Generations

So this is Bernice (the oldest of the Womack/ADKOF women – dare I say “matriarch”?) and I thought it was time you heard from me and where I get my inspiration.  I began making jewelry a number of years ago when I came across a box of my grandmother’s costume jewelry. 

Grandma was a flapper in the 1920s and still had quite the “flair” when I was growing up.  She loved jewelry and pretty clothes and dressing up to go to parties.  I like to think I inherited this from her!  It was so much fun for me to go through that box of old jewelry and see what pieces she had chosen over the years – some were very specific colors to go with certain outfits and others could be worn with anything.  I could tell that some of them were her favorites because they were well-worn on the edges and the glass pearls were translucent from the outer color having worn completely off.  Many of her favorites were the very ones I would have chosen.  I took these pieces and restrung and restored them so that I could wear and enjoy them.

  That was my first foray into the wonderful world of beads and crystals and findings! I fell in love!  Then I inherited my Mother’s jewelry box that she had inherited from her mother.  Another stash of jewelry!

  My mother didn’t wear a lot of jewelry, but Nanny loved to wear fine costume jewelry and I remember my Granddaddy telling me how much he loved to buy jewelry for her.  So I began making jewelry that had special meaning for me, using pieces from my mother as well as both grandmothers.  It gave me a sense of self, a feeling of having a little bit of them with me, a passing of the “flair” from one generation to another.  I think this will be my next project: