1| Your name, s’il vous plait Anne Rubin*
* Anne is a très chère buddy of mine from college. One random reason why I love her: she appreciates fancy tea and French lavender honey nougat as much as me. I dream of going on a trip with her someday (London? Prague?) I think she would be a perfect travel companion!
2| Where do you live? Williamstown, MA
3| What do you do during the day and at night? During the day, I'm an English teacher at a boarding school for girls. At night, I'm a Law and Order watching paper grader, an old house photographing dog walker and novel reading dinner maker.
4| What do you look for in a piece of jewelry? What are you drawn to? I'm drawn to old and new jewelry. I love big statement necklaces that bring an outfit together (I have my eye on the carved resin necklaces at Hotcakes Design right now), and I love small, discreet earrings that are understated. Most of my collection is silver, and a lot of it comes from Etsy.
5| Tell me about the jewelry you wear the most. Is there something that you never take off? My go-to earring are my cameo earrings that were my second purchase from Jean Jean Vintage. I find myself wearing them every single day. They are so key to my collection that I keep them in a special glass jar because I worry I might lose them someday!
6| What is your jewelry weakness? I love earrings, particularly small flower shaped studs. They're so simple and understated! While I have a few earrings I love that dangle off the ear, I find that the flower studs are most versatile and easy.
7| What’s the last piece of jewelry you added to your box? The last thing I bought was an art deco pin from Jean Jean Vintage. I teach The Great Gatsby once a year and I love to have real period things on hand so my girls can see what people really wore in that period. Plus, I'm a total sucker for a nice pin to dress up my teacher cardigans.
8| Please tell me a great story about one of the pieces in your jewelry box. The first piece of jewelry I ever bought myself was a very expensive garnet necklace from an awesome store down the street from where I went to college called Avalon. I wanted it for so long and I was really poor college student. Really, I think I visited it for a whole semester. One day I went to browse there, and it was gone! I asked where it went and the woman working there told me she sold it. About a month later I went back and it was back! Apparently it had been returned. I took it for a sign and I bought it. The lesson was that sometimes when you see something you love, you should just get it before someone else does.
9| If price was not an issue, what piece of jewelry would you give to your best friend? I'd love to give my husband an awesome pair of Mad Men inspired cufflinks. He looks even more amazing all cleaned up and wearing fancy-pants clothes, and I'm always telling him how awesome he'd look in a 1960s suit. And a hat. He really needs a hat!
{The jewelry box series will "air" every Wednesday this month, with five interviews in all. Leave a comment on all five entries and you'll be entered to win a $50 gift certificate to the shop! Details are here.}
27 comments:
This is GrEaT!!! Very interesting to read...what a great idea!!!
What lovely taste! It seems not unlike my own taste - statement pieces in the neck and shoulder area with understated earrings - so of course I think it's fabulous.
Great idea for a series, Duff. I'll look forward to these each week.
It's nice to read about someone who has a few pieces so close to her heart! Made me wonder about which pieces of my own jewelry I feel the same way about. During my college years when I missed my family so much, I wore 5 rings, each representing one person from my family! I remember that meaning a lot to me.
Ms. Rubin's flower studs above are my favorite, especially those little red and white roses, think I'm now pining for a pair of my own!
I'm an earring girl like my mother. Each time we visit each other we borrow a pair of earrings. We also buy each other earrings, which means we both own a ton of earrings.
Although I love that garnet necklace! Perhaps I'll have to look into more necklaces. However necklaces don't go well with physical labor or kids.
I've always loved to read interviews! Thanks :)
Loved reading this! I know I get an entry into the giveaway, but I would have commented anyway. I really like this idea of seeing what draws different people to jewelry. So fun!
What a great interview and beautiful jewelry!
I just love this! Happy to hear another "earring" girl's story. I need to take a que from the lesson above and make sure that I get that one thing I love before someone else does!
Love this! I'm huge into flower earrings right now and love that I can find people who make them by hand.
Oh! What fun! And when I read the story of the garnet necklace I thought I could share my story, too. It is clear that some jewelry pieces are just "meant to be". sorry this is long....
