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Earliest Jewelry Memory

Echo

Veteran

I remember once hearing a financial analyst say that your earliest memory of money can often inform how you treat it as an adult. Likewise, I have heard members here describe how early experiences with clothing have shaped their views on what they wear and how they shop.

I just realized the other day, as I pulled the trigger on a jewelry purchase, that I have a LOT of early associations with jewelry. I never met my paternal grandmother (she passed before I was born), but she passed on a lot of ideas about jewelry to my father. I will say up front that she sounded like a snob. My father most definitely was not, but he did believe many of the same things she taught him regarding jewelry.

First, I remember knowing what constituted "fine jewelry" before I even started school (precious gems - diamond, sapphire, ruby, emerald; gold at 18K or higher; platinum). My father repeatedly said that gold was GOLD coloured; platinum was white; end of story. Sterling was costume and white gold an oxymoron. And the value of a piece came mostly from its and gold weight; metal weights and purity were what held value. He used to say, "You will only wear costume until you can tell the difference. Better to wear nothing." I was wearing mostly "real" by the time I was 20.

So as I purchased a tennis bracelet (estate, not new), I realized that many would consider it "dated". I have a preference for yellow gold (go figure!) in 18K, and the bracelet I bought has diamonds separated by ribbons of yellow gold. What made me pull the trigger when there were many other bracelets that were more "current"? This one was just shy of 19 grams of 18K gold. 3 ct worth of stones was just the icing on the cake. They let it go for a song (likely because no one else was interested in this 1980's-tastic piece!).

Anyway, thinking it over I better understand why I purchase the things I do. The attitudes I have I am unlikely to shake, at least in preferences for my own purchases. But I also understand that many other people have VERY different attitudes for reasons that are just as deep-rooted and complex and valid (or invalid?) as my own. Some do not value jewelry at all; some place more value on provenance and designer name (my dad always calculated scrap/market value and what his own jeweler would charge to custom-make a piece instead); some prefer a look without the price tag; some prefer materials other than traditional.

What are YOUR earliest memories about jewelry? Why do you wear what you wear and prefer what you prefer? What is worth the money (if anything) and what isn't?

17 replies

Latest reply was from Echo

LACeleste

Veteran

This is an awesome topic! When I was 4 and 1/2, my next door neighbor, a harried mom of 3 rambunctious boys, saw me playing outside and told me she had something I would like. I sat expectantly on her front porch and she came back with a giant black and white hippie macrame tote filled to the brim with JEWELRY!! Gold! Silver! Gems! A pirate's treasure trove!
She told me that she didn't have any daughters and it would make her so happy to give it all to me! She told me a little bit about the history of each piece and the occasion when I might wear certain things. The phrase "fancy restaurant" sticks in my mind. That bag was so heavy when I walked back home but I barely felt my feet on the ground. I was so HAPPY! Unbelievably, my strict Mom let me keep my loot!

Fast forward 5 years and that same nice neighbor had a new baby girl named Julia. I was a serious kid and often worried about my ill-gotten gain. I thought of returning it--but possession is 9/10 of the law and i wasn't THAT good, so I did not.
I still have some of those pieces and I will never forget the kindness of my neighbor.
Still a jewelry person after all those years! I wear antique and vintage from many eras. Some fine, some fun. I love it all!

deb

Veteran

I still have the 14k ring I wore when I was two as well as the gold locket I wore when I was 4. I too knew all about fine jewelry. Sadly I lost the hand carved cameo my mom gave me when I was 12. I think I left it in my gym locker. I raise my daughter to know all about fine jewelry also and now she is a CFO for a jewelry company.

Ledonna N.

Veteran

My grandmother and her faux pearl bracelet. Was my first vivid memory. I was very young and my grandma would always wear the most beautiful jewelry . It was big and shinny and costume yes, every single piece was fake. I did not find this out until I was grown. My grandmother was very well off financially had her own business but loved costume jewelry.

When she passed away I was gifted every single piece to include the stretch faux pearls that her husband, my grandfather gifted her with, one anniversary many many years ago. I love it and it will be with me until the day I pass into the next life. It is stretched out and almost falling apart but I love it and her and think about her often and all the costume jewelry she has passed on to me.

