Evolution of Personal Taste

When I began beading and making jewelry in 1992, my daughter was only 8 years old and not terribly interested in her mother's hobby.  As the years went by and she grew into a pre-teen and then a teenager, she began to take interest in the finished product(s) but was never motivated to pick up the craft for herself.  Naturally, however, she became the recipient of much of her mom's beaded creations.

The main issue in that is that her taste in jewelry and mine are poles apart.  She loves dainty, feminine things while my mantra is 'more is more'.  It's somewhat difficult to make things for her, because my natural inclination is to make big, bold eye-catching things.  I need to 'dull-it-down' when creating for her.  And I find that's true when creating for many people.  Fortunately, not everyone though.

I've often wondered about this disparity in our tastes.  How could a daughter of mine prefer such 'plain', unassuming little pendants on simple chains, tiny little rings, etc.?  She obviously did not get my jewelry genes! Then, pondering this one day,  I managed, with difficulty as it was SO long ago, to recall my youth.  Or rather, my taste in jewelry in my youth.  Hmmm. Hmm, hmm, hmm!  Seem to recall that I used to love dainty little pendants on simple chains and feminine little rings, etc.  Moi?  Oh, oui!

That's right!  I remember now....in my teens, twenties and thirties, I would not have been caught dead wearing anything...umm...shall we say...garish, gaudy, blingy, bold, over-the-top, brassy, flashy, loud or chi-chi. How...and when did that change?

Now I do have my standards, mind you.  You still won't catch me dead in anything that looks like, say... a string of big, shiny orange tennis balls or anything obviously plastic or see my name an inch and a half high emblazoned across my chest in pea sized rhinestones or my children's baby teeth turned into a darling charm bracelet or...well, you get the idea.

But still, when did my taste morph from dainty-fem to fab-flash-funky??  Here are some theories:

The first is that once upon a time, in my thirties, I developed a major, drooling desire for a one carat oval diamond solitaire (at the time, I considered that HUGE).  Anyway, I never got it.  I still don't have it.  I also never forgot it, obviously!  So Theory One is that I've been compensating ever since.

Theory Two is that I'm aging.  Have you noticed that many older women wear big, fat, ostentatious jewelry?  They do this because they can finally afford it now and they really don't care nearly so much what other people think. Not sure this really fits here but for some inexplicable reason I'm reminded of that parking lot scene in Fried Green Tomatoes, remember?

[Evelyn is cut off in a parking lot] 
Evelyn Couch:  Hey! I was waiting for that spot! 
Girl #1:  Face it, lady, we're younger and faster! 
[Evelyn rear-ends the other vehicle six times] 
Girl #1:  What are you doing? 
Girl #2:  Are you crazy? 
Evelyn Couch:   Face it, girls, I'm older and I have more insurance!

The last theory (Theory C*) is that it's all the fault of this weird, wacked-out world we live in now.  I mean, anything goes in fashion today!  And has for the last twenty or thirty years.  Soooo, I will make and wear some crazy, wacked-out jewelry, right? (Except orange tennis balls, plastic, mylar or teeth.)

All this blathering on really means is that my lovely daughter, God bless her elegant and tasteful soul, will inherit a gigantic pile of glitz.  Just in time, too!  Her taste hopefully will have evolved to incorporate the unabashed grandiose jewelry stash of her peacock mother by then.


(*This is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a former supervisor of mine who would list out things/reasons on his fingers, "One, blah blah blah; Two blah blah: and C blahdy blah blah....")


Till next time!

Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.

Diana Spencer (1961-1997)
Princess Of Wales