happy end of august !

Come check out our latest selection of beautiful European arrivals !

Happy Summer

If everyone played the ukulele, the world would be a better place by wackystuff on Flickr.


Enjoying the last couple weeks of summer and I thought this old sheet music cover was pretty perfect.

Stylish Hands

Today I was e-mailing back and forth with a client interested in a beautiful ring.  She had seen the ring in person but her boyfriend had not, so we decided to take some photographs of rings on fingers so he could have a more dynamic view of this fantastic jewel.

I don’t know why I always think it will be easy to take a photo on a hand.  The rings look fantastic but posing a hand, like posing a body, is an art my hands have not.  And so I decided to go to that ever, useful search function “Google Images” to see how other people make their hands look attractive.

And while I looked for the perfect pose for my hand I was reminded of one of the other reasons I love rings (The first of course being that they are often fantastically beautiful.)  But the second is how expressive they are, not only singularly but also in great abundance, as women and men pile on the rings in the most beautiful and unique combinations.

The “Google Image” that awed me I have put below.  A woman bedecked in Zuni jewelry.  Her hands showing the years she’s lived.

Looking through these photographs of hands, you could see so much about the women who wore them, how they saw the world, how they saw themselves and the beauty they sought to express. 

Having the good fortune of seeing avid jewelry collectors on a daily basis I have such respect for people who know how to build a collection – and not the collection alone, but how they pair their jewelry each day as they dress themselves, showing the world a little bit of who they are with how they attire themselves.  These women make the jewelry they wear even more fantastic by how they pair it and by filling it with themselves.  A snake ring is beautiful.  A Cartier triple band is beautiful but put the right two together and it is art.  Sometimes how woman pair things make sense.   For instance sometimes I like to wear all my Native American jewelry together but other times the way a woman wears her rings can be idiosyncratic and yet somehow divine as she juxtaposes Victorian rose gold with the sleek modernity of Art Deco. 

And so as a project, my co-worker and I decided to pair some of the rings in the store with our imperfect hand poses to play with this art form we love so much-the styling of the hand.

Louise Brooks: Fashion Icon

Louise Brooks was an American dancer, model, actress and show girl from the late 20s early 30s. The style Brooks exhibited was like no one else. The dynamism of her style screams give me a cocktail, a cocktail ring of course.

Summer: A Time for Travel

Summer is always a fun time in Isadora’s.  Thousands of people visit the historic Pike Place Market each May through September, many of them taking a moment, a half an hour or even a half a day to pop into our store, and enjoy our collection. 

Seattle Pike Place Market

We so enjoy hearing each individual’s story as pass through our store and lives, enriching us with a greater sense of the people of this world we live in.  And sometimes those of us who work in the store get a chance to take a trip ourselves.

Tourism is not a new thing.  On my very favorite movies and novels (It is so rare I like both) is “A Room with a View” by E.M. Forster where the young Lucy Honeychurch is transformed by a trip to Italy during the early 20^th century.

Mt. Vesuvius Ash Cameo Brooch

I feel, the good vacations we eagerly anticipate, thoroughly enjoy, and hold as a memory for years to come.  The great vacations transform us.  And so I ask myself, how do we hold those memories after we leave, retain the beauty and the emotional sustenance they provide having returned to our normal life once again? 

Egyptian Revival Bracelet

I remember a quote from the movie Rebecca (another book/movie although I confess I never made it to the book after being captivated by Laurence Olivier’s Maxim de Winters).  Joan Fontaine’s character says, “You know, I , I wish there could be an invention . . . that bottled up the memory like perfume.  And it never faded, never got stale.  That whenever I wanted to, I could uncork the bottle and live the memory all over again.”

1920's Butterfly Wing Necklace

And I suppose one can’t truly live a memory again, but like Joan Fontaine’s imagined bottle, I believe an object can be the keeper for a memory.  You look at it and remember the smell of your vacation, the excitement, the transcendent moments.  And for me jewelry has always been a perfect memory holder.  It is something personal, so personal it is worn on your person and whether it is a ring on your finger or a locket on your neck you hold the memories close when you put that piece of jewelry on.

Vintage Italian Themed Charm Bracelet

And just as I love to look at my souvenir’s brought back from different parts of the world, I also like to look at what others chose to collect on trips aboard.  Particularly the tourists of yester year-whether it is an Italian cameo purchased on a Victorian lady’s grand tour, a piece of Egyptian revival enamel jewelry inspired by the opening of King Tut’s tomb, a British butterfly wing pendant sold at the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 or a sweet 50’s silver charm bracelet collected by a young girl as she traveled the world.