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deb

Veteran

ladywone, you can restring the pearls. The bead shops have all of the tools and they will help you right in the store. Have you ever considered that?

Echo

Veteran

ladywone, I agree with deb! Get them restrung (either do it yourself or have a professional do it) and wear them! Pieces passed down are precious no matter what they are made of.

LACeleste: What a wonderful thing to have happen! I can only imagine your delight with your bag of treasure!

deb: How exciting about your daughter! That is truly fabulous that she is CFO of a jewelry company. You taught her well!

Ledonna N.

Veteran

Deb, never even considered it. I will have to do that I just use it as a display piece now, because it is so delicate. I'm going to have to do some investigating . Thank you Deb. Echo This is such a wonderful thread/topic.

Joy

Veteran

I remember gifts of costume jewelry as a child but I was too much a tomboy to like or wear it. There was a gold tone chain with my initial as a pendant but I never wore it wondering why I would wear my own initial. The first piece I remember wearing was a skeleton gopher jaw that an uncle fashioned into a brooch for me. It got lots of horrified looks and comments. This was when I was about 8 years old. Oh, and a wooden mouse pin with leather ears and tail and red rhinestone eyes that a grandfather brought me from Sweden.

rachylou

Veteran

I remember:

My mum telling me I threw her wedding ring down the heating vent when I was a toddler
Getting to wear my baby necklace - a gold pendant, heart shaped with some sort of Chinese word cut out
Cash turned into jewelry when the Communist Party took power in Jamaica
My aunties searching wardrobes for my grandma's jewelry when she passed
My uncle showing me my grandma's jewelry and talking about the *fire* in one of her rings
All my mum's gems being stolen, including the emerald ring (my birthstone) my dad gave her when I was born
Pearls on my 18th birthday

I don't really think of jewelry as fashion. Or I'm strictly costume jewelry because I love fashion so much...

Adelfa

Veteran

I lived in Latin America and I remember being 4 or 5 and envying the earrings of my playmates, who had their ears pierced at birth. (I wasn't allowed.) I also remember the tiny round religious medallions they wore. I almost think they were 18K because they were so very yellow.

I pierced DD1's ears at 20 months and I caught a lot of flak for it--piercing babies' ears was not common here 30 years ago. So I left DD2's ears untouched until she was 25 months and old enough to demand that her ears be pierced. I told her it would hurt and she would have to sit still and she was adamant. I didn't need any more encouragement--we drove to the mall and had it done.

I loved buying little earrings for my girls and changing them according to their mood or their outfits.

Suzanne (ambergreen)

Veteran

What a great topic (says a jewelry lover).

The memories that I always think of as some of my earliest about jewelry were when I'd go through my mom's jewelry drawer in the 60s to early 70s and admire her collection. Most pieces were costume, since after WWII I think showy costume had come to the fore of fashion. Many of her (very few things compared to my current collection!) were from my parents' European honeymoon and life in England while my dad did his PhD at Cambridge (we're American, though--well, except me, if you count by birthplace).

One favorite of my mom's items was a brooch by a British maker that she gave me some years ago, and I now collect certain vintage pieces by them. So the past has indeed influenced me that way.

I think I gravitate toward costume pieces (especially with fabulous design) and sterling partly because of the influence of the decades around the 60s and partly because I never really liked yellow gold on me (real or fake). This has probably saved me a good deal of cash (not that that was a goal).

@Joy -- were those mice from Sweden?? We had mice pieces like that too, but mine was a bookmark! The leather mouse tail was the bookmark and wooden mice were the ends, complete with the leather ears and rhinestone eyes (one of those two mice had blue eyes, I think the other had red, but as I remember, one red fell out and I replaced it with a green...). I had no idea where those were from, but we are part Swedish and maybe there's a connection. I'll have to ask my mom...!

Anonymous

My first memory of my own jewelry was when I was 4 or 5. My mom gave me a little gold (fake) necklace with a bunny pendant who's ears moved for Easter. I loved it. I felt so grown up because it looked like the delicate gold chains my mom wore (still does). A few years later my mom went back to work. I remember being in department stores with her and she would look at all the costume jewelry that went with the shoulder pads and big hair of the 80's. She always would stick to her few simple but real pieces. Of course as kid I thought she was nuts! Who wouldn't want a huge plastic bead necklace with matching button earrings the size donut holes.

