I’m on a new mission – after coming into possession of a vintage jewelry box from a woman I’ve nicknamed “Rose,” I’m taking her jewelry on adventures around the world, returning to the places she purchased each piece and wearing them there in her honor.
How I Met Rose
I’m not one to purchase a keychain or a snow globe on my various adventures. My go-to souvenirs are books and jewelry – what more could a woman want?
As I’ve traveled my way through my global bucket list, I’ve begun to collect jewelry, doing my best to purchase from local artist using local materials and designs true to that area.
During my trip to France in 2024, I purchased a pair of beautiful earrings, which an artist hand-picked French flowers, preserved them in resin, and fashioned them into clouds that had delicate, iridescent raindrops floating from them. They were gorgeous.
I did my best to protect them as I traveled, but when I returned home, one of the raindrop beads had sadly been broken beyond repair. However, my grandmother is a jewelry artist, and raised me to make and repair my own jewelry. Not all was lost! I realized I could simply rearrange the beads to accommodate a new bead in the center, which would make it appear like the design had always had two different beads, and it wasn’t a broken and repaired piece.
The iridescent beads reminded me of a popular style I’d seen in vintage jewelry, so I went to my mother, who happens to have a box of broken vintage jewelry that she uses to repair other pieces, just like this.
I didn’t find what I was looking for, so my mom handed me a plastic container full of jewelry that she had just purchased from a garage sale. As soon as I opened the box, I got lost in a story that I may never know the true extent of.
Immediately, a porcelain pin grabbed my attention. It had a word painted at the bottom of the circular frame, and after a Google search, I found it was the name of a French city known for its porcelain. I had a little laugh to myself, thinking that of course I would immediately be drawn to the one piece from France in the box. However, it was not the only piece from France, nor was it the only piece from a location that had a special connection to me. I got lost in the stories told in each piece of jewelry – earrings from Germany, a compact from Ireland, earrings from Nepal, and a set of pins from the Olympics.
Whoever the previous owner of the jewelry was – I felt a kinship to her. She’d traveled to so many place that held importance to me, and beyond that, she had great taste. She was also clearly a theatre nerd, as she had several comedy and tragedy mask pieces. A woman cut from the same cloth!
It was also clear, based on the style of her jewelry, that not only had she been an extensive traveller and a woman enthralled by the arts, but she was a woman who traveled to an extent far beyond her time. It would have been quite unusual for a woman to travel in the way she clearly had, based on the contents of her jewelry box. She reminded me of my great-grandmother, who similarly traveled around the world in a way that was extremely uncommon for women in that time.
I felt so connected to Rose, who I nicknamed as such because of the large quantity of floral jewelry in her collection. It felt like a tether was stretching between this person I would never meet – I realized that one day, I would too leave behind a jewelry box filled with mementos from my adventures across the world. I felt like I was looking in a mirror across time, and wished I could have known more about the woman on the other side.
As I looked through her collection of jewelry, I began to add new cities to my travel wishlist. Rose wrote on little slips of paper tucked into each plastic bag, noting where she’d purchased the piece, or little details about the piece. Sterling silver from Siam. Shell buttons from Paris. Hand-carved ivory. Opals. Patent-pending designs.
After numerous pieces sparked inspiration for me, I decided to embark on this new adventure – bringing Rose’s jewelry back to the places she’d purchased them in, retracing her steps, and wearing those pieces in those places in her honor.
Where Rose and I Have Traveled
The Met
My first adventure was simple, but fitting! I brought Rose with me to New York to visit The Met, a place I can imagine her having visited with her clear love for the arts and fashion. These crystal and black stone earrings were a fun piece to kick off my adventures with.
The Eras Tour
When I got tickets to The Eras Tour for the final show of the tour in Vancouver (I’m still pinching myself), I knew I had to bring Rose with. A spontaneous adventure? An iconic tour that will no doubt go down in history? An epicenter of girlhood and femininity? Yeah, that’s a place that Rose would have thrived in. I brought her with my in the form of a pearl pin, which I wore at the collar of my denim jacket.
The Capilano Suspension Bridge
This park has been on my bucket list for years, and it is exactly the type of place an adventurous soul like Rose would have loved. I had to bring her with, wearing the same pearl pin I’d brought with my to Vancouver. Rose and I crossed one of the most iconic suspension bridges in the world together, on the same trip that we listened to one of the greatest songwriters of the greatest bridges perform. What a deal.
Afternoon Tea at The Plaza
When one is presented with the opportunity for a lovely afternoon tea at The Plaza, one must simply wear their shiniest earrings from their vintage jewelry box, which is why I brought a set of large square crystal studs with me. I think Rose would have approved.
R + J on Broadway
With Rose’s clear love of theatre, I think she would have also enjoyed her jewelry joining me for attendance of one of the most iconic shows to hit Broadway in recent years. I was so excited to enjoy this theatre-in-the-round show with the same set of square crystal studs.
Boston – 125 Tremont Street
This is a unique piece of Rose’s jewelry – while many of her pieces are labelled by the city or the country she purchased the piece in, this pin has the specific address listed that she purchased it in. Naturally, I had to go to that exact address, and a Google search told me that a silversmith used to occupy that building. I didn’t know what to expect when I got there, but I had a secret hope that there would still be some form of a jewelry store there.
What I did not expect was to find that the building had been demolished.
The former building was, curiously enough, located just next door to the Orpheum Theatre – knowing her passion for theatre, it made me wonder if she caught a show there and purchased this pin before or after seeing the show. Or, maybe it’s just all a coincidence.
Los Angeles – The LA Times Festival of Books
With books and writing being such a huge part of my life, I had to bring Rose along with me to the LA Times Festival of Books, which was an absolute dream to attend. For this adventure, I brought a pair of lovely white flower earrings with me, which fit the energy of the trip for me.