Custom Orders Welcome

Persephone's Place is featuring a brand new earring design.    Some of my new designs are a result of custom order requests that I get commissioned to do. 

The "Kimberly", my latest design, is a modification of the earring you see immediately below.  This is a listing I originally called the "Diamond Top with fringe".  The color scheme is from the "Montana Collection".   I had a customer, (you might have guessed her name was Kimberly) contact me who had admired these earrings but she wanted something that was 5 1/2 inches long.  She had taken the measurement from a pair of earrings she already owned, and liking the length she asked me if I could modify the length of this earring for her.   She was interested in having it in this same color scheme as well as a couple of other pairs in some additional colors. 

The final result of the first custom order I did for her in the Montana Collection is as follows.  I actually like it better then the original design above, prior to the modifications. This custom order has inspired me to actually modify the earring above when I get a chance, in order to clean the look of it up a little more.

Here is another slight modification to the new "Kimberly" in that there are no bugle beads in the following, but it is still the same earring.  These were a lot of fun.  She had sent me a photograph of a skirt with a striped color scheme she really liked and wondered if I could do an earring with a similar kind of look.  She said the colors did not have to match the skirt necessarily, but she liked the overall concept of the striped look in many multi colors.  She also requested a change to the pattern on the diamond top for some variety.  I had a lot of fun with this one.  

This earring reminds me of gypsy skirts, quilting and country kitchen folk art.

What I really love about doing custom orders like this, is that these are combinations of color that I would have never thought of myself.  My own personal design tastes tend to be a lot more celestial, earthy or mystical with regard to color.  Doing custom orders for other people really gets me out of my box, and forces me to see things much differently then I would normally, if left to my own devices.  

It's true that an artist's work is never finished.  Almost all of the earrings I make I contemplate over and over again and wonder how I could have done it differently, could it have been better had I changed the colors around... what would it look like if I did this instead of that. 

Here is another little pair of earrings I did for a client a couple of years ago to match her green fresh water pearl and bead necklace that she already had.  This earring is my short A-line style.  There were no modification requests to this in terms of style.  What was wanted was a color scheme combination.  Style and length remained the same.

This pair is an example of a request I was hesitant to do at first.  When she told me the colors of the necklace before I actually saw it, I didn't have a lot of confidence that I could make something that would actually look decent or even match what she had.  It sounded a bit garish to me at first.  But when she brought me the necklace and I had a better idea of a visual to work off of, I realized that we could in fact come up with something that would work very nicely.  I was really pleased with these.  I was pleased that I was pleased, precisely because I had not expected to be pleased and that made the satisfaction even more pronounced when the project was finished.    I wish I had had the presence of mind to photograph the necklace but I didn't think of it at the time.

The beauty of doing custom work for customers is that my customer whether they know it or not are really very creative.  Not only creative but inspiring, in that these orders give me an opportunity to constantly try and improve my repertoire of designs while keeping an open mind about the work that I do. 

Custom orders are sometimes very challenging because I dont' always get a precise request.  I'll get a request, but then some customers want to leave a lot of room for play, for me to insert my own design ideas into them.  That sort of freedom within a custom order can be both comforting or frustrating, depending on the request.   Sometimes I become very attached to the things I think would look better especially when I consider the "branding": of my work.  Sometimes, the lack of precision in a request requires an enormous amount of communication back and forth and possibly a few different versions made before one is decided upon.  I encourage my customers never to hesitate to let me know if the final product is not what they had envisioned.  I do not mind doing orders over a few times within reason to make sure that my clients get exactly what they want, and I don't want them to feel obligated to something that they didn't actually like as well as they thought they would all said and done.  So I'm always open to modifications.  I don't always expect a custom order to be right after the first try.   Seeing something in your mind and then seeing an actual product can sometimes be two different things.  Without the contrasts to gauge against, it can be difficult to be sure you are getting what your really want.

If you are interested in any custom work, please feel free to contact me.  You are welcome to browse through my etsy store and see the different designs that are already available.  It's usually nice to have a baseline idea to start from. If you have a request, and are an etsy member, feel free to "convo" me regarding your order request.  If you are not an etsy member, simply email me.   I accept pay pal either through the etsy store, or privately through email invoice transactions.  I also accept money orders by snail mail.

Blessed Be!

