Designing Jewelry in Chaos – Who Moved My Island?

Someone mentioned to me recently that they were reading my blog to see the progress of my kitchen renovation, but wanted to see what the project looked like in the “before” photos. Of course they also mentioned that it was a “unique” concept for a blog – interior designs as inspiration for jewelry design. Well, I am afraid to say. . . it is a strange combination - but it is my life. I was an interior designer for 25+ years until I moved to Arizona and decided to try my hand at jewelry design. This of course, is the Cliffs Notes version of what happened.

Kitchen Before All The Mayhem Started

As it turns out, I actually had taken some photos of the kitchen and family room before we began this little odyssey. The last two weeks have really been about moving plumbing & running electrical lines in addition to more demo.

Family Room Fireplace Before

We bought this home from the original owners who apparently thought “outside the box” on some of their ideas. Such was the case with the fireplace. When we moved into the house, much to my chagrin, we were dealing with an electric fake fireplace that was truly an eyesore. It was not until the painter was changing the color from a very unappealing flesh color to riotous red, when he discovered what appeared to be a wood burning fireplace unit that had been pushed back into the recesses of the corner with the electric fireplace taking center stage! The entire concept was unimaginable to me! Who in their right mind would prefer fake logs to the real deal? I had to go outside to check if we actually had a chimney. Eureka – we did!

Family Room Fireplace After "Mantle", "Crown" And Electric Fireplace Are Removed

Suffice to say the idea of hooking up the original fireplace and getting rid of the ridiculous “mantle” that was apparently installed by someone with a severe case of vertigo and also removing the equally absurd decorative “Santa Fe” crown – was like finding a stash of diamonds for me! This idea has been stewing around in my head for several years, but I had no idea what might be involved in correcting this little horror or how much it might cost. Since the kitchen and family room are visually one space and we were making a mess anyway – it seemed like a good idea to rip everything out. More demo – more dust!

Kitchen Island Moved 6" - A New Wall & Base Cabinets Installed

There was a light at the end of that dusty tunnel. When the house was built, I suspect the crew must have been working on a Monday after a hard week-end of partying. The lines for the plumbing in the island were much too far away from the rest of the kitchen – 57” to be exact. As a result, the island made for a space planning nightmare! I made the decision to move the island back 6” to give us a smidge more room around the table. This little folly is pretty much like fixing a gunshot wound with a ban-aid – but it’s the best we can do! In any event, the island was torn down, the plumbing moved, a wall constructed and base cabinet boxes installed. The jury is still out on this idea.

My Favorite - Calcutta Oro Marble

Today the crew will begin the process of making the templates for the marble and I am so thrilled. My hubby knows that I have a radar for choosing the most expensive items in the showroom and this marble was no exception. Once I got a look at the Calcutta marble slabs – nothing else would do. Of course, that means we are already very much over budget. The truth is that even though I will take the blame for this budgetary disaster, hubby really liked the Calcutta as well and it became the inspiration point for the kitchen.

Somehow (and I don’t really even understand this myself), I have been a very busy bee making up jewelry for custom orders in the midst of all this confusion. Beading must be much more therapeutic than even I realized!

Densely Embedded Tourmilated Straws Create A Very Dramatic Feature Bead

Merlot Colored Pearls And Softly Cupped Petal Pearls Create A Dramatic Cluster

Since red is the color for fall - I decided to make up some earrings with some intriguing tourmilated quartz beads falling from a cluster of merlot red pearls. I loved the way they turned out and will probably make up a necklace using the same colors to add to the “Flora Collection". These colors remind me of the velvety deep red found in Celosia or Cockscomb. So, here I am again, designing jewelry in the midst of chaos!

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Lesson of the Week: Don’t Fool With Mother Nature (or the Queen Bee)

Things had been going rather smoothly after the holidays and it seemed like a good week to begin some new jewelry designs for the spring. Over the week-end, I began putting together the blueprint of a new necklace that was intended as a little “thank you” for a friend. Dana had requested something clear, black and/or grey and I was thrilled to finally have the chance to use some of the gorgeous tourmilated quartz gemstones I had acquired at the last Tucson Gem Show.

On Monday, our pest control company was attending a colony of bees that had been making a home in the facade wall of our garage. This visit was round two of three and involved the application of a neurotoxin for the bees that would render the hive inactive. Visit three was planned to remove the honeycomb after the bees were killed in order to keep another hive from becoming attracted by the pheromones of the first honeycomb. Obviously, the bee specialist was very knowledgeable in his science as well as the culture of the bees. Monday came and went with nothing unusual except for a few quiet hours that were spent uninterrupted – allowing me to complete Dana’s beautiful necklace of rock crystal, black onyx and unique tourmilated onion briolettes peppered with black straws.

Tuesday was spent running errands in the morning and working on the computer late into the afternoon and early evening. Just before dinnertime, I looked up from the computer after hearing a strange noise only to realize there was a bee in my office buzzing around. I called Olivia & Asher (my King Charles Cavaliers) out of the room and closed the door. As we moved closer to the kitchen, I could see that not only were there at least a dozen bees circling the lights in our 12’ ceiling but another dozen or so had landed on the floor and were buzzing around there as well. With no door to close, it was “retreat #2” for us and off to the Master Bedroom we went. Apparently, the bees had not discovered that area just yet.

After a quick call to my hubby to inform him we would be staying at a hotel that night, another call to the bee specialist and gathering up our necessities, we took off for “retreat #3” – the local Residence Inn. So far, the bees seemed to be winning the war!

Wednesday morning I met the bee specialist and dressed in a full bee suit, he applied yet another application and warned me that we might want to stay at the hotel another night just to be safe. According to the specialist, Thursday morning was determined as the date and time we would have won the war of the bees. On Thursday morning, I entered the house very quietly to make certain I was not hearing the hum of the bees as they circled the rooms looking for a hostage. All was quiet and I felt relieved that we might be able to finally check out of the hotel and come home again.

Much to my shock, when I entered the Kitchen and Family Room I was confronted by not just a dozen or two dead bees. . . but more than 100+. Needless to say, all day Thursday was spent cleaning up bees and listening for their return. After all, we had executed their Queen and the little workers had no one to give them orders in addition to being poisoned.

In retrospect, I should probably have called out a beekeeper when I was informed by the specialist that the bees in my facade were “just Honey Bees – not Killer Bees”. But, living in Arizona, all bees are guilty until proven innocent and I suspect have gotten a bad rap from their gang member cousins – the “Killer Bees”. Lesson learned – don’t fool with Mother Nature or the Queen Bee!

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