week 19 - gram's gems

the other day i was spending some quality time with gram (my 89 year young grandmother, who happens to be as much of an accessory extraordinaire as i am). as i was playing the role of 'tech services', due to a pesky computer glitch (again, another uncommon commonality between us), gram happened to be rifling through a few small boxes of trinkets she had been collecting for mesh. you see, gram has a lot of collections around the house that she has lived in for 65 years. she happens upon trinkets on a daily basis that she put in a 'safe place' years ago. now, every time she finds these - miscellaneous broaches, clustered clip-on earrings, rhinestone shoe clips, and the like - she collects them all in one place and shares them with me when i visit. we walk through the story behind each piece/pair and she sometimes parts with them, and sometimes decides to hold onto them for safe keeping.

much like gram, we love to tell the story behind each one-of-a-kind necklace we create. whether the beads came from our friend richard in london, or the stones were discovered during sherry's honeymoon in rome, or we tracked down the trinkets in a dark alley 'boutique' of new york city....there is always a story behind every mesh piece.

i have to say that i strive to be like gram...a collector, a woman with a keen eye for quality, a creative soul that just simply 'gets it'. it would also be ideal if i were up for a trip to vegas on my 89th birthday...

-melissa