Monique Lockhart

PersephoneRC@aol.com



Controversies in Mining

This was intended to be a bead work blog it is true.   This blog is also an embellishment to Persephone's Place website and by nature of the subject matter it is becoming clear to me that Hades "owns" this blog as his own.  The mythical history of the underworld cannot be contemplated without a corresponding investigation into the history of mining the world over.  Mining as we all know is our primary source for gemstones and minerals of many kinds, not to mention energy sources such as coal.   The history is both fascinating and mysterious as well as harrowing due to the industry's capacity for it's global and human rights abuses.    A fitting parallel for the mythology of Hades where the Paradise of Elysium stands side by side with the tortures of Purgatory.

I have published another article at the Underworld Diaries blog called "The Discovery Of The Underworld" which the reader here may take an interest in looking at.  Mining is of particular interest to me, not only because of the mythical associations to the underworld, but because the town I grew up in, Grass Valley, sits on top of approximately 300 miles of underground gold mining shafts.  The history of the Gold Rush here in our small town, is what draws the majority of tourism to our area.  As stated in the article cited above, for about three dollars the local visitor can learn a great deal about our local history at the Empire Mine State Park.  As well our area has suffered from ecological damage and water contamination in certain localized areas, which were a result of the Gold Rush mining days and which still linger to haunt the area.

There is also the concern regarding the mining for minerals such as Uranium and Plutonium which are used in nuclear weapons technology and research.  The contaminating by products of these mining practices have produced huge health risks in places such as the Southwest (on Navajo lands) and other areas.  These issues are of huge global concern for many reasons spanning from personal to political.

In this blog I will probably be posting articles of various kinds when time allows, involving the history of mining in different parts of the world, both ancient and modern and addressing many of it's varying issues. 

For anyone who works with stones and jewels I think these issues are very important.  For anyone who is a collector of precious stones, metals and jewels I think these issues are also important because some of the ethical issues that surrounds the acquisition of these items are controversial at best and deserving of a great deal of inward contemplation as to one's personal relationship to the issues on the present ecological and ethical table; regarding mining, pollution, contamination, drug trafficking, political dictatorships, human rights abuses, workers conditions and wages; and on the upside, the new movement toward an ethical and ecological system of mining that is now becoming an important movement in our global evolution.  So stay tuned and please check in or follow my blog if you are interested in these topics.

Project Photograph: Jones Bar Loop

Welcome to self employment.  It's tax time.  I procrastinated for days. And some more days.  Finally yesterday (Saturday) I spent my entire day off, sitting at my desk looking at little tiny black boxes and putting numbers in them.  I wondered how on earth accountants can do this all day long without going completely insane.  It took me a soda, a candy bar and a few triscuits to get through that monumental task.  Finally hours later I was victorious. My taxes were finally done and ready to ship off to my accountant for filing.

After the taxes were done, I had to finish making a custom order of earrings for a client.  So Saturday was filled with all kinds of "shoulds" and "have to's".  

Today (Sunday) as a reward for all of my hard work, I was able to go hiking again with my husband in a guilt / stress free state of mind.   I packed up the jewelry carrier for it's second adventure.  We dropped off my stepson with his mother at the river and then we wandered on down the Jones Bar path looking for some other ideal sites to photograph my jewelry.

It was a very lazy and quiet hike for the most part.  The weather was a little cooler, rain was on it's way.  The path this time was a great deal more wooded, running along the South Fork of the Yuba River. 

We found a lovely section of mossy rocks running up a small canyon that I decided to play with for a while.  My husband sat and waited.  I think he was getting his best Buddhist mood on this afternoon, and he quietly contemplated the surroundings while I wandered up the moss covered stones.  I found some absolutely brilliant spots to photograph, the only problem with most of them is that they just don't accommodate the jewelry without the jewelry sliding right off.   So I passed up many interesting possibilities in search of something that was not only fabulous but practical.



