As Time Goes By

Posted by Lyn D jewelry design on November 27, 2025
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Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?

Since the 1980s my go-to Thanksgiving side dish was broccoli casserole. Although I shared that recipe, it was always requested for our Thanksgiving gatherings. But as the years pass, our family gatherings – which used to be quite large! – have dwindled down to barely a few. Parents and some siblings have passed, some have moved thousands of miles away, ….. the only constant in life is change. We are older now, and are now invited to local friends and neighbors places for Thanksgiving. They tell me, “Please, just bring yourselves!”.  I think they don’t want me to ‘go through any trouble’ and just enjoy the day. So instead of cooking something to share, we’ll just take a bottle of good wine. And I’ll make that broccoli casserole for hubby and me, to go with the leftovers that are almost always sent home with us. Wishing you all a very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving.

The Greatest

Posted by Lyn D jewelry design on November 20, 2025
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If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?

If I could meet a historical figure, it would be Jesus the Messiah. To hear him speak, witness the miracles, and learn from his teachings would be the greatest experience one could ever have.

It’s a Secret

Posted by Lyn D jewelry design on November 15, 2025
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What book are you reading right now?

I’m reading The Secret of Secrets. Well, I’ll be starting it next week.

The perfect sign.

Posted by Lyn D jewelry design on November 13, 2025
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What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found (and kept)?

A heart shaped rock. I asked for a sign from God that life would get better. I looked down a saw a large heart shaped rock. 30 years ago. I still have it.

Beautiful Chrysocolla

Posted by Lyn D jewelry design on August 14, 2025
Posted in: Hand Polished Stones, Lyn D jewelry design, Necklace. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Along with about 50 other stones, Chrysocolla is one of my favorites.  So many shades of blues, greens, browns, and rusts, ….. It’s easy to get lost in the colors’ movements.  During the polishing phase, while moving from wheel to wheel, I love watching the beauty of the stone slowly appear.

I’m a minimalist when it comes to wire-wrapping. For me, it’s all about the stone. For a bit of whimsy, I’ve added accents of faceted micro turquoise in the bird nest wrap. They remind me of little spinning blue planets. The touch of blue from the turquoise micro beads both complement and bring out the blues hiding in this lovely stone. Is it planet Earth? Is it the universe? I’ll leave that up to the new owner to decide.

Yee Haw!

Posted by Lyn D jewelry design on July 21, 2025
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Hand forged (by my cousin, the blacksmith) dimes and pennies. Coins are in dated pairs. cowgirls just wanna have fun!

New Home!

Posted by Lyn D jewelry design on July 17, 2025
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2023 – what a year! We sold our house in CA and moved clear ‘cross country to beautiful and serene South Carolina – where the days are lazy (and hot and humid), the old live oak trees are beautiful with their Spanish moss (which is neither moss nor Spanish), the ocean waters are warm and filled with delicious fresh fish and shellfish (oyser roasts, anyone), and the people are friendly with their Southern charm. We’ve settled in quite nicely.

Although mostly retired now, the jewelry making continues to keep me busy. Our community has a boutique on the first Saturday of the month, rain or shine (can’t complain about those 85′ squalls!). On my table one will find my fun and unique jewelry pieces as well as croched hats and scarves. It all keeps me busy and enjoying the semi-retirement, adding in bird and critter watching (ever heard of a fox squirrel?) while enjoying my morning coffee.

That’s it for now. Wishing y’all a lovely and blessed day!

Colors of the Story of Christ

Posted by Lyn D jewelry design on March 25, 2016
Posted in: Lyn D jewelry design.

In my local crafters club, The Torrance Craftsmen’s Guild, we have a great number of talented artists.  While recently participating in a craft show, I had the time to leave my booth and browse – to check out some of the goodies that our craft club members had made and were up for sale.  Lena’s booth is one of my favorites.  She makes beautifully crocheted pieces of wearable art, sews flowing ‘butterfly’ blouses, and makes creative jewelry with small seed beads (those little beads intimidate me!). At her table I spied a lovely beaded bracelet with the most unusual combination of colors – yellow, green, purple, and white.  After many compliments on her creativity and use of colors, she shared a confession with me – while out strolling in Kenneth Hahn Park, Lena came upon the most unusual and curious looking flower, one she had never seen before.  She was inspired by the colors and decided to rush home and make something using those colors, capturing the flower’s beauty forever in her mind.

