Hong Kong bling
On Sunday, Sept. 3, 2003, I had a stroke, a mild one, my neurologist said, but the impact on me was great. There were changes in my personality. I became very quiet, where before I was always laughing out loud. To help me rediscover myself, one of my daughters gave me a beautiful big workbook by Sarah Ban Breathnach called The Illustrated Discovery Journal subtitled Creating a Visual Autobiography of Your Authentic Self. Initially I worked on it, cutting pictures from magazines and pasting them together to illustrate quotes like “When Sleeping Beauty wakes up, she is almost 50 years old.”
I have not finished this workbook and continue to do it for fun and the insights it yields. But today I mention it because something strikes me as I turn the pages to review my work. On almost every page that I pasted up there is a piece of jewelry, or “jewellery.” That’s the first thing I learned recently. There are two ways of spelling that word: “jewelry” in American English and “jewellery” in British English. Since Hong Kong was once a British colony, they spell it jewellery.
These days I am a consultant for 7 Castles, a big jewelry corporation that specializes in the manufacture of outstanding silver jewelry. 7 Castles is owned by my first cousin, Mia Syquia Faustmann, and her family. She exports charms to Links of London and locally she owns Michelis, a prestigious store at the malls that sells silver jewelry. Actually Mia talked to me about the possibility of working for her as early as April 2009, but the actual need apparently did not arise until this year when early in March she called and asked me to report for work.
Two weeks ago I was brought to Hong Kong to acquaint myself with the world of jewelry exhibits. There were two. The schedules overlapped so we were there for a total of eight days. The first exhibit was held in a massive exhibition hall near the airport. I’m sorry I threw away the ID card so I’ve forgotten the names of everything. This exhibit was in three sections: one, machinery and other production materials; two, pearls and loose stones; three, costume jewelry from Asia.
I walked with them a few times through the machinery and waxes, but my attention was captivated by the loose stones. What a collection of color, cut, size, name! Tourmalines are the stones of the moment, I suspect, and it comes in all colors, from white to pink to green to blue green to purple. There are tanzanites, sodalites, amazonites, citrines, peridots … you name the stone and they have it in all colors, in new cuts. Cubic zirconias or Czs, as they are called, now are cut so well it’s difficult to distinguish them from diamonds, which also come in all colors, shapes, sizes, and cuts. It’s truly mind-boggling. And the pearls! You wish for it and it is there in all sizes and colors. And the mother-of-pearl trinkets! Everything was truly amazing.
The costume jewelry did not move me as much, but it was there anyway from Pakistan to India to the Philippines and, of course, China.
If that wasn’t enough, it was followed by an exhibit on real jewelry held at the exhibition pavilion in Wan Chai. I began with the line of fine jewelry on the first floor.
First, I was impressed by the diamonds and the designs. Pavé that was the keyword. It is a French word for “paved,” as the street is paved in small diamonds. It refers to jewelry surfaces that are covered wall-to-wall with the littlest diamonds. Almost everything was either estate beautiful, old-fashioned jewelry like your grandmother used to wear or pavé. The most outstanding piece was a coiled cobra choker in black and white pavé. At the end of that walk over the grandiose place my eyes were ready to cross at the sight of one more pavé.
There were animal themes everywhere, especially on massive rings lions, leopards, tigers, frogs, turtles, bugs, butterflies. The most impressive necklace I saw had for its centerpiece a dull silver deer head and then its antlers in brown pave surrounding your neck.
I was most impressed with the French, who had a different take on jewelry; and the Taiwanese, who incorporated Chinese jade into modern design very cleverly. We should be able to do something like that in the Philippines. And one of the Japanese designers who had a necklace made out of what looked like aqua river stones with two amber cylinders in the front smashing design!
So here is what I saw: the return of estate jewelry. Watch out, this will get bigger and more expensive because it needs more fastidious work. The return of colored stones in all sizes and shapes. The return of chains all sizes and shapes in gold, silver, copper and whatever colors they can come in. The introduction of spec, for spectacle settings wire-like settings for big colored stones to turn them into long necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Finally, a return of the by-the-yard concept. Remember the diamonds-by-the-yard concept of the ’70s? They’re back and now they cover all stones.
That’s what I saw in Hong Kong. I loved every moment of it. It led me back to examining my workbook, noting the presence of rings and brooches and bracelets on every page and realizing suddenly maybe all that time I knew but was not aware that I was meant to work with jewelry for one very simple reason: I really love it!
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