It's Your Choice

Laura was a great CPA. Probably still would be if that is how she had chosen to continue her life. 

Dating my stepson, Laura was an up and coming star at a large regional CPA firm and she was nearing the end of the grueling 80-hour work weeks that make or break young CPAs but which expose them to a wide range of businesses. College was paid off. The future was gravy. 

However, Laura was a victim -- a victim of a culture that says 18-year olds should know what they are going to do for the rest of their lives when they pick a college major. By the time Laura was a senior, she pretty much knew she didn’t want to be a CPA. But her parents had all that money invested in her (not a small consideration when one’s parents have sacrificed) and, well, she was about to get her degree. The time for choosing something else was over. 

Laura put in her time at the firm, working weekends and holidays when necessary…until gradually she came to a startling conclusion: she wanted to touch lives. Literally. 

She wanted to become a massage therapist -- specializing in pregnant women -- and a labor doula. So she saved her money, quit her job and did just that, enrolling in Seattle's Ashmead College, then continuing her pregnancy focus with Doula training from Seattle Midwifery School. 

Today, Laura’s dream has gotten even bigger. She’s now pursuing a degree as a Nurse Practitioner Midwife, still focused on pregnancy. Touching lives. She’s touched mine.

Pearl Knotting and the Art of Being Present

Good pearls need to be knotted. With a surface hardness of only 2.5 - 4 on the Mohs Scale, having an appropriately sized tight knot between pearls keeps their fragile surface of nacre from wearing. The knot should be just big enough to create the space but small enough to be unobtrusive.

I do not like knotting pearls. Why? Because every knot is a potential problem. If, in the process of trying to tighten a knot against a pearl the cord slips off the knotting tool -- leaving a tight knot with space between it and the pearl -- there is no “undo.”

There is only start over.

And at what point in the process is this most likely to occur? Toward the end, of course -- because the motions have become routine. My mind wanders. 

I have ceased to be present.

So each knotting session becomes a lesson in being present, one I have ample opportunity to practice over and over.

The above is an example of a piece in my Ancient Splendor Collection that I redid 6 times. It’s an antique Mughul pendant with table-cut diamonds and red spinel cabochons that make up a seated Ganesha – on very lustrous cultured baroque pearls accented with 

18K meenakari* beads. The back of the pendant also displays meenakari work.

*Meenakari is the Indian art of fine enameling. Because a shallow layer of high-carat gold was used in Mughul pieces, and is therefore soft, the back of pieces were enameled to prevent the gold from wearing off on the wearer’s skin.

I Guess It'll Do...

“Good decisions are based on experience. Experience is based on bad decisions.” One of my favorite aphorisms, as a jewelry artist, this saying has never been more applicable than to the experience of buying gems. There are costly gems, there’s junk…and there’s a lot of stuff in between. 

I know. I own products in all three categories.

It took a while after I started designing for me to realize that when I’m at a gem show or vendor’s showroom and I hold up a strand of beads and think, “well, I guess this’ll do,” that I should just flush the money down the toilet and be done with it. Because every couple of weeks, I find myself throwing away a strand or two of something I paid good money for but now wouldn’t think of passing on to my customers.

At a gem show, standing at the booth of one of my favorite vendors, the person next to me asked, “does he have good products?” I said “yes, the best.” She asked, “does he have good prices?” I said “no… because he has the best products.”

So the next time you’re in a situation that you find yourself thinking, “I guess it’ll do,” don’t. Insist on/wait for the best.