I spent my whole life in fine jewelry. Gold. Platinum. Palladium.
Diamonds. Precious and semi-precious stones. As it turns out. I
missed a whole world of beauty. Which brings me via a most unexpected
segue. to Costume Jewelry. Hoo-hah. were they ever talented. If you
want to be exposed to innovation of the highest order. take a look at
what the artists of them thar times did.
Entree. Pauline Radar. She’s to beam with pride from. I know I know.
The English is off. So what are you thinking… my English is
perfect? Hmmm? Pauline was the daughter of a jeweler store owner who
was himself a jeweler. And so began the trail she was destined to
trek.
Don’t know when she was born. Don’t know when she died. Hard info to
find. But in between. she was a talent to be reckoned with. In
1962–bent on gaining fame and recognition–she established her own
business. She was a talent supreme. Her work was–to say the
least–imaginative to the nth degree. She made bracelets and
necklaces and brooches and pendants and earrings and rings. and
probably more if there is more. Her designs were chunky and MOD. They
included coin replicas. Except for her owl of course. Nothing chunky
about that. A tad MOD perhaps. Elegant and whimsical. If you listen
carefully. you won’t hear it hoot. but with the mad hairdo and
wide-eyed intelligent look in the eyes. you will surely hear our
friend define in mellifluous tones Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.
E=MC2 hoot hoot.
She closed her business around 1982… a bit more than a scant twenty
years after she began. She catered only to a select clientele. and
because of that her jewelry is hard to find and also very
collectible. Aside from her own clientele. she also allowed her
jewelry to be shown in elite boutiques.
Her stuff–my friends–is rare. though you might not think so when
looking her up and seeing her prodigious output. As to her personal
life. she was married. she had three children… and that’s all I can
glean from that endless font of knowledge known as the Internet.
Well. maybe it’s not all that endless. It may not even be a font. For
all I can gather. at times it is little more than a trickle. A couple
of drops of knowledge dripping out of an Internet spout only to fall
into the Internet basin and flow down the Internet drain.
So here’s the conundrum. How do you write in length about a person
about whom there is only scant knowledge on those pages that
constitute the major source of in our lives. You can’t.
And so. due to the circumstances which at times guide my very reason
for being. I must now end my refrain–and–as Cyrano once said:
Thrust Home!
So adios one and all. Catch you next week.
Okay. You know the rest. The visit to the image. also known as the
viewing experience. You know where. Home page.
http://www.tyler-adam.com. Scroll down. Left side. [Tidbits]. Click.
And there for your sensory optic pleasure you will see Pauline
Rader’s Owl brooch which is drop-dead stunning.
And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks. Catch you all
next week.
Benjamin Mark