“All new things are old things”
In the late 60’s when I was in my mid teens I loved my weekly visits to my dad’s office. It was located in the Diamond Exchange Building in the Johannesburg CBD. As you walked in the door you smelled the odour of shellac mounting wax. My grandfather Jack would be sitting at his setting bench leaning over his latest creation. Head loupe overhead his left hand holding a stick with a waxed mounting, his right hand picking up the precious stones with a pointed rod tipped with bee’s wax. I would wait patiently for him to finish to be treated to his “cappuccino” ( a mixture of coffee and sugar whipped together with a touch of boiling water). They were the early trend setters putting together a pair of earrings with one black pearl and one white pearl. My grandfather always said that earrings don’t have to match or to even be the same, joking that the head was in-between!
We have come a long way since then as the current trend is to wear multiple different earrings in unique combinations. We can trace all new trends from some past idea. When I think back I can recall so many innovative and forward thinking pieces of jewellery in my dads collection that was often gifted to me. I had diamond earrings with attachments on the butterfly that peeped out behind the ear, an Itallian ring that was attached to a bracelet that cascaded over the front of the hand with blue enamel discs attached to yellow gold chain. Oh how I wish I would have kept them …