When I was in college I frequented a local flea market (every Sunday). I fell in love with a too expensive Moonstone drop necklace. I probably saw it for sale for several weeks in a row. I remember that this tasteful woman also had a cherry amber beaded necklace that I was contemplating. I think I was very soon to graduate from college and wondered if I couldn't just gift myself something lovely from her little flea market stand. Problem was, I just couldn't afford it. So she and I talked and she understood my dilemma and told me she would be happy to take a deposit to hold the piece I chose. I gave her $20 for the moonstone necklace and watched her put it lovingly aside. I think the piece was $125 total; quite a lot, actually, in 1975's dollars. In a few weeks, I'd scrounged up the money and returned to claim my antique. She was not there! I returned several weeks in a row and she still was not there. Foolishly, we had not exchanged information and I had no receipt; I was in my 20's and not very careful. She was a very reputable dealer and I really had no qualms about it -- I knew she would show up eventually. So I just tucked my money away in a safe place. But then, something came up and I decided to move to another, larger city 100 miles away; same state. I grudgingly just forgot all about the necklace; mostly I was just disappointed not to own it. I loved it.
Fast forward 2 years.... 2 years! I had completely forgotten about the necklace. For whatever reason, I was walking out of a downtown shopping building, down the steps, and I passed a woman going up the steps. We both stopped and turned around and looked at each other. It took a few seconds, of staring stupidly but we both seemed to have the "Aha moment" at the same time. We walked toward each other, stumbling on the reason and then both said.... "moonstone". "oh, finally!" she sighed. "I still have it, of course!" How wonderful! By that time, I could easily afford it, so we were able to quickly finish the transaction.
I have always thought that it was completely lovely that she had held onto that piece for me. I think that many of us who collect these treasures understand the heart and soul of them and the language that they speak. It was so in this case, anyway.
Those dishes Anne's jewelry reside on are lovely. Perfect complement to the jewelry. That garnet necklace was meant to be! It's amazing that it made its way back to the shop.
Marguerite, I enjoyed hearing your moonstone story as well. Two years! I'm glad it worked out for both of you.
Great story, I do agree that once you really love something, you should get it before it's gone =) what a great idea to hold a gift away like this!
I love that Anne keeps her cameo earrings in a jar for safety! I get a bit like that with jewellery too, so a few important pieces live in cute little boxes on my book case. Jars would be so much prettier though.
What a great series! Your store has me thinking about flower studs, too, even though I've never worn a pair — the ones you have in stock are mighty tempting. Hugs -- xoxox
This is fabulous! I love the tour! What beautiful stories and photos!
Thanks, Anne and Duff! This is so fun and inspiring. I can't wait until next Wednesday.
What a wonderful series Duff! Love it and Anne's earrings!
Hi, I feel so lucky to find your blog a few months ago, since then Ive been reading all your posts! This gift away is fun, I can read the interviews and join in at the same time. Thanks!
What a great start to this series! I love her cameo earrings and not surprised it came from your store, you stock such lovely pieces.
To Margueritte, your story about the necklace is so moving. Thank you for sharing it. I'm going to be thinking of your lovely story the whole day!
I love the story of the garnet necklace! And I'll definitely keep the lesson at the end in mind in the future :)
What a fun idea! And gorgeous earrings :)
i just loved reading this and having a snoop into her jewelry box!
my go-to earrings are also little cameo studs in black and ivory. they were my mothers.
i'm glad she got that garnet necklace in the end! i have a similar story with a beautiful vintage charm bracelet that had well over 100 charms, many of them were moveable. it was too expensive for me back then so i visited often and was so sad when it sold. i still dream of the moving carousel charm that was on it...
great new series!
oh, great idea Duff!!
i'm happy to read that i'm not the only jewelry-aholic... ;-)
i love the questions you pose!!
I adore the idea of a jewelry box series, I'm looking forward to reading future interviews. Jewelry is so personal and often has wonderful stories attached to each piece, I personally collect vintage jewelry and am always buying lockets, charm bracelets and unusual brooches/pins.
Wonderful interview and beautiful pictures, the little jar with a silver lid is precious. I have a similar one that my grandmother used to keep baking soda in to brush her teeth, the lid is sterling too.
Elizabeth
Lovely interview... I love all the beautiful pieces of your jewelry box.
I love how she uses her own jewelry to teach her students are periods in history! I wish I had teachers that cool.
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