Passion flower Bracelet by Lena

Well, I too happen to love color.  In fact, color is what initially got me hooked on stones and beads.  Anyhow, I stared at that pretty little bracelet for awhile, and then it hit me – I KNEW the flower Lena had seen!  I hurriedly went back to my booth, rummaged thru my photo greeting cards (yes, I do a bit of photography as well), and found a picture of that flower.  It is called a Passion Flower – Passiflora.  I knew this because the passion flower had always been a favorite of mine and as a kid I looked forward to the flowers blooming on our fence vine.  I rushed the photo card back to Lena to confirm my thoughts.  BINGO!

pic for blog

What follows is the story of the Passion Flower.

In the 1500’s when the Spanish missionaries saw this flower it reminded them of the Passion of Christ.  These are the representations:

  • the 10 petals and sepals represent the 10 faithful apostles (less Peter and Judas)
  • the flower’s radial filaments, which can number more than 100, represent Jesus’ crown of thorns
  • the 3 stigmata represent the 3 nails
  • the chalice shaped ovary (below the stigmata) represents the Holy Grail
  • the 5 anthers (below the ovary) represent the 5 wounds
  • the tendrils of the plant represent the whips used

Given that today is Good Friday, I thought today would be a fitting time to share this story, a flower’s story of the Passion of the Christ.

Oh, yes – Lena was thrilled to finally know the name of the uniquely beautiful flower she saw that day in the park!  And, I believe, she charmingly captured the flower’s colors in her pretty little bracelet.

Happy Easter to all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Real Renaissance Woman

Posted by Lyn D jewelry design on September 15, 2015
Posted in: Lyn D jewelry design, Lynette Vandeveer. Tagged: , , , , .

Recently, a friend of mine referred to me as “A real Renaissance woman”.  I knew it was meant to be a compliment so I smiled and said, “thank you!” While I always enjoyed dressing up and going to the Renaissance Faire, I must confess:  I really had no idea what a “Renaissance woman” was.  So I looked it up in our modern day encyclopedia, the internet.

  • dictionary.com states that a Renaissance woman is “a woman who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field.”

Hmmm…  OK, I’ll accept that.  While I have profound knowledge in my jewelry making, I also have knowledge of and great appreciation and proficiency in several other fields. To name a few, there’s sailing, music (especially old R&B and Motown, late 50’s and 60’s rock and roll music, and 1970’s rock music, New Wave, and disco – stop the teasing!), dancing to that music, cooking, wine appreciation, family board games like Scrabble and Taboo, card games including poker and Cribbage, baseball, road trips, fishing (freshwater preferred), animals and flowers, cruising – I could go on.

  • wikihow.com gives several tips on becoming a Renaissance woman/person:

    • Be talented athletically

    • Be musical

    • Understand art

    • Be educated

    • Be well-read

    • Have a good family and economic life

    • Be brave

    • Be thoughtful and generous

    • Be courteous

    • Be a leader

While I do or have been all the above, I believe that the most important traits to practice on a daily basis are courtesy, thoughtfulness, generosity, and bravery; and especially one which is not listed:  happiness.  We owe it to ourselves and all those we love to be happy – happy with who we are and happy with what we have.

Me?  A Renaissance woman?  I guess the answer would be yes.  And thank you, my friend, for giving me one of the best compliments ever.

I love the hat

Chatoyance

Posted by Lyn D jewelry design on September 1, 2014
Posted in: Hand Polished Stones, Lyn D jewelry design, Lynette Vandeveer. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

Chatoyant – adjective:  having a changeable luster or color with an undulating narrow band of white light <a chatoyant gem> 

Origin:  Coined from the French “œil de chat,” meaning “cat’s eye”

Chatoyant.  Chatoyance.  Chatoyancy.  I love the way the word flows off my tongue.  It has such a beautiful feel to the mouth when spoken.  Yummy.   But enough about the sensuality of the word, let’s talk about what it means!

Have you ever looked at a stone and noticed the light dancing inside?  Have you ever looked at a polished stone and saw what looked like ‘angel hair’, that white iridescent trim and stringy stuff we used to put on Christmas trees (before it was banned)?  Have you ever looked at a polished agate and were teased by what might be a hologram somewhere within the lines of the stone?  This is chatoyance – the playful dance of light caused by fibrous inclusions or cavities within a stone.  It is what creates the ‘star’ in a star sapphire or star ruby.  

When polishing stones, nothing thrills me more than to discover that my piece is waiting for me to bring out its chatoyance, the inner glow, the soul of the stone.

From my collection

Beautiful chatoyant AGATE, from my collection.

Hand polished by me

BLUE TIGER EYE, hand polished by me.

internet image

STAR RUBY, internet image