This is another set of earrings from the "Native Nights" collection.  The "collection" referrs to the color schemes.   This style is called the "short dangle".  It is one of my most popular style of earrings at least for my local clients.  It is short, light weight and fairly versatile.  Depending on the colors in the earring, you can easily dress it up or down.  I sell a lot of these to some of my older and more conservative clients at the chiropractic clinic.  A lot of my longer and more elaborate earrings usually sell online to a very different audience.  This earring however, is for the lady who socializes in a conservative crowd but still wants something "fun" and "a little different" but that still will not draw too much undo attention.  I have a Jehovah Witness client that has purchased several of these from me.  She really loves some of the more elaborate ones, but she feels the pressure of her peers very acutely, and worries about the judgement she may get from some of her other church associates.  This earring satisfies her need for something fun, while still being able to stay within the more modest social lines she feels have been drawn for her.   This is also a very practical earring that goes well with everyday casual clothes and short hair styles.

After I finished with my mossy rocks, and my husband finished with his zen meditation, off we went to find the pools down at "Rush Creek", which is an enchanted little spot that is also wheelchair accessible.   I love this little area and every time we are down there I tell my husband that I have to get my water fountain fixed at home, so that I can listen to the sound of running water in the living room when I'm doing my bead work.   The falls at Rush Creek are fabulous to listen to.  When you are in the mood there is also some easy to moderately difficult rock climbing one can do around the pools. If you want to take the extra effort to risk the possibility of getting a little wet and testing your rock climbing abilities you can get even more fantastic views of the area and hop around some of the falls and find new and secret little hidden pools. 

As we walked down the old mining flumes which have been very well maintained to date,  it was obvious, judging by the copious water on the boards, that someones dog had very recently had a wonderful time playing in the pools.

We got down to the waters edge and set up "base camp"... took off our packs and after a little cracker and cheese snack, off my husband went about his rock climbing business and I began searching for picture sites.

After a bit of rock hopping into the middle of the creek I was able to get this nice little photo.  I found another little mossy rock to hang a pair of earrings off of.  I had to be careful not to disturb the little spider that lived there in order to get the picture.  It was so tiny I almost didn't even see it at first. I have no idea what kind of spider it was, but I'm sure it wasn't very happy I had invaded it's space.   The picture, even though I used it on my etsy store, didn't come out quite as wonderful as I had hoped so I'm not going to post it here.  The thing about photography is that out of twenty pictures you'll be lucky to get one or two that you are actually happy with at the end of the day. 

The temperature began to drop. We usually get hungry after our adventures, so we decided that it was time to beat the rainstorm back to the truck instead of hiking the entire four mile loop, and consider the idea of pizza for dinner.  



 

Beads From Hell To Breakfast

Someday I will design a beaded earring in honor of Sasha.  It will look something like a tangled ball of yarn with some shredded toilet paper incorporated into it and a few pebbles of kitty litter for the ends of the fringe.  I'll call it  "The Saucy Sasha Collection." 

Before I introduce the fiersome toe biter let me first post a photograph of her handy work.



This was originally a nicely sorted box with all of the different color seed beads in their own little squares.  Probably about $60.00 worth or there a bouts of beads, maybe more.....and then Sasha came along and jumped on the box... down it went all over the carpet.  I counted to ten.... then I counted to twenty with my eyes closed and attempted to find just for a moment a sense of inner peace.... and by the time I got finished scooping these lovelies off of the carpet and vacuuming about 20 bucks worth of  the rest of them, I found her in the cooking pot cupboard laying in the wok.    Some of our cupboard doors that are low to ground have broken off either because it's an incredibly old house or because at one point in time one of the children decided it might be fun to climb on them (he was 4).   In her defense she probably felt that might be the safest place to be while I was picking up beads off of the carpet because I was not exactly successful in achieving my sense of inner peace but I gave it a good college try.   

So here is Sasha... and now I will tell her story.

But first I must digress a bit.  A couple of years ago my husband and I were married, and we had a lovely gathering of friends at our house for a post wedding pagan ceremony.  My husband is pure Northern European Viking stock and very interested in the Nordic mythologies, (but not the white supremacist kind).  So for our wedding ceremony we had an invocation to Freya and Odin.  Now ..... once upon a time I had attended a witchcraft workshop with Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone here in Loomis California.  Janet was sharing an experience of hers, that having discovered she was in fact a priestess of Freya, one of the obligations that came with that she told us, was that she was now responsible for taking care of every damn stray cat that wandered into her life.  Apparently after her consecration to Freya was final, her life became suddenly and unexpectedly filled with cats.  

