Manhattan Sea Shells

     I don't think I blogged about my trip to NYC last May. It was mostly a fun trip, but of course there were some jewelry related tasks that I wanted to accomplish while I was there.
    One of those tasks was to seek and find a mythical jewelry supply house somewhere in the canyons of Manhattan. I took two trains to find it, and of course with my mighty Iphone maps, it wasn't too difficult to locate. The "warehouse" was 6 rooms on the second floor of a many floored building. The elevator emptied right into one of those rooms. Stepping out, it was necessary to avoid tramping all over items spilled from one of the hundreds of boxes lined up against every wall, 3 to 4 layers deep. Some rooms were messier than others but it was so amazing to see something so much messier than my own chaotic studio! It was over whelming from the first step out of the elevator.
     I searched every room, but of course I didn't see a fraction of the merchandise. There was  pearl section, but it was easy to assess that not one real pearl lived there. That was easy to pass by. There was a chain "corner" of one room, and the walkway was carpeted with pieces of chains layered a few inches thick. Of course, there wasn't a piece of sterling chain in the place.
    After hunting for hours, looking for a treasure, it came to me that I was wasting my vacation time. But I had already invested travel time, searching time, and I was empty handed. How disappointing. I kept at it for a while, but it finally became obvious that this was where all the cheap, crappy costume jewelry parts in the world came to die.
     But then  the gift of absolute clarity came, that I used QUALITY components in my work- beautiful real pearls, authentic, unusual stones, my own one of a kind glass beads. Not this crap.
      I was free now to resume my vacation.
     But I did howeve find a few treasures from this frustrating search. I found seashells in a box  overflowing with really bad beads. I had to buy something, but I have never worked with seashells before. Capitola came to mind, and I thought it would be fun to make something beachy for Capitola. So the seashells came home with me, and I am so glad  now. The two pieces I made from these shells are so beautiful, and I find them quite different from other touristy shell pieces I have noticed. I hope you think so too!