The Fluidity of Time
For years after my grandmother passed away, boxes of unkempt chains, pendants, rings, pins, and other miscellaneous jewelry sat at the top of my mother’s closet. Thirteen was too young to inherit their contents, let alone appreciate the pieces I would find once I sifted through them. When I was given reign to discover what treasures lay within, I realized that I had been granted access to something more profound than a mix of metals and yellowed pearls.
Losing my grandma relatively young, my memory of her is muddled. I have vague images of her — the way her nose would crinkle toward her almond eyes when she smiled and the faint scent of her aged perfume that would flood my senses when I placed my head against her chest. I remember how I used to be stunned by the length of her hair when she would unwind her bun and that she didn’t eat chocolate. But beyond these few sentiments there sits a void. I was never old enough to get a real sense of her presence, her style, or her stories.
Looking through the pieces she left behind, this void, once dark and empty, became colored. Everything was strewn in an unorganized heap of pouches and miscellaneous boxes, but as I intentionally untangled chains and opened lids, I was discovering pieces of her that I had been deprived of. I studied her enamel pins adorned with feathers, mismatched earrings that had lost their pair, and glass gems fallen from their settings. Through these physical tokens of her life, her presence washed over me. Among the mess, I also uncovered pieces that were delicate and preserved, still glistening under my bedroom light. Pieces that embodied the fluidity of time, as metals that were once warmed against my grandmother’s skin were given a second life against mine.
Enriched by untold histories, ancestral pieces add a dimension of style that cannot be bought. The soul they carry makes lived-in pendants or signet rings easily discerned from the vintage-inspired pieces that fill today’s market. The addition of a vintage piece transforms a look to one that’s purposeful in commemorating the past and refusing to let it die.