Besides, the Style Archetypes clamored at my window late one night to say, “Do it!” Et voilà, some generous, Archetype-approved options. That $150 discount applies through Sunday, just be sure to set up an account and use the code SKYE. It might even be possible – give them a call – to get delivery before Monday.

The Grande Dame

She always wears jewelry, and it always matches. Given an already extensive collection, she appreciates the niche present, a direct reflection of occasion. No basics for her. So, a heart. This one will match, in a perfectly non-matching way, her amber ear clips.

Citrine heart with little diamonds: $1450

The Artsy Cousin

Why things sharp read so Artsy I do not know. Think about it – safety pins, razor blades, shark’s teeth. Must be that the term “edgy” means “cutting” as much as “on the margins.” In any case, the Artsy Mother will smile at her dagger pendant and wear it – with chambray – to paint.

Cathy Waterman dagger pendant: $1250

The Sturdy Gal

You may be tempted to buy the Sturdy Mother a pearl strand, or some sensible studs. Do not. She carries more tender secrets in her heart than any, albeit tamped down by many years of heavy lifting. Surprise her with something fantastical. Kiss her when you see the beginnings of tears. She hadn’t known you understood she’s been a romantic all this time.

Hints of India in dangling rubies: $995

I bought myself some danglies I’ve coveted for donkey’s years, seen here, using my extra-special $250 discount. I’m on Beladora’s mailing list, you see. You can sign up too.

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Congratulations! Beladora has launched their new website. I’ve been a blogfriend of the CEO for ages, have even met her in person. The site specializes in estate and occasionally antique jewelry. Try filtering by Blue. So many choices, or at the least so many pretty things to look at.

Consider. We will alphabetize so that we can pretend to be rational in the face of gems. You may actually have that gene. Quick, make yourself into a vaccine for the rest of us. Then consider a few choices.

a. The royal gesture of matched earrings and necklace. We’ll forgo tiaras for now. Options here range from pearl and sapphire parures, at a mere $19,000, to 18K modern earbobs for $800. One could acquire, or even make a string of aquamarine beads to match the bobs. Think about a small Tiffany sapphire starred with diamonds at your neck, contrasted with mid-century pearl and sapphire starred earrings.
b. While you can opt for a classic diamond and sapphire bracelet, I much prefer that pearl and sapphire grape cluster for $1850. To be avoided if you’re marrying in a vineyard – unless your theme is Full Bacchanalia, bridesmaids dressed as Maenads.
c. For a short-dress wedding, given the implied mid-century aesthetic, I think a blue zircon brooch is just the thing. And who says only brides get to play? Turquoise links and studs for the groom.
d. Rings. Opals hide their blue, in a flash here and there. Might be a good symbol in some relationships. Alternatively, commit to a honking big sapphire for a mere $5K and Kate Middleton the heck out of your day.

The icing on the cake, so to speak, that Beladora is offering $150 discount for each and every of you. Go to the site, sign in, create an account, and use the code SKYE for a $150 discount on any piece at Beladora.com or the more affordable Beladora 2. The code will be good until Mother’s Day. We do not cease to sparkle after our weddings after all.

Note: I’ve been given a $250 discount  without requirement that I write anything. Plus I haven’t figured out what I want yet:). It will be dangly, however.

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But imagine, either way, you want to build a jewelry collection from scratch, and that you have complicated your existence by preferring, strongly, the precious. You may even be allergic to silver, nickle and brass. It happens.

What’s that you ask? Why yes, I’m happy to advise! Show pictures of sparkly bits from around the web? Don’t mind if I do!

What Pieces?

Earrings – Baseline in America. Earbobs, as the Victorian called them, have become almost as ubiquitous as shoes. Luckily, earrings can be little, therefore inexpensive, and quite easy to collect.

• Diamonds should be tiny, or raw, not middle-of-the road. Jewelry is too much fun to settle for the equivalent of gem wallpaper. Of course, if you move in Very Large Diamond circles I suspect you do not need advice and are humoring us by playing along. We thank you.
• Accent your pearls. Medium-sized plain pearls make a conservative social and political statement, like it or not. Expand the category by accenting your studs. Now you’re just a little harder to peg.
• Buy one pair of earrings in the color you can wear every day. Mine are turquoise, but you can pick coral, amethyst, or acid green.

Necklaces -  may have the most impact of any jewelry. “Statement” necklaces have been all the rage for a few years, but statements in precious metals and stones can require you sell your car, IPO your startup, or marry a prince. As an alternative strategy, collect neck charms, and wear them in multiples. Gold chain required, whether white, yellow, or rose. By the way, take a look at Imogen’s series on choosing the right necklace for different necklines.

