200-year-old china piece from Thailand

I've always said that one of the greatest parts of being in the world of jewelry making is all the wonderful people I meet. It was through Facebook that I met Tanya Boden, who together with her husband, Attit, owns Aardvark Silver in Bangkok, Thailand. Tanya's neighbor in Bangkok had a bucket of old Thai china, china that is about 200 years old, that he no longer wanted and when Tanya saw it, she thought of me. She wrote and asked if I'd like a few shards to make some jewelry with. And of course I did!

She sent me the cup cover shown above. Look at those beautiful blues! And even though it's of such an age, the gloss is still shiny and smooth. It's going to be awhile before I can start working on the piece since I'm busy right now with Christmas custom orders but I can't wait to begin on it. Meanwhile, I'm trying to come up with some ideas of what to do with it.

Tanya also very kindly sent me a piece of her mother-in-law's china. This is about 90 years old and there's no way I would break it! Isn't it beautiful? When I asked Tanya how she could bear to part with it, she said that she preferred crystal and sending me these pieces was her way of getting something with history out into the world.

I'm very appreciative of receiving these gifts from Tanya. Please stop by her website at Aardvark Silver and check out the fabulous jewelry she and her husband create and the silver jewelry findings they sell. And follow her on Facebook and on Twitter.

Thank you so much, Tanya!

19th Century shard of china - now pendant!

I received a lovely call from Sherrie Ruhl in Maryland a couple of weeks ago. She had a shard of 19th Century china that she wanted me to make into a pendant for her. She was full of compliments about my work and wanted to leave the design up to me. I found the story of how she found this piece of china fascinating and wanted to share it with you and Sherrie has kindly given me permission to do that.

"I dug that shard up out of my tiny backyard when I was homesteading in Ridgely's Delight in Baltimore City, now known as Camden Yards because Ridgely's Delight is next to the Orioles stadium. My house was built in the early 1800s and the whole broken bowl would have been buried in the yard - though I found only that small piece when I was renovating the property.

"I think the bowl is simply transfer ware - a common kind of pottery used in the early 1800s, probably exported to the USA from China.

"The shard has tremendous sentimental value to me - I remember the hot day my neighbor and I dug up the back yard and turned it into a beautiful courtyard with trees and roses and lots and lots of flowers. We also found old medicine bottles and an old gold ring."

And here's the finished pendant!



I sent a photo to Sherrie and she was very pleased with the finished result. She said she now can wear it instead of burying away her memories in a dusty box. It truly does make me happy to be able to transform a shard of china like this into something people can treasure for many years to come. I'll be sending this pendant off to Sherrie first thing in the morning and will be smiling all day. :)