Think Pink!

For this week’s challenge, I didn’t go vintage.  I went with a piece that I collected on one of my buying trips to Istanbul (back when I had my jewelry business, gitane NYC).  I love this necklace because it pairs a jewelry staple – pearls – with something more daring, namely a gold metal pendant featuring an Arabic symbol surrounded by bright pink glass.  And there’s a gold bead thrown in among the pearls, which jazzes it up.  Also, the pearls aren’t fine pearls, they’re imperfectly shaped which is another way to make pearls feel less uptight.  I was dying to wear this bright pink sweater and although the pink of the sweater and the pink stones in the necklace don’t match, they compliment one another nicely.  Better that way.  I don’t do “matchy-matchy”!

{a “basic” pearl necklace with a gold and pink glass pendant + shocking pink sweater = perfection}

Besides the fact that this necklace has bright pink stones (love ’em!) in it, I also treasure it because it reminds me of the adventures I had in Istanbul, picking it out.  All of the jewelry that I bought on my buying trips (to Turkey, Morocco and India) was artisanal, made right there where I did the buying.  Or at least very nearby.  I actually visited the workshop where this particular necklace was made and watched the artisans at work.  The shop itself is in the Grand Bazaar, up a set of rickety stairs that opens onto a tiny showroom of maybe 50 square feet filled with brightly lit showcases of bold, bright, local jewelry.  Up another staircase is the atelier, where about 10 artisans were working away, hammering and twisting metal to create the pieces that would later fill the showcases.  The atelier was outdoors, in a rooftop terrace of sorts, though the work spaces were covered from the hot summer sun by an overhang.  There were no machines, just small hand tools, and the sounds of metal being bent to the will of the artist.

I think wistfully of those days.  And who knows, maybe I’ll work with the artisans again someday.  In the meantime, I’ll keep busy unpacking, displaying, researching and blogging about my jewelry collection.

{so that you can get a better look}

Until next time, happy collecting,

k.