Jewelry Making Outside The Box:

"You can do it....if you just try!"

That was the advice the Little Tramp was giving Paulette Goddard's character in the movie, MODERN TIMES. The film came out in 1936. It was the last time Charlie Chaplin would appear as this beloved character, a character who cheered a great many people up during the Great Depression.

Today, the world is turning so fast, our heads spin!

This is a scene from MODERN TIMES when the Little Tramp tries to deal with the new technology of his time. At first it seemed like fun!

Everyone longs to have a job they love! Isn't that why we became jewelry makers?

In time, though....for many of us, it became overwhelming. We did not realize the planning we should have done as we learned our craft. We did not know there was so MUCH planning to do or so much to learn!

Some of us have felt a great deal of anxiety when things weren't going smoothly, or when one of the crazy algorhythms of business life suddenly changed. We may be artisan designers, but we are also required to be business people. Some of us have a head for it, and some of us don't.

In the movie, the Little Tramp nearly had a nervous breakdown!

Do you remember that heady rush you felt when you sold your first pieces of jewelry?

I can remember some of the first crafts shows I did with my own jewelry. People were buying it left and right and I was stuffing money into my pockets. It was SUCH sweet validation!

I never expected that kind of acceptance, right at the beginning. It truly stoked the fire inside me, so I kept makering away and I did more and more shows. Reality quickly came calling. It was not long before I came to understand that not all shows were the same. It would take time to find the really great ones.

You had to hang in there with it!

Being quite honest, at times I felt like the Little Tramp, careening about, blindfolded, on roller skates.....about to have a terrific crash.

Or maybe, an amazing success! That's it! YOU JUST NEVER KNOW.

I have gotten really down about my business many times over the years, but I must say: I always kept the rollerskates on. Nothing would happen if I did not continue to try and work things out.

Perhaps you know the song, SMILE? It is certainly part of the Great American Songbook, a consummate classic. Its sentiment is encouraging and the melody is beautiful.

Smile, though your heart is breaking,

Smile, even though it's aching,

When there's a cloud in the sky, you'll get by...

If you smile through your fears and sorrow, Smile, and maybe tomorrow,

You'll see the sun come shining through....for you....

Light up your face with gladness,

Hide every trace of sadness,

although a tear may be ever so near,

That's the time you must keep on trying,

Smile....what's the use of crying?

You'll see the sun come shining through....if you

Just Smile.

This song was written for the soundtrack of MODERN TIMES by Charles Chaplin. The melody was inspired by the famous Puccini aria, Vissi d'Arte, from Tosca. If you listen to the aria, you will quickly hear how the motif was 'sampled'.

Here it is as performed by Leontyne Price....it comes just after the beginning recitative. It is very slow and muted with all the orchestration, but it is there:

The song SMILE is heard at the final scene of MODERN TIMES.

There were no words for SMILE until 1954 when a team of lyricists created two verses. Nat King Cole took the song that year and had a crazy hit with it!

Through the years it has been covered by many, many artists: Natalie Cole, Jimmy Durante, Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Michael Jackson (it was reported to be his favorite song) Josh Groban, Barbra Streisand, Martina McBride....to name just a few.

Here and there I like to meet a personal challenge.

A few months ago I challenged myself to make an entirely Spanish-language video with the help of my friend, Joisse. The video was not very well received; I think those who like to watch me in English were put off somewhat that they could not understand what we were saying.

It was difficult for me to stick my neck out like that and risk being a fool....but nothing ventured, nothing gained. That's the thing, whether you are learning/speaking a language as an outsider, OR finding your way as a jewelry designer, OR any other worthy endeavor...you MUST be willing to look foolish here and there. Those who appreciate your efforts will prompt you and catch you if you begin to fall, if you are genuine and humble. That is what Joisse did for me in that video.

Tomorrow I am taking another personal challenge.

