[Jewelry making - Article 01650] - [Orchid] Jewelry Pilgrimage

[Priscilla Fritsch]

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    I just returned from a cruise appropriately named "Gems of the
    Baltic". Whether or not a cruise is your choice of travel, my husband
    and I were given this trip as a 25th wedding anniversary present by
    my mother. Part of my father's family is from an area along the
    southern shore of the Baltic Sea that was heavily influenced by the
    Vikings. I deeply felt my roots and heritage, and focused my
    attention on the jewelry and gemstones of the region. 

    I was so overwhelmed by the amount of amber available that I ended
    up only buying two small pieces! The ship I was on had a contest
    "Spot the Fake" and then gave a little talk on how to tell if it is
    genuine or not. Not surprisingly, onshore we saw more amber shops in
    tourist areas than in the center of the cities, especially in
    Tallinn, Estonia and St. Petersburg, Russia. Although I'm sure that
    most of what the shops were selling is probably real, I felt like a
    sucker just walking in, so did not buy much. I instead concentrated
    on looking for books on jewelry at the museums we visited. The Gold
    Room at Catherine the Great's Summer Palace is an incredible display
    of gold jewelry and other items collected by Peter the Great and
    Catherine the Great. The Amber Room, also in Catherine's Palace has
    been fully restored by the Russians after it was looted by the Nazis
    during their siege of St. Petersburg. The walls were completely
    covered in amber and picture frames were solid, carved amber. The
    Hermitage Museum (Catherine's Winter Palace) had numerous urns and
    obelisks (8 to 10 feet tall) made entirely of lapis, malachite,
    rhodonite. In Stockholm, the Museum of Antiquities also has a Gold
    Room which has on display gold jewelry and other objects found at
    archeological excavations in Sweden. The silver room is equally
    impressive with the more common pennanular brooches and everyday
    items. In Helsinki, I bought the most beautiful spectrolite from a
    street maket vendor, and even found an english translation of a
    doctorial dissertation on granulation and filigree of the Viking era.
    In Arhus, Denmark, I think I stood for an eternity at the windows of
    the Georg Jensen jewelry store with my mouth hanging open. As if in a
    dream, in Tallinn a 4-day midsummer's eve midieval market was taking
    place in the center of the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
    (Not much jewelry, but the most gorgeous weavings and baskety I have
    ever seen). I could go on and on...... 

Beam me back, Scotty.

Priscilla Fritsch
LuckyDog Designs
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