I'm not a priestess of Freya necessarily but after the invocation at our wedding party, our life suddenly and unexpectedly ...yup you guessed it... became filled with cats.   We had a feral cat problem on our very rural street but up until now they hadn't really moved in to our house or  yard.  Most of them had been living at the neighbors and had been breeding uncontrollably for the better part of 7 years.   Everyone kept telling her she should really do something about this... and she never did.  So right after our party, she left for Montana for a couple of months and then suddenly the refugees started moving in to find our cat food for our own house cats (we have two).   They didn't just visit, they moved right on into our basement and had kittens.   I looked at my husband and said... "this was your idea so don't look at me... you wanted to invoke Freya and now we have been blessed with her ABUNDANT and COPIOUS bounty".  Cats are Freya's totem from what I understand.  When they were old enough, 7 wild cats were trapped and promptly taken to the local spay and neuter clinic at the animal shelter.... I worked out a deal with Sammies Friends to keep bringing in the rest from next door as I caught them till we got them ALL because this simply had to stop.   So far, I've captured 16 cats... there's more still..... and have put them on the feline planned parenthood and vaccination / worming  program.   We've adopted the seven as our own that moved into our basement and as for the rest, its kind of like a UFO abduction experience for most of them.  They get trapped (which is kind of like having a rattlesnake in a guinea sack), they get taken to a clinic and drugged to their eyeballs with special K, poked prodded and pinched... they come back and recover for two days and then they go back to where they came from next door where they do actually get fed well.

Sasha is one of the cuties from next door.  She was actually one of the few friendly ones you could handle and play with.  I captured her one day and took her in for a bad ear mite infection treatment, a spay and an eye removal because of a very bad ulcerated injury in her eye they were afraid might get more infected.  As a result of her extended veterinary care she stayed the better part of two actual months in our house under supervision and antibiotics until she was all healthy again.  

The first thing she did when she moved in temporarily was  to TP our bathroom.    With I might add the very last roll of toilet paper we had that night.   (sigh)...   So this is how it is going to be said I to myself.  

The next day found her on the candle making potion counter...  ooohhhhhhh bad bad bad bad....... I had  horrible visions of candle dye everywhere...and essential oils that would no doubt be very toxic to her....so that issue had to be remedied immediately.   After that.... climbing the curtains was the next best thing on her list of things fun to do, followed by terrorizing the television cords and the beading corner was just too tempting not to avoid.  It's been a never ending battle with the beading corner.  I just can't possibly Sasha proof this house enough.  So she earned the esteemed honor of .... wait for it.... "THE KITTY CAGE".    The other neighbors had a large wire cage that may have once been a rabbit cage which they donated to my cause... I cleaned it up and brought it in the house and decided that she would have supervised house access only....  the rest of the time when we were gone at work and, night time included, was going to be in the crate where I hung her sock toy and where she found endless entertainment playing with the kitty litter, flinging it everywhere and standing in her water dish.   My husband found her on my dresser the other night trying to do her hair and had she not been foiled in her attempts, I bet money she'd have eventually found the cotton ball stash.    Only last night she snuck into my desk file cabinet drawer... BEHIND the drawer where I promptly tried to shut it and then couldn't figure out what the scuffing noise was under my desk until I pulled out the drawer and found her in there.... (she was going to do some filing for me.)  She wasn't even the slightest bit worried about being locked in the drawer because she had found a bit of fuzz in there to play with and was happy as a clam.  I opened the drawer and she looked up at me as if to say.... "moi?"   Oh so innocent. 

We love her dearly but it's time for her to go back home next door and she's got her clean bill of health.  But I just had to get a photo for  posterity before I handed her back to the neighbor.



Persephone Rises

A self employed business owner always has the challenge of trying to stay above water especially in times of struggle and financial hardship which no one is a stranger to these days.  The beginning of this new year brought with it some new and unexpected obstacles which not only threw me by surprise but almost annihilated all of my good intentions and endeavors for my business for the upcoming year.  After a couple of weeks of pouting, and going through my proverbial crap about life's lessons in general, I decided that it was time to put "plan rescue" into action.  So I went back to the drawing board and started to read up on all the latest marketing strategies for small business owners.  The topic of the blog kept appearing in most of the sources I was reading.  The trouble with Persephone's Place is that it is conceptually so multi-dimensional that it is difficult to keep focus with.  I had lost myself in the alternate realities of my business concept to the point where I was having difficulty figuring out just what to blog about and what to market to begin with.  So taking stock of what was going on, I realized that of all of the multi dimensions that Persephone's Place does have to offer, my jewelry has actually become a big hit both on etsy and with my local clients.  In times of difficulty I decided keeping it simple is perhaps the next step.  Focus on what is currently working and keep your marketing resources for the time being, limited to what is going well and to what is developing an actual following.  You can start I said to myself, by starting a bead blog. 

