Paris Je T'aime Lariat Necklace

City of Love and Laughter

City of the Eiffel Tower

City of Escargot

City of Light

City of my First Vacation

City of Song

City of my Dreams, of my Love

And city never to be forgotten

This is a very special piece inspired by the first vacation I have ever taken... To Paris, to France. Since I went to Paris - everything I see that reminds me of that city takes me back to that most beautiful place.

The Paris Je T'aime Necklace is beautiful Lariat. It's hung of two very delicate silver chains. I thought it would be more interesting to mix two subtly different link chain to make this piece. {24"L} The focal pendant is a beautiful vintage {3/4"} coin that says: "Non" in a beautiful vintage script. The other charm is an antiqued silver {1"} Fleur-de-lis charm.

Nat King Cole

Every time I look down on this timeless town
whether blue or gray be her skies.
Whether loud be her cheers or soft be her tears,
more and more do I realize:

I love Paris in the springtime.
I love Paris in the fall.
I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles,
I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles.

I love Paris every moment,
every moment of the year.
I love Paris, why, oh why do I love Paris?
Because my love is near.

The Saints of Gustav Necklace

This Petite je ne sais quoi Necklace...

This piece features a beautiful tiny vintage Eiffel Tower

{The Eiffel Tower (French: Tour Eiffel, [tuʀ ɛfɛl]) is a 19th century iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris that has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The Eiffel Tower, which is the tallest building in Paris, is the single most visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. Named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built as the entrance arch for the 1889 World's Fair.}



The Charm {1" L} it hangs perfectly between two deep blue hand-stained birch wood sainted rosary charms {3/4" L}

There is also a length of {8"} rosary beads on each side, stained a yellow ochre, and then the necklace is finished off with a delicate gold plated rope chain.

{The entire length of the necklace is 18" L}

Be You Live Light ...

BE YOU...

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~e.e. cummings, 1955


He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away. ~Raymond Hull


God has given you one face, and you make yourself another. ~William Shakespeare


All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself. ~Ralph Ellison, "Battle Royal"


The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another. ~James Matthew Barrie


Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. ~Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1905


Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. ~Judy Garland


We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves. ~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld


If you cannot be a poet, be the poem. ~David Carradine

THESE EARRINGS...

These earrings are made of 2 pewter charms with a beautiful Antiqued Gold finish.

One of them says: Be You.
The other says: Live Light.

I love these messages and I think they are connected... if you honor yourself and are honest with yourself you with always live in the light.

They are light weight, and about 3/4 of an 1" high each. The back has been stamped with Sanskrit writing. They hang on antiqued silver hooks which adds a nice element of subtly to them. I tried gold on gold first, but it looked too gaudy to me, and the matte silver hooks really make the charms stand out.

{All materials are NEW & HANDMADE & Lead / Nickle FREE}

I hope these bring you joy...


Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself. ~Harvey Fierstein


Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not. ~Henri Frederic Amiel


I am much better employed from every point of view, when I live solely for my own satisfaction, than when I begin to worry about the world. The world frightens me, and a frightened man is no good for anything. ~George Gissing


No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character. ~John Morley


There is just one life for each of us: our own. ~Euripides


Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth. ~Benjamin Disraeli


If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise. ~Johann von Goethe



LIVE LIGHT...

"It's the night that makes the dawning.
It's the depths that make the heights.
It's the roots that make the branches.
It's the darkness that gives birth to Light."
-- Joel Heathcote (The Architect of Light")

"As I lived up to the highest light I had, higher and higher light came to me."
-- Peace Pilgrim {1908-1981), American Peace Activist

"One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light."
-— Joseph Campbell

"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us."
-- Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) German theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician

"Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light."
-- Norman B. Rice

"Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I've learned that whatever state I may be in, therein to be content."
-- Helen Keller

"I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.' And he replied: 'Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God.' That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."
-- Minnie Louise Haskins, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 2nd ed. (1953), 239

"I will love the light for it shows me the way. Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars..."
-- Og Mandino

Guadeloupe

OUR LADY...  

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is often read as a coded image. Miguel Sanchez, the author of the 1648 tract Imagen de la Virgen María, described the Virgin's image as the Woman of the Apocalypse.  "Arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars."  

Our Lady spoke to Saint Juan Diego in 1531, and said: 

 "Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son: let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you: let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Also do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?" 

