I’m caught in a bit of a curious no-man’s-land, at the moment.
On the one hand, I love jewelry. If I wore a single different piece of jewelry each day, I’ve estimated that it would take me a little more than a year to go through my entire collection. And I make jewelry. I’ve made about half of my collection. I love the colors. I love the spark. I am, as previously harped upon, obsessive compulsive creative.
On the other hand, I’m currently exploring the much more butch side of performativity. And I love it too, right down to my toes, to the tips of my cuffs, I love it. But there is almost no intersection between that kind of performative dress, and my brightly colored mounds of jewels. So I’ve been making new things, and running up against new questions. How is men’s jewelry different from femme jewelry different from butch jewelry? Is it different at all? Google is no help, of course. Someone must have asked this question before me.
I’ve been doing new work in wood, and in hemp and in leather. I’m still trying to figure out if I can make pearls butch. Believe it or not, I think I can.
I have images in my head of what femme is starting to mean to me, what butch is starting to mean. More and more I find that it’s the mix I like more than the far reaches of either image. All juxtapositions and inherent contradictions, as broad as my legs sprawled out in a skirt, as small as a beaded tie.
I feel like I’ve tossed a coin in the air, and I don’t know which side it’s going to come down on. In the end, I suspect, it won’t come down at all.
4 Comments
Oddly enough, when I think “butch” jewelry, I think of cuff links, belt buckles (interesting and awesome ones), and hemp or metal necklaces.
Femmes jewelry makes me think of pretty earrings, delicate or statement making necklaces, bracelets encircling wrists, etc.
Men’s jewelry makes me think of heavy, ridiculously big watches, large gold rings, and gold chains (hey, I did live in Philly).
Of course, anyone can wear anything they damn well please, but that’s just the visuals I get when you threw out those three ideas.
Thanks! Those are about the visuals I had as well. Interesting. I’m very fascinated by cufflinks at the moment.
In a lot of ways, what I think of as “butch jewelry” is very similar to what I think of as more modern, metrosexual men’s jewelry. Especially the necklaces, as you mentioned.
I have a similar problem - I love love love pretty jewelry, I make it and I have a little armoire full of it, but I almost always present as tomboy or butch and so never get to wear any of it.
Post pictures of the stuff you’ve been making?
I guess I’m fairly androgynous, and I wear a braided leather necklace, rubber wristbands, and a women’s sport watch (I’m very small and men’s jewelry is just too huge for my arms). No clue if that’s relevant, but *shrug*.
No reason why the coin has to come down at all, though. Isn’t it all about what happens to come naturally?
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