British Library. What was I thinking? To make matters worse, I was wearing my Cleves ring. Sure, Henry had…