~To Our Lady Dark Yet Fair~ 

O hail, thou Virgen de Guadalupe! Unfailing refuge, our solace in days of grief, Radiant Queen so kind, our Mother of sweet relief ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! Lovely Maid, fairest star above the sea! Advocate e'er gracious of clemency and love, Deign to listen to our pleas, O mother above ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!

 Yea, O Lady of Guadalupe; O meek and gentlest One, take heed to our groaning; For oft we stumble and raise to thee our moaning ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! Golden gate of heav'n, thou radiant portal; Unstained by sin, blissful queen of heav'n and earth, Aid me that I may love Him whom you did give birth ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! Daughter of God, thou queen of royalty, Ave Maria! With joyful hearts we hail thee! Look on us so kindly, O Blessed Virgin Mary! ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! Unfailing refuge and sweetest Mother; Pearl of grace so fair, fail not thine children to care, E'er our sweetest Advocate who did God once bear ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! -- Jeong-Bo Shim

Jeong-Bo is a thirteen year old boy who lives with his family in Corvallis, Oregon. 

 

THIS PIECE... 

This pendant is REALLY exceptional. It's a beautiful rendering of

 Our Lady of Guadeloupe in a petit silver metal frame. It's a really colorful and detailed image, and whether you like it for it's kitsch value or it's Catholicism it's hard to not like the beautiful aesthetic qualities of this charm. it can be made into a necklace if preferred... Just let me know when you order it.  I love Guadeloupe on many levels, a penchant for saints angels and their renderings aside I truly believe she has been with me for a long time - coming in and out of my life at different times and pointing the way... helping me along the path if you will. Her glorious image is something I've always connected with.  When I met the love of my life he told me how at his place of work there was a beautiful painting of her and a plaque that quoted the words Our Lady spoke to Saint Juan Diego in 1531. 

I thought this was a beautiful statement and as it turned out our paths had crossed before at an earlier time before we met under this same painting. I am not a religious person, but this saint has definitely been watching over me and my love. I hope this piece brings you joy. 

Rock Out With Your Lock Out

~ NeVeR MiNd ThE BoLLocKs... HeRe'S ThE LoCKET~

ThIs PiEcE...

Was inspired by the glorious Sid Vicious. As a High School Student growing up on the L.E.S. of NYC I was completely dedicated to the 1970's punk movement. We spent class periods in the girls room smoking cigarettes and singing "God Save the Queen," drawing anarchy symbols on your locker, and curling our lips to look like Sid & Johnny.

People like Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Joe Strummer, and Joey Ramone were all my heroes. When I met Patti Smith years later I said "Thank you... you made High School better."

I still very much love the Punk Rock movement and keep it in my heart... even though I'd probably hesitate to let some guy with a Mohawk pierce my lip with a safety pin at C Squat. Perhaps I'm getting soft.

I made this piece in fond remembrance of that time and sometimes I just want to 'rock out with my lock out.' It a metal lock, which hangs on a delicate metal chain. the lock has petit stones in it, "diamond-like" Kind of Punk Princess style I guess. It can be worn as a bracelet or a necklace -- Just tell me which you would prefer and I'll make it any way you like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bmBYRrHpJc


A PHONE CONVERSATION WITH SID VICIOUS

Interview by ROBERTA BAYLEY

{The Sex Pistols American tour ended at Winterland in San Francisco, January14, 1978. Two days later the band had officially broken up. On January 20, Sid Vicious boarded a plane for London via New York. He passed out en route, an apparent drug overdose, and was taken unconscious to Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York. The biggest blizzard of the year had immobilized New York, so we spoke to Sid that night over the phone. He sounded very weak, but anxious to talk. He was lonely and bored.}

Sid: Hello.

Roberta: Hello, Sid?

Sid: Hello.

Roberta: Sid?

Sid: Yeah?

Roberta: This is Roberta.

Sid: Oh yeah, I remember…will you come visit me in Hospital?

Roberta: I would but it’s snowing.

Sid: Oh.

Roberta: I don’t have a car and you can’t go on the trains.

Sid: I’m lonely.

Roberta: We’re gonna come tomorrow. Do you think you’ll still be in tomorrow?

Sid: I’m supposed to be going back to London tomorrow.

Roberta: How are you feeling?

Sid: Weak.

Roberta: Nobody’s been up to see you or anything?

Sid: No.

Roberta: It’s so miserable outside. I guess you can see it on television.

Sid: Yeah, I’m just sitting here on my own.

Roberta: How long you been in there - just last night?

Sid: Umm, yeah.

Roberta: What happened to everybody else? Who was on the plane with you?