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

My first memory of jewellery was actually my dad's dress watch. I remember that it was really heavy and had an orange face and it was HUGE. When my dad took it off that meant he wasn't going back to work so that made me really happy!!

My dad recently started to wear it again, and we had a long talk about it. It is an Omega that he won for work recognition in a very large international corporation which resulted in him training at IBM in the 1970's! He got the watch cleaned and put a new battery in it and still wears it now.

I recently held it - it's not really that heavy and not really that big! My dad said it might be because I've grown up some :p

I personally don't wear any "real jewellery" - I think my most expensive piece would be my new ticker. I do have ring finger open if anyone knows any nice young men who wants to put a ring on it

Astrid

Veteran

My first piece of jewelry was a children's bracelet that was a gift by my godmother, with my name on it and my birthday in the back. My parents didn't buy me any jewelry, they were both students and had to keep the money together. I'm always going to keep it of course, but I remember I never liked to wear it. I wasn't a fan of yellow gold eben back then and I hated that I was always told to be extra cautious so I wouldn't lose it. But I LOVED my first watch. And really I've always had one since I got my first one. I couldn't do without a watch, but I could do without jewelry. And it's funny but I think I would buy a 500€ watch if I had the money but I would never spend that amount on jewelry. The jewelry I have is mostly real, meaning neither plastic nor alloyed, but it's all inexpensive. The jewelry has more of an emotional value. Although I do have a few hand me down pieces where I have no idea of the worth.

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Anonymous

My very first piece of real jewelry was a pair of tiny, tiny pearl studs. The pearls were tiny, but of the best quality I could afford. From that day forward, I adored everything pearl.

I decided pearls were going to become my "signature" jewelry item. I wear them every chance I get. They make me as happy today as they did when I bought that first pair of stud earrings.

April

Veteran

No memories of fine jewelry, alas.

But ah, the costume jewelry of my childhood...

I remember a gift shop that we stopped in on the way back from a relative's house when I was five or six years old. They had a number of inexpensive trinkets for children, one of which was a cheap cardboard box that contained a collection of ten little plastic rings with colorful, sparkly plastic stones. I coveted that collection so intensely that I seem to remember taking it home with me, but I'm not sure if that actually happened.

The second was when i was in first grade and an aunt sent me one of those Avon pins with a secret compartment that flipped open to reveal a solid perfume inside. Remember those? Mine was this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintag.....ld-Perfume

I remember it took a while to figure out why a piece of jewelry had such a strong scent.

TraceyLiz65

(website)

Veteran

I am going to switch this up and say my first memory regarding money was when my mother took me shopping and showed me this faux fur winter coat knowing I would love it and asked me if I wanted it... later my older sister told me how many hours my father had to work to pay for that... I felt guilty at first, then it quickly turned to admiration for my father!

Echo

Veteran

I love reading all the replies. Our first memories or experiences have been so varied and interesting.

Sterling: I have no recollection of pearls from when I was a child. I think they just never came up. Although I'm not a huge pearl fan, it is one of the few jewelry areas where I am "free" from experience dictating value, and I very much prefer baroque pearls, grey and black (mostly Tahitian, but some natural grey akoyas, too) and tin cup styles.

lyn*: Watches were one of the few areas where my mum's influence was more important. As a child I wanted to wear a watch just like my dad's, but my mum thought I was too young for Roman numerals and didn't want me wearing a large face like a man's watch. I HATED the watches she made me wear (though they were decent watches), and I've rarely worn one since. I have several, but only wear them when I need them, which is rarely.

April: I remember the Avon pieces! Every Christmas my aunt would send me the collectible perfume bottles shaped like ladies and the solid perfume carriers, too. Fond memories!

Joy: I love your association with subversive pieces. Fun to creep people out, and I very much appreciate the skull jewelry some members here have.

Adelfa: It is so interesting you bring up piercing and culture. That is a whole different can of worms, but it is fascinating the different expectations people have depending on their dominant cultural influences.