Here and there, we attend a little family night with 50-60 friends. Everyone brings something good to eat and we share a meal. After that, we have a little talent show. This time, everyone wanted me to do something, as I have not done anything for some time. After all, years past, there was NEVER a talent show where I didn't write and play a little song on the piano, or do a funny skit, dressed up in a ridiculous outfit, singing an equally ridiculous song.

Here I am in the wig I had saved from one of those skits:

This time, my friends want me to sing. I used to be a pretty good singer, I was singing all the time, and I loved to sing all types of music from bluegrass to Italian art songs. As I grew older, I let it go: I was busy doing other things, also I had a serious of operations that caused me to lose core strength. SO! Sadly, that part of my life is pretty much over. I was okay with it, as I got very busy with helping other artisans and providing vintage style jewelry supplies at B'sue Boutiques

My son Jordan said, "Mom, we can do it! You are so used to doing the You Tube videos. Just look at them and do what you can, and speak it like Johnny Cash, if you have to." Johnny Cash? Now there's a concept, LOL.

SMILE was originally written in the key of G. Jordan and I played around with it and I discovered that if he would change the key to B flat, I could manage it. Then he suggested we do a guitar break after the second verse, then come back and sing that last part again, modulating the key of the song up to C. When you change the key at the last verse or portion of a song, I always think it sounds hopeful. Sort of like that sun shining through!

Jordan created a beautiful arrangement for me and he will play the guitar. He is a very good guitarist.

So! Tomorrow I will take that challenge, and no, I don't think it will be recorded. But I am looking forward to it. I like to push the ticket! It's about keeping those skates on, moving along and trying something new. There is always a new horizon to discover, but we will never find it, if we don't try.

I wish you many new discoveries and beautiful new horizons in all of your creative endeavors.

Just be sure to smile!

There are times when we all find ourselves retreating to some lovely green place, in our memories. Sometimes the memories are sweet, and others are bittersweet. Still others, just are what they are. Life passes quickly.

Beyond that line of trees in the photo, only detectable to those who know this place, is a spot that once was my grandmother's garden. She was always to be found there. In my lovely green place where time does not pass, I can close my eyes and see her there, picking the green beans for supper, or pulling out weeds. Yes, her garden was her happy place, and it makes me happy to remember that way.

It was another time.....a time in my life when there was far less hurry and far more time for reverie.

They say there was once a part of the old Nemacolin Trail in that field behind the horses in the foreground. That's what Grandaddy said, anyway! He hung the moon for me, so I believed anything he said. Nowadays we sometimes laugh and remember things he said, and call them "Naylorisms". His name was Naylor and he had his own spin on facts. I know that, now. But I do feel this information was probably correct.

The Nemacolin Trail was developed from an old Native American trail. Found in the Southern Allegheny Mountians, it traverses land not far from the point where Pennsylvania reaches Maryland. Later, the trail was improved by George Washington and Edward Braddock and other engineers of the National Road, which is old Route 40.

My grandaddy's farm nestled directly between the old National Road, and newer Route 40 where it cuts through the back acreage of his farm. We would walk across Route 40 and pick blackberries along the fence and call out to the cows in the pasture, just as he did, in Pennsylvania Dutch. He always called the cattle in Pennsylvania Dutch.....for some reason. I may never know why, in fact, I'm not sure I realized it was Pennsylvania Dutch until later in my life. But, that's what he did.

My best souvenir from those days is Daisy's cow bell. Daisy was the lead cow who brought the other cows home to the barn when he called them. When he called, she would raise her head up a bit and move it back and forth a little, and she would head for the barn door, as if to say, "Okay, troops, the party's over, time to go home."

Grandaddy really loved that cow, odd for a man who had been a farmer all his life, a farmer who felt that animals had their purpose. He gave them a wonderful life on his farm, but he didn't get attached to any of them. Except Daisy.

