I could talk for days about turquoise. I could look through hundreds of pages of pretty turquoise items. Every time I see the color, my eyes light up and it always catches my attention. Even variations of "true" turquoise often make me just as happy! Dark turquoise, light turquoise, medium turquoise, green turquoise – they are all beautiful!
It’s week three in the series, Turquoise How I Love Thee and here are my five favorite things this week that share the color I hold in my heart.
1. I feel fortunate to have an authentic turquoise and silver bracelet very similar to these pictured. My bracelet was a gift from my mom and it suits me so well. She's always been great at choosing gifts for my sister and I. The bracelet was purchased in New Mexico and I was told by a professor in college years ago that he thought it came from the Snow White Mine (he was a turquoise collector). Upon further investigation, I believe the turquoise is actually from The Johnny Bull Mine, located in Southern New Mexico. It is currently an abandoned mine. I'm not sure if that makes the turquoise more valuable or not but I sure do love the color. It's very soft and on the lighter range of the spectrum, almost identical to the color in the top bracelet pictured here. Someday, I hope to have a stack of these rich and beautiful turquoise and silver bangles. I'll keep my eyes peeled in second hand shops and antique stores until the next piece sings out to me. In the meantime, it sure is fun hunting for them!
2. I love a beautiful doorway. There is something magical about a doorway with gorgeous architecture and carefully thought out shape and design. The bit of rust on this stunning turquoise doorway adds to the character and intrigue. Who uses this doorway? Is it a sacred space? It's obvious that it was special to someone at some point in time. For the designer to have gone to the trouble of crafting an ornate doorway for all who enter the space, shows their dedication and passion to their craft. My eyes keep running over and over the doorway trying to choose my favorite element but I think it's the top of the doorway with the two crescent-moon-like shapes and scrolls. I would love to have a doorway as special as this one at our home some day. It really would help share our love and passion for our home and our space with all those who entered. Do you have a favorite doorway? Let me know in the comments!
3. Another incredible work of art by a jeweler who has a love of the divine. This turquoise, coral, and silver scarab just yearns to jump into my jewelry box. If only I knew where to find one, imagining that there are more than two of them in the world – unlikely, but a girl can hope. As most bellydancers, I love scarabs. Scarabs are popular imagery in ancient Egypt – a place where the more contemporary forms of bellydance have been interpreted here in the United States. The Egyptian god Khepri was often depicted as a scarab beetle. Khepri was thought to renew the sun each day, rolling it across the sky once it reached the horizon, and then taking it to the other world to renew it again once more for the following day. I love the scarab beetle for it's pleasant shape and it's winged-ability to fly about freely. They are a working beetle, making them a productive species. I'm drawn to most scarab jewelry but this piece with turquoise makes me smile a little more than usual.
4. While this adorable swimsuit definitely teeters towards the color teal, I had to include it in my five favorites for this week. From the spaghetti straps at the top, to the little bow at the chest, and the ruffly little skirt at the bottom, I'm just in love with this adorable suit! Now to only find one in plus size! You know, designers are becoming more conscious over time and learning that even if some of us are curvy, we still like to look pretty. Let's cross our fingers for one of these to come out in a larger size – I know I am!
5. Another lovely turquoise item that I'm so lucky to have in my collection – gorgeous turquoise Bollywood-style bangles. The way in which I came about my particular set of turquoise bangles is fantastic! For many years, I used to be the President of MECDA – the Middle Eastern Culture & Dance Association. As President, I helped produce the nation's largest bellydance festival, Cairo Caravan (also known as Cairo Carnivale). During my years of getting to help put on the festival, we hosted it at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. It was a magnificent location, filled with rich history, beautiful decor, and incredible amounts of great energy. As MECDA President, I would travel to other bellydance festivals to network with other event producers, meet new dancers, and take lessons with instructors we were interested in hosting at Cairo Caravan. I was at one of these other festivals and a vendor that I had gotten to know over the years was there. The booth was run by a super sweet Middle Eastern man and his wife. They sold bangles and bedazzled clutches – basically all things shiny. I was looking through the booth to see if they had anything new that I wanted and my eyes leapt over to the pile of turquoise bangles, placed perfectly on one of those velvet "t's" that holds piles of bracelets, showing them off in the light. My vendor friend said "Try them on" as he looked at his wife with a little smirk. Of course I just had to try them out. I gently pushed them over my hand and onto my wrist and arm and exclaimed "how beautiful!" I asked right away, with my other hand reaching for my pocket (and cash) "How much?" My sweet vendor friend, said "For you, they are free." I insisted that I couldn't take them for free and that I did not mind paying for these lovely treasures. I expressed my desire to support their business as well. Then he told me the cutest story. He and his wife had a bet. The bracelets had been too small for every woman that had tried them on – none of the women could get the bracelets over their hands and onto their arms. They just wouldn't budge. So many women had tried them on without a good fit that the wife told her husband that she was sure they were made for a child's arm. Knowing that he would not have ordered a child's size set of bangles, the husband insisted that they most certainly were meant for a woman. She told him they will try to sell them at one more festival as a woman's sized bangle but that if they did not sell, they would mark them down in price and sell them as children's sized bangles. The man had a lot of pride in his shop and since they did not have any other children's items, he did not love the idea of trying to sell this ONE child-size item in the booth. As a vendor, he knew that having one of something is essentially the kiss of death for a sale. He bet the wife that he would find the right fit for the bangles that weekend and that if he did, he would give them to their rightful owner free of charge. She agreed on the condition that if he did not find that proper fit, they would sell them as a child-size item at the following festival. Imagine their surprise when the bangles fit me just right! In hindsight, I immediately understood what his little smirk at his wife was about when I slipped them over my hand on to my arm. The story was so great and the two of them were just the cutest couple. I could not break their bet, so I put my money back into my pocket, thanked them again profusely for the lovely treasures, and gave them each a great big hug. The bangles are still something I treasure to this day and wear often.
Thank you for joining me in another week of a few of my favorite turquoise things! I hope you'll click subscribe below and join me next week!
