So, I was fiddling around the other day, not really looking for anything in particular, you know how it is. I’m not much of a jewelry person myself. Haven’t been for years. Most of it just seems like a bit of a fuss, or it all starts to look the same after a while. Shiny, expensive, and sits in a box. That’s been my general take, anyway.

My Unexpected Detour
But then, completely by chance, I bumped into this name: Renee James Jewelry. Wasn’t searching for it, wasn’t even in the market. It just sort of popped up while I was going down one of those internet rabbit holes. You know, you start by looking up how to fix a leaky faucet and three hours later you’re reading about obscure eighteenth-century poets. That kind of day.
My first thought was, “Oh, another one.” But something made me pause. Maybe it was the name, sounded a bit different. So, I decided, what the heck, let’s have a look. Not like I had anything better to do, clearly, if I was already poet-deep.
The “practice” here, if you can call it that, was just me, sitting there, actually paying attention for a few minutes. I started clicking through, not with any intention to buy, mind you. More out of a mild curiosity, like watching a craftsman at work when you stumble into a little workshop on a side street. You don’t want to buy the chair, but you appreciate the effort.
It wasn’t about the glitter for me. I’ve seen enough glitter to last a lifetime. I was trying to see if there was, I don’t know, a ‘point’ to it. Does that make sense? So much stuff out there feels pointless. Just churned out.
- I looked at the shapes.
- Tried to get a feel for the weight, even though you can’t really do that through a screen.
- Thought about who would even wear these things.
It’s funny, because years ago, my ex-wife, she was mad for jewelry. Absolutely loved it. And I could never get it right. Whatever I picked, it was always a bit off. Either too flashy, or too plain, or just… wrong. I think I bought her a necklace once that she wore exactly one time, probably just to be polite. After that, I pretty much gave up on the whole jewelry-as-a-gift idea. Or jewelry in general, really. Figured it wasn’t my department.

So, looking at this Renee James stuff, it was a bit like revisiting a subject I’d failed at years ago. But this time, there was no pressure. Just me, looking. And I gotta say, some of it didn’t look half bad. Not for me, still. I’m past all that. But I could see the appeal, in a way I hadn’t before. It seemed less about shouting and more about, well, just being.
Didn’t buy anything, didn’t even bookmark the page. But I spent a solid half hour just… looking. And thinking. Thinking about how things are made, and why people like certain things. It’s a change from my usual routine of grumbling about how they don’t make ‘em like they used to. Maybe sometimes, somewhere, they still do. Or at least, they try. And that’s the practice, isn’t it? Just taking the time to actually look and see, instead of just scrolling past.