Charmed Bracelets

Another Cancer Travel Sale: Wear This One Fall into Winter

 I need to raise enough money to make TWO trips to the L.A. area in December, so I'll be having some special sales to help improve my cash flow.

The tickets for both trips are paid for, I'm happy to report, largely because a friend of mine had enough FF miles on Alaska to buy my ticket to fly down at Christmas, when tickets cost about twice what they do at other times of the year. Thanks, Nicky.

So I'm almost there, but it looks like I will have to pay a dog walker for at least one of the trips, the shorter one, thank goodness. I think Pat can take Connie over Christmas, but I haven't asked her yet.

And we may need a hotel for part of the six days that Franz and I will be there at Christmas, because my usual hosts will be gone for a few days over the holiday. 

So, that's a very long, throat-clearing introduction to the simple fact that I am putting some jewelry on sale at a lower-than-usual price to make sure I have enough money for these trips.

These two bracelets are very simple, yet elegant. Although there is only one in the photo, I have two for sale. The shorter one is 7 inches, which fits a wrist of 6 inches or a bit larger. The other one is 9 inches long, and that fits a large wrist of about 8 inches. If you need a length in between these two, I can easily shorten the longer bracelet, just e-mail me your wrist measurement to the nearest 1/4 inch.

The stones alternate between black onyx squares and oval amber jade. (I am pretty sure the jade is dyed, but I didn't ask at the bead store.) They are beautiful beads, and I use them quite often. The longer bracelet has small sterling silver jump rings joining the beads, in the shorter one, pictured above, the beads are joined with wrapped loops of sterling silver wire.

Both bracelets close with simple sterling silver toggles, and are not adjustable, so I need to know your exact wrist measurement. 

Price: $65, which, as usual, includes taxes, postage, and insurance to U.S. destinations. If you live outside the United States, e-mail me to discuss mailing options: jeanne.sather@gmail.com

When ordering, be sure to specify which bracelet you want, and whether or not it will need to be adjusted. 

Photo: @ Monica Strasen 2010.

Design and text: @ Jeanne Sather 2010. 

How About Doin' a Little Laundry?

This sterling silver charm of a tiny pair of clothes pins--the old fashioned, all-one-piece kind--was made in the 1930s or 1940s. 

The charm is about three-quarters of an inch long, and very beautifully made. It is valued at $20 to $25. 

The bracelet is part of my Retro Domesticity series, which I've been working on for several months now. I've been collecting sterling silver charms, mostly from the 1940s, which seem to symbolize a kind of retro domesticity. The charms that I've found so far include a vacuum cleaner, toaster, sewing machine, bug sprayer, and now a pair of clothes pins. 

I wondered if women picked these charms as a not-so-subtle sign of domestic bondage ... but I've concluded that wasn't it. Rather, they were in love with the new labor-saving devices, like vacuum cleaners, and pop-up toasters, and that made them want to wear these charms. 

This bracelet is simpler than most of my designs, and I think it works. A strand of 8 mm, light-olive-green jade beads, a sterling "claw" clasp, and a sterling extender chain, finished off with a sterling rondelle and a small carnelian bead for contrast.

The total length is eight and one-half inches, and with the extender chain it can be adjusted to fit a wrist between six-and-a-half and seven-and-a-half inches. If your wrist is larger or smaller than that, I will adjust the bracelet for you at no additional charge.

Just measure your wrist and send me the measurement to the nearest quarter inch. 

A note about the photos: This shade of light jade is difficult to photograph. It almost always comes out too yellow. These beads are slightly greener than in the photo. 

Price: $100. 

Please e-mail me if you have any questions: jeanne.sather@gmail.com

See more: Jade

Photos: @ Monica Strasen 2010.

Design and text: @ Jeanne Sather 2010.