Don’t Lose your Head

Oct 8, 2010 | My Life in Jewels

In 1990, soon after I started Cynthia Renée Company, I met some friends to celebrate an engagement. I wore a small, yellow gold brooch of Marie Antoinette hand-painted on ivory accented by natural pearls. I was in the office of an antique jewelry dealer friend when I...

Himalaya Grrrl

Oct 8, 2010 | My Life in Jewels

I was twenty-six and guiding a group of geology professors through the Himalaya Tourmaline Mine where I was doing my undergrad thesis. One of the professors was Dr. Brian Mason, a geochemist who authored the mineralogy text most universities were using, including...

Chief Earrings

Oct 1, 2010 | My Life in Jewels

 I told my friend Clare I was going to Sri Lanka to explore; that by going “something would happen.” I was feeling drained, missing my softness, the juiciness I needed to nurture creative life. Traveling someplace new sometimes shakes things up providing fresh...

Do it Yourself Beads

Oct 1, 2010 | My Life in Jewels

I learned shorthand, typed 120 words a minute and got an A in Bookkeeping Fundamentals. Make way world – here comes nineteen-year-old Cynthia! I was singing another tune after two years as a legal secretary. I thought, “This is for the birds; if I’m going to do...

Autumn Garnets

Sep 17, 2010 | Colored Gems

It’s sunny today, with a cool crisp, October undertone. The cool edge makes me frisky – an invigorating contrast with the slice of sun warming my back. After record North Carolina highs into early October, I doubt we’ll have much of a show of fall foliage. But,...

Some Warps in the Mirror

Feb 2, 2008 | My Life in Jewels

If not gems, I would work with textiles.  I collected them: handmade quilts from the Amish of Ohio; colorful hammocks woven by Mexican net fisherman; centuries-old lace from Spain; shell and raffia loincloths from the Amazon; embroidered pillowcases from Midwestern...

Pin It on Pinterest