Last weekend, when G and I were up in Rhinebeck, we stopped at Hummingbird Jewelers to see a special showing of jewelry by Anthony Lent.
I had been in the store a couple of weeks earlier, dropping off a necklace that I was having shortened, when Peggy told me about the show. I really didn't know anything about Anthony Lent, but after her glowing description of his work, and then receiving the card, showing this ring, my interest was definitely piqued.
We got there on the early side as we were on our way to the sheep and wool extravaganza at the fairgrounds, and they were still setting up. Luckily they were happy to let us poke and prod and look at the pieces while they worked. The jewelry was beautiful and beautifully crafted; I was amazed at the detailed workmanship. The ring pictured above was stunning, but so were many many pieces. G often needed a magnifying glass to properly catch the precision of the design, and I was happy to oblige him as I too loved the opportunity it provided to admire the finer details. I really can't describe most of the pieces, but there is a website, which has a few pieces, and more photos on a Facebook page.
There were quite a few things that caught my eye, but we left anyway. As we were walking around the wool-fest my mind kept wandering back to the jewelry, to one pair of earrings in particular, and this perhaps made the yarn less tempting. I am not sure that I can really justify rationalizing the purchase of jewelry by praising myself for not buying yarn, but I shall console myself by stating that the jewelry, perhaps, has more intrinsic value.
Suffice it to say, I did go back and buy the aforementioned earrings. When I returned there was more to see than on my initial inspection, but I stayed true to my plan and purchased these darling little turtles with silver shells, gold bodies, and lovely little diamond eyes.
I'm posting another picture to see if I can get a better view of the details, because they really make me smile. I love the shells, the texture of their wrinkly scaly skin with the little folds around the neck, and their big round eyes. That these tiny detailed creatures, less than an inch long, were created by human hands fills me with awe.
And so it seems I am building a little jeweled menagerie without ever really setting out to do so. I can't say I was oblivious to the appeal of jeweled creatures, more that they were just something I admired from afar. That changed this past spring when I fell in love with another pair of earrings, a pair of earrings about which I hemmed and hawed, debated and fretted, for some time before actually making the purchase. It was a purchase I do not regret, as those earrings now seem so perfectly essential to my wardrobe.
In fact, aside from being beautiful, I was attracted to these turtles precisely because they reminded me of this other pair of earrings, purchased from Beladora last March, which are also reptilian, although the two have little else in common.
Perhaps it is the scaly skin. Perhaps it is that both are highly detailed and both have tiny diamond eyes, although you would be hard pressed to see this detail in my photo. In fact these Barry Kieselstein-Cord alligator earrings are more substantial, with nearly an ounce of 18k white gold between the two. They are substantial enough that my ears are often happy to be relieved of their weight by the end of the day, but not so substantial that they don't get worn frequently.
I do think there is room for both of these creatures in my jewelry box and on my ears. The alligators are more serious, the turtles more playful. They fit different moods, play different roles and should happily coexist for many years to come.