Friday, March 6, 2009

Whats with the three pearl drops?

After an absence from this blog, I feel moved to write again. I guess with getting the gallery going I have been distracted and truth be told, not very inspired. But the other evening I was trying out Netflix Instant Watch on my computer, in an attempt to figure out how to do without my cable bill, as I cannot see continuing to spend $80. a month for content I hardly ever watch when so much is available through the internet now. I have switched to DSL, which is fine, not super fast but fine. However my connection is not fast enough for satisfactorily using the Netflix service, strange because it is fine with Hulu or watching through the networks websites. Anyway, I digress, back to the intended subject. I was trying out Netflix online watching The Other Boleyn Girl, with Natalie Portman, among others. While the screen freezing up, starting and stopping and I was missing a third of the action, I saw the pendant that Ann Boleyn was wearing was a lot like some pieces I have made, and wait, just like that worn by my favorite TV character, Ugly Betty.

Here is a pendant I made with a green tourmaline and three suspended pearls:

Pretty isn't it? I thought it was so tasteful and reminiscent of antiquity, I was proud of my work.
Until I started watching Ugly Betty, see below:

Can you see it, that B with three pearls pendant under it? Did the stylist steal my idea? Or is my idea really that unoriginal and banal as to be featured on that paradigm of bad taste, my beloved Ugly Betty. I was mortified.
So there I am watching The Other Boleyn Girl, and this is what I see:

Its the identical pendant as Ugly Betty wears. Can you believe it? I hardly can. While I was enjoying the movie, and am going to have to rent the DVD, I cannot watch on my computer it turns out, this sartorial touch is a bit suspicious. I mean if Ugly Betty is wearing the same thing, can it be historically correct? I doubt it. Makes me question the rest of the art direction on the movie, I have to admit. I am going to have to research 16th Century costume and jewelry in England to get a handle on it.

What am I to do? Abandon the three pearl drops?

What dear reader do you think?

3 comments:

Dawn Breeze said...

What a hysterical finding!!!

Anonymous said...

You should read Hackenbroch, Yvonne. Renaissance Jewellery - New York & Munich, Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications & CH Beck, 1979. Very useful book.
The pendant worn by HM The Queen, in that movie, is certainly incorrect, but the spirit of it is ok (not the proportion though). This 3-drop spirit is timeless, and you find it commonly in Roman jewellery - often with 2 emeralds and 1 pearl.

Tom Swope said...

Hi Hadrien, thank you for your comments. My post was more a joke than anything else, I was so amused to see the same necklaces in Ugly Betty and the Boleyn girl.
I hope all is well with you,
tom