Sid: Boogie. (Soundman for the Sex Pistols) What happened was, I done 80 milligrams of methadone, right? And when you get - and about 6 or 7 valiums -- and when you get high in the air it has a much greater effect on you than it does when you’re on the ground. You know you get pissed a lot quicker in the air.

Roberta: Yeah, you get drunk faster.

Sid: So, that’s what happened...I wouldn’t expect anyone to go on a train all this way just to see me anyway.

Roberta: Do you have a TV at least?

Sid: Yeah. What I could do with would be something to read.

Roberta: Yeah, magazines or something, huh?

Sid: What I really want is like a very very large pile of Marvel comics.

Roberta: I’ve got some great comic books.

Sid: Yeah, so do I, but Boogie’s got them, the asshole.

Roberta: You don’t have any way to get in touch with him?

Sid: No. He said he’d call me later today, but he hasn’t bothered. And he won’t be bothering either. He’s a cunt.

Roberta: Well, what happened with this group of yours anyway?

Sid: I left them.

Roberta: Yeah, it seems like everybody left them.

Sid: Well. I don’t think anybody really wanted to continue, but no one had the guts to actually say it. So I just phoned John up and told him what I thought of him and where I thought he was at and ummm...I mean I still think I’m pretty good. I think I was better than any of the others.

Roberta: But what do Steve and Paul want to do?

Sid: I don’t know. They’ll probably try and get another band together and fail. John’s completely finished.

Roberta: That seems to be the general consensus.

Sid: (Cheerfully) Does it?

Roberta: Well, everybody’s just saying well what can he do now and nobody can figure out anything that he can do.

Sid: Yeah, right and he’s finished as a person as well. He’s just not what he used to be.

Roberta: Well, maybe this will shake him up a little bit?

Sid: Yeah, that’s what I’m hoping. That it’ll shake him up and then he’ll be able to do something, that’d be goad if he could do that, but otherwise if it doesn’t shake him up and get him out of it, then as a person, not only will he not do anything, but also nobody will even want to know him. They’ll say, oh didn’t you used to be ‘Johnny Rotten”?

Roberta: Yeah, I guess in England everybody’s gonna be really upset about this. How do you feel about it?

Sid: I’m glad that it’s over now because it was like...I feel like I was the only one still putting any real energy into it. Did you see our show at Frisco? I mean John wasn’t doing very much was he?

Roberta: The shows got worse instead of better.

Sid: Yeah. I think the one we did in Dallas or something was….

Roberta: San Antonio. I thought that was best.

Sid: (Excited) What, was that the one when I got butted in the face?

Roberta: No, that was Dallas. But I liked the one when you hit the guy with the guitar. (Randy’s Rodeo)

Sid: Was that the one when I was going really nuts?

Roberta: Yeah, and John was jumping around a lot and the people were throwing lots of beer cans (at the band). That was a really exciting one.

If the planes go out in the morning will you go back to London tomorrow?

Sid: Well, I said I would go. Sophie’ll have booked the ticket.

Roberta: But they may not be letting the planes go…

Sid: I hope they don’t in a way ‘cause I wanna like stay in New York for at least one day.

Roberta: Yeah, you should. All kinds of people want to see you and everything. You’ve never been here before. You could have a good time. I mean you’re healthy enough to do it.

Sid: I don’t know whether I am. I can’t drink. I can’t like…The doctor said that if I drank anything like vaguely remotely like the way I’ve been drinking for the past…however long, that I’ve got about six months at the absolute outside to live, and like the drugs as well, so I more or less can’t do anything so if I went out anywhere I’d just like…sit there. If I went out anywhere I wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation – that’d be the trouble. Like I’d end up just boozing myself out.

Roberta: Well, what’re you going to do? If you go back to London, it’s just the same thing.

Sid: Yeah. I probably will die in six months, actually.

Roberta: You have to straighten out for a while.

Sid: I can’t straighten up. I just can’t be straight.

Roberta: You could. Just as an experiment.

Sid: I suppose I just have to. I haven’t figured out yet quite how I’m gonna do it ’cause I haven’t been straight in like four years. I had hepatitis and when I got out of hospital I just really fucked myself up as badly as I could. I don’t know why, but everybody said you can’t do it, so I just went ahead and done it. It’s my basic nature.

Roberta: Well, your basic nature’s gonna get you in a lot of trouble.

Sid: My basic nature’s gonna kill me in six months.

(From DOA Film Book. 1981)