Start a bead blog?  How do I talk about beads and jewelry?  It's easy to write metaphysical articles and to invoke 20 years of study and knowledge to things like astrology and tarot cards... but beading?   So I thought about it and thought about it, and thought about it and wondered how on earth I would make a beading blog interesting enough that anyone would actually follow it.   After coming up with a whole lot of nothing I decided to ask my husband what his opinion was.  

He was immediately excited about the idea because you see, we were hiking at the time of this conversation and he managed to connect his love of hiking to the concept of my bead blog and my jewelry business in general.  I know... I"m getting there.....you'll understand soon......  I had just finished downloading about my struggles overall, and outlined my latest goals for marketing the jewelry on my etsy store.  One of the things I insisted I wanted to do to kick it up another level was to improve the quality of my photographs of the jewelry.  In order to do this I decided I wanted a more natural outdoor look to my pictures.  I shared with my husband that ideally I would love to take some of my jewelry on our hikes and look for fabulous locations to photograph them.  The problem was... how do I carry it without it getting ruined, especially several pieces at a time?  He immediately had a solution which he was more then eager to see through to completion because he knew that it would serve his own interests in getting me out hiking with him more.  He converted an already existing flower press into a jewelry press, so that my fringed creations would remain flat and straight while en route during any adventure including but not limited to:   up or down any mountain, strapped to any backpack, or otherwise thrown through the air or turned upside down or toppled off of any rock.   Wow!   The beauty of this brainstorm he continued to tell me is that we can make more then one, and in any size bigger or smaller that is required.   (Ladies... I was impressed, even more so because this solution did not wait six months to come to fruition, but rather had been completed within three hours of the initial conversation on the same day.  He also cleaned the bathroom and did several loads of laundry that day as well as cooked us lunch, did the dishes AND vacuumed the rug while I remained a lady of leisure on my Sunday afternoon and basically did.... well.... nothing but sip my beverage and watch some movies)

He was so excited about his achievement in solving the dilemma to my original problem that he immediately woke me up the next day and wanted to know if I was ready to take my jewelry hiking in the next fifteen minutes.  I should tell you now... I don't DO mornings.  Well.... ummmm..... most of my stuff I need to take pictures of is at the clinic honey I explained to him..... (8 AM and in a fog trying to make my morning tea).  He's dressed and tapping his toes.... Well ummm..... uhhhh..... well I have four pair of earrings here I can take....   (putting the ice cubes in the wrong glass and still looking for the tea bag... I'm trying to brew this tea, coffee shop style with a shot of pomegranate syrup... and what else would the owner of Persephone's Place put in her tea?)  He waited patiently... tea finally in hand I wandered into the living room and began packing my four pair of earrings into the press for it's first test drive.... contemplated what to wear... and of course all said and done walked out the door without my sunglasses and didn't realize it till after we got to the hiking place.   (Damn!)

Our house is situated on the North San Juan Ridge in Northern California foothills just a couple of miles above the Bridgeport State Park where we have access to trails all along the scenic Yuba River.  My husband is a mountaineer, and he and his friend love to take all day or even two or three day climbing adventures.  They use things like "cramp ons" and "ice axes", and they have this silly notion that "slogging" through the snow for 15 miles and traversing ice crevices is actually fun.    I told my husband that on no occasion would I ever be found hiking or walking anywhere that I had to use something called an "ice axe".   Because not only do I not do mornings, I do not DO snow either for the record.  Luna our cat agrees with me and she supports the idea completely that while my husband is sleeping in a tent in the snow in 15 degree weather, that I stay home with her and build us a fire and lay on the comfy bed together.  The most I've done is the local six mile trek up "butt buster hill" here at Bridgeport and again for the record it should be stated, I'm a fair weather hiker.  I did my time, twenty years training horses, up at 5 AM on my first racehorse of the day, in the rain, in the mud, in the wind, in the freezing ass cold, hoping I don't get bucked off of whatever wild and untamed yearling I'm riding that day... I don't see the need at this time in my life, to WANT or to HAVE to be slogging anywhere in bad weather if I don't absolutely have to. 

