Cook the Silver

Education is not filling a pail, but lighting a fire.  Yeats.  College English.

Suppose lighting fires is just the tip of the iceberg?  Stephen King.  Fire starter.

A few years ago, while partying my way to a degree,  I knew I had to take an art course and was looking for an easy way to go when I learned I could get credits for playing with fire.

The jewelry studio was an option.  A lab full of acetylene torches sealed the deal. I didn't have to pay for the hazard insurance so, sure, why not?  Then silver smithing pulled me in.  Designing and making silver jewelry! I wanted to do this.  I made my first piece of jewelry, a sterling silver ring with a bezel set obsidian. From there, all I wanted was to make great looking pieces and molten sterling silver is where it starts.  Just say it starts at 1763 degrees F, the melting point for silver. 

No one let me fire up 11 torches like this guy is doing but now I'd burn down the barn if that's what it takes to make a lump of silver into wearable art.  It's what I do.  ~  David in Mexico

Trending on. Fashion Blogs.

Not saving the world, two Louboutins at a time.  Sometimes it's just about how fabulous you look.  Because everyone knows you can look good and do good at the same time.

Olivia Palermo

The Bag Snob

The Man Repeller

A Continuous Lean

Into the Gloss

Stylette

The Covetuer

Japanese Streets

Fashion Gone Rogue

A Beautiful Mess

Refinery29

Hypebeast

The Blond Salad

Audacity

A couple of audacious things that are going on with Beyoncé's new album....One is the fanfare, the promotion, the build up.  You're so right!  There wasn't any.  Sneak attack, this one.  It's being called the surprise album.  And know what?  It worked because the collection hit #1 faster than you can say acid hot. 

And two, she went solo, no fatherly, inside or outside management team.  Nerve works most times.  She aced every decision.

The videos she released have her dripping in her trademark statement jewelry.  Luscious silver pieces all up and down gorgeous, and while Queen Bey nails the jewelry, I have to draw your attention to the NYC boutique that supplied it to her.  They've got some nerve and not the good kind. Because their price points are staggering...I know I'm staggering...right past their $1485.00 silver chain bracelet on my way to a real world jewelry store. 

JCK Magazine says Beyoncé didn't buy these pieces, only borrowed them.  They are gorgeous.  I'm not saying they're not gorgeous.

The shop is called Margo Manhattan and you might have guessed that it is in high rent Manhattan which helps explains a lot.

If you find yourself in Manhattan, if you're richer than Beyoncé and want a silver chain,  check them out.  Their jewelry is very nice, I gotta say.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico

All the News You Need to Know

I like that I get Elle, Vogue and Harpers Bazaar subscriptions online, the style whisperers.  Love finding them there among my email morning and night, sandwiched between Visa's "you have a payment due"  and  eBay's "you've been outbid" notices. A spoonful of fashion helps it all go down.

Do I miss paying 8 dollars a copy for reduced sized, ad-filled paper issues?  No I don't because I subscribe to those as well,  locked into Publisher's Clearing House such that I am.  And the US Postal service.  And the timber lobby.

Blame the gloss.  Blame the ads even more, because they're over the top and full-page gorgeous.  Time and money were spent here. I guess that makes me a student of style marketing.  Or just a student of style.  I like the ads.  Chanel and Versace speak.  I just want to hear them out.

Guess who else has gone over to the glossy side?  WSJ. The Wall Street Journal wants us to know that black is this season's new color (like we haven't known since we were 10 that black is always the season's new color) and looping a dapper scarf over one's suit is the gentlemanly way to prevent winter chill. Their words, not mine.

And Forbes is in the game....their Style File "covers all things design".  Pick up a copy to catch up on SoHo's street vendors or jewelry chic along with your stock quotes and they'll throw in an essay about asset allocation.  Day traders are like everybody else.  They just want to beat the street while looking drop dead dapper.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico

Stalkers

I don't know, but I think I'm being stalked.  My own fault.  I'm fabulous.  I'm so fabulous almost everyone either hates me or stalks me.  Just please, don't hate me AND stalk me. Not sure how Clooney and Conan cope...except they don't give out maps to their bedroom.  Like I do.



Just for Me?  He knows me so well. But how?

When a stranger waves from your swimming pool, you say, okay the clever guy got past security.  But how do they get on your computer screen?  How?

Do one google search for "silver jewelry" and pretty soon, every time you open a screen,  SilverSea, John Hardy, and Novica are jumping out at you. Go away, Blue Nile.   On top of that, I also get ads for fine jewelry in Spanish.  How do they know I live in Mexico?  How?