Bracelets – Not for the workday in my world. Computers, clanking, say no more. But for nights out, if you are going to wear only two items (which I recommend), then dramatic earrings – offset by a large bracelet or row of bangles – focus attention on your face. I often avoid necklaces at night, because if my neck is covered, there’s no space, and if my neck is bare, well, you haven’t lived until you’ve felt the thrill of an unornamented decolletage with fancy dress. In this scenario, bracelets required.

• Bangles. Love them, but the industry seems to impose a “bangle tax” similar to the “wedding tax,” and gold bangles always  cost more than they should. Collect them over time, like rings in a tree trunk.
• Cuffs. Expensive. Here’s where I relent around Go Precious Or Go Home. Alexis Bittar makes brilliant Lucite cuffs, or you can go for something in shagreen, essentially the leather of stingrays. I know!

Rings – Because rings often indicate relationship status, they tend to have meaning you may not, well, mean. Cocktail rings imply a fondness for glamor and flair. Teeny little rings with skulls say you play for the hipster team. We all understand the language of family signet rings. I don’t think there is such a thing as a basic ring wardrobe. You use or create moments of meaning to build a ring language for yourself.

Untitled #166 by amidprivilege

Where And How To Shop?

For the true basics, i.e. a pair of gold hoops, or a gold chain, I recommend stalking the counters of your local department store. Seems that occasionally they really do need to unload inventory, and you can even negotiate for discounts above the 30% OFF! signs.

You should augment your basics with extremely special pieces, (again, no wallpaper) and I recommend finding a local designer you appreciate and/or going vintage. I love both my grandmother’s Georg Jensen bracelet, and my Claudia Kussano earrings. We’ve got a reader here who designed the raw diamond piece in this collage. If you live in Atlanta, why not go find Lee at Katura Design and talk to her? Knowing the creator is a universal plus.

Finally, follow up on your social media recommends. Blue Nile and Etsy create their own social ecosystems, with recommendations, favoriting, etc, In the blog world you’ve got Duchesse’s wonderful recommendations, the audacity of Wendy Brandes, and, of course, Beladora’s fantastic vintage site.

The good thing about jewelry shopping is that just looking is so much fun. Even the jewelry you don’t buy twinkles up your day.

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I have returned from Spring Break. Which, unfortunately involved tax preparation and weed assessment rather than sun, shore, or seaside.  But I’m ready for sun. Ready for trips South, or inland, or to the water, to dry winter out of my consciousness.

One of the things I always enjoy about warm travel is giving up sartorial constraints. If I’m ever going to leave my wardrobe comfort zone, absent a coronation invitation of course, it’s going to be en vacances. What does one wear to a coronation? But I digress.

For example, consider our friend Marsha and her Splenderosa line of jewelry. Ordinarily, I’m give me precious metals or give me death. But come packing time, a nice leather wrap bracelet, as above, might sneak its way into my bag. Cream, of course, so as to support fancies of monochromatic elegance. It’s a Sturdy version of those covetable white ceramic Chanel watches.. The model without diamonds, needless to say.

On vacation, I might even go so far as to wear Jeffrey Campbell perforated platform sandals with the standard Karen Millen cropped khakis. Or add white lace – it’s everywhere at the moment. Marsha’s bracelet hardware closes with a click, a nice counterpoint to girliness. Add 14K hoop earrings. It’s no crime to mix precious and non.

Trying on vacation clothes turns out to be more fun than expected. You remember that somewhere the sun shines. Your breath sighs. Water beads on glasses of lemonade.

Also useful. A winter of two 30 minute walks, 5 days/week, means you need a smaller pant size come spring. Cutting back from 2 glasses of wine to 1 may have contributed. You may even find that your 8-year old Laundry lace tunic, while wholly on-trend, has gotten a tad shabby round the edges, and you are quite justified in searching for a replacement. Perhaps this time with sleeves.

I’d also like the bracelet in turquoise. To wear with coral cropped pants, I think. And perhaps, since we’re talking imaginary vacations, I’d spring for a day of colored fingernails. Go completely crazy.

I promise, the snow will finally take its leave from Northern Europe, the American Midwest and East Coast. Here in California we will discard our outer layers, and turn well-sunscreened faces to the sun, joining our compatriots in Texas and the South. They wear white year-round and wonder what all the fuss is about.

Note: The bracelet was a present from Marsha. The folderol is my own. Linking up to Visible Monday, where women over 40 are, well visible.

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Or, if you are looking for a way to update old diamond ear studs or solitaires, take a look at this idea. Ah, nothing like starting the day with sparkle. Thank you Barbara for the suggestion, and I thank each and every one of you for reading.

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In that spirit, Sue, over at Une Femme, is having Show Us Your Brooches Day. High WASPs respond well to authority, so here you go.