So off on the trail we went.. flower press in hand, no sunglasses, and plenty of warm hiking gear to keep me happy.   Having solved the first dilemma of the jewelry slash flower press challenge... I asked my husband.... how do I blog about bead work?  He explained how easy that would be... just tie it into everything else...we discussed the metaphysical properties of stones, the symbolism of my art, the metaphysical background of some of the ideas, my mysticism, the now hiking adventures I would have in photographing ad infinitum.

We walked until we found the first station I would set up "project photograph".  I untied my jewelry press and was pleased as pie to find nothing had moved in over a mile.  Everything was straight and flat as a waffle and in good order.  My concern for my fringed pieces in particular is that the fringes kink and warp and then they don't hang nicely if they are not stored properly.  So at any rate off my husband went to find a rock to climb.  There was some talk about the trail ending around the corner and I heard some mention of how cool it would be to climb that hill and go over the top of the part where the trail ended to keep going...... I smiled.  "You have fun with that!  I'll wait here!"... and I investigated many promising moss covered rocks, green leafy places and rock formations.  I couldn't help admiring the view I had at the first picture station.  I liked it so much I'm adding a picture of it here.  Here we see a lovely view of the Yuba River amidst some small princes among oaks that are not yet Oak kings. 

In my investigations I couldn't help to come to a humorous realization.  I heard it said in an interview with Rob Zombie where he states:  "Art is not safe".  This I recollected as I clambered up a loose bit of dirt on a hill and over some rocks that would be at any other warmer time of the year a home to the local rattlesnakes.  Why is it thought I to myself that some of the best photography potentials are the hardest in practice to actually get your jewelry and your camera to?  And I wasn't even by the river yet.  I grimaced to myself as I realized the next challenge of "project photograph" at "station two" would be to not drop my camera or my earrings in the river while navigating rocks.  Rob Zombie I concluded was a very observant man.   After several zen moments of contemplating a very interesting rock formation and how on earth I would get my earrings to hang from it, the end result was as follows: 

I had high hopes for this picture and I am not terribly disappointed.  These earrings are from what is called the "Native Nights" collection. I'll discuss my collections in another blog at another time. But the point here is how much I loved the contrasting textures of the rock they are hanging from.  It is unfortunate that my camera did not do it quite the justice it deserved because what looks like a white chalk color in this background was actually a lovely shade of almost light mint green which was some kind of species of lichen or moss growing on this rock. I was hoping the green would show better, but alas, it is obvious I will have to invest someday in a much better camera.  It would have been even more lovely to get some of the fern in this picture that was growing on this rock as well, but the earrings would not hang near the fern without falling out of the rock.  So for this picture, this is what the nature spirits were willing to give me and considering those factors, I'm still very happy with it.  The rock face was much taller then myself.  I was perched precariously upon this loose foothold of dirt and looking up at my earrings holding the camera higher then normal.  The whole procedure was a bit awkward and comical. 

My husband returned shortly after this picture breathless and happy having been victorious in his climbing adventure.   We packed up shop and headed down the trail to the river and looked for another adequate "base camp".  After finding a suitable rock to store our wares I went off on another investigation.  Taking pictures on the river is tricky because you are limited as to your color backgrounds.  There is either rock color or sand color.  To make an interesting picture here, it didn't take me long to realize I'd have to have my rocks wet to bring the colors out of them. Things are much more stark down by the water. 

So here I was repeating the mantra once again.."art is not safe"... as I'm sitting on the edge of a small rock with my feet propped on two tiny dry points of rock protruding out of a rather fast rush of water and being very careful not to drop my earrings in the river and loose them or otherwise have to fetch them from the very deep pool below this rock.  These earrings are from the "oak king collection".  The observant reader will notice there is not an oak tree anywhere near this photograph which wasn't exactly the vision I had for these earrings, but the fact was the moss wasn't cooperating with me.  This is the only picture I could get that gave an accurate representation of the bead colors in this set of earrings, so the Oak King just had to suck it up and play in the water today.

After navigating this bit of the project successfully, we decided it was lunch time and packed up for the walk back to the truck.  It was a brilliant morning.  The jewelry carrier was a huge success.  Mission accomplished!