And I'm serious here....... it's creepy.  Because, think about it.

Check the twisted smile, the Jack Nicholson eyes.  Does he look sane to you?  Maybe.  Probably.  Yes, actually.  I mean here's a man that pairs and wears hot pink and orange....it's starting to make sense now.  He's not psychotic.  He's branding.

And I love the silver bangles, all texture and pave-like.  With gorgeous settings and great colors.

John Hardy, you're looking good.   I'm re-thinking the whole restraining order thing.  Okay, this relationship could work.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico

Shopping in Mexico- If They Don't Have It, You Don't Need It

As you can see Tianguis have been a part of the Mexican culture for more than 500 years.  Tianguis comes from the Nahuatl word for market.  Little has changed in the centuries, except for maybe the clothes.

It is a place for meeting friends, old and new.  But in the more rural communities, it is also the place to get everything you need, hence this is why you can by almost anything you want, IF you know where to go.

Blankets:

stuff for the home:

food to take home:

 

Food for the road:

plants for the home:

Time has passed, peoples have come and gone, but the tianguis of old is still here to reach into our hearts and make us smile.

-David in Mexico

My Favorite Things

Did you catch that special starring Carrie Underwood in The Sound of Music?

I am not going to bash it, don't worry. That is one of my favorite movies, mostly because it was a true story with a Happily Ever After. No matter, it's pretty hard to mess up the story, and I have to say, I loved this scene:

Yes, I know that doesn't have anything to do with the post, but this was just such a great song - even Carrie Underwood is crying! Now that that is out of the way, let's try to get back on the topic. And quit distracting me!

So then my other favorite part of the original movie version is, in fact, My Favorite Things (hence the name of this post). It's the sweetest song, isn't it?

Well, a few of my favorite things are gifts that have meaning. My family and I went last summer to see my husband's family in Argentina. They were all absolutely gorgeous, artsy, loud, and quite simply fabulous people.

All had such generous hearts and gave special gifts to us. One of the ones that touched my heart was a pendant made by my husband's uncle. He is an artisan and used to make exquisite and intricate pieces, but now, with advancing age, he has begun to make larger pieces and bombillas for mate. Still beautiful, but you can't exactly wear them!

Bombilla is the metal straw, it has a strainer at the end, to keep out the yerba mate leaves.
The container is also called a mate, and can be made from a gourd, leather, stainless steel, to name a few.

This is what he made for me. Yep. For me.

Silver and onyx.

I didn't realize onyx could be these lovely shades of coffee and cream. Isn't it beautiful? Now, I am just waiting to get back to Taxco so I can find the perfect silver chain for my pendant. A new favorite thing.

~Leslie in Texas

Americans in Paris

Paris.

Nice.

You have the Eiffel Tower.  Lauduree macaroons...with gold foil. But limited edition macaroons, really?  Seriously? They're cookies, for goodness sake. Get some perspective.

Isle de la Cite, Champs Elysee, Arc de Triomphe, the Seine, Pont Neuf, Place de la Concord.

We get it.  Paris has nice stuff.  The Louvre.  Bateaux mouches, street mimes, berets and French bread, French perfume, French cuisine, French fashion, haute, haute, haute.  Blah, blah blah.  Nice.  But.  You could do better.

You could do Mexico, tierra del sol, but this isn't about sunshine or cactus, mariachis or pork skins.  Oh, sure, we got those.  And this isn't about charm, not that we don't HAVE charm.  You ever heard of cobblestones?  Well, we've got 'em. 

This is about Highway 57. 

If you're far from home and have been for a while, home is going to come back to you in memories.  They are the memories you don't summon, they just come when they want to, hang around a while, make you happy. Make you sad.

Sad, because you left a lot back there.  Tex-Mex, the Galleria, Trader Joe's.  Really sad.....kids, grandkids.

Happy, because you have Mexico's Highway 57 that takes you back to Houston and then brings you back again to Mexico, to mariachis and pork skins.   Paris isn't handy like that.  Adios and adieu.

~  Carolyn in Mexico.

Down and Dirty

Save the pieces!!!  Crashing, splintering noises, we love 'em around here because they mean pieces.  And that means jewelry.

Broken anything. Dumps and landfills.

We like trash.  We like discarded.

Talavera factories, pawnshops, junk stores.

Taxidermists....ha,  just checking to see if you're actually READING this.