I was up in the barn with him about 35 years ago, and I saw the old bell. I liked it because it was a country primitive and at that time, I loved prims. He told me I could have it, but that I needed to take care of it for him....because it was Daisy's bell. Today, it hangs on my back door from several layers of sari ribbon tied in a bow, in lieu of a doorbell. Daisy's cow bell still rings to announce a visitor.

Souvenirs can be those green memories, or they can be boxes full of photographs. Like Daisy's cow bell, they might be bits and pieces from our lives, or a someone else's life lived long ago, handed down to us. These souvenirs are my most precious possessions.

Roselawn Farm is among my souvenirs, nestled forever in my 'happy green place'. That is the place where I am a child again, helping Grammy in the kitchen and running across the gravel drive to Great-Grandma Cora's stone house, to see what she was doing....then up to the barn to check out the chickens in the big chicken house. No one can take those souvenirs away.

When these memories come, often times the sound track rolling through my head is Connie Francis singing that old chestnut, "Among My Souvenirs". If you don't know it....

Here it is: Among My Souvenirs, 1959 version by Conny Francis

A lovely song, but are you depressed yet? A bit maudlin, don't you think? Yet that's the song I hear in my head! Thank goodness, it is not what I feel. My souvenirs are wonderful things, slices of my life that I would not give up for any sort of money. Memories, photographs...... bits and pieces. I love to be the keeper of the 'bits and pieces'.

Here is a memory that always makes me smile. When I look at it, I am back in the mid 60's, watching late night television on Cleveland (Ohio) channel 8.....at 11:35 on Friday nights.

If you wanted to be cool in school, you didn't want to miss the Ghoulardi show. Ghoulardi was played by Ernie Anderson. The show was primitive and crude, a bit like Ernie himself. He totally pushed the ticket for the time. Ghoulardi memorabilia was sold in a number of places back then, but none so much as the Manner's restaurants in the greater Cleveland area. Today those mementos are highly collected hereabouts by baby boomers who were fans of the show. I wanted the special milkshake glass that the poster below, describes. I wanted one back then, but I never got one; we didn't go to Cleveland often.

I wouldn't mind having one now, but I don't want a cheap repro, I want a real one. Sadly, a REAL one costs. Sigh. So, in lieu of that milkshake glass, I've settled for this well-worn poster, which I have in my outer office just behind the door with Daisy's cowbell. It really doesn't belong there, but I ask you....WHERE would such a thing belong, anyway?

What can I say? It just takes me back to a green place that makes me smile.

The sign is even green!

I will never forget the experience of having my own shop. More green memories.

We were using the back of the shop for business; the front was being prepared as a place to sell jewelry and 'cute stuff'. My wall of doors, the separator between the front and back of the shop, was just being planned and built, here. We took seven old doors and hinged them together, painted them mint green, distressed and decoupaged and stamped them. OH! how I wanted to bring them home when I left the shop, but we would never have had a place for them. So I sold it back as artwork to the antiques dealer I first purchased the doors from.....for far too little.

We bought a great deal of vintage furniture from the lady who owned the building. I loved the old depression dressers!

But....they had to go, too, when we left the place. We were there for three years. Most of the memories of being at the shop are in a very green place in my memory. I'm not gonna lie, there are some very anxious memories from that place, too. Well, those things are over, now. So I choose to remember the good, green memories. Selective memories.....souvenirs.

When we were selling the shop out, I had so much STUFF we had accumulated in only 3 years. I sold a great deal of it off by Muse Package. Maybe you will remember those? For 100.00 I would pack as many tchochkes from the store as I could jam into a medium sized shipping box. People got gift shop merchandise, small displays, jewelry, linens, old buttons and stuff to make jewelry as well as a lot of great collector's books. Everyone was so happy and I had a good time packing them. Green memories. I think we sold 40 of them.

This necklace is a green memory. It is the bridal bracelet I made for my niece, Andrea. The bracelet would convert into a necklace. She looked beautiful that day and I was so happy to make the jewelry for her. Everything on it, she picked out, herself.

What can I say......

