Diamonds in the Library

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon.

December 16, 2015

This book is: strong and sweet and amazing.
Other elements: the nature of love, finding yourself, the purpose of life.
Read it: if you love solidly written stories about vivid characters.
Overall rating: 9/10

Everything, Everything is a story about an eighteen year old girl who suffers from a rare disease has kept her in the same room for 17 years. She doesn’t seem sick – and she isn’t, most of the time. But if she went Outside, she could die.

Everything, Everything is a story about a young woman who is sick, but it doesn’t follow the classic sick lit formula of introduce characters, get you attached to them, then kill one or both of them and that’s what the story is about. It’s about a girl who happens to be sick, and what happens in her life.

I read Everything, Everything in two sittings: the first night, I read until something mind-boggling happened and I needed a break to absorb it. I finished it the next day, in about 45 minutes. It is quick and bright (but does tug on the heartstrings).

When I describe this book to friends, I explain it by saying it that I loved it in the same way that I loved Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl (an all-time favorite). It’s another book in that oddly specific subcategory of YA that is about young women who experience love for the first time while also – and more importantly – figuring out who they are and who they want to be.

Maddy is a brave, unique heroine I won’t soon forget meeting. This is one of the 10 or so books I read this year that I finished and immediately thought, “I need to own this so that I can read it again.”

For more reads anytime, check out my Amazon recommended books store. This post contains affiliate links.

Store profile: Antique Animal Jewelry.

December 14, 2015

It didn’t take long on Antique Animal Jewelry’s Instagram for me to realize I was looking at something out of the ordinary.

Not only were the individual pieces remarkable, but the overall collection revealed a curator with a decisive vision: a vision of dark, sometimes slightly creepy, but always magnificent pieces of antique jewelry.

I had to know more.

As the name suggests, Antique Animal Jewelry has a focus: and it’s antique animal jewelry.

It’s mind-boggling how many spectacular pieces that Evie (the mastermind behind Antique Animal Jewelry) manages to keep in her shop. It’s not all animals, though: between the Essex crystal kittens and bold Victorian double snakes you’ll find spectacular mourning rings, unusual paste pieces, and anything else that catches Evie’s discriminating eye.

Please join me below for a selection of pieces from Antique Animal Jewelry, and snippets from my interview with Evie.

I thought I’d let Evie introduce herself by telling us about the path that led her to Antique Animal Jewelry:

“I worked as a fashion designer for 20+ years but always had a love of antiques. I had a boyfriend who was an antiques dealer and became very involved as well. I decided to start my own business and opened a dog store in London selling collars and leads, but also dog related antiques – from paintings to carvings to jewellery.

I opened a shop on Etsy for the Canine Collectibles, MaisonDogLondon, and I would include a bit of cat, and fox and horse. I had customers buying antique pins from me and asking me to convert them into rings or pendants. As this was doing very well I decided to split this into a second Etsy store and expand the range of animals and also include a few non animal pieces just because!”

Antique Animal Jewelry’s most remarkable non-animal pieces tend to be the mourning rings (in my opinion, anyway). Just look at the incredible condition of the two Georgian sepia rings above: every detail remains perfect.

This mourning ring is also a Georgian sepia ring, but it stands out thanks to its startlingly gorgeous and unusual halo of turquoise stones. The inscription reveals that the piece was created to honor a child who was lost at just two and a half years of age.

Evie names the store’s reverse painted crystal intaglio pieces as her favorites, largely due to the work involved:

“The sheer skill involved to carve out the crystal into a three dimensional form of an dog or cat for example, and then paint it in minute detail with a brush with just one hair, from the reverse. It’s a skill that hardly anyone possesses any more.”

I showed you a dog and a cat crystal intaglio already, but you can see another immediately above; a Victorian reverse painted crystal guinea pig intaglio, which is a thing I have never seen before.

Apparently guinea pigs were more in vogue than I’d realized in Victorian times. The Antique Animal Jewelry listing provides a snippet of history, revealing that “Queen Elizabeth I had kept one in her royal menagerie, and in the Victorian Age guinea pigs were bred and groomed for shows, as dogs are today.”

Antique Animal Jewelry frequently features conversion jewelry like the piece above: the finished bracelet represents the combination of the snake or griffin clasp, which was originally on a bracelet of horsehair, with a different 18k gold Victorian bracelet.

The guinea pig rings were also conversion pieces: the intaglios were original brooches.

This is one of the most unique pieces currently in Antique Animal Jewelry’s online shop: a ridiculously amazing snake belt, made of silver mesh and featuring a turquoise collar and a dangling red guilloche enamel heart. The pieces dates to 1900-1901.

Evie ended her interview by offering some advice for aspiring collectors, and then sharing a verse. I’ll end her post the same way:

“Start small. Go for the good quality items. You can buy an amazing small gold charm for an affordable amount. Build a theme so that your collection looks good together. The internet is available so do your research. Go with your gut instinct. I always do when I love something. I just buy it!! But if your gut is telling you something is not quite right, then walk away. Don’t convince yourself it is the right piece, just because the price is right.

If you go to a Jewellery fair, don’t buy pieces you know nothing about. Believe me, it could be a disaster. Research a period and stick to it so that you know what to look out for and what to avoid!

He who works with his hands is a labourer.
He who works with his hands, and his head, is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands, and his head, and his heart, is an artist.”

All images and info are thanks to Antique Animal Jewelry and the fabulous Evie.

This post contains affiliate links.

Merry and bright: Gabriel and Co gold for the holidays.

December 11, 2015

The holiday season calls to mind certain visuals: frosted windowpanes, bright white snowmen, crystalline icicles dripping picturesquely from pine trees. Bright whiteness gleaming all around.

Beautiful, yes, but cold cold cold. Brrrr.

While I usually let the frosty glint of the season’s temperature inspire my holiday accessorizing (think big, mostly fake white crystal bling), I’m feeling something different for this year. I want to go chic, sleek, and warm.

As soon as I saw these pieces from Gabriel and Co’s fall collection, I knew that they were the kind of rocks I wanted to rock for this year’s winter holidays.

Just look at the choker above. Can’t you imagine its delicate, dynamic form gracing your decolletage as you sip a glass of champagne with candied ginger by a fire? It would catch the light and glimmer brightly, a flash of warmth against the cold starkness outside.

These ear climbers – obviously from the same Gabriel and Co collection – feature the same warm brightness. Slashes of gold dashed with diamonds, waiting to elevate any outfit your heart desires.

My favorite holiday jewelry is jewelry you can wear all year round (although I’d be lying if I told you I’d never bought snowman earrings at Claire’s). These perfect, precise arcs of diamond-strewn yellow gold would transition perfectly to any season.

I love the gently curved geometry of this open cuff. You could wear it with any of the other pieces featured here, or pretty much anything else on earth.