Silver and Gold?  Diamonds?  Oh yes, we love and wear them and of course, we prefer them.  But the dumpster behind Autozone?   Well YES!  Because we know how to have fun.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico

Inspired by Nature

This weekend I have had the chance to leave the big bad city and head to the country. Not gonna eat a lott of peaches (That's a song, son, a song, I say).
Anyway, this time and the last time I was here in the Piney Woods, I got obsessed with all the different types of fungi that grow in the swampy creek bottom. There are such a variety of colors, it just amazes me. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera last time, and this time I didn't find so many. But here a a few:

Old tree, covered in fungi? Mushrooms?
Not sure what to call them. 

Underneath the mushroom. Isn't that fantastic?

Looking up the trunk.
Jack and the Beanstalk-esque.

Turquoise and copper

Gorgeous purple, rust, and brown

Fall orange, different form

Soft green moss

These gorgeous textures, colors, and designs....hmmm....I could wear these in silver.....yes. That could work. Inspired by nature.

Leslie in Texas

The Melting Pot... Hecho en Mexico

Mexico is one of the new Melting Pots of the world.

A Melting Pot of Cultures.  Think of taking different colors and blending them.  Each can be very distinctive in its own right but when blended everything comes out a new and beautiful color that you might not have expected.

Maybe not what most think of as a Melting Pot, but it gives you the idea.

Go to the local "Happy Wok" here in Mexico and ask them if they speak Chinese, and they usually do.  At the same time, much like my family, they have a basic understanding of Spanish.

On the upside they usually know more English, than Spanish.

But there are also other cultures.

Notice how many Japanese companies are moving their people here.  Honda and Nissan for example have moved Japanese personnel here for 6 months to 5 year stints.  This adds to the tourist industry.  Here in Guanajuato, I met a Japanese couple who know more about Mexico than most Mexicans.

And still other cultures.

  

Germans are a small but growing population.  Russians, Koreans, Americans, Canadians, all mixed up in this big Mexican Pot.

Found Objects and Artists

SilverNina is plotting to put jewelry artists and intriguing objects together in our studio here in Guanajuato for some high powered creativity and seriously enchanting jewelry making.  We've collected a little colony of designing women and have set out to make a fabulous cache of mixed media and found object jewelry.

It has come down to a scavenger hunt across Mexico and it's fun, but it's not easy.  Found objects have to be found and that takes time.  The list reads like this.  Bits and pieces of precious and semi-precious metals, semi-precious stone and  just plain rocks, and fiber. 

Skin of cow, feather of  bird, teeth, horn, tusk, hair,  pits, pearls, tortoise. 

Polymers, glass, sea shells, porcelain, ceramics, wood,  resin. 

Found things can be machine parts, camera parts, chandelier parts, typewriter parts, piano parts, zipper parts.  Antique coins, antique door keys, antique buttons, antique medals, antique skate keys, antique jacks. 

Anything our imagination asks for, we drag to the studio.

There it is run through a series of rigid quirkiness tests and if it's weird enough, it's in.

 ~  Carolyn in Mexico

Traditions

We don't have many traditions in our family. Neither does my husband's family. We start stories with words like, "We used to..", not "We started doing this when..."

Some people attribute the things they do each year, or continue with their children, as "traditions". They are not. It's more along the lines of, "Every year we watched The Sound of Music." Ahhh. Sweet. Well, it was because that was the only thing on tv and it was too cold to go out! Some tradition. Maybe that it was tradition is.


I have been heavy into Jane Austen as of late, and reading about their traditions. One in particular always intrigued me: passing down jewelry. Not just mother to daughter, but (grand)mother to son to bride. I know people still do this, but it isn't as common as it used to be.

It's kind of nice.

I don't know that I'd like to wear my mother-in-law's jewelry. Even my grandmother-in-law. And I am not sure I'd feel comfortable wearing my mother's or grandmother's jewelry. Some of that is quite delicate. And I live in a world wear women get their hands dirty, just like a man does. I doubt it would last to pass to my daughter or daughter-in-law.

But still.

I wouldn't mind starting a tradition.

I wear silver - .925 silver, hecho en Mexico is my favorite, but I take what I can get. Beautiful and intricate, but solid and classic. Rarely I may wear copper, and rarer still gold. Silver is so versatile - elegant, simple, and understated, or big, chic, and relaxed. The same piece can go from brunch at the corner cafe to dinner at an upscale, urban restaurant.

My daughter already loves my jewelry. And her favorite pieces are my favorite pieces.

As she grows, so do her tastes...and my jewelry box grows empty.

