Rita's stuff & such

Pendants

Here are some of my mom's interesting pendants. She loved big stones, large 'bling,' and lovely things. Back in the day she had a lot of gold, but as I've said earlier, she was ripped off by unscrupulous people, so she made do with gold-plated silver. Regardless, she had a good eye and here are some pretties.

Back of silver & CZ pendant

CZ & silver pendant

Baltic green amber & silver

Back of amethyst pendant (14K gold)

40-carat amethyst in 14K gold

Gold colored pin - Aquarius figure

Blue colored stone, CZ, in sterling

A cross to bear...

Here are some of my mom's crosses. Her religious beliefs were very complicated, to say the least. She was baptized LDS (Mormon) as a child, but left the church after her parents' divorce. During college (in the late 50s & early 60s) she dabbled with Wiccanism and became a devout atheist. She struggled with prescription drug addiction and alcoholism, but her main anguish came from a lack of a relationship with a Higher Power. In 1977, she found that Higher Power through Alcoholics Anonymous and it gave her the strength to give up alcohol and drugs. A few years later, her belief in a Higher Power gave her the strength to give up cigarettes. She grew in her faith and after joining the Unity Church, found a calling in Missouri to work in the Silent Unity Prayer Room, where she became a lay minister and prayed with people from all over the world. During that time, she also reconnected with her Mormon roots. She later retired to St. George, Utah, when she found out her only sister had cancer. She lived out her life in St. George as a recluse, as health issues forced her to retreat farther and farther into her own world. Regardless, at the end my mother loved the idea of a Benevolent God Father figure who would welcome everyone into His Mansions, where there are many rooms. I learned religious tolerance from her.

Pewter & bone

Back side of pewter/bone cross

Enamel & nickel w/chain

Onyx, crystal & marcasite in .925 silver

Plain ole nickel cross pin

Pewter with blue colored stones

Cross collection

All things silver

Here are some interesting Native-American style pieces. Some are bracelets, some are pendants, some are single earrings. These are all sterling and genuine stones (mostly malachite, turquoise, lapis lazuli, and some coral and mother of pearl.)

Collection of various things

Silver drops and inlaid cabochons

Silver malachite (bottom) & singlet (left) and onyx pendant (right)

Mother of pearl pendants, silver danglies

Onyx pendant, Kokopeli earrings

Lapis & amber earrings, bear paw bracelet

Close up of Kokopeli pendant

Rings n Things

These are some of my mother's rings. I am not sure which I'll be keeping, which I'll be giving away to family, or what not, so if you see something you like, let me know. But I wanted to be sure I at least have pictures of them.

As you can tell from this motley collection, Mom enjoyed QVC, The Home Shopping Network, etc. and frequented them. Poor Mom - in her latter years, congestive heart failure and fibromyalgia robbed her of much of her mobility and desire to go out and do things, so buying stuff on TV was a source of joy to her. She didn't have much money, but as I mentioned before, she would sacrifice to get a piece of jewelry that she liked. As the lady at the jewelry store said, "Your mom loved the bling!" That about sums it up.

Much of her 'good' jewelry was stolen by so-called roommates. I hope those people are seeing the results of their actions, and that karma is holding them accountable - but that's as far as I will go (in this venue, anyway. That's what Facebook is for, LOL.)

All the stuff that looks gold is plated, but it's over .925 sterling silver. On some, the plating has not held up so well. Also, she wore about a 6 or 7, depending on how swollen her hands would get, so these are all in that range (except for the big opal ring.) I wear an 8-1/2, so most of these only fit on my pinkie. Some of the costume ones are a bit more generous.