Creating Jewelry From The Jewels Of The Sea

Marash Girl and her cousin Pauline used to delight in creating earrings and brooches in floral patterns made from tiny colored seashells. They would work in the front room on the third floor using Duco Cement to attach the tiny seashells in patterns reminiscent of flowers, glueing these seashell flowers onto circular plastic bases that were then attached to metal bases that had metal screwbacks or metal pins attached to allow the decorative seashell arrangements to be used as earrings, barpins, and brooches. The two cousins would join Uncle Paul (Pauline's dad) as he drove to the Middlesex County Beekeepers Association (not sure if that was its proper title back then) on (and not sure about this) the fourth Saturday afternoon of every month . . . As soon as Uncle Paul had arrived at his destination, as soon as he had parked the car, he opened the trunk to display the girls' seashell jewelry creations, as all of the beekeepers' wives rushed to view the trays of unique seashell earrings and pins that the girls had created. Of course, the women would invariably purchase a favorite pair of seashell earrings and/or a seashell brooch made by the hands of the beekeeper's daughter and niece, as, in those days, very few people were creating earrings from seashells. (Do folks do so today? Do folks even wear screwback earrings or brooches today?) Little did Marash Girl and her cousin or their parents realize that the fumes from the cement could degenerate brain cells . . . no wonder Marash Girl is not as smart as she used to be . . . she's finally learned the reason! Hurray!