Does she just have good (expensive) taste? Does she just want to be like me? Does she associate happy times with them? I don't know and I don't think it matters. But I do know that she will get at least some of those pieces. As will my daughters-in-law.  And I hope that they continue to pass them down, telling stories to their children and grandchildren of the adventures that happened while wearing that piece.

Because I have had quite a few adventures, and plan on having more. And I am hoping that my girls and their girls continue to have adventures....all while wearing this gorgeous silver.

Yeah. I'd like that tradition.

Leslie in Texas

Trend Hunter Alert

On-trend jewelry at bargain prices makes sense and it's fun to buy, fun to wear. For not too much money pick up something that's a bit out there.  Then move on to something still further out there before you start looking dated.

Got fabulously toned arms?  You'll need shoulder chains to go with those.  Seriously ahead of the pack.  Wear them with a tube top. 

Ear cuffs are practically mainstream now.  These are a bit conservative.  No spikes or skulls.

You still love your seriously chic necklaces.  Not a little string of pearls and a peter pan collar but those glorious pieces that work with everything and make you feel and look like you own the bank.

Man chains  have been in style forever and will be in style forever, so put some money in them.                                                                             

Mexico Goes To Extremes

Mexico is a land of extremes.

Here you see one extreme... this is the Popocatépetl volcano with snow:

now this is the same mountain:

Beautiful, but stunning... its only 35 miles from Mexico City.

Pico de Orizaba, last erupted 1846, and it too has snow:

 

 

 Laguna Salada, being the lowest, it doesn't snow in the Sonora Desert:

 

The common street market (in this case a covered area) on most days:

 

BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT Friday comes along and we have this to greet us:

  

That happens week after week...

And last but not least... most here don't actually experience this but all the snow birds do... and thats why they LOVE Mexico.

What they leave behind:

And where they ALL desire to be:

This can be yours too!

It must be the night....

-David in Mexico

How to Clean Your Silver

There are as many ways to clean silver as there are blog posts, ehows, and user-uploaded videos.

They involve everything from boiling water to vinegar to buffing cloths.

I am sure those are all effective. But the easiest way is to simply prevent the tarnish in the first place.

"How?" you may ask.

That is an excellent question, and you are quite the eager young student! I shall tell you the secret, my dear.

Are you ready?

Simply wear your jewelry, darling! Your silver jewelry will always look gorgeous, because first of all it's on you. And secondly, it's not tarnishing!

A win-win! Don't you think?

Leslie in Texas

The Little Workshop in Taxco

Taxco is a beautiful secret city hiding in isolated hills far south of Mexico City.  There's no color here.  Building facades are uniform, white stucco walls with red/brown skirts that hide low-lying scuff marks.  It's a law.  Well, I don't know if it's a law, but if not, it's a gentlemen's agreement, because nobody uses color in this town.

Except for the tile roofs, those terracotta clay roofs.

Taxco is the center of the world.  Of silver.  The town makes it's living, directly or indirectly, from silver.

The world's best silversmiths work in Taxco, many out of their homes, designing and hand making  jewelry, piece by piece, to be sold locally or to fly off to hungry markets in Europe, Australia and the US.   It's a painstaking labor of love for them.

This is not mass production.  It is art.  When you slip on a bracelet from Taxco, think about the hands that held it before yours did.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico

A Boy With Kaleidoscope Eyes

As I look around Mexico, now going into my 3rd year, I still have to pinch myself to see if I am dreaming.  Everything here is so different from, what I consider, my previous life, or life back in Texas.

Oh sure Texas has its own charm, but Mexico far outshines it all.

I am reminded of the opening lyrics of The Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds:

Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Don't pretend you just read that... I KNOW you sang it!

ANYWAY, sometimes I wonder if I am on a boat floating down that river... looking around with "kaleidoscope eyes".

For one thing life here is so vibrant... nothing is dull.

 

Don't tell me that is DULL.

Course you don't actually see that everyday, but that's part of the culture.

Now something I do see every day is nature.  And we all know that nature can outweigh anything made by hand. 

Like....

This little beauty makes one of my favorite drinks Agua de Jamaica. Its a Hibiscus flower.

But even in Markets its quite Dazzling.

 

So even in the mundane things Mexico is quite a kaleidoscope of colors.

-David in Mexico

The Very Posh Miss Piggy

 

We could do worse than look like Miss Piggy.  Now there was glamour, an era of real elegance.  She isn't the beauty she was in her younger days, but who is?  Miss Piggy, if you're reading this, I hope you don't take offense and please know that I'm a fan.