It’s a baby pin, or so my mother said once. I had another, a bar pin of pale blue enamel with a little central diamond, but I think I lost it. Maybe gave it to a sister? Hmm. Along with two diamond stick pins. Lesson: Don’t give family jewelry to your teenager. Do give to your sisters and sisters-in-law.

I digress.

Can you imagine, no matter the financial resources, pinning diamonds and pearls on babies? Maybe this was for older girls? Perhaps one of you with deeper knowledge than I can shed light?

I digress again. Holiday brain in action.

I wear this piece two or three times a year, when I feel like sparkling in a discreet, daytime way. Pinned to a collar or a lapel. The particular shirt above is a Brooks Brothers no-iron button front, appropriately enough. This is the only brooch I’ve got, as remembering that I have a dangerous pointy thing somewhere on my clothes troubles me.

Here’s to you, Sue, and anyone else with Brooch Fortitude, less prone to accessory nerves. Long may you pin.

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If pearls can be brutal, surely, surely, diamonds can be rough. Of course they can, and it’s quite the thing these days. The same gem that balloons to 10 carats, perched on the fingers of celebrity bride-to-bes, also shows up quite shaggy, here and there.

You can find raw diamonds. These earrings are by Melissa Joy Manning, local to the San Francisco Bay Area. I like the casual gold strip setting.

A man’s ring, from Todd Reed. Seems to me a woman could wear this to great advantage. The cubes are diamonds. NOM like sugar.

You can find “rustic” variations, even from venerable jewelry designers like Cathy Waterman. I suppose acorns are part of the rustic thing. Makes me wonder where the pig is, digging beneath the oak tree. But we’ll wait patiently, lost in maze-like crystal paths.

They’re slicing diamonds, even.  These earrings are from Elyria – again the slices are accompanied by more traditional small brilliants, here along with a glorious 12 mm freshwater pearl.

Our decolletage can join the fun, as it is wont to do. A diamond slice on leather, from Loriann Stephenson.

Of course, even raw diamonds can be gussied up all gaudy like. Over the top jewelry is my secret vice. Not wearing it, just wanting to kiss it and let it whisper in my ear. These rings are from Diamonds In The Rough.

Finally, and perhaps the spiritual inverse, we have drusy. If we hack the sparkle away from diamonds, it only makes sense to refind it in humble quartz. And then to set it in oxidized silver, of course, as Rachel Pfeffer does here.

All these pretty objects carry a question in their sparkle. A play on the underpinnings of our desire for gems. Do we covet diamonds for their beauty or their purported scarcity? And yes, I understand the DeBeers issues, but am unqualified to address anything political or economic. I ask the question more anthropologically. If that’s a word.

I think raw diamonds, and drusy, compared for example to cubic zirconia, hint at our species’ complexity. To be drawn to sparkle like magpies, to layer an almost ironic non-sparkle over our historical diamond desire, and in parallel to set quartz in industrial metal? Hmmm. Consider, if you will. Tease out the principles.

Or just look. I’m a fan of looking. If you want more, go take a look at Kathy Peck Leeds Pinterest board. Turns out that emeralds refuse to be left out.

Diamond slice via Gemrock Auctions
White drusy studs from Rachel Pfeffer
Dangling pearl earrings from Elyria
Rings with pavé “wrapping” ornamentation via Diamond In The Rough
Diamond cube ring via Todd Reed
Raw diamond studs via Melissa Joy Manning, in Berkeley
Rustic Diamond Acorn Earrings by Cathy Waterman via Barney’s
Diamond slice necklace by Loriann Stevenson on leather via Broken English

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One must reclaim style one step at a time. Let’s say we give jewelry a go?

Unfortunately, some jewelry  starts out quiet but takes up the brand cry and end up shouting, “Look at me!” Too bad. I love the Van Cleef and Arpels Alhambra line to pieces. Especially in turquoise.

Modernism whispers well. We’re talking about simple industrial lines. Silver textured discs make more of an impact than plain silver hoops, a gold band has more effect when sliced than whole.

Oddly, delicacy makes its own statement, particularly when offset by the quirky, the mineral, and the rough. Kittens, lapis, and uncut colored diamonds. That teeny sparkler in the blue rock just slays me.

Unexpected materials always speak to us. Here, an orange leather bracelet, or a signet ring in silver instead of gold. For some reason, text and numerals amp up simple ornamentation. I haven’t yet figured out why. Perhaps you have.

Finally, there’s grotesquerie. An approach not limited to our generation, by the way.

So intricate and pretty, until you get too close.

One last idea. If a girl were tempted by full-throated baubles, (isn’t everyone, sometimes?) and if nobody stepped up with a sapphire parure, and if that girl were me, I’d be all over Wendy Brandes’ Empress Wu earrings. I think you can choose their eye color. Aquamarines, anyone?

It is the Year Of, after all. No point in chasing pearls if we can’t bite down.

