From My Trip to Italy last year...
Italy hosted the "People's UN Peace Roundtable" and I was fortunate to be invited as a participant from the United States along with people from all over the world. We met in Perujia, an ancient Etruscan city, in a thousand year old castle's town hall where the people of the region have been discussing their problems for centuries. It was especially meaningful for me as a wife of an Iraq war veteran to talk directly with Iraqis who had came from Falluja, Mosul and other Iraqi cities. I hope I was able to give them a different perspective, a greater understanding and a little compassion concerning the American soldier in Iraq. I certainly was the American soldiers' defender those days. I walked with the Iraqis the last day up the mountain to the top of Assisi where hundreds of thousands had marched for peace. It was a truly life changing experience. (Forgive me if this part is too preachy, I just wanted to share this experience.)
The Czech Republic
Then I was off to the Czech Republic for another adventure. I went there last summer and had some unfinished business to take care of in the town of Jablonec, the glass capital of the Czech Republic. Most of the Czech glass beads are still made in that region. This includes all the Czech seed beads, press beads and lampworked beads. I was on a crusade to find the unusual, old, lost and forgotten beads. I had some success in finding very unique beads, many are already on display and for sale at the store. I mostly brought back vintage lampworked beads and some new ones too.
Queen Victoria Mourning Jewelry
One of the most interesting finds was a box full of old glass pins from the time period of Queen Victoria. They are made with black glass for the mourning period when Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert unexpectedly died. This began a widespread new fashion of all that is black. First it was a lot of jet jewelry but the glass manufacturing made it more accessible to the masses. I was told the story that the factory where these pieces where made was bombed during WW1 and the river next to the factory ran black from all the black glass that was warehoused there. This was even after the death of Queen Victoria herself.
I salvaged around 75 pieces, some completely intact with the pin back and others without, but still useful as a lovely pendant. They will be for sale in the store when everyone receives their postcard. These are special pieces of history that I will never have again. I hope some of you take the opportunity to get a piece for yourselves.
Antique Glass Buttons
My buttons have arrived and I am slowly sorting them out. We have all been getting sucked into the button trap where you get lost and next thing you know hours have passed. They are so amazing! I call them bead's first cousin, small treasures with a hole. I am getting a bit of education from the Indianapolis Button Society (of which I recently became a member). I guess I have an attraction to all things small and shiny. I have been using buttons as clasps for some time. Now we are making whole bracelets with buttons. They are a bit of history as well.
Crystal and Glass Cabochons and Jewels
now sorted and for sale...finally
Ok, it is official, I can't resist anything small and shiny! When I saw these, I had no idea what I was going to do with them, how to sell them but I knew I had to have them. I had images of the old Moulin Rouge girls bejeweled with my precious treasure...am I starting to sound like Golem talking about "my precious", someone save me! Olga certainly looked at me and just shook her head when she saw my treasures, I was a lost cause! But believe me, there is a method to my madness. I asked Tanya to try to set one "my precious" jewels in a seed bead setting. I knew there had to be a way. All I can say is to check out the classes coming soon using my cute jewels.
