Welcome to Eclectia Adornments – The Blog!

Welcome, welcome to my Eclectia Adornments blog, which is intended as a companion to and amplification of my Eclectia Adornments accessories business. Eclectia Adornments itself was created to be a resource to help women to express their uniqueness, individuality and discerning tastes; the accessories are selected to illuminate the rare beauty of each woman in all aspects of her life….business ventures, elegant evenings, family gatherings; wherever her multi-faceted life takes her. (To see the current accessories lines I’m working with, please visit and “Like” my Eclectia Adornments Fan Page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eclectia-Adornments/103285469709004?ref=ts.)

I have always loved accessories, especially jewelry of many types and origins, but my deeper interest in jewelry not only as a form of artistic expression, but also as a vehicle through which to view and understand history and society stemmed largely from a class I took at Santa Monica College over twenty years ago taught by the incredibly knowledgeable and endlessly fascinating Christie Romero, to whom I’d like to dedicate this blog. Sadly, when starting to do research for this blog I discovered that Christie had passed away in September of 2009; a huge loss to the jewelry world. (For more information on Christie, please take a look at the Center for Jewelry Studies website at http://www.center4jewelrystudies.org.)

I thought it would be interesting to explore the histories of various genres of jewelry and chose to start out with one of my favorites, Pools of Light.

Pools of Light, which first came into vogue at the turn of the last century, are undrilled rock crystal spheres, allegedly originating from the Northern slope of the Mount Fujiyama in Japan, that absorb and reflect light in such a way that images seen through them appear to be upside down or reversed. They are spectacularly luminous and beautiful (some even say they have spiritual and energetic properties) and have come to be quite expensive and hard to find.

Most often clear and wrapped in sterling silver, there are some variations as well, such as…

black (which is opaque), colored (I have only ever seen blue and amber, neither of which I particularly like), or two-toned, such as the necklace on the right above.

The silver wrapping is usually either fairly plain, or with flowered bands around each sphere:

There are also some unusual shapes to be found, or pools of light mixed with other materials such as carved crystal, for example:

In any event, these stunning pieces are highly collectible and are a pleasure to wear as they have a wonderful feel to them and really add a glow to the wearer’s face. All the positive energy can’t hurt either! So if you come across one at a swap meet for a reasonable price, grab it, or they can often be found on Ebay.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this; please sign up to receive further issues of the Eclectia Adornments Blog and I welcome feedback, although please don’t be too hard on me about the quality of the photographs!

All the best, Nicole