Thank you to @aleatha on Twitter for the inspiration.

Images:
Paloma Picasso diamond “X” via Beladora
Alhambra turquoise earrings via Pinterest private collection
Silver discs via Charm and Chain
Gold ring via Beladora
Oxidized silver and raw diamond earrings via Ylang23
Gold kitty ring via Catbird
Lapis ID bracelet with tiny diamond via Ylang23
Leather Lapland bracelet via Ylang 23
Silver signet ring via Catbird
Ant necklace via Catbird
Empress Wu dragon earrings via Wendy Brandes

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High WASPs have always been a bit afeared of semi-precious stones. Amethysts were OK, set in faded 10K gold. And nice, big aquamarines, emerald-cut of course, have decorated our fingers and ears from time to time.

But I have to confess that watching Jewelry TV feels a little p*rnographic for me. Whenever they say Spessartite Garnet I suppress a titter. The purple prose dedicated to Tanzanite impresses me not.

Fortunately, there are times when sheer visual harmony trumps cultural biases. As well it might, or art would lose its power to save us all. Nothing so grand as soul-saving here, however. I just need some pink-stoned earrings, to go with Hello Kitty ’round the neck. Yes, the necklace above belongs to me. (And we could talk about the semiotics of Hello Kitty in the office, but today, it’s Thursday, we’re coasting, we won’t. Thank you for your forbearance.)

I’m usually quite fond of the rough-hewn, oh this old thing, I-just-pulled-it-out-of-a-rock look. I’m not sure these work with Kitty’s faceted bow, however, except the round pair on the upper left, which just might pick up Kitty’s circular silhouette well-enough to slip in.

Were the occasion full-time frivolity, I’d look for a pair of dangles. But colored dangles plus Ms. Kitty crosses that pesky line of Appropriate In The Office. Even if it’s an imaginary line only I can see. Or one we might think had been crossed by the necklace alone.

Since we’re talking work, I wanted to wear more structured stones, without giving up the concept of Matching. My culture likes things to match. I don’t know why.

The earrings on the left, from Beladora, really appealed, but it seems they appealed to their owner too, and were to be retrieved momentarily. Nice catch on her part.

You will notice that some of these stones are pink sapphires. Even the idea of a non-blue sapphire raises my mythical aunt’s mythical eyebrows. More unnervingly, some stones above are Tourmalines. Heaven forfend.

As a little girl I pored over my father’s large old volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, fascinated most of all by the page on Gems. One wonders about their putative magical powers. Not to over-endow pink stones with meaning, per se, but old dogs, new tricks, all good. Mitigated by sparkles on occasion.

Images
Little Rubies, via Catbird
Smaller Rubies, via Scosha
Pink Tourmalines, via Catbird

Pink Quartz, via Ross-Simons
Multi-Color Dangles, via Ross-Simon
Pink and Green Maine Tourmalines via Cross Jewelers

Ruby and Diamond, via Beladora – no longer available, these are similar and gorgeous.
Tourmaline Studs, via Blue Nile
Pink Tourmaline Trillions, via Amazon – no longer available

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But arm parties are making their way beyond fashion insiders to us women of a certain age. Last week, Sande at “A Gift-Wrapped Life” posted about the trend.

OK then. Arm parties it is. In a quiet way. My arm party probably takes place in the afternoon, avec string quartet. Here are all the gold-toned bracelets I own. Except this family piece, which is kind of a party all on its own.

I don’t put my watch on the invitation list because I’m afraid of scratching its crystal face. The transparent, in body or spirit, often gets damaged at wild parties. The pink and gold bead necklace could be wrapped as a bracelet, but would require someone more tolerant of accessory fidgeting than I. And although the ivory cuff is 30 years old, from elephants who died before the ban, I still can’t bring myself to put it on. What does one do with the spoils of colonialism and species trivialization? No such thing as recycling dishonor.

But I will wear, proudly, the red, white and blue family commemoration of the Great War’s end. And the banged-up oval given me by my parents as an 8th-grade graduation present. To say nothing of the 5 gold bangles – twisted, textured, plain – I bought when I returned from India, in an attempt to capture that adventure. And a red gold heart link bracelet from Chinatown.

Finally, the gold mobius Georg Jensen from Grandmama. Turns out Jensen had a gold phase. I’m still waiting for kidchamp to send me a friendship bracelet.

My arm party is perhaps overly intellectual. Character will out. But nobody has to know the big words jingling in my bangles. Parties are like that. The general clink and hubbub wash out our differences in a shared wave of festivity.

Best of all, arm parties are fun, flexible, and non-committal.  Wear with jeans and a tee, a classic dress like this, or as part of a multi-patterned gypsy dancer harem pants and jeweled sandals outfit. Like the perfect high school boyfriends, easily found, easily put aside.

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