I'm a sentimental fool. I'm fairly sure that's why I have such an attachment to the 1928 Jewelry Company these days, its history and its jewelry....my sentimental heart. I know I am not alone in feeling that way. Theirs is jewelry that truly will be found among the souvenirs of many people.

I've gotten to do so many meaningful things this last year or so. One was to work on 'reprise' pieces of jewelry, in other words, jewelry that 1928 made long ago, but had not been made again for many years.

The first time I visited their factory in Burbank, California, Mel Bernie, owner of the company, brought out a curious little black box of very, very old souvenirs....pretty bits that had been collected up by he himself or the designers that worked for him years ago. In that box was this little silver pill bottle. As you can see it is quite old. My guess is that it is mid-Victorian (about 1839-1865 area, depending on who you ask for the historical dates of that period).

To give you a better idea of the pill bottle's circa date and purpose, I am including a photo of a complete mid-Victorian chatelaine. Look closely.....the pill bottle is right there. It has a different pattern, but it's the same size and same design type as the little bottle from the 1928 'black box'.

The things in that box were collected up for a reason. Many of the little treasures squirreled away were used to make models for actual pieces that were sold in the 1928 line. As you can see below, this was certainly true of this historic little piece. Somewhere around 1980 they cast a model of the pill bottle and made this necklace for a short time. The model is still out in the archives. Mel and I talked about making it for the B'sue by 1928 line, but it didn't cost out right. It just made more sense to reprise it.....so he did. He made it for me to sell to 1928 fans who wanted souvenirs, as well....collector pieces.

We had it in silver, and also gold. We STILL have a few silver ones left! Find them here:

https://www.bsueboutiques.com/1928-Jewelry-Company-Pill-Bottle-Necklace-02191-p/1928-02191.htm

All are made with the original 1928 Jewelry Company barrel clasp that you might remember. Same scroll chain, too. After my last pill bottle necklace 'souvenir' sells down, I don't think we will be making more. They are very special.

As for me, among my souvenirs are both a silver and a gold pill bottle 1928 reprise necklace, but also the original sterling pill bottle that undoubtedly dropped from an old chatelaine 150-160 years ago, in Europe. The very one you see in the photograph, here.

Most of the things in the 1928 keepsake black box came from Europe, as the designers would travel there for treasures to mold into jewelry that others could still enjoy. I bought this piece for super-safe keeping. I have the black box with me for the time being, as well, while I continue to work on writing the book. It is an honor to have it for the time being.

But! Now, let me tell you about this ratty plastic suitcase. It is the ULTIMATE 1928 souvenir; there is only one in the world, it cannot be reprised and it cannot be purchased.

This pitiful little case is where it all started. This is the briefcase that Mel used to display his mod watches when he first hit the bricks to try and sell back in about 67-68. You can see the tape on the inside of the lid of the case. He used to tape them there as samples, and then put the ones for sale in the bottom. I can only imagine what it looked like the day he set out for the first time, to sell them to stores. He didn't know a thing about jewelry and the only thing he knew about watches is that they were supposed to keep time and sometimes, he wore one.

A while ago, I asked him if he still had it, and the reply was, "I think so." A couple of weeks back, I got this photo in my email with the subject header "this is where it all started."

I dared boldly to ask him if it could be sent to me so that I could get some pictures for the book, etc. I promised to take great care of it and return it all wrapped in bubble and tissue wrap.

The first response was yes, sure, he would send it. Then, he wrote and said....."You don't need to send it back."

I still hardly know what to say, except to think about this fellow as a young man and the whirlwind that he started that day, venturing out with those watches. He was stalwart, wouldn't take no for answer. For me, this souvenir says, if you want something bad enough, you can probably have it if you work hard and find yourself in the right place at the right time.

Wow. There is still so much to learn about this company. The more I dig, the more layers there are. But, soon Mel Bernie's original selling case will be among my souvenirs.

I'll take care of it for him, just as I am taking care of Daisy's cow bell, for Grandaddy.