I quit the lawyers and found a job where I could more easily go to night school. Shopping a local rock shop on my lunch break, I saw this strand of sodalite beads, lapis’s very distant cousin. I looked into those dark perfect spheres and thought, “I must have these.” I could wear my avocation, a strand of blue beads carrying secrets from the earth. They cost $125, and I put them on layaway, making payments for several months until they were all mine.
A decade later, I had started Cynthia Renée Company and was doing colored gem trunk shows at jewelry stores around the country. Twenty-something girls would look at my gems, then sigh and lament, “Oh, well – guess I’ll have to marry a rich man.” Holding their wrist, I’d tell them, “Don’t you dare deny yourself the pleasure of working hard for something and achieving it.”
These beads became most precious when I worked for them.
Learn the rest of my story here.
