The Flickr Graduatedpearlnecklace Image Generatr

“How small a thing is needed to make or ruin us!”― Guy de Maupassant, “The Necklace”

The theme for “Smile on Saturday” for the 10th of June is “portray a book title”, and the first title that sprung immediately to mind was not of a faerie tale as you might think, but that of the very first adult story I ever read: “The Necklace”, a novella written by French writer by Guy de Maupassant, which my Grandfather thought I might enjoy considering as a young teenager how much I loved jewellery. "The Necklace" is known for its twist ending, which was a hallmark of de Maupassant's style. The story was first published on 17 February 1884 in the French newspaper Le Gaulois.

Although the necklace in the novella is a diamond necklace, to portray the book title I have used one of my maternal Grandmother’s Mikimoto double strand pearl necklaces. There are other pieces of family jewellery from the Art Nouveau era in the jewellery box in keeping with the spirit of the age in which “The Necklace” is set. These pieces of family jewellery have survived the Great War, the Great Depression and Blitz of the Second World War, and have travelled all around the world to places like Paris, Madrid, Aden and Cairo: they have signs of wear and age, but my what stories they could tell!

I hope you like my choice for the theme this week, and that it makes you smile.

With the news we hear today, it is very easy to forget that for all the bad, the world is full of lovely surprises and kind people.

I have made some wonderful, extremely special and lasting friendships with certain people I have met through Flickr. Some I have been fortunate enough to meet in person, whilst others I have yet to have that pleasure, and yet I have the same affinity and closeness to them.

This beautiful cameo comes from one of the latter variety of my treasured Flickr friends. I have never met her in person, but we bonded so easily and chat all the time. I treasure her friendship for the precious gift it is. Much was my surprise when this Christmas I received this gorgeous cameo from her as a gift. She knows that I love to wear lapel pins, and she thought I might like it, and indeed I do! I absolutely love it, and I have already worn it several times since Christmas Day when I opened the green, velvet lined box it comes in.

Set in gold, this cameo was a gift to my friend from her stepfather. She is, I believe, hand carved from translucent shell and the style of her places her anywhere between the 1920s and the 1960s. Set in gold, she can be worn as I wear her, as a brooch, or as a pendant via a small loop discreetly added at the top just behind the band of gold.

I am so grateful to my dear, treasured friend, for thinking of me so fondly to have sent me such a precious and thought filled gift.

I decided to display her with two strands of my Grandmother\'s Mikimoto pearls from the 1930s.

I was inspired to take this photo by another Flick friend, hehaden, who recently uploaded an image of a cameo without its gold setting against a porcelain background. You can see it here www.flickr.com/photos/hellie55/52663746814/in/photostream/ or in the first comment below. I was so taken with the colours, that I decided to use a similar background with colours complimentary to the cameo. In this case it is an Eighteenth Century hand painted Japanese Kutani Ware plate that was given by my Great Aunt when I was fourteen years old and first started collecting decorative porcelain seriously. Thank you for inspiring me hehaden.

“The pearl is the queen of gems and the gem of queens.” – Grace Kelly.

My maternal Grandmother may not have been a queen, but in many respects, she was very much like Queen Elizabeth II. Only six years older than the Queen and being a young woman in the 1930s and 1940s, she felt all her adult life that she could never been seen in public without wearing her pearl necklace, a double strand of graduating cultured pearls with a platinum, diamond and pearl clasp given to her by her parents when she was twenty-one, and her cultured pearl clip earrings which she was given to her by her parents when she was eighteen.

The theme for “Looking Close… on Friday” for the 22nd of January “earrings”. I was originally going to submit a photo of some other family heirloom earrings in my possession, a pair of Regency ebony and ivory cameos I lovingly called Flora and Fauna when I was a child, but then I considered that I submitted them for the theme of “earrings” for the “Smile on Saturday” group last year. Instead, I have chosen these pearl earrings and necklace which remind me more of my maternal Grandmother than any other possessions of hers I own. These pieces of family jewellery have survived the Blitz and have travelled all around the world to places like Paris, Madrid, Aden and Cairo: they have signs of wear and age, but my what stories they could tell! These pearl earrings always make me smile and think of my maternal Grandmother, and the Queen. I hope that you like them too.