The necklace was a cute one, still in its original box from the 1960s. There were several of them available and we bought the lot. Like many necklaces of the time, it was figural with an unusual articulation—it depicted the three wise monkeys of folklore—all in one monkey. The pewter monkey’s head could be turned and locked into place to depict either “hear no evil,” “see no evil,” or “speak no evil,” depending on your mood.

“Ring out the old, ring in the new. Ring happy bells across the snow. The year is going, let him go. Ring out the false and ring in the true.” -Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Throughout my four years of designing jewelry at B.BOLD Jewelry for Boomer Girls, I’ve occasionally found myself at a loss as to how to take my designs to the next level.

For many years, I was a professor of Creative Writing, teaching the art of writing contemporary poetry. Writing is very similar to creating jewelry. To improve, you need to have a good sense of what you need to learn next.

I am a lover of all things flowered. I have many garden beds around my home and I spend much of the year tending them. It stands to reason that I would also love all types of flowered jewelry. I have written before about normal flowered styles in jewelry. Many of the well known vintage jewelry designers incorporated flowers into their designs and they are very popular. Throughout the year, flower jewelry sells very well on Ruby Lane.

I live in New Mexico, where the state stone is Turquoise. It would be practically a crime for me to create turquoise jewelry without my knowing as much as I can about it. My special interest is in Natural Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, which has had no treatment. I think it’s the most beautiful turquoise in the world. The problem with turquoise, these days, is that there are many look a-likes, especially when it comes to Sleeping Beauty with its perfect robin’s egg blue. Plastic can be made to look like turquoise; “chalk” turquoise dust can be reconstituted to look like the real thing; turquoise can be stabilized with resins and dyed to look better than it really is. Howlite, a porous white stone, can be colored to look like Sleeping Beauty. Some of the imitations are so good that experts find it difficult to spot fakes with the naked eye.

Ahhhh...purple. The color associated with royalty. It symbolizes power, and nobility and conveys a feeling a wealth and extravagance by those who wear it. Purple is also associated with creativity and seems to have many mystic qualities attached to it.

But most of all, purple is a very popular color with clothing and jewelry designers. And this time of the year, with the cooler days, it is seen out in force in the deepest and most dramatic shades of purple out there.

I love the cool days that this time of the year brings. Summer in North Carolina can be oppressive with the high temperatures and horrible humidity, so when the days get shorter and the temperatures come down, it makes me very relieved. It also makes me start thinking about taking out clothing with longer sleeves and thicker fabrics.

Jewelry designs and colors also seem to change in the fall. When it is cooler, the weight of heavier jewelry pieces (often glass - my favorite choice) seems to fit right in with the fabrics that change too.

When I first opened B.BOLD Jewelry for Boomer Girls in 2008, it was October. I was completely unprepared for the Holiday season ahead and had no idea that the days after Thanksgiving would be the busiest time of year in my shop. As a result, my first season was disorganized and stressful. I felt as if I were groping around in the dark. Since then, I’ve learned a few things about how to prepare. Here are a few ideas.

1) Make sure that your inventory is organized and labeled. I use plastic freezer bags I can write on with a sharpie. Each bag has the inventory number in order with the item of jewelry inside. Air-tight sealed plastic bags are a great way to keep jewelry looking shiny and new. All of the bags are filed in a row, in two banker’s boxes (those long, skinny cardboard file boxes).

Tourmaline is a widely used alternate birthstone for the month of October. Tourmaline is a gem that is available in a fantastic range of colors, so it is an appropriate substitute for Opal, a stone which is known to display a play of colors.