The brassy broads of old Hollywood used to wear a pirate's cache, back when men were throwing fistfuls of diamonds at Elizabeth Taylor or heaven forbid Zsa Zsa Gabor.  No more.  Now actresses look like waifs when they should be accessorizing like royalty.

Gotta admit though, their clothes are dreamy.  They've got Jimmy Choo and Louboutin, got Balenciaga and YSL but where's the jewelry?  We want them in Harry Winston. We want them in Cartier.
 
Darlings, get your glamour on. 

~ Carolyn in Mexico

Gypsy in the Corner Office

The child of flower children, once a tiny hippie, she packed up her muslin blouses and turquoise beads in the mid 90's, and headed off to college to work her way to an MBA.

The hippie movement had ended in 1975, the year the US pulled out of Vietnam.  Before she was born.  She never was part of the movement, but she was crazy about those clothes, those free-people, gypsy clothes.

That same year, 1975,  the first edition of Dress for Success was released.  Decades of reprints and revisions helped prepare women to take their place in the business world.  And we're not talking secretaries.  She was part of this movement...education, hard work, breaking the corporate ceiling, success and office dress codes.

She still wears bohemian, those loose dresses, tunics, tiered and layered, jewelry... sterling silver and gold with the bone, wood, leather.  Just not to work and never that pretentious, exorbitantly priced designer fakery that calls itself gypsy couture.  She can't bear it, although she can certainly afford it.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico

I Told My Dreams I'll Hook Up with You Later

Thoreau once said "if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

History has always a part of my dreams.  At one time the history of Europe beckoned to me.  Images of distant battles, old castles, and the comfort of todays world have left their mark.

But as one grows in maturity, realization comes at a price.  That price in my case was my dream.  But as Thoreau implied your dreams can come true in unexpected sources.

Looking around Mexico, I can say "Hey look HISTORY... over there... and oh over here too!"

And even some pratically in my own backyard.

So yes, I had dreams.  And I have now come to the realization that they don't always fade away as I wake up, but as good dreams do, they stay in the background, and intermingle with reality.

-David from Mexico

Soup Kitchen Chic

I edited out the profanity in the following statement but you might have seen it on the internet because it's on the way to becoming viral:

           Someone wrote,  "Shut up about design and go work in a soup kitchen."

Well, Mr. Self Righteous Potty Mouth, this blog is for you.  You may find them shallow, but there are deeply compassionate people who are compelled all day, every day to take a thing and cultivate it.  Here's a true story about one of them.

Elsie de Wolfe, had incredible taste.  She was the only person in the world who did.  Really. The only one.  A wealthy, elegant, privileged woman, famous in her time, she had a manifesto.  It was this: "I will make everything around me more beautiful.  That will be my life.".   And true to her words, for a lifetime, she made things beautiful.  For the Morgans, the Vanderbilts,  the Guggenhiems and herself.

One day, she left Fifth Avenue and the high, safe ground of New York City.  She went to a place devastated by a world war, at a time when Europe had been brought to the brink of destruction, while millions of the dying were burying their dead. She volunteered as a nurse during WWI surrounded by amputees and gangrene.  Unimaginable suffering was alleviated by her unimaginable kindness.

When it was over, she returned to NY, began designing again, went to parties, hosted parties.  Cole Porter wrote a song about her.

Good, kind, generous people may love design or maybe instead they love books, or film, their cats, their kids, music, college football, good wine, a good haircut,  their tea roses or Kim Kardashian.   You know this because they don't shut up, except about the good they do for others.  If  you're working in the soup kitchen, you'll come across them.  Otherwise, you'll never know. 

So just back off.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico

I'll Always Have Paris

While going through Paris fashion week photos to post to an earlier blog, I made an unpleasant discovery.  Paris wears color.  I need for Paris not to wear color, because everyone knows Paris is the epicenter of unflinching style and that means Black.  Red is ok on the runway, but so is every other kind of weirdness.  But pink?  On the street?  Before petit dejeuner?  City of everything black, what is with THE COLOR?

Paris Fashion Week

Paris Fashion Week

Glad I didn't go back and delete that post.  It made the case for my wearing black in color crazed Mexico, because, as I said on the post,  Parisians wear black and they're....French!  They know about these things. But I got shot way down by on-the-street photos of Paris fashion weeks past.  Or so I thought, because....

.....parisfashionweek.com's 2013 Fall/Winter preview, right out of the box, has Balenciaga showing all black with bits and pieces of crisp white, peeking out of black folds. 

Be calm and wear black.  ~  Carolyn in Mexico