“It is the supreme art of the teacher

to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
~Albert Einstein
I have been teaching since 1969, and I have become acutely aware of the firestorm teachers have been sucked into lately between No Child Left Behind and being implicated in the ills of budget deficits. Then, there is a current discussion in academia over the value of college...are we merely career training? Or, as I attempt to do, are professors responsible for igniting something more than multiple choice answers or fill in the blanks?

Where will the artists come from? The musicians? The writers? The creative spirits to look at something and see beyond...which brings me to this week's post...my jewelry elf~Sharon~returned from Florida with a new way to look at broken and vintage jewelry...the ultimate repurposing. I did not realize how much time and effort goes into this art until I had to repair a watch with a beaded band! Wow!

She has designed more of the bracelets with a mix of old and new... In my research I found that bracelets date back 7,000 years to ancient Egypt and throughout Africa in the cradle of civilization as well as in ancient China. Bracelets in Egypt and Africa were made with wood, stones, bones, and plant fibers and later copper and bronze. China produced the first known innovation to this popular jewelry with jade bracelets and elaborate gold bracelets starting in 2,000 B.C. (China has been manufacturing since the beginning of time, it seems!) Mesopotamia followed with gold bracelets as the pharaohs and emperors throughout the known world saw the need for more detailed bracelets which led to the invention of charm bracelets.

It seems the Victorians were the ones to personalize the bracelets and create themed charm bracelets...funny how things revive...like scrapbooking...very Victorian!

These bracelets that Sharon created are showstoppers...just filled with all kinds of vintage baubles and beads!





Interestingly, earrings are the number 1 jewelry accessory, and then bracelets are number 2. They outrank necklaces, pins, and rings.

So, as John Lennon said, "Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewelry.” {1963, at the high point of the group’s set during the Royal Variety Performance before members of the British Royal Family.}